CHAPTER 9: FIGHTER
Hermione left the library at an amazing speed for someone with little athletic ability.
It was probably her luck that she was late to class because it left the hallways empty so she wouldn't be delayed. Finally she jumped the last remaining stairs and ran into her first class...History of Magic.
"Sorry...I'm...Late" She gasped, looking up at her teacher. "PROFESSOR BINNS?"
Professor Binn's looked at her casually as though she had not just yelled his name. Although everyone else in the class seemed to be looking at her strangely. She noticed none of this as she was too busy standing there with her mouth wide open staring at the very much alive Professor Binns.
"5 points from Gryffindor for your tardiness, now please take a seat Ms Granger" Professor Binns wheezed. He may not have been dead, but he didn't sound far off...
A bit shaky from the shock of seeing her ghost teacher alive Hermione made her way to the only available seat left in the classroom, next to Remus.
"Remus" She whispered once she was in her seat withher books out in front of her.
Remus continued to listen to Professor Binns.
"Remus!" She repeated a bit louder. Still no reply.
Sighing impatiently she stepped on his foot (remember she was wearing heels).
Remus swore under his breath at the sudden pain as he faced Hermione who was smiling at him innocently.
"Sorry" She said in a childish voice. Remus rolled his eyes, "That look could give Sirius's a run for it's money" He commented. Hermione smiled slightly before becoming serious.
"Look Remus, when I was in the library I heard some girls talking and they seemed really...hostile towards Lily" She said.
"I wouldn't worry too much if I were you, alot of girls tend to dislike Lily because of all of the attention she gets from James" Remus said, smiling at the girl's concern, it was good to see that Lily was making another good friend so quickly.
"Yes, but these girls want to take action!" Hermione hissed, starting to become impatient.
"Ok, that could be bad..." Remus said, all his attention now on the brown-eyed witch in front of him. "Did they say when? Or how?"
"Not exactly, all I know is they seem quite desperate to do it today, before James has a chance to ask Lily to the first Hogsmeade trip of the year" Hermione said, concern filling her words.
Remus thought for a few moments. "what house were they in?" he finally asked.
"One was in Ravenclaw and the other was in Slytherin" Hermione answered.
"Well then...all I can think of is watching out for Lily all day" Remus sighed, frustrated with himself for not thinking up something better then that.
"Should we tell Lily?" Hermione suggested, desperate for any little thing that might make it safer for Lily.
"NO!" Remus hissed. "It will only worry Lily, not to mention draw her attention away from her work, imagine how upset she will be when she misses a whole bunch of important notes..."
"Probably as upset as I am for missing the notes Professor Binns is reading right now..." Hermione said seriously, quickly picking up her quill and writing desperatly on her parchment. Remus smiled, it looked like he and Lily had one more person to help convince Sirius, James and Peter to study more.
After class Hermione and Lily made their way to DADA. Hermione had purposely dropped her books so Sirius, Remus, James and Peter would walk ahead of them. She was quite desperate to see if they had thought of any ideas to make sure Lily was sleeping in her dorm room tonight and NOT the Hospital Wing. Unfortunatly for her they were talking about no such thing.
"History of magic wasn't that bad James" Remus said. Hermione and Lily caught up to them.
"Yeah, I mean, who would have thought that hags tried to bring down the ministry a thousand years ago?" Lily said.
"And it's quite suprising that they didn't suceed especially with the ministry only being newly developed and everything" Hermione added.
"This isn't a fair argument" James whined.
"And why not?" Remus questioned.
"Because you have Lily and know-EVERYTHING new girl and we have...Peter"
"Hey!" Peter suddenly piped up.
"Sorry Wormtail, you're not that bad" Sirius said, laying an arm around the short boys shoulders and laughing.
While Sirius continued to playfully tease Peter Hermione edged towards Remus.
"Have you told them?" She whispered.
"Not yet, If you and Lily can just fall back for at least a minute I'll be able too" Remus whispered back. Hermione nodded.
"Lily can you wait up for a second? I just need to make sure I have one of my books" Hermione lied.
"Sure thing" Lily said, shaking her head at James and Sirius who were starting to sing every word they said.
"Imbeciles..." She muttered.
Hermione took very little time finding her book and soon the girls were once again walking behind the boys.
"Wonder what's up with them..." Lily said, noticing all the serious faces amongest the group.
"Probably just planning another prank" Hermione said.
"They better not be" Lily muttered. Hermione smiled.
After a few minutes of desperaly trying to hear what they were saying Hermione and Lily entered the DADA classroom.
"Do you know who?" Hermione heard James whisper.
"No, Hermione only knew that they were from Slytherin and Ravenclaw" Remus answered.
"That'd be right, they need someone sneaky and someone smart enough to come up with the plan" Sirius growled. Hermione raised her eye-brows, she never thought that Sirius was one to label the houses, especially when the smartest people of their grade were in his own house.
"Please take your seats!" A voice suddenly sounded from the doorway. All the students sat down immediatly.
Hermione was rather suprised with she saw Professor Flamel, she had always expected him to be a shaky old man that had trouble hearing and seeing people, instead he was quite the opposite. He looked around 50 years of age and all of his hair was white, but he stood in front of the class looking stern and at the same time friendly, he stood strong and tall, looking at all of his students with interest.
"for those that have taken out their books thank you, but please put them away, today will be a practical lesson" Professor Flamel said.
The class willingly put away their books and all looked up at their new professor curiously.
"For the first few weeks this year we will be learning about duelling" He said. The class immediatly broke out into excited chatter. Professor Flamel raised a hand and silence immediatly over-took the class.
"Now, I will call out your name and the name of your partner, do not bother trying to change partners, now..."
Hermione and Lily crossed their fingers, hoping that they wouldn't be partnerd with any slytherins.
"Lupin, Remus with Evans, Lily!"
Lily smiled happily as she and Remus made their way to the side of the room.
"Mcguire, Penny with Hill, Francesca!"
The two slytherin girls went and stood by Lily and Remus.
"Coyer, Joseph with Signer, Amy!"
"Willams, Cheryl with Brodwick, Natalie!"
"Malfoy, Lucious with Potter, James!"
Hermione smiled sympathetically at James as he grumpily made his way over to the other pairs.
"Granger, Hermione with...Black, Sirius!"
Hermione forced herself not to smile too much as she made her way to the other pairs with Sirius.
"Black, Regulus with Gray, Matthew!"
Hermione curiously watched the boy with the same black hair as Sirius walked towards them, if it hadn't been for his hair and eyes, you'd never guess they were brothers.
"And that leaves...Snape, Severus with Pettigrew, Peter" Hermione's attention was drawn away from Sirius's brother and onto the greasy haired boy who would become Hogwart's most hated teacher. His lip was curling in anger at having been partnered with Peter.
"Now today will only be simple duelling so I only want to see simple spells, anything dangerous and the student responsible will find themselves scrubbing this classroom floor every night til the end of the month!" Professor Flamel said. "Now, begin!"
Hermione and Sirius found some space and walked away from eachother before stopping and turning to face eachother with their wands raised.
"Ok, 1, 2, 3!"
"Expelliarmus!"
Sirius narrowly missed Hermione's spell.
"Levicorpus!"
Hermione wasn't fast enough and before she knew itshe was hanging upside down trying desperatly to hold her skirt up.
"Let me down now you jerk!" Hermione yelled.
"If this was a real duel I wouldn't do such a thing, so I don't think I should do it now either" Sirius said with a grin.
"Fine" Hermione said, and moving her hand slightly so it was pointed directly at Sirius she yelled "Rictus Empra!"
Sirius burst out laughing. Hermione waited for half a minute when she was sure the laughing would be hurting.
"Now, are you going to let me down?" She asked sweetly.
Sirius nodded and waved his wand so that she fell back down with a thud. Quickly standing up Hermione lifted the spell from him.
They circled eachother for a moment before Sirius swiftly cried "Pertrificus Totalas!"
Hermione dodged it easily and shouted "Expelliarmus!" again. Sirius was sent flying backwards while his wand went flying into Hermione's hand.
Leaning down next to him Hermione handed him back his wand.
"I think I win..." She said in mock suprise before smiling and walking off to give Professor Flamel the results of the duel.
A/n: Hey everyone!
1: I am so so so so so sorry for taking so long to update.
2: I will probably take a little while to update again since I'm moving house.
3: Thank you for your wonderful reviews.
4: Keep them coming :P
Love you all
P2MU xox