When Hermione rolled out of bed that morning, she hit the floor, legs tangled in the hangings.
"Oh…This looks like a WONDERFUL day." She muttered, pushing herself up with an irritable groan.
"Actually, it's quite nice outside, in my opinion. It finished raining a couple hours ago." Lavender's voice said from across the room. Hermione squeaked and looked up to see the other female observing her perform her morning ritual of hefting the hangings and bedclothes onto her mattress. Hermione blew hair out of her eyes when she was done, and slumped against the bed.
"You're a really messy sleeper." Lavender stated.
Hermione made a face.
"I know, thanks for pointing it out."
"Chill out Hermione. Maybe we need to do that send-you-to-the-hospital-wing thing everyday to make you smile." Lavender said, coming over, and pulling her roommate up off the floor.
Hermione scowled, and caught her balance sloppily.
Lavender grinned.
"Before you get the idea into your head that you're going to turn me into a mad genetically mutated clone of yours, I'm taking a shower." Hermione said stoutly, snatching her belongings and plodding into the bathroom.
She took a nice, hot shower, enjoying the way the steam rolled around the room, and the way the water hit her body as she scrubbed her skin.
By the time she shut the water off, and clambered out, hair hanging in soaked curls around her shoulders, she was too late to notice Lavender sitting on the counter waiting with a pointedly smug look on her face.
Hermione screamed, and slipped in the stall, landing on her bum, and crabbing towards the wall clutching a towel to her torso.
"Lavender, are you daft? What in the name of Godric are you DOING?" she cried, her breathing matching her heart rate, which wasn't beating normally.
Lavender shrugged.
"Waiting for YOU, to get your ass out of the shower. You need something other than granny folds."
Hermione snarled at this remark. Lavender was either too confident, or entirely stupid, as she climbed off the counter.
"Granny folds? EXCUSE ME? What, you want me to wear astronomic butt floss or something?" Hermione gasped, shakily pushing herself up the condensation covered wall. Lavender shook her head.
"We don't want to turn into a trollop." Lavender said, matter-of-factly, holding up a pair of lacy bikini underwear and matching bra.
"How do you know it'll fit me?" Hermione asked, uneasily eyeing the underwear with interest, despite her best instincts to scream and bodily remove the opposing female from the room.
Lavender sighed.
"A spell, Hermione dear. Put them on."
Hermione caught the flimsy material in her raisined fingers, and looked at Lavender.
"Not in front of you!" she said shrilly.
"You'll not put them on if I don't see you Hermione. Stop being a prude." Her friend answered diplomatically. Hermione tried her best to not pitch the things at Lavender.
Instead, she dropped the towel, and glared menacingly at Lavender, putting on the designated underparts, not leaving Lavender's gaze out of pure stubborn-ness.
When she was done, she pointed to the door.
"Good." Lavender approved, with a nod, before leaving the bathroom.
Hermione took her time putting on the uniform, and bit her lip when she undid the top two buttons. She then mastered the spell Ginny had used on her hair the day before.
Looking at herself in the mirror, she sighed, before putting her sweater on, instead of tying it around her waist.
It was cold today. That was the lie she was telling herself, and she was sticking to it.
She then left the bathroom, and snatched up her bag.
"Check, check, check…" Hermione muttered, contents of her bag making loud sounds as they slammed and bashed against each other in her hurry to compile a checklist of her things.
"Good."
With that, she loaded some scrolls she had done up for Melissa into her arms, and kicked Parvati's bed.
The girl inside it grunted.
"Get up. You'll be late." Hermione yelled, as she left the dormitory, and let the heavy door slam shut after her.
>> >> >> >> >>
"Hermione, what class do you have first?" Ron asked, while he was chewing on an orange. Hermione put down the scroll, and tossed her schedule at him.
"Fotions?" he said skeptically, through another couple slices of orange.
Hermione nodded, inking her quill, and drawing a line across the map of the great hall, signaling where a stage was to be moved to.
"Eef ya haf fofons, shudn't ya be muvin dun to da dunguns?"
Hermione put her quill down, laced her fingers and looked at him blankly, refusing to be disgusted by his lack of table manners.
"I have a meeting until lunch, and have been excused from all my morning classes. Therefore; I will need to see your homework tonight, to see what you did in class." She stated, simply, with a hint of robotic nastiness.
He gave her a thumbs up, before snatching a biscuit off a plate by Harry, who was trying to get Ginny to tell him why she was jumpy, and pale.
Hermione observed this, a grin chasing her face as a voice inside her head made a comment.
"What are you grinning about?" Harry asked, now tuning into their side of the breakfast table.
She gestured towards Ron, who was wolfing food down shamelessly.
"Here we see, the average male, consuming the first meal of the day, in it's natural habitat. Note the feral look in it's beady eyes as it surveys it's prey." She said, using a monotone voice that she had gotten used to watching animal shows when she was younger. Ron made a noise that signaled his disapproval of her comment, while Harry laughed himself silly.
"Snot funee." Ron said thickly, narrowing his eyes, making Harry laugh harder.
"Hermione…where did that come from?" Harry gasped, picking up his fork once again. Hermione rolled the scroll, and snapped a band in place to hold it shut, while shrugging.
"I don't know. It seemed like rubbish to say, but it fit the situation quite well."
Ron gave a smirking Harry the middle finger salute.
Hermione stood, and stuck the scrolls awkwardly in her bag, so they were poking out at odd angles.
"I'll see you lot later. Don't give anybody trouble, and Ron, stop eating, you're going to regurgitate it all over Flitwick's classroom in second." Hermione said, issuing the normal warnings and such, while benches and bags slamming and scraping around her showed that her natural signal had gone again, and students were following her cue of prancing off to class.
She then departed at top speed, leaving a slightly awed pair of males behind her.
>> >> >> >> >>
"And, then, I guess we don't have much of a choice. Due to the number of people caught performing such acts in these broom cupboards, I suggest we lock them at night." Melissa finished.
Hermione picked at the desktop, having given her report and suggestions and scrolls to the room earlier. She now understood while her peers bellyached about these meetings. When she wasn't going over everything in her head due to wanting to appear a model student, she was really quite bored.
She rose her attention when Malfoy stood up. According to the alarming amount of eyebrows arching in the room, she wasn't the only one who had noticed the Ferret King had decided to give his first report.
"I have a report to issue to the collection." He stated, as everyone does when opening.
"Do indulge us." Hermione breathed to herself. No body noticed, and Malfoy continued.
"My people and I have waited for weeks to present this evidence to you." He started, making himself sound like the Slytherins were a collection of pioneers in the far north of Egoland, making a complaint to the Royal family about scouting Ravenclaws coming to inspect the new ferns growing on their richly soiled riverbanks. Hermione suppressed an eye roll.
Melissa nodded.
"We have found numerous things are being stolen. Important things that should not be placed in the hands of some one who does not know how to use them. These artifacts have been either inherited or are hard to find items that have been vouched for by multiple people of mention." He drawled lazily.
Oh no, the Ravenclaws took a sample of the magnificent fern.
"We have also found a cloak. It bears the Gryffindor crest. It was at the last sight of robbery, and so was a cauldron, and odd shaped mirror." He said, putting said items on the table. Hermione sat up, being representative of the Gryffindors, with horror. Who of her house would steal a SLYTHERIN's belongings?
Hermione stood, as she rarely did of her own violation.
"Mr. Malfoy, what kind of artifacts have gone missing?" she asked narrowly. He tightened his jaw.
The idea was to be civil here. The Ravenclaws didn't take the fern. It was those disgusting savages from north of Bravery. Damn them.
"Important things that should not be placed in the hands of some one who does not know how to use them. These artifacts have been either inherited or are hard to find items that have been vouched for by multiple people of mention." He ground out, reciting what he had seconds ago. Hermione nodded.
"If you don't mind my asking, how do you know that the cloak, mirror, and cauldron belong to one Gryffindor?" she asked.
He raised her eyebrows.
"Are you saying the you have a slew of burglars and vandals under your care, Ms. Mudblood?" he asked nastily.
Oh, oh. Those nasty savages travel in packs. Gonna have to use our Greek fire to guard those damn ferns. We Slytherins were here in this here land first. Our beautiful Egoland will never stoop to that dingy area that they live in. Tower dwellers.
Hermione chose to ignore the Mudblood remark.
"I may have used the wrong wording, Majesty. Be pardon. I was asking if you're sure it wasn't a coincidence." She responded slickly, narrowing her eyes as her fumble made her temper heat.
Malfoy was all out fuming now, as they stared each other down. The Majesty comment had bit him in the ass, and she wasn't known to bite that hard without attacking him away from people. This was new.
"They were at the scene of a crime, peasant." He hissed. Hermione tightened her lips.
"To assume, makes an ass out of you, and me." She recited, before walking over, removing the cloak from his care, and circling back to her spot.
The tension in the air started to dissipate as he sat down, a murderous look on his face.
Savages aren't so stupid. Have a scout follow them back to Bravery. Make sure they haven't stolen one of our mushrooms.
Melissa cleared her throat.
"I'm sure you'll keep collecting evidence Mr.Malfoy. Please come up with some concrete materials, and we shall take action. Thank you for your report. Anyone else?" she said, eyeing the room warily, as the heat from the previous report still floated above their heads like an arrogant genie.
No one made a move.
Melissa sighed, out of exasperation, desperation, or relief.
"Fine. I call an end to this, and I will see you all on Friday. We shall discuss the next Hogsmeade trip, and the punishment for throwing chalk at ghosts. Goodbye." She called, and the room stood noisily.
Hermione frowned as she stuffed the cloak in her bag, and buckled it shut. Chairs scraped and people talked as they filtered out of the room.
"What was THAT about, Mudblood?" a voice hissed in her ear. Hermione winced.
Draco Malfoy sat on the desk next to her, a hard anger seeping in his gray eyes. Hermione forced herself to stay calm. She lifted the bag off the desk, and shouldered it with a calm that she could only fake.
"I'm talking to you." He snarled, following her as she joined the crowd escaping the room.
"I'm not talking to you." Hermione responded pointedly, squeezing through students and the door frame, and walking down the hall. Malfoy was in hot pursuit.
"I want you to tell your little Gryffinwhores to keep their paws out of the dungeons." He snapped, grabbing her arm. She stopped and looked at him through her cinnamon eyes.
"Well, I might have a hard time doing that, seeming as they have classes in that little catacomb you people call home." She responded tartly. Malfoy growled.
"You took my potion, saw your errors, and I don't even get a thanks?"
"Well, thank you, Ferretface, I did enjoy seeing my errors in life. Now, if you don't mind, I'm not going to flail, and fall at your feet, and I'm not going to worship the ground you walk on."
He sneered. Classic.
"But, you become this saucy little bint that knows everything? I think I deserve a good snog for helping you make the world a better place by letting go of your granny panties." He drawled, leaning against the wall.
What was with everybody's fascination with what she covered her ass with?
"Well, then. Kiss kiss." Hermione smiled, nastily, before spinning away rigidly, and stalking down the hallway.
"You'll see Granger! You'll see!"
Hermione shook her head. Whatever that meant.
>> >> >> >> >>
"HERMIONE! We didn't see you at lunch, and you walked into Charms, sat down across the room, shut up for the entire thing, and then disappeared after class, and dinner! What gives?" Ron called, jumping as soon as she dropped her bag on the floor, and sank into a chair by the pile of cards he and Harry were toying with.
"I had a ton of work from Advanced Runes. I had to go to the library, and I had to go and ask a whole legion of teachers this, that and the other thing." Hermione answered truthfully, placing a hand on her forehead and closing her eyes. She was SO tired. This new thing of being easy to talk to was wearing her down. It was just easier to be uptight, right?
"Did you eat?" Asked Harry, as he examined his hand. Harry, the nutrition consultant of her life. Hermione nodded.
"What?" he wanted to know, throwing a 6 of spades down, while Ron leafed through his hand.
Hermione had to think.
"Uhh…Lamb chop sandwich? Dobby popped up and handed it to me. Odd little elf. He made me take it. Literally." She said, not removing her hand from her eyes, and tilting her head back so it hung off the top of the armchair.
She missed the satisfied smile that appeared on his face.
"Tired?" Ron asked, as he plopped his potions work into her lap.
"I don't need it Ron. I went to Snape and got everything. He wasn't too pleasant, but that's normal." She groaned, handing it back to him.
"I'm going to bed. Goodnight."
When she was finished climbing the staircase, Ron checked. Gone.
"Well, I can't say I miss the lectures." He muttered. Harry threw a Queen at him.
"You ought to. Something's up. She didn't just 'pass out', and Pomfrey is mum's the word. She did something, and now she's all weird. I'm going to find out what. She's stopped eating Ron. Haven't you noticed? She didn't eat this morning, didn't show up for lunch, and she only ate that sandwich cause of Dobby. She's forgetting to eat!" Harry said, picking up three cards and sifting them into a fan with the rest.
Ron shrugged.
"Maybe she's on a weight kick?" he suggested, plucking the card Harry was giving to him from his friend's fingers.
"When Hermione does something she goes all out. But she does it right. If she was on a weight stint, she'd be doing something other than not eating, she'd still be lecturing us, still be testy all the time, and she'd have normal hair and a done up shirt!" He stated, as Ron flatly laid out a Jack. Ron smirked.
"Been observing her shirt, have ya, Harry?" he suggested, as Harry glared at him, while placidly topping his Jack with a Queen.
"One word about anything like that Ron, and I'll chop off your head with a dull knife."
Ron sniggered.
King.
Harry sucked his lip, peering at his cards. He picked one out and snapped it down.
Ace.
"Damn. Out. Take a spin." Ron muttered, picking up six cards, and giving his pairs to Harry.
Harry laid out his cards. Ron swore.
"HOW DO YOU DO THAT?"
"Hermione is up to something. I'm going to find out. Keep your eyes peeled for tips. 'Night." Harry said, climbing to his feet, and ignoring Ron's outburst.
Ron was sputtering and flicking through the cards, no doubt looking for cheat.
He made a disgruntled noise when he found none, and threw the whole mess into the fire when Harry had disappeared up the stairs.
Ginny slid in the portrait hole, and stopped on her route to the girl's dormitories.
"Ron, Harry'll freak if you burn another pack of muggle cards to spite him." She said, making her brother jump.
"What were you doing out?" he demanded, discreetly kicking the last card into the flames.
She shrugged, her eyes still on the stairs ascending to her room.
"Walking."
"Walking
where?"
"I went out to meet a forbidden lover, Ron." Ginny answered dramatically.
He colored, and muttered that she needn't be touchy, before mounting the stairs himself.
Ginny had climbed into her bed, and was falling asleep, as the Queen of hearts turned to ash.
MAH! Love me like you should! I delivered a glorious chapter. It was amusing to write, and I love it. It may be a bit confusing, but read it a couple times if you're confused. Ignore the tribal, invasion, fern part if ya want. It's not important.
I want feedback with how well I'm doing incorporating Hermione's character, and sliding into the plot.
Thankies! I send my love.
-Suzanne
