The Sword of Excalibur.
(Well I hope you enjoy this instalment of The Sword of Excalibur)
Chapter 4
Hermione woke up, dead on seven o'clock the next morning, after a refreshing shower, she got dressed and tied her hair up in a loose pony tail. It was still as bushy as it was in her first year. She walked back into her dorm room and made sure that Lavender and Parvati we at least awake before collecting her book bag and other belongings and heading down to the common room.
Deciding that now wasn't time to break the 'meeting of the boys,' ritual she sat down on one of the comfy chairs near to the smouldering ash called the fire place. Whilst she was waiting for Harry and Ron, she once again pulled out, 'The Hobbit.' The boys came down some thirty minutes later, rubbing the sleep from the corners of their pink, puffy and still tired and un-awake eyes. It was no shock to them to see Hermione was up and about already and reading a book. They always made comments on her always having a book to read.
'Cor blimey, Hermione!' Ron exclaimed, 'It's only seven thirty!' The trio picked up their bags, hoping that they wouldn't have to endure Professor Snape, first thing on their first day back
Breakfast was a busy affair, after breakfast appeared on the tables, the Heads of Houses- Professor McGonagall for Gryffindor, came along handing out timetables, and if someone wasn't present yet, she gave to someone else that knew them. Harry and Ron and their fingers crossed on both hands underneath the table, hoping and praying they didn't have Snape first thing with the slimy Slytherins. Hermione wasn't really bothered what she had first, and although she wouldn't admit it to anyone Potions was one of her favourite lessons. She didn't mind Professor Snape and actually approved of his strict teaching methods (though she did mind the favouritism he showed towards his own house, and the hate he showed to Gryffindor). She would never admit to ANYONE that Potions was one of her favourite lessons because she'd get accused of being a traitor to Gryffindor house and most likely lose all her friends who were incredibly biased in the Slytherin - Gryffindor war.
She received her timetable before Harry and Ron, and smiled. The boys got their wish, well half of it at least. They didn't have Double Potions first thing with Slytherins, they had it second with the Slytherin, first was Defence, also with Slytherin, 'That will teach them for crossing their fingers on both hands,' Hermione. It was a muggle superstition that crossing your fingers in both hands was actually a symbol for bad luck, instead of the good luck that the person wanted.
The Owl Post came and went. Hedwig had come to visit Harry, as she had sensing that something had changed since the beginning of the summer, Errol had come to deliver letters to all the Weasly's, Harry and Hermione, each saying good luck for the year and to stay out of trouble (especially in the twins' case). A barn, delivery owl dropped a letter off for Hermione, and by the looks of the handwriting it was from her parents. As the bell went, she decided that she would read it later and stuffed it in her bag.
Defence was interesting to say the least. Very interesting.
'Welcome to Defence Against the Dark Arts, I'm Professor Prue Halliwell, but-' Professor Halliwell was interrupted by late comers, Slytherin of course. Draco Malfoy slammed open the door, smirk fully in place. He strutted over to the spare seat, in which the early Slytherins had decided to at, at the back of the classroom, with Crabbe and Goyle behind him…as always.
'You three are precisely five minutes late, so I think I will deduct one point per person per minute.' she looked at him, and seeing him still smirking, point deduction failing to wipe that stupid smirk off his face, she continued talking to him, 'Now, you must be Draco Malfoy. Am I right?,' he nodded, 'I have heard a lot about you Mr Malfoy, including your ability to show off. Let's put that to the test shall we?' Malfoy looked confused, whether it was about his ability to show of or process what Professor Halliwell had just said, Hermione didn't know.
'We shall have a competition, who ever can…' she looked around the room for something to compete against him with, she spotted the quill on her teachers desk and got an idea, 'We will both race this quill around the entire room, then land it back on the desk. Oh and one more thing- I won't be using a wand.' Malfoy looked smugger than ever, everyone one needed a wand to do magic, even Crabbe and Goyle knew that, dumb as they are. 'You there,' she pointed at Ron, 'I'm sorry I don't know your names yet, can you count us down from three?' Ron nodded
'Get ready…three…two…one go!' Ron said
Professor Halliwell squinted her eyes and flung her arm out towards the opposite site if the classroom, when it got there Malfoy had only just finished his levitation spell, Professor Halliwell repeated the same movement again, this time the quill came slowly towards the teacher's desk- waiting for Malfoy to catch up, Professor Halliwell was baiting him. He caught up a few seconds later, whilst Professor Halliwell's quill stopped and just floated. When she saw Malfoy was almost at the desk Professor Halliwell concentrated again and sent it flying. It landed on the desk just before Malfoy's who had yet to notice that he had been overtaken.
'Well it looks like I win,' Professor Halliwell stated, 'You will serve detention with…the gamekeeper Hagrid. I will inform you of the time and date when it is sorted. Now sit down!'
The Gryffindor half of the class immediately liked this professor, she had humiliated Malfoy in the first ten minutes of being back to school in first lesson and she wasn't biased and she had just done the impossible in a wizards point of view, she had just done wandless magic. Hermione had heard of a few recorded incidents of wandless magic in the library, but the scripts were centuries old and most likely made up for fame and money.
'Now, before I was rudely interrupted, what was I saying? Ah yes I was going to tell you all a bit about my self. First thing don't call me Professor Halliwell, call me Prue, Professor makes me feel old.' the class, well Gryffindor side, looked at each other quiet surprised. No-one had heard of a teacher allowing them selves to be called by their first names during class time. 'I come from San Francisco, America. I grew up, not going to a magic school as I didn't know I was a witch until my grams died and our powers were unbound. I had two other sisters, Piper and Phoebe, but due to an unchangeable and regrettable situation I had to move away and they believe me to be dead. My destiny isn't with them any more,' tears welled up in her eyes but not one split over, 'Now any questions?'' several people put theirs hands up, including Hermione.
'Yes you? Oh say your names when I ask you something,' she pointed at Hermione.
'How did you do that magic? And what do you mean by your powers were 'unbound'?'
'Whoa, slow down, one question at a time! That magic is a different kind of magic than to you witches and wizards, and binding our powers meant that my grams used her magic to stop us using ours because we had countless evil after us…'
The lesson went on with various people asking questions about the magic Professor Halliwell did, the life she had with out going to magic school. She also told the class what they would be studying for this year, they would be covering demons of many kinds and they would also try and make up their own protection spells and Potions. The Gryffindor half groaned when they heard Potions.
The rest of the day went without incident, well unless you count the first caldron of the year being melted by Neville, not really a surprise there. He had yet to make the connection between Herbology and their uses in Potions. For Potions homework they were given a three foot easy on the uses of ginger in healing potions.
Dinner was a noisy affair, the fifth years all sat in one area of the table, trying to figure out training schedules. They wanted to be fit for when the time of the Final Battle approached. They wanted to be ready. Everyone was giving out suggestions and almost shouting over one an other to be heard. Hermione suggested that they sort it out in the common room as people from other houses were starting to get curious and were taking an interest at what was going on. Even some of the teachers started to wonder.
( So how was it? Please give me feedback, good or bad! Thanks to all my reviewers so far! I haven't finished correcting my work but my sister would like to have a go on the computer now, so I shall finish it later. Please inform me of any mistakes. Ryan)