A/N: This segment takes place not too long after Chips of Chocolate and just shows a random bit of fun that Hermione, Harry and Ron indulge in while they have less worries to hold them down.

Not long after the classes resumed following the defeat of Voldemort, the young man that had been given the majority of the credit for said defeat was currently trying to bargain with one of his best friends. Harry Potter, with the dubious assistance of his best friend Ron Weasley, was attempting to convince their other best friend Hermione Granger that Hogwarts was the perfect place… For rollerblading!

"Come on, Hermione… This place would be great for stunts and getting air time!" Harry had gotten his first pair of rollerblades for Christmas and had become rather obsessed with the relatively simple pastime. So much so in fact, that he had bought a Ron and Hermione each their own pairs.

At the moment Harry, Ron and Hermione were standing outside of the Gryffindor Common Room. Both Harry and Ron were wearing their rollerblades; Harry's were black with silver lightning bolts on the sides while Ron's were black with golden coins on the sides. Hermione was wearing her normal school shoes and had her arms crossed as she glared at the pair of black skates with red claw slashes decorating the sides.

"Absolutely not!"

Hermione should have known something was up when she came down from the girls' dormitory that morning to find that Harry and Ron apparently wanted to have breakfast in the common room. The boys had a full spread on the coffee table in front of the fire and had waved her over eagerly. Yet somehow she hadn't expected them to accost her as she emerged to head down to potions class with the boys wanting to try their skates going down from the seventh floor to the dungeons!

"But Hermione…" Ron's pleading tone did little to sway his friend. "Just turn into your half form and use your wicked cat balance!"

A rather good argument actually, but… "And just what am I supposed to do if the stairs change going down? Sprout wings and fly to safety?" Hermione's tone was rather nasty, though both boys had the decency to look guilty. After all, they could do just that thanks to Snape completing the Animality potion.

Though Harry retained his guilty look, lowering Hermione's rollerblades, Ron's expression had grown derisive. "Fine, c'mon Harry. Should have known she wasn't Gryffindor enough to try this kind of thing…"

Harry's jaw nearly dropped. He couldn't believe Ron would pull that card when there was a serious threat to someone's well being involved. Hearing a grinding sound, he turned and found that Hermione's face had gone red and she was grinding her teeth in suppressed anger. A moment later Harry and Ron both yelped and skated back as Hermione's wand whipped out with lightning reflexes.

It was an unspoken code that developed over the years of living in Gryffindor. When someone challenges your Gryffindor status, you had to respond. Hermione may have overlooked the comment if it had just been the three of them, but students had been filtering out of the Common Room to race to a quick, late breakfast or start on their way to whatever class they had first. In any event, Ron's challenge had been overheard by a mixed group of Gryffindor seventh, sixth and fourth years that included, but was not limited to, both Creevey boys, Ginny, Dean, and Seamus.

The group had paused upon hearing Ron's scathing challenge of Hermione's Gryffindor status and the sudden wielding of Hermione's wand. After all, seeing if a challenge were accepted and if Hermione would hex Ron's nose to switch places with some other part of his anatomy were both worthy items to stop and observe. After a momentary standoff, Hermione flicked her wand expertly and the skates vanished from Harry's hand to be replaced with a suddenly taller Hermione's shoes. That was when the others got the idea of what was going on.

Another flick of Hermione's wand and her school skirt transfigured into a pair of shorts even as she adjusted the size of her skates and shifted into her half-breed cougar form. Hermione gave one last scathing look at both Harry and Ron before pushing herself forward. She snatched her shoes and put them in her satchel before transfiguring the satchel itself into a more appropriate backpack.

Scowling at all the Gryffindors in the hallway, Hermione gave a pointed look to the other two of the famous trio. "Well? Are you ready to break about fifty school rules?" Without waiting for a reply, Hermione took off toward the main stairs… The main moving stairs!

Giving a yelp of surprise, Ron and Harry started after their friend in time to watch her expertly jump down the entire set of stairs to land on the next landing. The two boys stopped in awe as they watched Hermione jump up onto the rail of the next set of stairs and slide down the rail with a expertise that made both boys wonder… Picking their jaws up off the floor, Harry and Ron both cheated so that they wouldn't lose sight of Hermione as she jumped a gap between a suddenly moving stair and the fourth floor landing.

Shifted into their half-forms, Ron and Harry attempted not to lose their skates as they glided down to the fourth floor where Hermione had disappeared. They knew without asking that she was using one of the fourth floor's many secret passages. Changing back into their human forms at the fourth floor landing, Harry and Ron took off on their own skates, heading for the nearest set of passages. They rounded a corner in time to see their female friend's tail whipping into a tunnel that would take her to the main floor and followed.

Minutes later, the male portions of the Golden Trio were racing around startled classmates across the ground floor of Hogwarts. The stairs heading to the dungeons were soon and, knowing there was a curve, both boys slowed down and took the stairs at a teeth-rattling, bumping gait down into the bowels of the castle. By the time they reached the bottom of the stairs, both boys were rethinking the idea of skating around the school and soon reached the final stretch to Potions just in time to see Hermione shrinking her blades and tucking them into her satchel.

Pulling up to their friend, Ron seemed awed as he watched Hermione turned back into her human form and transfigure her skirt back to normal. "How in the bloody hell did you do that so fast?"

Hermione raised a brow as she pulled her hair back into a ponytail. After a moment she finally answered. "How in the world do you think I've always managed to race from the library to arrive just in time for classes over the last six and a half years?"

Leaving her best friends speechless, Hermione put on her best prim-and-proper expression and walked into class.

-Fin-

A/N: I'm dedicating this chapter to my brother whose recent obsession with rollerblading made me think of how fun it could be to blade around in Hogwarts and allowed me to write my first completed bit of nothing since February! PS: Please do not attempt stunts on rollerblades unless you've got safety equipment, slowly build up to it and please, for the love of all things, do NOT attempt to rollerblade down a set of moving staircases!