A/N: Hi peeps! Erm I've taken something from the uniforms in the films, the way each house has it's own tie colour and different cadges on their robes. Apparently (I think!) this isn't actually stated in any of the books, but that's the way I saw it even before I watched the first films so that's why it's in there! Just a minor point but I like things to be as accurate as possible! Not a particularly long one, but the next one's in the works.
Please R&R. Step
Chapter 13
Thursday morning came later than usual to Hermione Granger, the reason being she had forgotten to set her alarm the night before. Luckily her housemate had awoken to go to the bathroom and realised she hadn't surfaced.
'Hermione wake up!' he shouted through her bedroom door, 'Hermione!'
Hermione hadn't moved and still didn't move when Harry opened the door. He walked to the bed and gently placed his hand on her shoulder.
'Hermione wake up, it's half eight. You have to be in work in half an hour and you'll be late if you don't get up now,' he shook her gently, trying to wake her up. He succeeded.
She rolled over and looked at him, her eyes extremely slow to focus.
'What time did you say it was?' she asked in a very groggy voice.
'Half eight.'
'Oh you have got to be joking!'
'Afraid not,' he replied.
'Shit,' she sat up and got out of bed, stumbling slightly as she walked towards the door.
'Hermione Granger are you hung over?' asked Harry, a smile creeping onto his face.
He was answered by a hand gesture from Hermione that Ron would have been proud of. He interpreted it to mean 'leave me alone' or words to that effect and smiled to himself. His smile faded however when his bladder reminded him exactly why he had woken up in the first place.
'You had to wake her up first didn't you Harry? You had to do the gentlemanly thing!' he muttered to himself.
Luckily for Harry, Hermione was finished within five minutes having decided against washing her hair. She left the bathroom and was practically knocked over by Harry as he ran into the vacant room, before she had chance to remember she had left her pyjamas in there.
She dressed quickly and tamed her hair by scraping it into a high ponytail. Her make up was applied sparingly and her breakfast was a smaller bowl of cereal than she would normally eat. She skipped her morning coffee, and after a brief check in her bag apparated to work.
She had felt reasonably ok whilst she was getting ready for the day and for the first few minutes of her lesson, but then she started with a headache and unfortunately having to look at small writing on a small screen at the front of the dimly lit room didn't help. After twenty minutes of hoping it would go away she rummaged in her bag for some muggle headache pills. Whilst Ginny would laugh at her for taking muggle remedies, Hermione knew the pills would more than likely help.
Cursing herself for not remembering a bottle of water, and because she didn't want to draw attention to herself by conjuring herself one, she decided to swallow the tablets dry. She regretted this almost instantly however, as she started to cough which made her headache unbearable. She realised she was about to cause more of a disturbance by coughing than conjuring a glass of water would have done in the first place.
She bent down pretending to take something out of her bag and with a wave of her wand had conjured the drink and then downed the whole thing. She vanished the glass and got back to her attempts at note taking hoping that her 'fast-working' headache pills would be exactly that.
Two and a half hours later she was walking out of the lecture theatre about to make her way down to the atrium when someone shouted her name.
'Hermione!'
She spun around which made her almost gone headache resurface in a painful throb before subsiding again. She closed her eyes and grimaced at the pain.
'Err, are you ok Hermione?' the voice asked.
Hermione opened her eyes and saw it was Cairo stood in front of her.
'Yeah I'm ok; I've just got a bit of a headache. Nothing serious.
'Oh, are you coming down with something or was it self-inflicted?' he asked with half a grin creeping onto his face.
Hermione smiled.
Unfortunately the latter. Although I am personally blaming Harry and Ginny, I wouldn't have drunk half the wine I did had they not kept refilling my glass. Not only that but they didn't insist I drink some water before I went to bed, hence the headache.'
'Ah I understand. I was just wondering if you had decided whether you're going to the ball or not.'
'To be honest I haven't thought any more about it. Damn, I forgot to tell Harry about your party, I'm sorry Cairo, I'll tell him tonight.'
'That's ok, there's no hurry, but you really should come Hermione, it should be fun and even if it's not, my party will be!'
'I dunno, I-'
'You've got to go Hermione, I've heard there might be some sort of competition between the three groups and you've got to be there to help us win! You're the brightest and best in the whole group!'
Hermione smiled.
'Aren't you forgetting a black haired, green eyed, glasses wearing boy who is actually the brightest and best in out whole group?'
'Hmm, well all the more reason why we need you, plus you live with him so you'll be able to give us inside information!'
Hermione laughed and looked down at her trainers, not knowing what to say.
'Look, seriously Hermione, I think it would be good for you. I know we don't know each other that well but I remember seeing you a lot at school and you don't seem as, I don't know, happy I guess as you were then. I know you have a damn good reason not to be and you seem to be coping really well, but give yourself a break. And besides I'll miss you company if you're there. Plus I'll stop hassling you if you say yes!'
Hermione smiled, slightly taken aback by Cairo's speech. He had a point though.
'Were you in Gryffindor? I think I remember seeing you in the common room.'
'Yeah I was, but a lot of my friends were in Ravenclaw so they used to smuggle me into their common room when we got thrown out of the library for being too loud. I learned to transfigure the colour of my tie and the badge on my robes pretty quickly!'
Hermione laughed.
'I'd tell you that was a very wrong thing to do, but with the things me, Harry and Ron got up to I'd be a hypocrite if I did!'
'Ah yes, I heard many a rumour about the stuff you three apparently got up to. I don't know how much of it is true though!'
'Well if you're lucky I might tell you at the ball.'
'So you'll go?' asked Cairo, cautiously optimistic.
'Yeah I'll go. As you said it'll be a break from the routine of working life.'
'Good, I'm glad you're going. Anyway I won't hold you up any more; I'm guessing you're off to the hospital to see Ron?
'Yeah I am.'
'Well say hello to him from me.'
Hermione smiled.
'I will do, thanks Cairo.'
'Hermione please call me Cai, only my mum calls me Cairo when I'm in trouble. I keep thinking I've done something wrong when you say it!'
She smiled.
'Ok, Cai it is. I'll see you after lunch.
'Later gator!' he called as she walked away from him smiling, and in a much better mood than she was this morning.
