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Hermione made it to the hall in time to secure her usual seat, to the right of Harry, across from Ron and to the left of Neville. They all smiled at her when she sat down but returned to the topic they were discussing avidly before she came in.
"I'm telling you, their up to something." Ron said as his fist hit the table with a loud thud, causing many strange looks from those around him
"I'm almost scared to ask what he's talking about." She whispered to Harry with a smile, used to Ron's theatrics.
"Slytherins." Harry answered in a serious tone and effectively wiping the smile off of her face.
"We've gone all year without getting in a fight with the Slytherins." She reminded them and hoped that would defuse any thoughts of whatever Ron had on is mind.
"You've gone all year without getting in a fight." Ron muttered loud enough for her to hear, true to his style.
"What do you mean I've gone all year?" she asked sharply and turned narrowed eyes to Harry, who cringed and refused to look at her.
"Nothing." The ginger haired boy answered quickly as if trying to erase his error.
"It was you two." She said suddenly as she pointed an accusing finger at Ron then Harry, who both looked down at the table and hunched their shoulders.
"Neville helped."
Hermione looked at the boy in question and sighed with something close to disgust when he, too, couldn't meet her eyes. She had planned on asking Harry about Professor Snape's punishment but those thoughts were now well and dead at the new information being presented.
"They were in the Hospital wing for weeks." She hissed.
"They had it coming."
"This isn't 'Chicago', Ron. And if you remember correctly, even if it is you'd be in prison."
"An all woman's prison?" he asked in confusion.
"Why do I even talk to you anymore?" she asked Ron with a roll of her eyes.
Hermione tsked, watched as the food materialized onto the table and then filled her plate, giving her friends a stern look.
"It's not like we set out to do it or anything." Ron defended when she began to eat in silence, his mouth already full of some undistinguishable food.
"You gave them all beaks and tails then knocked them unconscious and put them on the quidditch pitch." She hissed in complete shock that Ron was trying to spin a good light on what the three of them had done.
Ron didn't respond and she was thankful, she was likely to explode if he made another comment, good or bad. She ate in silence, making it as uncomfortable as possible for the three boys sitting on either side of her and across from her.
"You're not really mad, are you?" Ron asked while they ate dessert.
"Ron, I'd really let the matter rest." Harry advised when Hermione dropped the spoon she had been eating her ice cream with onto the table.
"I'd listen to Harry, Ron." Neville agreed when Hermione looked at him.
"Well, I just figured she'd be happy. I mean we practically did her a favor." Ron continued while he waved off Harry and Neville's attempts to silence him.
"You practically did me a favor?" she asked to stunned to raise her voice.
"They haven't been nearly as bad to you, or anyone, since it happened."
"Did you ever stop to think, Ronald, that that just means they are plotting something to get you back?" She asked as she leaned across the table to get closer to him.
"I guess I never thought about it that way." He answered quietly while going pale and suddenly glancing over to the house in question and regaining some of his confidence. "No, that couldn't be it. That was ages ago."
"Just be careful, I don't want any house points lost because of house rivalry." She warned as she picked her spoon back up and began eating again.
"Do you know something? Did they tell you what their going to do?" Ron asked while pushing his plate of cake aside, something that had Hermione groaning. He never opted for talking over eating unless it was to talk about something that was against any or all rules.
"No, Ron, they haven't told me anything." she assured him after finishing her last bite. "Even if they did I wouldn't tell you. It would make you think twice before doing something like that again." She continued as she stood and waved goodbye to those she knew and a few she didn't.
"So do you know or not?" Ron asked with impatience in his voice.
"I will be in the library if you need me for something." She said in answer before she gave Harry a hug as well as Neville and raised a brow at Ron as she walked out of the Great Hall and made the well traveled path to the library.
She gave a relieved sigh when the libraries large oak doors came into view. Even before she'd come to Hogwarts she had always gone to the library so seek peace and quiet. She reached the doors and pushed them open, waving at Madam Pince. She'd learned in the middle of her first year that the older woman took all of her meals in the library with the exception of holidays, where she ate dinner with the usual few people that stay for the break. Hermione walked over to what she now considered 'her table' and sat down to see what books she'd left the day before, something Madam Pince had been against the first couple of times but soon agreed with. She picked up a book that was atop one of the few piles on the desk.
"Fancy meeting you here." She heard as she turned a page in the book.
"Go away." She answered without looking up. She knew the voice and refused to look up to see his smirking face. Now she knew how Harry felt in their second year when Slytherins showed up on the quidditch pitch when it was scheduled for Gryffindor. He was invading her space.
"My, my, the kitten has claws." He murmured before the chair across from her was pulled out and a body slumped into it.
"I'm trying to study." She snapped as she finally looked up at the smirking Blaise Zabini.
"I can see that." He acknowledge with a nod of his head.
"That means I want to be left alone."
"Then you should have said that in the first place, I'm rather comfortable now."
Hermione narrowed her eyes at him and pursed her lips, not amused by his antics. He, it seemed, disagreed because he simply smiled lazily at her and threw an arm over the back of his chair.
"I have heard it is unhealthy to spend all of your time in one place. You become immune to the diseases in the place you occupy mainly but you get sick almost as soon as you step out of that place. I'm surprised you're not sick all of the time." He lectured her while she marked her place in the book and closed it.
"There's never been a study done like that and if there has been I am sure that the researchers never intended their findings to be applied to a school's library." She informed him with an overly patient voice.
"I am not a child so please to treat me as one." He grumbled as he lifted his arm from the back of the chair, flexed his fingers and folded his arms in front of his chest.
"If you wouldn't act like one I wouldn't have to treat you like one." She returned with heat, tossing her hair over her shoulder following the statement.
He rolled his eyes and let his arms drop, one into his lap and the other gone over the back of the chair again. He looked at her intensely as if studying her appearance to find out something.
"What?" she asked when he continued to stare at her.
"I didn't say anything." He answered with a shrug though his gaze never wavered.
"I didn't say you did." She countered.
"You said 'what' and in many situations that would imply you thought I asked a question, which I didn't, and I was correcting you."
Hermione stayed silent and picked her book again, throwing a glare at the Slytherin sitting across from her.
"That isn't a very nice look." He commented dryly when she had been reading a few minutes.
"It wasn't meant to be, I can assure you." She responded with a strained voice, upset that he had distracted her and she'd lost her place in the book, something Harry and Ron probably thought impossible by now.
"I'm sorry, I made you lose your place didn't I?" he asked, noticing her scanning the page she'd already read.
"Why are you here?" she asked snapping the book shut and tossing it onto the table in front of her.
"The wonderful conversation?" He shrugged with a smirk. "You should get that vein in your forehead checked. I've noticed it is more pronounced when you are aggravated, it can't be healthy."
Hermione could feel heat rush to her cheeks and was tempted to get up and walk to the tower but knew she'd have to face Harry and Ron and for some odd reason she thought this would be the lesser of two evils.
"You don't talk much, do you?" he asked while she was weighing her options.
"I speak in good company." She answered with what she hoped was an indifferent voice and face.
"That's good, almost believable. Tell me, are Gryffindor's given a class that disables their ability to lie?" he asked with a serious expression on his angular face.
"No, it's the Slytherins given the class that disables their consciences." She threw back with scorn.
"If it weren't true that would hurt." He answered with a smile showing off straight white teeth that left Hermione slightly envious. Her parent's were dentists and she never felt her teeth were quite perfect enough for their standards. They would probably put his picture on the wall if they ever saw him smile. "You are very tense right now." He commented with a shake of his finger. "It's not healthy to be that tense."
"I believe we've already discussed this." She said tightly.
"No, we have discussed you're weakened immune system." He corrected in a soothing tone, although his smirk took a lot of the meaning out of it.
"I do not have a weakened immune system and I am not tense. Now if you would please leave so I can continue my studying…" she trailed off with a pointed look towards the massive doors of the library.
"How can you study without having a piece of parchment to write on?" he asked with a lifted brow.
Hermione narrowed her eyes and leaned back in her chair, folding her arms and just resisting the urge to poke out her bottom lip. She would like to answer by hexing him but knew that that type of action would draw unwanted attention from the Library moderator, that and she would still be potions partners with him. Something she still thought of with a grimace.
"Do you often stare out into space?" he asked, breaking her out of her thoughts.
"That is none of your business." She said as she straightened and let her arms rest on table.
"We're potions partners, if you haven't forgotten." He informed her, as if she could forget. She stared at him in suspicion for a few seconds before dismissing his comment as mere coincidence. Snape wouldn't have taught legitimacy to students unless he had the Headmistresses permission and Hermione highly doubted she gave it. "I would rather now if you are prone to let your mind wander. It is good to be informed of things like that should I have to take over for you at a moments notice."
She could feel her face heat in indignation at his comment and had just opened her mouth when she was interrupted by Harry and Ron.
"Hermione, can you help us with our Charms work?" Harry asked, holding up a charms book and giving a questioning look to Hermione while nodding his head a Blaise.
"Well I can tell when I'm not wanted." Blaise said with a dramatic sigh while standing up.
"Going so soon?" she asked innocently, her eyes widening to keep up the part when the Slytherin gave her an eyebrow raised.
"I'll see you in potions class." he said in way of good bye before walking out of the library.
"Thank you." She said gratefully when the doors closed behind Blaise and Ron and Harry sat down across from her.
"You're welcome." Harry answered before opening the charms book he held in his hands and asking her questions about the homework.
They spent the better part of two hours going over the material for charms and another half an hour going over Transfiguration work before they closed their books and walked to the tower.
"I have to go over the potion we are brewing tomorrow and you could study with me if you'd like." She offered as she sat at a table in the common room.
"We can't." Harry answered for Ron and himself.
"Yeah, we can't." Ron confirmed with a nod of his head.
"What do you mean you can't?" Hermione asked suspiciously.
"We've got detention." Harry muttered bowing his head.
"You've both gotten detention?" she asked truly surprised. Harry she could understand but how Ron could have gotten one was beyond her.
"I went back." Ron mumbled as he too bowed his head, of course not before turning a lovely shade of pink. Hermione fought not laugh but failed and earned a glare from Ron. "I didn't think he'd actually check to see if anyone was still there." he defended himself.
"Well honestly, Ron, when was the last time you've heard Professor Snape make an empty threat?" Hermione asked, throwing her hands up in defeat. It was disheartening to think her friends had come so far in their schooling and had very little to show for it.
"He said he would see to it that I would be out of Hogwarts by seventh year." The red head said with a triumphant grin after having proved his friend wrong.
"He didn't say that directly to you, Ron. He muttered that under his breath as he was walking by you during sixth year. It doesn't count because you weren't supposed to hear it." She dismissed with a sigh.
"It doesn't matter that he didn't say it to me the point is he said it." Ron defended when she tore a hole in his story. "Right Harry?"
The dark haired boy in question cringed and sighed while hanging his head again. "Why did you bring me into it?" he groused, his gaze staying on the floor as he shuffled his feet.
"You're always involved in our conversations." Ron explained with a shrug.
"You do have a point, Ron." He stated, his head still bowed and Hermione swore she saw him flinch.
"See, even Harry agrees with me."
"That's because you dragged him into it." She said with a scoff. "Isn't that right Harry?" she asked in an exaggerated tone, her eyes fixed on his every move.
"Harry, isn't it time for your detention?" Neville asked from across the room and if Hermione didn't know better she'd bet her addition of "Hogwarts: A History" that they practiced the diversion.
"I think it is." Harry said with relief evident in his voice as his head shot up to the large clock placed above the mantel. "Come on, Ron." He said quickly when the red head seemed to be opening his mouth to make a comment.
Hermione watched as her two best friends walked out of the common room while shaking her head before she walked to an almost empty table in the corner of the common room. She waved hello to two first years and hid a smile when their eyes widened comically and one actually looked behind himself to make sure she was waving to him. They both fidgeted before they gave her a serious look from across the table.
"You are Hermione Granger." The bolder of the two stated with a bit of awe in his voice, something that had her fighting back another grin.
"That's right." She confirmed and watched as the talker looked at his friend and mouthed 'I told you so'.
"Are you muggleborn?"
She answered that question with a nod and watched in great amusement as the speaker of the pair gave another smug look to the silent boy sitting beside him. The boy on the receiving end of the smirk rolled his eyes and looked at the wall.
"Did you have Professor Snape?"
"Yes and I still have him." She answered with a smile at the Professor that was in front of Snape. Harry and Ron hadn't gotten to all of the first years, it seemed.
"Does he get any better?" That question was from the silent partner who was now focused on Hermione.
"He gets better if you get better." She answered after some thought, now glad that Harry and Ron were at detention. They would have disagreed with her instantly and gone into a rant about their punishments, most of which were their faults.
"I told you not to listen to them." The now talkative boy shot at his friend who looked very relieved by her answer.
"'Them' who?" she asked with a good idea of the answer.
"Harry Potter and Ron Weasely, you know about Harry Potter, right?" They explained and gave her a funny look when her smile returned.
"Yes, I have heard of Harry Potter but you should listen to him. He's just sore that he received a detention from Professor Snape." She warned the two, who nodded and excused themselves to go to the first year boys' dormitory.
Hermione watched them walk up the steps and sighed. They reminded her of Harry and Ron except they had actually listened to her when she said something. Sending a silent prayer for the prefects and Heads to come while the two went through their years she stood up and walked up the stairs to her bedroom, admitting that she was a wee bit happy that Harry and Ron had detention. It wasn't that she condoned them being in trouble but she liked having time to herself even if that wasn't the original plan.
"I thought you'd never get here." Ginny Weasely whined from the bed as soon as Hermione had closed the door behind her.
"What are you doing here?" she asked as she closed her eyes and leaned back against the door, letting her head fall back with a thud against it.
"Well were else should I be?" the younger girl asked, the 'duh' was silent but the brown haired witch heard it loud and clear.
"In your room maybe." Hermione answered as she pushed off of the door with her hands and walked over to her desk to pull the chair out. "Were you looking through my desk?" she asked when she noticed a few pieces of paper on the seat and a few more sticking out of the drawers.
"What else was I supposed to do? You were gone forever." Ginny defended herself with a shrug as she avoided the Head Girls glare by staring at the bedcover under her.
"I told you to let yourself out." Hermione ground out between clenched teeth as she snatched the papers up and opened the drawers to rearrange the once orderly papers.
"I did, you saw me at dinner."
"I didn't think you'd come bac…wait, how did you get back in." she asked as she studied the girl, who turned the same pale red her brother had before his detention.
"I propped the door open with your copy of 'Quidditch Through the Ages'." The youngest Weasley mumbled as she rolled off of the bed and began walked quickly towards the door.
"Stop right there, Ginerva Weasley." Hermione ordered as she stood up and practically flew to the door to intercept the now red Weasley. "You used a book to prop open my door!"
"It's not like you use the book. It was way in the back of the bottom drawer." The girl answered indignantly as she waved her hand in the general direction of the desk.
"It's not that I don't use the book." Hermione said in what she hoped was patient voice. "It's that anyone could have just walked in…anyone!" she stressed as if talking to a child.
"No one knew that I did it so it's pointless to ask the 'what if' questions now." The red head shrugged before she slid past Hermione and was out of the door before the frizzy haired witch could do anything.
"I could have been in Ravenclaw, their all sane there!" she yelled at the door before she stomped her foot on the ground and walked to her bed, flopping down and throwing an arm over her face.
This day got worse and in a hurry. Thank goodness tomorrow was Friday.
So? Hate it or love it (the underdogs on top and I'm... srry, it's a wonder I get any work done) let me know either way!
