Disclaimer:This is a fictional story. I am not J.K Rowling and I do not own any of the characters that are in this story.

Authors Note: Thank you for the comments. Sorry this has taken so long, I've just been very busy. I am working on Chapter 5 now and you can expect that by the end of the week. Hope you enjoy this chapter.

Chapter 4

The dining hall was packed with Hogwarts students. They were all chatting away to their friends about the daily events and everything else that was happening throughout the school. I guided Ginny to the Griffondor table, and sat down beside Harry. He paused from his talk with Ron, to look at me. I smiled back at him, grabbed an apple and started to munch away at that. Ginny did the same thing.

"Where were you, Hermione?" Harry asked a moment later.

"Ginny needed help with her homework for class. I was helping her." I replied. I couldn't help thinking that Harry was getting quite annoying, always asking if I was ok. He never bothered to do anything for me, and he never could tell me that I looked pretty.

"Oh...I see. What homework were you helping her with?" Harry asked.

"She was helping me with my essay for Snape. He always gives such hard essays to do, and I didn't have a clue what he was talking about in class today." Ginny spoke up, grabbing her water and drinking it in one gulp.

"Well...I actually need to talk to you guys about Snape. I saw him walking around the seventh floor, just walking back and forth. I think he's up to something...I'm thinking of going up there during my free time, to see what he's up to." Harry said.

"Oh Harry. Aren't you ever going to give this up? You've never trusted him. Can't you once just trust him enough not to follow him around?" I asked. I hated how Harry had this theory that Snape was always up to something. I couldn't explain it, but I felt that what he thought was wrong.

"I can't help it." Harry said defenseivly. "It's not my fault I can't trust him, and I don't think you should either."

I watched Harry for a moment, thinking over the past few days and the events that had happened. I couldn't think of what to say back to him. He had a point, Snape always seemed to have something for us Griffondors. It was like he was always trying to get us into trouble. I looked at my watch, quickly, and let out a small squeak.

"What's wrong?" Ron asked. His face was covered in ketchup.

"Oh...I forgot to do something for class. Rather strange isn't it? Well I better get going." I said standing up, and heading out the door.

I was just out the door when Ginny came running up beside me. I didn't talk, there was no need. Instead I kept on heading towards the washrooms. When I got in there, though, I saw at least five girls standing there whispering about something. When they heard us come, they stopped talking, and instead started to stare at us. I thought nothing of it, went into a stall, locked it and waited until the other girls left. It sounded as though Ginny was doing the same thing.

When they left I kneeled down on the cold floor and performed the ritual I had done for months again. I stuck my fingers down my throat and waited until I started to heave into the toilet bowl. When I pulled my hand out of my throat I noticed scars on my hand that I had not seen before. I was not worried however, this was a sign that I had to be punished for the amount of food I was eating. I flushed the contents of the bowl, stood up, and left the stall. I went to the mirror again as I always did to look at my reflection. I was not surprised when I saw the pale face staring back at me.

I started looking at all the fat that was still on my body. It was disgusting, the amount of fat a person could have on their body, no matter what they did. I could see my collar bone and my hipbones, both of which I was happy to see. My stomach still had some fat on it, and my thighs needed to loose a lot of fat. I looked around for a scale, but could not find one.

Ginny came out of the stall, pale, tears running down her cheeks. I didn't ask, I didn't want to be rude, or make her think that I did not respect her as much as she respected me. I knew she looked up to me because of what I did.

"I threw up blood." Ginny said quietly.

"That's a good sign Ginny. That means your getting all the food out of you." I replied.

She looked at me for a second and then opened her bag. Inside was a scale. "How'd you get that?" I asked amazed.

"I found it, under my bed. I thought I would keep it..."she replied.

Ginny placed it on the floor and stood upon it. It went back and forth for a couple seconds and then went to 122lbs. She gasped, and started to look at herself in the mirror. I decided to weigh myself then, worried that I had gone up since I last checked. The last time I had been 102lbs I did not want to be higher then that. I stepped on once, it went back and forth, and then stopped. I gasped at the number and quickly stepped off the scale. I would have to try again. It couldn't be right. Ginny stopped looking at the mirror and began to watch me as I stepped on the scale again. Again it said the same number, 89lbs. I was in the double digits. Finally. But what I didn't get was my goal was 95lbs and I had figured I would have no fat on me whatsoever. Obviously I was wrong, because I still had fat on me now. I smiled at Ginny weakly, but she looked worried.

"Hermione? You can't weigh that much," she whispered.

"Why not Ginny? I'm fat. Have you not looked at me, look at all this fat." I said pointing at my stomach.

"Hermione, I'm not saying that...I'm just saying they took your weight at the doctors and they want to check your weight again in a week. You weighed 97lbs when they weighed you last. They said if you lost more then 2lbs they were going to put you in the hospital." Ginny said.

I looked at her, and quickly looked back into the mirror. "How is that possible?" I asked her. She was silent. "Do they want me to get fat? Look at me," I said pointing at my stomach. I sank down on the bathroom floor, tears falling from my eyes freely.Ginny came and sat next to me. I sat there crying for a long time. A girl came into the bathroom once. I thought she was in my year, although I wasn't sure. She looked at me quickly and then turned away. I sat there with Ginny, whispering about how I felt, and how I needed to lose more weight.

"Hermione...It's not loosing weight you have to worry about. You have a doctors appoinment next Thursday. You have to weigh at least 95lbs." Ginny whispered sitting up a bit straighter.

"How, Ginny! How am I going to weigh that much in a week?" I nearly screamed.

Ginny looked hurt. Her eyes showed fear, but she continued on. "You know how I went to that site on the computer? Well there were some tips on how to gain weight or make it look like you have gained weight for doctor appointments."

"So see? It has to be possible to trick them. It can't be that hard. I don't have to really gain weight and as long as we figure out a way to make me weigh 95lbs everything will be fine." I said smiling a bit.

I stood up again, holding on to the sink for help. Ginny looked at me as I got up, but I said nothing to her. I didn't speak for a while again. Instead I looked back in the mirror pushing away my messy hair to look at my face. I wiped at it, taking all the make-up off, just so I could see what my face really looked like underneath it all. My jaw bone stuck out, and the bones in my cheek were well defined. My eyes were a dark blue, but around the pupil there was a tint of red, that looked like pink eye. I wasn't worried about that though, there was nothing I could do to cover that up anyways. What bothered me the most were my lips. They once were rosy pink, but now they could go to shades of blue and purple because I was so cold all the time. I had to keep buying darker lipstick just to cover up the blue and pink. My skin was also very pale, almost white, and at sometimes it was white. Although that didn't bother me that much, I actually liked it being that white, I had to cover it up because I knew that others would think I was sick. And I did not want them to think that at all.

"Hermione. I have to go. It's almost time for class," Ginny said waking me from my thoughts.

"I"ll come with you." I replied looking back at her. I turned around once to make sure I looked ok to be seen outside of the bathroom walls. I seemed fine, so I walked with Ginny. We walked through one hall, crowded with students and then through another. A friend of Ginny's ran up to us and started chatting away with Ginny. I told her I was going to head off to class, and left her alone there with her friend. I kept walking, and when I got to the class I saw that the teacher had not yet arrived. I smiled to myself, thinking it was luck that the teacher wasn't there yet, and then waved at my friend Ava.