Chapter 15 - A Friendly Battle and Birthday
The Monday morning before her birthday, Hermione prepared for Battle Class, knowing that she would need to battle someone and hoping it wasn't Malfoy again. As it turned out, they got to pick who they battled. Hermione and Neville instantly paired up. By mutual agreement, the two friends decided to use one of their newer Pokemon.
When it was their turn, Neville sent out his Chespin while Hermione sent out her Espurr, Crookshanks.
Crookshanks started off the match with Covet, stealing Chespin's Grassium Z. Although, as Crookshanks was already holding an item, a Psychium Z, he immediately dropped it well away from the Chespin, so the Chespin couldn't get to it during the battle. Chespin retaliated with a Bite attack, dealing super effective Dark type damage against the Psychic type. While Crookshanks was distracted disposing of the Grassium Z, Chespin was able to get in another Bite attack. After the second Bite attack, Crookshanks was not looking to good, but he went ahead and used Confusion on the Chespin to create some distance between them. It was for nought though as Chespin managed to quickly close in and administer the final Bite to knock out Crookshanks.
Hermione returned Crookshanks to his Pokeball before congratulating her opponent.
For her fourteenth birthday, Hermione received a Mega Ring from her parents. From her three friends, she got a Pokemon egg. The bottom half of the egg was white. The top half of the egg was green with two spots of pink, one on each side of the egg. Hermione carried the egg in the accompanying incubator with her everywhere from that point on.
It turns out that Hermione's class varied greatly when it came to their ability to battle. Some, like Harry, were exceptional, others, like Crabbe and Goyle, were, at best, part way through first year level. Professor Lupin decided that for his class, they would spend the first semester going over what they should have learned in the first two years of Battle Class. They would spend the second semester on what they were supposed to learn this year. This would hopefully catch up the stragglers while the more advanced got a review.
