Chapter 3

Dreadful Morning

Hermionie was in shock. She had just been trying to convince herself to forget about what Ron and the Mirror had said, and here comes another person, telling her that she is overweight. It doesn't matter that they've been enemies since the first year, the fact that he saw her weight as something to insult her by told her that it was something noticeable.

She was so angry, yet so broken down. She tried to think of how she should curse his, but all that escaped her mouth were her attempts at stifling the sobs that were wrecking through her body. Horrified at what she was about to do, and knowing that he would tease her throughout eternity, Hermionie chucked his wand back at him and dashed off down the hallway. She half expected him to chase after her, but when she didn't hear any footsteps other than her own, she was able to completely resist the urge to look back at that miserable little ferret, just leaning against the wall jauntily, as if he cared about no one.

If she had taken a closer look at Draco she would have noticed an open mouth and a look of shock. He had never expected her to react so, and though he hated himself for admitting it, Hermionie wasn't overweight at all. In fact, he thought grudgingly, she had a nice body. It had thinned out over the summer and, he thought with gritted teeth, she had great curves. He sighed, and began to walk in the direction opposite of Hermionie. He just had to figure out what was at the end of this corridor.

It took her a long time to get back to the Gryfindor common room, but she was able to make it without breaking anything or waking the whole castle. She barely murmured the password, but the pink lady let her in otherwise. Hermionie collapsed in one of the armchairs in a corner of the room and tried to hold back her sobs. She wished that she could just think clearly about the whole situation and act like Hermionie again. She wanted to go to the Library, but that had to wait until tomorrow.

She started to breath more regularly and her head grew calm. She took a deep breath and sighed. She needed to take this seriously. Crying wasn't going to improve the situation. Come to think of it, she had been over reacting today. Maybe she was gaining weight, but that just meant that she needed to watch what she ate. That was the way muggles did it, or at least tried to do it. They always seemed to be failing. Her neighbor was always trying to watch her weight, but Hermionie had never seen any improvement. Her neighbor still had a job didn't she, so even if Hermionie was big, its not like she would be a bum on the streets. She was still an excellent witch and Harry would never let that happen to her.

Sufficiently soothed, Hermionie walked into the girl's dorm with her head held high. She put on her pajamas and attempted to get into bed, but she was hindered by the mass of clothes that was everywhere. Trying not to think about why she had put them there in the first place she whispered a tidy up spell and the flew neatly back into her suitcase. Hermionie crawled back into bed and pulled the blankets up over her. She tried to forget all that had occurred today.

Hermionie woke before everyone else, as always. She pulled on a layered blouse and grabbed up a pair of her jeans from last year. They had always been comfortable and she needed comfort if she was going to get through today. There was a nice piece of embroidery on the seat of the pants, a swan in fact, and sequins on the very bottom. They fit, rather snugly around her legs, but she gasped when she tried to button them at the top. They were last year's, yeah, but they had fit loosely then, didn't they?

She panicked and threw off the jeans. She grabbed a pair of slacks that she had bought over the summer and put them on quickly, hoping that none of the girls had noticed. She tried to breath slowly. There was nothing to worry about. She just wouldn't eat so much at meals. She had probably gotten into the habit of gorging herself at the Weasley's.

Stupid Ron…

Plastering a smile to her face she grabbed up her bag and made her way to the bathroom. Her hair was a complete mess from not doing anything with it yesterday. She doused her hair with water until it was sopping, yet manageable. With the swift skill that comes only from practice, she ran a brush through her hair and pulled it all back and up into a French Twist which she secured with a silver clip that matched the embroidery that was on the jacket she had pulled on after her shirt.

After washing her face, she applied a tad bit of makeup and brushed her teeth. She walked back to the dorm and found her shoes, which she had forgotten to put on before she left. She glanced down at her watch and realized that she was 10 minutes early for the time when she met Harry and Ron in the common room.

She sat in an armchair and selected a book from her school bag. She settled back into the chair and tried not to worry. It was hard not to care what people thought of her, but Hermionie did want to stay healthy. Yanking and twisting a strand of hair that framed her face, she tried to concentrate on her book, but found that impossible. The room around her was filling slowly with groggy students just waking up. She scanned for signs of flaming red hair and only noticed Ginny who was attempting to fight her way through the crowd to get to her.

"Hey Ginny"

Hermionie said with a somewhat tense tone to her voice. Ginny looked at her oddly, but was too tired to mention it. She plopped down on the arm of the chair next to Hermionie and ran a hand through her hair. From the looks of it, she had just woken up and grabbed some clothes blindly. She had on one of Ron's old Chudley Canons t-shirts and a pair of jeans with a purple sparkle belt. Hermionie raised an eyebrow at this, but also chose not to say anything. The two girls were silent, but Ginny suddenly jumped up when she saw Harry making his way towards them.

"Harry! Good Morning."

Ginny was suddenly awake and quite chipper. Hermionie was stunned, as was Harry it seemed, but he just grinned at her and Hermionie.

"Morning guys, Ron said he wanted to sleep through breakfast."

Hermionie sniffed haughtily which got her glances from both of her friends. Harry shook his head slightly at Ginny who had given him a questioning look. Ginny sighed and stood up to start making her way towards the portrait. Hermionie didn't follow Harry as he walked after Ginny. She was staring at the swan embroidered on the seat of the pants that Ginny was wearing.

Suddenly she stood up and ran after Ginny. She grabbed her hand and said, her voice oddly squeaky,

"Ginny! Why are you wearing my jeans?"

"What? Oh, these, well I saw you try them on this morning and figured if you couldn't fit in them, maybe I could. They fit great!"

Hermionie almost cried again, but held herself together as the three made their way downstairs in awkward silence. As they sat down at the table Hermionie pushed her plate away and stared down at her hands.

"I'm not hungry."