Hermione grins as she makes her way out of the library. Moste Potente Potions clutched in her hands and pressed against her chest, her bag thumping idly against her leg. Usually, she spends the weekend cooped up in the library, but today she is determined to find an empty classroom. I remember hearing from a few higher years that there's a classroom on the seventh floor that only opens when someone desperately needs it. I wonder if I'll be able to get access to that classroom.
Hermione pauses in her thoughts as she has to pause for the moving staircase that she needs. After only waiting for a few seconds Hermione begins to ascend the stairs. Well, there's really only one way to find out. She continues her thoughts. I wonder which of the potions Professor Snape is going to allow me to brew. I think it'll be too much to hope for that he'll allow me to brew them all. I've done a little reading on all of the potions he's assigned me already. Felix Felicis seems too… simple, almost. He's giving me advanced lessons, I'd say the same for the Calming Draught. So out of the three left… I'd love to brew the Draught of Living Death, that was the potion I was hoping I'd learn more about. Though Polyjuice would probably be a close second. Hermione finally walks off the staircase on the seventh floor. Ok, empty classroom… empty classroom, let's go.
Hermione purses her lips in annoyance. She can't find the classroom. She's, of course, enjoying the exploration of the castle, thoroughly far too excited to finally be putting the knowledge she learned from Hogwarts A History to use. I wonder if it's one of these two empty classrooms. She lets the thought float through her mind as she passes the two empty classrooms, her book still snug against her chest. She continues her idle exploration of the seventh floor.
Oh. Hermione pauses in her walking, a grimace on her face. Daphne is so going to kill me when she finds out I'm by myself. Oops, well. It's always best to ask for forgiveness than permission. Hermione scrunches her face, as she starts to walk again. Well, the saying is something along that line. Ok, time to find that classroom.
Hermione sighs as she leans against the castle stone wall. Taking her bag off her shoulder and rotating the sore joint. I just need a place to practice my dance. Why is that so hard? She allows herself to pout as she continues nursing her sore shoulder. Her bag still heavy without her school textbooks, especially since she packed everything that she would need just in case she did find a classroom to practice in. I wonder if there is a charm to make something lighter. I'll have to make a note to look that up. Hermione tilts her head to the left and then to the right, sighing in relief when the tension cracks out of her neck. Looking across the way from where she decided to take a rest at she sees an interesting tapestry. Curious, she walks up to it.
Is that a man teaching ballet, to…. Trolls? Hermione stares at the moving tapestry with her head tilted to the side. Her brows furrowed as she stares at the train-wreck in front of her. Well, maybe this means I'm in the right area. I do need a room to practice in. Hermione bites her lip. She's been trying to not let her frustration get the better of her. But it's starting to get harder, especially since she's used up half her morning looking for this silly room. She starts to look for a door by the tapestry she's by, figuring there has to a classroom she can use, otherwise why would a tapestry be in this hallway like it is.
Hermione has been looking for a door for, she takes a quick look at her watch and her frustration builds. 15 minutes. I've been looking for a silly door for 15 minutes! I just need a room to practice in.. She pauses, her anger getting the better of her. A room to practice in, a room to practice in! That's all I very well need! Why is it so hard to find a stupid door! She just wanted to start practicing, it's been so long! She turns away from the tapestry, blinking in shock as she sees a door right beside where she's decided to put her bag.
She glares at the door. There is no way I missed that... Right? She thinks as she grabs her bag and opens the door. A gasp and her anger leaving her.
The room was perfect, to the left of her was a wall of full-length mirrors. Just a few feet away from the mirrors was a portable barre. In the far back corner of the room was a squared-off room she assumed was a changing area. Now if only I had thought about music. Just as the thought passes her mind, a gramophone appeared as well as a large bookshelf filled with records to play on it. Hermione scrunches her eyebrows together. This is certainly not a normal classroom. Shrugging her shoulders she walks further into the room. Closing the door behind her.
She walks to the squared-off area of the dance studio and opens the door. Satisfied that it was indeed a changing area, she quickly changes into her skin-colored tights, pink leotard, and a thin short pink wrap skirt. She also pulls on her leg warmers and wiggles her feet into her soft ballet slippers. She then ties her large nest of hair into a bun. Satisfied with how everything feels she goes back into the studio.
Walking over to the very old school music player, she browses the music selection the room decided for her. Grinning she quickly picks up the record for one of her favorite ballets of all time, Swan Lake. Placing the record in, she's only slightly surprised when the music begins to play automatically. Not bothering to think too much about it, she heads to the middle of the room to begin her warm-ups.
Hermione goes through her motions, not realizing she has a small smile playing on her lips. Softly humming along to the music. She's a good portion through her warm-up when she takes off her leg warmers, satisfied that the muscles in her legs are significantly warm and awake now. She tosses her leg warmers away from her and moves away to stand in front of the portable barre. Time to start her floor exercises.
Hermione settles herself into second position, her heels roughly a foot apart. Her back perfectly pulled up so that her ribcage and sternum were up, her back perfectly straight while she kept her shoulders and hips relaxed. Her arms wherein first position, her elbows bent slightly enough so that her hands were just above her navel.
Remember mon élève, you should look as though you can fit a beach ball in the space from your torso to your arms. She could hear her French dance instructor in her ear as she situates her arms until they are at the proper angle. Staring at herself in the mirror, Hermione nods to herself finally satisfied with her position. With her form perfected, she begins her floor exercises.
Hermione pants slightly as she brushes her arm across her forehead. She walks over to her pack and grabs her water bottle from it. As she takes a couple of pulls from it she goes over the exercises she's just done.
I'm a little rusty, though I'm not as bad as I thought I would be. Which is a strong plus. I need to still work on my sighting, and keeping my back leg straight as I do leaps. Hermione mulls over her thoughts. I think though, for today I'm done. I still have heaps of homework I have to catch up on. With that last thought, she puts her water bottle down and walks into the changing room. Quickly changing back into her earlier outfit, a simple jumper with a black knee-length circle skirt. She heads out of the changing room and puts her dance outfit back into her pack.
Hermione checks her watch, and can't help the happy sigh that leaves her when she realizes lunch is going to be served soon. Daphne's probably going crazy trying to find me. Hermione thinks with a wince. And it's been a good couple of hours now. She's reallllly going to kill me. Maybe she won't make that much of a scene if we're in the Great Hall.
Hermione pushes open the doors to the Great Hall, she does a quick scan of the common dining room and sends a small wave back to Luna, and a nod towards Neville as well. She turns towards Slytherin's table and begins to scan the table for her favorite blonde. Hermione furrows her brows as she realizes the blonde isn't at the table. Seeing the familiar forms of Zabini and Nott she walks towards them.
Perhaps they'll know where Daphne is. Hermione thinks. She slides onto the empty bench in front of Zabini, ignoring her Slytherin housemate that sends a glare to her and forces the person next to them to move over some so he's not touching the mudblood. Placing her pack next to her she makes sure that when Daphne does show up she has a seat for her.
"Zabini, Nott, good afternoon."
"Granger, nice to see you're still with us." Zabini says with a smile, making sure Hermione knew he was just being facetious.
"Afternoon Granger. Daphne is ready to kill you I hope you know." Nott says. Hermione sighs with a nod.
"Yes, I realized that. Where is she?" Hermione asks as she begins to fork roasted chicken on to her plate. "Zabini, Nott, would you like some roasted chicken?" Hermione looks to the two boys in front of her. Her manners making an appearance. The two boys both stare at her, clearly shocked to see she was asking them. Hermione frowns and tilts her head to the side. "What?"
Zabini and Nott both shake their heads quickly. "Nothing Granger. Yes, I'd love some. Thank you." Nott said, the first one of the two to recover as he lifts his empty plate.
"Yes, thank you, Granger." Zabini mimics and lifts his empty plate as well. Hermione forks some of the roasted chicken onto both of their plates.
"As for where Daphne is, she was going to the library to see if you popped up there. She should be here soon." Nott said, finally answering Hermione's question.
Hermione nods as she spoons on some mashed potatoes to her plate. Before she can even ask the two boys if they would like some, their plates were already lifted. Hermione blinks, taken aback but spoons some mashed potatoes onto their plates as well.
Hermione's looking around the table for some vegetables that she'd actually eat. The broccoli was in front of her, and she'd never touch those, they were simply disgusting. Spotting some green beans and carrots, she takes out her wand and tries out a charm she read about.
"Accio green beans and carrots." She can't stop the smile that spreads across her face as the bowl of green beans and carrots levitate and fly towards her. Catching the bowl, she kicks her feet excitement dancing through her. She flashes a grin towards the two boys in front of her. Both of them staring at her with their jaws dropped. She continues to grin and kick her feet as she spoons some of the garlic roasted vegetables onto her plate. The boys not able to shake their shock just bring their plates up as well.
Once they've been served, Hermione brings her attention to the plate beside her and starts loading it up with roasted chicken and mashed potatoes, but instead of the green beans and carrots, she spoons the broccoli onto the plate. With Daphne's plate also ready, Hermione grabs her goblet and fills it with some lemonade, the pitcher luckily just to her left. She takes a pull from her goblet, after making sure the two boys have something to drink, and almost chokes on it when her name is said in a deadly voice.
"Hermione Jean Granger!"
Oh well, that's not good. Hermione thinks to herself, her face slightly wincing at the tone of voice. She shots her eyes over to the two boys in front of her, severely wanting to roll her eyes at the two because all of a sudden they seem immensely interested in their food. Their shoulders hunching into themselves as they dig into their food. Hermione squared her shoulders, put a smile on her face and turns to look at her friend.
"Daphne! There you are, I prepared you a plate!" Hermione says as she turns. Her brown chocolate eyes meeting Daphne's ocean ones. Hermione ignores the want to bite her lip as she takes in Daphne's glare and her hand on hip stance.
"Hermione, what did we discuss last night?" Daphne hisses through her clenched teeth, her eyes narrowing even more.
"Well, we discussed the difference between memory charms." Hermione says, not thinking too much about sassing back. Oh, I should not have said that. At all. I won't have to wait for the monster in the chambers to petrify me, Daphne looks as though she'll do it herself.
"You and I both know that is not what I meant." Daphne continues to hiss.
"Oh." Hermione pauses. "Well. Then I seem to not be able to remember."
That's when Daphne does something that surprises the three of them. She bends slightly so she's eye level with Hermione. The glare on Daphne's face not receding, as she reaches her hand over to Hermione and grabs her ear in between two fingers and starts to pull slightly with a twist.
"Ah! Daphne! What are you doing?" Hermione shrieks, one hand keeping her upright with the table, the other was flailing around unsure as to what to do.
"This is payback for making me worry Hermione!" Daphne says as she continues to pull and twist her ear.
"Ok! Ok! You win Daphne. I'm sorry!" Hermione says, her face scrunched up in pain. "I won't do it again!"
As soon as those words left Hermione's mouth, Daphne's fingers left Hermione's ear and she finally sat down.
"There. Now Hermione was that so hard?" Daphne asks primly as if she didn't just viciously attack Hermione's poor innocent ear. Hermione decides not to answer and merely sends a disgruntled look in Daphne's direction, rubbing her red sore ear.
"You're a menace, Daphne." Hermione says, a pout on her lips.
"Oh, posh Hermione. You're far worse than I am." Daphne says as she daintily picks up her silverware. "Thank you for preparing my plate Hermione, it's greatly appreciated since you had me running all over this castle looking for you."
Hermione sighs, knowing this is attitude is going to last for at least half of lunch. "You're welcome, Daphne." Hermione sends a glare to the two boys in front of her. "Oh shut up you cowards." She snips at the trying to stay silent but failing laughing duo.
"That would be in their best interest since they didn't help me look for you at all." Daphne says as she spears a piece of chicken onto her fork and cuts it into a smaller piece. With that done she makes eye contact directly with Nott and Zabini, causing the two to immediately stop and go back to studying their plates of food. "Cowards." Daphne swings her eyes to Hermione and the two share a small giggle.
With that, the conversation ended and they all dug into their food. The silence lasted until everyone was done and Hermione was digging into a lovely chocolate pudding. She only ever allowed herself dessert after lunch, she never had dessert after dinner at her house because her parents always told her it was too late to have something so sugary so late at night. But the desserts at Hogwarts were simply too delicious-looking to pass up, so she figured after lunch was a good compromise to her parents' rule.
"I'm going to go to the dormitory and then to the library afterward if you'd like to join me, Daphne?" Hermione says as she takes a spoonful of chocolate pudding from her bowl.
"Sure, I have some transfiguration work to do." Daphne says after taking her bite of treacle tart.
Hermione nods. "Boys, you're welcome to join us if you'd like as well."
"Thanks, Granger, but we're going to go to the pitch and watch the team practice some." Nott answers and Zabini nods in agreement.
Hermione curls her lip up. "Well, you two enjoy that." She says dryly as she puts her spoon down. The two grin at her, knowing very well of her dislike for the sport.
"You know Granger, there is a match coming up in a few days. You should come! Show some good ole house spirit." Zabini says.
Hermione gives him a dead look as she gets up from the table. "Yes because I certainly want to support a house that has shown absolutely no support for me. I do enough by earning points thank you very much."
Zabini brings a hand to the back of his neck. "Ah, right. Sorry, Granger, I didn't mean the way it sounded."
Hermione sends a smile towards the contrite boy. "You're fine Zabini, I apologize as well. I know you didn't mean anything by it, but it didn't sound like it. Thank you for the invitation, but I have a lot of studying to do and would rather not spend valuable time cheering for a sport I can't stand to watch."
Zabini returns her smile and nods. His attention going back to Nott and the two start talking about something she doesn't bother listening too. Daphne finishes the last bite of her tart and stands as well, linking her arm with Hermione's.
"Onward to the Dungeon?" Daphne asks and Hermione nods.
"Yes, let's go."
