Great shrills of laughter could be heard in the already noisy din of a Great Hall as one of the Slytherins reenacted their last match with Hufflepuff (even though they lost). Sirius, James, Remus, and Hermione all sat at the end of the table discussing in further depth what a Mormon was. Remus, who was a bit more knowledgeable on the subject than his two companions just smiled and laughed at various jokes or comments.
"Drat!" She said, checking her bewitched watch for the time.
"What is it Emily?" Remus asked, attempting to be heard over all the noise.
"Lunch is almost over." The others gave slightly confused looks and she gave James an imploring look. 'Oh' he mouthed. In a falsely cheery voice she said, "Detention!" and gave them a thumbs up.
James and Hermione got up from their seats at the table and began walking to McGonagall's. As they were in the hall the bell rang and they could hear the students coming through the doors. She and James continued to talk about random things, not really staying on a certain topic. Quidditch came up though, seeing as he had to start practices next week for the upcoming game. It was a nice moment really, one that she might have with Harry and Ron.
"So since Hufflepuff, won against Slytherin, and Ravenclaw tends to win against Hufflepuff, we're probably going to be playing them next weekend." James informed Hermione as they passed the library on their way to McGonagall. Lilly, who had left lunch early to get a book from the library looked up curiously as the two walked by, unnoticing. "Was that… James?"
When they arrived at McGonagall's they were both dreading a boring hour detention, but smiling all the same. James held open the door for her.
"Ladies first..." he joked. She smiled at him and went in. They sat down in one of the first few desks. McGonagall raised her wand over their desk as she said, "Today, for detention, you will be given various items to transfigure into what you will." James and Hermione just looked at each other because they both knew that was hardly a punishment. The 'various objects' appeared on the desk in from of them. Amongst these were; a goblet, a wizards chess piece, a small tarnished pocket watch that ticked at irregular intervals, a quill, a lock of hair that they both regarded questioningly, and random other items that appeared to have been taken from a particularly old cupboard. Hermione sat for a moment, pondering, as did James. She picked up one of the smaller items and transfigured it into a regular, white piece of muggle paper. Then, she folded it into a small plane and sent it flying around the wizard's chess piece that attempted to poke at it fruitlessly. James took another one of the objects and changed it into an even bigger piece of paper which he then made into a plane. The plane flew at Hermione's and they both crashed, spiraling downward. Soon enough there was a little war going on between them as to who could transfigure the item into something that could beat the others. Both, being skilled at transfiguration had a fun time with it, being regularly challenged.
From the broken pocket watch, James had a discolored snitch going around the room. Hermione had a tiny hippogriff (how she had managed that one he had no clue) bewitched to fly after in pursuit. The snitch had an oddly twitching wing, so it did not fly as fast as usual but it was still zooming about. The hippogriff caught it slightly and accidentally sent it flying for the door. This was just one of the many small battles going on in the vicinity and Hermione and James didn't really notice. The goblet and a quill were dancing a jazz piece now and held their attention.
"Are you trying to kill me?" A voice came from the door.
Remus, grasping the twitching snitch in his hand stood with Sirius in the doorway.
"Sorry, it was James fault, I swear." Hermione said sarcastically, glancing at James. James gave an apologetic shrug. The two new arrivals shook their heads dismally at the miniature war taking place in the room, disappointed that they had missed all the fun. Meanwhile, the hippogriff had started pecking at Remus's hand that held the snitch so he let it go.
"We're here to pick up our friends." Sirius suddenly addressed McGonagall who had come out of her office to see what the commotion (commotion being exclamations, miniature explosions, and screeches) was about. Sirius gave that trademark smile that usually kept him out of the most serious trouble and McGonagall said,
"Take a seat Mr. Black if you're going to be in here." Remus and Sirius sat at the desk directly in front of where Hermione and James were sitting, turning around to talk to them. Remus, looking at the odd assortment of items asked,
"So, what exactly did you two have to do?" Hermione and James began to explain simultaneously then stopped, looked at each other and laughed.
"Well she gave us a few things and we just had to transfigure them into something." Hermione began.
"Wow, McGonagall is hardcore." Sirius referred to the 'hefty' punishment, attempting to keep a straight face. Everyone laughed at this. James got up and grabbed the snitch. The hippogriff had finally tired out and was just sitting on the table, resting. Sirius began to absentmindedly pet the creature, fiddling with its feathers. Hermione checked her watch; ten minutes left, and began to ask about the quidditch scores so far.
"Okay," She began, getting the boys attention. James had just sat down and was playing with the snitch.
"So who has the most, ah, "points" now?"
"Do you mean House Points?" asked Remus.
"Yeah for quidditch too..."
"How'd that come up?" Remus asked in a light tone.
"I started to tell her about my practices coming up next week." James answered, his eyes down as he was messing with the snitch, his wand was out now.
"Oh well, Slytherin had the lead, but they just lost to Hufflepuff, so it's a tie between the other three houses, us, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff. These next two games will decide who has the house cup this year." By then McGonagall had come out and was in the doorway of her office.
"I can all but hope that this year, it'll be in my office, so I hope you'll be training hard James."
"Yup." James called out, the snitch still occupying him.
"Well, you can go now, you have a few minutes before you're last class." She dismissed them with a wave of her hand. It may have seemed like an act of kindness on her part, letting them go a few minutes early, but she may have just been trying to "inspire" James to do well next game. Hermione felt a vague sense of déjà vu, talking about quidditch and the sort. She strongly wanted to know how Harry and Ron were doing. Suddenly James called out,
"Look! I fixed its wing, AND I put my name in it. Neat, huh?" He looked triumphant as he held it out between his fingers.
"Well done mate." Congratulated Sirius. Hermione and Remus applauded James, as did Sirius.
After wandering around for the few remaining minutes, the bell rang which meant they had to go to their next class. Hermione had History of Magic with no one that she knew in particular. Although she was certain Neville's mom was at her far right. Unsurprisingly, Professor Binns was still teaching and he was still a ghost... As usual Hermione scribbled down notes as Professor Binns lectured on. It was really quite interesting knowing that the 'face' on the moon was a prank, and not just unique crater markings.. A few hundred years ago a group of wayward witches thought it would be hilarious to put a face on it and scare the muggles. The ministry since, hadn't been able to remove it and eventually just stopped trying. The curriculum, she imagined, hadn't changed in at least a hundred years considering the class was at the almost exact point from when she left. She silently laughed at this. At least she knew she wasn't missing anything. Scratch that, she was missing something huge. Snape sat directly in front of her. She quickly ducked her head, pretending to be immersed in notes. What am I doing? She asked herself. It's not like he'll know me. As long as I don't do anything to catch his attention I should be fine... Hermione hoped she could keep this up throughout her remaining time there.