I think I'm going to end this story. There really is no plot, sorry. Leave reviews if you really want me to continue...

But first, a random excerpt I felt like writing.

January 30, 2018

The night before, Monday, Hermione had promised herself that she would wake at 5:30am the next morning and start Arithmancy questions. She had a test on Wednesday and still was unsure of several concepts. She had memorized some patterns for the questions, but for anything she hadn't seen before, she had no idea how to solve. Yet when her alarm blared through the pristine silence of the dormitory, Hermione's hand instinctively lunged to turn it off. It went like this– Hermione stirring, pressing snooze, drifting off– until 5:50am when she forced herself to get up. By then, it was slightly bright outside and Hermione could see a bit of light through the slanted window blinds. She immediately jumped out of the bed and resisted the urge to collapse back in it, to fold herself between the comforting sheets… No… She would not do that. Hermione quietly started to make her bed, a bit absent mindedly while fighting the impulse to drift off again. She decided that she would allow herself to have a bit of coffee at breakfast, especially if it would keep her awake.

She dressed in her school uniform, went to the bathroom, fixed her hair, and then slung her heavy backpack over one shoulder. Immediately, she pulled it onto the other one too. Hermione would probably collapse backwards if the immense weight wasn't evenly distributed. She traipsed out the dormitory silently, down the stairs, and through the lavish, grandeur, hallways into the Great Hall for breakfast. There were only three other students there, none of them Gryffindors. Hermione sighed and plunked her bag down at the end of the Gryffindor table. She fetched a few pieces of toast and fruit on her white plate before sitting down. She was spreading jam on her toast when she realized she really should be doing math to prepare for her test. She set back down her toast, popped a few blueberries in her mouth, and dived into her overstuffed backpack for her Arithmancy workbook. The problems seemed straightforward when she was revising last night, but this morning they seemed to make no sense… Hermione scrutinized the odd numbers of the Arithmancy expression with a distasteful expression.

Later

Hermione's first class was new. They had switched electives half way through the year so Hermione was forced to give up one of her Languages in favor of MCT– Intermagical Communications and Technology. She had heard the class was difficult, but the first class was fun for Hermione. Next she had house meetings back in the dormitory. The prefects and Head Boy and Girl ran the meeting. Usually, these were relaxed and informal where people did whatever they wanted to, but today the leaders gave a lecture on the importance of sleep. Hermione sympathized with the students exchanging guilty grins. With all the stress, it was hard to sleep. Moniciah of course claimed to be getting 12 hours of sleep every night, but Hermione knew this wasn't the case. Having a bed right next to hers, Hermione could see the wandlight being emitted from the other side of her four poster's hangings at 7:00pm. She was probably doing homework. There was so much, there's no way she could have finished it before then. After house meetings, Hermione had her other Language class. She beamed when the professor passed back a piece of paper with the glorious three digit number printed on it: 100%. That was her mark on a speaking exam. Hermione craned her neck to get a glance at Isabella's paper. She bit back a small smile– not even 90%. Moniciah grinned when the professor passed back her paper and waved it towards Hermione: 92%.

"Good job!" Hermione beamed at her. Moniciah leaned forward to get a glimpse of

Hermione's paper, but she willingly flashed it at her. Hermione knew, she just knew, that she really shouldn't show off her grades. Really. But she couldn't help it because she put somuch effort into them and she knew the only immediate reward she'd get is the envious glances from her peers… It was awful, but at least Hermione knew how hypocritical she was being.

After class, Hermione rushed to the Great Hall. There were always immense lines for the food. On her way, she caught sight of Lavender choppily running the opposite direction.

"Hi!" Hermione chirped.

"Oh!" Lavender squeaked and paused. Then she lunged forwards and kept hobbling/choppily running.

Hermione furrowed her brow. What did I do? Why is she so mad at me?! She couldn't understand. If Hermione's jubilant mood was a bubble, Lavender's weird response had burst it. After Hermione gathered food and sat back down at the Gryffindor table, Lavender was still looking odd. She glared angrily at a carrot. Parvati was making awkward forced conversation with Lavender. Hermione exchanged a questioning look with Parvati who looked equally confused.

All of a sudden, Lavender let out another squeak and leapt from the table.

"Where is she going!?" Parvati exclaimed. Hermione watched as she sprinted off towards the washrooms.

"Probably just the restrooms."

"Should we go get her?"

"Maybe wait?"

"But what if she really upset!"

"I don't know…"

Lavender stomped through the crowd of people still waiting in line for lunch. She threw herself down into the chair and flatly said, "Sorry."

Just then, Khloe bounded up to them with false happiness. "Hey, Lavender!" she exclaimed, "Hey, Parvati!" Clearly ignoring Hermione. I don't even like her anyways.

Ginny then sat down at the table, as well. Ginny had been fuming with Khloe since last week. It was the start of lunch at the end of the Gryffindor table. Ginny, Lavender, and Khloe were the only one's there yet. Khloe whined in an angry voice, "I can't believe I can't retest."

"Why? What'd you get?" Lavender tried to ask sympathetically.

"I failed my math test? Ugh! It's not fair. Last year we could retest!" she fumed and stabbed her plate full of white rice with her fork forcefully. Hermione felt her heart rate speed up. She hated when people complained about grades because it made everything so competitive. Lavender was still trying to be nice, Hermione could see. But she was slightly to excited. Hermione assumed it was because someone had gotten a bad mark and it wasn't her. "Well, I did really well… So, what'd you get? Like 40%... 30%... 20%...?" she paused for a dramatic effect. "…10%?" Hermione could only fathom at how happy Lavender would be if Khloe got a 10%.

Khloe gave a long groan and paused for a dramatic effect. "99%. It's totally going to mess up my average. I can't believe I can't retest."

Lavender looked shocked. She was definitely not excited now. "Well, I would be happy if I got that mark. I mean, I would be happy if I got above 40%." She rambled on.

"Seriously, you shouldn't be upset it's just one grade–"

"–it's going to mess up my entire year grade, Lavender!" she exclaimed.

Hermione was about to leave the table. The stress was too much.

Just then, Ginny, who had been hanging back and listening to the conversation butted in. "Um, Khloe, could you just stop. It's really hurting my feelings that you are complaining about that."

Khloe feigned deafness, but when she had shoved every last grain of white rice on her plate in her mouth, she shot up and practically threw her chair into the table to push it in. Ginny gave a defensive look.

"Honestly, I didn't even say it rudely."

Hermione agreed, "Yes, you could have said it much ruder. I was honestly about to leave the table if you hadn't said anything."

Ginny had been avoiding Khloe the entire week and giving Hermione updates on her ignorance towards her. Now, as Khloe started making fake happy chirpy conversation with Lavender, Ginny leaned closer to Lavender to whisper, "Seriously, she's making it her issue now. She feels like its her problem." Ginny gave a hushed frustrated sigh. "Ahhhh… And it's not even like she's trying to help!"

Hermione shrugged. When Lavender finally leaped from the table after devouring three sandwiches and Khloe chased after her, Hermione stayed. They retired to the library after lunch for the remainder of the break, and Hermione spent the time hunting for a book to avoid sitting at the table with them. Lavender caught up with her though, "I'm sorry I was acting weird, I'm just stressed…"

"It's okay. Did anything happen?" Hermione asked.

"No… I'm just stressed… Yeah…" She ran back over to the table. Okay, then… Hermione thought.

The rest of her classes went alright. Hermione would dive into her backpack for her Arithmancy book if she thought of an answer to an equation. Moniciah gave her a weird look every time this happened. At the end of the school day, Hermione barricaded herself in a corner of the common room. She spent hoursand hours on Arithmancy. So much, she barely had time to finish her Potions problems for the next day. Hermione skipped Quidditch practice, and only came down the Gryffindor Tower to grab a sandwich from the Great Hall for dinner. Khloe made the mistake of rudely asking Hermione if she had an Arithmancy test. Ginny snapped at Khloe yelling, "WHAT DO YOU THINK?!" Khloe dissolved upstairs, shaking her head defensively and passive aggressively. Hermione did not like Khloe. After that, it was very difficult to focus on the Arithmancy questions swimming beneath the angry tears in Hermione's tired eyes. She shut the book and went upstairs. The digital alarm clock on her bedside table read 9:34pm. Not bad, Hermione thought. I just wish I could practice a bit more…She knew she couldn't. She knew it was pointless. She knew it would be best if she went to sleep. Alright, Hermione, she thought, you can practice early tomorrow morning if you go to sleep now. No reading, nothing. Fine, Hermione assented to herself. She realized she had been standing in the doorway of the empty dormitory for nearly 3 minutes. Hermione slung her heavy backpack off her back and onto the floor. She filled it with the correct textbooks (Potions, Choral Instruments, and Charms) for tomorrow, and left her Arithmancy book on her bedside table along with a pen. Tomorrow morning she would wake at 5:45 and practice Arithmancy. She set her alarm on he wrist watch, changed into shorts and a t-shirt and slumped into the bed…

6:00 am

To be honest, Hermione didn't expect herself to be able to wake up the next morning. But here she was, sitting in the Great Hall, drinking Earl Grey caffeinated tea. She did the stuff, took the test and received 97%! 97%! She was ecstatic. The mistakes she made were sooooo stupid! If only she'd had checked the answers again… At least her average was a solid O (Outstanding) in Arithmancy.