More Carefree

Chapter 4

There were very few Slytherin's at breakfast the next morning. I couldn't blame them. None of them had their correct hair colors back yet. I made it so that the spell would wear off sometime today. I noticed that Snape wasn't at breakfast and that Sirius looked particularly cheerful this morning. Silly boys.

While at first I was adamant about not allowing Snape to be included in my prankfest, now I'm having second thoughts. I've always felt bad for him. I mean, he did risk his life for years spying on Voldemort for Dumbledore and he still gets treated like poo. But then again, he does treat everyone else like poo and aren't you supposed to "treat others how you would like to be treated"? He's pretty much asking me to include him in my prankfest. Who else, other than Malfoy, has made my life a living hell for the last 6 years? Snape of course! Why shouldn't I get back at him? After all, I've tried my best to be nice to him and I always do well in his class but he just doesn't care. Well, I won't care either then. This will be fun.

Luckily for me, I happen to have Potions today. It's almost as if someone is writing my life story so that things like this work out perfectly for me. But that's a silly idea. I'm not just some made up character. I'm real, damn it! Do I sound like Pinocchio? I'm a real boy? I'm a real person? Well, whatever. What was I saying? Oh right, I have Potions today. For once in my life, I'm happy to go to that class. I have a wonderful idea.

As Harry, Ron, and I were walking down to the dungeons, Harry decided to ask me about my newfound carefree attitude. I can't say I'm exactly surprised. I have been acting a lot different lately. But it's been fun so I'll definitely keep going with this.

"Hermione?" Harry said snapping me out of my oh-so-interesting thoughts.

"Right, you asked me about my carefree-ness didn't you?" Harry just nodded at me and looked slightly worried. "Well, I personally blame you, Harry." He just looked shocked.

"Why me?"

"I don't know. Don't people like it when everything is about them? I'm trying to give you a compliment here, Harry!" Harry and Ron just stared at me as if I was insane. I might tend to agree with them.

"Hermione, are you sure that you didn't take anything from Fred and George," Ron wondered. I knew I obviously didn't, but I could see this conversation going in an interesting direction.

"Oh my goodness. I bet those two slipped me something to make me all random and strange and carefree! It must be some new product they're testing or something! What am I going to do?" I said frantically. They both look worried.

"Don't worry, Hermione. I'm sure I can send them a letter asking for the antidote or something," Ron said quickly. I stopped walking and they both took a few steps before realizing that I had stopped, then walked back to where I was standing.

"What's the mat-"

"Shh! Wait," I said ominously. "Wait," I repeated. They both stared at me and looked on the brink of about to go get help. "Okay, I'm better," I said cheerfully and continued walking again. When they caught back up to me, I could see them shaking their heads, probably even more confused about my behavior. This is nothing, wait until they see what I have planned for Potions.

Upon walking into the Potions classroom, I noted that Snape wasn't there yet. I wondered if he would bother showing up if his hair was still Gryffindorish. I was slightly disappointed when he stormed in with his normal dark hair. Looking around the room, I noticed that my own spell was wearing off for the rest of the Slytherin's as well. Oh well. We all got a good laugh out of it. Even though Snape had his usual hair color, he still looked pretty peeved but I wasn't about to back down from my plans just because he looked angry. In fact, it would probably make my plan better.

Snape told us which potion we were to make today and I almost scoffed aloud at it. It seemed simple enough. I was almost sure that I could have made this in my fourth year. I got my ingredients together and started working on it all the same. About halfway through working on the potion, I raised my hand.

"Professor?" I called. Snape noticed me and came over to see what it was I wanted.

"What is it, Miss Granger? Did you find a mistake in the text or are you just finished already?" My goodness, someone is grumpy today. I pretended to be embarrassed by what he said, but I was really fuming. It made me want to continue with my plan even more.

"No, sir. I think I've added a wrong ingredient. Does it look okay to you?" I asked with a hint of panic in my voice. He stared into my potion, then looked back at me.

"It looks fine." Perfect answer.

"Are you hitting on me, sir?" I asked trying to sound surprised. He looked positively confused and angry all at the same time. Can you be positively confused and angry? I don't know, but I could hear a collective gasp from the people sitting around me.

"Miss Granger!" He fumed. I'm sure if it were possible for steam to really come out of a persons ears, Snape would look like he must have smokestacks hidden in his head.

"What?" I said innocently. "You said that 'it looks fine' and I wasn't sure that you were referring to my potion." I was sure I was going to get in trouble for this. "Sir," I added for good measure. He looked unsure of how to handle me.

"Out!" he yelled pointing in the general direction of the door. This is new for me. I've never been kicked out of a class before. Should I push things a little more? What the hell, why not?

"Yes, that's the way out," I said simply and didn't move. I was really going to get in trouble for this one. Snape was beginning to turn red in the face.

"Miss Granger. Remove yourself from my sights before I do so for you."

"First of all, is that a threat? Second, just be clear, I could just stand behind you for the remainder of class and that would be fine?" I honestly can't believe I'm doing this. He's going to murder me.

"50 points from Gryffindor. Now. Get. Out," he said in a dangerously low voice. I took this as my cue to leave.

"Yes, sir," I said grabbing all my things and heading out of the door. I could hear people whispering to one another about what had just happened and Snape yelling at them to get back to work.

I just got thrown out of Potions. I wanted to laugh and cry all at the same time. I really didn't intend to take things quite that far. I just got all caught up in the thrill of annoying Snape that I stopped thinking about exactly what I was saying. Well, it was fun and now I have lots of free time before lunch.

Upon walking back to the common room, I saw Sirius walking in my direction. I swear, he must be stalking me or something. Why do I keep running into him? He looked surprised to see me. I couldn't exactly blame him. I would be surprised to see me when I knew I should be in class too. Actually, I would probably be more surprised about seeing myself then worrying about where I should be at the moment.

"Hi, Hermione. Aren't you supposed to be in class?" he asked slowly and a little unsurely. I guess he didn't want to sound like he was calling me out.

"I got thrown out of Potions," I shrugged in a 'no big deal' sort of way. He looked shocked. Again, can't really blame him.

"What did you do to get thrown out of Potions?" he asked putting extra emphasis on the word 'you'. Like what could Hermione Granger possibly have done to get kicked out of class? Please, I could get kicked out class any time I want. Why am I getting defensive? Anyway, I explained to Sirius what I had done in Potions and he looked quite proud.

"I must admit," he said, "I'm quite surprised to hear this. I thought you didn't want to mess with him?"

"I was tired of him treating me like crap," I responded in a nonchalant way. Sirius just laughed.

"Well, good for you, I suppose. Have any big plans for tonight?" he asked and I could see his eyes twinkling. I knew he was asking if I had any more pranks planned for tonight, but I'm getting to the point where I don't even have to think about responding in a non-serious way anymore.

"Why? Are you asking me out?" I asked trying to sound curious. He smiled and I could tell that he was going to play along.

"Well, yeah I guess I am. Would you like to go to dinner with me to the Great Hall tonight? The only problem is, we'll have to sit at separate tables. I hope that doesn't bother you."

"Oh Sirius," I fawned, "you make me the happiest girl in the world." I batted my eyelashes at him and then we both burst into laughter.

Once we both calmed down, I answered the real question he was asking. "Really though, I don't have anything planned for tonight. I figured I should space things out. Don't want to seem too predictable," I said winking. Where did that come from? I think I've been around him too long and now I've caught his nervous winking twitch.

"Good thinking," he nodded. "Well, let me know when you're planning your next one."

"What if I'm planning to do something to you?" I wondered. I wouldn't really and I think he knows that.

"Well, tell me anyway so that I can properly prepare myself for humiliation."

"You got it," I said laughing.

"See you later, Hermione," he said smiling. I said goodbye and made my way to the common room. I sat in one of the comfy armchairs, pulled out a book, and waited for Harry and Ron to get back from Potions. I knew that they were going to be very curious to know what came over me. Sure enough, sometime later they entered the common room and made a beeline towards me. I wonder where that saying came from. Do bees really make straight lines? It doesn't seem likely.

"Hermione," Ron said sitting on the arm of the chair I was sitting in and looking at me with this amazed look on his face. "That was bloody brilliant," he said simply. I wasn't expecting this sort of reaction. I was expecting the 'why?' and the 'what made you do it?' sort of reaction.

"What made you do it?" Harry asked. Ah, well. There goes the idea that they wouldn't ask.

"Thanks Ron. And I don't know," I said somewhat honestly. "I just got carried away with the whole thing I guess."

"Well, it was amazing," Harry said sounding quite pleased. "I wish I had the guts to do what you did." I was quite surprised that he said this. Harry's temper has been known to make him say just about anything to anyone, especially where Snape was concerned. Was it really that big of a deal what I had just done?

"It wasn't that big of a deal, guys," I said going back to reading my book. They just shrugged and filled me in about how mad Snape was for the rest of the class. Apparently they even got extra homework. On this note they weren't too pleased, but they seemed to think it might have been a little bit worth it.

When we went to lunch a little later, I took a seat and then looked up to Snape. I made sure no one was looking, except for Snape of course, then waved merrily at him. I could see his reactions go from surprise, to a quick stage of curiosity, then to anger. With this last stage he threw a menacing glare in my direction and looked away from me. I just smiled and took some of the chicken that was in front of me. Messing with Snape was going to be more fun than I thought.

AN: This chapter was a lot of fun to write. I have a really great idea for another Snape related thing for Hermione to do and I can't wait to write it. Not everything is going to be Snape/Slytherin related though. I've got some more good stuff planned. Let me know what you thought and if you have any ideas that you would like to see, let me know about that too.

The answer to where I got Xeonim from was answered correctly by Wondering What Breakfast Is so a billion gold stars to her! I got it from the game Kingdom Hearts II. There's a group called Organization XIII and all of their names are mixed up letters of a real name with an X thrown in. So Xeonim is Mione mixed up and with an X. Hermione was proving to be too long to make a manageable name out of so I shortened it to Mione and that works out better.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Special thanks to Wondering What Breakfast Is, who was the first to review last chapter, and everyone else who reviewed! I really appreciate the comments.

PadfootBlack4Ever