What happened the next morning I should have expected, it was after another great breakfast, and Hermione was going to start to teach me. But before we did, she had to lay down some ground rules. "OK Parker, if I'm going to be teaching you, you have to do what I say and not ask to learn and thing … special. I will be teaching you things that first years would be learning, today. Are we clear on this?" Hermione told me in an extremely strict voice.
"Yeah," I said in a very annoyed voice. I hated Hermione with a passion, but only because she loathed me with all her might. She gave me my wand and she pulled out hers. She pulled out tons of books that all looked extremely dull and tedious.
"Now, first you will be learning the levitating charm. With your wand I want you to swish and flick," she told me as if I was a little child. I took my wand and "swished and flicked" it wasn't that hard. "Ok now good," she continued. "The spell is Wingardium Leviosa. I now want you to do that swish and flick movement and say Wingardium Leviosa."
I took my wand and swish and flicked while muttering the spell. The book I was pointing at moved up a little but not much. I tried again, and this time was successful. The rest of the day went like this, Hermione told me what to do, and I would follow. It wasn't that exciting. She was starting to get on my nerves with how bossy she was.
x/X\x
"Hermione?" I asked.
"Yes?" she asked with her annoying know-it-all voice.
"Do you think that I will be caught up with you by the time school starts?" I asked. I had been so scared that I wouldn't be good enough by then and then wouldn't be able to go. It seemed as if I was moving at an extremely slow pace.
"Well, it's been a week and you've mastered your first and second year. If you keep going at this rate, you will. But keep in mind that the material will just get harder," she said with a stern look.
I nodded; Hermione hadn't been any nicer than she had since I overheard her yelling about me. I've wanted to talk to her about it, but truthfully I'd rather jump of a cliff then tell her I heard their vile conversation about me.
Ron on the other hand was rather nice to me. He normally didn't say anything when Hermione and Harry were around, but when they left we had a lot of fun. He was really cool, idiotic, but cool.
Harry was of course, being as mean as humanly possible. Though, he tried to hid it in front of Mr. and Mrs. Weasly, he hated me with all the power he could muster. Whenever I said something to him he wouldn't reply just glair unless Mr. or Mrs. Weasley were around.
Ginny was her nice usual self. She wasn't the nicest person ever, but was probably the nicest out of all of them. I still remember when she left me in Diagon Ally; I haven't completely forgiven her for it. But it was hard to hate her, when she was nice to me.
Mr. Weasly was normally at work, but whenever he was here he was as kind as the first day I met him. His wife on the other hand wasn't the greatest. She tried to be nice, but she couldn't always hold her anger in. She once yelled at me because I was late for breakfast.
But even with all that, I still couldn't not love being a witch and living there. Everyday was an adventure, learning new spells and potions. I had almost no time to sleep; I was either practicing or thinking about what I would be learning tomorrow.
x/X\x
I was now officially a fourth year. I had four days to learn all the potions and spells and history. It was almost too overwhelming. I had wanted so bad to be the best witch ever, but it was getting harder and harder everyday. The end of my life was coming upon me; I hadn't slept in six days and was almost dead.
"Hermione … I need to sleep if I wish to learn anything…." I said between yawns.
"Well, the schedule doesn't have and room for sleep. You said you wanted to be caught up. If you truly do, you need to make sacrifices," she told me, almost laughing at my weariness.
"But Hermione… I can't learn anything if my brain isn't working. I need sleep so I can function," I said this and suddenly fell asleep.
My dream was unusual like always, but maybe even more since I haven't had a dream since forever. Hermione was spoon feeding a little cripple boy with the same gleaming eyes as Harry. Ron ran up and slapped Hermione and went to sleep. Mr. Weasly was doing a gig in the corner and I was singing a song to the cripple boy. "When you need to cry, I'm here for you. When eyes just won't dry, I'll hold you tight. If you need someone to tell you they love you, remember that I was always there for you."
The cripple then suddenly turned into Harry. He took me in his arms and … "Wake up!"
Hermione had finally woken me up. I mustn't have been asleep very long. "How long was I out?"
"About twenty minutes," she said. "Well, as you were out, I figured out a way that you can sleep and still excel as a student."
I was happy, sleep was good. I couldn't wait to here her plan, but once she said it I was a little doubtful. "You will learn how to put your self into an enchanted sleep. That way you can postpone the moment, you will be able to sleep and then wake up at the same moment you went to sleep.
"This is a very difficult potion, but if you are able to successfully make the potion, the other potions and probably spells won't be any problem for you."
"Couldn't you just make it for me?" I asked slowly not wanting to be yelled at.
"Well no, I don't know how to yet, and this way you will be an even greater witch," she said that then mumbled something, that I knew was something mean against me.
"Let's start then!" I was so happy to do this spell that I was hanging off ever word Hermione said. She was going through ever book she had that even mention the spell. She finally found it in Advanced Potions for the Advanced Learner. She looked over it and kept shaking her head.
"Are you OK?" I said breaking the silence.
"OK, yeah I'm OK. It's just that is potion is past N.E.W.T. and I don't even know if I will be able to make it…." Her voice was shaking, if I didn't hate her so much I would have gone up and hugged her. She seemed on the verge of tears, she must be lacking sleep too.
"Hermione let me have a look at it." I said. She threw the book at me; it hit me hard in the head. I opened it up to the potion. It had many requirements and ingredients needed. It looked like it could be made in one week if you had everything and were an expert at potion making. But if you made in wrong, you will never wake up, but will always sleep.
It seemed weird and random, as if the ingredients were just thrown into a pot. But I had to try it, Hermione, though I hated her, had to try it with me. "Hermione we have to do this together. We can do this, it can't be that hard."
Hermione looked as if I was just thrown out of a mental institution. "Are you crazy! We can't do that? You're what a fourth year now, and look Snape made this potion it must be hard then."
"So you're just gonna give up then? Not even gonna try? Well, I am ashamed!" I took the book leaving sleep deprived Hermione behind. I went up to my room and tried to figure it out. I tried looking all over the house for any of the ingredients, but with no luck. Hermione was taking a well needed nap and I forced to go ask someone else for help.
I first went to Mrs. Weasly, seeing as it was her house. But she said we would need to buy the ingredients, but I didn't have time for that. Then I went to Ron. He was, of course, hanging out with Harry in the back.
"Ron, do you think you could help me?" I asked running with the book over to him.
"Sure, what is it?" he said happily, causing him to get a weird look from Harry. I showed Ron the book, he looked even more confused then I did.
"Do you know if we have any of the ingredients?" I asked.
He shook his head and handed the book to Harry for him to look over. He didn't seem as confused as Ron but still didn't seem to like the potion. He looked up, glaring at my smiling face. "I have the ingredients, that is, if Hermione wants to come up and get them."
Man, did I want to slap him! But instead I just nodded and walked away, putting my head down. I went to Hermione and tried to awaken her, but with almost no prevail. She would wake up and think see was late to her wedding day. It was funny, but I really didn't have time for it now.
"Hermione! Wake up this instance!" I yelled for the seventy-fifth time.
"The flowers are beautiful mommy…" she mumbled. Then her eyes popped open and she yelled at me for not waking her up.
"Hermione," I said in the nicest voice I had. "Harry has the ingredients that we need."
"Great let's get started then," she said in a sarcastic voice. It was the first time Hermione wasn't excited to work.
x/X\x
The potion hadn't let me get more sleep; it took away from the little I had. But now Hermione was hooked on getting this potion that we almost didn't even eat. We worked day and night non-stop. We had to go get more ingredients five times, you see, we had to start over ever time we made one little mistake. But by the end of my third week there we had it perfect.
Hermione and I were so excited to try it out. I was so tired that I couldn't stop jumping around. I'm not sure if it was the fact that we were tired or if we true, but me and Hermione had become friends. Spending 24/7 2 weeks in a row with someone, I guess, brings you closer together. Maybe Harry and I need to learn some complicated potion.
We tested the potion on a bird she transfigured from a cup. The bird woke up an hour later, just like it should. The potion was so powerful you only needed a drop per hour. Hermione and I took twenty-four. We put it in cups and chugged the clear purple liquid. It tasted like a mixture of beer and blood, which both weren't in the potion.
It took a few moments for the potion to take effect. I couldn't stand still anymore. I swayed and soon was on the floor in a laughing attack. Not soon after I was asleep.
x/X\x
I woke up refreshed, but I didn't remember ever sleeping. I know I took the potion and fell to the ground. But it felt like I just fell two seconds ago. Maybe it didn't work… but it had to of… hmm… maybe Hermione would know.
But Hermione was still sleeping the night away. I shook her and she woke up moments after. "Hmm?" she asked, her eyes drooping again.
"It's time to wake up," I told her helping her off the ground. "We need to keep working so I catch up with the rest of you."
"Well, I think you're good enough in potions. It's your transfiguration and you're charms that need to be worked on more." Hermione stopped, but it looked like she wanted to say more.
"Hermione?" I asked.
"I'm sorry … I never should have been so mean to you without knowing you. But you've got to understand that it was really hard not to, with your background and all. Your parents killed lots of innocent people, they tortured people into insanity. And now that they're no longer in prison—"
"What! They're out of prison! Will you go get Scrimgeour for me?"
"Why, can't it wait?"
"No, I need to tell him I'm not going to Hogwarts!"
"What? Why not?"
"I'm gonna kill my parents!"