Hermione watched the clock tick away. She suspected that she wouldn't be seeing Ron anytime soon. Madam Pomfrey was sure to have him horribly busy for the rest of the day, whether he was doing something she needed him to do, or not.
She watched the bigger hand inch slowly toward the 12. She was waiting for it to reach 11:00, but she wasn't even sure why. She wasn't even sure she wanted to know why, she was too drowsy and comfortable to want to remember.
Of course, this isn't saying that she couldn't remember if she wanted to, it's just saying that she didn't want to bother remembering at the moment. Whatever she was waiting for, she was pretty sure it was arriving at 11:00.
10:39.
10:40.
10:41.
Suddenly there was a loud thumping farther down the hall.
"Whoever's doing that thumping is insane, visiting hours don't start until 11:00 and Madam Pomfrey never gives exceptions." She muttered. Visiting hours, oh yea, that was what she was waiting for!
"Bang, bang, BANG," went the door.
"I'll go see who it is," Ron said helpfully to Madam Pomfrey.
"Oh, I already know who it is and you do too," Madam Pomfrey sighed. "No one bangs on the door of the hospital wing nineteen minutes before visiting hours start unless their two best friends are in there waiting for them."
"Are you sure?" Ron asked uncertainly, "You never know, it could be someone else."
"Madam Pomfrey! Your supply of flix juice is here," the door said with a voice that sounded a lot like Ginny imitating Professor Sprout.
"Oh," said Madam Pomfrey, sounding very confused. "Is that you, Professor Sprout?"
"Yes, of course," said the door. "It's me with your supply of flix juice."
"Oh, well, my mistake. Weasley, get the door."
Hermione smiled slightly. She didn't have any idea how Harry and Ginny figured out that Madam Pomfrey had ordered flix juice from Professor Sprout, but it was pretty clever, and it was working.
Ron walked past her bed to the door of the hospital wing. Hermione grabbed her wand and blew apart the curtains. She had to see this.
Ron winked at her, then opened the door.
"Uh, Professor Sprout? Are you there?" he asked, stifling a laugh.
"Yes, I'm over here. Will you help me lift this box of flix juice?"
"Sure," Ron said happily. He glanced back at Madam Pomfrey and ducked outside. Hermione heard Ron grunting as if he was carrying something heavy, then a loud crash. A few not so nice words floated into the hospital wing.
"Curse that Weasley," Madam Pomfrey muttered. She marched outside. "WEASLEY IF YOU'VE DROPPED THAT BOX OF FLIX JUICE I'LL— Weasley?"
"Petrificus Totalus!" Harry yelled. Madam Pomfrey stiffened and fell into Ron's arms. He leaned her against the wall and everything was silent for a moment.
Suddenly the whole hospital wing was filled with cheers. Students came pouring in and began setting up banners and inflating balloons.
"What in the world," Hermione said, astonished. She looked at the posters which read "Happy Birthday Helga Hufflepuff!" Oh, so it was Helga Hufflepuff's birthday. Wait, she had a birthday? Hermione never remembered reading anything about celebrating Helga Hufflepuff's birthday.
"Hi Hermione," Ginny said delightfully as she came over to sit beside her.
"What's this about Helga Hufflepuff's birthday?" Hermione asked.
"Oh, well, we just wanted an excuse for taking over the hospital wing today, so we got the Ravenclaws to find us a good wizarding holiday we could celebrate. Turns out that today's Helga Hufflepuff's birthday, so we decided to throw a celebration. All the Ravenclaws are excited about it because they discovered it, all the Hufflepuffs are excited because, well, it's their founder's celebration, and all the Gryffindors are excited about it because it's a party, so we have a lot of people excited about it."
"But what's the excuse for taking over the hospital wing?"
"We have a lot of people and from more than one house. We can't throw a party from one of our common rooms because no one else can get in, and we can't throw a party just anywhere in Hogwarts because not all the rooms are big enough."
"You could use the room of requirement or the great hall," Hermione objected. "Then you might not be in so much trouble when everyone finds out."
"Oh we won't be in trouble, Ginny winked at her. Besides, you know why we decided to throw a party in here."
Everyone was busy setting up tables of refreshments, hanging posters, playing music, and to Madam Pomfrey's despair, rolling curtains away from beds. Luckily, there weren't any serious cases in the hospital at the moment, and all the patients were sitting up in bed laughing their heads off.
A Hufflepuff who had been watching the clock ever since she came into the room screamed "IT'S TEN FIFTY SEVEN! THE EXACT MOMENT WHEN HELGA HUFFLEPUFF WAS BORN!"
Everyone cheered, then broke into a chorus of "Happy Birthday to you!" When they had all finished, a huge cake which read "Happy Birthday Helga Hufflepuff!" divided itself up into pieces and floated around the room. Hermione caught one and Ginny handed her a plate and a fork to go with it.
"We had the house elves prepare this stuff for us so we didn't have to steal a cake," she explained.
"You made HOUSE ELVES do this?" Hermione fussed, "Why didn't you just do it yourselves?"
Ginny winced. "Well, at least we didn't steal it."
The clock struck eleven. Someone yelled "Visiting hours just started!" A crowd of people gathered around Madam Pomfrey. Ron majestically preformed the counter-curse and Madam Pomfrey stood up sternly.
"WEASLEY YOU ARE ALL IN SO MUCH TROUBLE I'LL HAVE FILCH GIVE YOU ALL DETENTIONS IN THE" she broke off when she saw the decorations. "WHAT did you do to my HOSPITAL?" she shrieked.
Ginny sprang up and made her way over to the crowd. She put on her best innocent face and began talking about how unfair it was that Helga Hufflepuff's birthday was never celebrated and how the hospital wing was the only place big enough for the party and listing reason after reason for why they were doing what they were doing.
Hermione knew Ginny and Harry and she also knew that not one of the reasons she listed was a real reason for why they were doing this, but Madam Pomfrey hesitated. Finally she gave in.
"You really are right, no one celebrates Helga Hufflepuff's birthday. I guess you may have your party in here as long as you aren't too loud and I get to pick the music."
The house erupted in cheers and a boy next to Ginny tried to give her a high five, but he accidentally slapped her in the face. As Ginny ran off to practice her Bat Boogey Hex, Hermione wondered out loud.
"Why did Madam Pomfrey give in so easily?"
"Oh didn't you know," a nearby Ravenclaw asked. "Madam Pomfrey is a Hufflepuff."
Author's Notes: I hope you liked this chapter. I made up "flix juice" but, you know, there have to be plenty more magic healing juices out there that would require a plant, so I took the liberty.
Did I ask you to review in the last chapter? Pretend I did if I didn't. Please review! Also, if I wrote more HP fanfiction, would you read it? Let me know please.
Oh, and I didn't say that I wouldn't write more if you wouldn't read it, I'm just curious...
Oh and ALSO... Madam Pomfrey IS a Hufflepuff; at least, everything I read on Google says so.