Hermione woke at her normal time, an hour or so before the other girls in her doom, so that she could get some study in before going down to breakfast.
After reading over all her notes from yesterdays lessons, Lavender had gotten up and left to watch the boys coming down from their dorm, 'they have the best bed hair' she always giggled.
She then moved onto her pre-notes for todays classes, memorising all the information she would need for the day. Finally she slide out of bed and got dressed. Her school skirt was pressed into perfect pleats, her socks were warm and wooly as always and her blouse seemed just as brilliant white and soft as ever. As she tied her red and gold tie around her neck, she looked in the mirror that hung on the back of the dorm door.
'Well it's as good as it's going to get' she sighed, looking at her bushy hair and brown eyes. 'Well…' she walked over to her little dressing table and pulled out her mother's small silver necklace and slipped it around her neck, dropping under her collar, then slipped a set of tiny pear earrings into her ear lobes. It wasn't like her to wear jewellery, but she had been so worried that Fred was going to seek revenge that she had been on edge for a week, she needed a break. Maybe wearing something different would trick her mind into relaxing and thinking things were different.
She walked down the girl's staircase and into the common room; Lavender was talking to Dean, who indeed had a very bad case of 'sex hair' as Lavender had giggled last night.
Fred looked over from his chair by the fire; he was half hidden by shadow so she wouldn't notice him. She looked as beautiful as ever, and he smiled as she unconsciously tucked a tuft of curls behind her ear and he caught a glint of pearl. She didn't need enhancement, but he liked to know she had something that made her feel special.
0-0-0
As Fred and George walked off to herbology, the future golden trio walked to transfiguration. They took their normal seats, the boys on either side of her (that way it was easier for them to copy her notes, though they would never admit that to her - She knew).
'Good morning class' professor McGonagall said walking into the room and flicking her wand at her table which had a stack of papers on it, they magically flew out to each student and fell silently onto their desks.
'Permission notes from Professor Umbridge, so please kindly dispose of them as you feel fit' she said with a straight face. Harry beamed at her then attacked his paper as the rest of the class charmed, ripped, burnt or vanished the paper, or Neville's case fused it to his face.
'Now that is settled…' Professor McGonagall walked to the front of the class 'What are we studying today?'
Hermione had already raised her hand before professor McGonagall had finished the question 'How to fix transfigurations that where not successful'
'And how do we do that Miss Granger?'
'With a simple spell, Reparifarge'
'Correct' she replied, Hermione felt a small tingle of pride from the correct answer 'Now luckily, Mr. Longbottom has already demonstrated how a simple transfiguration spell can be unsuccessful' she said, no unkindly.
Neville gave a sad sigh from his seat, the piece of paper still stuck to his face.
'Mr. Longbottom, what did you try to do to that piece of paper?' She walked down the rows of tables to stand next to him
'I…I want to make it into pie to throw in Umb…professor Umbridge's face' he quivered under the look she gave him
'I see, well as the paper is not a pie, yet stuck to your face, can you see which bit of the attempted spell was correctly executed'
'Yes' Neville mumbled
'Reparifarge' she said flicking her wand, the paper jumped from his face and landed on the desk, she then made a funny movement with the tip of her wand and a glorious lemon cream tart sat in front of Neville.
'If you manage to 'give' this pie to professor Umbridge, I will exempt you from homework for a month Longbottom' she almost smiled at his delighted and shocked face while the rest of the class laughed.
'Now who can tell me who was the first person in history to use this spell in an emergency?'
'Well we are unsure exactly as we do not have a record of every spell ever used by every wizard. But professor Dumbledore used it in the Tri-wizard tournament when the champion from Durmstrang accidentally spliced his head from his shoulders and attached it to a stone statue'
'Correct' Professor McGonagall nodded; Hermione felt the normal tingle again 'Why was this remembered?'
'Well professor Dumbledore could have left the Durmstrang student attached to the mermaid bust, but he fixed the boy and gave him a second chance to win the tournament'
'A very unusual thing for competitions to see, yes you are right'
The slight tingle for answering a question right buzzed across Hermione's shoulders again as she continued to listen avidly to her professor...Little did she know that the back of her collar was starting to erode, slowly disappearing each time she answered a question correctly.
