CHAPTER FIVE
Blue Monday.
Hermione woke to the sound of her alarm ringing, groaning as she threw her hand out to silence it- it had been a long time since she had woken to such a disturbing sound. It was, however, pleasantly comforting knowing that her alarm had woken her rather than her nightmares, it made her feel somewhat back to her usual self.
It was Monday, the beginning of a new week. It was also the 19th of September; the day of her 16th Birthday. Hermione sat up, cradling her left arm as she pulled herself out of bed before sitting in front of the window.
The weekend had been dreadful, but Hermione wouldn't have expected anything more. Ever since the nightmares had began interrupting her sleep and resulted in early morning study sessions, she'd found herself more ahead of her coursework than she had ever been before. The insufficient amount of rest had resulted in not only her being very much ahead of her homework, but by the time the weekend arrived she found herself with absolutely no work left to do.
The three weekends she'd had so far this year had been a disaster and she had grown to hate weekends. Not having a structured weekend set out as she normally would left her feeling anxious and out of control. She had hated the few weekends she'd spent at Hogwarts this year, mainly due to the fact that her weekends no longer consisted of study and finishing homework as they normally would. However, now that she had the help of the potion and pensieve, she hoped everything would go back to normal.
Hermione was feeling all over the place lately, but today she had class and for the next five days she knew that she would be reasonably content. She had a great sleep, thanks to Professor Dumbledore and Madam Pomfrey. She could get back into routine of making sure she had a sufficient amount of homework that would keep her busy not only during the week, but on the weekends as well.
Smiling to herself as she grabbed a fresh change of robes and the vial which contained her most recent dream before heading to the bathroom. Hermione decided that today she would not cry, not on her birthday. For the rest of the week she would try her best to not let things get to her so easily- she had had enough of feeling sorry for herself.
Hermione stepped out of the bath, the sweet aroma of her shampoo fill her airways as she dressed quickly. She grabbed her things and left the Gryffindor common room. The paintings greeted her as she passed, and walking speedily towards the great hall, her ambitious thoughts and excitement of the morning had conjured her up quite an appetite.
As she neared the Great Hall's doors, she caught sight of Pansy Parkinson about to head in. Hermione took a deep breath and waited for her to go through before following. It wasn't that she was scared of Pansy, she just couldn't risk the troll getting a chance to ruin another one of her good days. Hermione stood there for a few moments, scanning the Great Hall for Ginny. She spotted her laughing along side with Ron, Harry and Lavender. Hermione made her way over to Ginny, taking a seat beside her before greeting them all with a casual good morning, purposely ignoring Harry's gaze. He opened his mouth to speak but Ginny bet him to it.
"I heard about what happened yesterday." Ginny gave Hermione a sympathetic look.
Of course you did. Hermione shifted her bandaged arm into a more comfortable position, "Madam Pomfrey fixed the break, I just need to wear this sodding thing for the next week."
Hermione poked at her porridge and suddenly lost her appetite- none of them had wished her a happy birthday. How could they not remember it was today?
"Are you okay, Hermione?" It was Harry who then spoke.
"Brilliant," she replied sarcastically without looking up.
"Hermione, I know that lately I've been a bit out of line," Harry began.
She frowned at her porridge, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of her attention.
Before Harry had to chance to say anything more, Hermione stood up, slipped an apple in her bag and left the Great Hall without saying a word to any of them.
As she made her way out of the castle for Herbology she again noticed Pansy standing a few feet away from her, blocking her way, arms crossed as she stared at Hermione with distaste.
"What is your problem?" Hermione snapped, knowing whatever was coming would surely cause her to be late.
"Nice arm mudblood." She smirked, taking a step closer towards her, face was just inches from Hermione. "Better be careful you filthy little muggleborn, or you'll have more than just a broken wrist to work with," She spat, as a nasty smile spread across her face.
Hermione pushed passed her then let out a painful shriek as she crashed into something solid, her face colliding with the hard gravel, her books which were occupying her only good arm scattered all over the ground. Hermione's eyes shut tightly as she felt agonizing pain shoot through the side of her face.
"Oops," Pansy said, looking down at her pathetically as Hermione scurried quickly to collect her books, "Aw, another injury. Pity, for a moment there I thought you could look no worse," Pansy snickered before turning on her heel.
Hermione gritted her teeth, watching Pansy as she walked away from her, her nose held high in the air. She quickly stood, dusting off her robes, wincing as she put her hand to her face.
One of these bloody days,she thought as she hurried across to Herbology.
ooo
As she walked in, she noticed Ron and Harry sitting together in the middle of the class. Deciding she still didn't want anything to do with Harry, she chose a desk at the front of the room that was empty.
"Miss Granger, you are late!" Professor Sprout exclaimed.
Hermione tried not to pay too much attention to the dozens of pairs of eyes that suddenly fixated on her, her face turned a deep shade of red and she replied rather meekly, "I'm terribly sorry, Professor." Hermione was quite embarrassed, not wanting to lie to her professor or admit the truth about why she was late, she left it at that.
"No matter, no matter," she said impatiently, "Mr Malfoy, if you could sit with Miss Granger."
"Professor!" Hermione protested, her eyes dancing with fire. She could not possibly be this cruel to her on Her birthday.
Professor Sprout ignored her.
Hermione turned her head towards Malfoy who was making he's way over, a bored expression written all over his superior demeanour.
Could this day get any worse?She almost wanted to vomit, although the look on Pansy's face when Professor Sprout had paired Draco with her was priceless. She smiled inwardly, knowing how much this would irritate the Slytherin trollop.
Draco pulled a chair to the furthest end of the desk, before sitting down boyishly, lazily placing his books on the desk. He stared off into the opposite direction, completely ignorant of her presence. If he purposely hadn't sat so far away from her - most likely to avoid catching any kind of germ he was convinced she had, she may as well have been invisible to him.
A sweet smell of peppermint suddenly filled her airways, and upon realizing it was coming from Malfoy, she instantly put a hand over her mouth and nose in order to block out the smell, not wanting to enjoy the smell of him so much.
"Jesus Granger, as much as I'd enjoy seeing you choke on your own sick, I would prefer it if you didn't." He threw her a look of disgust.
She lowered her hand, "I'm not going to be sick you repugnant git!"
"Haven't you ever heard of a shower before Granger?" He shifted his chair further away from her, scrunching up his face. "Your dirty muggle blood is all over your face." Malfoy turned away.
"Sodding prat," she mumbled under her breath.
Herbology was a nightmare, she'd spent most of the lesson copping insults and deathly glares from Malfoy - he had been more repulsed by her scratched up face than he'd ever been with her before. Potions had been a lot better, mainly due to the fact that she had sat the furthest away from Malfoy as she possibly could, not having to even look at him all lesson made up for her horrible class with him prior to this lesson. Hermione chose a seat next to Ron, Harry on the other side of him.
"Today's lesson will consist of brewing the potion Felix Felicis. Felix Felicis works by increasing the luck of the drinker - it is most commonly known as 'liquid luck'."
The class filled with excited whispers.
"Although," Snape raised his voice slightly, and the class fell silent. "Any student who is stupid enough to keep any of the potion for themselves will suffer harsh consequences. You will follow my instructions and brew the one gallon of the potion, and if I find even one drop less when the potion is submitted, I will automatically fail you in your O.W.L's. Do I make myself clear?" Snape smirked, "I highly doubt," he paused looking around the class, his eyes focusing on Hermione, "That evenone of you could brew it correctly. Begin."
Hermione began furiously flicking through her pages, having read about this potion before - it took six months to brew. The potion was one of the hardest to perfect, overuse of the potion would cause the drinker giddiness and reckless behaviour.
Hermione smiled to herself as she read through the ingredients. Erumpent, Jobberknoll Feathers, Leech Juice, Newt, Powdered Horn of Bicorn, Pufferfish Eyes , Re'em Blood, Runespoor Eggs, Scarab Beetle, Snake fangs, Sopophoros Beans, Tentacula Seeds and Armadillo Bile.
Ron's mouth was hanging half open, staring at his potions book, "Bloody hell!"
Hermione rolled her eyes, "Honestly Ronald."
Harry and Ron both stared at her bewildered, as she turned her face to speak to Ron, her scratched face came to view.
"Easy for you to say, Hermione. You're brilliant at potions, and what happened to your face? We didn't notice in Herbology..."
"No, of course you didn't," she replied bitterly, "The pair of you don't seem to notice anything these days." Hermione walked off, annoyed, to gather her ingredients.
By the end of a nerve racking potions lesson, she was relieved as she looked down at her cauldron - the description of her potion was exactly as it should be this far along into brewing,but she could hardly say the same for Ron and Harry.
The boys hadn't said another word to her after she had snapped at them at the beginning of the lesson, but she was pleased that she had reminded them how hot tempered she could be, especially when it came to interrupting her in classes.
ooo
After dinner, Ron insisted on dragging her off to the library with him to help him find a book for their transfiguration homework.
After over an hour spent in the library studying and listening to Ron complain about how hard the homework had been this year, Hermione had had enough and was having a hard time concentrating on her own work due to Rons constant complaining, so she decided she to go back to the common room and study alone.
"What are you doing?" Ron said as he noticed Hermione standing to leave.
Hermione yawned, "Ron, as much as enjoy this library, I would really like to get some rest." It was a lie, but studying with Ron was dreadful.
Ron looked agitated, "Please, just a few more minutes Hermione..."
Hermione raised an eyebrow, something's wrong."What's going on Ron?"
"Nothing," he replied quickly, "Just, I really need your help with this Hermione, you know how terrible I am with all of this"
Hermione couldn't disagree with that, and sighed heavily before sitting back down.
By the end of their study session in the library, Ron had seemed more confused than ever.
He frowned the whole way back to the common room, mumbling to himself as Hermione walked silently beside him. She wanted this day to end - it hadn't exactly been the best day, only because it had been her birthday and she hadn't even received a sodding 'happy birthday' from any of her friends.
"Happy birthday, Miss Granger!" The fat lady sang happily as they approached her, Hermione turned to Ron who was now smiling. The utter nerve! She thought, gawking at him. There it was, the genius clue that it was in fact her birthday, and nothing, nothing but a stupid smiling prat of a best friend.
Turning back to the fat lady Hermione almost shouted the password in frustration before entering.
Hermione stopped in her tracks at the scene in front of her, and a wave of shock ran through her body as a loud bang erupted through the Gryffindor common room.
"SURPRISE!"