Hermione slept in the next morning, seeing as it was a Saturday. She went down to breakfast at nine o'clock, the time most people were there on the weekends. Tom came in half an hour later with Severus and Lucius. Tom sat next to her and the other two boys sat across from them.
"Have you heard? Lily is pregnant, too!" Severus exclaimed in a loud whisper to Hermione.
"Really?" Hermione smiled.
"She has been for four months; she just carries differently, I guess," he replied.
"That is wonderful! I am guessing the father is James?" Hermione asked.
"Of course it is James. It is no where near wonderful," Tom interrupted.
"Why is it so awful?" Hermione asked Tom.
"James . . . he is the only living descendent of Gryffindor."
"Your point?"
"You would not understand," Tom said as he moved his food around in his plate.
"I am sure I would not, seeing as I am the second smartest person in the school," she said sarcastically and hurt.
"I didn't mean it that way!" Tom tried to defend himself. He looked up from his food and watched Hermione leave; his comment was a little too late.
"What the heck was that for?" Lucius asked him.
"What?"
"Everyone in Slytherin knows that you like her! Why do you keep shunning her?" Severus asked.
"What are you two talking about?" Tom began moving his food around on his plate again.
"Fine then. . . Wait! I have an idea," Lucius paused and grinned. "If she stays here for Christmas, you have to hook up with her, or Severus and I will play matchmaker again." The other two boys groaned at this. Severus did not enjoy doing it, and Tom knows they are not good at it by looking at the couples they have matched up.
"Do we haaaaaave to?" Severus whined.
"Yes," Lucius said and began eating.
************************************************************************
Hermione sat in the common room in front of the fire, and she was, of course, reading. Many of the Slytherins hated the common room and the area of the fireplace, but a few, like Hermione, did, luckily on her part. She read "Hogwarts: A History." There was not much else to read. Bianca sat on the hearth of the fireplace; she preferred to be extremely warm. Hermione sighed as she flipped through the pages. She was getting bored with the book. Bianca got up and began walking around the hearth.
"Bianca, what else can I do right now?" Hermione asked the little faerie, who was now laying down right in front of the fire. Bianca closed her eyes.
"I'm not tired; you lazy faerie!" Hermione joked. Bianca rolled over onto her side and faced the fire.
"Fine, well, I'm leaving," Hermione got up to leave and Bianca hurried to catch up to Hermione.
"Well, since you want to leave, I guess we can," Hermione said as she saw Tom, Lucius, and Severus enter the common room. She did not really intend to leave, originally, but she did not feel like sitting in the room with *them.* Hermione walked up the stairs to the dorm rooms and entered hers. She set her bag down on her desk and put Bianca on the bed.
"I really do not know how I am going to deal with this all for the rest of the year," Hermione said to Bianca.