Hello all!
Sorry if this one is a little worse, but I've been up since 3:00 this morning, reading fics.
Okay, I have the opposite of writers block. I think I'm incapable of getting writers block. Instead I get too many ideas in my head, and try to shove them all in this fic. I want the Hermione that constantly argues with Sirius, the Hermione that avoids him and the Hermione that hides in her room and has nightmares all the time.
Hermione hurried down the corridor, she had already done the necessities i.e. brushed teeth, changed, brushed hair etcetera, so all she had to do was get to class in time.
She looked at her watch and chewed her lip as she ran. She always chewed her lip when she was anxious, she tried to get rid of the habit, but she couldn't. She had fifteen minutes before the first class of the day starts, and she couldn't even remember what it was. She hastily fished her timetable out of her bag and glanced at it. She was due in Potions in fourteen minutes. She had fourteen minutes to get to the dungeons on the other side of the school.
Hermione prided herself on taking a run every day at 4:30 when she wasn't at school, but she had fallen out of the habit since she moved into Grimmauld Place for the summer. She didn't want the boys to see her in her running clothes; a pair of hot pink short shorts with the words Hot Stuff written across the back in grey rhinestones, and a loose pink top with the words Runnin' From Love written across the chest in a similar way. She may have started wearing a few more feminine clothes, but that was a bit too much. If it was because she stayed up all night from fear of slipping back into her nightmares, she didn't realise it.
But no matter how many times she had run in the past, it didn't seem to be enough to get to the other side of the school without bursting in on the middle of class. She tried nonetheless.
She ran like a mad woman and by the time she got to the dungeons, most of the students were beginning to wonder why the school had have a brown blur running through it.
She made it with less than a second to spare. The class had just sat down when a winded Hermione burst through the door. They all turned to stare at her. She had made it, alright, but her wish of not being a spectacle had just been shot. Hermione had forgotten to put her new, less Hermione Grangerish look to use in the threat of missing a class.
She took a quick look at her watch—phew, she was just in time. Hermione quietly picked her way to where Ginny, Harry & Ron were sitting. As soon as she sat down, she didn't even bother to wait for the questions from Harry & Ron, just said "Malfoy held us back, we'll tell you later". Harry just had one thing to say "Us?".
"Yes, us. Ginny had some trouble as well." She turned to Ginny "That's right! You left even later than I did! How did you get here so soon?" The redhead smiled and said "I caught up with Sirius and he apparated us here".
Ron spoke up at that point "Oi! How come you didn't give us Apparation-Inside-Hogwarts-Is-Impossible speech?"
Hermione sighed "Teachers are allowed to, in case of an emergency. They only applied that rule this year"
Sirius was intently listening in on the conversation, as was the rest of the class. Hearing the word 'Teachers' snapped him out of his stupor and reminded him that he was supposed to be teaching a class.
"Alright, I'm Sirius Black—" He was cut off by about a dozen hands shooting in the air. "Fine, ask your ridiculous questions, but only for today" He snapped, annoyance forming on his face. He pointed to one of the kids in the front row "You, what's your name and your question?".
"Terry Boot, sir, and are you the infamous Sirius Black?"
Sirius grinned "Yes, I am Sirius Black, ex-convict, Azkaban Escapee, Ladies Man Extraordinaire, Godfather to Harry Potter, etcetera, etcetera"
Another student said "But does that mean that you're a murderer and a traitor to Lily & James Potter?". This time his face darkened. "No, I am not a murderer, nor a traitor. That slime Pettigrew, who was too coward to be loyal to friends that would die for him, was the traitor." He snarled at the student angrily. The student's face paled considerably.
A few of the hands went down then, from fear of his wrath, but there were still some up. Sirius sighed and pointed to another student. "Are you single?" She said, getting straight to the point. The ex-Marauder grinned wolfishly "Not that that matters, but yes I am single". Now almost all of the girls hands went down, all of them with their owners with smiling faces. There was just one hand up now.
"Yes, Miss Granger?" He avoided looking in her direction, trying very hard not to blush from remembering what happened this morning and the day before. Hermione's face was heating up as well when she remembered what she had done that morning. 'Oh god, I kissed Sirius Black! So what if it was on the cheek—oh god, what if he thinks I'm crushing on him!!??' Harry looked curiously at his best friend's & Godfather's flaming faces and his girlfriends devilish smile, and made a mental note to figure out what the hell was happening.
Hermione tried to slip on a cool mask of indifference, like she had seen Snape, Malfoy, Blaise and Slytherins in general use countless times. She said "When are we actually going to start the lesson?"
Sirius smirked and pulled on his own mask, it would be very unprofessional to start laughing out loud at the expression on Hermione's face—she looked like Pansy Parkinson. "I would gladly ask the same question. Are you all done?" His eyes sweeped across the pupils for any raised hands. "No? Alright then, today's lesson we will be studying—" He started, before Draco Malfoy entered the room in much the same manner as Hermione had just a few minutes ago. He even checked his watch and exhaled the same sigh of relief.
He made his way to where Blaise was sitting, and Sirius looked a bit irritated at being interrupted again "Ok, as I was saying, today we will be studying the Polyjuice Potion. You'll find the instructions on Page 156 of Spells & Potions For A Spy, you'll each be making one during the next 3 months. Since this is such a complex potion, the four people you sit with will be your partners"
Ginny got the ingredients, leaving Harry, Ron & Hermione to their own devices. Translation: The evil witch let Hermione explain what the hell happened on her own.
"Hermione, what happened?" Harry asked.
"Harry, I'll tell you later, I'll show you the memory" She replied tiredly
"Hey! What about me?" Ron yelped
"What about you, Ronald?"
"You said that you'll tell Harry what happened, no mention of my name!"
Hermione's temper was starting to flare up; Here she was, getting ready to prepare a potion so that he wouldn't fail the class, practically being ignored by him, and he had the nerve to ask her why she didn't include his name in a sentence!
"Why, Ronald? Why?! Because, ever since I arrived in Grimmauld Place, you've said three sentences to me. You've been ignoring me! Oh, I almost forgot, you paid a lot of attention to me when you need me—" She was just getting into her rant, and Ron was getting a bit pale from it, when Ginny came back with the ingredients.
"So, any reason why you're finally giving my git of a brother what's coming to him?" She asked conversationally.
Hermione said "No. Just the usual I-Ignore-Hermione-But-Don't-Want-Her-To-Ignore-Me stuff" tersely.
Harry, meanwhile, was trying very hard to soak into the background, like he did whenever there was a fight between his two best friends.
Hermione didn't bother looking at the textbook, she remembered every potion she ever made. She just mechanically added the ingredients as everyone but Harry & Ron, who knew how she could know the potion, stared at her. "What?" she said, noticing the stares.
Her arms were a blur, adding ingredients and stirring without any glances to the instruction booklet. They knew that Hermione was a better worker, but she acted as if she had done this a million times before.
She blushed at the attention, but never faltered while making the potion. "You had better go back to your potions before they blow up" she said, sarcastically.
Soon she had done the first stage, without any help from Harry, Ron or Ginny, an hour in front of the rest of the class. Sirius was looking out for any potions that needed help when he saw Hermione walking towards him. "We're done, Professor"
He walked over to their cauldron, expecting to see a few mistakes. He had heard of her reputation for never messing up an assignment, but if she had done it that quickly then she must have made some mistakes.
He looked at their cauldron, then back at Hermione. He checked the consistency, colour, smell and everything else. It was perfect. "Merlin, Hermione, how the bloody hell did you manage this? And don't you dare say that this lot helped you out; I know they didn't"
"Sirius, you teach a class now, do you honestly think that swearing is supposed to be normal behaviour?" She rolled her eyes as she reprimanded him. They were slipping back into the argument they kept having at Grimmauld Place.
"It's my class, I can talk the way I want!" He said indignantly.
"Yes you can, Sirius, by all means, continue your normal behaviour of swearing your mouth off" She said sarcastically.
"Hey, you nosy little swot, my language is none of your business, you ever notice, the only people who bother with my language are you and Molly?"
"Yeah, because the only other people you associate with are other swearing males"
"Hey! Er.. Umm…" He cast around quickly for a comeback, and found one "What about Remus?" He challenged.
She rolled her eyes again "Remus doesn't count. He's the only one that can give me some intellectual stimulation, who can actually be serious about books that don't include motorbikes or Quidditch" He opened his mouth to say that he was Sirius, but Hermione beat him to it. She held up her hand "Don't give me that stupid pun, it's getting old"
While Sirius was figuring out a reply, Hermione had a look at her cauldron to make sure it hadn't gotten too thick. She stirred it. Still good.
She looked around and noticed that for the third time today, everyone was staring at her. She groaned and put her face in her hands. "Sirius, just hurry up and tell me if we can go?"
He opened his mouth to continue the argument, and then he noticed the same thing Hermione had. He sighed "Yeah, sure. Miss Granger, you can go. But since the rest of the group didn't help, then they'll have to find someone else to be their fourth and stay back until the first stage of the potion is completed." Sirius had slipped back into teaching mode.
He scanned the rows for someone without a group. "Mr Malfoy, you will be the fourth for this group, since you seem to be working on your own."
Ron made a face and was about to protest, when Ginny stepped on his foot and whispered "Look, Sirius must have a reason, we can ask him later".
Ron rubbed his foot and sulked as Malfoy made his way to their table. Sirius got them another cauldron and levitated Hermione's to an empty table. He sat back down at his desk to wait until someone else finished the first stage of the potion as Hermione stirred her cauldron one more time, adjusted the heat and left the dungeon.
She had reached the Griffindor common room, and was just about to say the password, when Ginny arrived. "Hey, what are you doing here?" Ginny asked.
"I could ask the same thing. Aren't you supposed to be in class?" She replied
"Zabini didn't have a partner, so I volunteered to help out you instead."
Hermione laughed "You left those four to kill each other?" She gasped through her giggles.
Ginny smiled evilly "It should be a good experiment to see who dies first"
"Wait, aren't you supposed to be on Harry's side?"
"I am! This gives him a chance to see that not all Slytherins are gits."
"Are you talking about Malfoy?!" Hermione asked disbelieving
"No way! What the hell made you think that? I'm talking about Zabini."
Hermione thought for a moment, then relented "Yeah, I guess he's decent enough. Better than Malfoy. Anyway, why are you surprised to see me here?"
"Well, this isn't your dormitory, remember?"
Hermione blinked "Oh yeah. I forgot."
Ginny smiled and said "Well, we can talk on the way to your Dorm"
*Gasps dramatically* Only 2 reviews for chap 6?! I got 5 for the one before that! I guess it took too long to update….
Well, I will not beg for reviews! No—must—not—argggh!—
*glares* there! Happy now? *grumbles*