OH MY GOD! AN UPDATE! Yeah… sorry about that! But I did say that this was just a filler story for whenever (not that it stopped me feeling guilty when I received so many positive, lovely, demanding reviews and alerts). So here is an apology chapter (I also apologise if this has any typos or anything like that…) ^_^

Disclaimer: 'T'isn't. And if 't'was, 's a lie. =P

The Head Girl

Feeling slightly overwhelmed at the clothing (truly, it barely constituted that description, she snickered) and the shoes, Hermione let Aspasia pull her up the flight of stairs. She had never considered herself to be one enamoured of such superficial things, but it couldn't be argued any other way – those girls had style.

The pair slowed as they reached a large door with an elaborate golden nameplate. Unfortunately, said door opened before Hermione was able to read the fancy lettering, revealing a tall, slender girl who had clearly left behind her awkward phase, leaving in its stead a confident woman with a sleek black bob and ruby red lipstick that accentuated the smile curving onto her features.

"Hermione Granger." It wasn't a question. "What a surprise."

Aspasia cut through the silence.

"Kelly." She acknowledged with a slight nod, before adding to Hermione: "Kelly's our Head Girl."

"Nice to meet you." Hermione murmured, trying not to feel intimidated. Honestly, she had defeated the Dark Lord – with Harry and Ron's help, of course – and yet she could hardly muster the courage to speak to the Head Girl of some barely known school; ridiculous.

"I think you'll find St Trinian's to be rather different to Hogwarts." Kelly told her silkily, a distinctly Snape-like quality to her voice. "I hope you're up to the challenge."

Whether it was the insinuation of failure, the idea of a challenge, or the raised eyebrow at the end, Hermione wasn't sure, but something reignited her fiery personality and a wolfish grin slid onto her face.

"I'm certain I'll be more than up to it."

Kelly mirrored the expression, eyes flickering with some unknown emotion, and nodded, before returning to her private room.

Despite the lack of threats, the intimidating Head Girl was indeed a formidable presence, somebody whom Hermione preferred to remain on the good side of for the duration of the year. Having a sudden thought Hermione stopped following the dark haired which (who had resumed walking down the corridor).

"Aspasia," Hermione caught her friend's attention. "Is Kelly a witch?"

The younger Flint looked at her curiously.

"No. Why?"

"Just curious."

So, the presence wasn't a strong magical signature, as Hermione had presumed - interesting. That's something to ponder on rainy days, Hermione thought to herself, walking quickly to catch up to Aspasia.

They entered a dormitory at the end of hall, and Hermione was introduced to a large number of girls, most of which had had their names forgotten before she had finished speaking to them. While she felt decidedly uncomfortably around the chavs and the Goths (she supposed it was mostly due to not having been exposed to such trends in her previous schooling), she found herself intrigued by the two first years – twins – who were scarily reminiscent of Fred and George Weasley, right down to the troublemaking nature and penchant for dramatics and destruction (of the explosive kind).

Girls had never been Hermione's strong point, having been friends with boys for the majority of her life, but they seemed friendly enough, and excited at the concept of a new student, so she smiled and introduced herself, receiving a mixed bag of reactions from awe to complete ignorance of her past year.

Hermione kind of liked it.

**

Darkness had encroached quickly as the sun fell behind the trees that framed the grounds, indicating that it was time for dinner. While not as glorious as the same mealtime was at Hogwarts, Hermione appreciated the home-made steak and kidney pie, mashed potato and peas nonetheless. In fact, everything seemed to be going wonderfully.

Seemed being the operative word.

Around halfway through the meal, a loud, ground shaking explosion erupted from somewhere near the area where magical and non-magical creatures were kept. Many of the students screamed, although some, like Kelly, turned to look directly at the first years, catching the slightest glimpse of success that shined in their eyes before becoming appropriately overcome with artificial shock.

However, that was the only thing anybody had time for because about three seconds later, the doors to the dinner hall flew open and several Nifflers barrelled their way into the room; this was rather unfortunate for the chavs, who were plainly the shiniest of the girls with their obnoxious jewellery and tendency towards objects with diamantes.

Hermione gathered her wits first, followed by Aspasia and Chelsea, although neither of those two looked particularly worried, and Hermione was fairly certain they would have preferred not to take any action at all.

Peaches and Chloe were still screaming, as one of the Nifflers caught sight of Peaches' sparkly hair piece.

"STUPEFY!" Hermione yelled, and the black bundle of fluff stiffened before falling onto the table. Eventually they caught all the terrors, but when they placed them all together Chelsea noticed a tag, larger than normal, on their collars. Each was inscribed with a number.

"Erm, I think we might have another problem." She called to Hermione and Aspasia over the chattering of the other students. Kelly had evacuated the building with some of the teachers, to examine the damage from the explosion, leaving the others to make their own decisions.

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked, brushing an errant curl from her face. Chelsea pointed at the tags.

"One," she pointed to the first Niffler. "Three – Four – Five."

Aspasia groaned.

"You've got to be joking." She grumbled before yelling to the remaining students: "Pair up kids! We've another Niffler to find."

**

As it turned out, there had only ever been four Nifflers, and the pranksters – Kelly had been completely right in who they were – confessed gleefully to this fact, even laughing outright at the irritation of the other students who had been forced to search the building for the tiny but theft-efficient animals.

It was for that reason that Hermione fell into her new bed, exhausted and buzzing from the adrenalin that was kicking around inside her, entering sleep faster than she had in weeks.

**

Blinkingly, Hermione's eyes opened, to be greeted by darkness that suggested it was not yet morning. She breathed out deeply, but a slight sound caused her to pause suspiciously – a side effect of the war.

Suddenly, to her surprise, a light clicked on, shining into her face and making her shield her eyes. She was surrounded by her fellow students, some of whom bore gleeful expressions and instruments Hermione was unsure if she recognised. Her wand had, somewhat inconveniently, fallen to the floor, and in seconds she had been pulled to a sitting position and thrown onto a desk chair – the kind with wheels – and tied to it by the ankles and wrists.

"You've proved yourself at Hogwarts, and even in war," Kelly stepped into the circle of light, her silken voice almost a purr. "Can you prove yourself in St Trinians?"

Hermione took up the challenge in the Head Girl's voice, despite the fear that was creeping up on her; after all, she had been ganged up on by the entire student body – at least that was how it seemed.

Thinking over her arsenal of non-verbal and wandless magic, Hermione finally chose a spell. It was a particularly difficult spell, as it could be done without hand movements (although this meant it was rarely performed – not many had that power).

In a split second, she had freed herself from the binds and was standing, wand in hand.

"I told you earlier, Head Girl. I'm always up for a challenge."

Kelly allowed herself to look impressed. Her lack of magical ability hadn't affected her ability to learn the theory, so she knew what Hermione had just succeeded in doing.

"I'll accept that." She told the bushy haired brunette. "But we're not quite done here."

She smiled like the Cheshire cat, and Hermione couldn't help but feel inferior – this girl had style, and she was as confident as they come. She would have been a Slytherin, Hermione thought. Without a doubt.

"Like we've said, this isn't Hogwarts."

Kelly clicked her fingers softly, and the others advanced.

"Everyone undergoes a change here; you'll find out exactly who you are at St Trinians."

Well, that's another bit of this story. I swear that I'm going to try and update this –somewhat- regularly. Or at least, more than the appalling speed at which it was happening before.

Reviews will encourage me. As I indicated before, they guilt me into writing for you =P