7 May 1993
Ron attached himself to his sister after their birthday. When he mentioned Malfoys behavior to his brothers, they demanded she never be alone again. Hermione was steadily losing her patience because he would escort her everywhere, even the loo. Then he wouldn't let her go in until he poked his head in and loudly asked if anyone was in there. As if there was someone lying in wait for her would be frightened by a 2nd year yelling. With Ron came Neville and Harry, so they were pretty well equipped to distract her from hexing her brother into a puddle. Eloise and Luna, of course stayed close by and Eloise even started to get more comfortable around the boys, going so far as to chastise Ron's eating habits. The very worst part of the arrangement was when the girls wanted to go the library. Harry and Neville would usually sit quietly working on essays but Ron would sigh loudly and start fiddling with papers, whining that he was bored. Fred and George took bets on who would snap first, Hermione or Eloise.
Fred and George launched war on the Slytherins instead of only Malfoy. It started with a wake up call at half 4 in the morning on a Saturday. 85 howlers, charmed to go off at the same moment were strategically placed under every bed and in the common room to ensure everyone got the message. "STAY AWAY FROM HERMIONE WEASLEY" echoed throughout the dungeons in a voice that promised pain if ignored. If by chance they didn't get it the first time, they definitely did every morning at various times for the next week.
When the very sleepy Slytherins made it down for breakfast, they were all slipped a time delayed potion that changed them all into gingers. With flaming red hair and faces full of freckles, the entire house looked like a Weasley family reunion. Daphne Greengrass's haunted screams echoed through the corridors after the first time she looked in the mirror. Many vowed revenge on the littlest Weasley but every time they got too close to her, they would find themselves slipping and falling back on their bums. Somehow, they charmed every Slytherins' shoes to secrete dish soap when coming too close to Hermione. Eventually, they got the point and none of the Slytherins would even look at Hermione, except 1.
"I'm going to look for Luna. I haven't seen her since lunch." Hermione told Harry as she dashed from the library while her brother was in the loo. She pulled the quill, that still had Luna's tracking charm on it, from her bag. It started to spin, the tip pointing towards the court yard. Looking out a window, she didn't see her friends blonde head anywhere. The closer she came to Luna, the warmer the quill got. When she walked the entire length of the court yard and the quill started to cool, she knew something was wrong.
"Excuse me, have you seen Luna?" Hermione asked a blonde curly headed Ravenclaw. The girl immediately smirked, looking down her nose at the red head.
"Nope, haven't seen Looney all day." The witch said with arrogance as she turned to face Hermione. The girls friends flanked her, all wearing identical malicious smiles. Hermione paused, looking them over critically, then she noticed the pink converse trainers.
"Where did you get those?" Hermione hissed, her wand sliding into her hand as she advanced on the blonde 3rd year.
"I brought them from home. What's wrong, Weasley? Can't afford your own trainers?" The girl snickered as all her friends guffawed.
"Well, I certainly don't need to steal from 1st years, you swotty bint." Hermione growled and raised her wand.
"We didn't take anything!" A pretty Asian girl stepped up next to her friend.
"So, I guess you commonly wear random girls hair on your wrist?" Hermione snarled as she spied Luna's bracelet on the girls wrist. Luna's mother made them, simple silver bracelets with a glass bead with some of each of the girls hair. Hermione's had Luna's hair in the shape of a friendship ruin. Luna's with Hermione's hair in the shape of an eternity rune. She felt a twinge of guilt that hers was currently on her bureau at home.
"I don't know what you're talking about." The Asian blushed, looking down.
"She's probably out in the forbidden forest right now, with no shoes because you slags stole her things. Return them. If Luna tells me nargles are stealing from her again, I'll make what happened to Pansy look like child's play." Hermione snarled angrily as she turned on her heel and sprinted for the clearing in the Forbidden Forest. When she reached the clearing Luna wasn't alone.
"Don't cry, sweetie. You won't remember any of this anyway." Lockhart had Luna pressed up against a tree. The little blonde was sobbing and trying to push him away, his wand digging into the girls neck.
"EXPELLIARMUS!" Hermione shouted, pushing as much power as she could into the spell. Lockhart went flying away from Luna, smashing his head into a nearby tree. The DADA professor slid down, unconscious. Hermione didn't even pause to pick up his fallen wand just ran straight to Luna and pulled her into her arms.
"He came out of of nowhere, Mina!" Luna sobbed hysterically, clutching Hermione's robes frantically.
"Shh, it's okay. Let's get up to the school and-" Hermione tried to soothe her friend but was yanked back by the hair.
"Who do you think you are?" Lockhart hissed, his normally charming benign smile turning downright feral.
"Please let us go. We won't tell anyone." Hermione struggled in his grasp. Lockhart snatched Hermione's wand off the ground and tapped her temple.
"No, you won't. You won't remember anything. Maybe, I'll leave you both with no memory at all. It will be my next book, I was fighting off the rogue desert elves and unfortunately, you lost your memories...but I'll bring your bodies back. Too bad I couldn't save you before they had their way with you." Lockhart chuckled. Hermione felt dread fill her as Lockhart pulled her close to his body.
"Flipendo! EXPELLIARMUS!" Eloise screamed as she came out from behind a tree. Hermione fell to her knees by Luna as the knock back jinx made Lockhart lose his grip. Eloise snatched Hermione's wand as it sailed through the air towards her. Eloise kept her wand trained on Lockhart as she moved to her friends, tossing Hermione her wand. Luna stayed behind them, crying as she hugged knees to her chest.
"You." Hermione pointed her wand at the fallen professor, her voice dripping with venom. "Up to the school!"
"Alright, wherever you want me." Lockhart chuckled as he slowly rose to his feet. "It seems you've caught me, I'll just have to - OBLIVIATE!" Lockhart moved with speed they would never have expected as he snapped his wand towards them.
"Protego!" Hermione and Eloise tried to raise shields but they would never cover them in time. Suddenly, Hermione's view was obscured by a black skeletal horse. The thestral raised its wing and reflected spell back at the DADA professor. When Lockhart fell to the ground the thestral turned and nudged Luna's face with its muzzle. Luna wrapped her arms around the thestral, her sobs subsiding.
"Oh, hello. Who are you?" Lockhart popped up, a bright smile on his face and vacant look in his eyes. His wand lay broken beside him. When he saw the girls faces, he shrunk back in fear. "Who who am I-I?" He asked timidly.
"Accio Luna's wand!" Hermione shrieked. Luna's wand came flying from inside Lockhart's robes. She placed the wand in her best friends hand before advancing on Lockhart. She brought her foot down hard on his groin, Lockhart screams echoed off the trees in the clearing. Hermione charged, punching him in the face as hard as she could, sobbing. Eloise came up behind her and pulled Hermione off the oblivious man, wrapping her in a tight hug.
"Why?" Lockhart sobbed on the ground, on hand holding his groin, the other on his bleeding nose.
"Why?! You're a filthy fucking-!" Luna shrieked like a wild animal, her words failing her. Instead she rushed past her friends, intent on choking him.
"No! I-I wouldn't!" Lockhart cried, holding Luna's arms away from him as she tried to wrap her hands around his throat.
"Stupefy!" Hermione stunned the professor as Eloise wrapped an arm around Luna to pull her away.
"No! No!" Luna cried hysterically, fighting to get the man.
"Mobilicorpus." Hermione flicked her wand and the stunned Lockhart floated off the ground. "Keep a wand on him, stun him if he so much as twitches."
"Gladly." Luna choked as she trained her wand on him. Eloise picked up Luna's bag before they headed towards the school in silence. When they came to the edge of the forest they saw Percy walking hand in hand with Penelope Clearwater, both of them smiling shyly at each other.
"Percy!" Hermione cried as she dashed towards him, sticks and leaves in her hair, her uniform torn and dirty. Lockhart floating behind her, his head banging on a tree.
"Stupefy!" Luna and Eloise cried at the same time to make sure he didn't wake.
"Hermione?" Percy paused as the curly headed missile launched herself into his arms. "What are you doing in the forest? You know it's against the school rules! There are-" his words died in his throat as Hermione started to sob against his chest. Looking up both of the girls were crying as well. Penny moved forward to put an arm around both of them, leading them towards the school.
"What happened?" Penny asked softly.
"When I got there Professor Lockhart held Hermione back by the hair and started talking about...how he was going to obliviate them...and then he started talking about his next book." Eloise whispered in a broken voice.
"Let's get them up the headmasters office." Percy said firmly, the spell failed and Lockhart lay stunned on the ground. Percy kicked him hard in the side of the head. "Oops. Mobilicorpus." As they walked through the school, they started to draw a crowd. Percy felt Hermione shaking as she bent her head low to hide her face.
"We should hurry." Penny whispered, as she cast a pointed glance to Luna.
"Everyone should be in the great hall! I'm going to start deducting points if don't you disperse immediately." Percy said in his most authoritative tone, he punctuated his statement with a loud flare from his wand. As the crowd started to break up, he saw his brothers running towards him, Harry and Neville not far behind.
"Where were you? What happened? The bloody hell were you thinking?!" Ron shouted as he snatched Hermione from Percy's arms. He hugged her tightly then pulled her back to look at her closely. Her face was filthy with tears tracks running down her cheeks, half the forest was in her wild curls.
"We need to get to the headmasters office." Percy said, grinding his teeth in annoyance. "15 points from Slytherin!" The prefect snapped when he saw Malfoy watching from a classroom doorway.
"Fred, you grab Luna. Let's go." George gently lifted Hermione into his arms and crisply walked to the headmasters office. Fred followed his lead with Luna, not waiting for the rest of the group.
"Enter." The headmasters calm voice drifted through the heavy oak door.