Hermione slept in a bit later than she usually did, but wasn't bothered by it since most of the tower slept in today. She still woke up before the rest of the tower. Her hair was somewhat messy and tangled, but she just threw it up into a regular bun instead of the elegant one Thimi put it in yesterday. She would have the elf help her with her hair later, in the meantime she decided to not brush out her curls and let it revert back to what seemed to be its natural bushy state.
She planned to take a leaf out of her elf's book and not fight her hair, but work with it. She was happy that she finally had someone in her life that knew what to do with her hair. It would make a big difference.
She was glad to see that Crookshanks hadn't left the bed, but moved towards the end of it instead. It was nice waking up with him still in the bed with her compared to when she woke up without him. He was very independent, but she liked his company.
She rolled onto her side, looking towards the end of her bed where her ginger haired menace was.
"Crooks," she whispered.
She made a few light clicking noises to get him to come closer to her. He cracked and eye at her and crawled closer to his human until his nose almost touched hers. The petite witch smiled at her half-kneazle.
"Good morning, king Crookshanks," she chuckled softly at him.
The half-kneazle lightly placed his paw on his human's face in greeting before pulling it back underneath his girth. He was satisfied with her acceptable greeting. The ginger haired feline was quite fond of all his nicknames that had anything related to royalty. He was glad that his human thought so highly of him, she was certainly smart, especially if she recognized his status.
She grinned at her cat, loving these little moments she had with him.
"I had a wonderful time at the ball, Crooks. I made quite the dramatic entrance. Thimi helped me get ready and I looked quite stunning. Thimi is now my house-elf. Crooks, I have a house-elf. I have to tell mum and dad before we leave." The last part she whispered horrified.
Crookshank's only response was the flick his tail as though to tell her that he already knew that.
"Malfoy was speechless, and all the witches from Hogwarts looked like someone slapped them in the face and called them muggle. It was great. Karkaroff was annoying though, it's like he wants to glue himself to Viktor. Poor guy."
The ginger cat's response to that was a long blink.
"Ron of course started a row. Can you believe that tosser had the sac to call me a traitor? For going to the ball with Viktor and talking to him? I can't wait to hear what he has to say about my kiss with Fleur. I'm sure he was too busy short circuiting to come up with a remark about that. He might be more mental about that considering he technically asked her to the ball," she scoffed at that.
"It was a nice kiss though, heat of the moment thing. We were dancing the tango. Crooks, it's been so long since I've had so much fun dancing. I split my dress so I had more leg movement, but I'm sure Hogwarts got a good look. It'll be funny to see how the masses react to that later today. You might have to beat them off for me, Crook. I'm sure I'll get so tired hexing bits off that you'll have to come protect me."
Her familiar started to purr at that, making Hermione grin again, knowing that her cat liked the idea of that.
"Believe it or not Headmaster Dumbledore actually got The Weird Sisters to play. It was magnificent. The first two dances were obviously with Viktor, the third was with Fleur. Davis nearly attacked her and she wanted to make a statement, so I agreed to go along with it. She made herself out to be a lesbian, but if it keeps the boys off her, I'm glad to help. Poor thing can't help her allure. It won't stop the girls from trying now though, but I'm sure she'll be able to handle them easier than the wizards."
Crookshanks continued to purr, flicking his tail now and then to what his mistress was saying.
"The rest of the night we mostly fooled around dancing in front of the band. Viktor twirled us both around, but mostly swayed. He took lessons to dance with me, it was cute. But he still can't dance by himself. Me and Fleur danced more with each other and included Viktor. It was fun, like having a real girl friend to be silly with. I have Harry and I suppose Ron, but they don't know how to be silly. The rest of the witches here are just… blah. I know that's not fair since I've really only spoken with my own year mates and watched others, but still."
The ginger feline rolled onto his side and stretched out as though to agree with her. He'd also watched the humans and they were not much.
"I also swore at Ron last night, I'm sure you heard that part though. I think I scared him," she giggled, "Aside from the rows with Ronald though, it was a magnificent night. I'm also pretty sure I rocked some more pureblood foundations. I mean that dance was pretty marvelous. I'm sure it looked just as good as it felt. It was like doing magic outside of class, that bubbly feeling you get in your chest when you're having fun. It was nice."
Crookshanks butted his head under her chin, happy for his witch. He planned on staying close today, with what he told her he was sure he would be scratching a few humans today.
Hermione stretched before petting Crookshanks and getting up to get ready for the day. She rolled out of bed, absently grabbing her wand and noticing that her dress robes were taken care of by her elf.
She was so thankful there was a restroom attached to their dorms. Hermione was still pretty sure it was so students wouldn't be caught out after curfew claiming the need to use the facilities.
She made sure she brushed her teeth and fangs extra well before glamouring her incisors.
'They might as well be fangs.'
She left the restroom deciding that she was going to laze about today.
"Hermione did you sleep in the duff?" Pavarti asked, scandalized from her bed.
Hermione raised an eyebrow at the Indian descent witch. She noticed that although the other witch sounded scandalized, she was staring at Hermione's naked chest. Pavarti was quite shocked last night when she had made her debut so to speak, but somehow the dark skinned witch's eyes always found themselves on her chest or bum.
"No, I slept in my underwear," she replied neutrally.
She had honestly forgot that she wasn't really wearing any clothes, having just gone to brush her teeth and use the loo. Not that it really should have mattered considering they had all gotten a glimpse of each other's chest at some point or another. It was obvious the other witch was attracted to wizards, but for some reason she always stared at Hermione. She never stared at their other dormmates. Hermione was uncomfortable at first, but after a year of it constantly happening she became desensitized to it.
She padded over to her trunk and pulled out the jumper Mrs. Weasley made her for Christmas. The petite witch pulled it over her head before grabbing a pair of plaid pajama pants and slipping them on lazily, ignoring the other witch. She quickly threw on a pair of socks and slipped on her house shoes before grabbing one of her Christmas books and leaving the room, Crookshanks running at her heels.
Down in the dungeons Severus had woken up at his usual time, being conditioned despite having gone to bed late.
He made it up to the Great Hall for breakfast noticing that only the other Heads, Albus, and Moody had made it this morning.
"That was some ball last night, wasn't it, Snape?" Moody growled at the dour man.
Severus merely grunted his response, not having had his coffee yet.
Minerva chuckled knowing that all the response they would get out of the young haggard wizard would be grunts and hums until he got his 2 cups of coffee. The only time he responded before then was if he was in a mood or was brought into one. Nothing nice ever came out from Severus before his coffee.
"That was some tango though," Pomona said, looking through the corner of her eye to gauge Severus's response.
Minerva, Severus, and Moody blushed, finding their breakfast quite interesting. They had seen quite a lot and had agreed to themselves to not speak of it the next day.
"Oh, it was splendid! Couldn't have asked for a better dance," Albus said clapping his hands together, finding his staff members' responses amusing.
"It was quite the show," the pudgy witch said.
"Indeed, it was. Their footwork was marvelous."
Pomona hummed her agreement.
Crouch Jr. parading as Moody was just two years younger than Severus and he was just as hot blooded. It was worse since he was giving the young witch private lessons.
He wanted to commend the girl; none of the other students had come back after their lesson with unforgivable for extra help. Potter had been able to throw off the curse and he was impressed with his strength of will. The Granger girl though, had stared him down and had asked for private lessons to be prepared. He liked her spunk if nothing else and agreed.
The first thing she wanted to tackle was throwing off the Imperious. Barty thought it would be a waste of an hour of his time, and decided to make it amusing by making her do silly stunts. He had thought of taking advantage of the opportunity the witch was giving him, but also knew he had to keep his cover. The wizard was shockingly surprised though, after two weeks Granger was able to throw it off.
She demanded they continued until she could throw it off at a moment's notice. He was astounded that a mere 2 weeks later Granger had enough will about her that the imperio wasn't working. He threw as much of himself into the curse as he was able, and was stunned that her will was stronger than his. He was frustrated, but also shockingly proud. This witch was his pupil, he helped her overcome an unforgivable that had kept him prisoner in his own home for years.
He was so proud he agreed to keep giving her private lessons to defend herself against dark curses and hexes that he knew they didn't normally teach at Hogwarts. They were working on counter curses, knowing that he couldn't very well teach her the dark arts, although he wished that he could.
Now however he was sure that when he saw her, all he would be able to think about was her legs. He envied Snape, knowing that he wouldn't have to see the witch more than he had to. He could easily dismiss her private lessons, but he also enjoyed working one-on-one with the witch. It was a challenge and kept his school days from becoming boring.
Term would be starting soon, so he had but a few more days before he had to see her alone again. He would be able to do this, for the war effort.
Severus couldn't help but remember the young witch's eyes. He had gotten quite an eyeful of her legs and arse, surprised at how shapely they were. It was her eyes however, glazed over with passion. The memory of them was just as intoxicating as the actual thing.
He wasn't sure if he should conduct his classes as normal or be extra mean to the witch. He was sure it would come to him. He just had to believe that he could compose himself properly when the moment came. When he said he would keep an eye on her he hadn't meant like that. He wanted to pinch the bridge of his nose, but knew that would be telling.
Severus couldn't wait until term started again, he would be distracted with work and Potter at least. He was sure that Potter would be the literal death of him, but Granger was coming at a quick second place.