Hermione thought that the exams were somewhat more silly than she expected. After all, how exactly was a pineapple supposed to tap dance? It didn't have feet. And they weren't supposed to transfigure it. She managed a suitable solution and got full marks.
She smiled as she'd even managed to get bonus marks for doing a routine with her pineapple. She hadn't practiced much all year, but even as rusty as she was, Flitwick asked if maybe she would be willing to give a demonstration to the new first years the next year. She was so excited for that.
She'd sent off a letter on her exams to Viktor. She figured he would appreciate the humour of the situation. And he could probably relate to them better.
She had started a letter to her parents about her exams, but she wanted to wait for results before she sent it off to them. A letter sent by owl post could get from Hogwarts to London in about a day. So she wouldn't have to worry about it getting to them after her. Not that she expected Ron to tell his parents about exams until they asked.
"Are you going to let us relax now?" Ron asked. "It's gonna be a full week before we even know our scores."
"I doubt that," Hermione said. "I know some of mine. And I'm pretty confident about the rest."
"Yeah, yeah. We all know you're the best in Gryffindor. I wouldn't be surprised if you got top marks of the year," Ron said.
The words weren't upsetting. But the way he said them, as if it didn't matter, hurt. Hermione did her best to hide her feelings but couldn't understand why Ron would keep doing things like that. It was as if he just didn't think.
Harry rubbed his forehead. "I don't know why this won't stop hurting."
"You really ought to go to Madame Pomfrey."
"And have her tell me to eat and relax? I don't think that's going to help. I think it's just going to be a waste of time," Harry said.
"Look," Ron said, "it's too hot for anyone to do anything. Even Snape won't come out of the dungeons. And I can't blame him. It's much cooler down there."
Harry jumped up.
"Where are you going?"
"Hagrid's."
"Why do we have to go see Hagrid?" Hermione asked as she trotted to keep up with Harry.
"Don't you think it's a bit odd that what Hagrid wants, more than anything else in the world, is a dragon. And some stranger in a pub just happens to have one?"
"As strange as that is, that stranger probably wanted to get rid of it. It's super illegal to have a dragon," Hermione rationalized.
They hurried down. Hermione and Ron held back a bit as Harry pretty much interrogated Hagrid. Once they had found out that Hagrid had in fact given information about how to get past Fluffy to some stranger, they left.
Hermione found that she needed to write a letter to Viktor. Just in case something went wrong. And with Harry as a friend, a lot of things did.
A/N: I figure that I'll skip going through the traps since it's gonna work out almost the same as it did in the book. I will write the aftermath. And Ron also in the hospital wing. But I think that's where we're going to pick up.