Hermione found herself demonstrating the disarming spell to a bunch of third years. They hadn't been around for Professor Lockheart, thank goodness, and had missed is dueling club. That may not have been the worst thing ever.
It seemed that it was fifth year and under who were the most common participants. Sure, there were a few older students. Cho Chang and both Weasley twins came to mind immediately. But the younger students had joined in droves. Second years were full, almost to each student.
It drove home the horrible reality that was the impending war. Hermione didn't want to think about it, but the group was definitely facing war, not just the exams that she was freaking out over.
"You don't look so great," Luna said.
Hermione frowned. "I guess I didn't realize what we were up against," she said.
"You're not supposed to," Luna said with strange clarity. "War has lots of small signs, but it isn't until the fighting is on our doorsteps that we really realize what we're up against."
Luna skipped off to practice disarming some of the older students who knew how to cast shield charms. Sometimes it sounded like she was the wisest person on the planet. Sometimes she seemed eccentric. Hermione wasn't sure what to make of Luna Lovegood.
"How goes everything?" Padma asked.
"Strange," Hermione said. "You're in Ravenclaw. Does Luna act like that all the time?"
"The thing about Luna is that she's more of a Ravenclaw than the rest of us. We're not entirely sure what to do with her. You never know if she's going to be dreamy, scary smart, or just plain weird."
"Glad it's not just me," Hermione sighed. "What's up with her lack of shoes?"
"No one really knows," Padma said. "We've looked for them, tried summoning spells, and everything we can think of. If you have any ideas, we'd love to hear them."
"What size shoes does she wear?" Hermione asked.
"A size four."
Hermione wore a half size smaller, and had some extra shoes that didn't fit well in her trunk. She made a mental note to grab them and give them to the girl before dinner. She didn't want to give Umbridge any chance to harass the girl.
The class went on, Hermione helping Harry teach as best she could. She was surprised by his ability to teach. She knew that he wanted to be an auror, but she was fairly sure that might not be the best course of action for him.
She walked out of the room of requirement certain that Harry should be a teacher. And if the defense against the dark arts post was still available, he would be perfect for the job.
"Lost in thought?" Neville asked once she walked into him.
She shook her head. "Sorry Neville. I guess yes."
"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked. "Or is this something that shouldn't be talked about where ears are listening?"
"I was just thinking that Harry is more qualified to teach defense than our current professor," she said. "I know he wants to be an auror, but I can't help but think that I should try to convince him otherwise."
"He's only fifteen," Neville said. "You're almost a year older than him. And I don't know if you know what you want to do yet."
"I know that the muggles have a better idea with university," she muttered.
The truth was that she didn't know exactly what she wanted to do with her life. She knew that she wanted to spend it with Viktor, and that would likely involve a move. But she wasn't sure what she would do.
She did her homework quickly, and then found the pair of flats in her trunk. They were simple black ones, but they had a tendency to fall off Hermione's feet so she rarely wore them.
She spelled them so that Luna could summon them, but no one else. She also charmed them so that they would be harder to steal. She then headed down to the great hall for dinner.
In the corridor, before she got to the great hall, Umbridge was asking Luna about her shoes.
"And where are they?" the toad asked.
"I'm not sure. I've looked for them everywhere," Luna said.
"Professor," Hermione said rushing forward. "I just found her shoes. They'd been taken by some students as a prank." She was fibbing, though she was fairly certain that was the truth.
"Well," Umbridge hesitated. "See that it doesn't happen again."
"Yes Professor," Hermione said rotely.
Umbridge turned on her heel and walked up to the head table. She looked slightly ridiculous with the way that she walked, and both girls had to stifle giggles.
"Here," Hermione said handing the shoes to the younger girl.
"Thanks," Luna said, "but you really didn't have to do that."
Hermione shrugged. "Don't worry about it. Those don't fit me well anyways."
They walked into the hall in silence. Hermione liked Luna well enough, but they probably wouldn't ever be good friends. She just didn't understand her.
She sat down at the table, and looked at the food set out. She was hungry, but the only thing that looked even slightly appealing to her was meatloaf. So she served herself some, and set out to attempt to eat the whole thing before Neville and Harry started heckling her over it.
"Hungry?" Harry asked.
"A bit," Hermione said. "I wasn't expecting today to make me so hungry."
"Me either," Harry said.
Hermione looked over at his plate and saw it was full of a little bit of everything that was available. He had so much food, that it looked like it might fall off his plate, though he had made a decent dent in it.
"I guess helping other people is harder than just trying to learn the stuff," Neville mused. He was eating what would be considered a normal amount. He wasn't as hungry as Harry, Hermione, or Ron.
Ron was definitely the most hungry out of all them. He was always hungry, so that wasn't really a surprise. But what was surprising was the fact that he joined in the conversation, without his mouth full of food.
"Was pretty fun," he said.
"I would have to agree with Ron," Neville said. "It was pretty fun. If you could ignore the fact that there's going to be a real reason to learn these things."
"Yeah," Harry and Hermione sighed into their food at the same time.
"So, did Viktor say if he could come teach at some point?" Harry asked after a bite of food.
Hermione nodded. "He said that he's thinking the last weekend in November. The season will be over by then."
"Sounds great."
Hermione was writing a letter to Viktor. She had described the first DA meeting in great detail. She told of what she was calling "the shoe debacle," and had told how she managed to get Umbridge to back off. Even if it was just for a moment, she was going to take each and every small victory.
"What are you writing?" Ron asked.
"A letter."
"To whom?" he pestered.
"Viktor," she answered shortly. She might have been sitting in the common room, but she wasn't particularly fond of being bothered about what she was doing. She was there so she could proofread Harry's essay when he was done with it.
"Krum?"
Hermione rolled her eyes. "How many other Viktors do I know?" she asked.
"I don't know," Ron said. "You have muggle friends. And you went on holiday with your parents for most of the summer."
"I went to visit Viktor in Bulgaria," Hermione said trying to control her temper. "Yes, I went with my parents, but they weren't the reason I went. Rather the other way around."
Ron's face turned red as he spluttered around. He walked around the room, pacing angrily.
"Harry, send Lavender up to get me when you need me," Hermione said.
"Will do," he said without looking up.
Hermione walked up the stairs to her dorm and sank down onto her bed. She pulled up her sleeve, pulled out her pen, and wrote to the one person she knew could calm her down completely.
Are you busy?
No. I was wanting to talk to you, but was not sure when you would be ready.
Hermione sighed. She had been wanting to talk to Viktor all day, but with the DA meeting, she had gotten busy.
I need you to tell me not to kill Ron, she wrote.
He's the red haired one, right?
That's the one.
You really shouldn't kill him. You would be sad later. But if he keeps being a problem, you should let me know and I'll deal with him.
Hermione smiled. She had no doubt that Viktor would deal with Ron if she asked him to. But she also knew that she probably wouldn't ever ask him to. She liked Ron too much to lose him as a friend. He was one of her first friends, even if he did drive her nuts at times.
I know. But I just need to let him calm down. Though he really needs to get used to the idea of you dating me. I don't think that's going to stop anytime soon.
I'm not going to stop unless you want me to.
Same here, she wrote. And I don't want to. I'm fairly sure that I won't ever want to stop dating you.
A/N: I finished this chapter! Finally. I have to say that this one was not one of the easiest chapters to write. But also because I've been busy. And distracted. I'm going to keep writing this, and hopefully be better about updating. But I've not necessarily had a good track record with that. Unfortunately.