One More Year

Chapter Nine

When Hermione saw Theo the next day he seemed to be his jovial self again. However, Hermione noticed that whenever he or any of the Slytherins entered the dormitory and any of the other students were sitting around the common room that they would automatically walk to their bedroom without speaking or making eye contact with anyone. There seemed to be an unspoken agreement between Hermione and Theo to not bring up the fight so Hermione took Theo's lead and acted as if nothing had happened.

Theo really seemed to want to make amends with the other houses but unfortunately having Pansy and Millicent around was not helping their cause. They were as awful as Hermione remembered them. They seemed to go out of their way to pick fights with everyone, resulting in quite a few full out brawls in their common room.

Ginny received a letter from Harry on both Wednesday and on Thursday since he had forgotten to tell her something in the Wednesday letter and just HAD to write her again to let her know. Hermione noticed that Draco received a bunch of letters on Wednesday again and was envious that everyone seemed to be getting mail except her. Hermione finally received a letter from Harry on Thursday asking how her first week was going and telling her about his auror training. When she saw the unfamiliar owl bringing her post on Thursday her heart leapt at the thought that Ron had written her. She realized belatedly that if Ron had mailed her a letter he would most likely have used Pig and she was ashamed of herself for feeling disappointed when she realized the letter was from Harry and not from Ron.

Hermione did receive a letter from Ron on Friday. She had been feeling a little resentful towards Ron since he hadn't written but the feeling vanished when she received his letter and she hungrily read through it. Ron told her all about his job, mentioned Harry and his family and also went on to tell her how much he missed her. Hermione couldn't wipe the grin off her face.

"No one should look like that when thinking about my brother!" laughed Ginny. Hermione looked over the top of the letter at Ginny's incredulous face and couldn't help but joining in on the laughter. She felt so lighthearted with Ron's letter in her hand.

Hermione's good mood lasted all day. She sailed through her classes with a smile on her face and couldn't wait to be done so she could respond to Ron.

***

The sun was just setting as she finished her letter and decided to visit the owlery to post it. She left the very noisy common room and headed down the stairs of the castle. It was a nice contrast walking around the silent castle as most students had already returned to their common room as curfew was quickly approaching. Hermione was enjoying the peacefulness with only the sounds of her shoes reverberating off the floor as the only noise that echoed around her.

Hermione couldn't tell you why the hairs on the back of her neck stood up, but after seven years of being best friends with Harry Potter she knew to trust her instincts. She quickly reached for her wand and jumped to the side as a curse narrowly missed her. She turned around to see Pansy, an evil glint in her eyes and hair strewn about her face, casting another spell at her. Hermione quickly ducked behind a suit of armour before trying to fire back. Her petrificus totalis spell missed Pansy completely and went harmlessly flying to the side. "Come out and play mudblood!" Pansy chimed in a sinister sing-song voice.

"What's your problem Pansy?"

"You think it isn't good enough to be miss goody-two shoes, the best at everything, world famous, now you also have to steal away the Slytherin boys!" she shrieked.

The curses kept flying back and forth. Hermione couldn't leave her hiding spot for fear that Pansy would hit her. Pansy had also very clearly become efficient at non-verbal spells so Hermione couldn't even tell what type of curses were being shot at her. However, Hermione kept blindly shooting towards Pansy around the corner of the suit of armour which was at least preventing Pansy from moving any nearer to her.