A/N I am so sorry for not updating! I kinda got discouraged, because there was such a work overload at school, but I finally updated. I think the updates will be a lot faster now. Again so sorry that I didn't update!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize that's from the books.
Chapter 9: Moving
Hermione walked swiftly through the hallways, to the Heads' dorms. Finally I got away from them! Ginny and Lavender, as well as Parvati, who Lavender called over, had started to hound her with questions. She slowed down to a slow pace, while looking over her shoulder, every once in a while.
"Where are you going, Granger?" Malfoy walked out of a classroom.
"It's none of your business." Hermione said stiffly.
"Whatever," he rolled his eyes and walked ahead of her. They walked in silence, until they reached their rooms.
"Password?" the portrait asked.
"Hello, Katherine. 'Unity'." the little girl nodded and the portrait swung open. Hermione walked through the common room and went into her own room.
Now what?
"Hey, Granger!" Malfoy yelled.
"What?" Hermione asked.
"Did you pack yet?" he asked.
"Not yet, why?"
"It says on the bulletin board that the house elves will pick them up at 1:00 today."
"That's in like a few hours and I have classes right now!" Hermione whispered to herself.
"Hello? Granger?" Malfoy's voice snapped her out of her thoughts.
"What?" she asked.
"They want you to have them ready by 12:30."
"Great, even less time..." Hermione whispered. Maybe I should ask Malfoy for help. No, why would he help me? But I don't have time to do all that in fifteen minutes and then get to class. Still why would he help. It wouldn't hurt to try. Hermione argued with herself.
"Granger, did you finally die up there?" Malfoy called up. Hermione came out of the room.
"I haven't packed yet." she said plainly.
"What am I supposed to do about that?" Malfoy asked.
"Help me?" Hermione asked.
"You want me to help you?" He asked in disbelief.
"Ugh...can't believe I'm saying this, but yes. Help me...please." Hermione replied with a groan.
"Let me see, no. You're on your own. Should have started earlier." Malfoy smirked and then turned and left the room.
Great. Now I only have ten minutes left. Hermione retreated into her room.
"Accio clothes!" Hermione's clothes came zooming towards Hermione where she had just sat down on. She started to stuff it all into her trunk. 8 and a half minutes later all her stuff had been Accio-ed and packed into her trunk.
"Harry, where's Hermione?" Ron asked for the billionth time.
"Ron I already told you. I don't know." Harry said frustrated.
"Fine. No need to get so touchy." Hermione rushed to them a minute later looking frazzled.
"What happened to you?" Ron asked.
"Just...finished...packing." she panted. They entered the stuffy Herbology greenhouse. Professor Sprout explained the day's simple lesson and they started picking the leaves off the vine of the Flitterblooms. Before they even finished one class ended. The day went by slowly. Minutes ticked by even slower than usual. Finally they reached the last class of the day.
"I can't wait to see the common room. Did you know that Fred and George are both going to be in the same group as us?" Hermione said as they walked to Potions.
"Well, that's great." Ron said sarcastically.
"Hey, at least Malfoy and all the rest of them have to face the twins products and jokes and stuff as well." Harry said with a smile. Snape strode into the classroom and immediately swished his wand and instructions appeared on the board.
"No talking. Start your potions with your partners. Begin" Snape said shortly after.
"Finally. It was starting to smell filthy in there." Draco said to Blaise and Theodore Nott.
"Yeah tell me about it. I mean it was coming from your cauldron." Blaise replied.
"What are you talking about? It was coming back from your cauldron. Anyways Theo what common room are you in?" Daco asked.
"Umm...I think number 4. So it should be pretty close to yours."
"What the heck is this new rule thing even going to do?" Blaise asked.
"No idea." Draco and Theodore said simultaneously.
"Finally! The last class today is over," Hermione sighed. Harry and Ron looked at her as if she just said she had 8 toes on one foot.
"Hermione, are you okay?" Ron asked.
"Yeah I'm fine, why?"
"Oh nothing, it's just that you sounded happy that all your classes are done for the day." Ron replied.
"That's because I am. I mean all day long girls are following me around going, 'Oh you're so lucky' 'I wish I had Draco as my partner' 'How did he propose?' Or they would be like, 'You don't deserve my Drakey!'." Hermione mimicked in a high pitched voice. Harry and Ron kept staring at her after her outburst.
"Stop making weird faces. Oh my gosh, I just realized that we have to go to our common rooms after dinner." Hermione squealed.
"Girls..." Ron rolled his eyes. They all walked to the Great Hall, where they were met with the sight of all the seventh year kids pushing and shoving each other to see the lists where the common rooms were.
"Potter! Here," a brunette made a motion for them to go over to her. She had just emerged from the huge crowd.
"What do you want Greengrass?" Ron asked.
"Nothing. Our common rooms at the painting of the four founders. So Dumbledore asked us to all go up to his office. He'll give us a map of where to go, I think. Anyways so finish dinner quickly because we should all go together. Oh and tell all your friends." Daphne Greengrass replied.
"Fine. Thanks." Harry bit out.
Dinner went by quickly as all the kids that were going to be in common room #3 ate slightly faster than usual. They all trooped up to the gargoyles guarding the staircase.
"Mars Bars." Ron said clearly.
"How did you know that was the password?" Hermione asked.
"When I came up here last time, Dumbledore said it." he replied. The staircase same into view and they all clambered onto it. Ron knocked on the door, and then entered.
"Mars Bars anyone?" Dumbledore greeted. Everyone declined the candy.
"Alright, I assume that everyone that is supposed to be in your section is here?" the headmaster asked Hermione.
"All except for Terry Boot and Padma Patil." she replied.
"I know that you five," Dumbledore said referring to Draco, Blaise, Harry, Ron, and Hermione, "know about Ms. Parkinson, but none of the others do."
Everybody else who was packed inside of the room looked confused.
"Ms. Parkinson has been in St. Mungo's for the last two months. She does not want to reveal what happened to her, but she does want to come and stay at the school. So we, meaning the Healers at St. Mungo's, and I, have decided to move her here. Which means that she will be in your common room. The staff here and I have put all of you students together because we believe all of you posses special skills that'll help her through this. All of you will be helping her through her day. Ms. Parkinson needs special attention, but is intent on coming back to school with her friends. The staff at St. Mungo's think that maybe the influence of her friends, and the happiness and normalcy that they bring will have a psychological impact on her, and it will speed up the process." he continued.
"But, we don't have skills or anything. I mean how will we be able to help?" Fred asked seriously.
"Yeah, how will we help?" George echoed.
"That's what I thought you would ask. Skills such as making her laugh; which she has not been able to do for two whole months, make her argue and feel normal. Those kinds of habits that you have, we like to think of them as skills that'll help her. You will be monitored, but you have to work out who will help her at what time of day. Any questions?" Everybody shook their heads. It was a huge responsibility and they could not fathom why Dumbledore would let her health into their hands. As they left his office, they started to bicker.
"No way would we let you people help her. You would most likely kill her if you got the chance." Blaise said.
"Why would we want to kill her, when we want to just kill you?" Ginny shot back.
"Okay that was harsh," Hermione said, "But really. The two of you would die after two days of helping Pansy. It's too much work. I say that everyone should help."
"Me too. Or else who knows what Malfoy would do." Ron said.
"Fine, lets just keep walking," Malfoy bit out. They kept on going back and forth until they finally found the portrait of the founders.
"It's so secluded and lonely here." Harry said. There were no other paintings they could see.
"When do you think Parkinson is coming?" Ron whispered.
"Don't know. Maybe tomorrow?" Hermione replied.
"Choose a password that everyone can agree on." the painted Rowena Ravenclaw said.
"I just remembered something," Ginny piped up, " We forgot to tell Terry and Padma to meet us here." As soon as she finished saying that Terry and Padma turned the corner.
"How did you guys know that we were going to be here?" George asked.
"We're Ravenclaws, we know everything." Terry said with a smirk.
"Of course, just like Ron knows everything-"
"Hey!" Ron cut in.
"Anyways we have to choose a password." Fred said. Everyone spent a few seconds to think. All of a sudden people yelled out their ideas.
"I think it should be 'Slytherin Rules'." Malfoy said.
"Yeah me too."
"No way! It should be 'happiness'." Luna said. Everyone paused for a second and then started to yell again.
"Are you kidding? It should be 'Rowena'."
"That's a great idea." Two people high fived each other.
"That's stupid! How about 'Purity'?"
"Or maybe we could just do 'Four Founders'!" Hermione yelled. Everyone stopped to think.
"It is easy to remember." Fred said.
"Yeah, you look at the founders and then you say Four Founders." Dean said.
"I guess we could do that." Blaise said, tentatively looking at Malfoy.
"Fine. 'Four Founders'." he said to the portrait. The portrait swung open and inside was a huge, blinding common room. There were many couches and armchairs and chairs to sit on. They were all plush and were all different colors. It was extremely colorful. There was a kitchen, but it was really small, with a corner space complete with a cupboard, oven, and a microwave. There were many desks and tables scattered everywhere.
"Wow. It's huge." Ginny whispered.
"Don't get used to it Weaslette," Malfoy said, "You will have to go back home after summer."
"Not necessarily." Ginny said reminding everyone about the law.
"Well, whatever." Malfoy said at a loss for words. There was four staircases going up and each staircase was met with 6 doors. Five rooms and one huge bathroom that was split into 5 sections. Each section had a shower, medium length bathtub and of course a toilet. All four staircases were separated from each other but were connected to each other by a bridge type thing that the students could walk across to get to the other rooms. Everyone rushed to different staircases. Ginny, Hermione, Harry, Malfoy, and Blaise ran up the first staircase.
"Great now we're stuck with you three." Malfoy sneered.
"You're stuck with us?! We're stuck with you." Ron said.
"Same thing Ron," Hermione rolled her eyes.
Terry, Padma, Ron, and Lavender ran up the second staircase. All four of them picked their rooms, but when Lavender opened the door closest to the bathroom, she found that it was already occupied.
"Brown? What are you doing here? But before you answer that can you close the door? It's really bright outside."
"Parkinson? Oh sorry. I was going to take this room. I'm part of the group whose going to stay here." Lavender explained after closing the door. Pansy actually seemed bearable. Even though she was a Slytherin. Plus the two of them could stand each other because of their common love of gossip and spreading rumors.
"Oh. I am so tired." Pansy moaned. She looked even sicker than before.
"Do you need anything, because I could get Malfoy to get it for you." Lavender said.
"No thank you. I'm just going to go back to sleep."
"Alright good-night." Lavendar closed the door quietly.
"Umm...Lavendar why are you leaving so quietly from your room?" Terry asked.
"Oh, Pansy's in there."
"Pansy's here?" Everyone said in unison.
"Yeah she is." Within minutes Malfoy and Blaise were in the room, bothering Pansy.
"Someone go in there and tell them two to knock it off. She needs her rest." Ron said. Hermione decided to go and walk in. The next thing she saw was darkness closing in on her.