Hermione Granger, a bushy haired prefect now more then half-way through her 6th year at Hogwarts, was late. For the very first time in her life.
Hermione hurried through the Gryffindor common room she was so used to strolling through, noticing how only straggling 1st years remained. It was so rare for her to sleep in, and yet she somehow had. Wearily, she blamed it on the lack of sleep. It was only a few weeks after the Christmas holidays, but she was still swamped in work. Unlike her fellow year mates, Hermione had not elected to drop any classes to solely study certain courses. Instead, she had kept the remaining number of classes from her previous year, and was in the advanced course in each one. She bristled at her own thoughts. Surely she could handle it, she thought. This couldn't have been as bad as her third year; she hadn't required the need of a time-turner. Quite frankly, she thought as she rushed down a corridor towards the Great Hall, she was grateful for that. Time-turners were nothing but trouble.
Reaching the Great Hall, she breathed a sigh of relief. Most students were still gathered, eating breakfast. She looked at the head table and winced as some teachers had already finished and were heading off to prepare for the day's classes. Hurriedly, she went and sat by Ron and Harry, ravenously grabbing toast and pumpkin juice.
"Was wondering if you would be joining us today." Seamus Finnigan said from across the table.
Hermione, too busy trying to get a few calories in before the first bell rang, made no answer.
"Hermione, you've... never been late." Harry thought aloud. "We would have waited for you, but we thought you might have been helping some first years or something; prefect duties and all that." He shot a look at Ron, who's mouth was full.
"Hey! Don't look at me. I didn't see anyone needing help. Hermione, you probably could have used the lie in anyway."
Harry nodded in agreement. "You're working yourself like a house-elf." She shot him a scathing look in between gulps of juice, and he grinned. "Only joking, but honestly, Hermione. You still have another year left, and you're acting like you have to learn as much as you can. Couldn't you have put off a class or two till next year?"
She was about to answer, when Ron interrupted. "You know, you're not the only one running late today. The bell must be held up for the post... it hasn't even come yet."
As if in answer to his words, several owls swooped in through the windows delivering magazines, letters, newspapers, and packages. As one owl swooped over, it dropped a package that landed right in the bowl of scrambled eggs in front of Neville. The eggs splattered in his face and over his robes, causing him to moan.
"It figures! I've never been able to use a good robe-cleaning charm.." He reached over and, looking at the return label on the package, quickly hid it out of sight.
Before anyone could ask where it was from, and Hermione could successfully clean the literal egg off his face (and robes) the bell rang. The students hurriedly saved their mail to read later and made for their first classes.
Hermione, Harry, and Ron walked quickly, trying to conceal Neville. Much to his embarrassment, several nearby Hufflepuffs had already seen him, and were giggling. Sighing, Hermione handed him some napkins as they and their year-mate Gryffindors made for the dungeons.
Much to the aggravation of both the Hogwarts houses and Professor Snape, Advanced Potions was a requirement to anyone who had gotten a E on their O.W.L.S. Even Neville, mainly because of the extensive study sessions he had had with Hermione, had gotten in.
As the 6th year Gryffindors and Slytherines who were in Advanced Potions (Crabbe and Goyle had not made it, so Malfoy was left with Blaise Zabini, Pansy Parkinson, and a scattered few other Slytherines as his cronies) came into the classroom, Snape, standing near his desk, sneered.
"10 points from Gryffindor, Longbottom, for your disgraceful lack of table manners as shown by your dirty attire."
"But... P... Proffesor Snape, it wasn't--" Neville stuttered.
"5 further points off for also disgusting me with that attire." And with that, Snape went on to teach class, with surprisingly no further point deductions.
As the bell rang and the Gryffindors went to their Charms class, Hermione dropped back from walking with Harry and Ron. She noticed an unusual groove in the wall between two tapestries depicting a battle between doxies, and the other a landscape. Hermione had passed by this very wall for 6 years now, and had never noticed what was a very noticeable groove. She stored the location of the groove in her head as she was shuffled along by the flurry of students eager to get to class, or simply not wanting to be late.
As Hermione walked into Charms and sat in her usual seat, she smiled. Harry and Ron hadn't sat down yet, and waited for her. Nodding her head at them in thanks, she sat down, only to find that they hadn't sat down because Neville was sitting directly behind her.
"Good morning, class!" Professor Flitwick said giddily. "Today we're working on a particularly exciting charm-- the Explodimundo Charm!"
Explodimundo Charm...? Hermione thought quickly and realized exactly what this charm did. Uh oh.
"The Explodimuno Charm is a more advanced form of an enlarging spell. Because of the greater effects of this spell, I ask all of you to annunciate very clearly, more so then usual, and to try and avoid decapitating each other. Now, flick your wrist like so," he demonstrated the motion, "and say Explodimundo petroli!" As he did this, the gobstone he had placed in front of him grew to twice it's size. "Now, class, you try!"
Hermione, tensing in anticipation of Neville's blunder, quickly got her gobstone to twice its size. And as if sensing her tension, Neville's charm quickly went awry. Hermione ducked out of the way. Unfortunately, her hair took up so much room that a curl got the effect of his spell. The left side of her head of hair grew twice as bushy, and her head came crashing down onto the floor, the weight of her hair unstoppable.
Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked down to see Hermione weighted by her own hair against the floor.
"Oh, goodness me!" Professor Flitwick said, quickly waddling over. Noting that she had bruised part of her forehead, he told the class to resume. Muttering some words, Hermione began levitating... but only her body.
"Well, this will have to do in order to get you to the hospital wing to fix that nasty bump on your forehead." Muttered Flitwick.
So, Hermione's head still weighted to the ground, she was pulled along by her body in the air. This couldn't be more embarrassing. Though-- of course-- it could.
Just as Professor Flitwick was at the entrance to the hospital wing, the bell rang. With that, the nearby Transfiguration room emptied out several 7th year Slytherins. They stopped, stunned at the sight of the know-it-all prefect, and burst into laughter. Feeling mortified, her face a grew a deep burgundy as Madame Pomfrey dragged Hermione into the Wing and closed the door.
"Well, Miss Granger, I haven't seen you since last year; I knew you were bound to show eventually. And even before your cohorts, too!"
Hermione winced. She knew how Madame Pomfrey had so often seen her and her friends in anything but good situations. She was grateful for all the medi-witch had done for her; it always seemed they taxed her a great deal.
As Professor Flitwick explained the situation, Madame Pomfrey sighed.
"This happened a few years back, when that Hufflepuff-- Randy Mumbleton-- did something quite like that to Kristina Perrington."
"Ah, I remember." Professor Flitwick said, before gasping. "Does that mean...?"
Madame Pomfrey nodded sadly. "And Hermione's hair was a great deal bushier then Kristina's ever was, so there's no question of what we must do."
At the sound of their tones, Hermione had to interject. "Professor, Madame Pomfrey... may I ask what must you do?"
Madame Pomfrey sighed and whipped out a pair of scissors. "Magic can do many wondrous things child, but sadly, nothing can be done in this matter other then..." And before Hermione could question this statement, Madame Pomfrey had snipped the mound of bush that was Hermione's hair in order to lift her up. Patching her forehead, Hermione sat stunned, reaching up to feel a bushy bristle that was once shoulder length bush.
"Madame Pomfrey, how can I possibly go around school with my hair like this?!" Hermione gasped.
"Well, Miss Granger, I can cut the other side of your head's hair to match, or we'll wait for it to grow."
"Wait...? Don't we have a hair growth potion?!" Hermione gasped.
"Unfortunately, we ran out just today when a 3rd year Ravenclaw lit his hair on fire in Potions. Another potion won't be made for another week."
Hermione couldn't believe her ears. She hadn't considered herself caught up in the vain world of physical appearance... but going around bald or with half a head of hair was ridiculous!
"Miss Granger, don't worry! You shouldn't bother with your looks, I thought you had more sense then that." Professor Flitwick said kindly, although he couldn't suppress a giggle at her appearance.
At this, she nearly burst into tears, as Madame Pomfrey noticed. Sighing, she put a hand on Hermione's shoulder. "I understand that this was unexpected, but Mr. Longbottom has been the many a cause of residents in the wing. I know that's not a consolation, but if it helps, I'll have your work sent up here and you can stay the night."
Nodding, Hermione went and sat on a bed, for once not as worried about missing classes as her appearance. Nodding approvingly, Professor Flitwick turned out of the wing to alert Hermione's professors and classmates of Hermione's whereabouts.
Resting her sore and noticeably lighter weighing head on a pillow, Hermione fell into a doze. The lack of sleep from last night had taken quite a toll. Sighing a little at how one day could have been so miserable, she slipped into a lazy sleep.
Awakening sometime later, Hermione noted the time. It was past dinner time! Feeling guilty for having wasted time sleeping, she tried to reprove herself by saying she needed the rest. Sensing her lighter conscience, she looked around the room for Madame Pomfrey. She was nowhere to be found... but something distracted Hermione in her search. A glint of reflected light came from off a small end table near a bed. Walking over, Hermione gasped. A time-turner! Funny, she thought, as she had started out this wretched day thinking of one. But what was it doing in here? Could it quite possibly have been the one she once had?
Hermione turned at the other end table near her own bed and groaned. Piles and piles of books and parchment lay there. She'd never be able to hand in her homework on time tomorrow, and she refused to hand in a late assignment. She was no Ron.
A sudden thought struck Hermione. A horribly irrational one, she knew, but a rather intriguing one.
"What if I just go back in time a few hours?" She thought out loud. "I could avoid this whole mess, and be able to complete my assignments."
She felt guilty, and even dirty, for thinking the thought. The more devious side of her reasoned she would save Madame Pomfrey and Professor Flitwick the trouble of dealing with her, so it couldn't possibly be all that bad. And if she used it, it's not like she could technically get caught... if nothing ever happened to get her to this point, she'd never need to use the time-turner.
She shook her head. Even Hermione got confused sometimes, and it was always in dealing with paradoxes of time. Feeling rash, she placed the time-turner around her neck. She was about to stop, when Harry and Ron's voices popped into her head. She relived how they had saved the special seat in front of Neville just for her, and how they'd never expect her to pull something like going back in time for herself.
With that thought, Hermione checked the time, and turned the time-turner a few turns.
"Wha... what?!" Hermione gasped, sitting up straight in her bed. Instinctively her hand reached for her hair. It was all there. She looked around. She was in her bedroom.
"Oh... it... was a dream." Hermione sighed, relieved. She was about to fall back onto the bed when she looked at the time. "I'm running late! Second time in a row..." She began muttering as she pulled her clean robes on and ran through the door, eager to get to the Great Hall for breakfast and tell Harry and Ron about her dream, if there was time.
As she reached the Great Hall, she slowed a little and breathed a sigh of relief. Most of the students were still eating breakfast. She looked at the head table and winced as some teachers had already finished, and were heading off to prepare for the day's classes. Once again, she wouldn't be early to any of their classes. Hurriedly, she went and sat by Ron and Harry, ravenously grabbing toast and pumpkin juice.
"Was wondering if you would be joining us today." Seamus Finnigan said from across the table.
Not bothering to comment that Seamus could use working on his comments, having used the same one yesterday, she gulped down her bread and pumpkin juice.
"Hermione, you've... never been late." Harry thought aloud. "We would have waited for you, but we thought you might have been helping some first years or something; prefect duties and all that." He shot a look at Ron, who's mouth was full.
"Hey! Don't look at me. I didn't see anyone needing help. Hermione, you probably could have used the sleeping in anyway."
Harry nodded in agreement. "You're working yourself like a house-elf."
Hermione raised an eyebrow. Harry raised one as well, having expected a more vicious glare at his comment.
"Harry," she said, biting another piece of toast, "you said this yesterday. I told you I was fine, and I am."
Harry raised both eyebrows at this, and before he could comment Ron interrupted. "You know, you're not the only one running late today. The bell must be held up for the post... it hasn't even come yet."
As if in answer to his words, several owls swooped in through the windows delivering magazines, letters, newspapers, and packages. As one owl swooped over, it dropped a package that landed right in the bowl of scrambled eggs in front of Neville. The eggs splattered in his face and over his robes, causing him to moan.
"It figures! I've never been able to use a good robe-cleaning charm..." He reached over and, looking at the return label on the package, quickly hid it out of sight.
A few Gryffindors giggled and the bell rang.
"Hermione... are you coming?" Ron turned and asked.
She was sitting stunned.
"Ron... what day is it?"
"Monday-- why do you ask? Come on, we have Potions first!" He said agitatedly. Several Hufflepuffs, and now quite a few other students, had seen an unconcealed Neville and were laughing at his egg covered figure.
"Ron, be serious. Yesterday was Monday. Today's Tuesday, and we have double Transfiguration."
"Um... no...I think you've been studying too hard. N.E.W.T.S are still a year away, now come on!"
Hermione reached for a copy of the day's Daily Prophet and saw yesterday's date clearly printed atop the same article of a magic carpet smuggling operation being foiled. Hermione gasped and reached around her neck, realizing the time-turner SHOULD have still been around her neck.
It wasn't.
"Bloody hell."
... To be continued?
Note: Thanks for reading so far. All characters and what-not copyright to J.K. Rowling. Inspiration for story from 50 First Dates and Groundhog's Day, which I imagine is copyright to them? I swear this story will at least get amusing, I just had to try and get a good start. Reviews are helpful, and once again, thanks for reading!
ON HIATUS INDEFINITELY. I apologize for any disappointments. Of which I doubt.
(Revised 11/22/07)