Chapter One: Something Gone Awry

Hermione opened her eyes groggily. She had known it was a bad idea to let Padma and Ginny talk her into letting them throw a party for the entire House last night. Gryffindor had won the Quidditch Cup plenty of times before, and no parties of this magnitude had occurred. She had known it was out offhand when the Weasley boys walked in—and she didn't mean just Ron. No, there had been Gryffindor alumni in the common room last night, whooping it up and setting an awful example for the cluster of terrified first years in the corner eating chocolate frogs to keep from having to talk.

Some Head Girl she was… she was supposed to be an example! A paragon of virtue and good magical morals for the whole school to look up to. Yet here she was, waking up with underwear hanging from her headboard (she didn't know whose it was, a fact that scared her) and Neville Longbottom's glasses fermenting in a keg of butterbeer next to her bed. And that was just what she could see lying down. She didn't want to know what the dormitory really looked like. In fact, since it was Sunday, she'd stay in bed and wait for the house elves to take care of it.

Apparently, that wasn't to be allowed. Someone burst through the door of the dormitory, calling her name. It took a moment for Hermione to recognize the shrill, annoying voice. When she did, she sat up despite all her misgivings.

"Pansy?"

Pansy Parkinson was fishing the glasses from the butterbeer. Wearing Gryffindor robes and…horror of horrors…smiling. It made her look like over-risen bread dough.

"Yes, sorry to wake you, but I was looking for Crabbe's glasses."

"I don't know what—those are Neville's glasses! Why must you always be cruel to him?" she snapped, snatching the glasses away. Pansy looked both hurt and shocked.

"Neville? Neville Longbottom? The kid who runs with Harry Potter?"

"Yes, you git, these are his and how did you get in here?" Hermione was shaking the glasses in Pansy's face.

"Hermione, I live here. This is the girls dormitory. Now give me those and go back to bed. I think you need some sleep." Pansy said kindly, taking the glasses from Hermione and starting toward the door.

"Pansy, stop! I demand to know how you were admitted to this common room!"

"I…Hermione, we've been…I…I'm a Gryffindor! I have a right to be here!"

Hermione paused. Then she began to laugh.

"Oh, I see. Harry and Ron put you up to this? I say, I'm surprised you'd work with them, but it was funny. So just give—"

"Why do you keep talking about Slytherins this morning? Is it because you have that meeting with Potter later? I say, him getting named Head Boy was a bad spot of luck, eh? Well, Crabbe will be looking for his glasses. He's got his toad missing too, and this'll be one less thing for him to worry about. I would say see you at breakfast, but I think you need more sleep. You seem a little out of it. So I'll catch you later in the common room, okay? Blaise, Draco, Crabbe, Goyle, and I are going to play a bit of exploding snap, even though Blaise just wants to play chess all the time…"

With that, Pansy departed, leaving a very confused Hermione standing in the center of the trashed dorm.

Many things were running through her mind at this point. One was that she was sleeping and dreaming. A second was that Harry and Ron had gotten together with the twins last night and thought up a really top notch prank. A third, and by far the most ominous, was that something, somewhere, had gone seriously wrong.

All these thoughts were overshadowed by the fact that she had just had a decent conversation with Pansy Parkinson. She wanted to be sick.

Shaking her head to clear it, she decided to hit the Hall for some breakfast after all. She'd find out what was going on then.