The Garment of Concentrated Evil

Chapter Two: Tired Hermione

Disclaimer: If I was J.K. Rowling and I owned all the Harry Potter books why in the world do you think I would write Fanfiction about them? Obviously they're not mine.

Hermione couldn't sleep. The jumper had been transfigured into a maroon sock monkey, stuffed into a locked box, tied with magical ropes, sealed with all sorts of curses and spells and finally shoved under Lavenders bed, but Hermione couldn't get her mind off it. Well, technically, Hermione couldn't get her mind off the lean, lanky body that usually resided underneath the wooly garb. And how said body's hands constantly tugged on the not-quite-long-enough sleeves ("that boy never seems to stop growing," Mrs. Weasley remarked once to Hermione) until it was slightly warped but perfectly serviceable. And then how the bottom of sweater hung an inch or two over his pants, but when he teased her and held her books high over her head, the top of the jumper barely grazed the top of his pants, sometimes shifting to reveal pale freckled skin with a dusting of copper hair leading down toward..

But Hermione flushed and abruptly stopped that train of thought. 'Ron is my Friend, with a capital F. That stupid jumper is causing me to lose so much sleep that I am hallucinating about my friends in ways that I cannot possibly want. Next I expect I shall be thinking of Snape in one of those skimpy speed- Hogwarts a History Hogwarts a History Hogwarts a History Hogwarts a History...' With a rather pained expression on her face and her eyes screwed tightly shut Hermione frantically repeated her mantra until she was sure that no unwanted images would spring unbidden into her mind. But even despite her best efforts, she could not Ron off her head, in particular, a scene of him earlier that week…

Ron was sitting at a table, setting up a game of exploding snap to play against Harry with. Hermione was sitting nearby, her nose buried in "The House Elf: Servant or Slave?" by Subo R. Dinate. Just about to start what looked like a promising game, Ron noticed Neville, a notoriously bad snap player, eying the game with longing. Surprising Hermione as well as several others, Ron stood up and invited Neville over to join, which he happily accepted. After the game was over, Hermione stopped him and asked why he did it. To this Ron blushed, and then told Hermione, that "while there are always other games, there is not always time to play them with your friends." Hermione shocked, let him pass, but his kind words remained in her head for the rest of the night.

She finally went to sleep late that night with images of Ron dancing around her head, his sparkling blue eyes and dashing smile and laughing voice…