They All Love You

part thirty-nine

The smell of warm pumpkin biscuits wafted throughout the air, waking everyone in the house up. That is, besides Hermione. She needed extra time in the morning to review her NEWTS content before her first three tests in the afternoon. 

She rose early, beating the sun by a few minutes and met Molly Weasley in the kitchen-humming an auld folk tune and magically mixing and whipping ingredients in a bowl. There was a silent understanding of why she was up, as she was having trouble as it were trying to carry all of her textbooks down the narrow staircase.

"Oh, just use a levitation charm, dear," Molly chuckled, making Hermione mentally slap herself.

Studying all this time, and she didn't think to use a simple levitation charm to carry her things around. She attempted all throughout studying to stop revisiting her last encounter with Draco, and going over old notes and practice tests seemed to do the temporary trick. 

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Molly fiddling around with an envelope that sat in her apron pocket, protruding just enough so Hermione could see the corners of it. It was minimal, but she kept toying it around, and seemed to be muttering audibly about something. It was hard to tell from last night when they came in at King's Cross, but something seemed different among Molly. Her normal, stressful and loving mother stature seemed a bit on edge, like there was something gnawing at her and she couldn't do much about. 

She knew it must have something to do of the Order reforming rumors, though she didn't know exactly why the Order had to gather again. Plus, most of the Order's members were now gone. She made a note to ask her about it later.

George came yawning loudly down the stairs, his hair askew and lips cracked, "Mornin'" he nodded at Hermione and then at his mum. He shoved a few biscuits in his mouth before retrieving a fat packet of parchment binded together.

"Your exam starts in three minutes, George Weasley, and I swear on Merlin if you don't-" Miss Weasley began, but George held up his hands in defense.

"I'm doing it! I'm doing it! Calm down, woman, I only just woke up!"

He avoided a smack from Molly, running from the kitchen and into his father's office, winking at Hermione on his way there. Before she could open her mouth to ask a question, Ginny came groaning down, rubbing her eyes and nose violently before sitting down next to Hermione on the sofa. 

She looked indeed, dead. 

"What time's our first one again?" she croaked, nudging Hermione slightly.

She tried to bite back a laugh from the state of her best friend, "Noon."

"Merlin," she held a groan, and laying back down on the sofa to seemingly go back to sleep.

"Where's Theo, Hermione?" Molly distractedly asked her, making her swivel to face the old witch.

"Oh," she started, looking around, "he's always late to waking. He really loves sleeping in, I suppose."

She excused herself to gather a few more review materials from her and Ginny's room, but also having more plans in mind. She pulled Ginny's desk drawer open and pulled out a small white envelope and matching paper inside. She sat down with a quill in hand, staring at the blank page for a good five minutes- pondering of what to say. 

Dear Draco,

No. No, no, and no. It sounded formal, and almost weird. She never called him 'dear' and it wasn't like she was setting up a business proposal or anything.

Hi Draco,

Horrifying. 'Hi Draco' had sounded like an awkward third year asking out their crush via owl, and that thought alone made her cringe. She crossed it out and just wrote 'Draco," instead.