Healing the Broken

Chapter 18- Harry's Quidditch Surprise

She fell asleep.

It was at the end of a Potions lesson, and Slughorn had left. Hermione had wanted to talk to him about her essay on the Essence of Murtlap, for she was afraid that she had left something out.

"You're Hermione freaking Granger." Ron replied when she had told the boys about her worries at breakfast. Ron was currently shoving his face with pancakes and sausage, and Harry was wolfing down bacon beside her. "You never forget to put anything in essays."

"You never forget anything, period." Harry adds, getting a nod from Ron. Hermione rolls her eyes.

But she had stayed after class anyways- it was their last class of the day, and everyone was going to dinner.

"You go on ahead and save me a seat. I'll be fast I promise." She says to the boys, but just as they walk out, Slughorn does as well, completely oblivious to her calls. She decides to wait in the classroom for him, because surely he would have to return to it at some point to lock up.

But it had been a lot of work catching up, and by catching up she means getting back to the top in the class, and she was dead tired. Not to mention her pain potions made her drowsy.

I'll just close my eyes for a minute, she thinks, and then wham, lights out.

When she woke up again, the classroom was much darker, for the torches were dying after being lit all day. Hermione stands up, wandering what time it is. Since she was in the dungeons, she couldn't very well look outside and see if the moon was in the sky yet.

She grumbles. Apparently Slughorn had no interest in returning to his open classroom. She gets to her feet, slinging her bag over her shoulder, and marches haughtily out of the classroom, thoroughly frustrated. Thanks to Slughorn and her lack of sleep, she had missed dinner, and now she was crying with hunger.

As she climbs the stone steps, she makes a slight detour and heads for the kitchens, where, sadly, hundreds of house elves are still at work. The sight pains her, and she starts looking for Dobby- before she remembers that Dobby was dead.

She always felt like his death was her fault.

He had come to rescue them. She should have fought back, she should have tried harder to fight Bellatrix. But no, she was just a burden, screaming and then passing out. She seemed to be awful good at passing out.

Tears sting her eyes, and a house elf rushes over, giving her a tissue to dab her eyes with. When she looks up again, she notices that all of the house elves look like they want to help her, but are hesitant. She had tried to set them free, after all.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to try to free you." She says. "I just missed dinner and was wondering if there was any extra food-"

"Ah, don't ya worry miss! We'll get ya some food. Go ahead and sit down, we'll have it right to ya." A house elf says with a slight accent after they all relax when she mentions not freeing them. He pushes her into a chair, where she is greeted by a plate of drumsticks, corn, mashed potatoes, and a glass of pumpkin juice. And then, off to the side on a smaller plate, is a few treacle tarts.

Harry loves treacle tarts.

He still hadn't asked her out. Sure it had only been a few days, but they'd kissed a few times now. She was so sure that when he took her up onto the roof to see the stars, he was going to ask her. But he didn't, and now she felt like a fool for ever believing he would.

When she's finished eating, she pushes her plate away and thanks the elves for their kindness. As she's walking out the door, she glances at the clock mounted onto the wall out of curiosity.