Miss Quinn

41 ~ Valentine's Day

Emma, Venus, Harry, and Ron were visiting Hermione in the hospital wing. The fur had finally vanished from her face, but her eyes hadn't quite turned back to brown yet.

Despite being in the hospital wing, Hermione was busy with homework. She insisted that the four of them tell her the homework so she could do it. Emma was in charge of turning it in for her.

They were sitting in chairs around her hospital bed when Harry suddenly asked, "What's that?"

There was a gold piece of paper sticking out from Hermione's pillow. Hermione tried to hide it and said, "Just a get well card."

Ron was too quick, he snatched the card and opened it.

"To Miss Granger, wishing you a speedy recovery, from your concerned teacher, Professor Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defense League, and five-time winner of Witch Weekly's Most-Charming-Smile Award."

"Does he really need to write all that down? He's already a self-absorbed git! That's just making him look worse!" Emma exclaimed.

"You sleep with this under your pillow?" Ron looked disgusted.

Hermione looked, for once, at loss for words. She was saved, however, by Madame Pomfrey who came with Hermione's medicine.

Emma and Venus left the hospital wing only a moment after Harry and Ron. The boys were turning the corner up ahead when they came through the doorway. Even from that distance, Emma could still hear Ron's voice talking about Lockhart.

"Come on, let's catch up," Venus said. The two girls jogged around the corner and joined Harry and Ron walking up the stairs.

Suddenly the four Gryffindors stopped. Filch's voice rang through the castle, and it was angry.

"-even more work for me! Mopping all night, like I haven't got enough to do! No, this is the final straw, I'm going to Dumbledore!" As Filch was yelling, the four Gryffindors had crept toward the corridor to find out what had happened. They instantly found out, seeing as water covered the floor.

"Myrtle's flooded the bathroom again!" Harry groaned. Emma lifted her robes so they wouldn't get wet and followed her friends into the girls' lavatory.

Myrtle's sobs were loud and horrible. She wasn't just crying, she was wailing like never before.

"Myrtle?" Harry asked.

"Who's there?" Mrytle asked, "Have you come to throw something else at me?"

Harry stepped forward, his shoes sloshing with water. "Why would I throw something at you?"

"I don't know!" Myrtle said, coming out of her stall. "I was minding my own business and someone thinks it's funny to throw a book at me!"

"Well it can't have hurt, it'd just go right through you, wouldn't it?" Ron asked.

Myrtle glared at him, "Oh, yes, let's throw books at Myrtle because she can't feel it! Ten points if it goes through her stomach!" She punched through Ron's chest. "Fifty if it goes through her head!" She punched Ron through the head.

"Myrtle, who threw it at you?" Venus asked.

"I don't know," Myrtle's face changed back to her normal, mopey expression. "I was sitting in the U-bend, thinking about death, and it fell through the top of my head!"

Emma looked around and saw a little black book on the floor under a sink. She picked it up and used a drying spell on it. Harry took the book from her and read the name on the inside front cover.