Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
————————————
Aurora Areli
HERMIONE REMAINED IN THE hospital wing for several weeks.
There was a flurry of rumour about her disappearance when everyone arrived back from the Christmas holidays; everyone thought she had been attacked. So many students filed past the hospital wing trying to catch a glimpse at her that Madam Pomfrey took out her curtains again and put them around Hermione, to spare her the shame of being seen with a furry face.
Harry, Ron and I went to visit her every evening. When the new term started, we brought her each day's homework.
"If I'd sprouted whiskers, I'd take a break from work," Ron said as he tipped a stack of books onto Hermione's bedside table one evening.
"Don't be silly, Ron, I've got to keep up," Hermione said briskly.
Her spirits were greatly improved by the fact that all the hair had gone from her face and her eyes were slowly turning back to brown.
"I don't suppose you've got any new leads?" she added in a whisper, so that Madam Pomfrey couldn't hear.
"No," Harry said gloomily.
"I was so sure it was Malfoy," Ron said for about the hundredth time.
"What's that?" Harry asked, pointing to something gold sticking out from under Hermione's pillow.
"Just a Get Well card," Hermione said hastily, trying to move it back out of sight, but Ron was too quick for her. He pulled it out, opened it, and read it aloud:
"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 Defence League and five times winner of Witch Weekly's Most-Charming-Smile Award."
Ron looked up at Hermione, disgusted.
"You sleep with that under your pillow?"
Luckily for her, Hermione was spared from answering by Madam Pomfrey sweeping over with her evening dose of medicine.
"Is Lockhart the smarmiest bloke you've ever met, or what?" Ron said to Harry and me as we left the hospital wing and started up the stairs to Gryffindor Tower to work on our homework. Snape had decided it would be a good idea to give us so much homework that we were hardly left with any free time at all, and probably wouldn't be for the next month.
Ron was just saying how much he wished he had asked Hermione how many rat tails you were supposed to put in a Hair-Raising Potion when an angry outburst from the floor above reached our ears, making me jump.
"That's Filch," Harry muttered.
"Let's go check it out," I suggested, so we hurried up the stairs and paused just out of sight, listening hard for something to tell us what was going on.
