The Prisoner of Azkaban | Hermione Granger x Male Reader (Book Three)

20. The Return Of The Firebolt

Y/N's POV

Ravenclaw played Slytherin a week after the start of term. Slytherin won, though narrowly. According to Wood, this was good news for Gryffindor, we would take second place if we beat Ravenclaw. Wood therefore increased the number of team practices to five a week. This meant that with Lupin's Anti-Dementor classes, which were more draining than six Quidditch practices, I had just one night a week to do all my homework. Even so, I was not nearly as much strain as Hermione, whose immense workload finally seemed to be getting to her. Every night, without fail, Hermione was to be seen in a corner of the common room, several tables spread with books, Arithmancy charts, rune dictionaries, diagrams of Muggles lifting heavy objects, and file upon file of extensive notes, she barely spoke to anybody and snapped when she was interrupted.

"How's she doing it?" Ron muttered to me and Harry one evening as we sat finishing an essay on Undetectable Poisons for Snape. I looked up. Hermione was barely visible behind a tottering pile of books.

"Doing what?" Harry asked.

"Getting to all her classes!" Ron said. "I heard her talking to Professor Vector, that Arithmancy witch, this morning. They were going on about yesterday's lesson, but Hermione can't've been there, because she was with us in Care of Magical Creatures! And Ernie McMillan told me she's never missed a Muggle Studies class, but half of them are at the same time as Divination, and she's never missed one of them either!"

I knew Hermione had a time-turner but I just shrugged, ten seconds later, Wood appeared looking quite embarrassed.

"Bad news, Y/N. I've just been to see Professor McGonagall about the Firebolt. She got a bit annoyed at me. Told me I'd got my priorities wrong. Seemed to think I cared more about winning the Cup than I do about you staying alive. Just because I told her I didn't care if it threw you off, as long as you caught the Snitch first." Wood shook his head in disbelief. "Honestly, the way she was yelling at me, you'd think I'd said something terrible. Then I asked her how much longer she was going to keep it..." he screwed up his face and imitated Professor McGonagall's severe voice. "'As long as necessary, Wood' I reckon it's time you ordered a new broom, Y/N. There's an order form at the back of Which Broomstick, you could get a Nimbus Two Thousand and One, like Malfoy's got."

"I'm not buying anything Malfoy thinks is good," I said flatly.

January faded into February. The match against Ravenclaw was drawing nearer and nearer, but I still hadn't ordered a new broom. I was now asking Professor McGonagall for news of the Firebolt after every Transfiguration lesson, Ron and Harry standing hopefully at my shoulder.

"No, L/N, you can't have it back yet." Professor McGonagall told me before I'd even opened my mouth. "We've checked for most of the usual curses, but Professor Flitwick believes the broom might be carrying a Hurling Hex. I shall tell you once we've finished checking it. Now, please stop badgering me."

On the bright side, I was improving at the Patronus charm. Harry, however, seemed to be slightly behind.

"You're expecting too much of yourself," said Professor Lupin, "for a thirteen-year-old wizard, even an indistinct Patronus is a huge achievement. You aren't passing out anymore, are you?"

"I thought a Patronus would charge the Dementors down or something," said Harry dispiritedly, "make them disappear-"

"The true Patronus does do that," said Lupin, "but you've achieved a great deal in a very short space of time."

There was silence, then I asked a question. "What's under a Dementor's hood?"

Professor Lupin looked at me thoughtfully.