janus ~ hermione granger

xix

"you're late," hermione looked up.

"fashionably late," maddy winked, sitting down next to the girl.

"where even were you?" ron asked.

"hanging with draco," maddy replied, laying down on the couch, using hermione's lap as a pillow.

"why didn't we study," the red-head groaned.

"maybe if you would have focused on doing your work instead of claiming that crookshanks killed your smelly rat, then maybe you wouldn't be complaining about how much studying you have to do."

maddy cheered, holding her hand out for a high-five, but was ignored, which made her pout.

"maybe if you could keep that thing you called a cat under control then we wouldn't be in this situation," ron snapped.

"ronald, don't blame me or crookshanks for your lack of dedication."

"lack of dedication? your cat ate my rat?"

"madison iris taylor, where do you think you're going?" hermione put a pause on their argument to address the girl who had gotten up to go up to the dorms.

"ron did you have to tell her my middle name?" she groaned as she dragged her feet back to the couch.

"and don't go back to sleep," hermione scolded the girl who had gotten comfortable and closed her eyes.

"i hate it here," maddy mumbled, opening her eyes and making eye contact with the granger girl. she made a funny face in attempt to calm the angry girl down, and surprisingly, it worked.

                                         𓆉

"what are we doing?" maddy asked as draco led her, crabbe and goyle to some big rocks.

"they're going to kill buckbeak," the blonde said, taking out some binoculars.

"wait what?" the girl stole them and held them up to her face, only being able to see hagrid's hut and the creature tied up outside of it.

maddy groaned and sat down on the floor, facing the school instead of the hut. she brought her knees up to her chest and put her head down.

as the three boys were joking around, she started thinking of some of the charms snape was teaching her to cast without a wand.

"holy-"

"-merlin's-"

"-beard."

maddy lifted her head, wondering why the three boys sounded so surprised when she suddenly realized she was no longer on the floor.

"oops," she muttered, getting herself back down. as soon as she landed, she spotted the golden trio heading their way.

"ah! come to see the show?" draco gawked.

"you foul, loathsome, evil, little cockroach!" the brunette rushed forward, holding her wand up. maddy instantly went next to her, placing her hand on the wand.

"hermione, no! he's not worth it," ron groaned.

the granger girl lowered her wand, facing her best friends before quickly turning back around to punch draco in the face, causing his head to come in contact with the stone behind him.

maddy burst out into laughter. draco scowled at her and went back to whining. the girl said her apologizes while holding back a smile.

"c'mon," she snorted, grabbing draco's hand and leading him back to the building, crabbe and goyle trailing behind them.

after dropping off the three boys at the slytherin common room, she headed out for another adventure.

well, not really an adventure.

she just needed to take a walk outside.

"ouch! he bit me!" she heard a voice holler, and recognized it as ron's.

she headed in the direction the voice came from, and spotted the red-head chasing after his rat. maddy snorted at hermione's annoyed state.

"ron, wait!"

"ron! get away from that tree!"

the taylor snuck up on the granger girl, receiving a smack after she shrieked.

"harry, maddy, hermione! look out, it's the grim!"

before the three could turn around, a large dark dog jumped in between them, making maddy grab onto hermione as an instinct.

"no! harry!" ron hollered once more after the dog had bit onto his leg. the other three rushed forward in attempt to keep the red-head out of the hole he was being dragged to.

"ron, no!" harry and maddy called out as the poor boy was taken out of their sight.

madison was the only one to notice the whomping willow's branches swing at them as they rushed forward, so she let go of the girl next to her and pushed both teenagers out of the way.

the tree still managed to hit them, knocking harry's glasses off, but at least they weren't swinging around like she was.

maddy thought of how to get out of that situation instead of screaming, and to her surprise, she actually came up with something. she waited until harry located his glasses and helped hermione up before snatching him from the ground and letting go of him as they neared the entrance ron was taken into to.

after successfully landing him in there, she grabbed onto hermione's extended hand and tried to gently toss her into the opening. another whole circle and she let go of the branch, groaning in pain like the other two.

"you two can spend as much time on top of each other as you'd like later, hurry up!" harry called out, causing the two girls to quickly separate and turn red.

"where do you suppose this goes?" maddy questioned as she brushed dirt off herself.

"i have a hunch, but i hope im wrong."

the three proceeded to go up a trapdoor, hermione gasping as they saw paw prints all over the floor.

"harry-"

maddy quickly covered the scared girl's mouth, not before making sure her hand was somewhat clean.

"ron!" the sighed as they spotted the red-head who was still in pain due to his broken leg.

"it's a trap! he's an animagus!" he pointed behind them.

a door creaked, and their eyes widened as a man with shoulder-length hair appeared. hermione interlaced her hand with maddy's free one, calming down a bit with the contact.

"if you want to kill harry," ron whimpered, standing up and in front of his friend. "you'll have to kill us too!"

"no, only one will die tonight," he cackled.

"and it will be you!" harry hissed as maddy shoved both ron and hermione out of the way and onto the bed.

she didn't pay attention to what harry because she was too busy making sure her friends were okay.

"are you going to kill me, harry?"

"expelliarmus!" someone bursted through the door, nodding at harry so he would get off of sirius.

"well, well, sirius, looking rather ragged, aren't we? finally the flesh reflects the madness within," professor lupin spoke.

"you'd know all about the madness within, now wouldn't you remus?" black questioned, and after a moment, lupin extended his hand, helping the fugitive up.

"you have got to be kidding me," maddy muttered, going for her wand before realizing remus had it in his pocket.

word count- 1141
date written- september 30, 2020