The Gloriana Set

The Silver Snitch

Hermione slept in the next morning, not waking until 6:15. She'd been up until nearly midnight working on her Love Warrior scroll and didn't really like the result. It hadn't helped listening to Lavender rave about Bluebell, or watching Ginny's silent tears as the redhead tried to write her own essay.

Hermione had planned to write about Harry, how her powerful (but platonic) love for him gave her the strength to fight over the years. But instead, she found herself writing about her parents, how she took a terrible risk to protect them at the risk of losing them forever. She wondered what Malfoy would write about. Would he write about his own parents? According to his testimony at trial, it was Voldemort's hideous threats to his mother that prompted him to let Death Eaters into the castle, to try to kill Dumbledore. How could love be the best defense in those circumstances? Didn't Voldemort only turn Malfoy's love into a weakness?

Dark thoughts for first thing in the morning, and Hermione was in no mood to write her 5 Things to Look Forward To. But again, a disciplined mind was important. 1) Breakfast, 2) She still hadn't visited Hagrid, 3) another walk by the lake, 4) Arithmancy, where they were studying a particularly knotty, seven-dimensional theorem. She couldn't think of a 5—not with Ron and Ginny depressed and Malfoy denying her his rune stone and Codex. Git. Finally, she wrote 5) the morning flier. She'd found a sort of peace in watching the mysterious figure and hoped he or she wouldn't stop practicing once tryouts were over.

With that thought, she rushed through her morning routine and was at the window promptly at 7:30, scanning the sky. Her breath hitched when she saw the flyer, sailing around the North Tower, silhouetted against the rising sun. The rider shot straight up, then down before launching into a series of loops. She followed the figure, searching for a hint to his or her identity. And what was ...

Then she saw it. A flash outside her window. Fascinated, she watched the silver ball flit outside her window, tiny wings fluttering. It was so tiny—how could Seekers even see ...

A shadow flew by the window, and she nearly screamed aloud. The flier had found the snitch, of course, had missed it by inches, and was returning for another try. The snitch continued to hover outside Hermione's window, teasing and sparkling in the growing light. Hermione was reaching to close the curtain when she saw the figure approach at high speed, hood thrown back, platinum hair shining.

Hermione didn't hesitate. She grabbed her wand and pointed it at the window, vanishing a single pane of glass. A gust of cold wind whipped the room's bed curtains and she heard Ginny mutter irritably. The snitch shot through the open pane and zipped around the room, reminding Hermione of Pig, Ron's wee owl.

She suddenly leaped backward, choking back another scream, for there was Malfoy on the other side of the window and he looked furious. She shivered, remembering that constant snarl from earlier years, but she had a plan, and it didn't involve releasing the snitch at that time. Instead, she waved her wand and restored the glass pane. Another wave, and the window curtains snapped shut, hiding the outraged Slytherin from view. Not even Malfoy would break into a girl's dorm before breakfast. He'd get a bat bogey hex from Ginny if he even tried.

"Whassup?" asked Lavender's sleepy voice.

"Nothing," Hermione said. She pointed her wand at the snitch: "Accio snitch," she whispered, and the bauble fluttered into her hand. It was beautiful, really: shining silver with "DLM" engraved in Old English letters. A gift, probably. Yes, this would do nicely. Holding the snitch with one hand, Hermione dug through her trunk with the other and emerged with the box her watch came in. A back-to-school gift from her parents, and the perfect size. She placed the snitch inside the box, tucked it into her robe pocket and left the bedroom. A few minutes before breakfast was all she needed. Then she just had to wait.