the cat cafe ✞ dramione

two; welcome to the cat cafe, sir.

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she arrived at the prefects meeting with a minute to spare. anthony was nowhere in sight but hermione knew better than to expect him here bright and early, so she took her seat at her desk and shuffled through the mountain of paperwork no one else was going to do besides her.

as much as she loved her position as head girl, hermione couldn't help but despise how no one cared to help her. they all threw their problems at her and expected her to deal with it all in her already tightly-packed schedule and she had no hope but to grin and bear it. even the professors acted such a way, dumping stuff onto her lap and expecting it to be done when she had so much other work to do.

five minutes after the due start of the meeting everyone was seated and hermione began handing out the patrol sheet, ignoring the few groans that arose.

"oh, but, hermione—i can't patrol thursday evenings!" a sixth-year hufflepuff called, waving their sheet of parchment wildly to gain the head girl's attention.

"why not?" hermione called, raising an eyebrow in question.

the girl stuttered, lowering their hand. "um, well, you see—i have shifts at hogsmeade every tuesdays, thursdays and saturdays. i don't get back until midnight at the earliest. i'm sure i told you about this at the start of the year."

hermione signed internally, wishing the ground would swallow her up because being head girl was slowly becoming a nuisance more than anything else and she'd likely break down at some point due to it. instead, she nodded. "is there anyone willing to swap patrol shifts with mariam?"

easily enough for hermione, someone quickly (and eagerly) swapped shifts with the hufflepuff and that matter resolved itself quickly. when no more complaints arose, hermione sat back down and shuffled through the papers to find her itinerary.

"okay, so now we can talk about the thestrals," hermione started, looking up from her parchment. "it's been brought to my attention that students are sneaking into the forest after hours and disturbing the thestral habitat. therefore, i've extended patrols to the edge of the forbidden forest and it's been approved by headmaster dumbledore. we can't force the creatures out of their own home."

some groans echoed through the room but hermione ignored them. if they did their job at controlling the students, then patrols wouldn't have needed to be extended. it had nothing to do with her.

"i've mapped out what i think may be the fastest route to scour the castle for any misbehaving students. they're behind your schedule. if you have any complaints, direct them to anthony and i."

a few muttered complaints echoed through the room - ultimately too low to discern, but audible enough to make hermione want to roll her eyes and pull at her hair - but no one pushed forth anything directly, so she pushed the topic aside. she knew their hands were tied and they weren't likely to against her words out of begrudging acceptance and, possibly, even though she hated admitting it: fear.

she checked the itinerary once more before sorting out her loose parchments. all her notebooks were full - minus the ones she used for specific classes - and she was already tight on money. maybe she'd stop at the poundland before her shift started tonight as wizarding stationary was a lot more expensive than bleached paper and ballpoint pens. note-taking didn't account to any actual coursework so it was the only time she'd be allowed to use such appliances without the fear of being marked down for it.

even with the wizarding world's change and slow dive into the muggle world post-war almost two decades ago, the ministry were still a little biased and didn't care for all the things muggles created for practicality, instead intoning that some traditions must stay lest magical culture be lost in this effort of a semi-integration of worlds.