It All Started At a Lake

Chapter 5

Thursday, September 5th, 1998

Hermione woke with a headache the next morning. She was able to sneak one of Ginny's hangover potions the night before though so she shouldn't have much trouble during the day.

She grabbed the potion out of her nightstand and drank it before Ginny would wake up. She didn't want her friend to catch her in this state. At least not again. 

Hermione sat up and gasped as she saw a light-blue cat sitting on the edge of her bed. The pet shimmered and was see-through. 

The tabby cat stood up and stretched it's legs before turning to Hermione.

"Miss Granger, I would like to see you in my office as soon as possible. The new password is Lion" said the voice of Headmistress McGonagall.

The Patronus disappeared and the room went dark. Hermione immediately began to wonder why she was being called to the office.

Had she found out about Hermione drinking last night? Had something happened to her parents in Australia?

Hermione slowly began to remember everything from last night. She groaned and rolled out of bed. The only good thing that has happened today so far is she didn't have a nightmare last night. 

She was glad she didn't and that she had actually gotten some much needed rest last night. She wasn't exactly proud of how she got that rest though. 

With a flick of her wand the bed was made and the lamp on her nightstand was on. She used the dim light to find her uniform and quickly change while trying to manage her bushy hair. 

Once she was ready she turned off the lamp and headed out of the dorm. 

She walked down the empty hallways until she was outside the Headmistress' office. She said the password to the Gargoyle and walked up the steps. The passageway was fairly lit at this time of the day so Hermione was careful to not trip. 

She knocked on the door and let herself into the office. Most of the portraits were still asleep. The only two that were awake were Dumbledore and Snape. 

The two portraits turned to her as she quietly closed the door. 

She turned her head and saw McGonagall sitting at her desk sipping her morning coffee. 

Hermione walked across the room and sat in the chair across from Minerva. 

"I assume you know why I called you here today." she said

Hermione gulped and folded her hands in her lap. "I might have an idea why."

"Well three of your friends have come to me recently. They are all worried about you." she stated

She knew that two of the people were Harry and Ron, but she wasn't sure who the third person was. She was assuming it was Ginny, but she wondered if it was Draco.

"I promise that I'm fine, It's nothing to worry about." replied Hermione

McGonagall sighed. "it becomes a problem when you wake up in the middle of the night and throw up. Yes, Ginny told me about that."

"I wasn't aware that Ginny knew." said Hermione, "I can just use dreamless sleep potion if I really need to."

"Really? So why didn't you use that last night when you instead drank a whole bottle of Firewhisky." said McGonagall, her tone becoming more serious. 

Hermione started internally panicking. She wondered how somebody had found out.

"How--how did you know about that?" asked Hermione