She's always kind (Neville X Reader story)

Chapter 18

Scotland - Hogwarts School
Of Witchcraft and Wizardry

The next morning, (Y/n) watched as the now back to normal Harry and Ron staggered clumsily into the common room, rather fatigued. They looked half asleep but the small Gryffindor quickly snapped them out of it, demanding that they tell her what happened the previous night. As they explained, she began to notice something was missing, "Where's Hermione?" The two boys looked at eachother guiltily, she eyed them both rather confused, raising her thin eyebrow. Ron swallowed the large lump in his throat, "yeah about that, you should probably come with us" he tugged on her robe sleeve, motioning for her to follow them.

She felt sick to her stomach as they were walking in the direction of the hospital wing, their footsteps echoed in the empty corridor as everyone was at breakfast. They pushed open the large wooden doors, each side of the room was a single row of white hospital beds, every other bed rested an injured or ill student. On the bed in the far corner, (Y/n) spotted the scarlet and gold striped tie  hanging from the patients neck. As she stepped closer, it became more and more clear that Hermione wasn't herself. On her head twitched two furry cat ears, which looked too convincing to be fake to (Y/n).

The now cat girl was sat up in bed reading a large book, having not noticed her visitors. The honey blonde girl gently placed her hand on the top of the book and pulled it down to reveal Hermione's shockingly furry face. She bit her tongue as she stared at all the new features of her bushy haired friend, not once teasing her. Suddenly the girl started retching forward, causing (Y/n) to jump back off the bed. Hastily, Madam Pomfrey ushered the three out of the way and held out a small bowl for Hermione who started coughing up a big and nasty looking hairball.

"I'm sorry you three but you will have to come back later, hopefully the fur on her face will be gone by then, don't worry, she's in good hands" Madam Pomfrey spoke whilst hold the bowl close to poor Hermione. (Y/n) sighed, fiddling with the sleeves of her robe, she followed Harry with Ron at her side out of the large room. Once the wooden doors had closed behind the trio, the silence was broken by the smaller Gryffindor, "so, is anyone going to explain what happened?" She asked, staring ahead of herself. The two boys beside her shuffled rather uncomfortably before Harry answered "the hair Hermione took from Millicent Bulstrode's robe wasn't from her head....but instead from her cat."

Once the three reached the Great hall, they stopped just outside "can we agree to not mention why Hermione is in the hospital wing, if anyone asks, just say she has a cold" (Y/n) announced to Harry and Ron who both nodded in agreement. The trio went to sit down and eat breakfast, (Y/n) munched on a piece of toast while Ron, as usual, stuffed his face with bacon and eggs. Harry just stared down at his plate, the night before, he couldn't believe it wasn't Malfoy, how could he get it wrong? What was worse was that he didn't listen to his friend when she tried to tell him otherwise about the blonde Slytherin.

That day was rather slow, lessons felt like an age and all the trio really wanted was to see Hermione to make sure she was ok. Once they had managed to visit her, albeit not for very long, their worries were put to rest, no longer was there fur on her face, the tail had vanished and the only thing that remained were the furry ears on too of her head. She seemed happier than she was that morning which relieved the honey blonde Gryffindor. After the visit, the trio began their trek back to the Gryffindor tower.

However, on the way there, they noticed a pool of water drenching the stone tiles on the second floor corridor. "Myrtle's probably flooded the bathroom again" (Y/n) announced, sighing at her now soggy shoes. "You two go back upstairs, I'll turn off the taps" she spoke calmly, to which only Ron nodded. Harry just stood next to the small girl "I'll help you turn them all off" he added smiling. Ron made his way down the corridor and out of sight while the duo ventured into the flooded bathroom. Just as suspected, everywhere was covered in water, the floors, the walls. All that could be heard was some whistful sighing and soft, almost fake crying.