Dress Code - Pansmione

Chapter 10 - Lavender Brown: Gossip Extraordinaire

The beginning of Hermione's plan had not gone to plan.

Mistakes were made.

Morals were redefined.

Friends were horrified.

But cocaine was planted. Stage two had been completed.

Hermione knew that planting an illegal substance in a foreign area was always bound to be difficult. She knew that her plan wasn't necessarily "defective." She knew that the next stage of the plan was bound to be easier. She knew that she should be able to relax, to rest, to celebrate a minor success, but she couldn't.

Her pulse didn't settle, her anxieties didn't drift away, and her guard didn't fall. She knew she couldn't relax if she wanted to succeed.

She needed to be her best. She needed to be perfect. She needed to get this right.

A cool, calm, and collected Hermione Granger was a wild fantasy. She wasn't cool. She wasn't calm. And she most definitely wasn't collected. But what she lacked in sanity and general wellness, she made up for with a variety of virtues: she was driven; she was intelligent; she was perseverant; she was a goddamn war hero.

And now, despite her previous shortcomings, she was going to go forward with her plan.

And it was going to fucking work.

As Head Girl, Hermione knew McGonagall's schedule by heart, and so she knew the exact location of where part three of her master plan would commence: an open study group that McGonagall supervised Tuesdays and Thursdays.

These study groups were one of Hermione's first policies as Head Girl and she thought they were a smashing success. It took some elbow grease to get supervisors, but once the professors recognized the benefits of study groups after an elaborate presentation by Ron and Hermione, they welcomed the program with open arms and leapt to be part of it.

Well, sort of; some of the professors only agreed to chaperone if Hermione would take over grading their assignments, and some refused her outright. Still, a success in her eyes.

And, currently the arena for their next move. Lavender sat right at the front of the room, close enough that McGonagall would be able to hear her talking, even if Lavender wasn't desperately trying to catch the professor's attention.

Lavender began, "So you know that guy I was talking to?" Parvati nodded. Lavender had roped her into the scheme with Hermione's permission stating that it "didn't make sense to gossip to no one."

Lavender had a point, and Pavarti was easy to work with; she had only demanded that Hermione write a potions essay for her as payment. It was one more debt to settle to complete the plan—Hermione could handle it.

Lavender had set the scene, and now it was time. She went for the kill: "Yeah, you know I'm not one for judging other people. I'm very go-with-the-flow, but there was a bunch of cocaine in Jason's stuff. Yeah, Jason, the seventh-year Gryffindor."

McGonagall didn't react.

Lavender doubled down, "Like copious amounts of cocaine."

McGonagall didn't react.

"Like it was concerning. Honestly, I wouldn't be talking about it if it wasn't an insane amount of cocaine," Lavender raised her voice louder, trying to catch the professor's attention. The girl looked flustered, she turned to look at Hermione mouthing what now?

Hermione shrugged. This was not something her plan had accounted for.

Was McGonagall hard of hearing? How had she not reacted yet?