Trouble Times Two (A Harry Potter fan fiction)

A Change of Style

"Happy Halloween!" Paravati ran around the girls dorm room, throwing candies at the sleeping girls. She giggled, as Lavender, still sleeping, kept mumbling 'Ow' and touching her arms. "WAKE UP!"
Parvati danced around, continueing to throw the candies in the air. Slowly, the girls stirred, and while Lavender and Hermione slowly realized what was going on, Grace realized right away. "CHOCOLATE!" She screamed as she jumped out of bed and started to gather all the chocolate into her arms. Lavender and Hermione gaped at each other before running around to gather up all the candy. As Parvati kept throwing the candy around, Grace wheeled around, and dove for the big bag that Parvati had been in the process of emptying.
Grace threw all the chocolate and the few candies she had collected into the bag and dove at Parvati, tackling her in a giant hug. "THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!"
Parvati grinned as she sat up and returned the hug. "You know for a girl who wasn't comfortable giving hugs at the start of the year, you sure have warmed up to them now."
Grace let go of the hug and dove up onto her bed, as Hermione and Lavender dove at the spot she had previously been sitting in. "That's not very nice." Grace pouted, hugging the bag full of candy, while Lavender and Hermione each only had a few handfuls piled onto their beds.
"But you have most of it!" Hermione exclaimed.
Grace eyes them suspiciously, before dumping the bag onto her bed. Lavender and Hermione brought over the candy they had collected, and split it all up four ways. Lavender and Hermione pulled wrapped suckers and smaller candies out of Grace's hair that she hadn't realized were stuck in her curls.
The girls all went into the bathroom to get cleaned up before heading down to the Great Hall. By now Parvati had warmed up towards Harry and Ron, and didn't feel as awkward around the Weasley twins as she had before. The pranking war was in full swing, and every day you never knew what was going to happen. Just last week, Grace had somehow hooked up all the Gryffindor showers (well not all, only the guys' dorms) to ice cold water that wouldn't heat up no matter how long you waited. Parvati still couldn't figure out how she did it, but she made it so that the water wouldn't dry, and after an hour glitter emerged from it. Fred and George had tried to find out from Grace what spell she had used, but when Grace wouldn't tell them, they had walked away, dripping wet and glittering red and gold.
Parvati had just finished doing her hair when Grace let out a shriek from the bathroom next to her. All the girls ran out of the bathrooms and knocked on the locked door of Grace's bathroom. "Are you okay?" Hermione asked through the door.
Grace didn't answer, still staring in the mirror. She had gotten dressed, dried her hair, and when she looked in the mirror realized there was a big change in her hair. I can't change it now, Grace thought. They heard me scream. Grace took a deep breath and clenched her fists. Fred and George. This was all their fault.
Grace quickly straightened her hair using her powers and unlocked the door that the girls were still knocking on. They looked at her clenched jaws, and then to her hair.
"Oh my god." Parvati whispered. "What happened?"
"Well it's definetly a bold choice.... but it suits you." Lavender said touching Grace's straight hair.
"Grace..." Hermione started and Grace marched over to the dorm door. "Don't do anything rash..."
"Whatever." Grace muttered as she flung the door open. Grace stormed down the stairs and saw the Weasley twins turn around and smirk. "You two.... I can't believe you... how dare you... why would you! I just- you just- AGH!"
"Why hello there Grace. Lovely morning." Fred grinned trying to hold back laughter.
"Nice hair by the way. Did you do something different to it?" George grinned reaching out to touch it. Grace slapped his hand away and glared at the two of them.
"Wait, I know what it is!" Fred exclaimed acting like he had just found out the secret to the whole universe. "Yesterday your hair black!"
"I can't believe you dyed my hair purple." Grace whispered glaring at the two of them.
"I don't know Gracie, purple kind of suits you." George said.
"Just... please tell me it's only temporary."
"Hm... to be honest, I can't really remember." Fred said scratching the back of his neck.
Grace quickly spun around and walked back up into the dorms again, flopping onto her bed. She covered her eyes with her hands.
"It actually looks really pretty on you." Hermione said sitting beside Grace and playing with her hair.
"Yea, you're lucky." Parvati said sitting at the foot of Grace's bed, feeling slightly jealous. "You would probably look good with any color hair, even green."
"Besides, purple is your favorite color." Lavender said smiling.
"I should just dye the both of them neon pink." Grace said, her voice slightly muffled by her hands. She sighed and got up to look in the mirror again. "Although it could be worse."
The girls walked out of the dorms to go to the Great Hall, and they went, people kept stopping them, asking Grace what made her decide to change her hair color.
"Oh, didn't you know?" Grace asked a fifth year Hufflepuff. "Colored hair is all the rage now a days. Everyone's doing it."
"Really?"
"Oh yea, you really didn't know? I thought you were into all the new trends. I guess I was wrong..."
By the time they actually got into the Great Hall, most of the students had found out about the change in Grace's hair. It was on their way to Charms, when Harry and Ron spoke up.
"So. What actually happened to your hair?" Ron asked.
"Not that it doesn't look good or anything, it actually suits you, we were just wondering." Harry explained.
"Why doesn't Ron ask his brothers." Grace muttered.
The two boys shook their heads, and they all sat down in their charms seats. Professor Flitwick out them into pairs, and Grace ended up with Dean Thomas, while Harry was with Neville and Ron was with Hermione. Ron and Hermione glared at each other, before sitting down as far away as possible from each other with remaining on the same side of the table. Grace was glad that this was one class she didn't have with Malfoy, she didn't think that she would be able to handle his cracks about her hair.
Grace listened to the instructions, and Dean went up to get their feather.
"So are you going first, or am I?" Dean asked her.
"You can."
"Oh, great. I get to make a fool of myself infront of the great Grace Potter." He fake sighed, and Grace laughed.
"Stop it, just try to make the feather fly."
After a few failed attemps, Dean let Grace try. All Grace could manage to do was make the feather hop over the table.
"At least we're still doing better than Seamus." Dean pointed towards where Seamus and Harry were seated, and as Grace looked, she saw their feather start to smoke. All of a sudden there was a loud 'BANG' and their feather blew up. Harry stared wide eyed at the feather, and Professor Flitwick rushed over to clean up the mess and give them a new one.
"Yea, I guess we are." Grace agreed. As they continued trying to make it fly, Grace heard Hermione speaking to Ron.
"You're saying it wrong." she sighed exasperatly. "It's Wingardium LeviOsa, not Wingardium LeviosAR."
"Fine then!" Ron exclaimed sitting back and crossing his arms. "You do it then. Show me."
Hermione agreed and did the swish and flick movement with her wand. The feather flew high up in the air, and Professor Flitwick clapped and asked Hermione to show everyone how to do it again. He gave Gryffindor a bunch of points, and class ended.
As they were walking to their next class, Grace congradulated Hermione. "See, I told you that you would be better than me at things!"
"Thanks." Hermione smiled. All of a sudden her face dropped and she put her head down.
"What is- oh." Grace frowned and looked ahead of them.
"That girl is an absolute nightmare!" Ron was telling Harry and his friends. "Grace and the other girls probably only hang out with her because they pity her! She has no friends and it's no wonder, she's such an absolute know it all!"
Hermione quickly ran past them and Grace heard her crying. "Hermione wait-" Grace called.
Lavender and Parvati looked at her, and Grace stormed up to Ron.
"I think she heard you." Harry muttered.
"Who cares." Ron said.
"How dare you!" Grace exclaimed as she reached the boys. She gave Ron a small push back. Ron quickly backed away and widened his eyes. "She's going go believing all those lies you just said! She's going to think that we pity her, and that's the only reason we bother hanging out with her! Do you even realize how mean that was!? You better hope she's fine, Ronald Weasley, because if she isn't, you're to blame, do you understand?!"
Ron let out a small squeek of understanding. Grace stormed away to go find Hermione, and it was only when she had turned the corner that she had realized that the boys had all been shaking.
"You guys can go to class. Tell Professor Sprout it was an emergency." Grace told Lavender and Parvati. "I'll get Hermione. It will probably be better if there's less people who see her cry.
They both nodded, and Grace wandered around the halls.
She tried to stop a few ghosts, to find out if they knew where Hermione was, but they seemed to be in there own little world. Grace sighed. She didn't like the thought of skipping classes. Finally she found Peeves.
"Hellooo little firstie." He grinned. "You're the one I like. What can Peeves help you with?"
"Have you seen Hermione Granger? A bit taller than me, wavy brown hair, kind of frizzy.."
"Oh yes, yes yes yes." Peeves grinned. "I've seen her today, and yesterday, and almost everyday. Peeves see's eerybody."
"Peeves, cut to the chase." Grace sighed. "Where is she now. I need to know."
"Why she's in Hogwarts of course." Peeves grinned.
Grace glared at him. "You know what, obviously I interupted you, and you're just going to act like a jerk. I may as well not waste my time with you. So if you don't mind, I have to find my friend."
"Mrow." Peeves said as he followed Grace. "Someone's angry with Peevesie. Then again, lots of people are. But if you really want to know, I guess I can tell you, as long as Gracie promises to be Peevesie's friend." Peeves held out his pinky finger amd Grace shook it. "Very well. She's in the girl's bathroom on the second floor."
"Thank you, Peeves."
Peeves waved goodybye, and Grace ran towards the bathroom. Her footsteps were silent, and it was one thing Grace liked about herself. She could sneak up on people easily because she was very light on her feet.
Finally Grace came to the bathroom door. She pushed it open, and heard sobs echoing throughout it. Hermione was sitting on the bathroom floor, staring up at the ceiling, her eyes puffy and red. "Hey." Grace said softly.
Hermione quickly hid her head in her arms. "I want to be alone."
"Well let's be alone together then." Grace smiled, as she bent down to and sat on her books.
"You don't have to be here." Hermione whispered, her voice hoarse. "You're missing classes."
"So are you. Besides, this is an emergency. I had to make sure you were okay."
"Im fine, you can go."
"No I can't. I need to be here with you. Cheer you up."
"Oh yea? And how do you plan on cheering me up?" Hermione asked.
"It's a secret." Grace smiled.
The girls talked for a while, and Hermione was starting to feel a bit better. Grace made jokes, and finally Grace had comvinced Hermione that she really did like her.
"Come one." Grace smiled. "Let's go get something to eat."
"I don't really want to go to the Great Hall and sit near Ron." Hermione muttered.
"But who said we were going to the Great Hall?" Grace smirked.
"But... where are we going then?"
"We aren't going anywhere right now. We'll have to bring the dishes back but we're stayig here for now."
Hermione stared at Grace, curious about how she was going to make food appear. Grace cleared her throat, and said one simple word. "Nonnie."
Suddenly a small house elf appeared infront of them. "Hello Miss Grace Potter. How can Nonnie help you? Do you need a cake? Ooh, or maybe a chocolate fountain! Anything Miss Potter asks for Nonnie will fetch, because oh, Miss Potter is so nice to Nonnie and all her friends in the kitchens."
Hermione smiled at Grace. "Look at that Grace, you're even popular with the house elves."
Grace's cheeks became pink as she denied it. "I am not popular. Fred and George are popular. Lee Jordan is popular. I am not popular."
"Oh please." Hermione scoffed. You and Harry are two of the most popular people at Hogwarts."
"Miss Grace Potter is popular. Oh yes, very popular indeed." Nonnie joined in. "How could Nonnie help Miss Potter and her friend Miss Hermione Granger?"
"Well if you guys aren't too busy, I was wondering if you could get me and Hermione some food. We don't really want to go down to the Great Hall today."
"Oh, yes, definetly!" Nonnie exclaimed. "I will bring your food right away, Miss Potter and Miss Granger! What do you wish to eat?"
The girls gave Nonnie their orders and watched her disappear in a 'pop!'.
"How did you find out how to do that?" Hermione asked. "Get a house elf to just appear and bring you food, I mean."
Grace laughed and told her about how Fred and George had told her how to get into the kitchens, and how she had become close with Nonnie and the other house elves. Hermione promised she wouldn't tell anyone Grace had been sneaking down to the kitchen's, and even asked if sometime Grace would take her there.
Soon however, Nonnie arrived with their food. She explained how the plates would just disappear back to the kitchen's once they were done with them, and the girls dug in. As Grace ate, she listened to Hermione talk about her worries about not knowing enough, but also knowing too much. Grace told her not to worry about it too much, and just be herself.
It was only a few minutes after the plates disappeared, when Grace heard the bathroom door close and lock. The two girls looked up, and when they realized only a few feet infront of thtem was a giant troll, they screamed.