I Thought You Were A Dementor (rewrite)

Chapter 7 - Tumbling Down

Chapter 7

Morning. It's such an awful time.

Hermione used to wake up bright and early day every day, skipping down to breakfast to prepare herself for another day of magic. However, she now would explode her alarm clock in sleepy aggravation and only drag herself out of bed to repair it swearing sleepily under her breath. She headed down to breakfast right on time, tumbling down the endless flights of stairs to battle another day of poor education.

Hermione barely remembered moving as she headed down that morning, the weight of Tumble in her bag causing her shoulder to ache painfully as she wandered towards the great hall. Hermione bashed her head against the large oak doors of the main hall, blinking at the wood blankly before rubbing her forehead with confusion. She swayed slightly on her feet, blindly using her hands to find where the doors were open.

"You a little drunk there Granger?" A cold voice chuckled. Hermione looked at Draco Malfoy gormlessly before slowly rubbing her puffy eyes.

"Nope. Just tired." She staggered into the hall to her seat, nodding at Ron and Neville in greeting before focusing on the mouth watering smell of breakfast.

"Morning!" Harry chirped brightly, Hermione scowled at him as she filled her plate with food. Ron interrupted Harry's chipper conversation to drop a letter in front of their faces.

"From Charlie." He explained, pushing it closer to prompt the pair to read it. Hermione's eyes scanned the page, her heart falling with every word she read.

"What is it?" Ginny questioned, shaking Hermione's shoulders urgently and trying to make out the rough scrawl across the parchment.

"Charlie has room for Tumble and would like to give him a home in Romania." Harry said, his voice trembling as he spoke. They had all gotten close to the little dragon, taking care of it at the best of their ability.

"I suppose it's for the best." Hermione choked out, glancing down towards her wriggling bag with dismay.

"You're right Hermione; he is going to have a better life there. When is he going?" Ginny asked; taking the parchment out of Hermione's shaking hands. "Tonight? Woah, he could have given us some notice!" Ginny grumbled, folding the letter up and sliding it into her robe pocket. "He's going to make loads of dragon friends and stuff." Ginny attempted to comfort Hermione, patting her on the back. Harry rolled his eyes at his girlfriend's inability to not make a situation worse; the peppy chatter was just going to bring Hermione down further. The group all wandered up to transfiguration to kill time, discussing how they were going to get up to the astronomy tower so late; Filch patrolled that area relentlessly.

"Oh... I might know how to get there... But you're not going to like it." Hermione grimaced, slipping into her seat beside Ginny.

"How?" Ginny was beaming eagerly, whispering as to not draw attention from their stern headmistress.

"I know a guy..." Hermione winced; avoiding Ginny's piercing blue eyes. "I'll have to take Tumble alone though because it won't work with multiple people."Hermione grimaced at how suspicious she was sounding, eyes flickering to where Draco was lounging in his chair.

"Who is this guy?" Ginny gasped loudly, offended that Hermione was excluding her from her plans. McGonagall's eyes fell upon the girls, Hermione's cheeks flushing under her gaze.

"Miss Granger and Miss Weasley it seems as if you cannot be trusted to sit with one another without disrupting my lesson. Miss Granger, sit beside Mr Malfoy as punishment. Miss Weasley you sit alone for the remainder of the year." McGonagall snapped her fingers, urging Hermione to move seats faster.

"I don't see how sitting beside me is a punishment; it's more of a reward really." Draco drawled, winking at Hermione as she sat beside him. Draco was more than irritating as the lesson progressed; he was tapping and humming constantly. It was getting on her last nerve. Hermione couldn't do her work due to him using the counter spell constantly, undoing everything she had done. With a flick of her wand Hermione hexed him, sending him falling out of his chair and onto the ground with a shocked shriek. His body prickled with the string of electricity, hair static with the energy.

"Remove yourself from my floor Mr Malfoy, you are making it dirty." The headmistress sassed, looking over her glasses at the boy with disapproval.