Short Change Hero

Chapter 8: I am Machine

Chapter Eight

Fur Cue

"You're more than I can take,

And something's gonna break,

Get out of my head,

No shame,

Passing all the blame,

And nothing's gonna Change,

Get out of my head..."

Fur Cue by Seether

Sunday September 22nd, 1996

Gryffindor Dormitories- Quarter Noon

Lazily sitting crisscross on ground beside the couch that was in front of the fireplace, with a yawn and a book in hand, Hermione looked up towards her two friends. They were currently sitting behind her playing a game of wizard's chest. She thought about how last night she had just decided to let go of the whole Ron not telling her about prefect's thing, and just go with it, because Ron was honestly far from the most intelligent boy she knew. Clearing her throat, she stood up, fixing her long sleeve shirt and her jeans, and then walked over towards the two as they continued to argue.

"I have some... studying to do in the library, so I will see the two of you at lunch..." she said quickly, deciding it was best they knew nothing about her trying to find Malfoy because the two were still so sure he had attacked her during patrols. Whether he did it or not, she had to talk to the git in order to know anything, which meant she had to find him soon, and before he had another chance to run away from her as he had done this morning after breakfast. Hermione was starting to remember a little about that night, small flashes of Malfoy shouting stupefy and blocking attacks, and in all honesty, she did not think Malfoy was the one who hurt her.

The both of her friends waved hands dismissively at her as she scoffed half-heartedly with a small smile, and proceeded to roll her eyes at their annoying yet reoccurring behavior. Walking away from them, in the direction of the Fat Lady painting, she thought about being in the hospital wing yesterday, and how it turned out other than some memory loss that should completely return soon, there was nothing wrong with her. Madam Pomfrey had told her she passed out from lack of eating the other day, and most likely hit her head when she fell down.

After eating something, she received a long lecture about eating properly and told not to skip any more meals or she would end up back in that bed. Hermione then had explained she lost track of time in the library on accident, and that it would not happen again. Stopping her thoughts, she pushed open the painting, letting it shut softly behind her, and walked down the set of stairs before her trying to think about where Malfoy could possibly be. She turned the corner to her right, passing a giggling group of Gryffindor fourth years as she decided to go to the dungeons, hoping he would be in the hallway.

Quickly making her way down the long narrow hallways, she turned down a set of spiral stairs, and nervously tugged at the sleeve of her shirt with her hand. Last night she found that the note had a charm where she could only read it during nighttime, and she should have known, really. The spell honestly was not that difficult to do, which made her annoyed that Malfoy did a simple charm, and she spent over two hours trying to figure out. Now, she knew she could wait until tonight to talk to him as the note said, but then decided it was best if she did it during the daytime, and not going out to have some random night meeting in the dark.

Once down in the corridor for the dungeons, she slowed her fast pace to an almost casual speed, as some of the Slytherin's that stood in the hallway, eyed her with sheer blatant disgust. Ignoring the looks, she lifted her chin looking around in hopes of seeing the stupid ferret, but from what she could see, unfortunately he was not here. Sighing loudly in annoyance, she looked around in hopes that someone here would know where he is. When she spotted Zabini, she almost relaxed in relief walking in his direction, and thankfully, he was not with Pansy but he was listening to Theodore Nott talk about something in boredom. Stopping just beside them, she loudly cleared her throat, tilting her head upwards to look the two of them in the eyes. Theo sneered down at her while Blaise just rose an eye brow in what she assumed was curiosity, both waiting for he to speak.