Percy Jackson and the Hound of Hogwarts [Book 3]

43) Hermione Hits Draco

"He — he sent me this," Hermione said, and my eyes got teary. I quickly wiped the tears away as she handed Harry the letter.

He read it quickly, "They can't do this. They can't. Buckbeak isn't dangerous."

"Malfoy's dad frightened the Committee into it," Hermione wiped her eyes. "You know what he's like. They're a bunch of doddery old fools, and they were scared. There'll be an appeal, though, there always is. Only I can't see any hope.... Nothing will have changed."

"Yeah, it will," Ron said strongly. "You won't have to do all the work alone this time, Hermione. I'll help."

"Oh, Ron!"

Hermione wrapped her arms around Ron's neck, sobbing. Ron, looking terrified, gently patted her on the top of the head. Eventually, Hermione pulled away.

"Ron, I'm really, really sorry about Scabbers...." she cried.

"Oh — well — he was old," Ron looked relieved. "And he was a bit useless. You never know, Mum and Dad might get me an owl now."

***

The only time we could talk to Hagrid was during Care of Magical Creatures, and he seemed numb with shock at the verdict.

"S'all my fault. Got all tongue-tied. They was all sittin' there in black robes an' I kep' droppin' me notes and forgettin' all them dates you looked up fer me, Hermione. An' then Lucius Malfoy stood up an' said his bit, and the Committee jus' did exac'ly what he told 'em...."

"There's still the appeal!" Ron said fiercely. "Don't give up yet, we're working on it!"

We walked up the hill towards Hogwarts, and Draco kept looking back at us and laughing.

"S'no good, Ron," Hagrid said sadly as we neared the castle. "That Committee's in Lucius Malfoy's pocket. I'm jus' gonna make sure the rest o' Beaky's time is the happiest he's ever had. I owe him that...."

Hagrid turned around quickly, heading back towards his hut with his face in his handkerchief.

"Look at him blubber!"

Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle were standing inside the castle doors, listening. Crabbe and Goyle were laughing, but it was clear the mean face Draco plastered on was fake. He was extremely uncomfortable.

"Have you ever seen anything quite as pathetic?" Draco said, his mouth twitching. "And he's supposed to be our teacher!"

Harry and Ron both moved forward with fists raised. Hermione got there first. SMACK! Draco staggered, and I raised am impressed eyebrow. Everyone stared with wide-eyes as Hermione raised her hand again.

"Don't you dare call Hagrid pathetic, you foul — you evil —"

"Hermione!" Ron said weakly, trying to grab her hand.

"Get off, Ron!"

Hermione pulled her wand out of her pocket. Draco stared at it, his head tilted slightly. His nose was bleeding, but he didn't seem to care.

"Come on," Draco said after a moment, turning to Crabbe and Goyle. They walked into the castle, Draco sending Hermione a intelligent look.

"Hermione!" Ron said, both impressed and stunned.

"Harry, you'd better beat him in the Quidditch final!" Hermione practically screeched. "You just better had, because I can't stand it if Slytherin wins!"

"We're due in charms," Ron said, still gaping. "We'd better go."

We hurried up the marble staircase to Flitwick classroom.

"You're late, boys!" Flitwick said as Harry opened the door. "Come along, quickly, wands out, we're experimenting with Cheering Charms today, we've already divided into pairs—"

We hurried to a desk in the back, where I partnered with Terry. Harry and Ron were in the seats beside us.

"Why were you late?" Terry whispered.

"Hermione punched your brother," I whispered back. Terry nodded approvingly, and looked around. "Where is Hermione?"

I looked around, and saw that she wasn't there. I leaned over to Harry, "Where's Hermione gone?"

"That's weird," Harry said, looking around. "Maybe — maybe she went to the bathroom or something?"

Hermione didn't turn up all lesson. She didn't show for lunch, either. We were getting a little worried.

"You don't think Malfoy did something to her?"  Ron said worriedly as we hurried towards Gryffindor tower. Harry hurriedly gave the Fat Lady the password, and we scrambled through.

Hermione was sitting at a table, fast asleep, lying against her arithmancy book. We sat at the table with her, and Harry poked her awake.

"W-what?" Hermione woke with a start, looking around wildly. "Is it time to go? W-which lesson have we got now?"

"Divination, but it's not for another twenty minutes," Harry said. "Hermione, why didn't you come to Charms?"

"What? Oh no!" Hermione squeaked. "I forgot to go to Charms!"

"But how could you forget?" Harry asked. "You were with us till we were right outside the classroom!"

"I don't believe it!" Hermione cried. "Was Professor Flitwick angry? Oh, it was Malfoy, I was thinking about him and I lost track of things!"

"You know what, Hermione?" Ron stared down at her arithmancy book. "I reckon you're cracking up. You're trying to do too much."

"No, I'm not!" Hermione brushed her hair away from her eyes, looking around hopelessly for her bag. "I just made a mistake, that's all! I'd better go and see Professor Flitwick and say sorry.... I'll see you in Divination!"

Twenty minutes later, Hermione joined us at the bottom of the ladder that lead to Professor Trelawney's classroom, looking annoyed.

"I can't believe I missed Cheering Charms! And I bet they come up in our exams; Professor Flitwick hinted they might!"

We climbed the ladder into the dim room together, sitting at the same rickety table. I stared nervously at the crystal ball in the center of it.

The toilet paper in my bathroom is on backwards, but I don't know how to take the thing off. I want to die kill me. Also my grandpa spelled cancer as cansor so that happened. Uh we just went and ate dinner with my grandparents so that was cool. Earlier in Mythology we had to do this thing where we were given a Greek god and had to list their counterpart. I did pretty good, and only had to use google for the ones that I'd never seen before (Eos is Aurora, stuff like that). It was pretty cool. I'm not gonna talk a lot this chapter cause I have something I'm gonna go do, so yeah.

I hope you all have had a great Friday, and I will see you on Sunday! Love ya!