Harry Potter's sister ~~~ Fanfiction

Stress of workload part 81

"Harry, I'm worried about Hermione." Said Ron.

"Why?" said Harry.

Both boys were alone in their Dormitory after having finished their required tasks for the night.

"Well when we got the train back to London before the Holidays, she kept on talking about how great it was not having work to do. That is not the Hermione we know." Said Ron "I didn't think much on it, but she and I arranged to swap Muggle and Wizard storybooks. I went over to her house the day after we got back. Her mother said that Hermione had been asleep for over twelve hours, that she was absolutely exhausted. She also said that she thought Hermione was overworked. I think I agree."

"Yeah!" Said Harry. "She did work herself horribly last term, I think she's still shaken up by what happened in Arithmancy."

"I don't understand." Said Ron. "You said she did fine."

"Yeah but try telling her that. She's since tripled her efforts in that class. Normally that wouldn't be a problem but she's got so much other stuff to focus on." Said Harry.

"I just wish we could skip Divination Homework, it's so useless. But Trelawney is so fixated on the two of us. It's all because we're friends with you, she's still convinced your end is near." Said Ron.

"Yeah I met her at the Christmas feast." Said Harry. "No offence, but I'm forbidding Emma from taking that course. Not that she needs much convincing."

"Oh what's she taking?" asked Ron.

"Same stuff as me." Said Harry.

"Do you think Hermione will calm down?" said Ron.

"I don't know." Said Harry. "I'll ask Emma to brew some calming and sleeping droughts in case she gets stressed. I suggest we keep an eye on her."

"Yeah." Agreed Ron.

Now that they were alerted to the problem the Third Years kept an eye on Scabbers, but he seemed incapable of escaping Harry's locking charm so they relaxed their concerns.

Hermione remained stressed out over her homework, it turned out taking the night off was a big mistake. As well as three unfinished essays and a project she found herself with an additional Ancient Runes project.

Harry, Neville and Hermione were tasked by Professor Babbling to get a clock working by carving a Rune into it. The task in theory was quite simple, use a magic carving quill to draw the required Rune and then activate it using a special spell.

They had an illustration of the Rune as well as two spells, one to activate the Rune and erase the carvings if they screwed up along the way. The latter spell was used quite a lot.

"Abrogare!" incanted a grumbling Neville, erasing his botched attempt at carving a Rune. "Remind me why I took Ancient Runes?" he said as he once more erased an inadequately carved rune from his clock.

"I'm not sure I can remember." Said Harry as he carved into the back of his battery cover. "How many times have you had to erase and start over?"

"Six?" said Neville "How about you?"

"Five times." Said Harry. He then cursed causing Neville to jump. "Make that six."