Catching Her Heart Pt. 1

Chapter 37

Dear readers,

I want to thank all of you for your understanding in my family's time of grief. I appreciate all of you and thank you for sticking with me. As of today, the story is #183 in books out of 2.4 thousand books here on Wattpad! It has been viewed 4.5 thousand times and has 194 votes! Thank you all so much! And now on with the long awaited, chapter 37! I made it extra long to make up for the delay. Enjoy!

Glitchie

Hermione tried her best to put Oliver's worry over her out of her mind. She found that if she focused on it, it only put her into a panic of her own, and she began to second guess herself as she became paralyzed with fear of the unknown. She couldn't afford to have that happen, so she found herself in the library most times when she wasn't in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, pouring over anything that looked even remotely promising, but still turned up nothing, much to her disappointment.

Finally, Christmas arrived. Hermione was able to excuse herself from the festivities in the late morning, after a snowball fight with Ron, Harry, Oliver, Lee and the twins. She headed into the castle and up to the dorm to get a change of clothes, removing her cold, wet ones after a full morning out in the snow after breakfast. On her way, she had stopped by the bathroom and checked on the potion, noting with a smile that it was in its final phase and would be done that evening.

At lunchtime, she met up with everyone again and watched shrewdly, noticing how Crabbe and Goyle practically devoured entire platters of chocolate cupcakes at the Slytherin table.

"Are you alright, lass?" Oliver asked, drawing her back to their conversation about what gifts they had gotten from their families, and what they'd sent back home.

"Yeah," Fred said.

"You seem a little distracted," George added.

"Are the Slytherins bothering you again?" Oliver asked in concern.

"What?" Hermione asked, blinking. "Oh, no..." she said and shook her head. "I'm alright. Hey Fred, could you hand me some of those cupcakes please?"

"Sure," Fred said and moved the platter of cupcakes toward her.

Hermione took several cupcakes from the platter, tossing one to each Ron and Harry, before taking three for herself.

"A bit hungry, are you?" Lee asked, chuckling.

Hermione smiled, and drew her wand, and they watched her curiously.

"Duro," she said, waving her wand over two of the cup cakes, turning them to stone. "Pluma lux," she said again, before putting both stone cupcakes in her bag. "What?" she said, looking up and noticing her friends looking at her. She rolled her eyes. "So? I'm saving them for later, how else am I supposed to keep them from getting smashed or crumbs all in my bag?"

"Never thought of that," the twins said together.

"Yeah," Lee said. "I remember you dumping crumbs out of your bags all the time."

Oliver just grinned and popped a piece of cupcake in his mouth, having pinched off a good sized piece of one before grabbing it completely off the platter.

"Oh, Oliver," Hermione said after a moment, once she'd stored the cup cakes in her bag.

"Yeah?" Oliver asked.

"I was wondering what you thought of my plan, if you shared it with anyone?" Hermione asked.

"What plan?" Lee asked.