Breaking Hermione

Date Night

"What?"

"Who died?"

"...how did a Dementor get into the Hospital Wing?"

There was no warning before complete chaos ensued, it appeared the Hufflepuffs were divided with half of them crying and the other half yelling at Dippet in outrage, claiming that there wouldn't have been a death if the School didn't allow the Dementors here to begin with.

They weren't the only ones, the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws were standing by them appearing equally outraged as well. Here and there students were running to each others tables leaving the teachers to try in vain to maintain order.

Dumbledore was nowhere to be seen, only Dippet, Flitwick, Slughorn and a handful of teachers I didn't know were going table to table trying to aid as many people as they could.

"Who cares that Ora Plum is dead."

Tom Riddle said from over at the Slytherin House table, surveying the rest of the school carelessly. "She was only a Hufflepuff, and probably the stupidest one, come to think of it. I'm more concerned with the fact our Headmaster is a imbecile who decided to let Dementors enter the school. If it was up to me he wouldn't have got the position at this School in the first place..."

He stabbed a piece of lamb on his plate and continued eating, clearly not the least bit concerned about both the loss of a girl's life or the way I was gaping at him in open shock.

"Tom." I reprimanded. "A girl just died. Don't you care?"

"Of course I care," Tom said, staring at a slice of meat on his fork thoughtfully. "Now my Defence Against the Dark Arts classes with the Hufflepuffs won't be so agonisingly slow. It's been an absolute disaster having someone in my class asking more questions than a first year."

I was too gobsmacked to reply. There was no point trying to evoke emotions from a monster, I guess.

"How did a Dementor get into the Hospital Wing anyway?" Daniel Dolohov frowned.

"Have they gotten rid of it? Or has it gone to other parts of the castle? Can you imagine running into one of those in the halls? I hate those creepy hooded bearers of doom..."

"Creepy hooded bearers of doom...?" Shalini echoed, her dark eyes amused. "That's a way to put it."

"Just look up, you'll see what I mean," Daniel defended. "Anyway, it's putting me off dinner to have them here. That, plus the dead girl, the criminal on the loose and all of the Hufflepuffs glaring at us."

We all looked over, sure enough the Huffepuff students looked mutinous. I don't think that Tom being the only student serving himself second helpings of food whilst none of the other students had touched their own plates was really helping anything.

"Did you see that? That Dementor was like bigger than the rest!" Shalini shrieked, pointing up at the glowing barrier with a squeal.

"You imbecile. All Dementors are the same size." Tom gave her a look , the type which said you're testing my patience but I'm going to let it slide just for now since I can't hex you in public which is the type of look I knew all too well.

"No but that one in the corner is massive..."

Only the protective barrier was keeping them all from us, I didn't want to think about what would happen if it for some reason suddenly broke.

"Why the hell do they have to be in the Great Hall?" Jade demanded. "And why so many of them? Every single time I look up I almost have a heart attack."