September, 1994.
Hermione woke up with a start to the sound of singing coming from above her.
"...birthday to you...happy birthday to you," Lavender and Parvati sang.
"...happy birthday dear Mione...happy birthday to you."
She rolled over to face her roommates as they clapped and cheered. She smiled brightly.
"Thanks guys," she yawned, still half asleep.
"Oh, that's not all," Parvati spoke. She held out a brown bag. "Pumpkin pasties!"
"Aw, you guys are so sweet! Thank you."
Hermione took the paper bag, excitedly. Pumpkin pasties were her favorite.
It was 7:00 a.m. when Lavender and Parvati woke her up so she decided to start getting ready for school. Of course her birthday had to fall on a Monday this year. She showered in the dormitory bathroom where Ginny and Romilda Vane also wished her a happy birthday as she was brushing her teeth. She got dressed back in her dorm where she kissed the not-missing Crookshanks goodbye.
"Sorry, girl. You can't come outside during the day just yet." She rubbed the cat's head before pulling her robes over her head.
When she headed downstairs for breakfast, Harry and Ron were already sitting at the Gryffendor table. Ron was eating an unfathomably large breakfast plate and Harry was picking at his chocolate chip muffin, reading the Daily Prophet.
Harry set down his paper when he saw her approaching. "Happy 15th!" he exclaimed with a tired smile. She noticed the bags under his eyes right away and wondered what was wrong.
"Hoppy burfday, Mione," Ron said through a mouthful of sausage.
She thanked them both and took a seat next to Ron. She tried to hold herself back as she took the pumpkin pasties out of her bag but when she looked back at Harry's sullen face, she couldn't stop herself from asking.
"Is everything alright, Harry?"
He looked up as if startled and fixed his glasses. "Yeah, just sleepy."
"Are you having trouble falling asleep again? I can ask Madam Pomfrey for a dreamless sleep draught if you don't want to–"
"It's fine, Hermione. I just stayed up late by my own free will. I'm sleeping fine," he assured her.
Ron gave her a worried look and she shook her shoulders.
"So what are we doing for your birthday tonight, Mione?" Ron asked to change the subject.
"Oh. I thought I'd catch up on some studying in the library and get to sleep early for–"
"What!" Ron practically shouted. A few people turned their heads to look back at him with annoyed expressions and he mouthed an apology with a sheepish grin. "Why are you studying on your birthday?" he asked in a quieter than usual voice.
Hermione shrugged her shoulders. "What else would I do? We have school tomorrow."
He looked up in thought and then smiled slightly. "Yeah, you're probably right."
She nodded, looking back down at the rest of her pumpkin pasty..
The first class of the day was History of Magic, one of Hermione's least favorites.
"The Goblin Rebellions were a series of rebellions in which the goblin population of the Wizarding world revolted against discrimination and prejudice toward their kind by wizards and witches. They were most prevalent during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but even in modern times there are subversive goblin groups working in secret against the Ministry of Magic..." Professor Binns droned on.
Hermione loved a good history about a mistreated species demanding their rights, but their class had been learning about the Goblin Rebellions since the beginning of the month. At the start of every lesson, Binns recited the same explanation above. Hermione had already heard it seven times by now. She swore she must have known every Goblin's name at that point because of the way Binns tended to speak for the entire 90 minutes of class. He never let them read their textbooks in silence or complete an essay within the class time. He just spoke and spoke about the most random facts that no one would ever possibly need to know. He told stories about goblins he once knew and laughed as he recollected old jokes he'd shared with them. And his voice! It was low and monotone, making every word he said seem even less important. Sometimes when Hermione had a particularly late night of studying, she would lay her head down on her desk and succumb to sleep. She knew she wouldn't miss anything important. A lot of students tended to fall asleep in Binns' class that first month so Hermione didn't even feel bad for it. He never told anyone to wake up, he simply kept talking.
She sat beside Ron who was usually asleep for the first thirty or so minutes of class. Her eyes began to droop, having woken up earlier than usual today for her birthday song. She was tired and it was her birthday. Surely a small nap would suffice. Her head gradually grew closer to the desk and the second she felt it touched her History of Magic textbook, she was dreaming. She dreamt of Harry. There was a cloud of darkness surrounding him. Dark magic. She chased him as he walked through the forbidden forest, casting unforgiveables and dark spells on random goblins who were just standing in the forest in those tiny suits that they wore at Gringotts. Harry! Stop! She shouted in vain. He couldn't hear her and no matter how fast she ran behind him, she couldn't catch him. She was always two or three steps behind. The cloud grew bigger and darker as he continued harming goblins. She kept screaming and screaming but her voice was growing tired. It's tearing you apart, Harry! Stop!
She woke up to multiple voices saying her name. She opened her eyes and lifted her head to Harry, Ron, Neville, and Parvati standing above her. She went to say something but reached for her head instead. Ouch. It felt as though her brain was being squeezed into a tiny ball. She squinted her eyes to keep out the light.
"What happened?" she asked in a scratchy voice.
"We were about to wake you up when you started mumbling in your sleep," said Ron.
She looked around, the class was empty except for the five of them and Professor Binns who was mindlessly pacing around the room.
"Oh yeah," said Parvati, noticing her confusion, "You slept through the class. We're supposed to be headed to potions."
Hermione grabbed her things and walked with the others to Snape's classroom in the dungeons. Once she started walking, her headache almost completely subsided. Almost. There was still a lingering pressure at the back of her neck and on her temples. Snape took five points from each of them for being a minute late and Hermione heard the groans of her fellow Gryffendors and the sniggers of the other half of the room which was filled with Slytherins.
"Now that the rest of the class has so graciously decided to show up, let's begin class," Snape grumbled.
What a great way to spend her birthday, History of Magic first period, a raging headache, and now the teacher who hated her most. Splendid. She wished the day would just be over already so she could go to sleep. However, she still had potions lunch, Herbology, and dinner to get through before she could wind down in the library, studying, or curl up in her bed to read. She would have to do it all with a lingering headache. It wasn't all bad. Herbology was growing on her after speaking more and more with Neville who was practically obsessed with plants. She also still had a pumpkin pasty left over which she could eat at lunch. Not everything had gone completely bad.
Yet.
"Ms. Granger, care to let the class know why you are staring at Mr. Malfoy instead of paying attention to class?"
The Slytherins broke down in laughter as Hermione's eyes widened. She hadn't been staring at Malfoy, she was looking at the wall behind him, but it must have looked like she was looking directly at him from Snape's perspective.
"I–I–wasn't–"
"Save it, Ms. Granger. Just. Pay. Attention," Snape demanded before giving a vehement look to the Slytherins, halting their giggling.
She drew in a long annoyed breath and looked at Harry who was a few seats to her right. He gave her a confused look and she mouthed the words 'I WASN'T LOOKING AT HIM' and he shrugged and looked back at Snape as if not reading her lips. She finally glanced at Malfoy who was already burning through her with an icy glare. She rolled her eyes at him and began trying to pay attention again.
She left potions with a sense of dread and acceptance that today would be terrible no matter what she did. She would just have to endure it. She ate lunch and went to Herbology and then went to the Gryffendor common room to rest on the couch while watching Ron beat Harry in wizard's chest five times in a row until dinnertime arrived at 7:00. She waited until everyone had left the common room while she finished reading chapter two of The Wizarding Way: The Psychological Effects of Magic, so she could feel like she achieved at least one small task today. The last words of chapter two were,
"The dark arts infect those who practice them. Those bold enough to attempt a few 'crucios' and 'opugnos' have already sacrificed their mind to the hunger of dark magic and are more likely to learn more dark spells. The dark arts are insatiable and uncontrollable. One spell with enough malicious intent can change the chemistry of the brain."
Hermione closed the book with a sighing, vowing in her head to never do dark magic. She walked out of the empty room through the portrait hole, suddenly starving. She picked up her pace down the stairs and through the corridors before stopping abruptly where she was when someone rounded the corner and almost smashed into her. Malfoy. His blonde hair and tall stature was the giveaway.
"Granger," he greeted her, "Too busy daydreaming again to pay attention to where you're walking?"
She turned and scowled at him before turning and walking again, ignoring his ignorant question.
"Wait, wait!" he called, running to catch up with her. "I was only joking. I know you weren't looking at me."
"Good to know," she replied, unbothered.
"So, did you find that ugly cat of yours?"
She scrunched her eyebrows in confusion before remembering that she'd told him on two occasions that Crookshanks was missing. "Oh–oh–yes, we found her. She was in–Hagrid's hut–yeah, he'd been feeding her until he got the chance to bring her back up to the castle," she scrambled. The lie was surprisingly convincing for the few seconds she had gotten to come up with it. "Why are you late to dinner?" she asked.
"I could ask you the same thing."
"I was reading."
He scoffed. "Of course you were."
She rolled her eyes. "And what incredibly important thing were you doing?" she asked in a mock-interested voice.
"Wouldn't you like to know."
"Most likely committing acts of senseless cruelty against innocent first years, then?"
He genuinely smiled at that before replying with a vague, "Perhaps."
They arrived at the doors of the Great Hall and Draco gave her a parting scowl before going to his table.
Hermione approached her friends in a foul mood. She let out a long breath and put some food on her plate. She really was starving. She ate in silence as everyone around her talked amongst themselves. She tried to look for the positive in all of the bad. Within the hour, she would be in the library. She could go to sleep early if she wanted. Her headache would be gone in the morning. Her mood increased slightly at the thought of these things.
A wand waved in front of her face. "Mione." she looked up, the hand holding the wand belonged to Ron. "Oh. Hey. You were in some sort of daze. Um–so are you studying tonight–or?"
She nodded. "Yeah, for a little while."
"Perfec–I mean–okay. Yeah, we'll see you when you get back."
Her posture shifted and she scrunched her eyebrows. "Why are you acting weird?"
He looked at Harry for a split second who grinned widely before turning away to hide his face. Ron looked back at her with a small grin.
"Am I?" he asked.
"Ron–I swear–if you've planned somethi–"
"I haven't!"
He gave another cheeky grin.
"You have!"
"It'll be fun, Hermione!"
"No, it won't!"
She scowled. This was not a part of her plan. Her headache seemed to return tenfold as she closed her eyes in irritation. When she opened them, Ron's eyes were wide and he had an apologetic smile on his face. Her heart sank as she realized that he was doing something special for her and she was ruining it by being angry. She sucked in a long breath, feeling slightly dizzy now.
"Ron–I'm sorry. I just wish you would have told me. Today has been–well–today was horrible–and I really just wanted to read and then go to bed early."
"I'm sorry, Mione. I didn't mean to make you more upset," he said. "Just stay for a little bit and then go to bed. I promise it'll be fun. We've banned all of the first and second years!"
Hermione grinned and, reluctantly, she said, "Fine. Just for a bit."
The trio walked out of the Great Hall together.
"Does Neville have the music ready? You didn't ask? Harry!" said Ron.
Hermione laughed at his disorganization. Of course he asked multiple different people to do tasks for the party and asked a separate group of people to make sure that the other people did their job. The whole thought of it was entirely Ron. She looked around the hallway with students bustling to get to the library or their common rooms and spotted Draco Malfoy. She suddenly remembered her plan to follow him to see where he goes at night and decided to do it tomorrow. She was too tired tonight. Too long of a day. Her eyelids felt heavy. Her stomach felt like it was doing flips. She locked eyes with Malfoy for a split second before she didn't see anything at all.
She woke up with a sharp pain in her side. Her eyes opened slowly to people standing over her once again, except this time they weren't singing.
"Hermione?" Harry placed the back of his hand on her forehead. "Her temperature's really high. Is somebody getting Madam Pomfrey?"
"Yeah," a voice said, "Colin's running to her office."
Hermione's eyes grew wide. She was still in the corridor. Dinner had just finished. They were heading to the common room for her party. Her birthday party. And she had fainted.
She was brought to the hospital wing and given some sort of healing draught and a dreamless sleep potion. She woke up in the morning feeling better than she ever had in her entire life. Madam Pomfrey told her that she had a rather intense seasonal cold, an easily treatable muggle illness. She laughed at that. Of course she had contracted the worst cold of her life and actually fainted on her birthday. However, it was over now. She was healthy and already approved to go back to her classes after lunch. The healing draught had taken its effect in the hours she had slept. Wizard medicine was truly ingenious. Ron and Harry had stayed in the hospital wing until Madam Pomfrey kicked them out because it was an hour past curfew. Hermione looked down when she told them that their party had been canceled over a cold but they weren't angry. They just told her they were glad she was alright.