The Weak Fall First

Ok guys, I’m back… sorry I haven’t updated for a while etc, will try to update more now! Nearly Easter holidays so I’m gonna have more time. Also, for those of you who read Smile Like You Mean It; sorry I haven’t updated it recently, my computer has got a virus, I can’t even open MSWord on it. So I’m doing this from school so I hope it works ok. Anyway, hope you like the new chapter. Please review! Thanks

Elizabella

Sorry I had to take this off then upload it again! I had to change some mistakes etc. Sorry!

Library work and snowball fights

 Hermione recovered rapidly over the week she spent in the Hospital Wing. For the first few days she enjoys the peace and quiet and a tearful reunion with her parents. But by the third day she was totally bored. Fuelled by her determination to catch up on the mountains of work she had missed over the last few weeks, Hermione had convinced Madame Pomfrey to let her work in the library for a few hours a day during her stay in the Hospital Wing, and managed to smuggle books back with her to continue working late into the night. She would not stop working for anything and had to repeatedly send Harry and other visitors away and told Madame Pomfrey not to let anyone come to see her because she was too busy. Madame Pomfrey agreed amiably, she disapproved of having visitors come into her ward and disturb her patients, although she wasn’t too happy about Hermione obsessively working all day either. She constantly told Hermione to put her quill down and concentrate on more important things like getting better, at which point Hermione would impatiently tell the Healer that she was quite well and working was far more important than resting. On the rare occasions that Hermione allowed Harry and Ron to visit her she would end up getting quite cross when asked how she was feeling and rant at them about her unfair confinement in the Hospital Wing for half an hour solid, meaning the boys’ visits were quite short as they found they suddenly had things to do and rushed off and made excuses to escape Hermione’s campaign for release from her ‘imprisonment’.

 Fortunately that so-called imprisonment only lasted a week, as Madame Pomfrey soon tired of Hermione’s protests and told her that if she was well enough to argue, she was well enough to go back to lessons. Hermione heartily agreed and practically ran out of the ward, heading predictably towards the library. Madame Pomfrey watched her go with her fists on her hips and shook her head in disbelief. She couldn’t believe Hermione’s frenzied hours obsessively working. She seemed to almost enjoy it too.

 When Hermione finally returned to the common room she was met with dozens of people asking thousands of questions about how she was and about her kidnap and the time she spent in Azalea’s Manor. Harry came to the rescue and told them she would not be answering any questions at all so could they please stop asking. With many a disgruntled look they grudgingly agreed and left Hermione alone.

“Welcome back Hermione! It’s good to see you in here again instead of the Hospital Wing.” Ron said and gave her a quick hug.

Hermione scowled. “Don’t talk to me about that place.” She said darkly and excused herself, saying she had to work. Harry and Ron grinned at each other. Hermione was obviously back to her old self.

The first week of December passed quickly for Hermione in a daze of work. By the end of the week she was so tired she was tempted to ask Professor McGonagall for another time turner so she could catch up on a few hours sleep. She was currently in the library, where she had been all day. it was Saturday which meant a whole day frantically copying up work without having to go to lessons in between. While most students enjoyed a sleepy morning in bed, Hermione had woken up early and was out of her dormitory by seven to have a quick breakfast then get to work again. she was currently staring vacantly out the window at the blanket of snow that covered the Hogwarts grounds. she could see students outside playing in the snow, someone was building a snow castle out of huge snow boulders, and there was another being build a few metres away, no doubt to be base camps for teams of snowball wielding armies of boys and girls later in the day. Hermione sighed and turned back to the stacks of parchment in front of her. She wearily shuffled through pages and pages of work in her neat script and sorted it all into piles of things she had totally finished and things she still had to work through. she was pleasantly surprised to find that the pile of things to do was a lot smaller than the teetering stack of completed work. she quickly looked through the work she had to finish and found that in her two weeks back she had caught up extremely well - now she only had two essays to write for potions and charms and a few chapters to read in various text books. Hermione decided that if she worked for the rest of the day she would be finished by evening. "Right in time for dinner" she muttered and pulled a fresh sheet of parchment in front of her and began writing.

Meanwhile, Harry was outside in the snow, trying to find someone to help him with a very confusing problem. "I mean what would you get a girl for Christmas?" he said as he and Ron rolled another giant snow boulder into place. They squatted down behind the boulder to avoid another hail of snowballs from the Hufflepuffs in the other half built snow base and got their breath back.

"Well, if I was going to get Ginny something I'd go for a tea-cosy or something, you know, something useful and colourful." Ron said, banging his gloves together to get the feeling back in his fingers.

Harry made a face. "A tea-cosy? And you wonder why she always buys you maroon things..."

Ron looked baffled. "Yeah, a tea-cosy. Girls like that kind of useless stuff for the house don't they? Mum does anyway. Ginny always seems very happy with her tea-cosies, she's got quite a collection now y'know."

Harry just shook his head and ducked out from behind the boulder to rescue a second year Gryffindor who was rapidly being buried alive by a barrage of enchanted snow balls from two Slytherin fourth years. he soon came back with the shivering second year now snow-free and sat back down in the snow beside Ron. "Well Ginny's your sister, you can get her, err, 'different' presents like that and she'll still talk to you. But Hermione's my girlfriend; I want to get her something special. something she'll love and always remember as the thing I got her for our first Christmas together as a couple."

Ron just shrugged. "I dunno mate. Seems a bit impossible if you ask me. I mean, there are so many ways you could go wrong. Unless you get her a book of course." he said, then ran off to help Seamus fend off an attack on the other side of their snow base. Harry mulled over the problem for the next hour while setting more boulders in place and raiding the Hufflepuff's snow castle for hot pasties which someone had brought out and charmed to stay warm. He got back to base camp with his cape full of pasties bundled in his arms and found Ginny kneeling on the ground making snowballs out of a big pile of snow Colin Creevey was adding to every so often. Harry untied his bundle and sat by Ginny. "Pasties?" he offered. She eagerly accepted. "I reckon they'll attack us again soon, try to get some of these things back." she informed him through a mouthful of food.

"Yeah, probably... Ginny, i need your help." Harry said. Ginny looked interested so he continued. "I really don't know what to get Hermione for Christmas. I want it to be something really really nice that she's gonna love."

Ginny smiled. "Hard isn't it? I've got to pick something for Draco yet. I mean, what do you give to a boy who's already got everything he wants? And when I ask him what he wants he just shrugs and says 'surprise me'. Which is a great help." Ginny said and scowled. "Hermione's easy to buy for though Harry. How 'bout jewellery? A book maybe? Actually no, she's got too many of them, it wouldn't be special. I don't really know. There's a Hogsmeade weekend next week right? So find something there. You'll see something and just think 'that's it'. Honestly, you can't go wrong! Just don't ask Ron for advice ok? His idea of a 'good present' is a tea-cosy. And I'm not joking" she said and grimaced.

Hermione entered the Great Hall and scanned the Gryffindor table as she walked towards it. Seeing Harry waving at her from the opposite end she headed over and took a seat next to him. "Hi" she said taking his hand under the table. He grinned at her, emerald eyes sparkling. "Had fun in the snow? I saw you all from the library window making big snow castles."

Harry then went into great detail about the epic snow battle with the Hufflepuffs and Ron, Seamus, Dean and Neville joined in to add bits to the heroic tale that Harry had missed out.

"You had fun then? More than me anyway, stuck doing work all day while you were all outside!" Hermione said, feeling that she had missed out on all the fun.

 Harry squeezed her hand in sympathy. "Have you nearly finished it yet? I know you still had loads to do when I asked you last."

Hermione sighed and rubbed her eyes wearily. "Yes, I've totally finished now. So I can join you for Duelling Club tonight." she said happily. "But I suppose I've got a lot to catch up on for that too, I haven't been to a single meeting yet! I'll have to speak to Professor Tonks after dinner to see if it's ok if I join so late in the sessions. Will you come with me?" Harry replied that he would, and Ron said that he would too, he wanted to see Bill about something, and Bill was likely to be with Tonks. At that point the tables filled up with mounds of food and the Great Hall was suddenly considerably quieter as everyone began helping themselves to vast amounts of piping hot cottage pie and roast potatoes.

 After they had finished their food, Hermione made her way to the Defence against the Dark Arts office with Harry and Ron and knocked on the door. They went in and sat down next to a roaring fire, grateful for it's warmth on the cold December evening. Tonks was predictably with Bill Weasley - it was now widely accepted that they were a couple - debating the translation of a dusty old tomb. They smiled when Hermione, Harry and Ron came in and Bill pushed the heavy book aside. "What can we help you three with?" he asked, looking from one to the other.

"Well I was wondering if it would be ok for me to come to Duelling Club this evening. I know I've missed a lot, but I can easily catch up." Hermione said hopefully.

Tonks grinned at her. "Sure you can Hermione! And I doubt you'll have much to catch up on, you probably know more charms and hexes than I do!" Hermione smiled proudly.

 Ron nudged Harry, prompting him to speak. "Do you have any...?" was as far as he got before Bill gestured for him to stop. He quickly spelled the room in case anyone was listening in and grinned at the boys. "Let me guess... Have we got any news, right?" he chuckled at their surprised looks. "D'you really think we thought you came just to ask about Duelling Club? It doesn't take three of you to ask if Hermione could come he said with a grin.

 Harry grinned back. "Yeah, so what's going on? Things have been pretty quiet recently, both Voldemort and Rookwood. What's going on? And are they working together?"

Bill's face became grave. "I'm sorry Harry, I'm afraid we don't know much at the minute. They aren't working together; we know that much from Snape. We think Voldemort is planning something, but not with Rookwood, they pretty much hate each other. The loss of the Staff was a massive blow to Rookwood, and we have no idea what kind of condition she's in." he said seriously.

 Tonks took over. "You saw the front page of the Prophet a few weeks a go. Hector Rookwood's Manor completely destroyed." She shook her head. "We have no idea what could have done that. There wasn't a single brick left, and even no ashes, you saw the pictures. And no sign of Rookwood. We don't even know if she's alive or not, but I think it's safest to assume she's alive and is responsible for the damage to the Manor." she sighed and ran her fingers through her hair - bright blue today. "I was one of the Aurors who went to the scene when Hermione told us where Rookwood was. There was nothing, just nothing there. The ground was black and cracked, and still warm underfoot. Almost as though there had been a great fire there that totally vaporised the whole Manor. But no one in surrounding villages saw or heard anything. But they would have if there was a huge fire." she shrugged. "We still don't know what happened. And I don't suppose we'll find out until we find Rookwood.

 Harry nodded and listened while Ron asked a few questions about Voldemort. Tonks and Bill either didn't know anything or just wouldn't tell them. Harry thought it was the former, he trusted Dumbledore to let them know if anything major was happening or going to happen.