The rest of the noon, the Gryffindor 4th years had History of Magic and Potions lined up before they would finish for the day. And dare I say that Hermione was up to no good in either class.
After Fleur’s departure, Hermione was bombarded with questions from all her classmates about her relationship with Fleur. All that was said was lost to Hermione since she couldn’t decipher one question from the many others being asked. A stronger yet softer voice from Neville was heard asking, “Is Fleur your girlfriend?”
Ron had just taken a drink when Hermione announced cheerily, “I am going to marry Fleur when I get older!” Ron sputtered, spat out the water and coughed violently, Harry slapping the redhead’s back to aid him. After such announcement, the entire class exploded with cheers, ooh’s and boo’s.
It got so loud that even the ghost professor took notice and tried futilely to hush the class but the only thing that achieved was gaining Hermione’s attention. She was awestruck at being able to see a ghost for the first time! She stealthily pushed to the front of the classroom, ran her hands through the ghost teacher and shivered. She giggled at the shivering sensation and did it over and over again – waving her hands through the ghost while shivering.
Professor Binns softly reprimanded Hermione for her behaviour which was largely ignored by the young witch. Most other students had quieted down and were watching in confusion, the brightest witch of the age acting unbecoming of her usual self. The ghost professor gave up after a few minutes of droning reprimand, sighed and just continued with his class.
For the first time in the history of Hogwarts’ History of Magic class, none of the students fell asleep, for Hermione had entertained everyone with her antics. After she got bored with the ghostly shivers, she tried to fling things like chalk and duster at the ghost. Even going as far as to drop a pot of plant on the ghost’s head (which obviously passed through him and broke upon impact on the floor). Professor Binns had to repeatedly cast spells after spells to put things back into place and restoring them.
After that class, Harry held onto the brunette’s elbow and chastised the child-like girl, “Hermione, you should stop doing that in class. Professor Binns is a nice teacher, if not a little boring.”
“Oh naw, ‘mione should do it more often, never have I ever been so delighted in History of Magic class!” Harry elbowed Ron harshly for encouraging the lioness’ behaviour, causing the redhead to grasp his tummy in pain.
Hermione suddenly gasped, “You could see the ghost too, glasses?”
Ron immediately burst out laughing upon hearing the green-eyed boy’s new nickname while a wide-eyed Harry’s jaw dropped in disbelief.
The brunette boy stuttered badly, unable to form a single word so the witch continued on giddily, “He is such a friendly ghost… Like Casper! I threw things at him and he didn’t even do anything bad to me!”
All the while Ron had just been repeating the word ‘glasses’ breathlessly in between fits of laughter, and this time he was holding his stomach due to laughing cramps instead of actual pain.
Upon arrival to Potions class, all of Hermione’s other professors had been informed of Hermione’s condition, including Professor Snape. He called her out as soon as she entered his room, sneering, “Ah, Ms Granger, good to see that you are still able to join us in class today.” But he went ignored by the scrambled head girl.
He tried calling out to the girl a few more times before he decided to deduct points from Gryffindor for misbehaviour. “10 points from Gryffindor, thanks to Ms Granger here for willfully ignoring her professor. What do you have to say for yourself, Ms Granger?” He stood in front of Hermione’s desk as he talked to her.
Hermione finally looked up at him with a clueless look, “Are you talking to me, Mister?”
“Why, no, I was talking to the air, Ms Granger… Of course, I was talking to you, are you daft?” Professor Snape jeered. At this point, a lot of the Slytherins were laughing and making fun of the bright witch. Harry and Ron were about to interject and protect Hermione’s honour when Hermione spoke quietly to herself thoughtfully, “I guess he wasn’t talking to me after all, I mean… who the hell is Ms Granger?” At the background, Draco could be heard stage whispering to his groupies about how all those books she read must have made her gone coo-coo.
Professor Snape then leaned in until he was about a few inches in front of Hermione’s face, “Then what may be your name, girl?!”
“I am Hermione! Future wife of Fleur!” The happy-go-lucky girl beamed at the stern looking face in front of her. Professor Snape quirked an eyebrow in curiosity before he replaced it with his mask of indifference and walked to the front of the class, “Very well then, Hermione, tell me now, what are the ingredients needed to make a Wolfsbane Potion?”
“Simple!” The bubbly girl cheered, “I’d first go to a pet park and then put up a sign that says ‘Wolves are banned from the park and put a bowl of water with another sign ‘wolves ban potion’! Tada~ done!”
Everyone in the class laughed out loud at the brunette’s answer, some in amusement, some thought she was joking, others (the Slytherins) just kept making fun of her. Even Professor Snape had a ghost of a smile on his face, before he banished it, “Very smart answer, Hermione, but not what I was asking for. Class, take out your notes and start writing.”
As the lesson progressed, Hermione asked Professor Snape why he had to look so down all the time, which was ignored. Thus beginning the scrambled head’s new mission for the remainder of her school year, to make Grumpy Pants smile and/or happy. Starting with the current class she kept making funny faces at the solemn-looking professor whenever he looked her way.
It almost worked, but then the end of class came first. To make Hermione stop trying to make their most hated professor smile and move faster, Harry mentioned dinner and Fleur in the same sentence. That got the young girl packed up and ready in no time. Once they had reached the Great Hall, Hermione immediately ditched her two best friends, “Bye glasses, bye freckles!” And ran straight into the arms of her princess.
“Hey!” Ron’s protest and Harry’s returning giggle and tease were vaguely heard.
After dinner, the veela and her Romeo were called into the headmaster’s room where the head of both schools was present. They were told that Hermione was allowed in the Beauxbaton carriage and to sleep with Fleur until she recovered her memories. Hermione cheered loudly and jumped onto Fleur’s laps, “We get to spend forever together Fleur!”
Fleur chuckled and nodded her head, “Oui, mon amour, forever.” She emphasized forever with a kiss on the adorable brunette’s forehead.
After they have retreated to Fleur’s bedroom in the carriage, both of them got cleaned up, separately (Fleur went first). Fleur managed to write a letter to her family about acquiring the items (except for the alpha veela feathers) needed for Hermione’s potion.
After she had owled her family, the lioness was still not done with her bath so the older witch retreated to her bed with a book. Halfway through reading, she smelled the sweet waft of strawberries. When she looked up from her book, a pink bubble popped right in front of her face, releasing the strawberries-like scent from within. She studied the room only to find the room filled with dozens of pink-tinted bubbles of various sizes, with more coming out from the cracks of the door connecting to the bathroom.
A quirked eyebrow and small doting smile graced her face. Marking where she left off in the book, she closed the book, placed it on top of the bedside table and strode towards the bathroom.
Hermione had been in the relaxing bubble bath for a long time now, with a rubber turtle that Fleur had transfigured from a few spare rubber bands she had lying around. The young witch had originally been cleaning herself up until the cute turtle just called to her. She started making up stories of tsunami and adventures for the little turtle she named Ocean.
When Fleur pushed open the door, Hermione was in the middle of Ocean’s adventure through the Bubble Valley where each popping bubble would release poisonous gases that could kill with over-inhalation. (Just for your information, yes, Hermione is wearing her birthday suit (naked), but no, Fleur ain’t seeing a thing because there’s just way too many bubbles).
Only a few minutes after that, that the younger witch noticed she wasn’t alone, she looked up from Ocean to find Fleur leaning on the door frame, with raised eyebrows, arms crossed with a barely hidden smile on her face, trying to look stern. Which succeeded as the lioness assessed her surrounding, she had used so much soap to make so many bubbles that the bath had overflowed the tub and filled the bathroom floor with bright pink bubbles, nearly drowning out and covering the (toilet) throne.
The young witch glanced back up at Fleur guiltily, “Oopss…? I’m sorry, Fleur but-” With eyes wide open in realization, she changed tactic and threw Ocean to the other side of the tub, pointing an accusing finger at the toy, “It wasn’t my fault, it was entirely Ocean’s idea, I was only a forced accomplice!”
Stalking towards the lioness-like a predator, her arms still crossed, the veela’s eyes narrowed, face drawn in a scowl and her voice a whisper an octave lower than usual, “Is zat so now, ma belle?”
The brunette swallowed nervously, she made a cross in the general area where one’s heart was, “Cross my heart and hope to die, I speak no lies, my princess! It was Ocean’s fault.”
Finally, Fleur reached the edge of the tub, she crouched down, her expression looking less severe, “I suppose zat means Ocean would need a punishment, Oui?” Hermione swiftly nodded in agreement.
“Maybe it iz time we put Ocean to the guillotine, you zink?” Fleur asked contemplatively. Hermione gasped loudly and shook her head, she was about to say something in defence of the poor toy but she was cut off by Fleur letting out an exasperated sigh. The veela smiled adoringly at her cute little friend, “Oh, mon chéri, what am I to do with you?” She brushed a few strands of curly tresses behind the younger girl’s ear and caressed her cheek softly. The lioness easily turned into a cat and purred happily for the veela.
Pressing a gentle kiss against Hermione’s temple, she asked in a sterner voice, “Now, do I ‘ave to shower you clean or are you going to do it yourself, chéri?” Her only response was louder purring.
She chuckled softly and moved herself to sit on the edge of the bathtub and gathered some of the soapy water to massage through the lioness’ surprisingly soft mane. Hermione unknowingly, unconsciously cast silent wandless magic to retrieve Ocean back from the other end of the tub. Fleur was not surprised at all by the grandiose show of magic, Hermione was, after all, one of the brightest witches around, if not the brightest of them all. The young witch continued to enjoy Fleur’s soothing scratches on her scalp as she played with Ocean, lightly reprimanding the turtle for getting her in trouble with her princess. All Fleur could do was to shake her head in amusement at her… friend(?). She didn’t even know what Hermione was to her anymore. Was she a friend, adorable pet, lov- no they couldn’t be lovers, not after only truly knowing Hermione for a little more than a day while she wasn’t even herself. But a part of her argued that it was always meant to be, the Hermione like she was now, or even the real her. She’d love her no less, no matter what. The thought almost scared her.
She felt a nudge on her forearm and glanced at the source. Apparently, her thoughts had distracted her so much that her hands had stopped moving and Hermione was now looking at her with concerned eyes. Smiling back at the younger girl to reassure her that she was fine, she continued to shower attention to the lioness’ mane.
When she was finally done, she stood up, turned away and with a wave of her hand, the bubbles disappeared. “Now, I want to see you towelled and dried in ze bedroom in two minutes. Is zat understood, ma belle?”
“Oui, Fleur,” Hermione pouted at Fleur’s back but quickly got out of the tub when Fleur left the room. The rest of the night was spent with Hermione cuddling up to Fleur in bed, easily falling asleep to the sound of the veela’s heartbeat.
The next few weeks were spent in similar manners, the duo waking up, getting ready and headed to the Great Hall for breakfast where Fleur ate with her classmates and Hermione with her best friends. In such affairs, she always stole all their scrambled eggs in exchange for her other breakfast items; until, from one day onwards, even the house elves had prepared for her a breakfast of her own, a plateful of scrambled eggs shaped like a volcano (to which the scrambled head girl was extremely delighted about every single morning just looking at her breakfast).
Then during classes, Hermione got up to a lot of trouble that did not even get Gryffindors any negative points from their house cup. She continued to try to find things that could touch the ghost professor, doing odd/ridiculous things to get a smile or laugh out of the grumpy professor (she actually succeeded a few times making Snape smile) and playing with transfigured magical toys given to her by Professor McGonagall during her Transfiguration class. She also got to play with various odd-looking mutant (only mutant to her currently muggle-ish brain) creatures during one of her classes (Care of Magical Creatures). She mostly got to goofing around the castle with Glasses and Freckles during classes time. Although rumours had spread about the brightest witch’s plight, some pitied her while some envied her for just being able to forget everything and not have to worry about a single thing in the world and the remainder (mostly the Slytherins) said mean things about her right in front of her, or behind her back. Not that any of the insults meant anything to her currently muddled brain.
After classes, she got to have dinner with her princess and then they would get to reading, cuddling, or both at the same time, in the blonde’s personal bedroom. Most times when Fleur didn’t offer to wash up Hermione, she would get up to more mischief in the bathroom with Ocean, the rubber turtle; Fleur always allowed the brunette 30 minutes in the bathroom for a bath/shower. And if she wasn’t out by the allotted time, the blonde would go check on the impish girl. 15 out of 17 times, the younger witch was not done within 30 minutes and Fleur had to clean her up anyways.
In one such occasion though, Fleur had entered the bathroom to find a filled tub with clearly used water but otherwise, there was no sign of Hermione or the toy. Fleur had immediately panicked, and embarrassingly forgot the use of tracking magic for a good five minutes. When she did calm down enough to use the magic to track Hermione, she found the little imp another 40 minutes later in the Forbidden Forest, with magically applied bubble covering her private parts.
When she asked how Hermione had gotten there later, she was told that the brunette had flushed herself and Ocean down the toilet (most probably with magic) and walked through a slimy dungeon (the Hogwarts sewer system) and the next thing she knew, she was sliding down a waterfall into a lake (the Black Lake). They then swam towards drylands and explored the forest together. Fleur made Hermione promise to never do it again, which was easily sworn… Although whether the brunette would truly not do it again, is yet another unsolved question for another day. So all-in-all, life was considered amazing for our young Hermione.
Meanwhile, Fleur had gathered all the items needed for the potions, including two dozens of her own veela feathers, she had just given them to Madam Pomfrey. Madam Pomfrey told her that the potion should be ready by the time the first task of the Triwizard Tournament came around.
