The Winterscapes

The Winterscapes - Chapter Six

Hermione was woken up by wailing in the hall and small fists pounding on the door. She rolled over and sighed, and then decided she had better do what they gave her a Head Girl badge to do. She opened the door.

"Good morning," Hermione looked at the first year Gryffindor's tear-stained face. "Oh, Allison, it's OK, don't cry. Why don't you come in?"

"OK," Allison sniffled. "If it's no trouble."

"It's not," Hermione said. Just one of the perks of being Head Girl. Being woken up three hours before you really have to get up by homesick first years.

Hermione sat cross-legged on her bed and patted the mattress beside her. "Come on, you can sit hear and tell me about what it is that's bothering you."

Allison sat on the bed, smoothed out her pink and white nightgown, and petted Crookshanks idly with one hand. "I'm so lonely, Hermione. I miss my mum and my dad and my little brother. He's only three, you know, what if he doesn't remember me when I come home?"

"Christmas will come sooner than you think; I'm sure he'll still remember you," Hermione assured her. "I'm sure your mum talks to him about you every day."

"Do you think?" Allison said and rubbed her nose with the back of her hand.

"Here, have a tissue," Hermione handed her a tissue. "Yes, I do think that. But if you want to make sure, why don't you write him a letter and ask your mum to read it to him?"

Allison's face brightened. "Ooh, that's a good idea Hermione! Thanks!" She hopped of the bed and practically bounced out of the room.

Ughh! Hermione thought as she collapsed back onto her bed. I was absolutely nothing like that when I was a first year, there is no way.

She tried to fall back asleep but she couldn't. The old topic of what she wanted to be when she grew up wormed it's way back into her thoughts. She was almost grown up, she supposed, and maybe it was time to finally decide. The problem was that she was interested in everything. Potions, Transfiguration, Charms, Ancient Runes and Arithmancy. She was good at them all, too. And she wanted to do something to help people. She resolved to talk to Professor McGonagall about it, after all, Professor McGonagall had to help her fill out applications to apprentice in her chosen field anyway, once she decided what that field was.

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Ron and Harry were pleased that Hermione had decided to go to the Ravenclaw-Slytherin Quidditch match. Hermione herself had very complicated feelings about Quidditch. Her two best friends loved it, played it, and talked about it all the time, which was slightly annoying. It wasn't Quidditch itself that she didn't like, it was the mania surrounding it, and that she couldn't get into it. She did not think that Quidditch statistics, watching games that were hours long, and reading Quidditch magazines were fun activities, plain and simple. They bored her to tears. But actually flying on a broom, confidently doing loops and twists and speeding around the pitch, and having the reflexes to catch and throw balls through the air that high above the ground, well ... that looked fun. She wished she could do that. But she couldn't, of course, and that was that.

In most things, Hermione thought that she should stretch her abilities. Learn things she didn't already know, go places she'd never been, and try knew things. Flying was different. She simply wasn't good at it. She was afraid of heights; it made her sick to her stomach; she felt ridiculous. She just couldn't be good at everything, and that was that. Usually, Hermione did not go to Quidditch matches unless Gryffindor was playing so she could support Harry and Ron and the rest of the team. They bored her, depressed her, and it wasn't like she didn't have enough to do. She decided to go to this game, however, because she really didn't have any studying to do, unless she wanted to start studying for N.E.W.T.S, but even she thought it was a bit unnecessary as they were still eight months away. There was also Draco Malfoy. She'd never been interested in watching him fly before, but she'd been seeing more of him lately than she had in her other years at Hogwarts, and maybe he did fly well. He was the Slytherin seeker, after all, he had to be fast and agile, and if he was a good flyer she wanted to see it first hand. Even if he was a bastard, she still almost felt like it was something she could do when she watched good flyers fly.

Megan Jones was the commentator. Apparently Professor McGonagall thought it would be a good idea to give the position to a Hufflepuff, as she could be counted upon to be very fair in her commentating.

"They're off!" Megan's voice echoed through the stands, where Hermione was sitting in the wildly cheering Gryffindor section between Ron and Harry.

"Slytherin Captain and Chaser Ian Baddock has the Quaffle--ouch, he knocks Ravenclaw Chaser Morag MacDougal out of his way and scores! Ten points to Slytherin! Ravenclaw Chaser William Siler in position of the Quaffle. He flies toward the Ravenclaw goals--flying up behind him is Slytherin Beater Gregory Goyle. Ravenclaw Chaser Sylvia Fawcett is open in front of the Ravenclaw goals. Siler passes the Quaffle to Fawcett--but it is intercepted by Slytherin Chaser Emma Moon. Moon turns her broom and flies straight up in the air--Siler follows behind her and she drops the Quaffle to Slytherin Chaser Malcolm Baddock who is waiting below! Nicely done Porskoff Ploy by Emma Moon. Malcolm Baddock races for the goalposts at breakneck speed and throws the Quaffle. It slips through Ravenclaw Keeper Padma Patil's arms and he scores! Another ten points to Slytherin."

Hermione borrowed Ron's omnioculars and scanned the sky for Draco and Brooke. The seekers were circling around the pitch, both completely immersed in looking for the Snitch. When she took the omnioculars away they looked like nothing more than birds.

"Slytherin Keeper Millicent Bulstrode catches the Quaffle. She throws it to Emma Moon. Moon throws it to Baddock, and Baddock throws it to the other Baddock who is waiting in front of the goalposts. Slytherin scores! The score is now thirty to zero, Slytherin in the lead. What's that? Does Adams see the Snitch? She's flying back down--no, she calls time out."

The Ravenclaw players all touched ground and huddled on the pitch. Hermione could see what Harry and Ron meant about the Ravenclaw and Slytherin Quidditch teams. The Ravenclaw players were all obviously good fliers, but they didn't work together like the Slytherin Chasers did. The Slytherin Chasers played like a pack of wolves. Plus, Hermione could see that Millicent Bulstrode made a better Keeper than Padma Patil. Crabbe and Goyle seemed to be the least skilled players on the Slytherin team, but all they really needed to do was knock Bludgers around with a lot of force and be huge and fly in people's way, which they could do. The only players left were the Seekers. It was hard to tell whether they were good or not because they were so high up above the rest of the game, but Hermione knew Brooke Adams must be good at Quidditch or she wouldn't be the captain of her team. Brooke flew in small circles and scanned one area of the pitch at a time for the Snitch. Draco, on the other hand, swooped around like a hawk. When Hermione looked at Draco through the omnioculars, it seemed like he enjoyed being in the air very much.

After several minutes the Ravenclaw players took off again, and Hermione focused her attention back on the game.

"A bludger is heading straight for Malcolm Baddock--but Vincent Crabbe knocks it away! The game is back on, folks. Ian Baddock in possession of the Quaffle. He throws it to Emma Moon, and she tosses it easily through one of the hoops. Slytherin forty, Ravenclaw zero!" Megan said.

The Slytherins cheered. Harry yawned. "You OK, mate?" Ron asked.

"You have seemed tired lately," Hermione added.

Harry waved them off and Megan Jones's excited voice distracted them from the subject. "What? I think Brooke Adams does see the Snitch! She dives--Draco Malfoy sees it too, they're neck and neck ... Malfoy pulls ahead and lunges! Does he have the Snitch?"

There was breathless silence.

"He does! He's holding up the Snitch; Slytherin wins! The final score is one hundred and ninety to zero. You know what that means folks, tune in next week for Gryffindor versus Slytherin," Megan called out dramatically. She was Muggle-born, Hermione noted.

Ron and Harry whooped and cheered. She supposed they were excited at the prospect of playing and beating Slytherin.

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Tuesday brought Double Transfiguration with Hufflepuff. They had begun learning how to transfigure food. Transfiguring food that was edible was perhaps the most difficult thing to transfigure next to living animals or people. When you transfigured a person or an animal there was always the chance that it would be dead when you transfigured it back. When you transfigured something non-edible into food, the danger was that the food would retain some of the properties of the previous object and be poisonous. They were starting off with transfiguring one type of food into another type of food. Today's lesson was oranges into apples. When everyone had given it there best try, Professor McGonagall walked around the room with a little paring knife, looking at, smelling, and even tasting some of the newly transfigured apples.

"Very nice, Mr. Potter," she said.

"It still smells like citrus, Miss Abbot."

"Excellent job, Miss Granger."

"Miss Bones, the skin is not smooth like an apple. It is thick and bumpy like an orange peel."

And when she got to Neville Longbottom she poked his apple with her paring knife. "It looks like an apple." She sniffed it. "And smells like apple, too."

Neville beamed.

She cut a sliver out of the apple and tasted it. "Unfortunately it has the distinct flavor of oranges." She transfigured it back into an orange.

"Nice try, Mr. Longbottom, keep at it. Remember, you must visualize an orange. Its taste, its texture, its smell, what it looks like, and even what it tastes like. Nothing must escape your attention! That goes for all of you, class," she said shrilly.

Hermione stayed behind after class was over. Her meeting with Professor McGonagall was scheduled for today.

"Let's have our meeting in my office, Miss Granger, I've arranged for the House-Elves to bring tea."

"Yes ma'am," said Hermione.

Professor McGonagall led the way to her office. The furniture in Professor McGonagall's office always made Hermione think that Professor McGonagall was the one responsible for the furniture and wall hangings in the Gryffindor Common Room. Hermione sat down in a gold and scarlet brocade chair across from Professor McGonagall's high-backed, maroon and scarlet striped chair. There was a small oak table between them, and a house-elf popped into the room with a tea tray and set it on the table.

"Thank you, Pokey," said Professor McGonagall.

Pokey curtsied and popped back out of the room. Professor McGonagall poured the tea. "Do you care for milk or sugar?"

"Just milk, please," said Hermione.

"You are here to discuss your future after Hogwarts, is that right, Miss Granger?"

"Yes," said Hermione.

"Your grades are more than sufficient for you to obtain a Ministry job," said Professor McGonagall.

"Yes, but I'm very certain that's not what I want to do."

Professor McGonagall looked over the rim of her teacup. "Ministry jobs are very respectable, and they pay well, after a few years. Many young witches and wizards wish to be hired by the Ministry very badly."

"I don't feel like I've learned everything there is to know yet. I want to study more before I begin a career," said Hermione.

"Ah," Professor McGonagall smiled. "I thought so. I assume you are considering an apprenticeship, then?"

Hermione nodded.

"In what field?"

"Well, that's the trouble. I like Charms, Arithmancy, Potions, and Transfiguration. Herbology, too, now that I think about it."

"Let's narrow it down to three, shall we?"

Hermione squirmed. "Well, Charms, Arithmancy, and Potions if I can only choose three. Transfiguration would be my next choice."

"You are very talented in Transfiguration, Miss Granger. You are talented in many things, and I understand that you cannot choose them all, so you can stop fidgeting." She took a sip of her tea and then added, "And you can never learn everything there is to know, but it is an admirable goal. Don't stop trying."

"It would be really great if I could find someone who combined two things in their work. Like Charms and Arithmancy or Potions and Charms together so I could learn about more than one thing, and how it relates to other things. And I'd like to do something that would help people ... contribute something to the world."

"I am sure there are many such opportunities out there. It is still early in the year. I will start looking into the possibilities, and I will speak to your Arithmancy, Potions, and Charms professors to see what they recommend. You should start thinking about who you want to ask for recommendations."

"Yes ma'am, thank you."

"We can meet to discuss this again sometime after Halloween."

"OK"

"Good, now that that is settled, how have your other classes been going? And your Head Girl duties? I suppose you are planning in earnest for the Halloween festival ..."

And they settled in for a nice chat.