Embarrassing Secrets

Daydreams and Plans for Revenge

She could not believe he didn't see it. Was it not obvious enough? Harry definitely knew; she had spotted him with a rather knowing look on his face several times whenever she and Ron were fighting. Hell, the whole school must know; was it not well known that the Boy-Who-Lived's best friends were fighting more than normal lately? But poor oblivious Ron couldn't seem to see it. Sometimes she found herself wondering if he had feelings for he, too, more than friendly feelings...

No, she was supposed to be mad at him just now wasn't she? He had spoiled everything! How long does it take to realize your best friend happens to be a girl? But she couldn't help fawning over the picture in her mind's eye, the face of Ron desperately searching for comprehension of the argument they had had last night, after the Yule Ball...

"Miss Granger, will you kindly pay attention or I will have to dock points from Gryffindor for your unexpected lack of attentiveness." Snape scowled at the flustered girl.

"Hmm?" She quickly snapped her head up, wrenching her thoughts back to the present. Snape was still glaring, angry but clearly surprised at her behavior, and beside her Ron and Harry were gaping at her as if to say,

"Hermione daydreaming?" Then reality set in fast. A little too fast; she had been enjoying the latest of her extremely rare daydreams.

"I'm sorry, sir, what was the question again?"

"What would you get if you added niffdurt to a combination of previously mixed chopped furvine and crushed tillysilk?" Snape's mouth curled into an unpleasant simper. He was sure she wouldn't know this one, she had seemed distant for at least five minutes now.

"The Draught of Embarrassment." Snape's expression quickly returned to its usual scowl, but Hermione continued.

"It causes the drinker to blurt out embarrassing secrets at ideal humiliating points in conversation. The effects wear off only when something you say has relevance to the conversation, or at least enough seriousness that the person you're talking to reacts to it in a serious manner."

"Unfortunately, that is correct. Now I have a cauldron of the Draught of Embarrassment here on the front table, for anyone who wishes to see a correct attempt at producing it. Will everyone please turn your books to page 247 and start to make your own."

Snape fell silent, as did the rest of the room, when everyone began making their own versions of the said humiliating potion. Since she had enough knowledge on the material she was supposed to be brewing, she let her mind wander off a bit more while she worked. She was still mad at Ron, and his antics the night before. I'll show him I'm a girl, she thought. I need a plan. And she did indeed think of one during that same lesson. She was pleased with her mark at he end of the day, having received her usual "outstanding." And while Harry and Ron were being taunted at by Snape for their disastrous attempts at the Draught of Embarrassment, and the rest of the class was clearing away their messes, no one noticed Hermione slip to the front table and sneak some of the potion into her own secret vial and stow it in her robes...

After class, the trio trudged out of the dungeon and up all seven flights of the Great Staircase. And while they headed up to the Gryffindor common room to drop off their school supplies, she speculated at how she was to carry out the plan she had created for getting back at the more antagonistic of her two best friends. But she had no idea it would be far more interesting than she had planned it to be.