Could It Be Any More Obvious?

~Chapter 3~Midnight Flight

"Wake up!" a strange voice whispered urgently into a sleeping Hermione's ear. Knowing that being woken in the middle of the night by strange voices wasn't normal, Hermione sat blot upright in her four-poster bed.

"Who's there?" she inquired nervously, grabbing for her wand at the same time.

"It's me," Hermione's dream intruder replied. "Can't you recognize my voice?"

"Show yourself!" ordered Hermione in a harsh whisper. She slid out of her bed and commanded her wand to light, mumbling 'lumos' under her breath.

"Silly girl! Put down your wand. It's just me, or should I say, you?" When Hermione realized whom it was speaking to her she became dangerously annoyed. She slid back on to her bed and sat cross-legged feeling more comfortable to summon thoughts in this position.

"I-am-going-crazy," she concluded rather reluctantly, almost directing it as a question to no one.

"Yes we are," her wild half agreed.

"You have already woken me from a good dream and sleep, you really don't need to insult me by confirming my irrational beliefs," Hermione told herself.

"And may I ask, did that good dream involve a young, black haired Potter?" she questioned herself.

"That doesn't matter," Hermione started to blush. She was just going to thank God that it was dark so no one would notice, when she remembered that she was talking to Herself. Becoming embarrassed made her even more annoyed. She snapped back, "So what do you want? I assume you didn't wake me up for any extremely good reason?"

"Of course I woke us up for a good reason! I wanted to make sure that you were still on for trying to fly? You are aren't you?" Again her wild half interrogated her.

"Yes, but I am seriously going to rethink it if it means nightly visits at . . . 1 a.m.?" Hermione announced turning her head to see the clock on her bedside table.

"Good, now everyone's asleep-"

"Except me!" Hermione complained.

Her wild, arrogant side continued on as if she had not heard the comment. "And now is our chance."

"Our chance for what?" Hermione asked herself even though she was absolutely sure she knew the answer.

"I thought you were supposed to be the brainy half?" said the more daring than smart side of Hermione Granger. "We now have the chance to fly while nobody will notice." She explained as if she was talking to a child in preschool.

"What! Where am I going to get a broom? And what if I get caught, or fall off, or . . ." She trailed off suspecting that she would not be the winner of this argument. "Oh all right," she sighed. "But where do I get a broom?" she asked genuinely.

"Well, I know a certain Gryffindor Seeker who just may be asleep and who just may have a broom in his dormitory . . ."

"Harry has a broom," Hermione thought.

And then something very thrilling happened to Hermione. Whether she liked to admit it or not her brainy half had the same thought as her 'other' half. And now Hermione was just Hermione without a daring, risk taking half or brainy half. Now she possessed both qualities without the weird split personality. Her two halves had merged into one.

"Harry has a broom!" Hermione concluded with triumph, a huge smile spread across her face.

*

Quietly, because she did not feel like being caught, Hermione pushed open the sixth year Gryffindor boys' dormitory door. Seeing nothing unusual she proceeded to crawl in on her knees, annoyed that she had decided to put on a pair of jean shorts that did not cover this part of her body. She had traded her red, snitch patterned pajamas for a close fitting, heavy green t-shirt with a black cloak over top and those, just too short, jean shorts.

"What was I thinking when I got changed?" Hermione asked herself, and thankfully, there was no answer.

Squeak, squeak, squeaky, squeak, squeak, squeaky, Hermione's running shoes were dragging on the floor as she crawled.

"Agghhh, damn, these sneakers." She lifted her feet off the floor and continued to make her way towards Harry's bed, on her knees and hands, with her feet in the air.

"Ouch, damn it, ah, oh, hell!" Hermione swore in whispers on her way there. Finally she reached her destination, the trunk at the foot of Harry Potter's bed. She got on to her feet and crouched in front of the huge trunk. Trying to open it, she found that it was locked. But being a witch, Hermione knew ways of opening locks without having to pick them with a bobby pin.

"Alohomora," she said, pointing her wand at the key lock on Harry's trunk. A soft click came from the lock telling her that she had full access to her best friend's belongings. When she lifted the lid Hermione found that the inside of the trunk was larger than the outside seem to allow. This didn't surprise her though, as many of the students at Hogwarts charmed their trunks to fit more books and clothes into them. What surprised her less was finding Harry's Firebolt and Quidditch robes at the top of his trunk folded perfectly, ready for tomorrow's use.

"I suppose, ready for today," Hermione thought remembering what time it was.

Hermione grabbed Harry's broom and then began digging further down into Harry's possessions looking for one item in particular.

"Aha," she mumbled as she felt a liquid material brush against her fingers. She pulled out Harry's invisibility cloak, trying not to disturb his other clothing. He would definitely suspect something if all his robes were flung around his room in the morning.

Hermione shut the lid of Harry's trunk softly and then left the boys' dorm with Harry's broom over her shoulder and his invisibility cloak under her other arm.

*

Standing at Gryffindor Tower's only open able window, Hermione was mustering all her courage for her take off. She had so many doubts about her ability to fly, and she was very concerned about the hard ground below the window. But when she mounted the broom she could feel it wanting to fly and was no longer worried that it would consequently drop from beneath her just because she wasn't sure of herself. Those were the last thoughts she remembered before she kicked off from the window. Hermione soared higher and higher, almost to the very top of Gryffindor Tower. She soon realized how high this actually was and floated down to the open window of her comfortable common room. Shutting the window, Hermione knew that she would not be able to renter the school the same way she got out, that was why she had Harry's cloak concealed in one of her own cloak's pockets. She would need it when she had to sneak back to Gryffindor Tower through the school halls that were guarded and, carefully, watched by Filch and his cat, Ms. Norris. Usually a thought like that would make Hermione worry and feel down, not wanting that moment to come, but she soon found that no matter what she thought she couldn't feel anything but pure joy.

Flying was what she had always been looking for. It was an easy way to get away from all the pressure of school and have some fun.

"This is amazing!" Hermione thought and let out a loud, "Woahoo!" before letting her hair loose to whip out behind her. Carefree and comfortable on a broomstick, Hermione began to weave and dive between the castle's many towers and turrets.

She was circling the lake diving down to touch the water, pulling up quickly before she would be soaked, when she realized how long she had been out. Facing the east at this point in her ride, she could see that a dim yellowish light was creeping up to replace the starry night sky with day. Without haste Hermione sped off towards the front doors of the Hogwarts' Entrance Hall.

Using Harry's invisibility cloak to steal back to Gryffindor Tower seemed like a walk in the park compared to her task of returning both Harry's cloak and broom to there respective places before the boys woke up.

As she had done earlier that morning, Hermione crawled into the boys' dorm quickly trying to make as little noise as possible. She navigated stealthily towards Harry's trunk and glanced at the clock on his bedside table. It was already 6:25 in the morning, and she knew from over hearing some of Ron and Harry's discussion last night that they were getting up at 6:30 to prepare for the tryouts.

"Oh jees," she thought.

Continually glancing at the clock as she replaced Harry's belongings, Hermione knew she only had seconds to spare as she re-locked his trunk. Chancing it, she sprang to her feet and sprinted as fast as she could to the door. Just as she reached for the doorknob the boys' alarm rang out.

Harry's and Ron's bed hangings jerked back at the same moment that Hermione's cloak whipped out of sight around the slamming door.

Panting and tired, Hermione reached her dorm room and collapsed on her bed.

"Oh my God!" she gasped. She couldn't believe what she had just done. And finally she whispered, "Oh my God," as she realized what she really wanted to do.