Drabbles iTunica

“Mr. Prewett! Your water goblet is scampering off the bloody desk, transfigure it back or capture it, please.” Hermione said. She sighed. It was the third nearly escaped water goblet with feet that day. Teaching first year Transfigurations was harder than she had hoped. With another great sigh, Hermione pointed her wand at Justin Prewett’s furry water goblet with feet and blasted it back into a rat, stunned it, and then guided it back into the box. “If the rest of you would bring your transfigured goblets up to my desk for grading that will end the lesson for today.”



Term had only been a few weeks in and already Hermione wished she hadn’t offered to take on three years worth of students, dealing with first years was proving to be difficult enough.



“Sorry, Professor Granger,” Justin muttered as he walked up to her desk, nothing but his notes in hand.



“It’s alright,” she said. “You’ll try again on Tuesday.”



With a wave of her hand she dismissed her class and sent them on their way. It was nearly time for lunch, though she was hardly hungry. With the weather still warm enough to spend time outdoors without a heavy cloak, Hermione left her classroom and crossed the courtyard with her binder full of work that needed grading. She sat alone on a stone bench just beneath an older oak tree. It gave her a nice view of all the students milling about, while still allowing her to remain undisturbed.



“Larequette!” shouted a very disgruntled voice. “15 points from Gryffindor and that’s detention!”



Hermione tried not to look up from her grading.



Severus Snape crossed the courtyard, coming from the south entrance, and towered over the tiny fourth year. “You know better, no more of these blasted Weasley products!” He snatched a rather complex contraption from the boy’s hand. “Get to class,” he grumbled. Any students who had been standing close by cleared the courtyard, not wanting to catch the wrath of Snape. He’d been particularly harsh this term and it was only a few weeks in. The poor first years were practically wetting themselves in class.



She heard no further outbursts from him, but still waiting a moment before she dared look up. Her eyes glanced across the courtyard and for that moment, she caught his glance. It was empty as he gazed at her. A swallow, brown in color, swooped low near one of the benches closer to where he stood. Hermione blinked, her face as emotionless as his. A larger bird with black feathers landed on the same bench and frightened the brown swallow away. She watched for a moment as it took to the sky, and then she turned her eyes back to her grading.



Severus watched her for only a moment more, and then stalked out of the courtyard.



When Hermione gazed up he was gone. She gazed down at her time piece. The raven that had previously perched on the bench had flown up along one of the columns in the archway of the courtyard. It perched itself near a pile of twigs and made a long low-sounding caw. A moment later it was airborne, heading off in the direction of the west tower.



Hermione shook her head and returned to her grading. Sometime later, though exactly how much time had passed she couldn’t say, the Raven bird returned. This time it landed on the ground near her bench, a scroll and tiny brown paper package tied to its leg. Hobbling toward her, the bird squawked to get her attention.



A bit startled, Hermione looked up from her grading and then down at the bird. “Oh goodness,” she muttered and freed the scroll and package from the bird’s tiny leg. Before she could feed it proper the raven had once more taken to the sky and was out of sight up beyond the castle before she could call it back.



Unraveling the scroll she glanced it over.



“You forgot these this morning.” It was scrawled in precise black spidery script.



Untying the package, Hermione let her lips curl into a little smile. Inside the brown paper package were her neo-natal vitamins that she’d left on their dressing table that morning when she’d woken late for her first class.