Hermione was hiding in the library. All right, not the absolute best place to hide. It certainly wasn’t her cram-packed attic haven where she could guiltily watch ‘The Vampire Diaries’ and ‘True Blood’, but it would do.
She could hear Madam Pince shuffling through the musty books but she didn’t want to get caught not in breakfast, because every self-respecting Hogwartsian was at breakfast. And it was too early to have
eaten right now, even for her. Time moved slowly and Hermione started tapping her foot, probably the cause for Pince’s sudden knowledge of her presence. The somewhat crippled-looking librarian came around the corner and caught the lingering girl red-handed.
“Done breakfast already? Didn’t see you come in.”
Hermione grappled for a suitable lie; she wasn’t very good at this. “You know me, fast and silent.” She scrunched her face up. “Like a ninja.”
“What’s a ‘ninja’?” It was the Madam’s turn to make a face.
Hermione cursed muggle assassins and all those deranged, mundane, boys. “Just a muggle term, do you have the time? I didn’t think I ate that fast.”
Madam Pince looked at the pocket watch she kept, Hermione was guessing, in her bra. “Five minutes until class starts, so not very fast at all, unless you got here an hour ago, all
ninja-like and such.” She looked over Hermione quickly. “I suggest yo start investing more time to breakfast, you’re starting to look a little scrawny kid.” She eyed Hermione for a moment longer before barking: “Now, get to class before the bell goes!”
Even though it was the first week of school, class had already settled into a boring live-by-the-hour routine. Hermione’s stomach was going through some major trauma and she was wondering if the Huffelpuff assigned to sit beside her could hear it.
The clock reached the hour mark and the door at the back of the class opened and someone stepped through. Malfoy walked purposely down the center aisle and handed the teacher a little pink slip before being waved away to the back of the class to sit beside a scared looking Hufflepuff. Draco smirked and waved at her.
“Um…excuse me, Professor?” Some kid behind Hermione said. “Why is a Slytherin here?”
The plain-looking professor looked from his notes. “Well, seeing as I don’t care about the answer to that particular question, why doesn’t Mr. Malfoy tell us?”
Draco kept it together pretty well; he stood up and placed his hands calmly on the desk like a lawyer in a muggle crime drama. “I am here upon request by Professor Snape. He is firmly under the impression that I am incompetent. Which I agree with; as long as I am incompetent at being incompetent. That is all I feel comfortable saying.” He gave an award-winning smile and sat back down.
He caught up with Hermione after class. “I read once that being around stupid people makes you stupid.” Hermione said brightly. “I try to stay away from people like that.” She went to swerve away from him to make her point, but he caught her around the arm and swung her down an empty hallway to make his.
“Ah, and was this what the all-mighty library told us this time?”
“You’re a brat.” She said simply. “I advise not to be so angry all the time. It’s bad for the love-life.”
“Speaking of which, how’s yours?”
“I could ask you the same question, but I won’t because I don’t want to know.”
He seemed to lighten up a bit. “You Gryffindor’s, always so punctual.” And with that, she was thrust back into student-body traffic.
It was before dinner and Hermione was surprisingly anxious. Not only had she fasted all day but she was also going through loads of intense, strange, mood swings. Like her entire body wasn’t all one temperature and it was effecting her brain. Her head was pounding and her hands were shaking and her mid section was strung tight with stress.
“You think you’ll be comin’ down to dinner, Hermione? You haven’t eaten all day.” Harry said catching up with her.
“Draco was reassigned to my History of Magic class. Trust me, I don’t have an appetite.” Mentioning him made her lose any inkling she had left to eat that day.
Harry groaned. “Are you kidding? That was the most exciting part of the day! Did we ever find out why?” He asked.
“Because he’s incompetent at being incompetent.” Hermione suggested.
Harry laughed. “I guess not, then.”
She let him lead her to the Great Hall, praying she had enough self-restraint to last her through until tomorrow.
Hermione was lying face down on her pillow. Her stomach growled and she twisted in the sweaty sheets and sat up. Too fast. Her vision clouded and she could feel her head bobbing back towards the headrest.
Bad, bad, bad, she thought, though somewhere deep down she was strangely excited. For what? She didn’t know. The day? Probably not. The classes? Again, probably not. Harry and Ron? Possibly. That was it…
Food. Or lack of.
She opened the curtains on the four-poster and looked in the mirror at the end of the room. She was startled by the reflection. She saw bulge everywhere; it covered her arms and her thighs and if she turned her head the right way, even her neck looked huge.
Hermione turned her head quickly from the sight. She decided to accessorize her usual Hogwarts uniform with a scarf and a cardigan and hoped that nobody guessed her motives in hiding her body. The strange happiness left her and she felt hollow, like she was a dying battery. She walked slowly to the Great Hall, carefully choosing the way she stepped to make sure her stomach didn’t complain angrily.
Seeing Harry and Ron she sat by them. “Morning.”
Ron eyed her quizzically. “What’s wrong?”
“Excuse me?” Hermione asked. “It’s just…” Harry sighed. “You just look tired. There’s nothing wrong.”
Hermione let a little laugh escape her lips. “You had me worried there.”
Ron’s laugh was much heftier. “You had us worried there. You should really consider sleeping in sometimes. You deserve it.” “Thanks, Ron.”
Through out the day Hermione found she was low on energy, despite the healthy portions she assumed she had been consuming. She was lying on her bed, food journal propped open in front of her. She hadn’t eaten yesterday and she had today; in perspective she had only eaten half the food she would have normally consumed through the time period. Still it bugged her; never in her life had she felt guilty about eating a piece of chocolate, or a bowl of yogurt, or even a whole orange. Estimating the calories and shutting the journal, she laid back in bed.
Hermione concentrated on what she really
was doing: she was dieting. Lots of people go on diets. And she
had spent six years totally devoted to schoolwork; she deserved a break-- something to do for herself. She was going to lose weight and get fit and was going to be really happy with herself, and everybody was going to be happy for her.
It had sounded so much better in her head.
She is in the Great Hall with Harry, Ron, and Ginny. They sat in a clustered group and were currently having a sneering contest with the Slytherin’s while Hermione sat with her back to the far side and pretended to be oblivious to what was going on. She stared at her plate incredulously.
It was most definitely piled high. She found herself to be eating more than a normal person breakfast, she found herself eating a fat-man breakfast, plus some.
“Whoa, Hermione, slow down,” Ginny laughed, “save some for the rest of us.”
“Ginny, don’t laugh at her.” Harry scolded. “Hermione isn’t feeling good and there’s no need to be sarcastic.”
Hermione looked at them confusedly. “What?”
Ginny gave her
the look. “Feel free to eat more.”
Ron had a huge smile plastered on his face. “Hermione, she was being sarcastic the first time. But Ginny is right: you’re going to start to feel slow if you don’t eat at least a little more.”
Hermione sighed. Suddenly her appetite was gone when she thought about next period. “We have the Slytherin’s next. I’m not up for eating too much before going into that hell.”
“Really, I’d be happy to go. If it meant I could nail Malfoy once.” Harry said mischievously.
“Just once Harry? A boy like you should easily get a couple hits on Malfoy.” Ginny said coyly. She was flirting, and she was damn good at it too, the four of them knew Harry couldn’t get half a hit before Malfoy pummeled him.
“Once,” Harry said with a smile, “is all I’m gonna need.”
After breakfast they trekked to the potions’ room and managed to squeeze all four of them at one table. The Slytherin’s sauntered in with the rest of the Gryffindor’s and Slughorn positioned himself at the front where Hermione and Ginny had to rotate their necks like owls to see.
Slughorn took one look around the class, seeming to get all the information in that one swivel. “Miss Granger and Miss Weasley; there is no reason for the two of you to be sitting like that. Please come find a seat that won’t put a crick in your neck.”
Hermione stood and looked the unofficial Slytherin side of the room before she felt Ginny take off to sit beside a nameless boy. She scanned the rows in despair before her eyes landed on the empty seat beside Pansy Parkinson. She took her spot.
Sitting now, in the wrong side of the room, with the wrong people, and the most very wrong girl, she slouched and tried to look at least somewhat normal.
They sat in nervous calm throughout the class.
When the period was over Hermione was the quickest to the door, not having any intention to stand the anxiety any more.
Ginny galloped to her side. “How bad was it?”
Hermione deflated. “She’s really stupid.”
“Oh, poor baby!” Ginny cooed. “What bad luck to be paired with someone dumber than you. That must have been awful.”
“Shut up, Ginevra! It was awful. I dearly hope that she’s a rarity and not all Slytherin’s are so daft. Otherwise, there is nothing left for the next generation of the Wizarding community.”
Ginny giggled. “Do you wanna grab a snack before Dark Arts?”
“Yeah.” Hermione answered. She walked to the Great Hall, feeling as if she deserved the food, like it was a prize.
Only subconsciously she knew it wasn’t.
It was like a slow torture.
A/N:
Hello again. I would like to tell you guys real quick that I've never had a first, second, third count of anorexia in my life. I would like to ask for any information from you guys that would make the story seem more realistic. Please and thanks! Remember to review!
Elena.
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