She squeezed her eyes tight and felt her head threaten to burst.
That could not be true! How long had she sat down for it now? 2 weeks, ... 3 weeks, ... without counting the hours of the practical excursions, of course. So all in all over a month and now this !! She couldn't believe it. Lost in thought, she reached for advice in her shattered hair, which she had transformed into a mane in the last ten minutes of exhausted thought, which could easily overtake any blow-dryer hairstyle disfigured by a convertible drive. Her eyes widened and then closed again in the next moment as she quietly pored over formulas.
"You only have five minutes, ladies and gentlemen. Please complete your last answer and assign the slips of paper to the tasks of your material," rang the raspy, yet bright voice of old Flitwick from behind the desk in the front corner of the vault.Hermione panicked even more at these words. She needed a clear head to be able to solve the last equation before taking her entrance exam for the Academy of Auror, Banker and Healer Training - Vancouver. She glanced furtively through the crowd of exercise paper, ink and the last remnants of her quill, which had been worn out by this exam. Most of them already put all the material aside and exhausted themselves to remove the last remnants from their tables. Her gaze wandered. In front of her, Harry was still sitting quite strained with his wand clamped behind his ear in front of a greasy, if neatly sorted pile of papers. So she wasn't the only one who really had trouble keeping the time. But this realization did not help her in the task either.
Still searching for the solution, Hermione turned her head to the left. It was beyond belief. After Professor Mc Gonagall announced in his seventh year graduation speech that Hogwarts' partner centaur faculty in Canada would fund a free year abroad for all Hogwarts students who wish to take up one of the careers offered there, the urge was felt enormous here.The examination room was filled to the last meter. Almost all of Hogwarts participated, closely followed by Beaubatons and Durmstrang. Canada, the land of her dreams, the land of which Hagrid had told it, is teeming with dragons, magical undiscovered creatures and herbs and free-living elves - yes, exactly - the girl has always been fascinated by. Hermione stopped short in her storm of thoughts. She just lost time. One thing was clear to her, she, Hermione Granger, would never let Harry and Ron go there alone and begin their training in England for a year separately from them. Never ever. Her gaze fell spellbound again on the still empty field of her parchment. She was so close. And now she just couldn't figure out how many moles of rodent herb to substitute for the last equation. It was desperate. She looked up again. This time her gaze fell on Ron. Involuntarily she had to grin. As if he had sensed that he was being watched, the quill pen and the entire inkwell fell to the floor as if by magic."Shit", she heard him mumble, whereupon he quickly added "Vertikus!" added. With one leap, the previously leaked inkwell rose and returned to its original status. Hermione just had to laugh more, almost giggle. Ron had whispered to her so bitterly that she should please spare him any chores for his seventeenth birthday, but she hadn't let up, as they were about to start their NEWT at that time. And so she taught him the Vertikus magic at the last minute. He was in command of it now, almost perfect for a Ron Weasley. "Seventeen," she mumbled into his thoughts. That's it! Seventeen!! A brilliant sparkle spread in her brown-gold eyes and her cheeks, flushed with exertion, found their normal color again. "The last sentence, please", the professor's lively voice rose again and with one sentence the girl solved the equation before her by inserting the variable seventeen. ... "Levy!"The masses of students streamed out of the stuffy vaults of the examination center and almost drowned each other out in sighs, gasps or scratched murmurs. “Herm!” Hermione, who had stopped in front of the big iron door to wait for Harry and Ron, glanced reflexively to the right. Harry called for her. "Oh, Harry, hey Ron," she chuckled happily and beckoned to him, who was approaching her along with Ron at a quick pace. "It was just wonderful," she began to tell when Harry and Ron were level with her in the hallway that led outside. “The chores were a piece of cake, wasn't it?” “In any case, Hermione,” Harry whispered resignedly, knowing that he shouldn't confuse Hermione with his questions or uncertainties, once she was in a winning mood. Hermione didn't even notice the sarcastic undertone of his voice. She was just too in a good mood. Everything seemed perfect for a moment.She, Harry, and Ron would be traveling to Canada together, in less than two months, provided everyone had passed their exam requirements. But of course they would. It just had to be like that, it had been too easy for that, apart from the question that she could only solve with the help of her fiery red talisman. She grinned.
"Ron, what is it?" Harry asked when he noticed that he was trotting slower and slower and the distance between them and Hermione widened.
Hermione stopped shortly after, too, and stared at Ron. "Hey, what's going on?" She asked motherly, because it wasn't Ron's way in the middle of the day and after an exam for which he had learned to mop up. Ron barely heard that he was spoken to, he just shuffled along the path until he pulled up to Harry again. Hermione frowned. "Ronald Weasley!" She began vigorously. “We'll talk to you.” If there was one thing she hated, it was when Ron ignored them both or kept quiet.It just irritated her for whatever reason. She didn't know herself, and yet it was so. All she wanted from him was consideration and respect, in short, confirmation.
Immediately Ron looked up and saw that it was Hermione speaking to him. It inevitably reminded him of his mother. Both of them always have to pronounce his full name if he doesn't answer immediately. How he hated it, even though it was in some ways different to hear his name pronounced by Hermione than by his mum. With Hermione, he always had this obsessive need to justify himself. It made him - he didn't know how to put it into words - yes, it made him sick, in a way. "What is it?" Ron snapped back calmly, trying not to look Hermione in the eye. Now Harry spoke up again. "Well, listen," he said softly but demanding. "We just want to know what's wrong with you. You are so quiet. You don't have to be so harsh ...""It's nothing. There it goes out, don't grow tight," snapped his somewhat hasty response, which was more likely to be addressed to Hermione than Harry. All of a sudden, Ron quickened his pace and set a course for the Ministry's grounds, which were outside the exam wing.
"RON!" Hermione screeched after him, unconcerned. “Don't fool me!” And it was over with her good mood, which felt cozy and warm in her chest after the exam. Her slight gratitude to her best friend, who, having turned seventeen last year, had saved her from an "unequaled" test, was gone. Like a herd of centaurs, Hermione stomped straight after Ron and somehow a hint of sadness settled around her chest. Ron had been behaving so dismissively for almost half a year since he had ceased to exist as "her" Ron. Since he was with Lavender again, she swallowed. Why did it hurt so much all of a sudden?Harry stayed behind and looked after the two of them for a moment when another voice pressed into his ear from behind. "Trouble?" Ginny had just arrived at the Ministry to talk to Harry about her brother and her best friend, who was Hermione when she overheard the last bits of conversation from Ron and Hermione's meager exchange.
"No," Harry sighed soberly at her question. "No hassle - just a normal day in the life of Mr and Mrs Weasley-Granger."