We had to run to catch her, but we tried not to make too much noise because we wanted to find out what was going on.
She went into the girls' bathroom and locked herself in a stall. After that, we heard her crying her heart out.
"Hermione, open this door and tell us what's going on, or I'll blow it up!"
"Could you try to be a little less direct, Marie?"
I sighed and looked at Marie, who, as usual, always wanted to get straight to the point.
The door opened, and Hermione appeared with red, swollen eyes, proof that she had been crying, as she walked toward the sinks.
"I don't want to bother you with this."
"Shut up, you're in the same house as us, and besides, it would be a shame not to enjoy the Halloween feast."
"Could you be less harsh with your words? That's not how you comfort someone who's crying."
Apparently, our little sketch brought back enough of a smile for her to open up to us.
She had just had a Charms class, and the subject was the Levitation Spell, "Wingardium Leviosa." Just like in our year, they had to make feathers fly in pairs.
She was paired with Ron Weasley, who wasn't very skilled and even tried random wand movements to force the feather to fly. Hermione intervened to stop this silly behavior and explained the mistakes he was making.
Annoyed by Hermione's corrections, Ron challenged her to try it if she thought she was smarter than him. The result? She succeeded, earning points for our house.
At the end of the class, Ron began complaining to his friends about how Hermione was boring and had no friends. Unfortunately, Hermione overheard him, and it made her really sad to be insulted after trying to help him with advice.
"It's mostly his jealousy of not succeeding and having to take advice from someone he sees as being on the same level as him that frustrated him."
I agreed with what Marie said, but I'm almost certain it was also the way Hermione explained it that made Ron angry.
"Hermione, tomorrow you're coming with me to the support course. I'm not accepting 'no' as an answer."
It's time she learned how to help without unintentionally coming across as condescending.
"But I can't, I won't have enough time to do my homework."
"That's a shame. I was going to give you books with next year's material as a reward for coming."
"Do I need to sign a contract?"
She immediately responded to my teasing.
"I feel like I've seen this scene before, like it's the same story, the same mistake, repeating over and over again."
I ignored Marie, who was mumbling nonsense.
"Come on now, the banquet won't wait, and I'd hold a huge grudge against you if I missed it."
We went down toward the Great Hall, but before we arrived, we caught a foul smell.
"Peeves must be having fun throwing stink bombs around again."
We ignored the smell and entered the Great Hall to enjoy the banquet.
Like last year, this banquet was amazing and delicious. I took advantage of the meal to savor the food, feeling a bit emotional knowing I'd have to wait a whole year for the next one.
As we were about halfway through the feast, Professor Quirrell suddenly burst into the Great Hall, looking distressed.
"A troll in the dungeon! A troll in the dungeon! I thought you should know!"
He collapsed in the middle of the room, fainting.
All the students started to panic, looking at them, I couldn't help but wonder if they were lying about their age and experience.