An Easter Heist

It was raining when Hermione got up early for breakfast before the Slytherins got to the great hall to avoid any distractions.

As she ate, an owl flew in and left a package and a letter at her table. Hermione saw that the letter was from Ginny.

Hi Hermione,
Sorry Ron sent that owl to the hospital wing. I wasn't able to intercept it in time! I volunteered to send you the Easter Egg from mum, though. Everyone here thinks you won't be able to eat it, but I convinced them it would still be a nice gesture to let them know we're still thinking of you.
I'm hoping things are going well with what the Slytherins have done. I know you were too scared to tell me, but I hope after I get back you'll let me help you if you haven't figured it out by then. If you do need to reach me, maybe see if Hagrid is willing to send me a letter in your stead.
Ron and the others send their love,
-Ginny

Hermione smiled. It really was nice of Ginny to do this for her. She put the package containing her egg in her beaded bag to save for later.

After eating, she made her way outside to the greenhouses. She used her wand to hide her footprints, being more than aware that she didn't want to leave evidence like behind as she had before when she was wandless.

When she got to the greenhouses, she began to peer inside the windows, looking to see which one had Professor Sprout's office.

After few minutes, Hermione managed to find it. It wasn't a large room. There was a small tent for privacy, likely containing Sprout's bed, but given Hermione's experience with tents, she figured there was more space inside. She cursed as she realized this would mean that not only would she have to check the office itself, but Sprout's personal living quarters.

As Hermione made her way to the door of the greenhouse, she looked through the windows to see what was in there. It was full of sickly-looking plants she recognized from her years studying herbology. It didn't look too difficult at all, but it never hurt to be prepared.

When Hermione reached the greenhouse door, she found it locked. She didn't know if it was locked by magic or locked with a key, but she wasn't sure she wanted to risk it. It was then that Hermione had an idea...

She ran outside again and, very carefully, smashed one of the lower windows. She crawled through the open space, thankfully not tearing her robe, even if she got it muddied up a little.

Once Hermione was inside the greenhouse and had cast the repair charm on the window, she paused. She didn't want to track mud inside the greenhouse, but she also didn't know if Gilpy would count the greenhouse as in the castle. But, seeing as Sprout always had dirt under her fingernails... surely she wouldn't notice a little more dirt in odd places, right? She determined that if the footprint wasn't in the office area, she'd remove the robe and use magic to quickly clean herself before checking the tent.

Not wanting to risk failing by using her hands, Hermione raised her wand and whispered "Accio footprint!" Nothing happened. Of course, Professor Sprout, unlike Filch, had magic. She could reasonably set things up so that students who snuck in couldn't simply grab things, especially when she had taught Hermione, Harry, and all of the Weasley children.

Hermione rubbed her muddied hands on the robe, promising herself she'd clean it later, and began to check for places where the footprint would be. It wasn't in or on the desk, not in the bookshelves, nor was it found by shaking the books in case she'd hidden it between pages. Hermione even poked around the sickly plants, thinking that perhaps Sprout had left it out here while taking care of them.

The one thing Hermione did find were order forms. Evidently, Professor Sprout was getting orders for Papaver Gaudens, the same poppy she had eaten a week ago now, from all over the country. This explained how Sprout was able to get some of the rarer species for the greenhouses, especially when students would mess up their projects, accidentally killing the plants.

But Hermione was left with ****. She removed her robe and carefully hid it under Professor Sprout's desk, along with her bag. She quickly used her wand to remove the muck from her naked body as she stood on the mat outside the tent. Taking a deep breath, Hermione opened the tent and stepped inside.

She was surprised to see the inside was rather clean. It looked rather like a small cottage with a tidy bed, a neat little kitchen, and an armchair. There was a stack of books about rare and interesting magical plants near the chair, and sitting on a table near the chair was...

"There's the footprint!" Hermione said to herself, happy that this would soon be over. As she took a step forward, however, she felt something grab her ankle. She looked down to see a vine had wrapped around it! She looked to see where it was coming from, and to her horror, there were two large plants on either side of the tent's opening, just inside and out of view if you were looking in!

The other plant had grabbed the other ankle and, having dragged her back as far as she could go, they began to spread her legs open. Not wanting to know what these plants did to exposed genitalia, Hermione began to think. She didn't want to have to hurt the plants, but she also knew that she had to act fast. "Incendio!" she cried, pointing at the first plant. It began to curl and shy away. Hermione repeated her action with the second before breaking into a sprint to grab the footprint. As the vines reached towards her again, she threw the parchment towards them and cast the spell again while the footprint was in midair.

The parchment burst into flames, causing the vines to shy away from the heat. She ran as fast as she could out of the tent and practically dived under the desk to get her bag and robe. As she ran to the window she intended to break again, she saw the vines coming up again, reaching through the entrance of the tent. They truly intended to capture her and trap her until Sprout would come to find her!

She broke the window and crawled out. As she crawled out, she cut her leg on a bit of broken glass, but there was no time for that. The vines were creeping their way closer and closer. She quickly wiped the blood off the bit of glass before aiming her wand at the window pane. "Reparo!"

Hermione didn't wait to see if the window would stop the relentless plants. She ran, limping the whole way, with her robe and bag in her hand, mud all over her lower legs and forearms slightly washing away in the downpour.

When she made it back to the castle, she quickly opened the doors and got inside. She could hear the Slytherins talking over breakfast in the great hall, but she ducked out of sight of them. She sat behind a staircase, tired and hurt. As she dug through her bag, however, she heard a voice.

"Miss?! What has happened miss? You is filthy! You is hurt!" Hermione looked up to see Gilpy.

"Shh! Gilpy!" Hermione begged. "I'll be fine, just let me get my dittany from my bag and-" But when Hermione pulled out the bottle, it was completely empty. She had used the rest of it when she was fixing her burns.

"Gilpy will fetch some dittany miss! Wait here, Gilpy will be right back!" Gilpy disapparated, leaving Hermione behind the staircase.

Shortly after he left, Hermione could hear the Slytherins making their way out of the great hall. "Don't let them find me..." She thought to herself. "Not like this..."

"No Granger this morning... Any idea where she could have gone?" Daphne asked.

"You're getting too fond of the mudblood." Millicent chided.

"Oh, she makes for a great pet, though... Think we can keep her after term starts, Pansy?"

"Not sure yet, Daph... We'll have to see what she's got. You find out why Peeves hasn't done anything?" They laughed as they turned back down into the dungeons. She was lucky they hadn't turned around.

"I can't... Poltergeists aren't like you and, me, Pan. They're like ghosts, it's impossible to get a good read on them..."

They continued their conversation as they made their way towards the dungeons. What had they meant by seeing what she had? They had already seen her naked and intimate, so there wasn't much else to see. And getting a read on Peeves? Were they trying to question why he abandoned the deal he made with them? It would be very dangerous if they found out she had some control over her destiny...

After they had gone, Gilpy returned. "Here is your dittany, miss! The house-elves be keeping it in case of accidents with Peeves, miss!" He began to dab it on Hermione's cut. She felt chills as he rubbed the medicine into her wound, making it heal instantly.

"Thank you, Gilpy," Hermione complimented. Gilpy bowed low.

As Gilpy bowed, he noticed how dirty the robe had become. "Miss, shall I go wash this robe, then, as I have with the others?"

Hermione blushed. "Well..." She didn't want to give up yet another robe so soon, but she also didn't need Gilpy getting the idea that she wanted to keep someone else's robe, lest he go telling people she had stolen it. "It's fine, I suppose... you've been grabbing the discarded robes very quickly."

Gilpy beamed with pride as he picked up the robe. "The other house-elves are happy to help Gilpy with this, miss! They has been watching for when miss is clothed to make sure Gilpy knows when he can pick up the robes she leaves!" With another bow, Gilpy left.

So... The elves were trying to make sure she couldn't return to her robes so easily. She supposed this was their way at getting back for the times she had tried to **** them to take clothes.

Hermione was wet, cold, and naked in the entrance hall with nothing but her bag, wand, and the collar around her neck, which felt colder than usual after her time outside. She looked up at the clock that read 9 AM. She began to think about what she should do today.