The Next Morning

That morning Hermione woke up in the dungeons with the other girls and felt a new sense of determination. Being naked was humiliating, but that didn't mean she wasn't the brightest witch in the year, and it certainly didn't mean she couldn't hex Umbridge and the whole Ministry with a flick of her wand. She stood up and paused at the thought of what she was about to do. She looked at the entrance to the dungeon, no door - she grimaced remembering some Slytherin boys leering at them last night. Putting that thought aside, she **** her hands by her side and did her best impression of a casual walk into the corridor.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the other witches whispering as she walked past. It had become accepted among them, that everyone would use their hands to hide their chest and pussy, Luna had never bothered herself with that, but by now no one was ever surprised by Luna. Hermione; however, was meant to be straight-laced and proper. Seeing her so easily walk about the castle in nothing but her skin was unusual to say the least and caused a stir among the naked witched.

Reaching the corridor, she turned and wandered up the stairs and through the more well-lit halls. The yellow sunlight was pouring in and through the window and she could see the sun just hovering over the rocky peaks of the mountains. She realised that in all her years at Hogwarts, she hadn't much stopped to admire the natural beauty of the area, perhaps she should take a walk around the lake some time. A sudden draft reminded her why she shouldn't do that, she could barely stand to be seen by her friends, she would leave exploring the highlands naked for another day.

Finally she reached her destination, the prefect's bathroom. She walked in slowly, maintaining a stoic outward appearance, but internally wishing that no one else was inside. As luck would have it, she was the first one there this morning. The first thing she did was turn on the taps. There were no stalls and students typically wore bathing suits when using the bath. A large clock on the wall showed her that the time was barely seven AM, she had more than enough time.

The bath filled up quickly, probably aided by magic. As the bath was filling up, she slid into one side and looked around the available products for some shampoo. Not long after moving on to hair conditioner after applying hair conditioner she heard the door opening. In a moment of panic, she considered running to the toilet stalls to hide, but then remembered her resolution and stayed put. She allowed herself to sit lower in the water, so that only her face remained above the surface and the rest of her was well hidden by thick bubbles. Two Ravenclaw wizards entered the bathroom, a prefect and the quidditch captain.

They stopped when they saw her and quickly averted their eyes. The prefect managed to murmur something similar to "Sorry, we didn't expect you to be in here. We'll come back later." while blushing furiously and turning to leave.

"No, wait!" said Hermione abruptly. The two wizards turned around looking confused. "I mean," continued Hermione, blushing furiously at what they must think of her, "the bathroom is for everyone, I'll be out soon anyway and the bath is big enough for fifty people."

"But you're naked!" interjected the quidditch captain.

"I've been naked for over a week. You've all seen me by now, so what difference does this make?" Hermione surprised herself with the calm confidence in her voice, it was almost the exact opposite of how she really felt.

The young wizards looked stunned for a minute, then took off their robes revealing bathing suits and walked into the water. Hermione couldn't help but feel anxious. She **** her arms to stay limp by her sides and desperately tried to avoid eye contact with her visitors. For now, the bubbles were thick enough to hide her, but that was a small comfort; she was naked, in the bath with two men, why had she tried to be so brazen so soon?

"It's Hermione right?"

"I'm sorry?" Hermione was painfully reminded that there were people with her by the quidditch captain's question.

"You're Hermione, aren't you? I recognise you from the DA meetings and you danced with Viktor Krum at the Yule Ball last year."

"Er... yes... yes I am, you're the Ravenclaw quidditch captain right?" Hermione wasn't used to her biography being quoted to her by strangers, perhaps this was how Harry felt all the time.

"Yes, I'm Roger, I think we met before at the Yule ball, I was dancing with Fluer. This is Anthony, forgive him, he's a little quiet." he gestured to the other wizard who seemed almost as nervous as Hermione, "I wanted to thank you for organising the DA. I'm in my last year and I'm not even taking defense against the dark arts anymore so I didn't think it was worth coming to your sessions, but I appreciate that you're standing up to that toad in some way and the fact that you're still going despite what she's done to you is admirable."

"Um... thank you." Hermione couldn't think of anything more to say, she was sure she was more eloquent than this, but the unfortunate circumstance meant it was all she could do to respond at all.

Sensing how uncomfortable Hermione must be Roger continued, "I'm trying to say," I know a lot of very bright wizards with more magical training than the fifth years and if you wanted to arrange a surprise for Professor Umbridge, we might be able to help."

"Well, that's great, but we're trying to remain as under the radar as possible for now."

"What's a Radar?" That amusing thought almost made Hermione cheer up; Harry was raised by muggles, so her muggle expressions went unnoticed, Ron had long since gotten used to them and didn't mention them anymore. She hadn't considered for a long time, that most of her idioms wouldn't be understood by most wizards.

"Oh, it's a muggle word. It means we don't want Umbridge to know we exist."

"Okay, that's fair enough." Replied Roger, Hermione wasn't sure if it was her imagination, but, for a second, she thought she heard a hint of disappointment in his voice. An uncomfortable silence formed between them and Hermione resumed her previous tactic of avoiding eye contact with the Ravenclaws and pretending they weren't there.

Anthony had been staring at Hermione all this time without saying a word. He was a regular at the DA and was one of the more talented attendees - obviously he's easily distracted. Just then Hermione noticed why he was staring, while talking to Roger, the bubbles around her had disappeared and her nipples were just poking out of the water. Reflexively Hermione moved her hands in front of her chest.

"Oh no, sorry, I wasn't-" Anthony managed to stammer out before Hermione interrupted.

"No, no it's okay." She clenched her fists and lat her arms sink below the water. "I'm just still getting used to it. I should be going soon anyway, I don't want to miss breakfast." With that and all the self control she could summon, she stood up from the bath revealing her whole body and clean-shaven slit to the two men, then turned around and walked to the neatly folded towels on the bench. She knew both people behind her were staring at her bottom and although she was embarrassed and blushing red at the thought, she had to admit, it gave her a strange sense of pride, too.

She picked up her towel from the bench, it was soft and obviously prepared by house elves. She kept her back to the wizards as she dried herself, before putting the towel in a bin next to the wall, she had almost wrapped it around herself before realising there would be little point. Finally, she picked up her wand which had been left on the side and used a drying spell to dry her hair, the water evaporated off her head and shoulders instantly. Satisfied with her efforts, she walked out the door and into the hall.

Exhausted by her efforts to feign indifference in front of the two wizards she collapsed against the wall as soon as she was out of sight of the door. She couldn't believe what she had done, she had held a conversation with a wizard she barely new while naked and made no attempt to cover up, then flashed her entire body to the two of them and given a nice long view of her arse. She smiled to herself realising how far she had come in the space of a day, "Take that Umbridge!" She said aloud. Realising breakfast would not be served for much longer, she made her way to the great hall. Despite her progress, she was still dreading her first lesson, defense against the dark arts.