Room 308, Tuesday evening

[smartestone]

Hermione has finally put both her studying and knitting down in order to put together the package for the proceeds from this week's clothing drive. It was more successful than she'd thought it would be, which makes her happy. She still hasn't received anything from Hogwarts, but she's decided either it's not safe to send things to her, or Umbridge has become very strict with outgoing mail.

Her hand keeps itching, though, and while she originally thought it was just from the yarn, further inspection shows her that there's one little area that's a bit red and swollen. It looks strangely like a bite, actually. She can't remember being bitten, though she does rememeber scratching her hand on the tree yesterday. There doesn't seem to be anything caught in it, so she promises to take care of it like any bite and that should do the trick.

Still, the itching has her a little distracted, so she might not be looking that carefully at what she puts in the box.

[Open!]

Comments

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

Willow came a-knocking.

[smartestone]

Hermione looks toward the door, absently scratching her hand against the edge of the box. "Come in," she calls.

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

"Hey Hermione." Willow came in holding a bag. "Are you still doing collections for house elves?"

[smartestone]

"Always," she says, spotting the bag and smiling. "Is that for them?"

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

"Yep," Willow said. "Well, depending. I have some clothes but I was also wondering if maybe they could use some food?"

[smartestone]

"Possibly," she says, thinking about it. "Is it perishable? I have to send it by owl so it might take a day or two to get there, but they're so used to feeding everyone else, I'm sure they don't get proper nutrition themselves."

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

"It can last," Willow said. "I figured there'd be some travel time. Actually that works better for me because then it arrives closer to this weekend."

[smartestone]

"Is there a reason for that?" she wonders, idly rubbing her palm.

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

"Purim!" Willow said. "It's a tradition to give charitable gifts of food and this year the house elves were the very first folks that I thought of."

[smartestone]

"Oh!" Hermione says, recognizing the holiday's name. What, you think she didn't do some research before starting any religion class? "That's very kind of you, thank you. I'm sure they'll love it."

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

"Yay!" Willow handed over two bags. "That one's clothes I don't use anymore, and that one's food. I didn't know how much to make and in theory we only need to give two but that seemed awful so I kinda guesstimated a range of twenty?"

[smartestone]

"That's good," she says, taking the bags and putting them on the bed next to the box. "There are quite a few of them, but they're very small and I don't think they eat much. It should be enough."

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

"I'm glad it can be of help," Willow said. "Hopefully it shall bring them elfan cheer. How are things with you otherwise?"

[smartestone]

"Things have been all right," she says, scratching her hand again. "Spring break should catch me up on all of my studies, I have a good mentor, and the clothing drive was actually successful. How have you been?"

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

"Missing classes like you would not believe," Willow said, knowing Hermione would understand. She glanced at Hermione's hand. "Are you okay?"

[smartestone]

She nods. "It looks like something bit me, but I'm not sure what," Hermione tells her, studying her palm again. "It's just itching, that's all."

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

"Huh." Willow frowned at it. "Have you tried moisturizer? Winter can be very dry."

[smartestone]

"It's a bit swollen. I'm not sure I want to put anything on it, in case it's infected," she frowns, and pulls her other hand away. "What would really help is not scratching at it."

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

"Maybe aloe and a bandage?" Willow suggested.

[smartestone]

"I'm going to try it. It might be fine by tomorrow, so I'll just keep an eye on it," Hermione says with a shrug.

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

"Let me know if you want company if you decide to go down to the clinic," Willow said. She smiled. "Or company in general."

[smartestone]

"Thank you," she says, and smiles back. "I keep hearing I should get out more. I probably should do that every now and then."

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

"We could go somewhere and knit together!" Willow said. "Peter taught me how. I don't know that I'm good yet, but these things need practice."

[smartestone]

"Yes, definitely!" She might be a little excited about that. "I didn't start out that great myself, but I'm always getting better."

She'll learn how to turn a heel someday, really.

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

"We could go to the Perk!" Willow said. "There could be coffee and knitting and that way if the knitting's not so great at least there's coffee which cures many ills. Oh, and also tea, because tea cures British ills."

Willow had learned much from Peter.

[smartestone]

"So you understand," Hermione says brightly. "They have good tea there. It's not perfect, but it's passable."

[willbedone.livejournal.com]

"There will be knitting and tea that has never seen the word 'Lipton' in its life," Willow promised. Her mun She noticed the time. "I'm getting close to turning into a purely metaphorical pumpkin, but maybe we can meet up later this week for fun with sticks and yarn?"

[smartestone]

Hermione nods and says, "I'd like that. I'll call you."