Something rooted her to the spot, so she retrieved a book from her bag and propped herself on the wall between the feet of two suits of armour, opened the book, and pretended to read the words that looked like scribbles before her. Of course she couldn’t read. And she wasn’t going to. Her ears strained to hear their words and Hermione wished she had extendable ears, but even then they would have gotten in the way of all the students chattering and shuffling about.