Hermione Moves into the Hospital Wing (3)

As they passed through the corridor, several Ravenclaw students approached from the other direction. When they saw the two pots of sunflowers in Ron's arms, some of them laughed. Ron did not care at all. He even raised the flowers a little higher and called out to them, "Visiting a patient! Miss Granger! Want to come too?" The girls ran off laughing.

Harry wished he could shrink his head into his robes. He quickened his pace, with Ron hurrying after him, sunflower petals rustling in the breeze.

The Hospital Wing door was half-open. Madam Pomfrey was sitting behind the desk by the entrance, sorting through medical records. Hearing footsteps, she looked up. She saw Harry, then the two pots of sunflowers in Ron's arms, and her stern expression shifted into the satisfied look of someone thinking, "At least you children know how to behave." "Here to see Miss Granger?"

"Yes, Madam," Harry said, keeping his voice as steady as possible. "May we go in?"

Madam Pomfrey stood and walked over to Ron, carefully inspecting the two pots of sunflowers. She turned over the leaves, checked the soil beneath the pots, then leaned close and sniffed the petals. "Ordinary sunflowers? No magic applied to them?"

"Professor Sprout gave them to us," Ron said. "She said they were the best ones grown this year."

Madam Pomfrey nodded, her expression easing considerably.

"A Muggle variety. No problem. Some magical plants can affect the medicine when kept in a ward, but these are fine." She turned to glance at the ward door and lowered her voice. "Miss Granger looks... a little different right now. Don't make a fuss when you go in. She hasn't been in a very good mood these past couple of days."

Harry and Ron exchanged a look.

A little different?