Problem: Received Take-Home essay final exam for Politics and Culture class and realized you haven't done any of the readings this semester.
Solution: Write a fanfic to distract yourself!
This is the prologue and first chapter to a story I'm toying around with starting, it's a switch from what I usually write (Harry Potter fandom or not) and I'm wondering if it's worth continuing. It's a post-Hogwarts story, with no real direction beyond getting Harry and Hermione together, but something'll probably crop up.
-- jamie
effectivelyabsent@yahoo.com
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They had all given it a go. It was inevitable, a tight-knit trio such as theirs was inevitably bound to romantic entanglements.
Ron and Hermione had tried first. Following the angst-riddled debacle that was fourth year, it was almost laughable how quickly the two had become one. The summer was apparently a time of physical maturation and emotional growth for Ronald Weasley and upon arrival fifth year he had all but professed feelings toward Hermione. With only token, grudgingly-given, encouragement from Harry (no doubt only seeking to fulfill his duties as 'best friend,' and not actually approving) Ron had broken down and asked Hermione out at the beginning of the term.
They made it to Boxing Day.
Christmas that year was an awkward celebration of soured feelings and gift-exchange. Harry, in a valiant effort to prove his non-existent acceptance of the couple, had purchased two tickets to a Weird Sisters concert in Hogsmeade for the following month, a gift that was received uncomfortably, due, in large part, to the looming threat of a break-up. And as the break-up became reality the following day, Harry had taken Hermione to the show and given Ron a Chudley Cannons sweater in lieu of his original gift.
The concert proved to be an exercise in restraint for Harry as a month was not sufficient time to make professing your love to your best friend's ex-girlfriend (and, incidentally, your other best friend) a polite practice. Questions would haunt Harry as to whether this was ever a polite practice.
Owing to the fact that Harry and Hermione were raised in muggle environments and subsequently were not as well-versed in the Weird Sisters music as Ron was (in fact, their only exposure had been the fourth year ball), the concert was spent trying to ascertain the rhythm to songs they had never heard in order to be able to nod their heads in time properly. It was also spent trying not to stare at each other with gazes full of longing and doubt. It was mutually agreed on the walk home that the Rolling Stones show playing in the nearest muggle village would have been a better spent time and Harry hummed 'Beast of Burden' for the next week.
Sixth year was spent uneventfully (well, uneventfully romantically anyway, Voldemort continued to insist on annual plots to kill Harry). Hermione had found herself a nice Ravenclaw prefect to date, Ron was courting the new female Gryffindor chaser, and Harry was realizing he had 'commitment issues.' Hermione had dated the boy all of sixth year and into the summer. She seemed, for all intents and purposes, happy. The only time she would express any sort of melancholia was when a comment such as, "We all thought you'd end up with Harry!" was made. Ron, over his self-proclaimed 'childish crush' on Hermione, had dated around and also seemed content with his love life, as it were. Harry, on the other hand, could not, for the life of him, make a relationship last more than three weeks. Every girl proclaimed him "distracted" or "distant" and he proclaimed his fair share as "flaky" or "selfish."
When the time finally came, during the middle of seventh year, for Harry and Hermione to be together, it was built on such a shaky foundation that it self-destructed before graduation. Harry, having narrowly escaped death once more (and destroying Voldemort in the process), sought out Hermione for comfort and Hermione gave it. It became a relationship of co-dependence and crazed, powerful interludes in the astronomy tower (or Harry's dorm, or Hermione's room, or, once the Charms classroom. . .). Before irreparable damage could be done to the friendship, the relationship was mutually ended and the two completed the semester on 'friendly' terms.
Harry surprised everyone and accepted an internship at The Daily Prophet (only answering cryptically that it was time to take it easy when questioned), Hermione had gone on to further academic pursuits, and Ron, ironically, was set to play professional quidditch as a second-string beater.
The trio drifted, with visits turning to owl posts and owl posts turning to sporadic owl posts, when Ron was traded to the team backed by the town Hermione was attending school in and Harry was assigned as the Prophet's liaison to the team.
By some strange twist of fate, the 'dream team' was to be reunited.
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The title is from a Rolling Stones song of the same name, the lyrics can be found all over the place on the net.
effectivelyabsent@yahoo.com