[A/N: Well, here it is, the next chapter. It's my take on book 2, and next one will be book 3, and so on…This chapter I found slightly hard to write, for the simple reason that I couldn't really find a H/Hr moment that I found perfect to rewrite, and so I hope you forgive any possible shortness or length in some parts.
What's in bold=COS book. And I also put an indication of the timeline, as in where I took the snippets from, just for clarity's sake.
Anyway, keeping in mind I make no profit from this, read on, and hopefully enjoy..]
Chapter 2: Handling One's Worries…
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While Harry is stuck at the Dursleys, completely disconnected from magical contact.
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Hermione paced her room over and over again, her brow creased and her hands fiddling with the hem of her robes. She had gone in circles around her room so many times she was surprised she hadn't dug a trench already. She just couldn't get her mind off Harry, more precisely on the fact that he wasn't answering any of her letters, and there were a lot of them.
She had tried not to send too many, but her growing worry made her all hectic and she needed a way to transmit it to someone, so she wrote letters. She sent a couple to Ron, asking if he had gotten any news, and he responded that he was in the same situation as her, with no news and no idea why.
At first, she wondered if he just didn't want to reply, maybe he thought she was a nag, maybe he was only acting as her friend because he pitied her, maybe… Too many questions played around in her mind, each one more ludicrous than the next, but she couldn't help it. She absolutely abhorred not knowing the answer to something. Her nails were bit to near non-existence, there were no more cookies left in the house, she had finished those non-sugar pastries in under a week, she was losing her mind, and she hated herself for it. Well, kind of…
Her only escape were her studies. Though they didn't exactly have summer homework, she still found something to do, and was hell-bent on getting her mind off of Harry for a bit.
Finally, some solace came to her in the form of a tattered owl from Ron, giving her a letter that said that he and his brothers had a plan to go and get Harry, or at least see what was up. She was so excited that some questions would finally be answered that she didn't really care how they got to him, she just hoped it wouldn't be illegal.
She started writing a letter back to Ron, and started over, there were too many scribbles and crossed-out words on the parchment. Half an hour later, she had a neat little pyramid of paper balls on her desk, and she was slowly scribbling her newest attempt at a letter. She wanted to seem worried, yet not too much, and she tried to seem as interested in the both of them, even if the letter was purely about Harry in her head. Finally after many tries, she finally had a letter with less than half of it crossed out.
Dear Ron, and Harry if you're there,
I hope everything went all right and that Harry is OK and that you didn't do anything illegal to get him out, Ron, because that would get Harry into trouble, too, and then he'll be punished and I wont be able to see him . I've been going out of my mind with worry really worried and if Harry is all right, will you please let me know at once, but perhaps it would be better if you used a different owl, because I think another delivery might finish your one off.
Schoolwork was my only outlet I'm very busy with school work, of course, and we're going to London next Wednesday to buy my new books. Yay!!! Why don't we meet in Diagon Alley? You better bring Harry.
Let me know as what's happening as soon as you can or I'll go completely bonkers , love from Hermione.
She didn't know why she added the `love from Hermione' part, but it just felt right. She hoped she would see Harry in Diagon Alley, and maybe she did kind of miss Ron after all, so she also hoped to see him too.
She watched the owl fly away, and sat on her bed, grabbing the book on her nightstand and continuing where she left off during the night before. She never got tired of reading Hogwarts: A History.
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During the Dueling Club, Lockhart just got hit with a spell from Snape.
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"Enough demonstrating!" Hermione was relieved to see he was alright after that nasty Disarming Charm, because Professor Lockhart had taken quite a nasty fall.
"I'm going to come amongst you now and put you all into pairs. Professor Snape, if you'd like to help me…"
Oh great Hermione lamented Harry is of course going to be with Ron, who will I be with then? She glanced at Neville. She wouldn't mind being his partner, after all, she doubted it would be too hard to disarm him. But he got paired with Justin Finch-Fletchley as Lockhart passed them.
Then she spotted Snape moving towards them, and seeing the cold gleeful look in his eyes, she reflexively stepped closer to her two friends.
"Time to split up the dream team, I think," he sneered. "Weasley, you can partner Finnigan. Potter - "
Harry moved automatically towards Hermione. She of course noticed this, and made an inner whooping in her mind. Please let him be with me, pleeeeaaaase, she pleaded Snape wordlessly, knowing it was no use, really.
"I don't think so," said Snape, smiling coldly. "Mr Malfoy," he said in a fake `sudden-idea' voice, as if he hadn't planned putting them together from the start, "come over here. Let's see what you make of the famous Potter. And you, Miss Granger," he scanned the faces, and, finally spotting one he thought adequate, he smiled evilly. "You can partner Miss Bulstrode."
If there was one person Hermione did not want to duel, it was her. Millicent Bullstrode, yiekh… Hermione thought it would be more appropriate for her to be holding a banana than a wand. She looked like a cross between a hag, an overfed gorilla, and a cartoon cavewoman. To say she looked dim just didn't cut it.
Hermione turned and gave her a weak smile just for politeness' sake, and was not surprised when Bullstrode just looked at her with a sort of confused hunger in her eyes.
"Face your partners!" called Lockhart.
"No boyfriend to save you now," she uttered. Merlin even her voice sounds under-evolved, thought Hermione as she scowled.
"Harry is not my boyfriend" she seethed, hoping the square-shouldered `girl' in front of her didn't catch the flicker of wistfulness in her brown-haired opponent's eyes.
In all honesty, she supposed Bullstrode meant she didn't have one of her boy-friends there to help her out, but her poor vocabulary skills, along with that touchy subject for Hermione, made that Millicent was now faced with a riled up enemy.
"And bow!"
Hermione bowed politely while Bullstrode grunted.
"Wands at the ready!" shouted Lockhart. "When I count to three, cast your charms to disarm your opponent - only to disarm them - we don't want any accidents." Well then you shouldn't have put me with this monkey-girl, I'll be ripped to shreds! Hermione lamented inwardly. "One…"
Expelliarmus…Expelliarmus…Expelliarmus…recited Hermione.
"Ready to lose?" she snickered, receiving a death glare from Hermione.
"Are you talking to yourself now, then?" she replied coolly. She knew it would take Millicent a bit of time to get it.
"Two…"
She could see the light bulb go `click!' above the broad girl's head in front of her. But strangely, she smirked:
"Taking out your frustration about Potter not liking you on me are you?"
Hermione saw red and went primal.
"Three!"
Her wand, and the fact that her opponent was massive, forgotten, she jumped on the offending stocky girl and started scratching the hell out of her.
Or at least, that's what she had intended to do. Millicent seamed to have prepared for it, and Hermione barely got a scratch in, before she was caught in a head lock. She tried to fight, her face red with rage, or was that because she was suffocating? In the end it was no use, her enemy was much too large, and she started whimpering in pain.
Everyone around her was still moving, a haze of greenish smoke hovering over the scene, which she supposed was somehow Ron's impaired wand's doing. She vaguely heard Lockhart vying for calm and control and the noise dimmed down a bit, but Millicent wasn't getting the hint. Hermione tried to tell her to let go, but all that came out was a sort of growl.
Luckily, Harry leapt forward and pulled Millicent off. It was difficult, she was a lot bigger than he was. Hermione inhaled a great thankful breath as soon as that gorilla let go of her, and gave Harry a hug. He was caught off-guard, and he was awkward, but she still felt him relax slightly, and she withdrew with a huge grin on her face.
She barely got a chance to thank him before he was pulled away and set up in front of everyone, something she was learning that he hated, and that he was ironically always forced to do.
He had once again saved her from a big ugly foe, and it looked to be it that it would be a constant, he would always be her saviour. Though Hermione would not settle to be the damsel in distress, she would never be able to deny that Harry had a sort of Hero-image in her mind.
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The day Hermione is petrified and is brought to the hospital wing.
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Great, just great… she thought witheringly. So I'm going to be stuck like this until those bloody mandrakes are mature enough. Woopdi-fuking-doo.
Not much is known about the state in which a person is, mentally, when they are petrified. Because it is a very rare happening that people somehow do not die at the sight of a Basilisks eyes or other circumstances that result in petrifying, there aren't many accountings.
She remembered reading something like that in a book while in the library, in fact, the same one that she had ripped a page out from, the one that she still had clutched in her petrified hand.
Well I'll write a whole book on this state once I'm back to normal. Though on the outside, she was frozen, on the inside, she still thought, felt, saw, smelt and heard what was happening around her. It made sleeping a hard task, and she didn't exactly see much since her gaze was directed to the ceiling. The worst though was that she couldn't study. Tests were coming up soon, she knew, and she was incapable of studying!
Suddenly, she heard footsteps, and the curtain around her bed was opened.
"Hermione!" she heard Ron shout. Yes! My friends are here. She was elated that her friends had come to see her, and it hit a spot in her heart that they were distraught over her state, however horrible that sounded. She had spent most of her primary years with barely any friends at all, so it felt nice to know that someone cared about your well- or ill-being.
But she also hoped they would see the page in her hand, so that they would figure out what the monster was and put a stop to the attacks. Damn it, look at my hands!! You stupid immature boys too scared to even take a girls hand! Look. at .my .hand . She wondered if her face was red from anger.
Harry though didn't have any reaction at all, and she wondered why. She strained her ears for any sound, but she couldn't make out anything. McGonagall then ushered them away, leaving her alone with her thoughts once again. She groaned inwardly.
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That night.
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It was night, and everything was dark in the hospital wing. Not a sound could be heard, except for the wind blowing through the trees of the Forbidden Forest in the distance. Hermione tried to sleep, the darkness mirroring closed eyelids, but found she could not get used to sleeping with her eyes open, at least not yet.
She kept wondering why Harry had had no reaction whatsoever. Maybe he did, but just not an audible one, she tried reasoning with herself, but that suggestion brought her little consolation. It made her question what he considered her. After all, every time he was in the hospital wing she was always the first one by his side. She thought it was a natural urge, not because she had a crush on him, but because they were friends. And him not having any reaction, just as if he didn't care, saddened her.
A young teenage Hermione left alone with only her thoughts tends to roam near the self-doubting and insecure regions of herself, and misled thoughts and conclusions come up that totally occupy her mind. For this reason, she did not hear her curtain ruffle, though it was barely audible anyway.
If Hermione had not been petrified, she would have screamed bloody murder as a hand was placed on her fore-arm, but the present-state Hermione showed no reaction. She heard the ruffling of a cloak and then a dull thump as it must have been dropped on the floor.
She wondered what this person was doing there, in the middle of the night, staring (at least that's all she hoped he was doing) at a petrified person. She was startled when she heard the person speak:
"I promise you Hermione Granger, that I will catch whoever did this to you, I won't let him get away." She recognized not only the voice, but the determination set in it. Her heart warmed intensely as she realised that her being attacked did affect Harry, and that he had risked getting caught out after curfew to come and see her and make her a promise.
Thanks Harry she wished she could have said, it means a lot to me. Now get back to bed before you get caught breaking more school rules you prat!
As if he had heard her, he adorned the invisibility cloak she knew he had, and disappeared back through the curtain, leaving behind a Hermione who finally felt that she may be able to fall asleep after all.
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The two boys visit Hermione, having used it as an excuse when caught in the hallways without an escort. Near the end of the book.
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A few weeks later, when she was pretty sure she was going mad, they came to visit her again, and they sat down close to her bed, she could hear them speaking.
"Wonder if she did see the attacker, though? Because if he sneaked up on them all, no one'll ever know…"
You twit! It's not a person! It's a great big ruddy snake! But then she calmed, as she felt someone's hands on hers, the hand in fact. Yes!! They finally saw it!
She heard Ron say he would keep guard, and knew it was Harry trying to pry to parchment from her hand.
When it finally came out, she heard their astonished voices as realization hit her, and felt hope inside her that the basilisk would be stopped, Harry would pull through, she had faith in that.
Took you prats long enough! She wished she could've spoken at that moment, just to tell them that. Then they lost her when they started talking about girl's bathrooms. Finally, they left. Yes! They found out, now they can stop the basilisk and we'll all be safe!
Wait, then a realization hit her, that heroic fool!!
And she was left to her own worries as her two best friends went off into danger without her.
[A/N: So the Harry/hero image for Hermione is my idea. She was saved by him, so I think it's normal that she see him like that, much like Ginny sees him. But Hermione is much more mature, and that image of him will change, she will see him as just-Harry soon enough.
Harry's night-time visit is totally dedicated to Canoncansodoff, who pretty much gave me the idea, thx!
Hope you guys liked my take on the second book, and the next update will definitely be sooner. Thx for reading and Happy New Year!!]
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