Disclaimer: Harry Potter is not mine…if the canon stories were I would already know how the last book ends.
A/N: Thanks again for the reviews. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. It's a bit long, but that's a good thing right? I just wanted to warn you that I am a bit behind on this story, so if it's more than a couple of days before I have another chapter up that why. Happy reading ;)
Chapter 4 - The Most Oblivious Witch of Her Age
So far seventh year had been more difficult and stressful than any of them had expected. Even Hermione felt that sometimes it seemed like a bit much, though she hardly minded the extra work. All the teachers were working them harder than ever, trying to get them read for their N.E.W.T.s and graduation. Hermione grew increasingly stressed out. Without fail she could almost always be found in the library or studying in the Gryffindor common during any moment of spare time she had through the day, even on weekend. She was determined to score as high as possible on her tests and wanted to give herself no reason to feel that anything she didn't know on the N.E.W.T.s would not be from lack of studying.
Ron and Harry didn't seem nearly as concerned with their studies, as always, putting everything off until last minute. Hermione often reminded them, especially Harry, that if they wanted their job of choice after leaving Hogwarts that they had better not play away the year. Harry half listened sometimes, but Ron always rolled his eyes at her and carried on as usual, using the excuse that he needed to play Quidditch or would resort to other diversions to get out of studying. Hermione was especially annoyed about Harry's indifference though, especially with Snape back as the potions Professor. She still was unsure of why they had brought him back as a teacher.
Harry and Ron came in the one particularly rainy afternoon, after having attempted to practice some Quidditch, even though they had mounds of homework yet to be touched, but were unable to get a decent game in due to the awful weather. As usual Hermione was curled up in one her favorites place to study in front of the fireplace in the common room. Harry and Ron were both soaking wet, dripping water all over the floor of the as the entered. Hermione looked up from her pile of books and rolls of parchment as they walked in, their shoes making distracting squelching noises.
"The fat lady is in a foul mood today. She didn't have to tell us we looked like wet vermin," Ron was complaining to Harry, rather loudly.
"Honestly you two, you should have listened to me and stayed inside to study. I remind you everyday how close N.E.W.T.s get are but you never pay me any mind," Hermione chided them, her face scrunched into a frown. Crookshanks who was curled up next to her seemed to purr in agreement as she absentmindedly stroked him.
"Hermione, term just started, you act like they're next week. At least we were trying to have some fun. All you've done is waste your last term with your nose stuck in those ruddy books. You're going to transfigure into one by accident one day," Ron said indignantly.
Hermione's dark eyes flashed in exasperation. "You'll be so sorry come the end of the term, you'll come to me begging me to help you study and write all the essays that you put off," she retorted knowingly. Her hair seemed to bristle in annoyance.
Ron stuck his tongue out at her when she looked away for a moment and then made a sour face.
"She's probably right Ron," Harry told him, looking slightly remorseful for not having taken Hermione's advice either thus far, but not wanting to admit that he had been almost as bad as Ron in dodging his work.
Hermione flashed Harry a suspicious glance, surprised by his comment. He tended to side with Ron on things like homework.
Ron looked slightly hurt that this time Harry wasn't taking his side, but shrugged nonchalantly and took off upstairs without another word to shower and change.
Harry took off one wet layer of clothing in front of the warm fireplace but didn't head up with Ron. Instead he sat in front of the fire and stared into in broodingly. Hermione forgetting her books watched him, noticing how the firelight flickered light across his features, giving his green eyes an ethereal appearance. It made her stomach flip. Why had she never noticed how handsome her best friend was? Because that's what he is, just your best friend, nothing more, and that's how it should be, she told herself. Hermione sighed softly. Harry looked away from the fire, his daze interrupted by the noise. Hermione quickly glanced back down at her book, pretending to be deep in her studies, although it didn't take much pretending.
"Hermione," Harry said after a moment, his tone hesitant.
Hermione looked up, her heart hammering at the sound of Harry's voice. "Hmmm?" she answered distractedly.
His green eyes were focused on her, their emerald depths inscrutable to her at the moment.
"Do you think you could help me study for potions later? It's my worst subject, and I really need to get high marks in potions. I need to give Snape absolutely no reason to fail me."
He looked sheepish for a moment. "I know you have been warning me and Ron all along not to put things off, but I guess I still haven't learned to listen to you. You know you're annoyingly right about most everything." He grinned ruefully at her.
Hermione smiled warmly at her best friend, not feeling much like scolding Harry at the moment, as he had expected her to do, and as she would have done a few minutes earlier. "Of course I can go over some things with you Harry. I told I would help you, so that Snape would have to be fair. You're really not that awful at Potions. I think having a teacher for the past six years who didn't motivate you and whom you loathed didn't really make you want to apply yourself, and his return certainly hasn't improved matters," she told him, biting the tip of her writing quill thoughtfully.
"Snape…that rotten blighter, I still can't believe that McGonagall is letting him stay on as the Potions professor," Harry grumbled, hissing their former Potions teacher's name.
Hermione gave him a weak, but sympathetic smile. She understood the depth for Harry's abhorrence of Snape. She had yet to figure why Snape was back either, he had never been proved guilty of anything in the end, even Dumbledore's murder, but it still didn't seem logical to her that he was back.
"So any way, I'll meet you down here tonight after dinner?" she asked quickly, trying to distract him. She didn't want Harry to start brooding about Snape.
"Um, yeah that sounds fine. I obviously can't have Quidditch practice tonight with the team," he replied looking out the rain splattered window pane. His expression darkened.
It took a huge amount of effort for Hermione not to roll her eyes at him. She didn't understand what about the game he and Ron loved so much never would. Harry jumped to his feet, now going to get changed as Ron had.
"See you at dinner!" he said cheerfully as he raced up the stairs to the boys' room. Hermione leaned forward resting her chin on her hands as she looked into the leaping flames. You really have to get your emotions under control Granger. He is your friend. You already saw how things worked out last time you got involved with a best friend. Hermione told herself. She groaned loudly and leaned back in her seat, startling Crookshanks. Why couldn't her friends look more like Crabbe and Goyle? It would make things like this so much easier.
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Hermione raced upstairs after dinner to grab some extra books she had on Potions that she thought might help her and Harry while they were studying. After looking in several places, she let out a sigh of frustration when she couldn't find the last book that she wanted. Lavender and Ginny were in the room, watching her curiously.
"What's the rush Hermione? The library isn't going to close for a quite a few hours," Ginny assured her in a tone Hermione found to be somewhat cloying.
Hermione smiled in triumph when she finally found the hefty leather-bound volume that had been eluding her; she picked it up and smiled. It had been right there the whole time, under a small pile of clothing. Hermione looked up and frowned at Lavender who had let out a barely suppressed giggle.
"What's so funny Lavender?" Hermione demanded getting to her feet, still holding the weighty book.
"You're as flighty and excited as if you were about to go out on a date, but you're clearly only going off to study. I just think that it's kind of amusing that books excite you more than boys. But then again, I think boys are more excited by books than they are by you," Lavender replied maliciously.
Hermione's eyes locked with Lavender's. Hermione's brown eyes flashed with anger and her cheeks reddened in mortification. Hermione had half a mind to chuck the book she had in her arms at Lavender and then put a disfiguring hex on her. Her free hand clenched into a fist. She was breathless with anger.
"Lavender!" Ginny gasped, her eyes widening in horror. "How can you say something like that to her? I'd take it back if I were you!" Ginny's freckles stood out prominently on her face, which was now pale with rage. Hermione saw Ginny's hand got to where her wand was tucked in her robes.
"What? I am just telling the truth," Lavender sniffed, looking down nonchalantly at her nails and then uninterestedly twirling a lock of her hair. When Lavender noticed that Ginny's hand was on her wand she looked a little frightened.
Ginny sneered at her.
Hermione, encouraged by Ginny's support, finally calmed herself down enough to be able speak though her hand was now clutched tightly around her wand.
"The truth Lavender is that you are a shallow and petty girl with less intelligence than a slug. Although, it is rather cruel to insult slugs like that. If you actually cared about something other than having a boy to snog with at any hour of the day, I might take you a bit more seriously, you foul girl," Hermione hissed, feeling the heat of anger rising into her face. The room seemed static with magic energy given off by Hermione's fury.
Lavender looked entirely aghast. "Well, there's no need to get that nasty. I think I am going to get out of here, and leave Hermione and her books alone together. After all they're all she'll ever have," she spluttered.
Hermione laughed grimly. Lavender sauntered out of the room, her cheeks stained red with anger. She looked over her shoulder one last time though, probably fearing that one of the two girls would try to hex her while her back was turned.
As soon as Lavender left the room Hermione had to blink back tears, and wiped the few that escaped off furiously with the sleeve of her robes. Ginny jumped up from the bed ran over and threw her arms around Hermione, in a comforting gesture.
"Ignore everything that foul girl says Hermione. She is still bitter about you and Ron. The idiot thinks you stole Ron from her, and is jealous in general of how close you are to Ron and Harry," Ginny told her kindly. "Besides, she's a complete slut, and I wish that I had put a Bat-Bogey Hex on her," Ginny added with a wicked grin.
Hermione managed a weak smile and soft laugh. "Thanks Ginny."
Ginny shook her head. "No thanks needed Hermione. We're friends aren't we? As corny as this may sound, friends back each other up. You really helped me deal with Ron and the Malfoy thing at the beginning of term. I was just watching out for a friend."
Hermione smiled at Ginny, feeling suddenly very guilty for the ill feelings she had harbored for the younger girl for a time after Ginny and Harry had dated.
Hermione sighed.
"Well, I'll see you later Ginny. I have to go, or Harry will think I forgot him."
"Harry? So that's why you were so eager to run off and study," Ginny commented giving Hermione a discerning glance that Hermione hardly liked. Ginny's eyes sparkled inquisitively, as she lay on the bed her face propped in her hands, watching Hermione intently.
Hermione was annoyed as she felt her face flush red.
"Oh, Ginny, it's not like that. You're just trying to create a drama and romance out of nothing. Besides Harry only looks at me like one of the guys, in fact sometimes I am not even sure that he remembers I'm a girl. There's no chance of us being anything more than friends," Hermione replied, trying to convince herself and Ginny of what she was saying.
Ginny smiled perceptively. "Don't worry Hermione; I'll help you when you have to tell Ron that you and Harry are together."
"Ginny, do be serious," Hermione exclaimed in irritation. Hermione rolled her eyes at Ginny and took off downstairs to the common room before Ginny could comment further on what was going on with her and Harry.
She was glad that Ginny had been there. It had given her a chance to calm down and cool off, and it had prevented her from hexing Lavender. Harry would have sensed something was up if she had some down immediately after her confrontation with Lavender. Taking a deep breath she attempted to smooth down her out of control curls before taking the last few stairs down.
Harry was sitting on one of the couches in front of the fireplace pouring over his Potions book, his face scrunched into a look of intense concentration. He looked up at the sound of Hermione's footsteps on the bottom of the stairs.
"Hermione there you are!" he greeted her, looking relieved to see her. Perhaps he'd thought that she had changed her mind, or been too annoyed with him for putting things off to help him.
"Sorry that I left you alone with your Potions for so long. I hade trouble finding one of my books," Hermione said apologetically, taking a seat next to Harry. Her arm brushed against Harry's and her nerves sent a tingling sensation coursing through her body. She attempted to ignore body's response and focus only on studying with Harry, the activity that came the most easily to her.
They went over the easiest mistakes to make when preparing ingredients for some of the more complex potions, and the reasons behind why the ingredients for certain potions were meant to be added in the exact order with no modifications.
Harry looked up from his copy of Advanced Potion-Making by Libatius Borage that they had used 6th year, this time he wasn't using the Half-Blood Prince's copy.
"Hermione," Harry began lowering his voice and looking around for a moment to see if anyone was listening, "I would never say this in front of Ron, but I really am starting to worry about the N.E.W.T.s, and I am kind of wishing I had done some studying before now…especially potions." Harry shifted in his seat uncomfortably. He had a look on his face similar to the one he'd had when he drank Polyjuice potion.
Hermione frowned for a moment, biting her lip to keep herself from saying what she wanted to upon first hearing that Harry seemed to have done no studying.
"I am sorely tempted to say I told you that you'd be sorry. You seem to always get lucky though Harry. When you need to pull something off you always manage to," Hermione told him.
"And," she added, "Remember what Slughorn told you last year. Your mum had a gift for potions, maybe you have a hidden potential for them yet."
"Yeah, maybe," Harry grumbled, looking down at the page describing a particularly long and complex potion.
"Well, stewing about it won't help you get higher marks, so all you can do is use the time you have left well," Hermione stated decisively. Harry frowned but nodded in reluctant agreement.
Hermione impatiently flipped through a potions book to look for an intricate but important potion that would surely be on the test. She made a soft ah ha noise, upon finding the Draught of Peace spell. It would likely be on the N.E.W.T.s in some form.
Harry leaned over, curious to see what she was looking at that had made her so excited. Hermione was somewhat hunched over her book and Harry casually rested his chin on her shoulder as he studied the same page. Far from annoyed by the unexpected, but welcome physical contact, she took her time looking over the description of the potion. She could feel Harry's warm breath on her cheek. It made her feel dizzy in a good way.
"Hermione, why did you and Ron break up?" Harry asked suddenly and rather bluntly. Hermione frowned slightly, completely taken aback by Harry's question. It had been one of the last things she had expected him to ask at the moment.
Before she could even begin to answer him, the portrait at the entrance went flying open, several people coming in the room laughing and talking. Harry and Hermione jumped at the noise. Ron was among the crowd that came into the common room.
He looked sullenly at Harry and Hermione.
"What are you two doing?"
"We're studying Ronald. I am not sure if you remember what that is," Hermione snapped.
"I'm not dense. I know you're studying, I just don't see why you had to rook poor Harry into doing it," Ronald muttered sullenly.
Hermione rolled her eyes and slammed one of the books on her lap shut with a huff.
Harry gave his friend a sympathetic look.
"It's fine Ron. I saw her studying down here and asked if she would quickly answer a question I had about Potions. Hermione did get a little long-winded in explaining my question, but it's no reason to argue with her," Harry explained quickly.
Hermione looked over at him, not completely sure why, but something about his explanation to Ron hurt her. It seemed almost as if he didn't want to admit that he'd wanted to study with her.
"Ah, that's okay Harry. As long as she didn't force you to study," Ron replied, shuddering as though that would have been a true horror.
Harry chuckled at his exaggerated response.
"Mind if I borrow Harry Hermione? I have some questions about the next Quidditch match," Ron said, turning his attention back to her.
"That's just fine. You can have him the rest of the night if you want," Hermione replied, her tone a little harsher than she'd meant it to be.
"What's the matter Hermione?" Harry asked looking puzzled.
"Um, well I have to go anyway," she told Ron and Harry, ignoring Harry's question. Hermione grabbed the books nearest to her, taking off without another word climbing the stairs towards the girls' dormitories.
"Hermione, where are you going?" she heard Harry yell. She just kept walking up the stairs, wondering herself where and why she had the urge to take off. Maybe Lavender's words had gotten to her more than she wanted to acknowledge.
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