Disclaimer: Nope, not mine. JK owns it.
A/N: My take on the "My Two Boys" Challenge, by ZerothChild. You can find it here: http://talk.portkey.org/index.php?showtopic=26727 . Hope you will enjoy it, I feel I need to warn you that romance won't be the main focus here, but friendship will be.
Thanks to my beta Gingercat!
My Two Boys
Chapter One: Feeling Alone
It's middle of November of our sixth year at Hogwarts, and like every night, me, Ron and Harry are in the Gryffindor common room. The boys are playing chess, figures, while I'm sitting on the couch with a book in my hands, concentrating on my reading.
Who am I? Why, Hermione Granger, of course!
Bookworm, top-of-the-class, bucktoothed, bushy haired Hermione Granger. No, I'm not too hard on myself, I'm just honest.
Seriously, it's ok. I've learned to live with who I am since my Muggle primary school. I mean, it's not my fault that I like reading, studying, and doing my homework, is it?
But since then, I've always been an outcast. No one wanted to be seen with me, which is why I was always left alone. Harry has never had or been any ones friend before Hogwarts, this I know, due to the Dursleys cruelty and his cousin Dudley bullying those who dared to befriend him.
Believe me, I know the feeling. Only, in my case it was even worse, because no one bullied the other children to stay away from me. They simply did.
Harry has never had a birthday party before meeting the Weasleys, and that is something I can't truly understand, how his relatives hate him so much that they don't even acknowledge his birthday. My parents have always loved me, and I've always had family parties for my birthdays, before attending Hogwarts.
But they were just that, family parties. No friends, no children coming to play with me. At the time I didn't truly care, I was happy with my books. Or so I thought. But I could see that my parents were worried.
What really troubled me was not that I didn't have friends. That I could have lived with. The terrible thing was that I was constantly picked on. That is where most of my nicknames have come from.
Which is why I'm not bothered by Malfoy or Parkinson calling me bookworm or something like that. I'm used to it. Only the teachers seem to always appreciate me, first in primary school and now at Hogwarts. Well, excluding Snape, who is not as unfair to me as he is to Harry.
You could say I'm always been a teacher's pet, due to my studious nature. Then of course there are my parents, they truly love me. I could say they even spoiled me a bit during my childhood, but I guess it was their way to fill the void of me not having friends. They wanted to show me they truly loved me, no matter what.
I'm grateful to them. I reckon their support was really important to me when they allowed me to attend Hogwarts, even if that took me away from them most of the year, in a world they couldn't understand.
They have never tried to persuade me to follow their career path and become a dentist.
"Whatever you want to do, munchkin, we will support you" my father used to tell me, ruffling my already messy hair.
I love them so much. I don't really know what I would do without them.
The simple thought of them possibly being a target of Voldemort scares me, but I know the Order is protecting them. I can only hope it will be enough.
So, given my situation previous to Hogwarts, you can imagine how much I hoped I could make friends here at the castle. As you all know, the start wasn't so promising. I really couldn't help myself, and I guess they were right when they said I was an annoying know-it-all, looking back at those first weeks now.
But eventually, the troll incident came to be, and from then I started hanging around with Harry and Ron. My mum was ecstatic when I wrote her about it, and my dad too.
I was over the moon at having two friends, finally. I guess it's been more Harry than Ron, considering the redhead was the reason I almost got killed by that troll in the first place. However, Ron wouldn't leave Harry's side, and eventually he and I became friends too.
I still feel a deeper connection with Harry, but that's another matter. What really is important is that we are Hogwarts' Golden Trio, or so we are called, and we are happy to hang out together.
I admit their influence has been positive for me, loosening me up a bit. I needed that, just like Harry and Ron needed, and still need, someone to nag them now and then.
Wait a minute, what's happening? The two of them have stopped playing chess, and are walking toward the portrait hole. I overhear Ron telling Harry something about girls, and as they walk past the couch I'm on, Harry casts a glance at me, before following Ron out of the portrait hole.
I wonder where they are going, and why they didn't invite me to come with them. I would have probably refused, considering how I still have to finish reading this chapter on Healing Charms and their use in normal day to day life, but it would have been nice if they had at least asked.
Maybe it's something I'm not supposed to share with them, or to hear. I guess if what I heard is right and they are going to talk about girls, that is pretty much a guy thing. I know girls love to gossip about boyfriends and such all the time.
Sadly, I don't have female friends. Of course there's Ginny, and then Parvati, Lavender…but they don't qualify as best girl friends.
I should have known that a time would come when the bond between my two boys would outshine the one I have with them.
I guess it hurts a bit, though.
With a long sigh, knowing I probably won't be able to concentrate anymore tonight, I decide to head to bed. Maybe I can wake up early tomorrow and finish my reading.
--
A few days have gone by since that night, and Harry and Ron keep leaving me alone at times, during the day or the evening, heading who knows where and to talk or do who knows what. I really feel alone now.
They even left me alone to confront Malfoy this afternoon, when the git insulted me. Not that I fear Malfoy, I can deal with him pretty well on my own as the punch in third year testifies. But still, they have always been on my side in such events, and were ready to defend me even if I didn't really need it.
Today, even if I gave as much as I got in the confrontation with the Slytherin, he said something that still hurts.
"Have Pothead and Weasel finally realized how little you are worth?"
I tell myself it's not like that, but I really miss the days when we were inseparable, and it was just an year ago, even less if you consider how we spent most of the summer holidays together at Grimmauld Place.
Here they are, coming back into the common room, still whispering to each other, grinning, and walking up the stairs to the boys dorm without even glancing at me.
Maybe I'll just have to get used to being alone again.
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