Chapter Text
Books had always been a solace that Hermione had never had to question. They weren’t like people, weren’t so unforgiving of any awkwardness, of any differences. Any know-it-all-ness. Books were universes she could crawl into where everything was laid out for her, where there was an ending in the distance – happy or not – and where people like her could be heroes.
Books were her happiness and her home.
She couldn’t remember how she had first come to rely so heavily on books and the universes inside of them – maybe it was because of her father, maybe because of the endless days of grade school where she spent all of her time reading because she didn’t have any friends. But no matter how it had started, by this point in her life she knew that books were so much a part of her that she didn’t know who she’d be without them.
Her father had read her books before bed every night growing up, Whinnie the Pooh and such when she was very small and moving on to the Hobbit and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe as she grew. She’d been the first to read in her class, and had been the student who had won all of the reading awards they could pass out with ease.
When Thomas Hilly made fun of her hair every day in class during third year, tugging on it and putting things in it that she wouldn’t notice until it was too late, she’d shoved her nose into Jane Austen’s works and imagined a world where she could speak out like the women in those books. When Ann Donovan hadn’t invited her to her birthday party but had invited everyone else in class she’d read Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and laughed over the Mad Hatter’s tea time antics.
Then she’d turned out to be magic and her life had turned into the sort of book she’d always dreamed about being in. She’d gotten on the train that first year imagining all the friends she’d make, picturing all the amazing things she’d learn and do and… It had taken time, it hadn’t been an instantaneous thing like she’d dreamed it would be, but she’d gotten there. She’d gotten her storybook life.
It wasn’t as perfect as she’d dreamed of with, you know, Voldemort, but it was amazingly wonderful and she wouldn’t change it for anything in the whole wide world. And she tried to remind herself of that as she curled up on her bed, curtains drawn closed as she tried her best to read her way out of the situation she’d found herself in.
Lavender had to be talking this loudly on purpose, giggling with Pavarti on her bed at the other side of the room over what it was like to be dating Ron. What it was like to kiss Ron. How handsy Ron was.
Making a sound of disgust, Hermione dug her wand out from where it had buried itself in the folds of her top quilt and quickly cast a charm to muffle their voices.
She didn’t know the charm for completely cutting off outside sound, sadly, though that was going to change very, very quickly. She refused to be subjected to this horror ever again.
Though the one good thing about muffling instead of completely silencing was that she could tell when they were done talking and had left the room, which meant that she knew the moment that she was free to emerge from her little prison of comfort.
Breathing out a sigh of relief Hermine sat up, wondering if she wanted to chance going down to the common room. On one hand, all of her friends were down there and she liked her friends. On the other, Lavender was now probably down there with Ron and she didn’t want to be near the girl, even though she’d liked Lavender alright before all of this. Before this year she’d thought she was a sweet, slightly dim, but happy person, and nothing had been bothersome about her until she’d latched onto Ron and…
This wasn’t about Ron. It wasn’t. They were just way to overly affectionate in a truly disgusting way and it was offensive to her as a person. She wasn’t going to be the sort of jealous girl that would hate another person just because they happened to be dating the guy she liked. That would be an incredibly petty thing for her to do.
And anyways, it definitely wasn’t about Ron. It was about them deciding that they could sacrifice everyone’s comfort for the sake of their ability to snog whenever the mood struck. Which was disgusting, obviously, and the nicknames. Oh dear Merlin, the nicknames were enough to drive a person to madness.
She flopped back to lay back on her bed again to frown up at the canopy above her for a second before launching herself back up and off the bed. They were not going to keep her from doing the things she wanted to do. She wouldn’t let them. Their tongues were not enough to keep her from going downstairs.
Down the stairs everyone was lounging around, some diligently doing homework, but mostly everyone was chatting with one another easily, passing the time before they had to inevitably actually get to work. Harry was talking with Dean and Ginny about quittage on one of the couches, and Hermione went over to them with a brief but happy sigh that Lavender and Ron weren’t there.
That Ron wasn’t there sent a small pang through her heart but… Well, it felt like they hadn’t talked in an eternity. Even if he had been there she was unsure of what she’d say to him. So it was fine. Everything was fine.
“Have you done your charms essay yet?” She asked as soon as she sat down, earning a groan from both Harry and Dean. Ginny – lovely Ginny – just laughed.
“We’re taking a break.” Harry declared like a dare, and Hermione gave him a pursed-lipped look of disapproval.
“And how long has this break been going on?” She asked knowingly, and Harry glared at her. It was weak though, which meant he was feeling a bit guilty and knew she was right. She strengthened the amount of disapproval she was showing and finally the boy sighed, getting off the couch with a groan to go get his things to write the essay. Dean followed after, once Ginny had given him an indifferent shrug.
“So now you’re all going to be doing charms, I guess?” The girl asked, flipping her long red hair over her shoulder when it got in her way in a way that strangely didn’t look forced or weird. Hermione envied her a bit, and wanted to learn her secrets.
“I finished that essay days ago, so I’ll be doing my Arithmancy essay instead. I just knew that Harry wouldn’t have started it yet.” Both girls laughed, knowing their friend well, and Ginny stood with a stretch, reaching her heavily freckled arms up to the ceiling.
“If I go get my tansfiguration work do you think you could help me with it in a while? I’m a bit stuck.”
“Of course.” Hermione agreed warmly, and Ginny tossed a brief thanks at her as she threw herself out of her seat and ran to the stairs.
Once she had gone Hermione busied herself with laying out her parchment and inkwell on the ground, readying her quill just as the portrait swung open to allow Lavender and Ron in. The two were wrapped up in each other in an almost impossible way, giggling wildly and seeming reluctant to let the other go as they stumbled through the common room together.
With a lurch of her stomach she averted her eyes, hoping that they’d just move on without bothering her. But she saw their stumbling legs in the corner of her eye and she realized with a frown that they were coming toward her and the currently empty couch she was sitting in front of. Also, she realized, they hadn’t even noticed her.
That certainly gave her a lovely feeling.
“Oh! Hermione!” Ron laughed a little awkwardly when they almost stepped right on her, too caught up in each other’s eyes or something horrendous like that. “Doing homework as always, I see.”
“Of course.” Hermione agreed a bit shrilly, hand clenching on her quill so tightly it almost broke, “What else would I be doing?” After all, homework was the only good thing she was good for, apparently. These days Ron could barely notice her unless it was about time to turn an essay in that he hadn’t even started and that he needed her to do. And then he’d turn those eyes of his onto her and pretend like nothing had changed and she just couldn’t seem to say no, couldn’t seem to remember any of his horrible behavior when he came to her and went, “Hey, Mione…”
“Oh, Won-Won, can’t we do something fun?” Lavender pouted, shooting a look at Hermione in a way that made it clear that she just wanted to get away from Hermione. And that made anger and disgust boil in her gut in a way that erased everything else she’d been thinking because it was Ron’s fault for dating the girl. It was Ron’s fault that there was so much distance and animosity separating them now. It was Ron’s fault that-
“Ron!” Harry yelped from the stairs, the dense boy surprisingly recognizing the atmosphere for what it was right away, “How are you!” He yelled, almost sprinting down the rest of the stairs and across the room toward them in a way that made him look just as deranged as people had claimed he was for years.
“Good…” Ron squeaked uncertainly, and Harry’s grin was almost manic as he looked between a scowling Hermione, a pouting and glaring Lavender, and a frowning – but mostly confused – Ron.
“That’s great!” Harry seemed to be unable to stop yelling, and it was catching everyone’s attention. Hermione was torn between hitting him and… There was actually no ‘and’. She just really wanted to hit the boy because he was acting like he’d never interacted with a human-being before and it was embarrassingly ridiculous.
He began to look around desperately, like he had just figured out he was drowning in the situation he had created, and his eyes caught on Ginny and Dean as they came down the stairs together.
“Isn’t that great guys!” He called, like a dying man calling for a life preserver.
“Um…” Dean froze, obviously shocked by how much of a lunatic Harry looked like and the way everyone in the common room now had their attention fixed on him, but Ginny took in the situation rather quickly and rolled her eyes.
“Yeah.” She agreed easily, pulling Dean over to the couch and flopping onto it as if this was a situation she walked into all the time, purposely walking between the disgustingly affectionate couple and Hermione to give the girl that bit of separation from them. It helped, giving Hermione a second to catch her breath and realize that everyone was trying to help her and was there for her.
Harry was doing a horrible job, but he was still trying his best and that meant a lot.
“Have you done your charms assignment?” Hermione asked Ron and Lavender stiffly, figuring that attempting to be civil would be the best thing. The grown-up and reasonable thing, even. Ron’s frown deepened, and he looked away shamefully.
“Not exactly,” He hedged, and after five years of hearing that Hermione knew that what he really meant was that he hadn’t even thought about it.
“He’ll get to it.” Lavender huffed like she’d personally offended her. Hermione grit her teeth – and as the daughter of two dentists, she really knew better than to do that. But this girl just drove her to it, and very nearly to several more violent options.
“You need to do it, Ron,” Hermione tried to say evenly, “It’s due tomorrow.”
His ears flushed and he glared at her, “Like she said, I’ll get to it!” He bit out, and Hermione flinched before gathering herself again and glaring back at him.
“I’m sorry if I don’t believe you’ll find the time in your busy schedule of shoving your tongue down her throat to do your work. After all, it seems to be the only thing you’re capable of doing these days.” She hissed, and a flush immediately overtook his face.
Lavender huffed angrily and actually stomped her foot, which Hermione had never actually seen a person do. “Come on, Won-Won.” She sniffed, tugging him back toward the portrait. “We don’t need this.”
He went, but not without sending another quick glare over his shoulder at her.
The room seemed to ring with its silence the moment after the portrait swung shut, but soon enough everyone began talking again, though more than one conversation was over what had just happened.
“Thank goodness we can all get together so often to have these nice little moments together.” Ginny enthused, which managed to make Harry snort and take Hermione’s attention away from where Ron and Lavender had exited the common room.
“Yeah.” Hermione grit out, angrily shoving all thoughts of the couple out of her head and focusing on her homework. “It’s great.”