Title: A Black Eye
Word Count: 257 words
Summary: This is a response to Violin Ghost's Black challenge at the Harry Potter Fanfiction Challenges Forum. It's Hermione and not what you probably think.
A/N + Disclaimer: Don't own Hermione. Still haven't finished the sequel. Working on the Drabbles A-Z challenge I issued at the Harry Potter Fanfiction Challenges Forum.
Hermione Granger did not consider herself a vain woman, but a black eye! She couldn't show up to the Ministry gala with this monstrosity on her face! The bruise was large and purple-ish in color. She almost laughed when she realized it matched her dress. She sobered quickly though. A large black eye, no matter how well color-coordinated, was going to be a problem. A black eye could tell a thousand stories, and she could just imagine the vile stories people would concoct; the conclusions they might draw. It really wasn't vanity. It was more about protecting her family and reassuring the general public. And only a little about her pride, she convinced herself.
She needed a cover story to block all the rumors and theories. A black eye could tell a thousand stories, and Hermione could not think of a single plausible one. Of course, she could always just go with the truth. But what a blow to the pride to admit to anyone, especially her colleagues, that she'd gotten clocked in the eye by her own family. I mean, how many more excuses would this give them to ridicule her. She simply could not find the strength to admit that she'd gotten hit in the eye with a muggle baseball, because she'd been paying more attention to her books than her surroundings. She fully regretted the day she'd bought Rose that stupid, muggle, baseball.
Bruises told a thousand stories, and Hermione was convinced nobody, but nobody, was ever going to find out what hers was.