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Summary: Hermione runs into an old friend. Ficlet.
Feedback? As always, yes please!
Obligatory A/N: This has not been beta-ed. Please excuse all the mistakes.
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A long time ago We used to be friendsBut I haven't talked to you lately at all
If ever again
A greeting I send to you
Short and sweet, to the soul I intend
"We Used To Be Friends" by The Dandy Warhols==================================
"Hermione!"
Pause. Look around. See no one; keep moving.
"Hermione!"
Closer this time. Stop. Look around and see – oh, bugger. Not her. You knew you should have just apparated to the Cauldron. Pretend you haven't seen her. Resume walking, only more quickly.
"Hermione!"
A hand on your shoulder. No use pretending anymore. You turn, face her, say hello. Wonder briefly how it is she recognizes you, as it has been eight years at least since you last saw each other. Remember a split-second later that it is not so amazing, you recognized her after all.
She's talking. Asking where you'd gone to school after you'd left. Are you dating anyone? She just got engaged to a man named Mark.
You respond politely. You act like you care. But you have no use for former best friends. Not ones like her.
Most people would be surprised you bear this grudge, yet you don't think they'd blame you. She had been your friend for most of your life. And then, one day right before you started your last year at a Muggle school, she ditched you. Left you all alone, to spend time with Sara Pritchard and her gang of pretty people.
Didn't return your calls when you rang her up. Didn't invite you to her birthday party. To her, you simply ceased to exist. She had been your one good friend.
"Listen…" she says hesitantly. "I wanted to apologize for the way… the way I treated you that last year." She shifts uneasily from foot to foot, but when she looks at you, you see the truth in her eyes.
"It was a long time ago," you say.
"That doesn't make it right."
"No. I suppose not."
She gives you a hug, and the two of you say your good-byes. She walks across the street.
You wonder if you should call her sometime. It was a long time ago.
But you used to be friends.