Perfection
Hermione walked into the Gryffindor Common Room with Cormac. He had tried taking her hand twice during the walk between Slughorn's office and the Common Room but each time she'd sighed heavily and looked away pointedly. She did feel rather mean for doing that but she had no interest in holding hands. The party itself was ridiculously boring. Cormac had kept trying to corner her under mistletoe every five minutes, Ginny ditched her for Dean and Harry had mysteriously disappeared half-way through it.
Cormac and Hermione walked over to the foot of the stairs that led to the girls dormitories. She turned to look at him. Not wanting Cormac to take things into his own hands, she stood on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek gently but in a finite way. He seemed pleased nonetheless.
'Well, good night then!' she said, glad that the night was over.
'I'll see you soon' he winked rather roguishly.
'You can't. The holidays start tomorrow, remember?'
'I might just sneak up into your dorm to steal another goodbye then!'
'It's not possible. Boys cannot get into the girls dorms.' she explained patiently.
He frowned slightly and mumbled an 'okay', smiled at her and left for bed.
Hermione walked into her dorm. Lavender wasn't there (probably with her Won!Won!, she thought, scowling). Parvati was finishing packing her truck for the next morning. On seeing Hermione, she smiled, raising her eyebrows mischievously and asked, 'How was Slughorn's party? How was Cormac?'
Not having the energy to make something up, Hermione answered honestly, 'The party was okay. Maybe a bit crowded. And Cormac? He was alright, maybe a bit annoying.'
'Why? What happened?'
'I don't know really. I'd be saying something and suddenly he would start frowning and sulking. Like just now, he said something stupid about sneaking into the dorms and I told him it wasn't possible an-'
'Hermione!'
'What?'
'Guys don't like it when you get all clever and bossy. No! not you in particular, but girls in general! The boys... they like being the smart ones. Trust me, I know! You're better off acting dumb. Makes them think you're cute as well.'
'But why? I mean, why would I want a guy like that anyway? I know I can be a bit of a know-it-all (Parvati scoffed at the 'a bit' part) but I'm not giving up being smart, being myself for someone! Surely there's got to be guy with enough brains to see that?'
'You'll have a lot of waiting to do if that is your idea of a perfect guy.' Parvati said, not hurtfully, and walked over to the bathroom to get her things from there.
Hermione frowned. She started getting changed, all the while muttering to herself.
'Surely, that's not right! There has got to be a boy who would be willing to accept me for who I am!
Or is Parvati right? Are my expectations too high? Are they?
Maybe they are... Maybe I'm too busy looking for perfection when there isn't a perfect guy in existence.
I mean come on Hermione! How many guys do you actually know who know you and accept you, your brains and your bossiness and will still treat you as a girl? Who can appreciate everything you do and understand why you do it?'
'Only one' answered another voice in the back of her head as she slipped under the blankets on her bed.
'Only one' the voice repeated, telling her something she had known for a long time but refused to accept.
'Only one, and his name's Ronald Weasley.'
