Friends or Nott??
By HPFangirl71
It was late at night, Hermione Granger again found herself alone in the library. Her friends, Ron and Harry, took little interest in educational pursuits. This left their bookwormish friend on her own a lot. Hermione loved to read and her appetite for learning was insatiable. Secretly she sometimes wished for a friend who shared those interests.
Her well worn copy of History of Magic fell off the edge of the table. Bending to retrieve it, she was startled to feel her fingers touching another's. She looked up and stared straight into the golden brown eyes of Theodore Nott. She knew the tall boy from Arithmancy class. He and Draco Malfoy were the few Slytherins in the class, which was mostly made up of Ravenclaws.
"Excuse me, that's mine." she said.
"Doesn't look like a standard school edition." he replied softly.
"No, its not. I bought an extra copy. I like to read from it late at night." she shyly confessed.
"I thought I was the only one nerdy enough to carry around my own personal copy." Theo chuckled lightly as he handed her the book.
Hermione smiled shyly at the boy, realizing finally that perhaps she'd found a kindred spirit in the boy before it. She only needed to look past his house allegiance. Her fellow Gryffindors would never understand… She shook her head as she thanked him for retrieving her book. He returned to his table with a bit of uncertainty. Returning to her research, she kept glancing over at Nott discreetly through her curls.
Later, as she placed her books back into her school bag she realized that it was now or never. Summoning up all her Gryffindor courage, she nervously approached Theo at his table. At first, she just stood there, unsure what to say when finally Nott was the first to speak.
"Can I help you Miss Granger??" his voice melodious in tone.
"I was thinking perhaps we could be friends… that is if you want to be?" she squeaked out.
"Are you sure its really what you want?"
"Yes." she said, a smile upon her face. "I don't see any reason why we can't be…" she looked at him hopefully.
He looked at her with apprehension. He wondered what had possessed this smart, attractive, young witch to want to be friends with a self professed loner like himself. What would the other Slytherins and Gryffindors say if they saw them fraternizing in the halls? He wanted to be her friend but knew the difficulty such a friendship would entail. He couldn't put her through that.
"I really don't think that's a good idea. I'm sorry." he whispered in a barely audible tone.
With embarrassment, Hermione said goodnight and quickly left. As she turned the corner, she stopped to catch her breath. She knew she and Nott could be friends, she just had to convince him of it. With a new found confidence, she returned to Gryffindor tower, a plan forming in her head…