A/N :

Word count w/o AN - 1587

Written for QLFC round 3 chaser 3 season 6

Optional prompts

Colour - Mauve

Colour - Powder Grey

Word - Barbaric

Hermione stood in front of the bathroom mirror staring at her reflection. She glanced down to the purple and powder gray haired troll doll clutched in her grasp; its hair was charmed into a mess of curls mimicking her own.

Someone had left it on her desk in Charms. Considering what troll dolls were famous for in the Muggle world, there was no explanation needed really; a Muggleborn was teasing her. She took a deep breath and grabbed a scrunchie from her bag.

After shoving the troll doll back into her bag Hermione used both hands to pull her hair into a bun to disguise the mess of curls, then picked up her bag and left the bathroom.

Hermione sat down in the library and pulled out her Charms textbook. She had three feet of parchment on the severing charm due the following Thursday.

"Hey."

Hermione glanced up, smiling. Ron was standing sheepishly with his own Charms textbook in hand. She motioned to the seat across from her.

"It's chapter four," she said once he had sat across from her and then went back to laying out her essay on the parchment. A few minutes later Ron broke the silence again.

"Can you just tell me what to write?"

"Go back to reading, Ronald," Hermione snapped. She was trying to focus on her own work.

Eventually, she gave up, yanking the scrunchie out of her hair to play with one of the pieces near her face.

Focused as she was, Hermione didn't see Ron smile when she let her hair down.

The next Hogsmeade weekend, Hermione wandered away from Ron, needing time to herself. She had been splitting her time between Harry and Ron because they were still arguing about the stupid tournament, and it was getting exhausting. She entered a small beauty shop and walked over to the counter.

She had spent an hour that morning trying to straighten her hair with the charm Lavender had told her about the previous night. Much to Hermione's disappointment, it hadn't helped much. She figured a potion might help.

"What can I do for you?" the bright and peppy girl behind the counter asked.

"I was hoping you might be able to help me find something for my hair," Hermione replied. "It gets really frizzy, and I need something that will help tame it," She couldn't believe she'd let herself be so affected by the troll doll, but it had hurt more than she expected.

"I'm sure we can find something to help," the girl replied with a bright smile. "Come with me." She briskly walked towards a large colourful display rack full of various hair care potions. Hermione followed the sales assistant already sure that this was not going to be the quick visit she had half hoped it would be.

Half an hour later Hermione left the shop with a few different potions that could possibly help with taming her hair, none of the ones she had tried in the shop had been one hundred percent effective but she was getting tired so she had purchased a few sample sizes and left.

"Hey, Hermione!" She turned to see Ron rushing to catch up.

"Hey," she responded with a forced smile. The beauty shop excursion had really taken it out of her.

"You'll never guess what's happening!" he exclaimed.

"What?" she asked quietly. Generally, Hermione would try a few guesses before resorting to this response but she was tired and still had some homework.

"Charlie's coming to England!"

Ron was practically bouncing. She was happy for him, but that probably meant that he would want to copy her homework more often than he already did. Ron didn't focus well at all when he was excited.

"That's great news, Ron," she responded in a bright tone. "I'm tired, so I'm going to head back up to the castle early. I'll see you later?"

She didn't wait for a reply and, with her back to him, she completely missed the hurt expression on his face.

The next morning, Hermione woke early and locked herself in the bathroom. She pulled out one of the potions, mauve in colour, and read through the instructions.

Step by step, she followed them, working the potion into her hair that was still wet from her shower this morning. She left it in for five minutes, before rinsing it off, and then dried her hair with magic. It wasn't perfect, but it was definitely an improvement.

A bang on the door surprised her enough that she almost dropped the rest of the potion all over the bathroom counter. She quickly set to packing her things away so she could leave.

"I need the loo!"

Hermione hid her products and opened the door, coming face to face with Lavender, who was practically dancing on the spot with her need for the bathroom.

Hermione smiled at the display but stepped out of the way for her to pass.

She dressed quickly, grabbed her school bag, and decided to head down to the library before breakfast and make the most of the quiet Sunday morning environment.

After getting some of her Charms essay done Hermione decided to go rest. She was nauseated and tired, and she didn't feel much like eating.

Hermione woke several hours later to someone gently shaking her, she guessed that Hogsmeade and pulling late nights to finish her homework had burnt her out. She opened her eyes to see Lavender standing over her.

"Is everything okay?" Hermione asked, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

"Yeah. Ron was worried that he hadn't seen you all day," Lavender replied. "Harry cornered me too and I told them I'd come up and check on you."

"Let them know I'll be down in a minute," Hermione replied. She tossed on the Weasley sweater Ron had lent her at the Quidditch World Cup and went into the bathroom. She looked into the mirror and noticed her hair had gone back to its natural state. She sighed and headed downstairs.

When she entered the common room, Harry and Ron were on opposite sides of the room, Harry was talking to Neville and Ron was on his own reading a textbook. But both of them looked up when she came in. Ron walked over first.

"You okay?" he asked in a light tone, but his face betrayed his worry. Hermione smiled but rubbed her temple; she had a headache.

"Fine, just tired."

Harry chose this moment to interrupt the two.

"Hey, you alright?" His face had a concerned expression similar to Ron's.

"Fine," she replied. Harry didn't look too convinced but before he could say more Ron interrupted.

"Come on. The couch is free, Hermione." She was not quite awake enough yet to argue so she waved goodbye to Harry as Ron put his arm around her. Hermione leaned into his side, he led her across the room. Once they reached the couch, she sat down. He sat down next to her and picked up a magazine in replace of the textbook he had been reading a few minutes earlier.

Hermione smiled a little, she was peeking out just from under her eyelashes so Ron couldn't see, the nap she had taken definitely rejuvenated her but seeing Ron's worried and caring side made her happy.

The following morning, Hermione pulled out Sleekeazy's hair potion, after about an hour she had finally worked the potion into her hair and it had left more refined ringlets in place of the frizzy ones she had started with.

She smiled at her appearance in the mirror and went about her day, happy with her hair for the first time in what felt like forever.

That evening Hermione was in the corner of the library helping Ron with his assignment.

"No, it's diffindo, not delfendio," she explained for the third time, Ron looked frustrated as he went to correct it.

"It's okay," Hermione murmured supportively. "It's a common mistake."

"I've read the chapter three times," Ron replied, looking dejected. "I just can't seem to get it."

"Come on, let's take a break," Hermione said, patting his shoulder comfortingly. She had noticed his patience waning over the past half hour and didn't want to push it. "Chess?"

Ron's grin at her suggestion to play the barbaric game was worth the break from studying.

Ron watched Hermione's face as it twisted in concentration. He had noticed earlier that her hair was wavy and silky today. He reached across the board and tucked a hair strand behind her ear.

"Thanks," she commented quietly, her attention still on the pieces on the board.

"Your hair looks nice today," he blurted, regretting it immediately when her gaze flew up from the board to meet his. He quickly tries to reassure her, "Not that it doesn't look nice any other time. It looks good all the time."

Both of them looked away blushing. Hermione lets the complement wash over her. Maybe her hair isn't as bad as a troll doll's. She turned her attention back to the game of chess with a smile.

After having lost the game of chess quite quickly and then helped Ron finish his essay, Hermione climbed the stairs to the girl's dormitory. When she reached her bed, she opened her bag and set the troll doll on top of the books that cluttered her tiny nightstand. As she looked at the doll, she figured that maybe it wasn't so bad—the curls were actually kind of cute on the doll.