Pertaining to Groveling
By RabidSquirrel
2016
Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling. I use her characters for amusement only.
-It started as a short about an issue that bothered me, and became something else. Feedback is appreciated.
Ron had to quickly throw himself to the side to keep from having the portrait of the fat lady hit him in the face as a second year girl ran out, her face pinched in anger. Not a moment later two girls followed her out with the same expressions on their faces, one turning back to shout;
"You'd better grovel good Harry, or you'll miss your chance!"
She then turned with a huff and hurried after her friends. Ron watched them go, disgusted, then entered the Gryffindor tower. In the main room he found Harry sitting on the floor in front of the fireplace, reading his potions book with a bored expression on his face. Ron sat next to him, waited a moment, then asked;
"So what was all that fuss about?"
Harry rolled his eyes and leaned back on his hands.
"I don't know. That girl's lost her mind or something," he replied. "I mean, she came over with her friends and was talking about going to some tea shop when you guys get to go out this weekend, and then she suddenly stormed off!"
"She wants you to follow her," Hermione's voice piped up. The boys looked behind them to see her at a table close to the window, working on a parchment. She didn't look up. "It's a classic cat and mouse. She runs, you chase, she cries, you comfort, she asks for something and you give it to her so she'll forgive you for hurting her feelings."
"Well that's stupid," Harry said, turning back to his book just as Hermione looked up and smiled at Ron. He smiled back, trying not to laugh. "If she wanted something she should ask for it."
"Not all girls work that way," Hermione said.
"You mean the smart ones don't work that way," Harry said off handedly, without looking up. Hermione looked pleased. "Besides, I don't grovel." Ron and Hermione shared a confused look before Ron looked back at Harry.
"What do you mean?" he asked. "What else would you do if you made a girl you liked mad?"
"Do the same thing I do with Hermione I guess," Harry answered with a shrug, still not looking up from his book. "Let her cool down and then talk to her like any normal person. But I will never grovel. I'm not a dog." Ron nodded slowly at that, while Hermione rolled her eyes.
"So I guess you're not going to chase down Henrietta?" she asked. Harry shuddered.
"Never. That girl creeps me out. She can run away all she likes, it suits me just fine," he replied, then froze when a small feminine hand pulled his book out of his face. Ginny Weasley stood there, grinning impishly at him.
"George and Fred said they have your cloak," she told him. "You've got until dinner to find them or they get it for the weekend." Harry frowned.
"That's not how that works," he argued, only to gain a nudge from Ron who rolled his eyes and made to stand.
"It is when you've got brothers," he explained and pulled Harry up after him. "Come on. You don't have to grovel, but you do have to chase them. I'll help." Harry looked at him with a stunned expression before a grin split across his face.
"You know, that actually sounds fun," he said, and Ron shook his head as they made their way out of the tower.
"You would find that fun," Ron's voice echoed back to the girls. Hermione gave Ginny a sympathetic look as the red head bit her lip almost sadly.
"I'm sure Harry doesn't think of you the way he does Ron," she said. Ginny shuddered.
"I should hope not." She grinned then, gaining a giggle from Hermione. "So what's this I hear about groveling?" she asked. Hermione rolled her eyes as Ginny came and sat across from her, tossing Harry's potions book on the pile Hermione had stacked beside her.
"Oh, it's just something Henrietta want's to see Harry do, and apparently it's something he doesn't do so it's really nothing important," Hermione answered. Ginny nodded slowly, and sat back in her seat.
"Oh good. I don't care for it either," she said, gaining a positive hum from Hermione as she went back to her paper. Ginny sat quietly for a moment.
"Ron will probably snivel, but I doubt he'll ever grovel," she said. Hermione only nodded, writing something on her parchment. "But if you really want his attention, cook him something." Hermione stopped writing, her face turning red.
"Wh-what? Wh-why-"
Ginny stood up and turned away, heading up the stairs.
"I don't know, but if you want to actually get good grade maybe you shouldn't keep writing my brothers name on your paper," Ginny said with a grin. Hermione turned bright red and looked at her parchment paper, before looking horrified. Ginny's laughter echoed down the stairs as Hermione quickly ripped up a piece of her unfinished paper, balled it up, and tossed it in the fireplace. She got back to work, keeping a closer eye on what she was writing. To think that she would have been done if Ron hadn't started the talk about groveling.
Another piece of parchment was ripped up and thrown in the fireplace.
Groveling be damned, but she wasn't turning in an essay that read 'Hermione Weasley'. She wasn't that interested in the red head.
Was she?
END