Disclaimer:  I do not own Harry Potter, Hermione Granger or Ron Weasley.   They all belong to J. K. Rowling.

The Third Wheel

            Have you ever felt like a third wheel?  Like you're the oddball of the group, that they wouldn't notice you if you suddenly vanished?  Sitting here with the two of them can make me feel like that – it's been happening a lot more recently.  The looks they share, the way they interact… sometimes I sit up in my room and wonder if they even notice that I'm not there with them.

            Part of me wishes they felt guilty about their actions.  After all, ever since 1st year, we've been inseperatable.  Why did it all have to change?  Yet part of me wonders if this wasn't inevitable… I wonder if the two of them would have been this close if I wasn't around, if they'd still be looking at each other like that.

            It's irritating, is what it is.  They just seem to know when the other needs comfort.  Not just random comfort, but really honest-to-God needs comfort or they'll die.  Sure they fight… but it's not like how they fight with me – or anyone else for that matter.  Even their fights have their own unique signature written all over them.

            People sometimes stare at me.  I've gotten used to it.  Not because I want to, but because I have to.  I can hear them, thinking about how I'm the pathetic third-wheel.  They think I don't notice it.  I notice it.  Trust me, I notice it.  But I can't stop being around them; I can't stop myself from becoming that third-wheel.  And that's what everyone just doesn't understand.  I need them in my life – they're my best friends, and always will be.

            I think what hurts most is knowing they need each other more than they need me.  Heck, they need each other more than they need air.  That's what leads me into sitting here by myself and wondering if they miss me yet.

            People think I'm confidant – and I try not to tarnish that image.  Can't have people find out how insecure I really am.  Lord, even my two best friends haven't figured it out yet, and I'm with them every day.  I want to tell them, but I am so scared of how they'll react to me if I do tell them.  Will they laugh?  Will they even believe me?  And then I worry that it will get out – by accident, of course, but there's nowhere I could hide if it ever became public knowledge.  I mean, what if MALFOY found out about it?  He'd never stop teasing me…

***

            Shaking my head to free it of the thoughts that keep floating through it, I sigh and head down to the common room.  It's almost midnight; maybe I can be alone down there…

A/N: Do you think it's Hermione writing this?  Ron?  How about Harry?  Which is it? grin  You tell me.  Please R&R.  Thank you.