Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Summary: Hermione's life has been a combination of racism, prejudice, and fighting the two. A series of short drabbles in honor of the casting of a black woman as Hermione in "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child." (black Hermione)

black

By Potterworm

i. Bobby

When she is seven years old, Bobby Flenderson is her best friend. He talks to her every day on the playground, and that's a relatively new experience for Hermione.

(The other kids didn't really like her much. Her parents tell her it's because she's so smart that they're jealous, but Hermione reads a lot, and she knows what racism is, and sometimes she wonders.)

Then, one day, it all changes. He is little boy embarrassed when she runs up to him on the playground, her frizzy hair blowing in the wind. "Bobby!" she yells. She wants to tell him about what she just read in the library yesterday and how she thinks they could turn it into a fun playground game. She wants to tell him a lot of things, but she never gets the chance.

"Get away from me," he yells, and then he screams a word that Hermione hasn't read and doesn't know. But she's a smart girl – she's never gotten less than a perfect report card – and she can read his body language. She knows he just said a mean word, and she knows friends don't yell mean words at friends.

She stands back from him, like he's a scared deer, and when she moves forward a half-centimeter, he startles. "Bobby," Hermione says, her voice all choked up and pleading in a way that she'll be very embarrassed about later.

"We're not friends," he says, and he kicks his shoe at the dirt. He won't look at her. Her best friend won't look at her.

(Years later, Hermione's parents will tell her that Bobby's father was an abusive drunk, and he hated black people, and he told Bobby not to be friends with her. Bobby was just a scared little boy. A year later, Hermione will learn that Bobby has been taken from his home and put in an orphanage. Now, though, it doesn't matter. Now he's just a little boy, and Hermione is just a little girl, and they are not friends anymore.)

Hermione walks away from him. It's a long time before she has another friend.