Hermione had been studying in the library for so many hours even she had lost count. Her face was stained with ink from where she had rested her cheek against her hand, there was parchment spread about the desk with her small handwriting covering the pages. She held her quill loosely, the tip of the feather resting between her lips, her brow creased in concentration as she read a passage through a second time.
She sighed heavily, as she slammed the book not having found the information she needed. She reached for a book near the edge of the table. As she flicked through the heavy pages, her eyes scanning for the information she needed, she caught sight of a loose sheet sticking out the top of the pages. Her inquisitive side taking over, Hermione pulled the paper free and laid it flat in front of her.
The handwriting on this parchment was an untidy, spider like sprawl, with ink splodges scattered haphazardly across the page. Despite this, Hermione read it easily, and soon found a smile playing on her ink-stained lips, whilst her cheeks flushed a brilliant red.
The note was for her.
'Hermione-
I know you'll find this sooner or later, I mean you read every book in the library so. Yeah. If you're not Hermione, put it back ok?
Anyway, 'Mione. I just thought I'd put this out there in case you were interested, or whatever. If you're not it's no big deal, but I was thinking maybe you'd wanna go for a butter beer with me some time?
If not it's fine. I only mean as mates, but I thought it would bring a smile to your face if you had a note. Dad says it's what muggles do when their friends are down, so why not.
Ron.'
Without quite knowing why, Hermione held the parchment to her face, lowering her quill to her parchment at the same time, not caring that ink splattered everywhere. She could smell the unique scent that was only found on brand new parchment. She didn't care if it was weird, but when parchment was new she felt as though she could smell the woody scent it had as a tree. And that smell always comforted her.
Normally it was the thought of blank parchment connected to that smell. But she knew that from that moment it would be because Ron had bought new parchment, just to write her a note.