Author's
Note: None of this belongs to me,
except the situation, which was inspired by an actual exchange with my husband
when he finally read a certain series of books that I love (guess which
series!). All characters belong to
the inimitable J.K. Rowling. This
story takes place somewhere in fifth year, at a time when the threat from Lord
Voldemort is minimal enough to warrant worrying about more frivolous things.
:)
And
a big thank you to Moey, my excellent beta-reader!
Not
So Bad After All
A
Fanfiction by Elanor Gamgee
Hermione was sitting at the Gryffindor table, The Founders of Hogwarts propped open in
front of her against the milk jug, when Harry finally turned up for
breakfast.
"Good morning," said Hermione cheerily as Harry sat down across from
her. "Where's
Ron?"
Harry rolled his eyes and began piling bacon on his plate. "Overslept again. He's coming. That's why I was running late
though--took me forever to get him to wake up."
"Was he up late again?" said Hermione in surprise. "He must really be taking his keeper
position seriously, to spend so much time working on the
strategies."
"Yeah," said Harry through a mouthful of toast. "I didn't hear him come in last
night. I don't know how late he was
up."
"It's good to see him really get involved in something though," mused
Hermione.
Harry shrugged. "Yeah, I
guess."
Ron entered the Great Hall, running his fingers through his sleep-tousled
hair. He spotted Harry and
Hermione, and came over to sit with them.
"Good morning," said Hermione, amused as she watched Ron's face split
into an enormous yawn.
"M-ooooor-ning," said Ron through the end of his yawn. Hermione noticed that Ron was developing
dark circles under his eyes. He really needs to get more sleep, she
thought.
"Were you up late again working out Quidditch plays?" asked Hermione,
trying to keep the you-should-take-better-care-of-yourself edge out of her
voice.
"What?" said Ron, looking confused. "Er--yeah, so what?"
"Nothing," said Hermione, pursing her lips and turning back to her
book. She didn't feel like getting
into an argument over nothing this morning.
Ron fell to silently devouring his breakfast. Harry glanced over at him, then at
Hermione, looking uneasy. Hermione
knew that he had grown increasingly uncomfortable with his two friends'
arguments, and often tried to distract them before the sniping could
start.
"What are you reading now, Hermione?" he asked, more, Hermione thought,
to change the subject than because he was at all
interested.
"It's called The Founders of
Hogwarts," she said, holding up the book so that they could see the
cover. "It's quite interesting,"
she paused here to wait for Ron's usual derisive snort, but it didn't come. She supposed he was too fascinated with
his breakfast to bother. "But I
don't think it's quite as well-researched as Hogwarts, A History. That's still the best book on the topic,
I think."
Hermione was shocked to see Ron nodding seriously next to her. Expecting a sarcastic comment, she
turned to him, eyes narrowed. "What?" she said
defensively.
Ron, strangely, didn't even seem to realize what he had been doing. He looked at her in surprise, swallowed
a mouthful of food, and said, "What's with you?"
Hermione eyed him suspiciously, not sure what was going on. She returned to her book, still inclined
to watch him rather warily.
Harry was looking back and forth between them, a confused expression on
his face. They were all silent for
a moment.
"Ugh, Divination first thing this morning," Harry said, clearly trying to
change the subject again. "The
thought of climbing all those stairs...I wish I could just Apparate up to the
classroom."
Hermione raised her head and opened her mouth to utter her usual response
to such a suggestion, but, unbelievably, Ron beat her to
it.
"Harry," he said distractedly, buttering a slice of toast. "You can't Apparate in or out of
Hogwarts, everyone knows that."
Hermione and Harry both stared at Ron, open-mouthed. At first, Hermione was sure that Ron was
making fun of her as usual; however, when he didn't even look up to see her
reaction, she began to wonder if he had been taken over by some book-reading
spirit.
Book-reading? A suspicion began to form in Hermione's
mind, but it was so ridiculous, she could barely even contemplate
it.
Ron, meanwhile, seemed to have realized that they were staring at
him. He looked up defiantly. "Well, it's true," he said, taking a
bite of toast.
"Ron," said Hermione slowly, "have you been reading Hogwarts, A
History?"
"No," he said, looking straight at her. "I don't need to--you've read it enough
times for all of us, remember?"
Hermione relaxed a little as the world as she knew it fell back into
place. "I thought not. I mean, I knew you wouldn't really
appreciate the whole--"
Ron raised an eyebrow at her. "Oh, I wouldn't, would I? All right then, if you're so smart, how did the fifth Headmaster
die?"
Hermione stared at him, completely unnerved. "What?"
"You heard me. The fifth
Headmaster died violently. How did
he die?"
Hermione was completely distracted. One part of her was thinking How
does he know to ask that? How does he know the fifth Headmaster died violently?
and the other part was racking
her brains thinking How did the fifth Headmaster die? She knew that she should know the answer
to this question, and the thought of being upstaged by Ron on a question from Hogwarts, A History was too much to
bear. But her complete
disorientation at Ron's sudden knowledge was making it difficult to
think.
"It was...right after the 23rd Goblin rebellion..." said Hermione,
thinking out loud.
Ron smirked at her. "Yes, I
know that. But how did he die? Don't avoid the
question."
"Er...hang on a minute..." Hermione reached into her bag and pulled out her copy of Hogwarts, A History. "I know it's in the fourth chapter," she
said, flipping through pages intently. Across the table, Harry was staring at Ron incredulously, his breakfast
apparently forgotten.
"...and it was right after the Goblin rebellion..." said Hermione
absently.
"You've already said that," Ron reminded her.
Hermione gave him a look. Then she continued to flip through the
pages. Now that the question had
been asked, she couldn't rest until she knew the answer. But it was completely distracting to
have Ron looking at her with that knowing grin on his
face.
"Got it!" said Hermione triumphantly, locating the reference. "The fifth Headmaster, Bartholomew
Higgbottom, was killed by a Nundu while on holiday in East Africa. There!"
Ron smirked again. "I
know."
Hermione looked up at him, her suspicion back now that her need to answer
the question was past. "How did you
know that? How did you even know to ask that?"
"I guessed," said Ron, popping a piece of bacon into his
mouth.
The world seemed to have turned upside down again. This wasn't at all how things were
supposed to be, and she rather felt like Alice gone through the
Looking-Glass. Had she talked that much about Hogwarts, A History, that Ron knew such
details without reading it? Or were
the things in that book common knowledge? None of these thoughts seemed to offer a satisfactory explanation,
however.
Hermione cocked her head and looked at Ron. "You've read this, haven't you?" she
said, her voice sounding more accusatory than she
intended.
"No!" said Ron with a maddening grin. "No, I told you, I just
guessed."
Hermione leaned away from him warily. She had no idea what was going on. "Er...well, all right, if you say
so." Hermione put her book back
into her bag and stood up distractedly. "I'm going to Study of Ancient Runes now. I'll see you two later..."
Still feeling off-kilter, Hermione made her way across the Great Hall to
the doors. As she left the table,
she heard Harry saying, "What was that all about?" and Ron answering, in the
same strange voice he had used with her, "Nothing."
Once in class, Hermione tried to shake off the lingering odd feeling from
breakfast. Fortunately, the runes
they were studying were especially complicated, so it forced her to focus on
something besides Ron's newfound knowledge. In fact, by lunchtime, she was sure the
whole experience had merely been some strange hallucination, as Ron was acting
completely normal. For once, she
was actually happy to hear him talking with Harry about Quidditch; it was
reassuring, somehow.
The afternoon, too, passed without incident, though Potions class was
horrible as usual. At dinner,
however, something else happened to make Hermione question her own
sanity.
They had just started loading their plates with food when Colin Creevey
showed up at Harry's elbow, his little brother Dennis in tow.
"Harry!" said Colin, breathless as always. "Look what our dad just sent us!" Colin held up a pair of Muggle
walkie-talkies.
"They're great, Colin," said Harry resignedly.
"They won't work here, you know, Colin," said Ron off-handedly. "There's too much magic in the
air--they'll go haywire if you try to use them."
Hermione dropped her fork with a clunk. "That's enough!" she said in exasperation. "You've read it!"
Ron looked up at her. "I
have not," he said mulishly.
Hermione narrowed her eyes. "Fine," she replied, crossing her arms over her chest. "Then you probably don't know which
House Quidditch player was falsely accused of Quaffle-pocking during the 1910
final game for the House Quidditch Cup either." She had purposely picked something
obscure, something that could only be found in one of the later footnotes in the
book; she wanted to test her theory that he had read the whole
thing.
"I don't know what you're talking about!" said Ron, but his eyes darted
toward Professor Sinistra, who was sitting at the staff
table.
"You know!" said Hermione, staring at him.
"I told you, I don't know what you're talking about," said Ron, turning
slightly pink and looking away.
"Yes, you do! You looked at
Professor Sinistra! You knew who I was talking about!"
"No, I didn't," said Ron.
Hermione eyed him again, more sure than ever that she was right. "OK," she said, a rather cruel thought
forming in her mind. "Then how
about this one: What kind of
creatures were used to guard the castle during the Goblin Rebellion of
1456?" She was sure the thought of
giant spiders would get a reaction out of him.
Ron went very pale and didn't answer.
"A-ha! You have read it!" said Hermione far too loudly, pounding a
fist on the table. Gryffindors up
and down the table were now looking at her as if they thought her
insane.
"No, I haven't!" Ron practically shouted.
Hermione stared at him. "Why
won't you tell me?"
Ron looked at her quickly. "Because there's nothing to tell." With that, he stood up and stalked out of the Great
Hall.
Hermione looked over at Harry, who looked like he wasn't sure what had
just happened. Colin and Dennis
seemed to have crept away while she and Ron had been arguing.
"What was that all about?"
said Hermione out loud. Harry just
shook his head and went back to eating his dinner.
Hermione finished her own dinner in silence. She was certain she was right, and she
was also certain that Ron didn't want her to know she was right. But she would be happy to hear that Ron had read her
favorite book, didn't he realize that? Why wasn't he telling her the truth? Why was he being so pig-headed? And why did it even matter to
her?
Hermione went to the library after dinner, and stayed late. She didn't feel like facing Ron in the
common room; she wasn't sure what she would say.
When she did return to the common room, she saw Harry and Ron sitting in
the corner, playing chess. She sat
down cautiously at their table.
"Having a good game?" she asked lightly.
"Yeah, Ron's beating me, as usual," said Harry with a
grin.
"But with every loss, you learn, Harry," said Ron in an
uncharacteristically wise tone, not looking up from the
board.
Hermione watched his red head bent in concentration for a moment. He seemed to feel as awkward as she
did.
Abruptly, Hermione stood up. "Well, I'm going up to bed. Goodnight."
The boys wished her goodnight (Ron still not looking up), and Hermione
went up to her dormitory. She still
felt as though she had been through a slight earthquake today; the world seemed
to have changed under her feet. As she changed into her nightgown and got into
bed, she thought about Ron. She
felt as though she had been presented with a whole new side of him today, and
she wasn't quite sure how to react to it. But why had he acted so strangely with
her? She pondered these thoughts as
she drifted into sleep.
Hermione never knew what it was that made her sit straight up in the
middle of the night. It was
pitch-black in the dormitory, and when Hermione pushed back the curtains of her
four-poster bed and looked at her bedside clock, she found that it was three
o'clock in the morning. Why am I awake? was her first,
incoherent thought.
Then she heard something--a soft, unintelligible murmuring. At first she thought that perhaps one of
her roommates was talking in her sleep, but it sounded more distant than
that. She wondered if this sound
had been what had awakened her, but it was so soft that she doubted
it.
Hermione slipped out of her bed and found her dressing gown in the
dark. Wrapping it around her, she
left the dormitory and listened for the sound again. It seemed to be coming from the common
room.
Wondering vaguely if Ron was up late again working on Quidditch plays,
Hermione crept down the stairs. She
stopped in the doorway, shocked at what she heard.
A wheezy voice carried across the common room. "...and when Gryffindor had finally
succeeded in removing Slytherin from the school, there was much rejoicing. It was determined that Slytherin House
would remain part of the school, as it had been since the founding. With Slytherin gone, the remaining
Founders were finally able to turn to more personal
matters..."
Hermione peeked around the corner of the doorframe, and saw Ron sitting
in one of the squashy armchairs by the dying fire, his eyes closed. A battered library copy of Hogwarts, A History was open on the
table next to him, and his wand was suspended over it, moving back and forth
across the page.
"You've been listening to it!"
Hermione said, stepping into the room.
Ron's eyes snapped open, and he reached over and grabbed his wand,
stopping the wheezy recitation in mid-sentence.
"You've been listening to it," Hermione repeated, walking over to stand
in front of him with her hands on her hips. "Why wouldn't you tell
me?"
Ron looked at her defiantly, crossing his arms over his chest. "Because I knew you'd act so weird about
it."
"Weird?" said Hermione incredulously. "You finally read my favorite book, and
you don't think I'd be happy about it?"
Ron looked at her uncertainly for a moment. Then he uncrossed his arms and twirled
his wand with a grin. "Well, I
wasn't lying earlier. You asked me
if I'd read it, and I hadn't. Technically, I've only listened to it."
Hermione found herself grinning back at him. "What did you use? The Aura Libris
spell?"
Ron nodded. "Yeah. I only started listening to it because I
couldn't sleep one night," he said sheepishly. "You'd left your copy down here and I
reckoned it would put me right out..." Hermione frowned, but Ron went on, "Only it didn't. Parts of it can be almost interesting,
you know? And then of course you carry your copy with you everywhere,
so I had to go check one out of the library. Embarrassing, that
was."
Hermione knew he was only griping for the sake of griping. She sat down in the chair across from
him, smiling into the fire. No
matter what he said, he must have liked the book if he had been staying up late
to listen to it. He was just too
stubborn to admit that he liked something that she had suggested.
Something occurred to her. "I thought you'd finished it though," she said suddenly. "You knew the bit about Professor
Sinistra, and that's near the end."
"I have," said Ron off-handedly.
"But the part you were listening to just now is near the beginning," said
Hermione, looking at him in astonishment.
Ron blushed. "Well, that's
one of my favorite parts," he said quietly. "I was just listening to it
again."
Hermione stared at him for a moment, then began to smile. "That's one of my favorite parts too,"
she said. The world must be shifting, she thought. We agree on
something.
Ron looked at her uncertainly, than started to grin
too.
"But I thought you said it was only 'almost interesting'," said Hermione
teasingly.
Ron's grin grew wider. "Yeah, well, it's not so bad after all, I guess." He reached over and tapped the page with
his wand, muttering, "Aura
Libris". He let go of his wand,
and it remained suspended over the page, beginning its wheezy recitation where
it had left off earlier.
"...the lives of the remaining
three Founders would be forever linked, and their friendship was renowned
throughout the wizarding world..."
Hermione looked over at Ron, who had leaned back and closed his eyes
again. He seemed to feel her watching him, and opened his eyes. He gave her a smile and a tiny
wink. Hermione smiled back, then
settled into her cozy armchair and let the words wash over her. She still felt as though the world had
shifted on her today, but she was also sure that it had landed exactly where it
was supposed to be.