A/N: Disclaimer- I am only borrowing JK's characters and world for a short while. This is a quick short that I wrote in half an hour or so. For those of you who are awaiting an update on New Moon Rising, I haven't abandoned it, just have very little time to write these days.
No specific time setting for this fic, it fits wherever you think it might fit (same goes for shipping, though I'm a Hr/R shipper myself). I hope you enjoy my short ramble.
A Bird's Eye View
It was unseasonably hot. The unremitting heat of the Sun overhead had driven most of the students into the welcome cool of the castle, or down to the crowded shores of the lake. The sky was a bright clear blue that spoke of last summer days or halcyon days by the sea.
From where she stood looking down on the students milling beneath her, Hermione felt a sudden jolt of vertigo and closed her eyes. Her ink-stained fingers gripped the stone crenulations as she leant over, a few untidy curls that had escaped her hasty ponytail bobbing and waving in the cooling updraft. Deliberately, she opened her eyes and looked down revelling in the delicious blend of fear and excitement. For a fleeting moment she wandered what it would feel like to lean forward and let go, falling free and unfettered.
But the reality of hitting the ground at the end brought her up short and she leant back. It was always that way. It wasn't that she couldn't feel, couldn't sense the excitement, the thrill of danger like Harry and Ron could. No matter what they thought, she could feel its lure. But she could see clearer and further than they could. And her eye was always drawn to the truth of the matter. The hard floor after the exhilarating freefall. And so she hesitated. Hesitated and they took it for fear.
It wasn't fair, she thought, hadn't see done the same things they had done? Hadn't she followed them down into the dark, side by side? It wasn't cowardice, was it, to see things as she did? Surely it was wisdom of a kind. She was their anchor of reality, kite string to their daring flights. But they didn't see it; that she knew. Hermione Granger was the wet-blanket, the girl with no sense of adventure or daring. And it galled her.
She walked slowly back over to where her rug lay against the wall. Open books, propped open with other books, papers weighed down with smooth lumps of coloured glass that Ron had given to her last Christmas. Hermione plonked herself down unceremoniously, frowning. The sun had moved round and her study spot was no longer in the shade. She squinted against the glare, impatiently pushing her hair behind her ears. She'd given the boys the slip earlier that afternoon and had made the long climb up onto the small open terrace alone. As much as she loved them both dearly, there were other times she just needed her own space.
She sighed and picked up a large amber chunk of glass, toying with it and watching absently the yellow shades it cast, dappling her revision notes. She was trying her best not to have one of those teenage self-pitying moments she so deplored in others. After all, she prided herself on being rational and clear thinking. But she was also human. And today the human-Hermione was feeling lonely.
Most days she didn't feel it. She would walk down corridors, eat three meals a day, attend classes with them by her side and feel like one of them. Harry, Ron and Hermione. The whole world of Hogwarts seemed to always expect them to be together. It was true that they'd practically lived in each other's pockets since the first year, but all of them had changed in the years in between. They'd grown together and so mostly they'd learnt to adjust and adapt to one another, turning and twisting like jigsaw pieces until they found how they fit. And there was no-one she fit with better than them. They knew her, understood her moods and thoughts, interpreted her disjointed hurried speech when she finally cracked the last problem to be solved and her words couldn't keep pace with her mind.
And yet, despite all this, some days she felt that there were some ways in which she'd outpaced them. Her mind and heart had gone ahead and she was waiting for them to catch up. Hoping that someday he'd be in the same place she was.
Hermione was not by nature a patient person, but there were some things she was willing to wait for.