A/N: I had taken a break from writing for a while since I have been very busy, but I whipped up another short Harry Potter fanfic to get my brain warmed up for writing again. Enjoy!
On a sunny September day at Hogwarts, Hermione Granger sat hunched over in a rickety chair in the library, with her nose in her year one Transfiguration textbook.
As Hermione was busy occupying herself with her Transfiguration studies, two Hufflepuff students walked into the library, babbling away quite loudly. Hermione peered up from her book and frowned at them in annoyance.
"Sshh!" she hissed at them in frustration, holding her index finger to her lips. The students' smiling expressions fell, and they walked past her quietly without saying anything more. Hermione rolled her eyes and focused her attention back to her book.
Honestly, this is a library, she thought, not a zoo.
Hermione followed all the rules in school, and she didn't take kindly to louder and rowdier behaviour. She was also an extremely diligent student, as she was almost always reading her textbooks, writing reports, and practicing magic. She always got the best grades, and her professors admired her hard work and dedication.
However, despite being a terrific student and receiving great marks, Hermione didn't engage much with the other students. Whenever someone tried to make conversation with her, she would usually ignore them, as she was always too absorbed in her studies. She also barely got involved in extracurricular subjects, with the exception of Charms Club. In short, Hermione hadn't made any friends since school started, nor did she have interest in doing so. School is for studying, she thought, it's that simple, right?
Hermione flipped through the pages in her transfiguration book. She was having a hard time concentrating. Her thoughts were all muddled up. She looked around her at all of the other students in the library. Everyone was sitting with at least one friend, and quietly talking to each other about school work, or otherwise discussing something else. Overall, everyone else seemed to be pretty content and happy knowing that they had people to spend their time with.
Suddenly and unexpectedly, a swarm of thoughts came to Hermione's mind.
Maybe I'm wrong, she pondered, maybe there's more to school than just grades and books… perhaps making friends would be good for me… maybe I've been selfish…
Hermione shook her head, interrupting her wandering thoughts. Despite feeling conflicted about her current choices to refuse to make friends, she sighed and immersed herself in her textbook again.
