The Hogwarts bell rang and the many students outside for break rushed back inside. Among the last to enter the castle was a tallish girl with brown hair and a distant look in her eyes, a look that only books could give. Hermione Granger's hair used to be hideously bushy, but in the past year, it had gone to more of a thick wave. Maybe it came from straightening her hair one year previously at the Yule Ball, she wasn't sure.
Usually Hermione was first into the castle, an eager smile on her face, but today this was not the case. She would tell Harry and Ron that she had been studying, that is what she always did, then Ron would roll his eyes, and Hermione would put up with it. This is how it had always been done before, and this is how it would happen again. Everyone called Hermione a book-worm, and in some ways she wasn't surprised - she did like to read, but when people said she studied too much, or called her a know-it-all, she found it hard not to step in.
Whenever she was 'studying', Hermione was almost always really covering up the fact that she had been crying, or doing something in private. Sometimes, she actually was studying, it could hardly be avoided with the O.W.L's coming up, but ever since the end of last year, Hermione had been forced to be more and more secretive. She hated being secretive with Harry, he never pried in her business, and quietly gave his opinion when asked for it, but ever since 4th year, no, the Yule Ball to be exact, she had to keep her feelings away from Ron.
Make no mistake, Ron was her friend, and she cared about him more than she cared to admit, but Viktor Krum had an impact on Ron that made Hermione secretly afraid. She felt nothing for Krum, he asked her to a dance and she had accepted, and every now and then she would reply to his constant letters, but Ron obviously felt differently. Whenever Ron would start an argument about Krum and start accusing Hermione of a great number of things, she would try to leave as soon as possible and head to the tree that she had just been sitting by, to cry.
Ever since 4th year, people had been calling Hermione other things, based on the foul lies printed by the Daily Prophet reporter, Rita Skeeter. These things Hermione didn't like to dwell on, though she couldn't help it when she remembered Ron calling her a 'scarlet woman' a year previously. These wild rumors made Hermione even more depressed and frustrated. Again and again, she had to repeat that she felt nothing for Viktor Krum, but after a while she gave up and ignored them, trying unsuccessfully to not their remarks hurt her.
When Hermione arrived down in the gloomy dungeons for her potions class, Ron and Harry were waiting for her. After repeating her normal excuse of studying, while trying to wipe the tears away from her eyes, Ron rolled his eyes, as usual, and walked into the dungeon, apparently not noticing that his friend's eyes were red and puffy from crying. Harry, however, noticed and quietly asked Hermione if she was all right. Hermione brushed off this question by saying she had something in her eye, but Harry continued to look suspiciously at her while the lesson began.
After about half an hour after the lesson began, Hermione finished the potion that they had been set, and brought a test flask of her finished product to Professor Snape. He nodded curtly, so Hermione took that as a request to sit down and wait for the end of the lesson. She took her seat next to an oblivious Ron and pulled out a large book. She could not read though. Her eyes filled with tears and began to slowly dampen the parchment in the book.
She was remembering her first year, at Halloween. It was after a Charms class, and Harry, Ron, Neville Longbottom and Seamus Finnigan had been crossing the grounds. Hermione had been close behind them, and could clearly hear every word of their conversation. They had been having an animated discussion about Quidditch, when Ron had abruptly changed the subject to Hermione. First, he had mimicked her correction of his incantation in the lesson, and then went on to say that she was nightmare, that it was no wonder she had no friends at that stage.
Hermione remembered her eyes filling with tears, much like the present Hermione's had now, and quietly storming past them, sobbing furiously. They had saved her life that night, and had become friends, but Hermione remembered, many more tears joining the rather large group, that Ron had never actually apologized for his remarks that day four years ago. Half an hour later, the lesson ended, and Harry, Ron and Hermione walked back to the Common Room. Harry and Ron were abusing Snape's remarks about Gryffindor, but Hermione kept quiet, like she did a lot those days.
After arriving at the Common Room and giving the password to get inside, Hermione briskly walked over to a chair and sat down, gazing into the fire. All of as sudden, an owl flew into the room. This owl was unfamiliar to everyone in the room, except Hermione. Her eyes widened in horror as the owl dropped a very thick letter onto her lap, and promptly flew out again. Her fears were confirmed when she read the first line and saw that it was from Viktor Krum.
Ron, seeing the impact that this letter had on Hermione, strode over and demanded to see it. Not taking no for an answer, he snatched it out of Hermione's hand and began to read it. His face grew redder and redder, and all of a sudden he was shouting, like he had so many times before. Hermione tried to snap back with some smart comment, like she used to, but she soon gave up and looked at Harry with frightened eyes. Harry was holding Ron back. It looked so familiar to Hermione, Harry holding Ron back while he lunged at someone, but that person was usually Malfoy, not herself.
Harry murmured to her to go to bed, that he himself would calm Ron down. She took this idea, nodding graciously to Harry while heading cautiously towards her dormitory. As she changed and climbed into her four-poster bed, she tried to convince herself that tomorrow would be different. But in her heart, she knew that tomorrow would be no different. She knew that tomorrow would be just be another day, another row…