Title: The Golden Girl

Summary: Hermione fails her first essay.

Rating: K+

Pairings: None

Challenges: Once Upon A Time Characters Category Challenge-tition - Competition: Emma Swan - "Write about a Gryffindor."

Extra Notes: Enjoy!

The Golden Girl

Hermione sat wordlessly in the Gryffindor Common Room, with nothing but the sound of flames crackling in the fireplace to keep her company. Everyone, even Harry and Ron, had long since gone up to bed, leaving her curled up on the armchair, alone.

"Okay, Hermione," she whispered. "Time to face the music."

She reached into the satchel discarded on the floor at the foot of the chair and closed her fingers around a rolled-up piece of parchment. She pulled it out of her bag and stared at it.

Slowly, she unrolled it, grimacing as her own handwriting, looping neatly across the page, came into view.

And… there it was.

The scrawled red letters, scribbled across the top corner of her Divination essay: FAIL.

She flinched, unrolling the essay completely and smoothing it down on her lap.

She had handed in the essay a week ago- and quite proudly, too. It had taken her almost two hours to write, and, considering Divination was the subject she liked the least, she thought it had come out very well-written.

Unfortunately, Professor Trelawney hadn't agreed.

Hermione blinked harshly. She wouldn't cry over this- no, she couldn't cry over this, because crying over a failed essay in a subject that she didn't even care about was just stupid.

"Hermione?"

Hermione nearly fell out of the chair. She snapped her neck around, eyes darting around the room.

It was Parvati Patil, standing sleepy-eyed and messy-haired near the stairs leading to the girls' dormitories.

"Oh," Hermione said, crumpling her essay in her hand and hiding it behind her back. "Hi, Parvati."

Parvati rubbed her eyes and approached the other girl, taking a seat on the armchair across from Hermione's. "What's that?" she asked, gesturing to the paper Hermione had not-so-subtly stashed behind her.

"Nothing," Hermione lied. Then she sighed. She had never been a good liar.

"Come on, Hermione," Parvati urged, looking slightly hurt. "Tell me. What is it?"

Hermione swallowed hard, then pulled out the paper and passed it to Parvati, who flattened it out and squinted at it.

"Your Divination essay?" Parvati asked, confused. "Why were you hiding it?"

Hermione just shook her head miserably.

Parvati frowned down at the paper. "Is it because you failed?"

When there was no response, Parvati glanced up, her dark eyes meeting Hermione's.

"Hermione," Parvati said, eyes widening, "haven't you ever failed a paper before?"

Once again, Hermione shook her head.

"Wow," Parvati praised, visibly impressed. "You're really smart."

Hermione looked down at her hands.

"It isn't a big deal, you know," Parvati assured her. "To fail an essay, I mean. It happens to everybody at sometime or another."

"It's not that!" Hermione blurted, and then everything came pouring out. "I'm supposed to be smart and I know I am smart and I can never fail everything because it'll prove to them that I'm not good enough and-"

"Wait," Parvati interrupted. "Prove to who that you're not good enough?"

"The Slytherins," Hermione whispered, a tear sliding down her face. She always pretended that what they said about her didn't bother her, but, truth be told, it did. It bothered her more than she would care to admit. "They call me 'Mudblood,'" Hermione continued. "And I know that my parents are Muggles, but does that somehow make them better than me? Just because I'm not a pureblood doesn't mean that I can't be a strong witch. And now that I've failed that essay…" She took a deep breath. "Are they right about me? Am I really nothing more than a filthy Mudblood?"

"Hermione," Parvati said gently, eyes wide. "Of course you're not just a… a Mudblood." She winced at the word, then went on. "Just because you didn't do as well as you'd have liked on one essay doesn't mean you're not the amazing witch you were before. You're top of our class, and it doesn't matter what those Slytherin snakes decide to say about you. Okay?"

Hermione took a deep breath. "Okay, Parvati. Thank you."

Parvati grinned. "No problem. Now, don't you think it's time we both get some sleep?"

Hermione smiled back, and together, the two girls went upstairs to the dormitory.

It was hard, trying to be perfect all the time. But in that moment, talking to Parvati… she could finally breathe from beneath all of her smothering golden armor.