Word: Troubadour
"AHHHHH!" Ron exclaimed, flopping down onto the couch. The common room was empty, except for Hermione, who had what looked like a small flute in her hands. Hermione was in less than he usually saw her wearing, though that didn't count for much considering she was usually in those frumpy school uniforms. He usually only got to see her in just a tank top and shorts (as she was currently dressed) over the summer when she stayed at the Burrow. He appreciated the change but did his best not to make that obvious – he didn't want to make her uncomfortable. Also, if she did catch him staring or something, he would be pretty uncomfortable himself.
Ron had come down here after being snapped at by Harry about something to do with…oh, he had no bloody idea. He had expected the common room to be empty this late at night, but was pleasantly surprised to find his female best friend occupying the couch where they typically sat.
"Umm…Ron?" said Hermione tentatively. She looked as if she were afraid he might breathe fire all over her if she spoke wrong. Ron wondered if that was a possibility – he was at fire breathing levels of rage at the moment, after all. He sighed.
"Yes?"
"Are you alright?"
"Let's not get into that," he said, eyes narrowed. He didn't want to be a prat, but Harry was making it damn hard not to talk about him at the moment.
"Let me guess…Harry's being difficult?" she asked. In response he merely looked at her, eyes almost pleading, and nodded his head vigorously.
"Well," she said, "that's not really anything new. It's a stressful year for all of us." Ron snorted.
"Isn't every year stressful for all of us?" Ron pointed out. Hermione sighed.
"Yes, I suppose that's true. Everything just seems worse now, though, doesn't it?" she mused.
"Yeah, I guess. I mean, I feel like we should be used to it by now. I'm definitely not. What's that in your hand, by the way? Is that a flute?"
"Yes," Hermione nodded happily. "I must've written a very angst-filled letter back home, because my parents sent me this in a package. They wrote that I could, perhaps, turn to music for relief from all of the chaos," she laughed. "Hasn't done much good yet, though." Ron smiled.
"I'm willing to try anything. Maybe I'll get mum to send me one. Anyways, I always thought it was sort of fun to be right in the middle of things – to be honest, all of these adventures with Harry kind of make me feel like a hero. Even though everyone knows I'm Harry's sidekick. And you know, with the Burrow being filled to the top with Weasleys I don't always get that much attention…um…Hermione?" Ron seemed to be almost unaware that he was saying all of this out loud until he was brought back to earth by a soft, musical noise. As he looked to his side, he saw that Hermione had begun to play the flute during his rant. This upset him a little, and he chose to deal with it. He could reprimand himself for letting his exhaustion lead him to be so honest later. Because of his awful blushing habit, he found it best to deal with embarrassment in private.
"You know, you can tell a bloke to quiet down instead of just ignoring him," he said, a little bitterly.
"Oh, no!" said Hermione, setting down the instrument next to her and leaning towards him. "I was listening, I swear. I was trying to give you some background music," she explained.
"Um, what?" said Ron, confused as ever. What kind of excuse was that?
"You know, sometimes poems or monologues have music playing in the background. I was playing 'Hot Crossed Buns' in the background to…emphasize your pain," she said, beaming. Ron was still confused.
"Well, why on earth would you do that? I'm not exactly a poet," he said, making her laugh. He reminded himself that he ought not to talk to Hermione at night – it made her go a little bonkers.
"What can I say? You sounded like you needed some accompaniment. I just thought it was funny," she said. "I know it's rare Ronald, but I do try to lighten the mood sometimes…" Ron, missing the humor in her tone and panicking, rushed to try to make things right.
"No, no, of course! I didn't mean, um, I meant that…you, you're – you're…hilarious! That's the word. You make me crack up, really! I'm just stupid, I didn't – "
"I know, Ronald," interrupted Hermione gently, touching his arm. He blushed and stared at her hand, which was still (amazingly and terrifyingly) making contact with him. This lasted for about 30 seconds before Hermione realized why he had gotten so tense. She withdrew quickly. He opened his mouth to apologize for being so juvenile but shut it quickly. Instead he simply looked at her, and she looked back.
It had been about a minute or so when he realized that this was probably not normal behavior for friends, staring into each other's eyes and such. However, as another minute passed, he found he didn't particularly care. His mind had just begun to finally shut up for the first time all year when Hermione cleared her throat loudly and looked away. He wondered what had caused the abrupt (yet, admittedly, delayed) reaction but remained quiet.
"I should, um, be getting to bed now. I think I'll be able to fall asleep, it's gotten very late," she said, a little curtly. She got up and hastily ascended the stairs to the girls' dorms. He didn't really want to go to sleep yet, and he didn't really want her to go. But there was no way he'd say that, even if she played that ridiculous flute to try and make his words sound beautiful. Everything he said to her just came out clumsily, falling out of his mouth and staying in the air instead of into the trash bin where it belonged. But she listened anyways, and he thought that was kind of fantastic.
A/N: Thanks for reading! So I wrote the first two in the present tense and I was happy with the result, but oh my god that shit is hard. So this is, obviously, written in the standard past tense. I hope the story's relation to the word of the day wasn't too vague; it made sense in my mind, but a lot of things that shouldn't make sense do in my mind...*CREEPY SCI-FI FACE* anyways please review/follow/favorite if you liked it, and also pretty pretty please review if you do one or both of the other two. I want to know what you're thinking. Once again, thanks for reading. I hope this didn't disappoint.
