Hermione tilted her head to look at the night sky and sighed. The cold winter air stung her skin but she could ignore that. She'd just seen Ron and Lavender in the common room. Just when she thought she could live without him, he just appeared, never without that stupid girl attached to his lips.
She couldn't help the tears that leaked from her eyes, and though she wiped them away immediately, she could not stop the flow.
It wasn't that they were together that upset her. As she had said herself, he was completely able to go out with whomever he liked. The thing that hurt the most wasn't that he wouldn't follow her if she walked away.
It was that he wouldn't even notice.
She sobbed, wiped away the flood of tears and ran her hand through her hair. It's good to cry, her mother had told her. But what if the reason you were crying was because you were so hurt that you couldn't not cry? Nobody had ever told her about love, and the pain of loving someone who doesn't love you.
She wiped her watering eyes with her sleeve, hoping that she could get up to her dormitory without meeting anyone.
As she walked past Ron in the common room, she paused. He continued snogging Lavender, oblivious to anything happening beyond their lips.
Hermione's eyes filled with tears and choked her. Lavender pulled away from Ron to see Hermione rushing off towards the girls' stairs.
"Hey Herm-" Ron shouted after her, interrupted by Lavender grabbing his head and kissing him again.
Hermione had lost count of the times she had cried herself to sleep. All she knew was this wasn't the first time, and it definitely wouldn't be the last.
