Hermione Granger and the Point Of No Return
Of Quidditch and Reflections
Word count – 4,189
"Love is a battlefield." –Pat Benatar
With yet more thanks to my beta Maddie!
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Hermione stopped to look around once outside the library. James and Sirius were standing there, leaning against the wall. James seemed to be muttering agitatedly under his breath and Sirius kept laughing at whatever he said. Hermione noticed there wasn't a timid, kiss-ass little fat boy with them. I wonder where Peter is. Remus walked over to the other Marauders and engaged them in conversation. From their body language, it seemed as though they were discussing Hermione, as every now and then one of their heads would shoot up and look at her to accompany vague hand gestures in her direction. Finally they separated, and James walked forward and spoke:
"We like you; after seeing how you acted in Divination, we think you've got spunk. But after watching you knee Malfoy two days ago, and then earlier today, chatting with him, we wanted to give you a friendly warning: he's not a nice guy; you should be careful."
Hermione smiled at the concerned expression on his face, identical to the ones she had received so many times from Harry. She sighed; oh, how she missed them. Hermione took a step towards him and said, "I appreciate your concern, but I can look after myself," she replied icily. With that she turned and hurried away down the corridor.
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Hermione lay awake in her bed that night, resentful thoughts plaguing her mind. How dare James and Sirius tell her who she should or shouldn't be friends with; she barely knew them. Who were they to give her advice on relationships? She sighed, rolling onto her side and finally drifting off into a fitful sleep as the clock struck twelve.
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Hermione woke in the morning to the sound of the girls in her dormitory having an argument – as per usual. She groaned at the relatively early hour and rolled out of bed, sneaking past them into the bathroom and locking the door behind her before hopping into the shower.
Hermione emerged from the shower, throwing on her clothes haphazardly and quickly running a brush through her hair as she dashed from the room, taking a quick peek at herself in the mirror as she went: she looked only a bit rushed – still naturally pretty, though, she was happy to see. She grabbed her bag from its place by her bed, her wand from under her pillow, and left.
Hermione walked swiftly through the common room and down the many winding stone corridors of the castle before reaching the Great Hall. She plopped herself down in a seat on the bench at the end of the Ravenclaw table. She grabbed a piece of toast and nibbled on it while giving a final check to her homework. Once she was finished she got up and left the Great Hall, making her way over to a marble banister of the Grand Staircase and leant against it, waiting for Lucius. He didn't disappoint. Less than a minute later he came out of the Great Hall and strode over to her, pompous arrogance oozing from him with every step. He smirked at her and held out his arm, which she grudgingly took with a big fake smile plastered on her face.
"Shall we go, then?" he asked. She nodded her consent and let him take her down cold stairwells to the oppressive dungeons, making their way to the potions lab she knew oh-so-well. They arrived and she dropped her arm from his, thanking him politely for his "kindness" before walking into the classroom and searching for a seat.
She finally settled herself at the back of the room and took out the needed supplies, waiting patiently for the Slytherins to enter. Once all the students were assembled, Hermione saw the professor entering – much like Snape, she noticed: a deep frown on his face and black robes billowing around him with every step.
"You must all be good potion makers to have made it this far into Potions and still have the stability of mind to tell the tale. Some have been known to drop out this year, and some just don't turn up. However, I expect all of you to get at least an E on your OWL or you will suffer my displeasure," his lip curled as his gazed settled on a girl at the front of the classroom who subsequently gulped, loudly and obviously.
Hermione held in a smirk; exactly like Snape.
"Today we will be brewing a complex potion to cure a boils curse. I will give you partners: Stebbings, you are partnered with Nott. Snape, you are partnered with Miss Babineaux, as she is new. Lestrange, you are partnered with . . ."
Hermione smiled inwardly: perfect; now she could start her mission. She saw Snape sitting sullenly in his seat at the front, giving off no intention of moving anytime soon, so she sighed and gathered up her things, settling herself next to him. The professor gave them the go ahead to start and he turned to her and said condescendingly, "You just watch; I'll make the potion. I don't need you to muck it up." There was no room for argument in his tone.
She glared at him and said coolly, "I'll let you know that at my old school I never got lower than an O, so I'll go get the ingredients and you stay here like a good Slytherin, okay?"
She turned and walked towards the cabinets. This was going to be harder than she thought. Even at just fifteen (Or maybe he's sixteen already, she thought absently) he'd already shut himself away, and it seemed as though she was going to have a hard time breaking him out. Hermione gathered the necessary ingredients and walked back to Snape. No, you have to be friendly. It's "Severus" now, she reminded herself firmly.
Hermione sat down and thrust half the ingredients at him; he glared at her for a moment before she grudgingly said, "I'm sorry I snapped. I'm just sick of people underestimating me because I'm a girl, or new, or whatever."
The lesson passed in relative silence as they seemed to agree on everything; they even agreed on how to cut the roots. Hermione couldn't help but recognize that they worked well together. She smiled; maybe this would be easier than she originally thought. When the bell rang she gathered up her things and said a quick bye to Snape before hurrying out of the dungeons. If she had slowed down a bit she would have seen the shocked expression pass over his face for a moment before fading back into him impassive mask.
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When Hermione arrived in the Ravenclaw common room that night she immediately saw all the students occupying the room crowded around the noticed board. She waited for the crowd to disperse a bit before going to see the new notice. She smiled: Quidditch trials were on Saturday; they needed a Chaser and a Beater.
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Saturday dawned bright and early – the light coming from the dormitory window far too bright, temporarily blinding Hermione when she opened her eyes, and much, much too early to be considered an acceptable hour for the weekend – as Hermione awoke to the chatter of the girls in her room, the norm for getting up these days. She didn't bother showering, as she was just going to get sweaty playing Quidditch later. She threw on a pair a tracksuit trousers and a spaghetti strap sports top. Hermione grabbed her broom and walked through the cold corridors that led to the Headmaster's office. Finally arriving at the gargoyle after a good fifteen minutes of walking, she muttered the password ("Banana fritters.") and hurried up the staircase. She rushed towards the door of the office, bursting through with a loud crack! as the door hit the wall.
"Ah, Miss Granger. Is something wrong?" Dumbledore asked from his place behind his desk, blue eyes staring up at her in mild surprise from behind half-moon spectacles.
"Er, no. Sorry about the door, sir. I was just wondering if you would charm my broom to be the right speed for this year." she said, subtly checking for any damage she may have caused as she placed her broom on his desk. Dumbledore examined it for a moment before waving his wand over it with a flourish; it glowed a pale pink before fading back.
"It's a tad faster than the broom we have in this day and age, but I don't think anyone will notice," he said.
"Thank you," she said before going out of the room, making sure to shut the door gently behind her as she did.
Hermione raced down the corridors, across the Great Hall, and through the heavy oaken front doors before arriving on the grassy grounds of Hogwarts. Hermione arrived at the Quidditch pitch just minutes later. She rushed through the changing rooms and came out onto the pitch, hurrying towards where everyone was gathered. There looked to be about twenty girls and boys there interested in trying out, in front of them standing two boys and a girl, each wearing the official Ravenclaw Quidditch uniform
"Nice of you to join us," said a boy with a Ravenclaw Captain's uniform, raising a mildly disapproving brow when he laid eyes on Hermione, who had arrived late despite her haste. She smiled at him and gave a small wave, but he ignored her and continued:
"Whoever wants to play Chaser will come with me and Josh" – he pointed to the boy next to him – "and whoever wants to play Beater will go with Kathleen," he said, gesturing towards the girl, who, in turn, smiled widely at them. "We will be playing a practice game: the Seeker and Keeper will be working as normal; Kathleen will be working with each prospective beater in turn to see who works best with her; Josh and I will bring up those interested in being Chasers in sets of three – their goal will be to try to get the Quaffle from us. This is in addition to me and Josh working one-on-one with each student interested in being a Chaser. Those who are not on the pitch will be in the stands watching. Is everyone clear? Good. Now let's go."
Hermione and about fifteen of the other would-be Chasers followed the Captain, who Hermione soon found out was named Daniel, to the far end of the pitch where he choose the first teams. Hermione wasn't called up to be one of the firsts, so she sat on the sidelines, broom in hand, watching the others weave through the sky (and occasionally drop at sickening speeds from the sky if they lost control) as they gave it their best to make the team.
The first person who went one-on-one with Daniel wasn't very good. He kept losing the grip of his broom which resulted in his keeping an iron grip on it with both hands at all times – a serious impairment considering his goal was to throw the Quaffle through the hoop. Hermione waited patiently as everyone else was called out: some were really quite good, others were flat-out terrible, but most were somewhere in-between. Hermione watched as a girl got smacked in the side of the face by a Bludger and toppled off her broom, landing with a thud on the sand below.
It seemed like an eternity before Hermione was finally called. She walked down to the pitch and mounted her broom, kicking off hard – laughing as the wind whooshed by her face and her stomach dropped from the sudden incline. She pulled her broom to a stop forty feet up and looked around: Daniel was signaling for the seeker to release the Snitch so they could start again. Hermione flew over to him, looking down absently as she did so – she gulped; it was a very long way up from the safety of the ground.
"Ready, Babineaux?" asked Daniel.
"More than ready," she replied, smirking.
He eyed her for a moment before lobbing the Quaffle as hard as he could at her. She flew off with it, weaving in and out of the players and making quick turns to avoid Bludgers. She reached where the keeper was hovering guard over the net in no time and flung the Quaffle at the goal with the speed of a bullet. It went straight through. The keeper caught it on the other side and threw it to the opposite team. Hermione flew off again, readying herself for another, similar, maneuver. The boy who currently held the Quaffle saw her coming and dropped it down, signaling for the girl flying below him to catch it. Hermione darted between them and caught the Quaffle before either fully comprehended the situation, throwing it to Josh who caught it with ease and soared toward the hoop, scoring another goal.
When the afternoon came and went and they still hadn't stopped playing, Hermione flew over to Josh and asked, "Why isn't Daniel stopping us yet? I've been up here for at least six hours."
He grinned cheekily at her. "He wants to see how long before you break and start acting sloppy."
Hermione grinned back. "Let the games begin."
She caught the Quaffle from Daniel and spun over, flying upside-down through the air to avoid colliding with a Bludger from Kathleen. Hermione righted herself and flew towards the goal.
In just the next ten minutes she scored six more goals. Having regained the Quaffle for the seventh time, she flew with it under her arm towards Daniel. "I think you've seen enough, don't you? The others are starting to get bored," she remarked, gesturing to the disgruntled students sitting sullenly in the bleachers below. Hermione smiled, handing him the Quaffle before gliding down to land.
She felt, rather than heard, the others landing behind her. She walked over to the stands and sat with the other hopefuls, letting an amused smile flit over her lips as they cast her dark looks and shuffled away. She smiled happily and gave them a little wave; all that flying had made her rather giddy.
The Ravenclaw team walked over, Daniel in the lead, a frown on his face. They studied the hopefuls for a few moments before Daniel said, "The new beater is Sturgis Podmore and the new chaser is Hermione Babineaux. Hermione, I'd like to talk with you in private. The rest of you may go."
Everyone walked away leaving, Hermione and Daniel alone in the stands. "You're a good flyer but you never looked down. Every time you should've had to look down to catch the Quaffle, you didn't. I also noticed you never flew above fifty feet. What's the story?" he asked as he sat down next to her.
Hermione glared at him. How dare he. After everything he had done this afternoon already . . . Not that he was mean, really, just annoying. Merlin, my legs are cramping up already from flying so long.
"My family is one of the most famous families in the wizarding world. They are the richest and the most powerful, but I'm the last one left. I want to honor their memory by flying. I love flying – it's fantastic – but I don't like heights, which is why I never looked down." She gave a vague smile to match her slightly nostalgic words. She was suddenly grateful for the acting lessons her parents had forced her into when she was nine.
"Oh." He looked at her long and hard for a moment, seeming to be making his own, silent evaluation of her. He suddenly jumped up. "Come on," he said, holding out a hand to her which she reached out and grasped; she noticed with mild surprise that his large, rough hand completely covered her soft, much smaller one. He pulled her down onto the pitch, and she stared at him in disbelief as he mounted his broom motioned for her to get on behind him. "Jump on. I can't have my chasers being scared of heights. Now get on or I tell everyone about your little fear." She laughed and climbed onto the broom behind him, burying her head in his back.
Yes, she'd been flying before; yes, she just made the Ravenclaw Quidditch team; and yes, she was Hermione Granger/Babineaux, a girl who'd faced a countless number of horrifying things most people never even dreamed about. But she was still scared of heights. She buried her face deeper in his back and felt the laughter ripple through him. He took of flying low at first, getting progressively higher . . . higher . . . higher . . . 'til the lights of Hogwarts were just twinkling specks clumped together on a rapidly darkening map.
She felt him pull the broom to a stop. "See now, it's not that bad; I promise I'll catch you if you fall," he whispered.
She dared a look around. They were amazingly high up, far higher than the Quidditch goal hoops. So high that Hermione could see the Forbidden Forest stretching out its many miles into the fog, the lake rippling on infinitely towards the mountains, the many grassy hills on the grounds of Hogwarts rolling towards a cluster of bright, twinkling lights in the distance: Hogsmeade. She tightened her hold around his waist, her hold so firm that she had constricted the air from his lungs and he had to make a move to pry her arms loose. She looked out over the lake: the sun was starting to set sending flashes of red and gold across it as night descended. A few students by the water's edge were playing with the giant squid, throwing it odd bits of food.
Daniel started taking them down. When they landed Hermione toppled of the broom, immediately straightened up, and flashed Daniel a quick grin. He smiled back at her and bade her goodnight before shouldering his broom and wandering back towards the school.
Hermione shrunk her broom and stuffed it in her pocket and set off strolling around the lake. Everyone previously there appeared to have gone, now, so she was left alone to her thoughts. Hermione settled down by her favourite tree and stared out across the lake. Everything was going perfectly so far: Snape seemed relatively okay, she'd made the Quidditch team, and, in all honesty, she was happy. There was no threat of a war hanging over her head, and for once she could just be a normal fifteen-year-old witch. But she missed Harry and Ron so much, and, despite her attempts to squelch the memories of them (she had found it too painful to even think of them, as she couldn't see them for another three years, at least), they were the first friends she ever had, and it was gut-wrenching being away from them. Harry was the brother she never had, the boy who had always been there for her. Ron – well, she loved Ron, or at least she thought she did. She most certainly cared for him, but she was starting to wonder if it was just friendly love. She didn't miss him as much as she missed Harry, and she was positive she wasn't even close to being in love with Harry. She gave a sad sigh. She had another two and three-quarter years to go before she could ever see them again. But when she got back would it still be the same? She'd be two years older than them; would they still want to be her friend? Tears slid down her cheeks as she thought about the home that was so far away.
A yowl interrupted her thoughts. She glanced up: the sun had fully set, and subsequently a full moon now hung low in the sky, bathing the grounds of Hogwarts in its eerie glow. She got to her feet, making tracks to get back to Hogwarts. It was a full moon and Remus was a werewolf. She didn't want to be caught alone as he was wandering around. But, remembering something, she stopped; the marauders didn't become Animagi 'til after Christmas during their 5th year, so Remus would currently be locked up in the Shrieking Shack. She gave a short laugh; she was safe. Not that I'm doing anything wrong by being out here, of course. She settled down again and watched as the moon rose high over the lake then fell again, still wrapped up in her thoughts, the futures of her and her friends plaguing her mind, not relinquishing its hold on her consciousness. She wrapped her arms around herself in a show of defeat, blankly staring at the shimmering water in front of her.
She had thought she was strong when she accepted the mission. She had thought she could do it. Now she knew she couldn't; time might not pass for Harry and Ron, but for her it was two and three-quarter long years – to long for everything to be the same when she got back. She missed them so much.
They were the golden trio, the best of friends. She blinked as the rising sun reflected off the lake in gleaming pastels, for once realizing how late (early?) it had gotten. She'd been out all night, and yet she didn't even care; in fact, she hardly took notice. She rose to her feet and set off across the grounds towards her dormitory. She had meant to walk past the Great Hall – skipping breakfast – to allow herself time to get ready for the day, but by the time she arrived in the castle breakfast was already in full swing, delicious smells and the laughter of students seeping through its oaken doors. Her stomach rumbled – she hadn't eaten all of yesterday. Giving into the hunger, she walked in and settled herself at the end of the Ravenclaw table, grabbing everything in sight and stuffing it in her mouth.
Once Hermione had eaten she rose from the table and exited the Great Hall. She made her way up to her dormitory, threw her shrunken broom in her trunk, gathered spare clothes and a towel and glided into the bathroom for a quick shower. Forty-five minutes later Hermione emerged refreshed and awake. She picked up her wand and stuffed it into her robes, walking of her dormitory and drifting down to the common room. She glanced at the notice board as she passed: Quidditch was scheduled for tomorrow, which was Monday; reading further, she saw it was also scheduled for the nights of Wednesday and Friday as well as Saturday morning.
Hermione grabbed a random book off one of the shelves that covered the common room and exited the portrait hole, making her way back to the tree by the lake. She settled down to read and lost herself in her book, not noticing a boy of about fifteen watching her intently as she did so.
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A/N: Thank you (it's the same story as last time: the more reviews I get, the faster I update!):
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LG97 – I'm thinking maybe Hermione falls for Snape, but he doesn't start liking her till 7th year.
LilyPotter – Thank you for the review.
Klingongirl – I highly doubt it's amazing, but thank you for saying that!
Enigma – Yeah, my spelling is pretty terrible. It's because I type so fast. I really need someone to check it for me . . .
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Midnight Lily – Thank you. A good start is really important; otherwise people won't read it, will they?
DementedCraziness – Thank you for the review.
Debjunk – Sorry if I guilt-tripped you into it, but it is pretty annoying when people don't review, you know? Yeah, I'm going to use Malfoy to get her close to Snape.
Potterhead0013 – Glad you like it.
Mooneclipseshadows – Exactly. It is dangerous her flying around on a broom from the FUTURE hint. I'm trying to get her on the team, which is what happened in this chapter because the thing about her "family" said they were good at flying. She doesn't like heights, but she's trying not to look down. She hasn't been flying very high, though; I think I mentioned that in the thing. If not, sorry.
Tigersky7 – Everyone did review, lol. Glad you like it, though.
Angelique Collins – Exactly. That's why I did it. I was going to have her being terrible at potions and Snape tutoring her, but other people have done that, so it would be boring.
Sionell2538 – Glad you like it.
Angelic Bladez – Yeah, I love those words as well; they make me laugh. I'm glad you're not upset by the Lucius thing.
Manic-cheese-fairy – I'm glad you like it. Yeah, I know she doesn't really like flying, but she always said she didn't like HEIGHTS, not flying, so I sorted out her height issues in this chapter. Hope that's okay with you . . . let me know, please.