The dinner was one of the more unpleasant meals she had experienced in the household through all her years. Even though the twins attempted to make the atmosphere lighter with a few jokes, they soon stopped trying seeing that they had no effect on the gathered people.
Sure, the food was delicious as was expected since Molly was cooking, but even the exceptional flavours rolling over her taste buds did nothing to lift Hermione's spirits. As was usual for her, she spent the rest of the afternoon catching the sun's rays and thinking about the situation with Ginny from every perspective she could think of. She didn't really have much to go on, which made the whole process harder, but in the end she drew a conclusion that seemed very sensible to her.
Ginny was an emotional wreck, that much was obvious. She felt betrayed by the people she had thought her friends for many years on end, but most importantly, she was facing the reality of the fact that the boy she believed to be her true love since she was a little girl wasn't interested in her the slightest bit. To him, she'd always be his best friend's little sister. Hermione realised that the redhead was most probably having an identity crisis - the foundations of her sense of self were shaken up and she was reinventing herself. The older girl wasn't so sure that she liked that - or the person her friend was becoming.
But if Ginny didn't want to talk to her she could hardly do anything to help her out of the downward spiral. As they finished dinner and slowly got up to head to their respective rooms, Hermione's legs took her to the redhead's room of their own volition, as she always stayed with the younger Gryffindor when she was at the Burrow. Upon opening the door to the impersonal room, she was faced with a suprised Ginny. "Excuse me, what the fuck are you doing here?" Shocked by the strong language the younger girl used to use so rarely, she stumbled over her reply. "I-i'm sorry, I thought I was staying here?" Levelling her with a cold stare, the redhead just lifted an eyebrow. In another situation, it would have been sexy. "You sure as hell aren't. You can use the twins' room. They have their own flat above the store," she dismissed her and turned back to her previous occupation, which was lounging on the bed and reading a book on potions. Stammering another sorry, Hermione closed the door and headed to the stairs to get to the room she'd apparently be staying in. She was surprised to realise she could barely hold back tears.
When Ginny had been rude and snarky on the pitch, she had thought that maybe that was her way of dealing with things. She was confident that when they would be sharing a room and the younger girl would grow accustomed to her presence once more, she would open up and Hermione would be able to fix this whole mess. The fact that the redhead dismissed her so easily hurt like a bitch, not to mention the deep sense of uselessness she was feeling.
She dragged herself up to the twins' room and angrily wiped the lone tear that had slipped down her cheek. I won't cry about it like a little girl, damn it! Refusing to let despair take over, Hermione went to sleep with thoughts of getting close to Ginny on her mind.
Despite Hermione's best efforts through the next few days, she couldn't get an inch closer to the redhead. The latter seemed to take some newfound delight in replying to everyone's questions with antagonistic remarks, which was slowly driving the whole house mad. In fact, the only time you really saw Ginny smile was when she shut someone down with a comment so dripping with sarcasm that it was actually gathering in a puddle on the floor - and even those rare smiles weren't of the pleasant kind.
After an especially nasty verbal sparring on the corridor, Hermione was gloomily heading to breakfast, thinking of how well the used-to-be Gryffindor would fit in with the Slytherin crowd. The little pile of letters lying on the table served to lighten her mood some. "The Hogwarts letters arrived!" Her shout was loud enough that it reached the top floor and she was sure that if she could, she'd be hearing the boys' sleepy groans right now. Not that she cared at the moment.
When she took the envelope addressed to her name and started slowly tearing it open, her excitement was bubbling to higher and higher levels. The moment of truth, she got it or she didn't. She couldn't wait anymore and Hermione covered her eyes with one hand while she turned the envelope with the other and shook. Upon hearing the telltale clink of something metal against the wood, she let out a hysterical scream and grabbed the object, patience forgotten. "Oh my god," was the unbelieving whisper she let out while gently holding the badge.
Harry came stomping down the stairs in the next instant, wand in hand and shirtless, an alert look in his eyes, but all he saw was his friend, smiling from ear to ear. "Why the hell did you scream like that, you crazy woman?" he sighed, realising they weren't in any danger. In answer, she held up her new badge. "I made Head Girl, Harry." Her smile now infecting him, too, he hugged the brunette and spun her around. "That's great, Hermione! I knew you could do it! You know you're perfect for this job, right?" Giggling at him to let her go, she encouraged him to open his own envelope. Even though she was aware the Head Boy and Girl were traditionally from different houses, she couldn't help but hope that maybe they'd made an exception in his case. Deep down though, she knew he was too much of a troublemaker for that - he hadn't even gotten a Prefect badge, after all.
What he did get though was the Quidditch captain title and another round of hugging and congratulations followed before they took seats at the table and looked at everything else that was in their letters. While they read over their book lists Molly entered the kitchen with a basket full of freshly picked vegetables for lunch and eyed the two teens with an amused twinkle in her eyes, thinking of her own school days. Still smiling, she pointed out to the boy that he wasn't wearing a shirt, which brought a lovely blush to his face while he raced back up the stairs. Turning to the stove to start on the breakfast, Molly now posed a question to Hermione. "Anything interesting in that letter of yours?" Happily, the girl in question waltzed up to the woman and gave her a big tight hug before showing her her shiny new badge. After the congratulations, the eggs were already done and the brunette sat back to the table to enjoy them.
After a few minutes, the woman's youngest son came into the kitchen accompanied by Harry as well and was bombarded with the good news, finding out that he too got an extra badge, keeping his Prefect status. They chatted excitedly over breakfast, certain disagreements temporarily forgotten and decided that they would get their books from the alley the very same day.
Sticking to the plan, they were all gathered by the fireplace in a half an hour and floo'd one by one to Flourish and Blotts.
I want to thank everyone who reviewed, followed or favorited this story; you guys give me the drive to keep writing this. Now, if you find any grammatical mistakes, please point them out to me so that i can correct them, since this story does not have a beta. Bunny out.