Chapter 4

Hermione POV

"Dilligrout," Hermione whispered.

The portrait door slowly swung open and the prefect stepped inside the common room as quietly as possible. It was nearing one o'clock in the morning and she knew that despite having curfew privileges, she should have been back before now.

She walked towards the staircase leading to the girls' dormitories when she was startled by a noise. Her feet froze in place and her eyes darted towards the area that the sound originated from. She saw nothing out of the ordinary, just the sitting area in front of the fireplace. She stood motionless for a moment longer, listening for the noise again. Hearing nothing, she continued to walk towards the stairs.

Suddenly, there the noise was again, except this time it sounded strangely human.

Hermione walked over the sitting area and peered down from her position behind the couch. Surprise hit her as she took in the sight of Ginny, sprawled out on the couch with her history textbook lying open on her chest. Another book lay open on the floor, the pages a mess. Hermione guessed that Ginny had knocked the book off the couch and that had been the first noise the brunette had heard.

What in the world was Ginny doing up so late that she actually fell asleep out here? Surely she didn't need to study History of Magic that badly.

Hermione gazed down at the girl before her. Ginny was breathing softly, her cheeks were a pale rose colour and she was in her regular clothes, unlike when Hermione had seen her last earlier in the day during quidditch.

The brunette's peaceful expression disappeared as her brows knitted together in a frown. Just the mere reference to the day's earlier events left her agitated.

With a huff, Hermione briskly walked over to the fallen book and she gruffly, but quietly, put it in Ginny's bag. She looked over at the sleeping girl again and after a moment's deliberation, reached out and carefully grasped the book off of her chest, all the while scolding herself for blushing in the process. After thoughtfully placing Ginny's bookmark between the pages the text had been opened to, Hermione put that book away as well.

With a final, fleeting look at the girl, Hermione stalked off to her dorm. She had to consciously force herself to not stomp on the stairs as she ascended them. Quietly opening the door to the room that she shared with her fellow sixth years, she softly padded in.

A short while later, Hermione had gotten changed and lay wide awake in her bed. Crookshanks hopped up on the bed and curled up against her; she reached down and began absently stroking his fur. It was usually a comfort to have Crookshanks around, but despite his presence she felt just as upset as she did when she came in.

Hermione screwed her eyes shut, but the tension in her body wouldn't leave and her mind continued to race. She turned onto her side and tried to get comfortable, but to no avail. She turned onto her other side – same problem. With a heavy sigh, she lay on her back again and stared at the tapestry that covered her bed. She was furious with herself for not being able to sleep. She'd surely pay for it tomorrow when she would be struggling to focus in her classes.

She scoffed internally. Fewer hours of sleep wasn't the only cause for her lack of focus in class recently. Nobody would ever guess that she was having trouble focusing, she was still top of her class and could answer any question thrown her way, but she was much too aware of how her mind wandered these days.

Appropriately, her mind wandered to a vision of the sleeping girl downstairs. Hermione was still unsure what had prompted the girl to stay out in the common room, rather than going up to her dorm. If Hermione found herself any less annoyed with her tomorrow, she'd ask.

Hermione's frown faded as she reasoned with herself. She didn't actually have any grounds for being upset with the younger girl, at least grounds that she could explain to others. She knew internally why she was upset though.

Ginny had been quite the hot commodity with the boys the past year or so, and now that Ginny was out, she had grown into quite the hot commodity with the girls who could be tempted to swing that way. The talk had been circulating in class and in the halls and Hermione couldn't help but overhear as certain girls talked a little too flatteringly of the redhead. Hell, even Daphne Greengrass had made a bit of a pass at Ginny.

Hermione was relieved to find that most of the chatter around the castle regarding Ginny's orientation had been positive, but it was not comforting to Hermione to see that so many girls were interested in Ginny. This was not good news at all.

She had been completely caught off guard when Ginny had come out this summer, and with a bit of interrogation, had learned that she was not on Ginny's list of girls that she was potentially interested in. She shouldn't have been surprised – she just wasn't Ginny's type. Hermione, for the most part, considered herself good 'friend' material. She wasn't stupid enough to think that someone like her could catch Ginny's interest, or more importantly, keep it. Not that it mattered, after Hogwarts she and Ginny were headed separate directions. It just didn't matter. Though, she had to admit that Ginny could be very charming. It took all her will to not pull the girl into a kiss after she hexed Malfoy for her.

Today had been dreadful though. First, Ginny ignored her completely while in the common room as soon as Demelza sat down, and then at the tryouts the two were flirting with one another. Great, they could go ahead and enjoy their stupid quidditch together. She didn't fancy sitting around any longer as this Robins girl lured in Ginny, so she left. She doubted Ginny even noticed.

Hermione groaned as she remembered that she had promised to help Ginny with astronomy tomorrow. With the way Hermione was feeling about things right now, she wasn't too keen on spending any significant amount of time with the redhead one on one.

Hermione reprimanded herself. She was still Ginny's friend, and if she had promised to help Ginny study, then she would do so. And, on top of that, she would try to be pleasant about it. It wasn't Ginny's fault that Hermione was boring, apparently unattractive, and uninterested in quidditch.

Burying her face in her pillow, Hermione did her best to push the negative thoughts out of her head. She needed to sleep and she knew that morning would come far too soon. After considerable effort, Hermione was lulled into the comfort of her dreams.


A loud blaring noise went off in Hermione's ear. She winced. Just as she had expected, morning had come much too soon. She reached out and turned her alarm off. Forcing herself to sit up, she rubbed her eyes and looked around the room. Her roommates were still sound asleep thanks to the silencing charm Hermione had placed around her bed and bedside table.

After she'd gotten changed, Hermione grabbed her book bag and headed down for an early breakfast. She wanted to get to the library and read over her Transfiguration essay before class this morning and that required an early start to the day.

As she stepped down into the common room, she cautiously walked over to the couch and slowly peered over the back of it. The couch was empty – Ginny must have woken up at some point during the night and gone up to bed. Hermione vaguely wondered if the redhead noticed that her books had been put away.

By the time some of the other students started to file into the Great Hall, Hermione was just finishing off the last bit of her toast. She rose from her seat and left to go to the library. When she arrived, Madam Pince didn't look the least bit surprised. Hermione greeted her with a small smile and settled into her usual seat at her usual table.

Hermione forced back a yawn and shook her head in an effort to wake herself up. She pulled out the pieces of parchment that she had written her essay on and began to read through. More than once she had to fight off yawns. She was thankful when it was time to head to class; the walk would do her good.

She managed to make it through Transfiguration class just fine, Professor McGonagall had them transfiguring objects into stone. Though the task was less than daunting for Hermione, it was enough to occupy her and keep her awake.

At the sound of the bell, Hermione and the others rose from their seats and began the walk to the greenhouses for Herbology.

"-I don't think McGonagall was too pleased," Ron was saying when Hermione took notice of his conversation with Harry. He must have been referring to when he had managed to turn the desk into stone, rather than the quills they were supposed to be transfiguring.

"Well, at least you were successful. It takes more skill to turn a desk into stone than a quill," Harry offered.

"I couldn't help it. That git, Malfoy, blew at my quill as I was casting the spell, the quill moved and I got the desk instead," Ron explained in a dejected voice laced with irritation.

"It's alright, Ron," Hermione said, "Professor McGonagall was able to easily revert the desk back. I think she was probably upset with Draco instead."

"Maybe," Ron said in a glum voice, not entirely convinced.

Once they were in the Herbology, a class they shared with Hufflepuff, Hermione stood in front of her Curling Pawnygreen and awaited instruction. Madam Sprout was still rummaging through a set of gardening tools and had not yet begun class. Behind her, the sound of Ginny's name being whispered caught Hermione's attention. She didn't turn her head, but she blocked out the surrounding conversations as best she could in an effort to listen in on what the girls behind her were saying.

"-we didn't get a chance to talk much, just 'hello' and whatnot."

Hermione recognized the voice as Hannah Abbott's.

"Well that's a start. I'm sure you'll get to talk more next time."

Hermione guessed that the second voice belonged to Susan Bones.

"I guess so. It was a bit nerve-wracking," Hannah giggled. "Her tie was a bit crooked, it was really cute."

Hermione's blood boiled and her grip tightened on the pot that housed her plant. Not Hannah bloody Abbott, too.

"Are you alright?"

Hermione looked over to see Harry looking at her curiously, in particular, looking at her white knuckled grip on the plant.

"Oh," Hermione laughed as she returned her grip to normal. "I'm okay, just remembering that incident with Malfoy," she bluffed.

Harry nodded sympathetically. "He's a right git, you know. Don't worry about him."

"Yeah, thanks Harry."

Behind her she heard the two girls giggling.

This was going to be a long class.


That evening, Hermione sat against the wall in the astronomy tower waiting for Ginny. The brunette was disappointed in herself for checking her watch so often and for being irritated that Ginny hadn't arrived yet. The redhead wasn't late, but Hermione had arrived early and was being impatient.

Several minutes later, Hermione heard the faint sound of footsteps ascending the staircase. She became flustered over the impending arrival of Ginny and began piling the parchments and textbooks that she had strewn around her and proceeded to stuff them into her bag.

As the footsteps came around the last bend, Hermione began calmly pulling her Ancient Runes textbook out of her bag.

"Hey Hermione," the familiar voice called.

The older girl looked up to see Ginny reaching the top of the steps, smiling at her.

"Oh, hello, Ginny," she greeted as though she was surprised by the girl's arrival.

"You weren't waiting long, I hope," the fifth year said as she crossed the room to where Hermione was seated.

"Oh no, just got here," Hermione said as she held up her book for Ginny to see.

"How was your day?" Ginny asked as she sat down next to her, making the brunette gulp soundlessly. "I haven't seen you at all. Wasn't sure if you'd be here."

Hermione shot Ginny a look. "Of course I'd be here, I told I would be."

"Okay, okay," the redhead mumbled as she pulled a roll of paper out of her bag, which she revealed to be a star chart. "So, good day?" she asked again.

"It was fine, thank you," Hermione said politely. "Yourself?"

"It was okay, nothing overly exciting happened," Ginny replied in a bored tone.

"Oh," Hermione responded. She flipped a page of her textbook before speaking again, ensuring her voice sounded nonchalant, but curious. "Hannah Abbott mentioned you today in class. It was a little odd."

"That is weird," the younger girl concurred. "Oh wait, I did run into her this morning. I almost forgot. What would she say though; we barely said two words to one another."

"Not much. Something about your tie," Hermione replied casually, noticing how Ginny instinctively looked down to examine the said piece of clothing.

"Huh," Ginny said finally. "So, what happened to you yesterday? I went looking for you after the tryouts and you were gone."

Hermione tensed. So Ginny had noticed her absence, that was good, right? She was looking for her, too? That had to be good news.

"Oh, sorry about that," Hermione apologized as she looked over at Ginny, her brown eyes sparkling in the moonlight and capturing Hermione's full attention.

"Well, was everything okay?" Ginny prompted.

"Oh," Hermione said, flustered, "Yes, everything was fine. I just had a headache, that's all."

Ginny looked sympathetic and nodded her head. "Did you go to the hospital wing?"
"Sorry?" the brunette asked confused.

"Well, you weren't in your room. So I heard...," Ginny mumbled as she looked down at the star chart still in her hands.

The older witched smiled. So, Ginny had checked her room? She really did look for her. The hospital wing was as good an excuse as any and Hermione went along with it.

"Must have been serious," Ginny commented as she eyed Hermione with concern. "Do you feel okay now? Maybe you should be resting."

Hermione laughed warmly as Ginny fussed over her. "No, no. I feel much better now." She bit her lip searching for something to say. "So, how did the rest of the tryouts go, then?" Ginny smiled broadly at the mention of her favourite sport. Hermione went on, "Harry and Ron said that the chaser turnout was really good this year..."

Ginny pondered the statement for a moment before answering, "Yeah, it wasn't bad. We brought on Demelza Robins, but that's it."

Hermione bristled at the sound of the girl's name, though she was expecting it. "Oh, that's nice. I don't know her too well, what's she like? Do you think she'll be okay to work with?"

"Should be fine," Ginny shrugged. "I know her from class, but I don't know her overly well. And I didn't even know she liked quidditch until the beginning of this year. She flies alright though, so that's a start."

"That's good," the older girl said a little stiffly.

Hermione couldn't help but feel the impending threat of this girl that would be spending so much time with Ginny doing a sport that the redhead pretty much lived for. Hermione couldn't even fly. Her sharp mind did the math and she foresaw, with reluctance and a heavy heart, that it was only a matter of time until Ginny would gravitate towards Demelza.

"Sure you don't want to join the team?" Ginny teased as she elbowed Hermione gently. "Come on, we can make room for you."

"Believe me, you guys are far better off without me on your team. You clearly didn't see me fly in first year – ask Ron and Harry," Hermione laughed lightly.

"Hm, I must not have, 'cause I can't imagine you being bad at something," Ginny said as she grinned at Hermione, drawing a blush out of the girl that hopefully couldn't be seen in the dim light of the astronomy tower. "How about a compromise, then."

Hermione arched an eyebrow in question.

"I won't make you join the team if you promise to come out and cheer for us – practices included," the youngest Weasley explained.

"I don't cheer," the brunette asserted firmly.

"I know you do. I've seen you at the games," Ginny said, still giving Hermione a grin that bordered awfully close on flirty.

"Fine," Hermione relented, already dreading seeing Ginny and Demelza working together. "But I don't cheer at practices. I'll come, but no cheering."

"That sounds like a challenge, Miss Granger," the redhead said as she eyed Hermione. "I'll just have to make sure we give you something to cheer about."

AN: A little glimpse into Hermione's mind. Hopefully the change in POV is a welcome one! The remaining chapters will vary between the two girls' POV. I hope you all enjoyed - thanks for sticking with me!