Chapter 4
Miss Granger,
Please see me in my office at the end of your classes today.
Sincerely, Prof. Albus Dumbledore
P.S. Take note of what I have included with this owl.
Such was the simple, direct note that dropped into Hermione's hands from the beak of a brown spotted owl. She was sitting at the Great Hall at lunch just a few days after she had turned her Transfiguration assignment in late. After reading the note's post-script, she peeked inside the envelope again and pulled out a Chocolate Frog wrapper. She twirled it between her fingers and grinned, knowing that the Headmaster was using one of his clever ways of giving her the password to his office without actually stating it.
"What is it?" Ginny asked, peering over Hermione's shoulder.
"Dumbledore wants to see me," Hermione said. "I can't imagine what about, though." Suddenly she bit her lip in nervousness. "Oh no…I hope it doesn't have anything to do with that late essay from a few days ago…"
"But didn't McGonagall say she wouldn't count it late? And besides, silly, you got it back yesterday and you got a perfect grade," Ginny pointed out. Her tone when she called Hermione "silly" was a teasing one; she loved to make fun of Hermione for being needlessly worried about her grades.
"I know. I guess I'll just have to wait and find out what he wants." Hermione sighed, and then said while jabbing at her food with her fork, "I know this sounds stupid, Gin, but I'm kind of dreading it. After all this mess with Ron and me struggling just to get my work done, Dumbledore calling me to his office just feels like another thing that's going wrong in my life right now. Why can't things go smoothly for once? Why can't I go about my business and not worry about anything, just for a little while?"
"Because then it would be boring," Ginny said, only half facetiously. "And because trouble just seems to follow us wherever we go…it's like a cosmic rule in our group of friends. But I'm sure you have nothing to worry about, Hermione. There's nothing that Dumbledore could possibly yell at you for. But I am curious about what he says -- you'll tell me about it tonight, won't you? Harry and I will be in the Common Room talking about Quidditch strategies if you want to interrupt us and spill the beans."
"If I'm lucky, it won't be anything remotely interesting," Hermione said. "Maybe Dumbledore just wants to give me extra prefect duties or something. As if I need that right now, either." Though she was smiling a little, her stress could be seen in the tiny worry lines that had started very recently to appear on her white, previously smooth forehead. Ginny suddenly found herself wondering if anyone else had noticed those lines…she thought, angrily, that Ron was probably too busy snogging Lavender to notice anything but his new girlfriend's face.
As if by instinct and without much thought, Ginny reached out, took Hermione's hand which was resting on the table, and squeezed it. Hermione looked down at their hands with wide eyes. She seemed to be put off guard by the unexpectedness of the gesture...or was it its intimacy that surprised her so much?
Ginny blushed and quickly let go. "I guess I'll see you tonight, then?" she said hastily.
"Oh…I guess it is almost time to get to class," Hermione said, wiping her mouth with a Gryffindor red-and-gold napkin. "And yeah, of course I'll see you tonight. Thanks again for the sympathy, Gin." The girls gathered their books together, said goodbye and walked off in opposite directions towards where their classes would be – despite the fact that they still had another ten minutes until the end of lunch, and Ginny didn't usually care if she strolled in right as class was starting.
Just before the two girls had walked far enough that they were no longer in each others' sight, Ginny turned and watched Hermione walk away. Every time she saw the older girl, she couldn't help but think of what it had been like for her to live with Ron at the Burrow last summer when he'd been avoiding Hermione like the plague. At first the Weasleys would bring it up to him fairly frequently, such as when her father would say over dinner,
"Son, have you heard from Hermione lately? I'm surprised you two haven't seen each other more. Didn't you tell her that she was welcome to visit us any time? And I thought she said last winter that she was going to invite us to her parents' house soon."
"Yeah…uh, she's too busy right now," Ron muttered, avoiding his father's eyes as if they too had the plague. "She's been studying. You know how mad she is with her studying." Although this answer seemed to satisfy their parents for a short while, Ginny knew from the beginning that her brother was trying to cop out of something. What Ron didn't know was that Ginny had sneaked into his bedroom one afternoon and discovered the large pile of letters from Hermione. Dating from the beginning of summer, the letters had never been opened, and they had been covered with a dirty t-shirt as if Ron was trying to hide them.
And what Hermione didn't know – what Ginny, for some reason, didn't want to tell her – was that it was also Ginny who had forced Ron to go to Hermione's house that day at the end of the summer and finally tell her the truth. Ginny intercepted the last letter from Hermione before Ron could even see it, and after reading it she ran to the kitchen and threw the letter in Ron's face, yelling,
"Look, Ron. She says that if you ignore her one more time, she's going to apprarate over here and confront you herself. So why don't you actually be a bloody Gryffindor, grow a pair, and just break up with her before you hurt her more than you already have?"
"You read my mail! You have no right to do that!" Ron yelled, snatching at the letter.
"Oh, like you were going to read it any way – you'd just put it in that stupid pile in your room, along with all her other letters you never opened!" Ginny whipped her wand from out of her back pocket, shoved the tip of it in her brother's face, and said in a dangerously low voice, "You know, I can't understand for the life of me why you're doing this to her. Hermione is much better than anything you'd ever get again. She's gorgeous and smart, and funny, and a good friend who's gone through hell and back for you. Most of all, she's mature, something you're a long way from becoming."
"Fuck you, Ginny," Ron spat at her. Her eyes widened in shock; although they'd traded insults constantly since they were small children, he'd never cursed at her that vehemently before. "Get off my back. This is none of your business."
"No, fuck you, Ron! Of course it's my business – she's my friend, too!" She pushed her wand even further into his neck until the skin underneath turned white; a terrified look spread across his face and he squirmed beneath her. "Now, you'd better go to her house and put an end to all of this," she went on, "or else I'm going to hex the shit out of you. I don't care if you're my brother, I don't care if the Ministry sends me a warning for practicing underage magic, and I don't care what Mum and Dad say. Knowing how much they love Hermione, they'll probably say you deserved it."
For a moment, neither of them moved. They stood in a silent power struggle as they simply stared at each other, Ginny's blazing eyes steadfastly locked on Ron's. And then suddenly, Ron disapparated with a loud pop.
For a moment all Ginny could do was gape at the spot where Ron had stood. Then she ran up to the fifth landing to check if he was in his bedroom; it was empty. She ran to every room of the house, and then all around the garden, and even peered inside the shed where her father kept his Muggle artifacts. When she finally determined that Ron hadn't just apparated to another part of the Burrow like a complete coward, she sank to her knees in the grass, out of breath.
She was relieved that Ron was finally doing the right thing, as forced as it was, by breaking up with Hermione. And yet she also felt a deep sadness as she realized that her friend had probably been hurt far worse than anyone could imagine, and that her pain was far from over. And Ginny felt another emotion as well – one that she could not quite put her finger on exactly what it was. It's probably guilt, she thought protectively. Guilt that even though I threatened Ron, I couldn't do enough to help Hermione. She sat on the ground with her arms wrapped around her knees, until Fred and George came by and told her that Ron had just apparated back from Hermione's house.
Hermione had never been to Dumbledore's office alone before, so she was somewhat apprehensive as she squeezed behind the statue of a gargoyle and said as clearly as she could, "Chocolate Frogs." To her amazement and satisfaction, the gargoyle statue leapt aside and the wall split apart to reveal a moving, winding staircase. One she was at the top, she grabbed the heavy knocker and was ready to pound on the shiny oak door, but stopped when she heard Dumbledore's voice ring out, "Come in, Miss Granger!"
She took a few steps backwards, startled. How did he know...? she wondered. But then, deciding that there was very little about the Headmaster that should surprise her anymore, she shrugged and entered the lovely circular room. She loved how much sunlight streamed into the office through the many windows; the rest of the castle often depressed her with how gloomy and dark it was.
Dumbledore was not sitting at his desk as she expected, but standing in front of Fawkes's golden perch and feeding the bird some strange green star-shaped leaves. When he noticed Hermione had entered the room, he smiled and sat down in his chair, saying,
"Well, good afternoon, Miss Granger. I'm very glad to see that you received and understood my letter. Do, sit down," and he waved towards the visitor's chair in front of his desk.
Hermione sat down obligingly, and said quietly,
"Thank you, Professor. I – I hope you haven't been waiting for me long, I was delayed awhile in Professor Snape's class..."
"Not at all. Give me a moment to get everything in order, and we shall talk." She watched as Dumbledore opened a drawer, spent a few seconds searching for something, and then retrieved a wide, slender brown folder and placed it on top of all the pieces of parchment that were already scattered across his huge desk. She could just barely make out the words Granger, Hermione J. inscribed on the front of the folder in red ink.
"Sir…are those my student records?" she asked, her heart thumping against her chest. Oh, Merlin, I must be in trouble after all.
"They are," he said. "And you have nothing to be concerned about," he added, seeing the anxious look on her face. "Actually, you should be happy to know that a cursory look at your records reveals that you're still number one in your class. This includes the marks of students in all four Houses."
"I'm still at the top of my class?" Hermione exclaimed, leaning forward in her chair in her excitement. "I was worried about that, Professor – I haven't been able to concentrate as well this year as I did before…"
"Yes, Professor McGonagall told me that," said Dumbledore, gazing at her kindly through the top of his half-moon glasses. "She informed me of a conversation you two had a few days ago in which you admitted that you had been struggling. Since you are one of the school's brightest and most hard-working students, I was worried about you. I tried to think of ways that I might help you, and I found the answer when I looked at your records."
"What answer was that, sir?" Hermione was somewhat taken aback that Dumbledore cared enough about her to try to make things easier for her. She knew that the old man had aided her, Harry and Ron numerous times during their seven years at Hogwarts, but still he'd always seemed to care about Harry the most out of the trio. He had never gone out of his way before to help her solely.
"It would seem," he said, opening the folder and flipping towards the first page, "that due to the use of a Time Turner in your third year to take extra classes, you've accumulated enough credits to graduate from Hogwarts early – this December, to be exact, right before the winter holidays. Of course, it would mean you'd have to take your N.E.W.T.s early as well, and it's already October…and I expect you want to graduate with your friends, Mr. Potter and Weasley…but I thought you'd want to be aware of the option–"
"Wait…I could really graduate from Hogwarts in two months?" Hermione interrupted him. Her mind was reeling; she could hardly believe what she had just heard. Leaving Hogwarts so soon was never anything she would have planned, but could it be the thing that would get out of her rut? She pictured herself already out of school and working a real job like the adult that she felt she was, and the idea excited her far more than she would ever have expected.
"Well, yes," Dumbledore replied, raising one his white eyebrows. "Of course, you still have the option to remain here and graduate with the rest of your class, as I have said. But if you wanted to leave Hogwarts in December, you would be able to avoid the burden of doing unnecessary work in the spring term. As long as you are prepared to take the N.E.W.T.s early…"
Hermione looked at her hands as they lay in her lap, silently mulling over Dumbledore's last point. Was she ready to take the N.E.W.T.s so soon? She had been studying for it, on and off, all summer and ever since the start of the term, even despite how much a distraction her troubles with Ron had been. She was certainly more prepared for the exam than most other seventh years at this point in the school year. The over-achiever in her resisted the idea of not having all year to study for the test – but if she was still at the top of her class, did she really need all year?
And then there was the fact that if she did leave early, she would miss Harry, Ginny, Neville and Luna terribly…but she could always find a job and a flat somewhere nearby, like Hogsmeade…
"Could I think it over and let you know later, sir?" Hermione asked, looking up at Dumbledore again.
"Of course – there's no need to decide anything today. But I will need you to give me your decision in the next week or so." As he let showed her out of the room, he smiled at her and said, "I will be very saddened to see you leave us, Miss Granger, whenever that will be. But I'm confident that no matter what, you will be a very successful young witch."
Hermione managed to smile back at him, and walked out of the office. As the winding staircase moved her slowly back down to the gargoyle statue, she had to grip the railing; the shock of what Dumbledore had just told her was making her dizzy. Her life definitely seemed to be taking an unpredictable -- and interesting -- turn.
A/N: First, a note to all the Ron-lovers who are reading this fic: I know I'm making him seem like quite the jerk, but believe me, I don't dislike his character at all. I actually love Ron, and I'm even a RW/HG shipper. But I do think that in most of the HP books he's really immature, and in my fic he's acting just like an immature teenage boy would. (Believe me, I'd know – the breakup in this fic is based on an experience of my own from when I was 17.) I don't want you to think that because his behavior is so bad in this fic that I'm a Ron-basher.
Secondly: sorry it has been so long since I updated this story. Most of my fanfics are on hiatus, but because of a very kind review I received recently asking for more, I decided to add a new chapter. To anyone who might have started reading this fic ages ago and is reading this now – thank you so much for your patience! I can't believe I started this fic almost four years ago…never did I think I'd still be working on it in 2007. Hopefully it won't be another year before I complete the next chapter. ;)
Finally: a reminder that this story should be considered AU (alternative universe) and non-canon because it disregards the events of Half-Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows. Dumbledore is still alive in this fic because I just wanted to write a nice love story set during seventh year, in which the main events are Hermione breaking up with Ron and then falling for Ginny. I love all of the HP books, but including all the terrible things that happened in the last few (such as the main character deaths) would definitely put a huge damper on the type of story I'm trying to write. (I'm still going to try to keep Hermione and everyone else as much in character as possible.) If you're okay with me bending canon that much, then go ahead and read the story. I hope you'll still like it.