A/N: Glad to be back in the writing game. Enjoy.
Chapter 12: Observations
Harry lazily stirred around his breakfast porridge, wishing he wasn't sitting alone at his usual table. He didn't bother to get his friends out of bed since he was still sensing some sort of tension between the two and didn't want to be between it. However, he was regretting his decision of sitting alone since Romilda Vane was inching towards him with all her friends with every minute that passed by. Please don't come over here Harry thought. Please don't come over here. Please don't come over here. Please do-
"Is this seat taken?"
Harry looked up and grinned when he realized it was Ginny. Even with her hair up in a messy bun without a trace of makeup, she still managed to look positively radiant to him.
"Go ahead," he gestured towards the seat across. "What brings you um, here?" Harry cursed himself for his awkwardness.
"Well, the Great Hall does tend to have breakfast from time to time Harry," Ginny grinned at him while filling her plate. "No," she paused when she caught something behind him. "Please don't come over here. Please don't come over here."
Harry turned around and caught sight of Ron walking towards the Gryffindor tables with Lavender on his arm. It never ceased to amaze Harry how Lavender always looked like she was having the time of her life with Ron while never noticing the lack of interest on his face. The couple strolled past without even acknowledging them with a simple "hello". Ginny sighed in relief as they took their seats a table away.
"Those two couldn't be anymore disgusting together," Ginny sneered. "What is Ron even thinking being with her?"
"Who knows," Harry sighed before taking a spoonful of porridge to the mouth. "Here comes Hermione," he said with a mouthful (it wasn't until after he said it that he realized what a pig he must have looked like to Ginny). "With...Cormac," Harry grimaced. He still didn't like this idea of the two of them together. It just felt...unnatural.
Hermione and Cormac were direct opposites of Ron and Lavender. Instead of Hermione having a look of adoration on her face, the expression she wore around Cormac was very plain and hard to read while Cormac looked like he had won Triwizard Cup with that large grin he bore alongside Hermione. They too did not stop to greet Harry or Ginny.
"Interesting," Ginny muttered, keeping a close eye on Hermione and Cormac who had sat a little ways apart from Ron and Lavender.
"What?" Harry shifted positions to meet her gaze at the couples.
"Hermione makes an effort to be around Cormac whenever Ron's around."
"Well, they are seeing each other, right?"
"I don't know if they're serious or not, but whenever Ron isn't around she hides from Cormac."
Harry thought back on Hermione's sudden behavior for the past week since she went out with Cormac. She continued to dress in her more appealing manner (which still gave her much attention from boys all around school) and began hanging around Cormac more often. However, now that Ginny mentioned it, Hermione was only spending time with Cormac if Ron was in the same vicinity. He thought her hiding behind corners and other people when Cormac was roaming the hallways was just his imagination. Ginny was on to something, and Harry wasn't losing his mind.
Both of them turned back around as soon as Ron and Lavender started shamelessly snogging in the dining hall. Hermione briskly passed Harry and Ginny again without a word again. Harry looked back at Cormac who locked eyes with him.
"Oh hell," he grumbled as McLaggen made his was towards them.
"Well, see you later," Ginny saluted to him with a smirk.
"No Ginny, please," Harry begged, wincing a bit as Cormac started to walk a little quicker towards him.
"Have fun."
"Don't go!" he hissed loudly, but it was too late. Ginny had already joined Luna at an empty Ravenclaw table with Dean and a couple more friends. Cormac stood before Harry. "Hello Cormac," he sighed.
"Potter, let me ask you something," he took Ginny's previous seat.
"Sure Cormac, you can sit down," grumbled Harry.
"Granger, how into me is she?" Harry's mind honestly went blank. He opened his mouth to answer but Cormac interrupted, "I mean, like she's really fit and all, but she doesn't seem that into it. Like, when we're making-out-"
"Please, stop right there," Harry winced. "What did you want me to answer exactly?"
"Is Hermione actually into me?"
Harry slouched and rested his head on his hand. He looked behind Cormac and saw Ron and Lavender cuddling. Not too far away was Ginny and Dean who were sharing a kiss, making him sick to his stomach. Neville, Seamus, and Luna were too far away for him to rescue him. He was completely trapped with Cormac.
"Look, I really don't kno-"
"-That's bull. Come on Potter, is Granger into me or not?"
"Her name isn't 'Granger', it's Hermione. And no offense, but I really, really could care less about where you stand with her. Cormac, instead of asking me, why don't you ask her yourself?"
"I've tried, but whenever we're alone she just keeps sticking her tongue in my mouth and I-"
"Nope, nope don't want to hear this," Harry got up and left, taking his bowl of porridge with him. "Good luck with her Cormac."
Cormac cursed under his breath and didn't bother to chase Harry. Instead his eyes darted around the Great Hall for Hermione. He caught her talking with Ron a table away (with Lavender glaring at her presence of course). That's when it clicked. He knew exactly how to get an answer.
Ron somehow managed to escape Lavender that evening and studied in the library by himself. It was a very "un-Ron" thing for him to do, but he needed some excuse to get away from Lavender for the night. As much as he liked her, a little Lavender could go a long way. He flipped lazily through his A History of Magic textbook and regretted the excuse he used to get out of hanging out with her in the common room.
After two minutes from scanning the text, Ron was already starting to doze off, until someone slammed their palms on the table.
"Wh-what?" he jumped then scowled. "Oh, it's you."
"I got a question for you Weasley."
"Go away Cormac." Cormac shoved aside Ron's books and slammed close the open text Ron was attempting to study from before sitting down across from him. "Didn't you hear what I just sa-"
"You're close with Hermione, right?" Ron's glare hardened. "I've been noticing that she seems to speak to you an awful lot. So I've been wondering-"
"There's nothing going on between us!" he said quickly.
"I've been wondering, does she mention me, ever?" Cormac began to pick through his teeth with his nail, ignoring what Ron said.
"You're joking, right?"
"Does she?"
Ron mumbled something unintelligible under his breath and stomped away from the table despite Cormac's shouts for him to come back. He stopped in the doorway of the library and allowed people to shove past him while he stared into space. Ron had one of two options: go back to the common room and deal with Lavender clinging on to him, or stay in the library and talk about Cormac's love life with his best friend. He looked at the staircase leading up to common room, then behind at Cormac who was leaning back on his chair until he fell out of his seat and got up, pretending like that never happened. Ron rolled his eyes and decided to take his chances with Lavender.
He stomped back up the stairs and climbed through the portrait hole, bracing himself for Lavender. However, she was was no where in sight much to his surprise. In fact, there was hardly any sixth years hanging around the common room that evening. There was only one sitting all by herself with a tower of books looking like they were going to topple over at any given moment. Hermione.
She looked up at him and gave him a small smile before going back to her studies. Ron went to her table and straightened up the books before taking his seat.
"So, where is everyone?" he asked.
"Hogsmeade having some sort of party at The Three Broomsticks," she answered, not taking her eyes off her parchment while writing furiously.
"Occasion?"
"It's a Friday."
"Right," Ron rested his elbows on the table and watched her write for a few seconds. "Hermione, are you and Cormac...dating?" Hermione didn't answer. "Because I think he really likes you. And he's been annoying me about it, no doubt he's been doing that with Harry too."
"We've been on one date, I don't know if you'll consider that to be 'dating' though."
"Look, I've been watching you with him and I can't tell if you're into him or not. No one can. I don't really care...or anything, but can you do us all a favor and stop leading the poor git on already?"
"Like what you're doing with Lavender?" Ron went silent. "Because, as I recall, you never answered whether you liked her or not back at Hogsmeade, yet here you are going out with her. But you don't see me on your case about whether it's ethically correct for you to be 'leading someone on' as you think I'm doing with Cormac. Now if you'll excuse me Ronald, I need to finish my Advanced Arithmancy assignment before it gets too late because I plan on going to Hogsmeade later with everyone."
Ron got up and started to make his exit, but halfway towards the portrait hole he turned back and went to stand over her.
"I like Lavender," he said, as if he were trying to reassure Hermione and himself on his feelings.
"And I like Cormac."
And those were the only words needed to start up another silent fight between Ron and Hermione once more.
A/N: Got more chapters outlined and I can't wait to publish them. Still need to edit chapters 1-10 however, that may take a while. Don't know how regularly I'll be updating too, please just bear with me. Hope you're following the story and remember to leave me a little review, feedback is always appreciated!
