Hermione absolutely hated crying. She'd cried a fair bit at her old, muggle school, and she thought Hogwarts would be different. It wasn't, though. Everything, everything was exactly the same. The subjects were so much more interesting than the maths and literature she had studied in primary school, but the kids were just like her old classmates had been.
They had teased her about her hair, her teeth and her study habits. Perhaps she could handle it better, at least as well as she had in primary, if it was just that, but there was more. Thankfully no one in her own House had said anything about it, even that awful Ron Weasley, but she was different from her classmates here too.
Pansy Parkinson had been the first one to use the slur. Hermione had felt offended before she really understood what it meant, and angry there was a whole culture she didn't understand. All her preparation before the school year began, and it hadn't meant anything.
That was why she had been crying in the girls' lavatory on Halloween, not Ron's offhanded insults. She would never fit in at Hogwarts, she realized, as she tried in vain to wipe away her tears. She had just started to plan on researching withdrawal procedure, when a girl came into the lavatory she'd been hiding in. She tried to keep her sniffles quiet, but it clearly didn't work.
"Hello?" the girl called into the room. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Hermione croaked out. The girl sighed heavily.
"It would be you, Granger," she said. "It's okay. You can come out and talk to me, if you'd like."
Hermione considered the offer and decided to just go with it. If the girl was planning on any sort of teasing, whether it was blunt or passive-aggressive, Hermione would be leaving soon anyways. She came out of the stall, and tried to wipe away the worst of the mess on her face. The girl on the other side of the door was platinum blonde, Daphne Greengrass. She was one of Parkinson's friends in Slytherin.
"You're luck I'm not Pansy," Greengrass told her. She produced a soft, white handkerchief and handed to Hermione. 'She'd have a field day if she was the one to catch you crying."
"Thanks, I guess," Hermione replied. She wiped her face and blew her nose. Somehow, she felt a little better, as she cleaned it magically and handed it back to the blonde. Greengrass sighed again.
"Don't let Pansy get to you too much. Her mother is nothing but venom, so I'm pretty sure Pansy doesn't actually know what kindness is."
Hermione didn't quite know how to respond. She just shrugged and looked at her feet. Greengrass frowned at her and pulled out her wand. Hermione saw the motion and jumped back, fumbling for her own wand.
"Calm down. I'm going to teach you a hair charm. I don't know how to make it into ringlets, but I can show you how to make it not so-" she seemed to be searching for a word that wouldn't offend Hermione.
"Frizzy and awful?" Hermione offered, and both girls giggled. The blonde girl showed her the charm, and spent a few minutes with her after that, just talking.
"You can call me Daphne, if you want," she offered. "If I can call you Hermione."
Another few minutes, and the girls parted ways. Daphne went back to the Great Hall and Hermione made her way up to Gryffindor Tower. She settled in front of the fire with a book and a smile. An hour later, Harry and Ron came into the common room with a plate of food and an apology. They sat with her while she ate, all thoughts of withdrawing from Hogwarts banished from her mind.