Written for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry (Challenges & Assignments)
Prompts are at the end.
Word Count: 440
Ron chooses, again and again (or sometimes, not), to be Harry's friend, ever since that first day on the train, but for Hermione, it's never been a choice. From the moment the little messy-haired boy with a lightning bolt scar and his redhead friend dashed into the bathroom to try and save her from, warn her about, a troll; from the moment she lied to the teachers, for reasons she still doesn't exactly understand, for them, she's been their friend.
Once, over the holidays before second year, Hermione wonders why she's Harry's friend. It's at least some part because of the troll, she decides, because part of her feels like she owes them for saving her, even though it was Ron's fault she hadn't been at the feast anyway, even though she's paid back that debt at least twice for saving them in turn, for making sure they don't jump headfirst into things or that, if they do, they have enough information to survive. Which is another part of it, that question of what would they do without her? She could not care, of course, except she can't. Because they're her friends.
(And it's not like she has any other friends - she's never gotten along with the other Gryffindor girls anyway.)
But the reasons why she's their friend, Harry's friend, don't matter anyway, because she'd never stop being their friend. Until.
When Hermione wakes in the Hospital Wing, outdated warnings of basilisks on her tongue, sore from being frozen in such an awkward position for so long, it's the first time she really realizes: that she could die, being Harry's friend, from doing nothing more than being Harry's friend. Because last year, if she'd died in the third-floor corridor that would've been because she'd been out at night against the rules; if she'd died from the troll that would've been because she hadn't been at the feast, against the rules; if she'd died getting to the Philosopher's Stone that would've been because she'd gone with Harry and Ron to stop You-Know-Who. But this year she'd done nothing other than investigate, which the Heir of Slytherin didn't even know about, and be a Muggle-born and be Harry's friend.
But if Penelope Clearwater hadn't had that mirror…
Hermione forces herself to stop thinking of that. Because that isn't what's most important, is it. The real question is, does that change things? Will that, and the fact that being Harry's friend is only going to get more and more dangerous, make her stop being Harry's friend?
No. Of course it won't.
So then that, the fact that she almost died, doesn't matter.
Writing Club: November
Character Appreciation: Sixth Doctor - Appearance: Curly hair
Time Machine: Setting: The Library
Showtime: If a Girl Isn't Pretty: (character) Hermione Granger
Amber's Attic: The friends who have kept me going: (trait) loyal
Elizabeth's Empire: Pecan pie: (character) Ron Weasley
Liza's Loves: Enhanced Bond - Write about people bonding with other people/animals/whatever
Bex's Basement: Black Mirror Labyrinth: (object) Mirror
Scamander's Case: (character) Hermione Granger
Film Festival: (word) curse
Lyric Alley: Lots has changed, mainly the price
The Forecast Says… 26th. Snow: Loyal
Honeydukes Hoard: Hard Candy - Reliable
All Aboard: Blue Train - Content
Folding Fun: Paper - Plain Red: (setting) hospital wing
Scorpios Appreciation: Prompt: Write about seeing something that most people don't.
Do You Wanna Build a Snowman? Three: (word) informative