Authors note: A lot of you probably don't know who Oliver Rivers is and I didn't until recently. He's a student who is in Harrys year but we just never saw him. I wanted to write a story where Hermione met someone in the library in the 2 month period where she wasn't a close with Harry or Ron. Really wanted to emphasise the burden on her shoulders with everything going on around her.
Enjoy
01/01/1994
Hermione watched on as the harsh January rain poured down on the Great Lake. The moon stood over the lake, giving it a serene feeling to it. She always liked this seat in the library. The window gave her a perfect view to see the horizons of the school, with also the added benefit of being far from Madam Pince's glaring eyes. Her desk was covered with books ranging from "Magical Creatures: Law and Order" to "Department For the Disposal of Magical Creatures: A History".
No matter how long she spent in the library she went on, she had to. The days to Buckbeak's case slowly counted down and Hermione didn't know if she could do it. Everything was turning into a struggle, for every potential solution she could find a new problem came up. To make things worse, the two people who were always with her and helping through everything had left her.
She was alone.
She fought back the tears that she felt building up in her eyes. No. She knew she couldn't be weak now. Hagrid was counting on her and she would not quit on him. No challenge was too great for Hermione Granger. The voice in her head reassured her that she could do this.
But could she? All the odds were stacked against Hagrid. A Hippogriff has never won a case like this. They all ended in execution. In the 200 years of recorded history, which Hermione read with a thorough eye, there wasn't a single case of the Hippogriff owner winning, it was all the same result. Statistically, this was an impossible case to win, made even worse by the fact that Malfoy had the entire committee in his pocket, according to Hagrid. This was David vs Goliath.
Hermione's eyes gazed over the rest of the Library. It was empty aside from one boy who was frantically writing away on a piece of parchment. She recognised him from a few of her classes, but his name was escaping her right now. She'd notice he was here from the early hours of the morning until the late stages of the had a stack of parchment next to him which almost touched his black hair. Crookshanks seemed particularly interested in him, seeing how she was right next to his foot, but he never bothered with the cat.
She could make out small ink stains covering his hands and some parts of his face. How long was he here?
Hermione went back to researching ways to trying to save Buckbeak, but nothing really came around. The Department For the Disposal of Magical Creatures was incredibly strict with the rules about "violent" creatures. The laws were clear about what would happen if an animal attacked a wizard. No matter the circumstances, the creature will be given an execution date and the owner will be given a hefty fine for not training the animal properly.
Despite that, Hermione still flipped the page, searching for anything she could use in Hagrid's case. However, before she could read the first word, her ears picked up a noise from across her lane. She glanced up at the boy who now had Crookshanks raised into the air.
"Who let you in here, little guy? You hungry?" He asked Crookshanks.
"Ahem." Hermione coughed to get his attention. "I brought him in here and please don't feed him, he's been eating enough lately."
The boy took Crookshanks closer to his chest and stroked Crookshanks' head. "I've never seen a cat behave so well. Most animals hate me."
Hermione couldn't help but laugh at the statement. "He's a nightmare to deal with, trust me."
"I'm Oliver Rivers, by the way" He waved from across the room.
"Hermione Granger."
Hermione noticed that Oliver almost laughed when he heard her name. "Sorry, it's just that people in my house are always talking about you and now I get to finally meet you."
Her face turned into a frown straightaway and her mind filled with so many questions. What exactly had people been saying about her? She knew that some people didn't like her much on account of her being a "know-it-all" so that was her first assumption.
"W-what exactly are they saying?" Hermione asked slowly.
"Nothing bad." He waved off. "You're the gold standard for our year. People are always wondering whether they can do better than you or even compete. I think they are a little obsessed."
Hermione's face flushed a little. She never knew people held in this sort of regard it was a little embarrassing, really. "You shouldn't be doing things like that. Comparing yourself to someone else won't help you with your own flaws."
"Tell them that yourself." Oliver grumbled. "You've been here an awful lot recently, Granger. Anything you're studying in particular?"
"I could ask you the same question, Rivers."
"Well, I'm grading essays for professor Binns. It's quite a strenuous task." He said proudly.
At first, Hermione almost scoffed. Why would a student need to grade the work of students when the more qualified professor could? Then it hit her that Professor Binns was a ghost. He couldn't touch anything. Anything. Even a quill.
"You mean to tell me that you grade all the History of Magic essays?" She asked with a hint of disbelief.
"Not all of them. I don't touch the 6th or 7th year's work. Professor Binns has a professional doing that, but everything else is mostly me." He smiled. "Of course I have his guidance but most of the time I use my own knowledge."
"So all this time a student has been marking my work? That's a little hard to believe, don't you think?"
"You can believe what you want." Oliver shrugged.
Hermione didn't believe what he was saying, but the way he said it made it sound convincing. "So when did you start doing this?"
"In my first year, you see, I received 3 month's worth of detentions because I refused to go to astronomy. I ended up with Professor Binns for detention, and he made me grade his essays. At first I was horrible, but then I learned more and more about the topic and now I just do it for my own leisure." He explained.
"And you refused to go to astronomy because?"
"The timetable had it so I had double potions the next morning and I wasn't keen on being hardly awake for potions with Snape breathing down my neck."
Hermione couldn't help but laugh. She knew people complained about having Astronomy, which was a two-hour lesson, in the night, but she'd never heard of anyone who refused to actually go to the lesson.
"And now it's your turn to answer the question."
Hermione hesitated for a second. She didn't know whether she should tell a stranger about Hagrid's case but a part of her just wanted to let it all out. And she listened to it.
"I'm assuming you know about Hagrid's Hippogriff?" She asked, to which she received an unconvincing nod. "Well, it's being tried for assault and Hagrid is counting on me to make a defence for him. I've been spending days trying to look for ways to make Buckbeak a strong case, but every lead I get there's a thousand more dead ends. It's just frustrating." She practically shouted that last part out.
Oliver didn't respond for a while, giving Hermione the impression he'd stop listening to her, but he finally spoke. "I can't think of the last time the Disposal team ever lost a case like this. They have a weird hatred against interesting creatures. It doesn't help that this is against Lucius Malfoy, I assume."
"I know!" Hermione snapped. "I know that they haven't lost a case in 200 years. I know that it's against Lucius Malfoy, I know the Committee is a corrupted bunch of fools and I know that everything is against us. That doesn't mean I have to stop trying." She shouted.
"I didn't say you have to. It's just that this is a lot for one person to handle. Where are your friends? This seems like something Potter and Weasley would be invested in." Oliver asked.
It took a while for Hermione to string together her words to respond to his question. Should she just say that her relationship with her friends had gone completely sour? "This is something personal. I don't want to annoy them with this."
"I don't think it's healthy for you to be doing this. You have enough on your plate with all the subjects you're doing?" Oliver said. Hermione could hear the uneasiness in his voice.
"Well, what are you suggesting I do?"
"Why don't I help you?"
Hermione wanted to reject his offer straightaway. This was something she felt she had to do alone. To prove to herself that she didn't need Harry or Ron with her to do something. While that was selfish, it was what kept her going. But Hermione's mind couldn't stop going back to her last meeting with Hagrid and remembered how it ended in tears. She never wanted to be like that again.
"Are you sure? I don't want you to be wasting your time, especially when you're already busy."
Oliver instantly waved that away. "No, it's fine. I have enough time in the day. What's a few hours helping someone going to do?"
Hermione could feel an odd emotion building in her gut. It wasn't sadness or happiness. It was a relief. Hermione felt a burden being taken off her shoulders, and it felt amazing.
"Thank you." She whispered.
The two sat in complete silence for the next five minutes. Both of them fidgeting with whatever they had next to them, the only noise coming from Crookshanks scratching Oliver's jumper.
"Granger, I've been meaning to ask." Oliver said suddenly. "How do you get to all your subjects?"
"That's for me to know and for you to never find out." She smirked. "So, do you just sit around here all night?" Hermione said quickly, instantly changing the topic.
"I sleep in here sometimes." He shrugged. "The knocker does have a tendency to have harder riddles later into the night, so I don't bother with it. I've been locked out of the Common room sometimes. I do like talking to the Giant Squid whenever I can."
"The Giant Squid? You talk to him?" Hermione asked, disbelief in her voice.
"No, sadly I can't." Oliver sighed. "I swim with him though, he's great fun."
"I thought he'd be more aggressive for some reason." Hermione muttered. "I find it hard enough to get to the Common Rooms late at night with Peeves lurking around."
"It's even harder with those dementors around." He shuddered. "All this for one man."
"He's an incredibly dangerous man!" Hermione added. "He killed 12 muggles with a single spell! They might be vile creatures, but it's for the best."
"I know, but wouldn't it be more efficient to just have Aurors patrolling the school? The Dementors seem to attack anyone that gets too close to them and they're just unsettling."
"Aurors are expensive. People need rest and food and a wage to live, Dementors need none of that." Hermione explained.
"They were brought in to make the school feel safer, but all they've done is the opposite." Oliver retorted while putting Crookshanks on the floor.
"At the end of the day, there's nothing we can do to change it." She said with a yawn.
She looked at the clock and it was reaching the early parts of the morning, they'd been talking for longer than she thought they had. She could feel her body was clearly tired.
"I think it's time you call it a night, Granger."
Hermione slowly got to her feet and scrambled all her books into her bag. She was considering leaving all the loose sheets on the table and leave it to Madam Pince, but she went against it and scrunched them all and placed them all in her bag. She wrapped her bag on her shoulder and the weight of it pulled her down.
"Come on, Crookshanks." She called to the cat.
With a final lick of Oliver's face, Crookshanks leapt off him and went back to his original owner. "Goodbye, little guy," Oliver called out.
"Thank you for talking to me today, Oliver."
Hermione noticed he slightly shivered when she said his name, but he quickly composed himself. "Any time, Granger. Have a good night."
With a small wave, Oliver went back to the stack of sheets next to him and Hermione made her way out of the Library.
For some reason, Hermione felt happy for the first time in days.