'I'm starting to trip, I'm losing my grip.
And I'm in this thing alone.' - Avril Lavigne / Losing Grip
Hermione wasn't exactly having a great summer herself. She wasn't sure what kind of summer she was having. It had been good at the beginning, she'd been on a small weekend break with her parents to France then she'd come back, just two days ago and received a letter from Viktor Krum asking her if she wanted to come and stay with him. Hermione had been thrilled to receive it, as she hadn't believed he'd actually write to her. She wasn't really used to receiving much attention from boys, as anything more than a friend anyway. Her face had broken into a big beaming smile and she'd hurried to her desk to write to Harry and Ron to tell them about it, and then Ron's treatment to Krum slowly seeped into her mind, and she decided against writing to them both, especially Ron. Hermione couldn't quite grasp what Ron's problem was with Krum he had gone from thinking the guy was great into hating him with a passion in a short length of time.
After thinking that matter through, Hermione began to wonder what she should do. She didn't want to leave too long to reply to Viktor's letter, because she knew he was waiting for a response from her. She didn't want to lose Ron as a friend though, and she knew this was something Ron would take personally, and lose his temper over. That was Ron for you, he usually over reacted about certain topics, especially when they were related to people he didn't like. That's why Malfoy caused Ron to positively drip with anger at any time the pair came into contact. Though Ron, like Malfoy needed to learn to bite his tongue, which was something that he seemed to find very difficult. When angry Ron just said exactly what he thought, and she didn't want him to do that because she knew that her feelings were going to get hurt by it and things might never be the same between them. Hermione wasn't exactly sure why Ron's thoughts and feelings mattered to her so much, but they did, so something had to be done.
Hermione stood up from the chair she had been sitting in by her bedroom window and went and sat at her desk and pulled out a piece of parchment. She decided to write to Viktor and tell him she wasn't sure if she could come yet but she'd get back to him as soon as possible. After finishing that letter, she slipped it into an envelope and released her tawny owl from it's cage and told it to take the letter to Viktor which it did happily after giving her an affectionate peck on the ear. What shocked Hermione though is that she wasn't as disappointed as she thought she would have been that she might not be able to go and stay with Viktor. She figured this was partly because she was worried about her friendship with Ron more. She really needed to talk to someone about it, and the only person left to confide in was Harry. Hermione didn't really want to bother him, because she knew last years events must have deeply affected him more than anyone knew, and she didn't really want to bother him with a petty problem when the kind of things he was dealing with were far beyond anyone's understanding. However, despite knowing this Hermione still wrote Harry a letter asking for his advice, making sure he knew that he was welcome to talk to her about his problems as well.
Two days later, Hermione still hadn't had any response from Harry, so she'd written another letter to him earlier. However, she'd received her tenth letter from Ron since the start of the holiday, asking her is she was going to stay with 'Vicky' or not. She hadn't informed him that Viktor had written to her, but he already knew that it was a possibility because she'd mentioned it briefly to him at the end of last year. This fact obviously disturbed him enough, she thought to herself, looking at the small stack of letters on her desk from him. She hadn't replied to one of them yet, as she wasn't exactly sure what to say. Not only that but it wasn't exactly any of Ron's business was it? It seemed to really be getting to Ron but she didn't understand it, it wasn't as if Ron liked her in that way was it? He'd only realised she was actually a girl this year, she thought bitterly. Maybe he just hated Krum? She didn't know, however, she did care because he was one of her best friends and didn't want to cause any conflict between them. Hermione decided the best approach would be to speak to Ron, but what did she say to him?
Hermione got a fresh piece of parchment out from her desk draw and placed it on her desk and proceeded to stare at it, while biting the top of her pen with her now perfectly straight and even teeth. After five more minutes, Hermione began to write. Looking at the finished letter Hermione read it over and frowned, it didn't sound right to her. Crumpling the parchment up into a ball Hermione dropped it into the bin beside her desk and sighed. Come on, Harry! I really need your help for once, Hermione thought to herself. As if on cue her brown owl swooped in through the window, dropping a letter on her desk as it went past. Hooting happily it settled in its cage. Hermione smiled and opened up the letter in front of her. Harry had finally replied.
Sorry I didn't reply earlier, been busy with things. I'm not really sure what you should do, as I don't really have much experience in this kind of thing. Go if you want though don't let Ron stop you. I'm sure he'll come round you know what he can be like. Maybe you should talk to him about it?
Harry
P.S. Thanks for the food supplies, they're great!
Hermione frowned, at the letter slightly suspicious. Harry usually wrote much longer letters than this. 'Maybe you should talk to him about it?' That didn't sound like Harry. Harry would usually just give his advice on the matter whether he had much experience or not, that's what made him such a great friend. Also he would have at least said something like 'I'll speak to Ron for you.' Hermione didn't mean to criticise her friends advice it was just that this wasn't very Harry-like to her. Maybe I'm just jumping to conclusions, she thought to herself, but she was sure there was some kind of problem here. Hmmm. Hermione made a mental note to herself to write to Harry again before the end of the holidays to make sure he was ok.
Right now though, she was going to deal with the more pressing matter. Ron. Hermione decided to herself that maybe Harry was right about this after all, maybe speaking to Ron was the best idea. Getting out yet another piece of parchment, Hermione began another letter to Ron. She was going to find out exactly what the problem was!
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