Chapter 1
It was the day before Hermione left Hogwarts for her summer vacation and she couldn't say that she wasn't happy about it. She had been best friends with Harry for six and a half years now and not once has he noticed her as anything other than a sisterly figure. It almost seemed as if he ignored her but she knew it wasn't that. She'd had a crush on him since she was thirteen. That was almost years and he still hasn't paid her any mind. She knew she wasn't the most beautiful girl in Hogwarts but she was far from ugly.
What hurt her most was that the one person that knew how she felt, and was supposedly her only female friend, started dating Harry a week ago. She came back to the dorm earlier that night and found Harry and Lavender having sex on her bed. They didn't even have the decency to do the act on Lavender's bed. When Lavender saw her she just smiled and kept on doing what she was doing. Hermione didn't even show them the satisfaction of crying or running out of the room. She just turned and slammed the door shut and walked briskly out of the hall and down the stairs.
Once she was out of sight she ran to the Prefect's bathroom and decided to spend the night there. She didn't have to worry about anyone walking in on her because most of her peers were either in Hogsmede or spending time with her friends before they went home but she couldn't exactly lavish in those luxuries at the moment. Because the only people she was really friends with Ron, his family, Harry, and Lavender until tonight. Hermione vowed that after tonight was over she would make Lavender pay for the pain she put her through but she figured she had a lot of time to spend on thinking of ways to make Lavender's life miserable. Hell she had three whole months to read about torture techniques, of the muggle kind that is. But Ron was in Hogsmede with his girlfriend, Parvarti, and Ginny was in Hogsmede also with her boyfriend, Colin.
Hermione decided just to not think about it anymore. She had enough of stressing over Harry for the last three years. Three years is really a long time to think about someone. Think about it. That's over 1,095 days or and more that 26,280 hours. That's a lot of time to devote on one person. Especially a person who doesn't give you the type of attention you crave. Hermione picked up her wand and locked the prefect's bathroom door and turned on the hot tub and filled it with relaxation bubbles and just soaked.
She decided that from now on she was going to pay attention to Hermione and do what Hermione wanted to do. She wasn't going to waste her time on being someone she wasn't because everyone wanted her to. She wasn't going to be the school nerd because her parents wanted her to be the perfect studious daughter. She wasn't going to play mother to her friends…they were all about to turn seventeen and she was tired of bossing them around so that they would do what they were told and not get themselves in trouble. She was tired of sacrificing herself to make sure that Ron and Harry passed their classes while helping them with their girl troubles and still not having a relationship. She was sick and tired of always being in Harry's shadows and then being teased for it behind her back. She was just sick of it.
At least she could be herself for the last year of her childhood life. At least if people make fun of her she knows that it's because they actually know her and it isn't some manufactured persona they think they know. She was sick of it all. She was sick of everything and she just needed to get away. This summer she was just going to relax and act like a normal teenager for once. She was sick of the huge weight on her shoulders and she decided to not deal with it.
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When Harry heard the door slam he knew immediately who it was. He had a feeling in the pit of his stomach as soon as he heard the door close. He quickly jumped off of Lavender and started to hurriedly pull on his clothes. Once he was fully dressed he ran out of the room and down the stairs and went down to the common room so that he could say sorry to Hermione. He stopped momentarily to think about why he felt guilty. I mean it wasn't like he was dating Hermione or anything. I mean so he kind of hogged up her room but it was Lavender's room too so it wasn't like Hermione had anything to be mad about then he realized that he was shagging Lavender in Hermione's bed. He silently cursed to himself.
Hermione was always one who kept her private business just that and she liked to have her things left the way she left them. She was an only child so she was used to having her own things and for people to leave her things alone and her bed definitely wasn't the way she left it. Harry knew that she had to be pissed at him because of that. He knew that her bed was the one thing a Hogwarts that was permanent for her. Every year books changed, usually robes changes, and rooms changed but as a since of normalcy Dumbledore always had your bed moved to which ever dorm you would be staying in the next year and he totally disrespected that.
It was then that he noticed that Hermione wasn't in the common room. He walked up to one of the second year girls and asked them if they saw Hermione leave and if so did they know where she went. The girl just told him that she walked out of the common room a few minutes ago but being that she wasn't really friends with them she didn't bother to tell them where she went.
Harry thought for a minute then decided to go check the library. He ran the clear path to the library only to find it empty. There was no sight of Hermione anywhere in the establishment. He didn't know where the hell she could be. It was like she disappeared. He would have looked for the Mauder's Map but he had packed it earlier in day and knew it was near the bottom of his trunk and he didn't see the point in going through all of that when he could just wait for the next day to apologize.
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Hermione woke up early the next morning and quickly took a shower. She silently thanked the Gods for letting her remember to keep extra clothes in her locker. She walked over to her locker and muttered her password and waited for the door to swing open before pulling out her undergarments and her blue jeans and white t-shirt. She slipped on her clothes then stepped into her white Nike's then pulled her black robe over her clothes. She picked up her dirty clothes and walked out of the private bathroom and made her way to the dorms.
While on her way to the Gryffindor common she looked down her watch and let out a breath in happiness. It seemed like things were starting to look up for her. It seemed that breakfast has been going on for almost fifteen minutes and knowing Ron, he was up promptly with the thought of food entering his stomach and made Harry go with him. Hermione rushed to the dormitories. She knew that the house elves always took their bags to the train and she wanted to put her dirty clothes in the bag before the elves left.
She got to there just in time. As soon as she put her clothes in her trunk and closed it, it disappeared with a pop. She noticed that it was now half an hour into breakfast and that it was only fifteen minutes left of breakfast. She wasn't as hungry as normal but she didn't want to risk the chance of the witch with the candy trolley not going through the aisle on time leaving her hungry so she left to go in search of the kitchen.
She'd figure she'd get something to eat without having to speak with either Ron or Harry and get to talk with some of the house elves in the process. She really hadn't had a good conversation with them being that she just got over the end of the year exams a few weeks ago.
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It was finally time to board the train and Hermione had to be careful at not being seen. She had avoided Harry all day and she didn't want to ruin it by being overly anxious to get away from Hogwarts and the wizarding world that seemed to revolve around Harry. She waited in the shadows as Harry walked on the train with Ron and his sister. Then Lavender and Parvarti entered behind them. After they were on she boarded. She stayed a few feet behind them and waited for them all to enter a compartment before she passed them and went to the very back and settled into her own space. She closed the door behind her and set herself up.
She pulled her medium sized book bag purse off of her shoulder and opened it to reveal a portable CD player and a few of her CD's along with a couple of novel's she had been meaning to read but never got the chance to. It was a few hours ride back to the muggle world so she decided to get comfortable. She pulled a pillow and a blanket from the over hear compartment and spread her self out on the bench like seat and placed her head phones over her ears and opened the book to, "Queen of the Damned," and began to read as the music blared in her ears.
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"Have you seen Hermione today?" Harry asked Lavender.
"No, why?" Lavender asked not really interested in Hermione.
"I've been meaning to speak with her but I haven't seen her all day. I figured you would have spoken or seen her since you both share a dorm room," Harry said.
"Well she didn't come back to the room last night and she wasn't at breakfast as you well know so I'm just as clueless are you as to where she is," Lavender said in a dry tone.
"Well she has to be here somewhere Harry. I mean think about it. We're going home for the summer. She has to be on this train somewhere. It's not like there's two Hogwarts trains that leaves Hogsmede. So she has to be somewhere on this bloody train," Ron said.
"You're right. Do you think I should look for her? I really do have to speak with her," Harry asked Ron.
"If she wanted to be found she wouldn't have been hiding from you all day," Lavender spat.
"What'd you do anyway?" Ron asked Harry.
"What makes you think I did anything?" Harry asked in anger.
"Well being that you're the only one that was actually at Hogwarts yesterday and it seems as if she's avoiding you. One would think that you've done something Harry so what is it?" Ron asked hating being kept in the dark.
"Nothing…it's just that Hermi caught Lavender and I shagging in her bed," Harry said lightly.
"Harry! Please tell me you didn't?" Ginny asked.
"Why? What's wrong?" Harry asked.
"You really are clueless. If you don't know then it's not my place to tell you although I will say that you are in deep shit," Ginny said before shaking her head and getting up to find Colin.
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Hermione woke up to someone shaking her. "Yes?" she asked.
"We're here sweetie," the lady replied before leaving to check the other compartments.
Hermione got up and stretched then began putting her things back in her purse. She pulled her bushy hair in a messy ponytail and took off her robe and stuffed it into her purse before pushing her way off the train. As soon as she got off the train she heard someone call her name. She turned around to see Harry, Ron, Ginny, and Lavender coming her way.
She huffed and turned around and kept looking for the trolley with her bag on it. She really wasn't in the mood for a confrontation. She just wanted to get home and forget about everything that was going on right now. She wanted to forget about the life she had in the wizarding world and the throngs of girl throwing themselves at Harry because he defeated Voldemort. She wanted to forget about the hurt and anger that panged in her heart.
"Hermione!" Harry called, as he got closer.
"What?" Hermione asked as she kept looking for her trunk.
"Where have you been all bloody day?" Harry asked.
"I've been around. So what exactly do you want," she asked as she turned to him looking indifferently.
"I just wanted to say I'm sorry," Harry said.
"For what exactly?" Hermione asked wanted to know his reason.
"For you seeing me shag Lavender in your bed," Harry said honestly.
"So you're not sorry that you shagged her in my bed. You're just sorry because you got caught?" Hermione asked clearly.
"No…I mean yes. No wait a minute that's not what I said-"
"Then what exactly are you saying?" Hermione asked with a hand on her hip.
"Look I just came over to say I'm sorry not to get a third degree," Harry said.
"Fine," Hermione said turning and started to look for her trunk again.
Harry just sighed and walked off with Ginny and Ron in tow. Lavender stood there though. She had a smirk of triumph on her face. She was ready to gloat.
"You're jealous aren't you?" Lavender asked.
"Of what?" Hermione asked not even giving her the satisfaction of a look. She popped up when she found her trolley and grabbed it then turned towards Lavender.
"You're mad because I shagged Harry and you didn't. I've gotten the one thing you've always wanted and you can't stand it," Lavender said.
"No. You've got his prick, which isn't something to gloat about because I can guarantee you that a lot of other females have had that. What I wanted was his heart and I'm not so sure I want that any more and you're walking on thin ice Lavender. I've risked my life for my friends so imagine the damage I can do to someone I wouldn't spit on if they were on fire. And just in case you're too dumb to catch my insinuations you're under the people I wouldn't spit on list so I would advise you to move out of my way before I really get angry," Hermione said calmly while staring Lavender in the eyes.
Lavender was thoroughly shocked and she hopped right out of the way knowing that Hermione meant business. Hermione moved away to the barrier as soon as Lavender hopped out of her way and made her transition to the muggle world where she would meet her parents. When she crossed over she immediately saw both her mother and father standing between platform 9 and 10 waiting for her. She saw Ron and Ginny waving at her and she was tempted to ignore them but she knew she shouldn't. They didn't do anything wrong and she didn't want to take her anger out on them she walked over to them and gave them both a 'see you later' hug then muttered goodbye to Harry before joining her family in their little area on the platform. She hugged them and walked out of the station to a life she only wished she'd had.
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