Poor Hermione's having a bad day. Maybe our favorite boys can cheer her up a bit.
Hermione Granger, Head Girl, top of the class, and creator of S.P.E.W., was having a horrible day. No. Not just horrible. Unbearable. Agonizing. Quite possibly the worse day of her life. As a matter of fact, it was. Just awful.
It had even started off badly. She woke up twenty minutes late, too late to take a shower before breakfast, so she through on her robes and settled with plaiting her hair. In her rush to get to the Great Hall before all the food was gone, she tripped down the last couple of steps of the girl's staircase and managed to scrape her knee badly enough to make it bleed. So there was a detour to Madame Pomfrey to get it healed, and by the time she had sat down for breakfast, she only had time for a piece of toast and half a glass of pumpkin juice.
The day just got worse after that.
In Potions, she was so flustered that she added too much hemlock to her cauldron and lost 10 points from Gryffindor. That alone almost brought her to tears, but she tried to brush it off. A person couldn't get every ingredient right all the time, you know?
In Transfiguration, because of the added pressure of her ruined potion and lost points, she was so distracted that she turned her foot stool into a bust of the prime minister instead of a sea chest. This time, she did cry, but only a couple of tears that were hidden behind the bust and wiped away before anyone saw.
In Care of Magical Creatures, the Niffler she was assigned to take care of with Ron and Harry decided that her finger looked a lot tastier than the food they had provided. So she went off for another visit to Madame Pomfrey and had a good cry behind the curtains of her bed.
And at lunch, it was really the last straw.
As she was walking into the Great Hall, freshly healed and cleaned up, Pansy Parkinson came to the conclusion that Hermione's day had just not been bad enough. So she stuck her stumpy foot out in front of the girl and sent her sprawling across the floor. It hadn't hurt nearly as much as when she tripped down the stairs, but caused just as much damage to her ego. Leaping to her feet and sending Pansy a glare that could have frozen Hell, she spun around and fled the room. She ran up the stairs without stopping, bursting into the Gryffindor common room and up the stairs to her dorm.
Poor Hermione flung herself onto the bed and immediately burst into tears, sobbing brokenly into her pillow. The whole universe was against her, wasn't it? It was all just a dirty rotten plan to you ruin her day completely. She shouldn't have bothered getting out of bed.
She didn't go to class the rest of the day. By the time they had ended, Harry and Ron were practically sick with worry. It wasn't like Hermione to not come to class. She never missed Defense Against the Dark Arts, especially. So instead of going down to dinner with the rest of the school, the two boys went on a quest to find their missing friend.
They found her in basically the same position that she had put herself in when she came up in the first place. Her face was buried in her pillow, but she wasn't crying any more. There weren't any tears left in her body to cry.
"Hermione?" Ron whispered, slowly moving in and sitting on the edge of her bed. "Are you feeling alright?" Hermione let out a noise that could have been a laugh if she wasn't so miserable.
"How can you even ask me that? Of course I'm not bloody alright," she snapped, voice muffled by the pillow. Ron frowned, exchanging a glance with Harry as he sat on the other side of the bed.
"Do you want to talk about it?" the dark haired boy asked, touching her shoulder lightly. She shied away slightly, shaking her head.
"No. I just want to suffocate myself in this pillow."
"Don't talk like that, 'Mione…" Ron pleaded, stretching out next to her, just far enough away that they weren't touching. Harry did the same on her other side, propping his head up on his arm. Hermione's body heaved in a great sigh, and she rolled onto her back, staring at the ceiling.
"I don't want it to be today any more. Today sucks. Today makes me want to curse at everyone and never come out of my room."
"I can't picture you cursing at everyone," Harry confessed, scooting closer. Hermione managed to crack a small grin, snorting.
"I can't either. But I feel like…screaming. Today's just been one bad thing after another."
"There anyone you want us to kill for you? Or maul, maybe?" Ron offered, following Harry's lead and snuggling up against Hermione's side. She gave a short laugh, shaking her head.
"That's very sweet, but no. No one comes to mind anyways. Except maybe for Pansy Parkinson, but I don't want you getting in trouble. I need you boys to keep me sane."
Harry nodded, draping an arm over her waist and resting his head on her shoulder. "You're feeling better then, I hope?" When Hermione nodded slowly, he grinned, giving her a loose squeeze. "Good. I don't like bitchy Hermione."
"Language," she scolded lazily, burrowing down as a warmth spread through her body. Ron snaked an arm around her stomach, kissing her temple.
"Glad you're feeling better," he said softly, gently pressing his forehead against her cheek. Hermione smiled and closed her eyes, just enjoying the moment. A wonderful ending to a perfectly dreadful day. She knew she could always count on her boys to make it all better.