Hermione glanced out the window of her dormitory, smiling when she saw the Gryffindor quidditch team practicing. For all that she hated flying herself; Hermione had always thought Harry looked amazing in the air. Short black hair flying wildly about his face, red and gold robes billowing out behind him...

Her gaze slid to another player, one whose long, flaming red ponytail streamed out behind her. Hermione had to admit that Ginny looked as lovely in flight as Harry did – in a completely different way.

She shook her head, tearing her gaze from the window and turned back to the letter she was writing to Victor.

Victor Krum had looked amazing when he was in the air, too. Unfortunately, Hermione had quickly discovered that while she still loved writing letters to him, it wasn't the same as actually having a boyfriend.

She wrote to him about her friends and her teachers and her schoolwork. She complained to him about tests and the other students and everything she didn't complain about to Ron or Harry of Ginny. Ever since the summer after her fourth year, she had written to him about her life and feelings in an attempt to bring him closer to her and even after they broke up, they still wrote to each other about everything. So now, she found it difficult not to write about Ginny. But she wouldn't. Not without Ginny's permission.

She wasn't used to dealing with things on her own anymore. She had gotten so used to having someone to talk to, to give her advice. From Victor to Madam Pince to Ron and Harry, there was always someone to listen, to give her advice, or just to sit and nod while she worked out her thoughts and feelings out loud. But she couldn't talk to anyone about Ginny, couldn't work out her feelings about the by talking, couldn't ask anyone how she was supposed to handle this...

And she wasn't even sure what 'this' was or why it seemed so important that she talk about Ginny with someone.

She sat back, leaning her head against her headboard and set about analyzing her feelings.

Why was she so desperate to talk to someone about Ginny?

Well, she supposed that part of it was that she wasn't entirely sure how she felt about the girl now. Not that she had any problem with Ginny being lesbian or anything, she just wanted to... think about it. And part of it was that she felt like Ginny had trusted her with something – the knowledge that she was lesbian – and now Hermione wasn't sure what to do with that knowledge. She wanted to help Ginny, to make her as happy and healthy as possible. She wanted to do everything she could to assure Ginny that it was okay. She just didn't know how, didn't know what advice to give her, didn't know what to do.

And then there was the issue of Ginny being in love with her. Hermione didn't usually have people telling her they were in love with her at all. Yes, a few boys she wasn't remotely interested in had asked her out and she had politely but firmly turned them down. But somehow, this was different. Ginny was her friend, not some random boy she didn't really care about. And the fact that Ginny was lesbian seemed to make the situation all the more delicate. Not that Ginny seemed to expect Hermione to feel anything but friendship for her. It seemed that the best way to deal with the situation was to just act like nothing had changed. After all, it hadn't really. Ginny was still Ginny, Hermione was still Hermione, and they were still friends.

But Hermione didn't like keeping secrets. Not from everyone, anyway. She realized suddenly that there had never been anything she couldn't tell Ron or Harry or Victor.

But maybe Ginny would decide to come out to Harry and Ron soon and Hermione could ask if she could tell Victor.




Ginny was sitting in the common room talking to Harry and Ron about quidditch when Hermione came down. She joined them, seating herself next to Harry. She was suddenly nervous about how she was supposed to behave with Harry. She really didn't want to make Ginny uncomfortable...

Harry absently slid his arm around her waist and she glanced at Ginny. Ginny had tensed a little and was focusing her attention on Ron, carefully not looking at either Harry or Hermione. Hermione forced herself to relax and picked up a book. She felt safer, somehow, with a book in her hands, more confident, more like herself. She opened the book and pretended to read, absently listening to her friends' discussion. Eventually she got bored with endless debates of strategies and dissing the Slytherin team and got up to go down to the library.

She smiled at Madam Pince as she entered and Madam Pince smiled back warmly. Most students thought Madam Pince was a strict, evil woman who cared about nothing but her precious books, but that wasn't the person Hermione had come to know. Maybe it was that Hermione always returned her books on time and in good condition or never talked loudly or brought food into the library, or maybe it was just that Hermione spent so much time here, but for what ever reason it seemed that the old, pinched librarian had taken a liking her Hermione early on and had proven she could be a wonderful and helpful person when she wanted.

Hermione often came here to escape the tediousness of the other students and found herself recruited into reshelving books or other such tasks. And since there was no one else there, the two of them would end up talking. Hermione would tell Madam Pince about her tests and school assignments and ask for ideas for projects. And Madam Pince would recommend books she thought the young witch might like.

Hermione lifted a stack of newly returned books and set about putting them on the proper shelves.

Magical Me by Gilderoy Lockhart was the top book. Hermione made a face, remembering her second year, and made her way over to the biographies.

"How has school been going?" Madam Pince asked.

"Not so bad. We had a pop quiz in potions today, but I think I did alright." Madam Pince nodded in approval.

Dragons of the Far East by Alaster Cheng.

"And how are your friends?"

"They're fine. Right now they're talking about quidditch up in the common room."

Hermione had to summon over the ladder to put away Wizards From Around the World by Sinestra McDougall on the top shelf.

"And what about Ginny. She hasn't been here much lately. Is she all right?"

Hermione tensed at the sound of Ginny's name, but nodded. "She's fine. Just caught up with quidditch and stuff."

Greasy Grimy Goblin Guts – A History of the Goblin Wars by Orluk the Weak (and probably the only goblin ever to learn to write) was next.

"And how is Victor doing?"

Hermione smiled. Ron and Harry never asked about him. They seemed to want to pretend he didn't exist. "He's fine. His team won a game last week."

"That's nice," Madam Pince murmured politely, not particularly interested in quidditch.

"And your family? How are they doing?"

"I got a letter from mum a few days ago. She and dad are doing fine. It snowed back home and my sister built a snow-Vulcan. Mum sent a picture and it looks uncannily like... one of the characters from the... story." Hermione had tried, once, to explain T.V. and muggle science fiction to Madam Pince, but the woman hadn't been able to wrap her mind around the concept of staring at a box and watching miniature people walking around and talking.

Her sister, Alice's, snow sculpture had looked amazingly like Spock. She had laughed when she saw the photograph, but it had reminded her how distant she was growing from her family. It had seemed too strange to look at a picture with people standing still, caught forever in the same pose. And trying to explain it to her friends had only reminded her how much of a muggle thing Star Trek was. Ron had just stared at it for a moment and then commented that the man had a weird expression.

Hermione glanced down at the next book: 100 Years of Magic: Wizarding Inventions of the 20th Century. It wasn't one she had read yet. She set down the stack of books on a nearby table and flipped open the book, checking the copyright date. It was 1996, just last year. How could she have missed this?

She skimmed the first few pages. It looked interesting. Suppressing the temptation to set aside the books still needing to be shelved and start reading now, she put the book with her bag and returned to shelving the books.

By the time she was finished, it was almost time for dinner. When she got up to Gryffindor common room, everyone else had already left. She flung her books onto her bed and went down to the Great Hall.

Sitting between Harry and Parvati and across from Ron, Hermione was uncomfortably aware of Ginny's eyes on her. She glanced up to see Ginny watching her out of the corner of her eye. For a moment their gazes met, before Ginny flushed and looked away. But no one else seemed to have noticed.

Hermione returned her attention to Harry and Ron. Ron was in the middle of a rant about something Snape had done during potions. Harry was shaking his head and grinning.

"Well, we already knew he was a bastard, didn't we?"

Ron snorted. "And then he told Draco to 'help' me and you could tell he didn't mean for Draco to be helping much. Draco had a great time sticking things in my cauldron when I wasn't looking and then snickering when Snape took away house points 'cause my potion didn't come out right. And now I've got a bloody detention!"

"Bastard. I mean, that is so gay," Harry said, shaking his head.

Ron nodded. "Snape is so gay. He's evil."

Hermione flinched when she heard that. That wasn't what 'gay' meant and there was absolutely nothing wrong with being gay. How could they insult Snape like that? Couldn't they see that they were hurting perfectly wonderful people with that insult more than they harmed Draco? She had never really thought about it before – her friends insulted people like that all the time. They didn't have anything against homosexuals; it was just an insult. But what must that feel like if you actually were gay and all your friends are saying things like 'Snape's so gay' all the time? She almost told Harry and Ron not to use 'gay' as an insult, but thought better of it. What if they thought she was doing it because she was gay? How could she prove to them that she wasn't without outing Ginny?

So as much as she hated it, she kept her mouth shut. After all, it wasn't like they meant it that way.

She glanced back at Ginny, who was watching her again, and began to wonder who else at Hogwarts was gay. She had never really thought about it, but she didn't actually know of anyone.

She remembered reading somewhere that about ten percent of all humans are gay. Wizards were presumably the same as muggles in that regard, which meant that, logically, Ginny couldn't be the only lesbian attending Hogwarts. There were ten Gryffindors in Hermione's year and about the same in the other three houses, which meant that every year had about one homosexual per House. So with four homosexuals per year times seven years, that meant that there were about 28 gays at Hogwarts at any given time. Twelve teachers brought that up to 29 homosexuals at Hogwarts, which was more than she had any idea of.

Idly she began going through the students and faculty at Hogwarts, trying to figure out who might be gay. Not Harry, of course. Or Ron for that matter (one gay child was enough for any family, even one as large as the Weasleys). Lavender and Parvati both spent way too much time babbling about boys and fussing over their appearances. Seamus and Dean just seemed too straight to be gay. And anyway, they talked about girls to much. Neville might be gay, though. He never seemed to have expressed much of an interest in girls...

Colin Creevey might be gay. Hermione suppressed a smile as she thought of a new reason for why he was always running after Harry with his camera. Draco was probably straight. Unless he had a crush on Harry and that was why he was always tormenting him. She almost choked at the image of him writing Harry's name in his diary with little hearts around it or making eyes at Harry when he thought the other boy wasn't looking. Or maybe it was Ron Draco was in love with...

For the rest of dinner Hermione amused herself with her internal speculation on her classmates' and teachers' sexualities.

A/N: Silver-nex: You can't steal Harry until Hermione's done with him. And I think it's going to be a while before he finds out about Ginny... she doesn't seem intent on telling people. Kashiaga: There will be pairings in this story (beyond Harry and Hermione, but that's not really what this fic's about) but I don't really want to tell you who Ginny'll end up with, so just keep reading. ; ) Steelsheen: Yeah, I'm so tired of it going 'I'm gay and I love you!' 'Really? I've been straight up until now, but now I'm suddenly gay and in love with you too!' 'Yay!!!' And right now I've already got most of this written and I'm just editing things before posting, which doesn't take as long as writing it... Orange: Here's my update... It's a little longer. Hope you like it.