A/N: I don't know where I got this. It was just kind of jumping around my head one day during English. Anyway, I don't own her, or anyone else mentioned.
ATTENTION: These little stories are not really related, but do have a little in common. They are kinda sad, and take place before the war. If anything in them collides with another story in this set, I'm sorry. I did check, but I might have missed something. Thanks.
"Give in, Hermione," they say. "You might as well. You know we won't make it out of this… alive."
And she assures them, she is perfectly content being the last virgin in Hogwarts, 5th years and up. Some even say the 1st years were giving in, because they are at Hogwarts. And Hogwarts isn't so safe anymore.
"It doesn't even matter who it's with, just to say you've done it."
But it does matter. Even in her last few months of life, Hermione has morals. And she thinks something like that should be based off love. Or at least something a little stronger than just like, if nothing else.
It isn't that Hermione does not love anyone, not at all. She loves her friends. But she knows sleeping with one of them would only lead to bad terms between the trio. And she wants to die knowing they would still be friends in the after life.
"It's great, trust us. You won't regret it."
But she would. Just like she will regret leaving everything else in this world she loved. Her family, her friends, her teachers. And the little things, like Hogwarts: A History, Crookshanks, and the warmth of the fire in the Gryffindor common room.
"Even if you do… make it out, it's not as if you'd see the bloke again."
Hermione knows, she understands, that there is very little chance to make it out. Alive, at any rate. But if she did, by a glimmer of hope, she couldn't stand knowing her first would be with a man she'd never
speak to again. Maybe never even spoke to in the first place.
So, Hermione sits in the common room, soaking up the joy of the fire, Hogwarts: A History, and Crookshanks in her lap. Others are off, exploring before their doom. And she sits, reading and thinking. Some call her daft for being so proper, when she should enjoy the end of life. But Hermione has her reasons.
Hermione is scared. Scared to do this, not because she is scared of it, but because she would be giving up. Giving in. It would mean she accepted her death, as well as everyone else's. Hermione would not do this, because she wouldn't give up hope. And if she surrendered her hope, who would hope for her, and the rest of Hogwarts?
…Exactly.