Summary: Hermione tries to get over her feelings for somebody because she knows he doesn't love her. After all, she is sensible, isn't she?

Disclaimer: No, the characters aren't mine; I only had the idea for the plot and wrote this story, so there isn't any reason to sue me!

Author's Note: This story was started a long time before the HBP was published; I only finished the last one and a half chapters after reading it. Any twisted resemblance (I think it has some) to some happenings in the HBP are pure chance, or just show the way love sometimes is.

I know this first chapter is a bit angsty but I promise there will be less angst in the other chapters.

It is Only Sensible

Chapter 1- No Other Way

Hermione sat down at her desk and took out her History of Magic book, trying to use the evening and glad that she had some peace and quiet while Lavender and Parvati were in the common room, probably giggling with some other friends.

In spite of the silence, Hermione couldn't concentrate. She was annoyed with herself that she, the rational, sensible Hermione, was letting something silly like love distract her from her homework. She was even more annoyed that this had been happening quite often recently, in fact, a certain someone had become more important to her than anything else.

Frowning, she took out another piece of parchment. Not only was she in love, she was also in love with someone she was certain that would never love her back. Well, she had believed long enough that there was a chance and had been silly enough to imagine he had shown signs of liking her back. She knew now that it had only been an illusion.

Hermione knew she needed to give up hoping, though it had been pleasant enough but now that she knew that she had to give up her feelings for him, she was thinking of how she had imagined it to be together with him. She had thought they would fit together perfectly, how should she ever find someone who knew her so well that they could almost read each others minds? Except of course, that he had never realised that she liked him as more than a friend.

It was so obvious though. She should have noticed that he never looked back when they went apart, that he never gave her any more smiles than he gave Harry. Hermione had tried giving him subtle hints that she liked him in a different way than Harry but he hadn't seen it and it was probably better that way, it would make their friendship much more complicated. He would feel unsure around her and they wouldn't be so comfortable around each other any more, even if he might pretend to like her back, it would only be because he pitied her.

She had thought of telling him about her feelings recently but that wouldn't make anything better. She would have to go through this alone, nobody would be able to help her and she didn't want others to laugh because the sensible Hermione had fallen hopelessly in love.

She knew it wasn't going to be easy, after all, she saw him every day and she didn't want their friendship to suffer just because she had lost all sense of reality for a while. She wished she hadn't spent so much time thinking about him; it seemed to have become some kind of weird habit she couldn't give up. This sounded absolutely insane to her: She, Hermione Granger, was addicted to one of her best friends, Ron Weasley.

Hermione sighed. Why did everything have to be so complicated? It had been quite easy to like Victor Krum, that had been sensible and logical like everything else in her life. He had liked her, she had seen that he cared for more than Quidditch and understanding that he was quite similar to her in many ways, had begun to like him as well and agreed to go to the ball with him.

She had enjoyed the ball and the letters they had written each other had always been important for her but everything was different with Ron.

He was quite different from her in many ways and he had never been as serious as Victor. He often did things before thinking about them and could be really silly sometimes but though these were exactly the things that annoyed Hermione about other people, she loved them about Ron.

Realising she was about to start dreaming about all the things she loved about Ron, Hermione strictly told herself to stop thinking about him. It wouldn't do any good; it would just make her depressed and weaken her resolve to get over him somehow.

She knew she had to get him off her mind somehow and though she didn't know exactly how to do it, it was clear to her that it would be easiest to do if she thought of someone else instead.

Soon, she thought of Ernie Macmillan. Of course! That was the solution to her problem! She should have noticed much earlier!

She had noticed him at the beginning of the sixth year, though of course, she had known him earlier; they had always had Herbology together, she just hadn't cared much about him. Then, at the beginning of this year, she had noticed him smiling at her during the lessons and had smiled back. They had exchanged a few words and she had realised that he wasn't as stuck up as she had thought, not that she had ever wasted much thought on him.

Anyway, when they met in the corridors, they greeted each other, though Harry and Ron didn't even seem to notice. She had felt a bit attracted to him though not nearly as strong as to Ron. Now, thinking about how she had to change her feelings towards Ron, Hermione remembered the way Ernie had smiled at her during Ancient Runes today.

She still didn't like his friends very much; they spent too much time laughing about stupid jokes and seemed to be quite arrogant, thinking they were better than the other students and obviously not caring about the reputation Hufflepuffs had to be a bit stupid.

She decided to try to get to know Ernie a bit better anyway, who could know, they might start liking each other even more after they knew each other better. There was no other way and suddenly, it didn't seem quite as impossible for her to forget her feelings towards Ron.

Comforted, Hermione put away her homework that wasn't due for a few more days and got into bed. Everything would turn out to be fine.

No, don't bother to review; I've always hated those things anyway. Who wants to know what readers think about their stories?

Of course I'd like it if you tell me what you think! But I won't make the posting of the next chapter dependent on that, I'm planning on posting it quite soon (in two or three days). If you find any spelling or grammar mistakes, please tell me that as well, I'm not a native speaker and I think my English used to be better.