That evening in bed, she went through the day in her thoughts. It had been easier to push aside her feelings for Ron than she had thought. And Ernie definitely was nice, Hermione thought as the memory of his laugh brought a smile to her face. Maybe she would be able to get over Ron quickly and Ernie seemed to like her back…

Tomorrow was a Hogsmeade trip; maybe she could find a way to talk a bit more with him there.

It is Only Sensible

Chapter 3- A Hogsmeade Trip and A Girls' Party

When Hermione woke up the next morning, she felt miserable. She didn't feel like going to Hogsmeade, she didn't feel like she ever wanted to see Ernie again and she certainly didn't feel like she could face Ron. In fact, the only thing she wanted was everything to be like she had imagined it before she had realised Ron didn't love her but she knew that it couldn't be like that and if it couldn't, she only wanted to stay in bed and forget that the world even existed.

Filled with self-pity and disappointed of life and love Hermione lay in bed and thought about how terrible everything had turned out for her. Why did she have to fall in love with one of her best friends? Why was it so hard to let go? Why couldn't she just be like every normal girl, have other girls as her friends with which she could giggle and have fun and talk about the boys she liked? Why was she the boring bookworm nobody was interested in? Why, why, why did she have to be Hermione Granger?

After lying in bed like this for a few minutes, Hermione realised that these thoughts would get her nowhere. So what if she was boring Hermione Granger? If there was one good thing about her, it was that she didn't give up. It was totally useless to lie in bed, wallowing in self-pity. She would have to get up, go to Hogsmeade even if she didn't feel like it at all and carry on with her plans. Who cares if she didn't really love Ernie? She would just pretend to and eventually, she would.

Hermione got up and got ready for the Hogsmeade trip, no longer despairing but filled with grim determination. Smiling a smile she knew wasn't quite real, Hermione went downstairs to meet her friends at breakfast.

In Hogsmeade, Hermione, Ron and Harry went through the town laughing and joking, Hermione once again pretending that she was the same as always. After going to Honeydukes together, they split up, Ron and Harry going to a Quidditch supplies shop while Hermione decided to look into a new book shop that had just been opened.

She was surprised to see Ernie Macmillan there looking at Defence against the Dark Arts books behind some brand new shelves. After looking around a bit, Hermione decided to go over to him and say hello.

Once again, Ernie seemed to be pleasantly surprised to see her and they were quickly engaged into a lively discussion about their favourite books, noticing their interests weren't very far apart. The time passed much faster than they thought it would and Hermione was surprised when she looked at her watch and saw that she was almost too late to meet Ron and Harry at the Three Broomsticks as they had said they would. Hermione and Ernie quickly said goodbye and went back to their own friends.

Hermione was relieved to make it to the Three Broomsticks on time so that she didn't have to answer any questions. Ron and Harry arrived almost at the same time as she did, asked her two or three short questions about the new shop and then went on discussing snitches, quaffles, bludgers and broomsticks.

Hermione felt her attention quickly fading away and her thoughts turned back to her conversation with Ernie. She was glad that they had so much in common and felt happy at the thought that Ernie seemed to care about her. At least he didn't ignore her like Ron did. She only wished she could talk to somebody about the way she felt.

That evening, Hermione was walking through the corridors of the Gryffindor house to make sure everything was quiet. She had started doing this when she became a prefect, proud of her new responsibility and it had quickly become a habit. She enjoyed walking through the dark corridors late in the evening, hearing soft whispers from the different dormitories but able to be alone with all the things on her mind.

Hermione had almost finished her usual round when she was almost knocked over by somebody rushing through the black corridor.

"Oh sorry, I didn't mean to knock you over! You'd better not make too much noise or Hermione will hear you and make a fuss, I wish she would relax a little more…" The other person whispered and then stopped as Hermione quietly whispered "Lumos!" and the wand lit the corridor.

"You shouldn't run into other people in the dark and then tell them things about other people if you don't even know who you are talking to, Parvati. I prefer it when people tell me directly what they think about me than having them talk about me behind my back. What are you doing out on the corridor in the middle of the night anyway?"

"I… I'm sorry, Hermione!" Parvati gasped and tried to hide the bottles she was carrying behind her back. "I didn't know you were still awake, I thought you were in our dormitory. I was just going to the bathroom."

"Pretty bad excuse, the bathrooms are in the other direction," Hermione said, a grin creeping across her face. "And besides, what's in those bottles?"

Parvati gave up the attempt to hide the bottles.

"Butterbeer and firewhiskey. We were thinking about having a little party tonight but I guess it will be McGonagall's office instead," she said in a resigned voice.

"Not if you have enough butterbeer for me to join you," Hermione replied mischievously.

"You want to join the party? I thought you would tell Professor McGonagall immediately!" Parvati exclaimed, incredulous.

"Do you really think I didn't notice you sneaking around at night? I wouldn't tell McGonagall just because you want to have a little fun once in a while! Anyway, where is the party? Of course, only if you don't mind me coming," Hermione answered.

"In Ginny's and the other fifth year girls' room. Of course you can join us; I just never thought you were the one for parties and so on. You were always studying, so we never asked you whether you wanted to come as well," Parvati said.

The two of them hurried towards the dormitory of Ginny and the other fifth year girls, where Lavender, Ginny and a couple of other girls were already waiting. They looked surprised, some of them also a bit worried when they saw Hermione enter but they quickly relaxed when Parvati told them Hermione wanted to join their little party.

"Great! I knew you would get bored of your books, Harry and my boring brother some time! Welcome to real life!" Ginny exclaimed.

Hermione grinned and the bottles were opened quickly. Hermione was quickly giggling and chatting along with the others, forgetting about Ron and all of her worries.

She was surprised to see how Ginny was around her friends, she had only known her as Ron's little sister and quickly realised that Ginny had found her own life away from all her brothers and no longer in their shadow as Ron often seemed to be. Hermione soon felt perfectly happy in the group of girls. This was what she had been yearning for since she had realised that she couldn't talk to Ron and Harry about everything.

After a while, the conversation turned towards the topic of boys they liked and Hermione wasn't too surprised when Lavender asked her who she liked.

She told them how she felt attracted to Ernie, which none of the others had expected.

"Ernie? I always thought you liked Harry! Hey Parvati, isn't your sister Padma together with one of Ernie's room-mates? Maybe we could arrange something…" Lavender said, a small grin on her face.

"Oh no, please don't!" Hermione groaned. "That would be so embarrassing! I'd rather try to get to know him better on my own first, if that doesn't work out, maybe we could think about something else."

"Whatever you want but I'm sure we could arrange something. Just tell us if you want us to."

They discussed the different possibilities for a while before turning to other subjects. It wasn't until late in the night that Lavender, Parvati and Hermione returned to their own room.

t.b.c.

Thanks to isnani and BSManthaLUV for their reviews.

And as always, I am glad for any reviews you readers send me. Constructive critisism is welcome!