Hermione did not attend Transfiguration, to the confusion of Professor McGonnagal and several other students and when the teacher asked Harry and Ron for information they just shook their heads in morose silence.
Alexis however, did not seem to miss Hermione very much, and continued chattering gaily. Finally, Harry blurted out that neither of them were in anything that you could call a good mood, and that Ron didn't have enough of a brain; so he wouldn't be able to say anything intelligent even if he was in the mood to talk. Ron then picked up his project and walked quietly to another table, where he worked alone for the rest of the period, leaving Alexis confused and Harry fuming in his seat.
When Alexis tried to coax more out of Harry, all she got was a glare and a cold shoulder. With a huff she joined Lavender and Parvati across the room.
……………………………
At dinner time, Alexis made it clear that she didn't really want to eat with Harry and Ron, and let the two boys go off to the Great Hall on their own, though it was obvious that they didn't really want to talk to each other either. The girl made her way up to the Gryffindor common room, where she knew that she had plenty of candy stashed away.
……………………………………
Upstairs, Hermione lay on her bed with the covers up to her neck, clutching a roll of toilet paper in her right hand. Her eyes were wet; but she had stopped crying about a half hour before. On the nightstand was about half the roll of paper, crumpled and damp.
The girl shifted in bed to hug her pillow but froze as Alexis burst through the door of the dormitory. Hermione stared at the wall with glassy eyes as Alexis rummaged through her trunk. Alexis quickly found what she was looking for; a bag of peanut butter cups, and headed for the door. At the last minute, she turned around.
"Hermione?" She stuck a Reese's in her mouth. "You awake?"
"Mmhmm.." Hermione squeezed her eyes shut and tried not to remember how Ron had compared her to Alexis during their argument.
"Why weren't you in Transfiguration?" Alexis leaned against her dresser. "McGonnagal missed you. Apparently you don't skip often?"
Hermione sniffed and placed her roll of toilet paper on the nightstand, burying her face in the soft feather down of her pillow.
"Are you going to look at me Hermione?" Alexis fixed her hair in the mirror- not that it needed to be fixed. "I know that we haven't gotten off to such a good start- but you know-" Alexis walked over and slouched against one of the four posts that supported Hermione's bed drapes. "I don't mean to pry…"
At this Hermione grabbed her toilet paper back from the nightstand and tore off a large piece, wiping her eyes. "I don't want to talk to you about it. Go away." She sniffed.
"You don't have to be rude." Alexis unwrapped another peanut butter cup. "I didn't do anything."
"I said," Hermione hiccupped into her toilet paper, "go away."
"Fine!" Alexis huffed and walked towards the door. "I just wanted to help. You could tell me what's wrong and-"
"Ron is obsessed with-" Hermione interrupted Alexis loudly. But the rest of her words were indistinguishable from her sobs. Hermione buried her head in her pillow as her whole body shook.
Alexis turned around, surprised. "Wait- what?" She moved over and stood by Hermione's bed.
"Ron is obsessed with YOU!" Hermione screamed into her pillow. She sobbed harder and harder, finally pushing herself up on her elbows so that she could breathe. She grabbed another string of toilet paper and cried into it. "He's liked me forever! It was so obvious! And this year I finally wanted to do something about it, and you ruined everything!"
"Hermione- I didn't know-" Alexis sat down on the bed. "Oh crap."
"He's turned into such a retard!" Hermione cried through her hiccups. "He keeps comparing me to you, and it's obvious that you two have so much more in common and-" Alexis leaned down and put her arms around Hermione. She had begun to cry too.
"Oh God, I'm sorry." She buried her face in Hermione's hair. "I had no idea..."
"I thought everything would be perfect." Hermione sobbed into Alexis' shoulder. "He loved me- but then I wrecked things when I went off with Viktor- and- and- now he doesn't care anymore."
They sat together and cried for several minutes, each of them not knowing what to say. After quite a bit of thinking, Alexis spoke.
"I- I really thought that you liked Harry- I really did." She stroked Hermione's hair. "You got really- I don't know- you didn't like how I talked about him last night. Or maybe it was just what I said about Ron." She sniffed.
"I- I've- Harry and I are just friends..." Hermione used her already damp tissue to try and wipe her eyes once more. "He'd never consider me." She blew her nose and pulled away from Alexis, laying her head back down on the pillow. Alexis followed suite and lay down facing Hermione's back.
"Look-" Alexis began after a few silent moments. "I'll- I'll just forget about Ron. It'll be- it'll be really easy for me to just choose some other person. I'll- I can change guys- really." Alexis sniffed. "You were here first. You get first dibs."
"No, you can't-" Hermione felt her eyes water once more.
"Hermione, you deserve Ron." Alexis cut her off. "I'll- If I make it clear that I don't like him- then he'll be all yours."
"But I don't want him!" Hermione rolled over, sniffing. Her voice was honest. "I don't ever want to be in a relationship with someone who called me- he called me boring Alexis! And- and- he said-" Hermione burst into tears once more. "I don't want to like him anymore."
Alexis stared at Hermione's curled up form, surprised. "I- I-" She put an arm around Hermione's shoulders. "If he said that-" she inhaled. "If he said that, then I don't want him either."
At these words Hermione looked up, her face tear-streaked. "You- you don't have to-"
"Yes I do. If he said something like that to my friend and hasn't tried to apologize, then- then I have to." Alexis sniffed and smiled weakly. "We'll form a pact. An 'I-Will-Move-On-From-Ronald club.'" Hermione giggled at this.
"So, we just, we decide that neither of us would get involved with him without the other's consent- or something like that?"
"Yeah- let's do an oath- here- how about- 'I will not get involved with or try to move in that direction with Ron Weasley while this club is still ongoing.'"
"Okay, that sounds good." So, with Hermione's consent, both girls recited the oath and then shook hands at the end, grinning.
"Thank you." Hermione whispered after a while.
"Want a Reese's?"
"Alright."
And with those words a new friendship was born.
……………………………
Fifteen or so minutes later, Harry and Ron came up to the Gryffindor Common room from dinner. Ron was looking anxious, but Harry carried himself with a satisfied expression. He smirked slightly as Ron nervously ran his hand through his hair.
"What am I supposed to say, Harry?" Ron began pacing as Harry plopped down in an armchair. "Come on, Harry! Please, help me a bit. You're the one who's so good at this kind of stuff."
"We aren't technically back on speaking terms yet." Harry pulled out a bit of parchment and his writing supplies.
Ron stared at Harry for another several moments, but when the other boy refused to make eye contact, he returned to his pacing.
At that moment, Hermione and Alexis appeared at the bottom of the girls' dormitory staircase. They had both changed out of their school uniforms, and they glanced somewhat nervously at each other when they saw Ron's anxious state.
"Hermione-" he walked over to her and hugged her rather timidly. "I, uh, I'm sorry..."
"What he means-" Harry got to his feet and stretched. "Is that he's been a pea-brained dodo bird, and he never meant anything that he said." Harry walked over and smiled at Hermione. "And believe me, he really means it; he may not be smart enough to put it in words, but-"
"Hey!" Ron punched his friend in the shoulder. "But I see we're on speaking terms again, eh?" Harry grinned at Ron as well.
"And I guess I should apologize too- for letting you get verbally pummeled." Harry hugged Hermione.
"You're forgiven," Hermione smiled weakly at her friends.
"But if you ever do it again, you're screwed." Alexis added her word. "You'll be messing with me!" She faked a punch at Ron's face and then set out to the couch. "What are you working on Harry?"
"I see that you two are getting to be better friends." Harry smiled as he and the rest joined Alexis in front of the fire.
"Like we haven't been!" Hermione gasped and grinned, taking the seat beside Alexis on the couch.
Alexis grinned as well, grabbing Harry's sheet of parchment that he'd been writing on before they came down.
"Quidditch tryouts! Oh yeah: you're the captain. When are they?" Alexis studied the paper.
"That's what I'm having trouble with." Harry yanked the parchment back from Alexis. "If you're going to try out I can't let you see that. It's a plan of what I'm going to have you guys do."
"Why are you having trouble?" Hermione curled up her feet under her and picked up a magazine from the coffee table, flipping through it.
"Ravenclaw is having there's on Tuesday night, and Slytherin has tomorrow and Friday. That's the problem with being late at doing this; there aren't any slots open. We need a good chunk of time." Harry sighed and stared at the paper.
"What about this weekend?" Alexis said, leaning over to try and read the parchment for a second time.
"Hey!" Harry pulled his work away and bit his thumbnail. "But I guess that we could do it on Saturday."
"But we've got so much homework for the weekend already!" Ron groaned. "And it's only Tuesday!"
"Hey, we have all Sunday." Alexis said, grumpy that Harry wouldn't let her see the paper.
"Alright, I guess that it's Saturday then!" Harry folded up his parchment. "Oh, and Hermione- Hedwig delivered this to me when Ron and I were coming upstairs from dinner." He pulled an envelope out of his pocket and handed it to his friend. "It's from Hagrid."
Hermione ripped the envelope open and pulled out a folded sheet of parchment. She read it aloud:
"Hermione,
You were right about Grawp. Professor Dumbledore's sent me an owl saying he had to put me on probation."
At this point the handwriting became shakier and less legible, but the letter still continued.
"He's a great man, Dumbledore, but the Ministry still has control over who gets put on probation. Fudge found out about my lesson from one of the students, they didn't say which. I shoulda told you and Harry and Ron about what my lessons would be. I will in the future, so that I won't do anything else stupid. Grawp can be dangerous, and you were right, someone coulda been hurt. If you want to come down to me hut later tomorrow afternoon it would be a real help.
Hagrid"
Alexis read the few words over Hermione's shoulder and interrupted the awkward silence that followed. "So," she said, flipping her highlighted hair. "Who's this Grawp? Some relative of Sirius Black?"
Both Ron and Hermione shot nervous glances at Harry, Hermione plastering a huge fake grin on her face, trying to act like Alexis's reference was just a random joke. This uncomfortable moment was soon overcome and they spent the next hour retelling the visits with Grawp the previous year while decorating a gigantic poster displaying the Quidditch tryout times.