Viktor Krum
A/N: Not really happy about this one, I struggled with it over Easter, and it still didn't come out right even after multiple re-writes. But if I keep trying to rewrite it, it'll end up in the bin.
A/N 2: Set sometime after the Second Task in Goblet of Fire – I've been watching the DVD again…
She fusses over the two of them like an anxious mother: making sure they've done their homework, are on time for classes, and go to bed on time. She doesn't need to make sure they eat properly, it's usually the other way around. I've noticed that if she hasn't left the Library by five minutes to six, it will be a certainty that at five minutes past six, her friend Ron will be at her desk, packing her books into her satchel and lecturing her about working too hard.It's never Harry that comes to get her, only Ron.
It was a surprise to me when Hermione agreed to go to the Yule Ball with me. I had asked with only a faint hope that neither Harry nor Ron was already taking her. But she blushed and stammered and said that no one had asked her yet. And then she begged me not to say anything to anyone about it, as she knew they would tease her terribly, especially Ron.
We had a wonderful night, once we could ignore the black looks from Ron whenever either of us looked his way. I did wonder why Hermione didn't want to go and talk to him and Harry, but when I mentioned it she muttered about 'fraternizing' and 'enemies', and wouldn't talk about it any more.
After that night, I found itharder to spend any time with Hermione without Ron turning up with pleas for her to help him with his homework, or studying, or Harry's Egg. And more often than not, she would go happily with him, all the while lecturing him over whatever excuse he had used.
Even though she is the person I would miss the most – to her intense embarrassment – I know that for Hermione, Harry and Ron come before anything else, and there is nothing I can do to change it. I have to accept her decision, conscious or unconscious, that I will always be a distant third to them.