1Title: Something Different
Summary: She can't help but wonder if things would have turned out differently.
Word Count: 438
Rating: G
Notes: A really, really belated drabble/fic thing I wrote for my friend Frances for her birthday. This is basically nothing but rambling, and doesn't make sense (to me anyway). My mind just started to think about "what if this had happened" or "what if that had happened" in regards to the trio's past. And this is the result. It takes place post HBP, but there are no spoilers."And before I forget to say this - "she" is Hermione, "he" is Harry. Enough of my babbling.
Dedication: To Frances, and all my readers/reviewers. You rock my socks. And also to Jennifer, the best beta EVER. Who also rocks more than she'll ever know. I can't thank you enough for looking this over, especially since dumb little me asked at the last minute. And I hope you like this, Frances.
- - -
She can't help but wonder if things would have turned out differently.
And if they had, whether for the better or for the worse.
Watching him now, she wonders even more. If he had been raised somewhere else other than at the Dursleys' that he would've been a different person.
Maybe instead of the courageous yet normal wizard who is the sole determinate of whether the wizarding world will descend into chaos or be a safe happy place for all, he might have been an arrogant bloke, thinking that he's superior above everyone. Maybe instead of being able to love, he might have been able to hate.
Maybe he would even have his parents and grow up in a loving, warm household and still turn out to be the amazing person he is now...instead of being raised with the Dursleys', where in spite of growing up in a family that hated him for who he was and treated him badly, he could love and be loved back.
It's astounding, she can't help thinking. Even though he had been abused and treated like he was nothing, a nobody, he had grown up to be a wonderful person; someone who could love and be loved back.
Maybe those who are raised around people who can't stand them...or who are abused...can somehow love, she muses.
And if that's true…she would definitely be different too. If she hadn't been raised in a loving family who taught her to love reading books and learning in school or wasn't a bossy know-it-all...who would she be? One of those sugary sweet girls who loved to gossip that she despised so much? Maybe someone who brought drama with her wherever she went? Would she instead be confident or even normal...or even someone who couldn't love, but only hate?
She doesn't know the answers to all these questions, but she does know this. If the both of them had turned out differently, not only would their personalities change, but so would their very lives. He wouldn't be her purpose in life; he wouldn't need her so badly, so much that it hurts. They wouldn't even be best friends...only strangers to each other. Maybe he wouldn't even be alive. She shudders at the thought.
Thinking about the present is enough…so she decides not to ponder on the what ifs any longer. If she goes on like this, she knows she won't stop.
- - -
As she watches him duel with their orange-headed friend, she realizes that even if they had different personalities and lives, she will always follow him wherever he leads her.