Edited as of 1/8/2022

Chapter 6 - Nemesis

XOXOXOX

XOXOXOX

'Take what you can get,' Tom had advised her. 'If flying is the only thing you're better at, beat her in flying.'

Ginny frowned as she looked down her nose at Hermione. The bookish girl had scampered off after Ron and Neville. Ginny had provided unasked-for-pointers, and had preened like a certain bookish know-it-all after Madam Hooch had given her points. Ginny had finally beaten her, and yet... She still didn't… It just didn't feel like she'd won. Hermione had been so jealous- and it just made Ginny feel squeamish, like when Mum and Dad had bought her a new wand in front of Ron. But Hermione had deserved everything Ginny had given her! Why was she feeling so… so...

She caught a pass from Harry, the quaffle pleasantly stinging her hands, and lobbed it over Malfoy's head. Harry was grinning, he was an even more natural flier than her older brother Charlie. Flying was something Ginny shared with Harry that Hermione couldn't ever have. Ginny knew Harry well enough to know that he didn't really care about schoolwork. Sure he admired Hermione's proficiency, but the broom was the way to Harry's heart. So why was she feeling like she'd shot the quaffle past her own keeper and scored on herself?

It must have been…

It wasn't about Harry anymore. 'You can't beat me in a single class.' Hermione had said. And like it or not, flying wasn't proper magic. It was just a thing for fun. Hermione was still the better witch in everything that mattered.

She'd have to use the diary afterall. It had taken her quite a while to even figure out how it worked, but now… She was sure Tom could teach her something very interesting, very useful, something too dark for Little Miss Perfect but just right for Ginny.

XOXOXOX

Hermione quieted as she neared the Hospital Wing. She heard two voices, one high and upset, almost hysterical, the other reasonable and calm.

"It's not fair! I've been trying so hard, and nothing ever goes right! I thought at least I could do well in flying," Neville said, sounding like he was on the verge of tears. "My Gran wrote me and told me I'm ruining the Longbottom name. Everyone thinks I'm a joke and I… I mean you were there in Professor Snape's class- I burnt a hole right through my cauldron!"

Hermione pursed her lips angrily. Yet another reason she despised Longbottom. Classes were for learning, not for stupid pranks or damaging school equipment.

"Yeah that was great!" Ron said brightly, "You've gotta tell me how you did-"

"I didn't do it on purpose," Neville said miserably. "Why does everything think that? Classes are for learning! I'm trying my best!"

Hermione didn't buy it for a second of course, no matter how pathetic Neville tried to sound. The odds of anyone being that incompetent were so remote as to be functionally impossible. Hermione wondered what Neville was playing at.

"Er, well, Snape's a git anyways, and you err… You're good at plenty- err- Herbology for one," the gullible Ron consoled lamely. Although Hermione did find it sweet that Ron was caring enough to be fooled by what was quite obviously a manipulative loser fishing for compliments.

"Herbologies not real magic," Neville whimpered pathetically. "It's just memorizing plants. I'm rubbish at bookwork, I'm rubbish at spells, I'm rubbish at flying. I'm basically a squib, I even lost my toad Trevor on the train! I don't even know why Hogwarts accepted me!"

Hermione rolled her eyes. Oh boo-hoo. If you were struggling with classes just study harder. There was nothing difficult about magic. Even a dunce could do it with a little effort- just look at Crabbe and Goyle. And Malfoy, and most of Slytherin for that matter- they were uneducated, uncultured, gullible barbarians and yet they got on alright. Watching this loser whinge and whinge was almost as annoying as that annoying beetle buzzing in the corner!

"I reckon you're right," said Ron finally. "You're rubbish in all our classes. Even I can do most of the spells eventually, but you've never even managed one. You're the worst student in all of Hogwarts, and whenever I feel down on myself, I just compare myself to you to feel better. I may not be as good as my brothers or Ginny, but at least I'm better than Neville Longbottom." Ron's voice grew quieter. "But you work hard. You don't blame others.

"When you saw Harry flying around, better than all of us even though he'd never touched a broom, how'd that make you feel, Neville?"

Hermione shifted uncomfortably. She'd… She didn't want Ron, or anyone to know how she'd felt. How spiteful, how small she'd been.

"Well I… I don't know, I guess I wanted to be better," Neville said hesitantly. "I wanted to be able to fly like that too. Are you… Are you trying to trick me? What does it matter how I felt?"

"Because I hated him," Ron snapped. "Harry's already famous, why's he gotta be good at flying too? I've been flying on broomsticks all my life, I've been dreaming of playing quidditch since I was a kid, and yet Harry bloody Potter gets to prance around the sky like he owns the place. It was bollocks. Quidditch was supposed to be my thing!"

"You didn't seem angry," said Neville.

"I've just had practice hiding it," said Ron dismissively. "But that's how I felt all the same. I don't know what's wrong with me, but that's always how I've been. When Bill made Head Boy I peed on his cloak, when Charlie made seeker I tried to convince Dad not to buy him a broom, and when Percy made Prefect I scribbled on all his books. I'm never gonna be able to live up to what they've done- the only thing special about me is that I'm friends with Harry Potter and I'm probably gonna have a row with him now that I know he's so good at flying. Maybe I'll be able to hold it in for a while, but eventually I'm gonna explode. Ruin things like I always do. I don't know why I'm like this. I don't want to be like this. It's not cuz I'm the youngest and they pick on me either, because Ginny doesn't get all pissy like I do, so I used to always think it was because I was a loser, that nobody else really got it cuz they were all better than me." And she could hear Ron's smile in his voice. "But then I met you. You're worse than me in everything, you broke your wrist flying, but when Harry soars you can just admire him. You don't want to drag him down. And you know Neville, when you were talking about how rubbish you were in all your classes you never once mentioned you were worse than anyone. I want to be like that someday. I want to be able to be like you. Because the truth is…

"I admire you Neville."

Ron's eyes were wet with tears- he'd never looked more beautiful- and Neville looked truly happy for the first time.

"Oh Ronald!" Hermione was surely the luckiest girl in the world, to have fallen for such a loving, empathetic, caring boy! She rushed to give him a hug.

"I…" Ron stared at her, his mouth hanging open stupidly. "Err… How much of that did you- Don't tell anyone about this Granger!"

Boys, Hermione thought, rolling her eyes. She smiled patiently. "Oh Ronald, that was the sweetest thing I've ever heard! Why shan't I let everyone know how amazing you are? It would be such a waste!"

Ron paled, looked around desperately, and sprinted out of the room like she'd just threatened to kill him- or worse, have him expelled.

Err… What? Why was her dearest Ronniekins so upset?

"That was really horrid of you," said Stupid Neville Longbottom angrily. "He was just trying to cheer me up. Y'know, that was the first time anyone's ever made me feel good about myself and you had to go and make fun of him. Not that I'd expect you to understand how we feel- I've always known you were terrible deep down, ever since we met on the train."

Hermione huffed indignantly.

"Are you still angry that I forgot about your toad? I told you- more important things came up!" She wasn't to be scolded by a dunce like Longbottom, she'd already had quite enough of that thank you very much. "Besides," Hermione said loftily. "I'll have you know that I quite like Ronald Weasley- I'd never make fun of him."

"So you're saying you weren't making fun of him?" Asked Stupid Neville Longbottom skeptically. "But nobody could possibly be that bad with people. It's so unlikely it's practically impossible."

"I told him I thought it was sweet," Hermione ground out, her fists clenched in offended little balls. "I offered him a compliment. A reward- to incentivize such splendid behavior. It's a human programming technique called positive reinforcement which was pioneered by B. F. Skinner. I fail to see how a genius like me could be bad with people- I'm top in the class in everything, you just don't understand the nuances of my actions because you're really very stupid."

"Oh wow, you actually believe that don't you?" Asked Stupid Neville Longbottom, giving her a pitying stare that made Hermione want to hex him. "That conversation was personal. It was between me and him. You shouldn't have eavesdropped."

Hermione's face spasmed as she realized that the dunce was quite correct. "Hmph," she managed, generously conceding the point. "Well you're still at the bottom of our year, and I'm still topping everything except broomsticking- which is quite silly anyways, so there!"

Stupid Neville Longbottom was silent for a moment. "You may be good with books and spells, but you're really quite dumb aren't you?"

"Yeah well, at least I didn't burn through my cauldron on the first day of Potions like some horrible squib," snapped Hermione.

"Yeah well, at least I'm not a muggleborn who convinced the Sorting Hat to put them in Slytherin," Stupid Neville Longbottom shot back. "Even I'm not that stupid."

Hermione trembled. But she couldn't think of any reply, so she stalked out of the room angrily, tossing some white bed sheets into the air to make her feelings clear.

That Neville Longbottom had everyone fooled into thinking he was some kind of dunce, but the truth was he was a genius- for only a genius of astonishing intellect could trounce Hermione in an argument so thoroughly. From now on Evil Neville Longbottom was her nemesis.

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A few days after Hermione's first flying lessons was Halloween. It was an opportunity for Hermione to dress up and hopefully make up with Ron. He'd been avoiding her ever since she'd overheard the little pep talk he'd given to Evil Neville Longbottom. But maybe, if she was pretty enough, he'd start talking to her again. After some research, she'd ordered Sleekeazy's Hair Potion, which claimed that even a few drops could tame even the unruliest hair. Hermione had spent half the morning massaging and brushing the potion into her hair, until her brown locks were smooth and lustrous. It had taken half the bottle but it was well worth it. Hermione had spent a few hours trying to transfigure the potion permanently into her hair, she'd even gone to a prefect and the new nurse, but nobody could manage it and they had to run off because some ruffian had killed all of Groundskeeper Hagrid's chickens (probably that Evil Neville Longbottom or one of those horrid Weasley twins). She'd have searched for a solution longer, but she eventually had to go to Charms.

Naturally she paired herself with Ginny Weasley.

"Your hair looks loads better," said Ginny casually, as Professor Flitwick demonstrated the proper wish-and-flick wand motion. "Are you trying to impress someone? Oh I'm sure you will, you look very pretty."

Hermione blushed.

Ginny sniffed the air a couple times and practiced her wand movement. "You know, Dad tells me that boys love cars, so you probably shouldn't worry about the smell. Harry will probably like it."

That was when Hermione realized that Sleekeazy's Hair Potion had the distinct scent of gasoline. Hermione burned with shame. Missing in Ginny's cutting statement was what Ron would think. "Does… Does your brother Ronald like cars as well?"

"Huh?" Ginny stopped practicing her wand movement. "Uh… I guess probably... I mean, he's always whinging to Dad to let him fly our old Ford Anglia. But I dunno- you know how Ron is, sometimes I think he just likes complaining. Why are you even asking after Ron anyways?"

Hermione snorted. She should've known better than to ask Ginny for a straight answer on anything to do with Ron, afterall the girl had an incestuous crush on- wait, had Ginny just said fly?

"Alright, great work class," said Professor Flitwick cheerily, "Now that we know the wand movement and pronunciation, your task is simple: levitate the feather on your desk."

"Wingardium Leviosa," said Hermione straight away. The feather flitted into the air.

"Oh, how wonderful, Miss Granger's done it," said Professor Flitwick, delightedly tottering over to see the little show she'd been preparing.

"Wingardium Leviosa," Hermione reiterated, ensnaring Malfoy's feather in her charm as well. Malfoy and Ginny had been getting big heads ever since the flying lessons, although admittedly they had done quite well- saving a student, even if it was Evil Neville Longbottom, was really very grand- Marcus Flint had even placed them on the Slytherin Reserve Squad. Personally, Hermione didn't see what was so great about it, if they actually had noteworthy talent they'd have been made a starter as Harry Potter had. And yet, the Slytherins' silly exclusion of Ginny Weasley had evaporated in an instant. After Ginny's grace on a broomstick became apparent everyone suddenly wanted to be her friend. It was really quite sickening. On the other hand, Hermione was glad that Ginny was no longer alone, as Headmaster Dumbledore still hadn't apprehended Scabbers.

Ahh, such a conundrum.

Hermione shot a smug smirk at Ginny and Malfoy as she made their feathers do a couple cartwheels in the air. They could have their little sideshow. She was still the best witch in all the ways that mattered. With a flick of her wand she had the feathers dance a wonderful jig as Ginny and Malfoy glared daggers at her.

Conundrum solved.

"Oh wow, oh wow," Professor Flitwick gushed. "Truly extraordinary Miss Granger! I haven't seen magic like this from a first year since James Potter and Sirius Black! Two- no five points to Slytherin! You really are the brightest little witch I've ever seen."

"Thank you Professor Flitwick, but I've really just studied ever so hard- I'm sure if the others applied themselves properly they'd get the same results," Humble Hermione batted her eyelashes innocently. "Although I suppose I might be a little clever." She let the feathers brush back down in front of Ginny and Malfoy as the rightful order of the universe restored itself.

Malfoy looked like he'd like nothing more than to give her neck a good wringing. Hermione shot him a toothy grin- although she'd gotten her teeth fixed, so her smile was quite perfect now wasn't it? Malfoy glowered.

Ginny just shook.

"Remember Ginny 'whish and flick'," said Hermione in her most helpful voice. "Don't forget to make that 'gar' nice and long. It's a simple charm really, I'm sure you'll be able to get it in no time."

Ginny whished and flicked. "Wingardium Leviosa!" The feather exploded in her face, covering Ginny's cloak in ash.

"There, there." Hermione patted Ginny's back supportively. "Chin up. I'm sure with a little practice you'll have it down." Hermione took a few sniffs, and smiled pleasantly. "You know, Dad tells me boys love fireworks, so you shouldn't worry about the smell. Ron will probably like it."

Needless to say, Ginny's replacement feather stayed quite firmly on her desk, even as the majority of the other Slytherins mastered the charm. It was the first time Ginny had ever struggled so much with a spell. After the bell had rung, the little brat scurried off to who knows where.

"How'd you make the feathers dance like that Hermione?" Pansy asked.

As Hermione explained, she decided she'd check on Ginny later. It was Halloween afterall, she deserved to have a little fun.

XOXOXOXOX

"It's no good," said Ginny bitterly. "It's not fair, we never cover the stuff from the diary in class- just the useless spells from the textbook. Hermione's just getting farther ahead, I don't understand how she can learn so fast. Harry must think that Little Miss Perfect is so much better than me. Everyone does! How could I ever hope to compare to the great Hermione Granger? Flitwick even said she was the most brilliant student he'd had since James Potter- how can a professor say things like that, it's completely unprofessional?!"

Professor Quirrell rapped his long fingers against his desk. His all white classroom forced Ginny to meet his cold gaze. "Why are you here?"

"Well," said Ginny nervously. "I was wondering if… Perhaps, you could create an opportunity for me to show what I've been learning. I mean… Marcus Flint tells me you have some talent with... you know..."

Professor Quirrell smiled thinly, and tilted his head. "An inspired solution Ginny, perhaps there is hope for you yet. I'll see what I can do."

Author's Note: Thanks for reading! Okay, raise your hands if you forgot that Hermione totally left Neville out to dry with his toad. I know I did! I liked the idea of Neville being the one person completely able and willing to call out Hermione for her mistakes. And now onto the reviews!

Iwik - Ginny's probably going to end up making the quidditch team. The idea of a Harry vs Ginny seeker match is just too interesting for me to ignore, especially because they're the two best seekers at Hogwarts. Thanks for the review!

Gja03 - It's coming… Kind of... Thanks for the review!

Cheese12345 - Thanks for the encouragement!