Hermione sat next to Parvati as the girls passed around a plate of brownies that they had gotten from the kitchens.
"Oh I shouldn't be eating these, not with what's happening next weekend. This is my last one," Hermione said as she took a bite.
"What's happening next weekend?" asked Katie as she kicked her shoes off and pulled her feet up on to the chair she was sitting on.
"I'm going to Glasgow with my cousin for a cheerleading competition. She sent me a letter this morning at breakfast asking if I could come and compete with them because one of the girls was asked to leave the squad for being rude to Emily. She's a friend of my cousin's and of mine; the three of us were really close when we were kids," Hermione explained.
"What's cheerleading? Is that like Quidditch?" Cho asked. Hermione shook her head.
"Cheerleading is a combination of gymnastics and dance. Emily and Annabel, that's my cousin, and I all did gymnastics and dance when we were little so I'm not really surprised that they became cheerleaders when they reached high school."
"Would you have become a cheerleader too? If you hadn't come to Hogwarts I mean?" Lavender asked. Hermione looked thoughtful for a moment, and then nodded.
"I think I would have. I've never been into sports like football and volleyball and basketball but I always enjoyed my dance classes and gymnastic lessons," Hermione admitted. To be honest until now she hadn't really thought about what her life would have been like had she not been invited to come to Hogwarts, but when she thought about it she probably would have joined the cheerleading squad.
"You'd probably still be super studious and like to read though," Parvati remarked. Hermione chuckled as she nodded.
"Oh yeah, the bookworm part of me will never change, no matter what I do. I don't think you have to choose to be just one thing. You can be smart and athletic and pretty, you don't have to choose one or the other. That's one thing I didn't like growing up. There were some girls in my class that were early bloomers; I had known them since kindergarten, they were starting to wear make-up and stuff when we were 10 years old and it was like they changed overnight. They would stop answering questions in class; it was like they were ashamed of being smart."
"You certainly haven't chosen one thing, you're pretty and smart, although unfortunately I think Harry and Ron take advantage of that," Lavender remarked. Hermione looked at her in surprise.
"Come on, Hermione, I've seen you looking over their work in the common room and I've seen it whenever I'm asked to hand the homework back. You think I wouldn't recognize your brains? No offense to Harry and Ron but they couldn't come up with half the stuff that you do," Lavender said as she bit into a brownie. Hermione opened her mouth, and then closed it again.
"I didn't realize it was that obvious," she said finally. If she was being truthful, Hermione had often felt that Ron and Harry were only friends with her because she was book smart.
"It is. It's nice that you help them, but they can't rely on you forever. Maybe it's time you tell them that they start pulling their own weight," Parvati suggested gently. The other girls nodded in agreement.
"I think you're right, I was just afraid that if I told them I wouldn't help them anymore they would stop being my friends. I guess if they do that they were never true friends were they?" Hermione asked.
"No, they're not. If they only appreciate you for your brains and not who you are as a person then they aren't worth your friendship or your time," Padma said wisely. Hermione nodded and glanced at her watch.
"It's almost five. Should we go down to dinner?" she asked. How had the afternoon passed so quickly? The other girls nodded, albeit reluctantly.
"I wish we didn't have to, this is fun," Katie said as they rose and stretched. After putting their shoes back on, the six of them left the Room of Requirement and headed down to the Great Hall. Since it was a weekend the seating was much more informal, so Hermione and Parvati and Lavender and Katie accompanied Cho and Padma to the Ravenclaw table. Luna Lovegood was sitting alone as they approached and Cho tapped her on the shoulder.
"Is it okay if we sit here, Luna?" she asked, her soft Scottish accent lilting. Luna looked up in surprise, her wide eyes taking in the Gryffindors and the two popular Ravenclaws. She nodded, hesitantly, as if expecting someone to yell "April Fool's" and walk away laughing.
"Thanks," said Cho as she took a seat on Luna's left side and Padma sat down across from them. The four Gryffindors followed suit, Hermione and Katie sitting on Luna's other side and Parvati and Lavender settling down beside Padma. For a few minutes the girls were silent, the only sounds were the knives and forks on the plates and the clinking of cups. Finally, Katie broke the silence.
"So did you go into Hogsmeade today, Luna?" she asked before taking a sip of her pumpkin juice. Luna shook her head.
"No, I didn't have anyone to go with, so I just stayed at the castle and read in the common room. People think I'm strange you know," she said in her dreamy voice.
"The next Hogsmeade weekend you should come with us, we had lunch at the Three Broomsticks' and Hermione told us all about the muggle world, and a cheerleading competition that she's competing in next weekend with her cousin. Hermione what else are you going to do while you're hanging out with your cousin?" asked Lavender.
"I'm not sure, I don't know how much down time we'll have before and after the competition. We'll probably have Easter dinner with our family and maybe do a little shopping too," Hermione replied as the dinner dishes disappeared and were replaced with desserts. As the girls helped themselves to various desserts, they failed to see Ginny approaching them, with Harry and Ron behind her.
"Hermione!" Ginny's shout echoed through the Great Hall, effectively quieting the various conversations.
"Uh oh," Cho said. The other girls looked nervously from Hermione to Ginny. They could all tell a fight was about to go down, and it wasn't going to be pretty. Unfortunately Ginny's shout had attracted the attention of every occupant in the hall. All eyes were on the Ravenclaw table as the three Gryffindors came to a stop.
"What do you think you're doing?" Ginny demanded. Parvati opened her mouth to say something, but Hermione shook her head.
"Having dessert," she replied calmly. To illustrate her point she took a bite of the chocolate mousse in front of her and swallowed. "Mm, delicious," she said, running her tongue over her lips.
"I can see that, what I mean is what are you doing sitting with them? And why didn't you wait for us at the pub?" Ginny wasted no time, getting straight to the point.
"Are you serious?! Hermione waited for you lot for a whole hour and you're asking that? What the hell is wrong with you?" Cho spoke up. She was glaring at Ginny and her ex-boyfriend and his best friend. Harry shrank back a bit under Cho's glare while Ginny matched Cho's look with one of her own.
"Stay out of this Cho, we are Hermione's best friends and she's supposed to be sitting with us like she always has. Come on Hermione, let's go," Ginny said, fully expecting Hermione to get up and follow them back to Gryffindor table. The whole hall was watching for Hermione's reaction, you could have heard a pin drop. Hermione stood up, Ginny smiled thinking she had won but her smile slid off her face when Hermione stayed where she was.
"First of all, don't order me around. Second of all, how can you call yourself my best friend after the stunt you pulled today? Friends don't do that to each other, and they certainly don't come storming over like you did to demand what they're doing when they're sitting with people that so generously allowed me to sit with them and have lunch while the three of you were off doing God knows what. The next time we make a plan, either show up on time or send a message saying you're going to be late," Hermione said angrily.
"I can't even look at you right now, you get asked to do something in the muggle world, a world that you're not even part of anymore, and all of a sudden you're acting like a completely different person," Ginny sniped. Hermione gave a sarcastic laugh.
"Oh yes, Ginny, I've been asked to stand in as a cheerleader and I suddenly think I'm better than everyone. That's not true and you know it. The truth is that you're an insecure, jealous bitch who throws a tantrum when things don't go her way. You're jealous because I've been asked to be a part of something and you haven't. And as for hanging out with these girls this afternoon, I had a lot of fun and I enjoy their company." While Hermione had been speaking the collective mouths watching the confrontation had dropped. No one had ever seen Hermione act like that and were all wondering just how much more they didn't know about her.
"What makes you think you can talk to me like that? Harry, Ron, back me up!" Ginny whined. Hermione folded her arms across her chest and raised her eyebrows at the two boys. She was vaguely aware that the other girls, Luna included, had gotten to their feet and were standing around her. Harry and Ron looked around uncomfortably, the entire Hall, teachers included, were watching them. Ron's face was a dull brick red as he spoke.
"Well, Ginny's kind of got a point, Hermione. You are acting different, and it's not fair to us. You haven't been a part of the muggle world for years now, yet you're running off to take part in a lead cheering competition, with a cousin that until this morning we had no idea existed. How do we know that you didn't pay someone to write you that letter?" Ron asked. That was too much for Hermione.
"First of all, I didn't pay someone to write me that letter; Annabel genuinely wants me to come home for the competition. And if this is the way you feel, maybe I'm better off without the three of you. And it's called cheerleading, Ronald, not lead cheering. Now if you'll excuse me, I'd like to go back to my dessert," Hermione finished. She looked around at their audience. "Go back to your knitting, everyone, there's nothing to see here," she said. As if to illustrate her point she turned her back on the three Gryffindors, she sat back down at the Ravenclaw table, and after giving Harry, Ron, and Ginny a nasty look, the other girls sat down again. Harry shook his head and walked out of the Great Hall, Ginny and Ron chased after him.
"Harry, where are you going? Why didn't you say anything to Hermione?" Ginny demanded. Harry turned and looked at his girlfriend and best friend in disgust.
"Are you seriously asking me that? What happened to apologizing to Hermione? You two just jumped down her throat, and Ginny, she was right about you! You are jealous and insecure. If another girl even tries to talk to me you scare her away," Harry exploded as the rest of the school came out of the Hall. WHAM. Before Harry knew what was happening, Ron was on top of him, and the two boys rolled around on the ground, hitting every part of each other they could reach.
"DON'T YOU DARE SPEAK TO MY SISTER THAT WAY!" Ron roared as the students stopped to watch the fight. Neville, Seamus and Dean hurried forward, with Justin Finch-Fletchley and Terry Boot right behind them.
"That's enough, the both of you!" Neville said as he and Seamus pulled Ron off of Harry. Dean and Justin had a hold of Harry while Terry helped restrain Ron.
"Quite right that's enough! Fifty points each from Gryffindor and a week's detention for both of you!" Professor McGonagall barked as she made her way into the Entrance Hall with Professor Dumbledore and Professor Snape right behind her.
"I want to see the two of you in my office, now!" Dumbledore ordered.
Hermione was standing with Cho and the other girls, shaking. The emotions of the day had caught up with her, and she was on her way to having a complete breakdown. Cho put an arm around her and motioned to the other girls.
"Let's go back to the room of requirement, where it's quiet, yeah?" she said. Hermione and the other girls nodded and made their way up the stairs with Luna, Katie, Parvati, Padma and Lavender forming a protective circle around Hermione. Halfway up the stairs, Padma paused.
"You guys go ahead, I'll meet you there," she said, before turning and hurrying back down the stairs. The other girls continued on to the Room of Requirement, which let them in on their first walk past. Cho guided Hermione over to the couch and gently pushed her down.
"I can't believe the nerve of those two! And Harry, he didn't even say anything!" Lavender said as she settled down on the floor at Hermione's feet. Gently she removed Hermione's shoes and started to rub her feet.
"Sadly I've come to expect that from Harry, he doesn't say anything while Ron and Ginny say it all. I wouldn't do that if I were you, I'm sure my feet stink," Hermione said as she settled back into the couch and let the tears fall.
"Someone needs to give that boy a smack around the head. And don't worry about smelly feet, I've dealt with it before. Sweaty armpits too," Lavender said as she tickled Hermione's feet, causing the other girl to let out a watery giggle. Just then Padma walked into the room and sat down beside Luna on the opposite couch.
"Where did you go?" Parvati asked her sister. As if in answer, there was a loud popping noise and three house elves appeared, carrying a tray of hot chocolates and cookies and hot fudge sundaes.
"Getting comfort food," Padma answered. The elves set the trays down on the coffee table.
"Will you be wanting anything else, misses?" one of them squeaked.
"No thank you, thank you very much for bringing that for us," Padma said. The three elves bowed and disapparated. Padma turned to Hermione.
"You don't have to hold it in you know, let it out," she said gently. Hermione smiled weakly before her tears turned into full-on sobs that wracked her body.
Author's Note: First of all, a thousand apologies for not posting this sooner! I had a lot of stuff going on in the last couple of weeks, with being away for my grandma's birthday and then coming back home and whatnot. I wanted to have this done yesterday but I didn't have time to finish it before I left for work. Anyways, enough of that, what did you guys think of the chapter? Of the confrontations? Fights and confrontations are not something I do well, in writing or in real life, so I hope I got it right. I'm so pleased that people are enjoying this story. I always get a thrill out of reading your reviews till next time, xoxox