Alight of Freds new attitude, an obscure silence fell over the Gryffindoor common room. Even George didn't seem to enthused to take on any antics instead settling to gossip about an equally obscure topic with Angelina Johnson and Lee Jordan while his twin sat studying at the tables. It was only soon after dinner and Hermione and her friends had not yet arrived to the common room. Instead the three found themselves in a seperate and equally strange situation.
Around the corner of the hall leading to the potions room, the three stood quietly trying to decipher a conversation between Snape and Headmaster Karkaroff. The conversation, from what Hermione understood, seemed to be about the tournament. Snape was accusing Karkaroff of foul play, but the headmaster was denying it. She silently wondered if this was about Harry, knowing that her two friends would also draw the same assumption. The two then started to go quiet before disbaning as Snape left for his potions room.
"What do you think they were talking about?" Harry asked as they made their distance from the potions room.
"You, obviously," Ron replied. "I thought I heard him say something about the third task, but I couldn't really understand."
"I could barely hear anything, but I agree with Ron. The first task is in a weeks time, do you think you're ready?" Hermione replied, feeling a strange guilt about helping Fred.
"Nope. I'm honestly hoping I break an arm and get taken out of the games," Harry replied in defeat.
"You can't do that Harry! They'll make you go through anyways. Fred and I are studying tonight. Join us, please," Hermione begged, hoping that could change his attitude. Harry agreed unenthusiastically as they made their way to the common room and began to talk about anything else- sensing that Harry wasn't keen to continue the conversation.
The three entered and Hermione instantly spotted Fred sitting alone and reading to himself, as well as everyone else sitting around in a silent and content manner.
"You've broken him," Ron said, looking directly at his brother. "You broke Fred, 'Mione."
"More like fixed him," Harry joked in retort, walking towards the dorms to get changed. "I'll be back in a bit, Hermione." he yelled from the stairs.
Hermione walked and sat beside Fred to observe what he was reading, and noticing he had four different parchments with four different dragon species, as well as a book open. She figured these must have been the four selected dragons that each champion would have to fight and silently commended Fred for his focus. The two didn't speak at all, instead Hermione picking up another book from his pile and trying to find pages on the listed dragons.
"I don't need your help right now," Fred mumbled, which surprised Hermione.
"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked in defiance, trying to pretend like that didn't hurt. This attitude was strange and not at all how he usually was.
"I just think I've got it under control," Fred replied coldly.
"What's your problem, Fred?" Hermione asked with a true and painful confusion.
"I just think it's best for me to study on my own right now," Fred said. "Thank's for earlier though."
Confused, Hermione sat up and walked towards his twin who sat by the fireplace, nose dug into the Daily Prophet with Angelina and Lee. "What's wrong with Fred?" Hermione asked, taking a seat across from them.
"You mean aside from being madly in love with his incredibly young junior?" George said, but without a smile, handing Hermione the paper. Printed on was an article by the infamous Rita Skeeter; a story about Hermione Granger 'breaking up with' and betraying the boy who lived, Harry Potter, for 'a poor boy' and Tri-Wizard Champion Fred Weasely. The story continued, much to Hermione's horror, describing their affair and growing romance 'despite Hermione being younger than the boys younger brother Ron, whom Hermione appeared to have a flirtatious relationship with as well'. The story continued to describe the young girl as a serial flirt who had 'the tendency to jump from romance to romance'.
"What is this rubbish?!" Hermione shouted, turning every head in the common room. In a swift move, she casted Incendio on the paper, watching it burn into a larger than necessary flame before grabbing it at its non-lit end and throwing it into the fireplace. "I'm not even younger than Ron! I'm not any of that, actually! She can't just lie on the papers!" Hermione threw her hands in the air before storming up towards the girls dorms, deciding she needed a shower to cool off. Ginny sat in a chair up the stairs, reading a different copy of the news paper with wide eyes, to which Hermione snatched it out of her hands and walked to get her things.
"I know it's not true, Hermione. Are you okay?" Ginny asked, standing up and following her friend.
"Absolutely perfect," she replied bitterly. "But no use reading these things, Gin, they're full of rubbish."
Ginny noticed the tightness of Hermione's grip and stopped in her tracks, deciding that it'd be best for her friend to be alone with her thoughts. Ginny watched as Hermione rummaged through her things to get her pajamas before storming into the shower room. A small crowd of the other girls seemed to gather around curiously at the interaction, before receiving sharp looks from Ginny. "You heard her, it's rubbish."
Two hours had passed and Hermione was still nowhere to be seen in the main common room. Harry and Ron had already managed to catch up on the news, both disturbed and upset for their best friends sake, as well as themselves. They sat with Fred reading about dragons, not speaking a word to the boy who also looked understandably upset. After a short moment, Ron stood up and walked to his sister who sat with Neville, telling her something before returning to Harry.
"What was that?" Harry asked with little enthusiasm.
"Just asked Gin to see if Hermione would come down. I'm worried about her," Ron admitted, twiddling his fingers.
"I am too," he replied in an empty tone. "But she's strong."
"We can't just avoid her because its uncomfortable, as easy as it'd be," Ron said, reading his best friend clearly, to which Harry groaned with red cheeks. "You too, Fred. Saw the way you spoke to her before, I think we should all try and talk to her. Make her feel better, you know… It's Hermione, we've got to."
Harry smiled at his friend and nodded in agreement. He took a moment to realise what a good friend Ron could be- despite their transgressions, he actually understood Hermione a lot more than Harry did; and a lot more than he would admit to himself. x
"Yeah you're right," Fred said, finally looking up. "I just feel so bad. I just wanted her help, y'know. Can't stand that Skeeter. I mean who does she think she is. And of course mum and dad are going to read it-"
"Mum will tear down the Daily Prophet doors when she reads that article. And since when did you care about what they think of you?" Ron asked curiously.
"I don't. I'm just worried about Hermione," the boy blushed before turning back to his books. By then, Ginny had returned to the common room alone, approaching the three boys with defeat.
"She just want's to be alone right now, maybe try tomorrow. She's okay though," Ginny replied. "But I'll check on her again when I go to bed." and with that, the youngest Weasely returned to her friend and continued the conversation.
"I think I'll be heading off," Fred said, packing his personal books before standing. "Feel free to all the books, but they're from the library so don't lose them."
Hermione sat on her bed reading to herself, only making small conversation when one of the girls would ask if she was okay in light of the article. While Hermione wasn't close friends with many of the Gryffindoor girls, she did share a space with them and they all knew each other well enough. More importantly, they did care about each other a fair lot and would often share their things in order to help one another, so Hermione appreciated the concern.
Looking up for a moment, she noticed Ginny walking towards her before sitting at the end of Hermiones bed. "The boys are very worried about you," Ginny said. "Embarrassed too, but mainly worried. Can barely talk to one another, but Ron sent me up to see if you'd like to go down."
Hermione smiled at the sentiment. "Not tonight, Gin. It's not that I'm embarrassed- I am of course, but it's just the fact that just because I'm a girl I'm some kind of flirt. Like my friendship with Harry and Ron isn't even real, you know. They'd never make up things about either of them the way Skeeter did about me. And it's frustrating-" swiftly, she was cut off with a strong and tender hug by Ginny. The hug reminded Hermione a lot of Ginny's mother- the kind of hug that was warm and loving, and so Hermione hugged back.
"Rita Skeeter's an absolute nutter with nothing to do with her life. And if she thinks girls are only good for flirting, then it'll be even easier for us to show her what we're really made of," Ginny grinned, obnoxiously flexing her arms as a joke, making Hermione laugh in return. Ginny stood up and smiled at her friend, "I'll go down now and tell them you're okay."
"Thank you, Ginny," Hermione said, returning to her book with a newfound smile.