Chapter 8 – Judging a Book by it's Cover
Hermione's head was aching as stepped out of Percy's office where Mrs. Woodstock had send her to get a few files the older witch needed for her own work. Hermione was angry, because Mrs. Woodstock had not sent Pansy instead, who did not seem even half as busy as Hermione. This was not the primary reason for her headache though. No, there were other, more important problems. Not only did she still have absolutely no clue what the mysterious 'sign' was supposed to be, she also had been totally distracted from work, because the question whether Ginny had a crush on her or not kept clinging to her brain like a Wrackspurt infection.
A middle-aged wizard from the Goblin Liaison Office walked past Hermione. She stared at him intensively, but nothing happened. No sudden revelation. No electric shocks running through her body. Nothing. He obviously wasn't the one.
After talking to Ron and Harry a while ago, Hermione had reconsidered what they had said: The person she was searching for could be right next to her. Therefore, she had adopted the strategy of staring at literally everyone she saw until she could be sure that nothing special had happened. Although she had no idea whether this strategy was not purely a waste of her precious time, it had been the only thing she could come up with since her decision to believe in the prediction.
Of course, her strange behavior had not went unnoticed by her co-workers. More than once she had been asked whether she was okay when people noticed her staring. Some people had even changed sides when they saw Hermione approaching along the corridor. Naturally, Hermione had started to feel embarrassed about her behavior, so she had proceeded to hiding behind plants and statues while trying to get a good look on everyone. Two days ago, she had squatted behind a goblin statue near the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, when a middle-aged chubby witch passed by. As usual, Hermione had narrowed her eyes and stared at the witch without blinking. Suddenly, a tingling sensation was spreading in her body. Was this the sign!?, she had thought in surprise and jumped on her feet. As it turned out, her legs had just fallen asleep.
Hermione shuddered at the memory as she stopped her steps in front of the elevator, waiting for it to arrive. Two wizards arrived as well and waited behind her. Hermione shot them a quick glance. She sighed in relief when she noticed that she had already checked them. Staring at people all the time while making sure not to miss anything was more exhausting than she had expected.
The elevator arrived and they entered. Hermione closed her eyes as it moved downwards, trying to shut out all thoughts, but it was impossible.
And then there was the thing with Ginny and whether she liked Hermione or not. In a romantical way. To be honest, Hermione had no idea what to think. On one hand, Ginny's description of her ideal type had indeed resembled Hermione a lot, but on the other hand Hermione could not come up with any concrete evidence that would prove her assumption wrong or right. She tried to recollect behavior or words from Ginny which would could possible indicate that she was interested in Hermione, but the more she thought the more confused she got. She really had no idea about love and dating.
And how to react if Ginny really liked her? Hermione had no idea what she would do in such a situation. Strangely, however, she felt a little excited at the thought. But at the same time, Hermione felt ashamed of herself, because if felt like she was accusing Ginny of something that might not even be true. Ginny was probably not interested in her at all. Wasn't Hermione just thinking too highly of herself? As if a woman like Ginny would ever like her anyways.
Hermione stepped out of the elevator and walked towards the office. Luckily, there was not much work left to do so close to Christmas, so she would be able to leave soon.
Hermione knocked on Mrs. Woodstock's door and entered her office. Her eyes fell on Pansy, who was apparently discussing something with Mrs. Woodstock, but both witches fell silent as soon as they saw Hermione. Hermione forced a smile on her face and handed Mrs. Woodstock the files she had requested. "Thank you", Mrs. Woodstock said and nodded approvingly. "My pleasure", Hermione lied and went out. She wondered what the two had been discussing about.
Around two hours later, Hermione got ready to leave the office. She was about to put on her winter cloak when she suddenly saw Pansy getting up from her desk hurrying over towards her.
"What do you want?", Hermione asked coldly while crossing her arms over her chest. She felt tired and exhausted and was not in the mood for faked friendliness right now.
"Well, I heard from some colleagues that you behave a little strange lately and they wonder what's going on with you", Pansy said, looking at Hermione with an unreadable expression.
"Look, who's talking", Hermione snorted.
Pansy frowned apparently not understanding what Hermione was referring to. "Anyways", her ex-bully continued, "I think I know what your problem is."
Hermione raised an eyebrow. "Do you?" Her despise for Pansy was growing more and more. How could she talk to her like that, behaving as she knew everything?
"You heard a prediction, right? And now you're looking for someone the prediction told you to find, isn't it?"
Hermione just stared at the other witch, so shocked, she was not able to utter even a single word. What the bloody hell?
Pansy laughed, apparently amused about Hermione's expression. "You wonder how I figured that out, don't you?"
Hermione cleared her throat. She was so taken aback, she did not care about upholding her hostile expression anymore. "W-well, I-i am indeed interested how…you came up with such an absolutely absurd assumption", she stuttered not very convincingly.
"I'll tell you somewhere more private", Pansy replied. "Let's go to the cafeteria."
"I didn't know they had a café here as well", Hermione said after they had placed their orders.
"If you'd join us for lunch once in a while, you would know that", Pansy grinned.
Hermione could not believe the situation she maneuvered herself into. She was sitting at a small table in the ministry's café corner, waiting for their coffee to come out with no other than Pansy Parkinson. The Pansy Parkinson! Not only did she believe in predictions made by Professor Trelawney now, no, even worse, she was spending her free time with the person she hated the most. Had someone put her under an imperius curse?
"Now answer my question", Hermione demanded while giving Pansy a piercing look.
"Okay, okay", Pansy said haughtily. "I just figured out by hearing about your behavior. How you go around staring at people as if searching for something or someone. You must know that my granny was a fortune teller. When I was younger, she told me lots of stories about her work and the people that came to see her."
While Pansy was speaking, their coffee appeared in front of them and Hermione took the chance to avert her eyes from her colleague. Imagining the young Pansy listening to stories from her 'granny', maybe sitting in the old woman's lap, suddenly made her see Pansy as a human with feelings and memories like herself. She did not want to think like this. She wanted to hate her.
"I suddenly remembered some stories my granny told me about people coming to ask about love, success and similar things. Their predictions involved another person, they had to find and some of this people behaved just like you do now", Pansy continued. "At least according to my granny. So, I just put two and two together."
"And why are you telling me all this?", Hermione asked dismissively.
"Because I want to help you", Pansy replied.
"You? Helping me?" Hermione laughed humorlessly. "Do you think I'm stupid? You have no reason to help me! You hate me as much as I do hate you!"
Hermione was ready to fight. Maybe not with magic, but with words. She waited for Pansy's retort, but nothing happened. Pansy just looked down on her coffee in silence, hiding her eyes from Hermione's view. "Go to the library", the woman finally said, still not looking at Hermione. "You might find some books, that could help you. That's all I have to say." The she suddenly stood up, grabbed her coffee and left without saying another word. Hermione did not turn around to look after her. She was too confused about everything.
A short while later Hermione found herself in the Ministry's library, which was located right next to the Department of Magical Education. The library was of similar size as the one they had in Hogwarts and most books were the same as well. However, there were a few more sections about more advanced magic and wizarding law.
Hermione walked past rows and rows of shelves until she reached the divination section. It was quite small compared to the other sections, but nonetheless it contained several hundreds of books. Since Hermione had no clue where to start, she just wandered aimlessly around the shelves, scanning the spines of the books with her eyes. 'Cristal Gazing in the 21st Century', 'Divination for Dummies', 'Dream Analysis: A new Approach', 'What Palms Tell Us'. Nothing, that could possibly help Hermione. But then one title caught her eye. 'Stories from Six Decades of Fortunetelling – The Most Curious Cases". Hermione stopped and let her eyes wander along the spine to the author's name. Payten Parkinson. So Pansy's story was true.
Hermione took the book from the shelf and opened it on the spot. While skimming over the first couple of pages she walked over to a secluded corner, where a few armchairs were situated. Hermione was the only person in sight, but it did not surprise her, because most Ministry officials pretty much stopped educating themselves after they had secured their job. Hermione could not understand how one could lose interest in learning new things.
She sat down on the nearest chair, the book in her lap. The author, Pansy's grandmother, had selected the most interesting or strange cases from her career as a fortuneteller and compiled them in the book. It contained about a hundred of stories, so it took Hermione quite some time to find the ones Pansy had told her about.
The first story was about a young man who had come to see the fortuneteller to ask about whom he should get married to. The fortuneteller's answer had been quite intriguing: "The one you're with is not the one. Neither is the one you desire. The one you need has to be found. Find the blue rose and you find the one." The man followed the fortuneteller's advice and traveled the whole country to search for the blue rose. One day, he crossed a market place where a young woman was selling flowers, a blue rose stuck in her hair. The man approached her and the rest of the story was pretty much obvious.
It was an interesting story, but it didn't help Hermione in any way. The man knew what kind of sign he had to look for, but Hermione still knew nothing. Quickly, she turned page after page, searching for another story.
The next story she found was about a middle-aged witch who dreamed to become a famous singer, so she asked the fortune teller whether she would ever be able to make her dream come true. Similar to the first story, the fortune teller told her to look out for a person who would ask for her help some day. If she helped the person, her dream would become true. If not, she would never become a singer for as long as she lived. From that day on, the woman asked everyone she met whether they needed help and thanks to that she became the most loved witch in town. One day, a man thanked her for her help by letting her perform as a singer in his pub. And that marked the beginning of her successful career as a singer.
Hermione sighed. Another useless story, providing not the slightest hint for her own problem. Why didn't Professor Trelawney give her at least a tiny little hint? Was this some kind of revenge for Hermione's behavior during divination class?
As quickly as possible, she turned page after page, but there was no other story left that was similar to her case. Hermione closed the book and tossed it in the armchair next to her. She got up and paced around the armchairs thinking about what to do next. But she had no idea. The tiny bit of hope that had started to grow inside her after seeing the book had died. Maybe Pansy had known that the book was useless and this was just another of her mean tricks, Hermione thought and anger swelled in her chest.
She picked up the book and went to put it back onto the shelf. On her way out, she suddenly noticed a shelf she had never seen before. "Love & Dating" was written in thick pink letters on the sign above the shelf. Hermione stopped in front of it, frowning. She had never seen this shelf before, even though she had thought she'd knew everything about this library. Was it because she had never searched for this kind of books? A little embarrassed, she glanced around to check if anyone was watching her. But she was still the only one around.
She mustered the shelf again and noticed that one book stood out from the shelf slightly. Hermione tiptoed to push the book back into the shelf as her eyes fell on the title: "Wooing Witches – The Ultimate Guidebook [Lesbian Edition]". Hermione blushed as she saw the tile. She looked around once more, making sure she was still unobserved, then she pulled the book from the shelf. Maybe it contained some useful tips for her to find out whether Ginny liked her or not.
Hermione pressed the book to her chest and headed to the librarian's counter as fast as possible. She handed it to the stern looking woman, making sure the cover was face down. The librarian however, turned the book around to register the title on the list of borrowed books. She shot Hermione a piercing glance and the young woman blushed instantly. "I-it's only for research purposes", she stuttered.
"Sure", the librarian said indifferently and handed her the book. Hermione fled the library as fast as her feet would carry her.
A/N: I hope you enjoyed this chapter! How will the book affect Hermione? Leave a review and tell me what you think.
A/N2: There will probably no chapter next week, since I go back to SK and will be a little busy that week. But I won't keep the wait too long.