Wasted Niche- Chapter Two

Wasted Niche- Chapter Two

Ron was looking at his golden plate with glee, the food had appeared and he was eager to start one of his favorite parts of Hogwarts, the feast. Hermione was sitting across from him and watched as he swallowed a heaping spoonful of mashed potatoes and brown gravy. Harry was eating at a fast pace too, but not quite enough to match his best friend. Hermione, on the other hand, barely touched any of her food; she couldn't eat with all of the things that were going through her mind.

Hermione had told her best friends that her mom had died; she wasn't sure how she felt about them knowing the most painful thing that had ever happened to her. Harry could relate, she knew that, him having been an orphan for seventeen years. Ron had never really lost anyone in his family though. As a mark of the trio's friendship they didn't push her into telling them exactly what had happened. Hermione was grateful because she knew that she wasn't ready to let anyone else hear about all of it yet.

"Hey, aren't you going to eat that?" Ron asked, his voice filling with a slight concern. Hermione shook her head and looked at her nearly full plate. Ron picked up his glass, got a sip of pumpkin juice, and then sat everything down. Arms crossed and a determined look upon his face, Ron leaned back in his chair and defiantly stated, "Then I won't either." Harry looked at Ron, mimicked his actions, and then agreed. Hermione was furious. "No, my choice to not eat shouldn't have to affect the two of you in any shape or form, do you hear me? I have too much on my mind and even if I did eat, it probably wouldn't stay down." The boys looked at her as if they hadn't heard anything and just openly stared at her defiantly.

They all sat in silence, people glancing over at them and their plates occasionally. After a bit of time passed a ringing of glass sounded from the Head table, Dumbledore was going to give his annual speech.

A slight cough came from the back of Dumbledore's throat before he started speaking. "Welcome to another year of fine magical education. Those who are new, we hope that you will find Hogwarts to be a lovely and appealing place. As you all know Mr. Filch, our caretaker has a list of all items banned on the door to his office, I hope all of you can take a peek at that to make sure everything in your possession is permissible. Remember that the Forbidden Forest is still forbidden, and that your Head Boy, Head Girl, and prefects should be treated with the highest respect, which means listening and obeying them. On that note, your new Head Boy and Head Girl is Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger, will the two of you please stand?" Hermione slowly rose from her chair and gave the room a forced smile and wave before sitting back down. "Well, I think that's all for now as I'm sure your stomach and eyes are full. So have a good night sleep, Goodbye!" Dumbledore called.

After settling all of the first year students and explaining the basic rules to them Hermione went into the lobby to sit with her best friends the last time before schoolwork started up. They were already sitting in their favorite overstuffed armchairs next to the roaring fire. Hermione plopped down in her pink pajamas in one of them and cuddled into it. The day had been very tiring and Hermione just wanted to sleep in the armchair, but knew she wouldn't because as Head Girl, she had her own bedroom in the girl's dormitories. "So what do you think of the first years this year, Hermione?" After yawning loudly she spoke, "They are so small, you never would have thought that we were ever that small." The two boys nodded in agreement, and the three just sat and made small talk before all setting off for bed.

Hermione walked into her room for the second time and was still amazed. The room wasn't particularly grand but it was nice, and it was all hers'. The bed was a queen sized bed with a cozy red comforter. The walls were painted a pale gold, not overwhelming and overpowering by any means. The floors were a solid oak wood and there was an oak wardrobe in the corner of the room next to a rather large desk. There were lamps placed miscellaneously around the room that added the perfect amount of light. Hermione walked over to the tidy bed and crawled under the covers, just wanting the day to be done with.

Unfortunately the events of the day blocked all drowsiness so that it was impossible for Hermione to quickly fall asleep. She was thinking about Ron and how much he stuck up for her and helped the best that he could. It was a sweet, friendly, protective gesture that she appreciated. She made a mental note to tell him how nice it had been later on when she a little more stable. Finally what seemed like hours later Hermione's eyes began to droop and she was able to fall into a deep sleep.

Ron lay wide awake in his four-poster bed and stared at the stone ceiling. In all seven years that he'd attended Hogwarts he'd never really thought about the ceiling. Sure, he looked at it sometimes at night but he had never truly thought about it. It didn't really make much of a difference due to the small fact that he wasn't seriously thinking about the ceiling now either. His mind was entirely on a certain girl so that there wasn't any other room in his head for petty things such as the plaster above him.

Hermione was everything a sensible male could want. She was smart, pretty, and extremely loyal. Ron wondered why half of the male population at Hogwarts wasn't drooling all over anything she had ever touched. After pondering it for a few moments Ron came to the conclusion that it was because she never showed any interest in any of the guys at Hogwarts before. Ron knew he wasn't good enough for Hermione and it crushed him. He knew that she would never even consider dating him. Ron was poor, average; there was nothing special about him. What set him apart from someone like Harry, or Dean, or Viktor Krum? Nothing. Nothing at all made him special or worthwhile. He was just another Weasley boy, perhaps the most average of all. Ron sighed loudly and then rolled over in his bed to go to sleep.

The following morning was bright, cheery even. This seemed very poor way to start a new school year in Ron's opinion. He wished it was a dreary day so that he didn't long so much to be outside. He stifled a yawn and swung his feet slowly out of the warm, cozy bed.

After putting on his uniform Ron went out into the common room with Harry to wait for Hermione. Fifteen minutes passed and there was still no sign of the boy's friend so they left assuming that she had already gone to breakfast. "I don't see her," Harry stated once the duo arrived at the Great Hall. Ron nodded his head, ran over to a table, grabbed toast and started walking back to the Gryffindor tower. Harry sighed and followed, silently missing the breakfast he never even got a good look at.

The comforter on Hermione's bed rustled when she turned over to get more comfortable. The bed was so warm and lush her body refused to wake up. She was tired and finally, in her true home, was she able to go into a deep sleep and just rest. This stopped abruptly however when a loud knock followed by a voice shouting that they were coming in startled her enough to cause her to leap into an upright position. Ginny Weasley shoved her head into the room ready to drag Hermione out of bed. She had been standing at the door for a good five minutes knocking before finally barging in. "Hermione breakfast started forty-five minutes ago, get up and get dressed!" Hermione shrieked and leapt out of bed running around her room looking for her clothes. After finding them and getting herself dressed and her bag ready she ran out into the common room ready to have to run to Professor McGonagall to apologize and receive her schedule. Harry and Ron were standing in the middle of the room whispering to one another and immediately stopped when the two girls appeared looking very disgruntled and rushed. Ron sensing what the worry was about spoke up, "Hermione, chill. McGonagall hadn't even started to pass out schedules when Harry and I were down at breakfast a few minutes ago.

Hermione caught her breath and then strolled out of the room on her way to breakfast not waiting to see if anyone was following her. She didn't have to though because as soon as she had started to walk everyone did too. After receiving their schedules Hermione reverted some back to her old self and started to make notes on them. On Ginny's she put pieces of advice and stars to indicate the difficulty of the class. On Ron's and Harry's she put little tidbits referring to a study timetable she thought would be appropriate based on what she had heard about the classes. No one really appreciated all of the markings Hermione was putting on their papers but no one dared to say anything about it since the girl was showing a bit of her old self and the group wanted to encourage it as much as possible to help her through her grief.

"Ms. Granger, can you please demonstrate the correct way to do the Metaformagio charm?" Professor McGonagall stared at Hermione expectantly, almost a little eager to award her house some points. "Sorry, I can't professor," she replied quietly becoming very interested in her shoelaces. The teacher looked disappointed and went and asked a Ravenclaw student who successfully turned their turtle into a chimpanzee. By the end of class Professor McGonagall had asked Hermione four questions, none of which the girl could even muster a guess at. Therefore, Hermione was told to stay after class and she was quite nervous for the conversation she expected was going to take place.

After class Hermione went up to Professor McGonagall's desk and stared back into the cold eyes before her. "This is an N.E.W.T. level class Ms. Granger, I expected you, of all people, to be able to handle the coursework."

"I'll try harder professor."

"You shouldn't need to try any harder if you still had the work ethics you used to have."

"I know, I just haven't been feeling very good these past few months, I'll come prepared tomorrow, I promise."

Professor McGonagall looked up with disappointment at the girl in front of her and stated, "I really do hope so Ms. Granger."

Hermione walked out of the class, her head bent with shame. Ron and Harry walked closely behind her and tried to cheer her up. "Hermione, we'll help you study for next class, we'll even make you a study schedule. Next time you walk through that door McGonagall will have to charm your mouth closed so that you can't answer any questions!" "Gryffindor will be rewarded so many points we will have to purposely get them taken away so the other houses won't get too jealous!" Hermione smiled and made herself lift her chin. "Yeah, you're right. Next class we have is potions; you know Snape won't call me in there unless he is forced."

The trio walked the rest of the way to class somewhat optimistic that potions would be better than transfiguration.

No such luck. This time Professor Snape pointed out to the entire class that he could not believe that Hermione made it into the advanced class with roots cut like hers. Not to mention the catastrophic event that she forgot to smell her potion to ensure the readiness of it. The Gryffindors of the class (all 3 of them, the trio themselves) all got double the length for their essays about the use of vampire teeth in a potion. This was probably assigned, not necessarily for Hermione's mistakes, but for Ron's eye roll that followed the admiration that Malfoy got for his less-then-perfect potion.

Hermione wanted to cry. The homework wasn't that bad but the fact that she was messing up so much. Her grades were her shining moment. Harry had the whole saving the world bit, Ron had a great personality. What she had was on its' way to going down the drain and would if she didn't shapen up some.

Ron looked over at Hermione, her face was downcast. He nudged her and gave her a reassuring smile before picking up his stuff to leave the class for lunch. They followed his suit and the three friends made their way to the dungeon door. Once in the corridor Hermione turned toward the boys and announced that she was going to the library to study and that they should just go eat by themselves. Ron was concerned though, she hadn't eaten anything yesterday either and before that e was unsure of. "I understand that you are worried about classes but you need to eat more. Come on." Begrudgingly she obliged and followed them into the Great Hall.