Hermione Down Under
Chapter 11 DEBATE II
(AUTHOR'S NOTE: I just wanted to point out an odd coincidence. I had Hermione cut her hair short because it made sense in the story; then I read the Emma Watson actually did have her hair cut very short the same month!)
Once her parents were out of sight, Hermione Apparated with Ron back to their room. They could have walked the short distance, but Hermione did not want to run into people who might see how upset she was.
She sank down on the bed, exhausted. She had finally obtained the goal she had sought for weeks, reversing her spell on her parents, only to be confronted by a completely new dilemma, her parents' demand that she choose between them and the wizard world.
She could see how the blow-up was her fault. For years she had glossed over the darker aspects of the wizard world when talking to her parents: the obstacle course that nearly killed them on the way to the Philosopher's Stone, being paralyzed by the basilisk, getting whomped by an angry willow tree, and so on. Now she was paying for it, when her parents discovered its flaws all at once and developed a completely negative image of what the wizard world was like. It would be very difficult to convey how Hermione loved the wizard world, even with all of its flaws.
"So you think we're a bunch of trolls, do you?" Ron suddenly cut into her thoughts.
"What? I didn't say that."
"You did. You talked about how we were so stupid because we haven't read Volsseau and Routaire and the others, and needed to be educated by Nanny Minnie. Then you turned to me as Exhibit A."
"That wasn't the point I was trying to make, Ron. Ben Franklin and the others, they devoted their lives to studying how society could be made better. No slavery, no torture, respecting people's rights. The wizard world needs to be familiar with those ideas Here in the wizard world Umbridge felt completely free to torture a kid with that horrid blood-pen - it was like something out of Kafka!"
"Cough who? Never mind, I don't want another lecture. It's been obvious for years that you're the cleverest of the lot, 'Minnie'. I suppose I should have realized that it worked the other way around, too: that you thought everybody around you was stupid. Well, I'm not the one who got in bed with a friend of the opposite sex and lost control."
"So we're back to THAT."
"I suppose so," said Ron, starting to sound sadder and less angry. "When I first agreed to come along with you, I thought it would be a holiday, a chance to mend things without Harry and the others doing well-meaning meddling, But you simply can't stop being the boss. Let me use the wand, Ron. Let me keep the handbag, Ron. Take riding lessons with a First Year, Ron, Pretend we're married, but don't touch."
"You want to 'touch' me? See my breasts? Pat me on the bum? Go all the way? I'm willing." It would be so convenient if Ron's objections could be traced down to sexual frustration, because Hermione had a cure for that.
"You needn't be sarcastic."
"I'm not being sarcastic. I'm offering, Ron."
"And you think I'll accept an offer in those terms? No way. Though I can see how you made the mistake with Harry. Too much thinking about sex and not enough tenderness."
He's right – why can't I think about sex the way most other girls seem to, as making love? Not thinking of sex as a tool to handle my personal relationships.
Ron, standing silently, was apparently pursuing a different line of thought.
"Maybe the real problem is we simply need to separate for a while. We've been in each other's presence almost continually since we got to Australia, even in bed. I need to prove to myself that I can function on my own, in Muggle land. I'm not deserting, as I did back in the tent. We can agree to meet again in a few days. Maybe you could use the time to make up with your parents, without my being a distraction."
"Well - OK."
Ironically it was Hermione who wound up making the practical arrangements for the separation, being more familiar with the Muggle world. She called the motorcoach company to see when they would drive by; Ron could catch it back to Brisbane. She divided the funds in half, and hoped Ron could figure out the Australian dollar. She made sure Ron could use a phone and place a call to Hermione's room at the station in an emergency; if not, they would rejoin in Brisbane. The other guests would probably think the "newlyweds" had had a spat, but Hermione was past caring about popular opinion.
Once they had split up, Hermione sat in the room, and soon found it intolerable – too much unpleasantness had happened in here. Nor did she want to hobnob with the other guests, which would require her to conceal her emotional turmoil. Finally she walked to the stables, requested a new horse, and simply galloped away as fast as she could, as if she could ride away from her problems.
About a mile away from the stables, Hermione reigned in her horse, and looked around at the open spaces. Suddenly it occurred to her that she was more alone than she had ever been in her life.
Hermione was not used to be physically alone Ever since starting at Hogwarts, she had either been with her dorm-mates or with Harry and Ron. On holiday she went to the crowded Burrow, where she usually wound up bunking with Ginny. Summers with her parents. Even at Grimmauld Place, where she could easily have claimed an empty room of her own, she had chosen to share the boys' sleeping quarters.
But the worse part of her alienation was mental. Harry, Luna, Neville, and the other Weasleys were thousands of miles away in the British Isles. And neither Ron nor her parents wanted to speak to her at the moment. The self-consciousness of being the cleverest of the lot, as Ron had put it, had always been lessened by the love she felt for her friends and family.
She needed to put the solitude to good use, examining herself. Could she sacrifice her wizard side and settle down as a Muggle girl with her parents? Or, on the other hand, risk alienating them forever by choosing to stay a witch? Could she suppress the "bossy" side of her nature and convince Ron that she really loved him and wanted what was best for him?
But at the moment, it was getting dark, and it was a bad idea to ride over unfamiliar country at night. She hoisted herself back into the saddle and rode back to the buildings. In her room she picked up a change of clothes, and walked to the ladies' shower room. Partly she needed it: she had worked up quite a sweat during the frenzied ride. Partly she needed the symbolic washing off, hoping the water would wash away some of her mistakes and leave her feeling pure.
She had barely wrapped the towel around herself when she was aware of another woman in the shower area. She tried to ignore her – the guest may have heard of the departure of her new hubby, and might want to empathize. Hermione was in no mood for girl talk, particularly when it would have to be faked on her side.
Then she realized that the woman was fully clothed. And that she was wearing her hair in a certain familiar coiffure that covered her ears. And that she had a wand – the one stolen from Ron.
"Petrificus Totalus!"
Hermione lost her balance as her muscles locked up just as she tried to back away. She fell to the floor of the shower room, and her towel fell loose, exposing one of her breasts. There was nothing she could do about it.
Hermione was literally naked in the presence of her enemy.
TO BE CONTINUED.
(AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hermione at one point refers to Kafka's IN THE PRISON COLONY. In one scene of the story the camp leaders torture an inmate by carving a description of his crime on his body – basically what Umbridge did to Harry with magic)