Disclaimer: Harry Potter = (-b+/-SQRT(b^2-4*JK Rowling))/(2a).

A/N: The past two chapters together with this one have been by far the hardest stretch of fanfic I've written. Ironically, I can relate to my version Hermione especially well here because her trials of the past few chapters are partly based on personal experience, but that made it that much harder to get it just right to fit her character, and I hope I've succeeded with that. Mainly, though, it's just a great relief to finally get this section done and published.

I would also like to note that I've yet to see a satisfactory on-stage depiction of "But from that moment on, Hermione Granger became their friend," and this is my humble attempt. If anyone knows any good stories that do show it, I'd like to hear about them.

Chapter 10

The Common Room was crowded and noisy. The Halloween feast had been set up on a buffet table in the middle of the room, and the couches and chairs were overflowing, with many people eating whilst sitting on the floor.

Hermione noticed a number of people staring in her direction, probably at Harry and Ron, who were looking pretty dishevelled themselves. But once her bushy head of hair ducked inside, covered in dust and tangled with little bits of rubble, everyone was staring. The clamour of the fight with the troll had probably been heard clear throughout the castle, and it was easy to see now who had been involved. Before she could speak a word, Hermione found herself mobbed by three hysterical witches.

"Ohmygod Hermione are you okay?!" Hermione's mind went blank as Alicia caught her in a bone-crushing hug. Meanwhile, Lavender and Parvati both got in her face, talking nonstop so she could only catch every other word.

"Everyone was so scared of the troll—"

"We didn't even think—"

"And then Professor Vector—"

"And we were like, 'Oh, Merlin!'—"

"What happened—"

"We thought it ate you—"

"Did you get hurt—"

"Girls! Girls! I'm fine!" Hermione stammered, pushing them away to give herself some space. That probably would have been more convincing if her hands weren't still shaking. No, she'd just been through a near-death experience. She wasn't fine and probably wouldn't be for a while, but she was unhurt, anyway.

By now, Sally-Anne and Lily and Alicia's friends, Angelina Johnson and Katie Bell, were crowding around to see what had happened to their fellow Gryffindor. Across the room, she could see Harry and Ron being interrogated by the boys as they loaded up her plates. She really just wanted to get to dinner, but she was surrounded now.

"Hermione we were so worried—what happened?" Lavender said. She started trying to comb the debris out of Hermione's hair with her fingers, which Hermione found oddly comforting. She collected herself and started talking.

"The—the troll came in the bathroom—" Several of the girls squeaked in fright. "It came after me and smashed up the sinks. None of my spells were strong enough to do anything. But then, Harry and Ron came and saved me—"

"Ron saved you?" Alicia said. Lavender and Parvati looked equally shocked.

"Well, not very well," she admitted. "Then Professor Vector came in and saved all three of us…" And she explained about Harry's and Ron's incompetent rescue attempt, her lucky break with the Levitation Charms, and how Professor Vector had run in and stopped the troll in three seconds flat, and how she had defended them to the other professors.

"I can't believe you did that!" Alicia said.

"I can't believe Harry and Ron did that!" Parvati said.

"I can't believe you got thirty points!" Katie Bell added.

"I can't believe you didn't get detention!" said Angelina Johnson.

"I can't believe nobody got eaten!" Lavender exclaimed.

The other first years stared at her. "Eaten?" Hermione asked nervously.

"Uh-huh, I heard a mountain troll can take your leg off with one bite." The others all grimaced.

Alicia quickly changed the subject. "Look, Hermione, about what Ron said—he's all wrong. You know we're you friends, right? Me and Cedric and Roger?"

"I…"

"And so are we," Parvati said. The other first years nodded in agreement.

"And us, too." She jumped as Fred and George Weasley were now standing over her shoulder. Those two still weren't her first choice, but she guessed that was nice of them.

"I…yeah," she said, breaking into a smile. She was starting to feel misty-eyed again. It was good to know she really did have that many friends, but she still didn't feel like she'd been a very good one herself. "And don't…don't be too hard on Ron," she said. They all gave her surprised looks. "Well, he already apologised—and, really, I just needed to work through some things on my own—well, a lot of things, actually." And still did, she thought, but she could worry about that when she wasn't about to faint from hunger.

"Excuse me…please…I haven't had anything to eat all day," she said timidly, hopefully deferring any further questions until later. The crowd parted for her, and she made her way to the buffet table. A great feast was laid out, like the Welcome Feast, making her mouth water. She quickly loaded up a plate with enough food to give Ron a run for his money, then looked around for a place to sit.

She saw Harry and Ron sitting on the floor in one of the emptier parts of the circular room, near the fire. She thought about how upside-down this day had been and decided it was well past time to reevaluate those two. She walked over and, still a little uneasily, sat down next to them with her plate in her lap.

"Hi…" she said. "Uh, thanks for saving me."

Harry smiled kindly. "Anytime," he said.

"You helped, too," Ron observed. "What was that?"

"Well, I saw when you cast that spell, I saw the troll's club kind of bounce, so I just figured, with three of us, we might be able to lift it."

"Wow—well, I'm sure glad that worked."

Hermione nodded and hesitantly took a few bites as she tried to put her thoughts into words. "I still can't believe you came for me," she said. "I mean, I've barely even spoken to you since school started."

"Well, somebody had to do it. We couldn't just leave you alone like that," Harry said. "Besides, we, uh, did kinda lock it in there with you."

"What!"

"We were gonna try and find you, but then we saw the troll go into the room and decided to trap it. We didn't realise you were in there until we heard you scream."

"Oh…"

"Yeah, we didn't even know what room it was," Ron said—or at least she thought that's what he said, since he still insisted on talking with his mouth full. It figured these two would make things worse before they made them better.

"You really should pay more attention," she said in spite of herself.

Ron rolled his eyes, but Harry didn't seem to mind. "Yeah, I guess," he said.

"I was kinda more worried about not getting hit with that club," Ron protested. "That thing was horrible!"

"You're telling me," Hermione squeaked. Her knife slipped and scratched loudly on her plate as she tried to steady her hands. "I thought…I was sure I was about to die before you came in."

"Yeah, and it's a good thing Professor Vector came looking for you, too. I still don't know what I was trying to do casting that spell. Mind, the crazy part is it actually worked."

"I couldn't think of any spells," Harry commented, remembering how his best idea was to climb up the troll's back. "But that was amazing how Professor Vector froze it like that."

"I know," she exclaimed. "I've read about things like that, but I've never seen anything like it. I've got to learn how to do that spell."

"Me too," Ron added. "My brother, Bill, he had to be really good at arithmancy and stuff to become a curse-breaker, but I thought that kind of stuff was all in Defence."

"Your brother's a curse-breaker?" she said interestedly.

"Uh huh. He works for Gringotts in Egypt getting the curses off all the old tombs and stuff."

Hermione was duly impressed. She'd heard Ron talk about his brothers before, but never paid it much mind. But Professor Vector said curse-breaking was some of the most difficult magic there was. It would take someone really good to do it for a living.

"Hey, Hermione, that reminds me. Did I tell you about that package Hagrid got from Gringotts?" said Harry.

She shook her head. "I think I was trying not to listen."

"Oh, sorry."

"No, it's fine. Go ahead and tell me about it."

"Well, when Hagrid took me to Diagon Alley, we got some money from my vault in Gringotts, and then we went to this other vault that was really high security, but there was only one little thing in there. It was wrapped in brown paper, and it was about this big." Harry indicated something that was small enough to fit in his hand. "And Hagrid took it out, and he said it was very secret Hogwarts business, and he wouldn't tell me what it was. But I read in the newspaper that someone tried to rob a vault that had just been emptied later that same day."

"So you think the dog is guarding whatever was in the vault?"

"Yeah. Hagrid said Gringotts is the safest place to keep something except Hogwarts."

"You—you haven't gone back in there, have you?" Hermione asked nervously.

"No. Of course not. I mean, if Hogwarts is really that safe, it's not like it's in any danger, right?"

"I wonder what Snape was doing, though," Ron mused.

"Snape?" said Hermione.

"We saw him headed towards he third floor when we came to find you," said Harry.

"Huh. That's odd. I don't know what someone would be doing there at a time like that. I wonder what's so valuable that they'd have to keep it here like that."

"Or so dangerous," Ron suggested.

"Or that. It's probably some kind of jewel or talisman or something if it's that small. Maybe we could research it and narrow it down."

"What, more homework? I'll pass," Ron protested. "I don't get how you do it. You've already got an extra class."

"Arithmancy's not that hard…" Hermione protested. Of course, she realised, she'd been telling her muggle friends that about maths for years and still hadn't convinced them.

"Maybe for you. How you get so good at Arithmancy, anyway?"

"Just practice…and a little luck, I guess. I've always been able to do maths well, as long as I can remember. Anyway, I think we should try to find it out. It could be important."

"Then why don't you do it. It doesn't really matter, does it? Whatever the thing is, it's safe, right?"

"Well, I just thought…" She stopped and sighed. "Sorry. I know I can be a bossy know-it-all sometimes."

"You're not that bad, really," Harry said. "Though you can go a little overboard—I was pretty mad when you kept interfering that day with the duel and stuff, but that was 'cause I really hate Malfoy. You were just trying to keep us out of trouble. And you were right about Malfoy's trick."

"Oh, yeah, Malfoy," Hermione grumbled.

"Now there's somebody I wouldn't mind seeing attacked by a troll," Ron said, and Hermione had a hard time disagreeing. Harry laughed a little.

"Yeah, he's been really awful all year," Harry said. "To you, too, Hermione. I saw him sabotage your potion last week."

"Uh huh," she agreed. "He's even worse than that, though. He actually hexed me in the back once."

"What!" Harry yelled. "When did he do that?" Ron choked on his steak.

"Do you remember when I was making my map of the castle?"

Ron scrunched up his face, trying to remember. "Uh, yeah, I think Fred and George said something about it…How'd that go, anyway?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "Well, I think I got most of the school that students are allowed in, but the measurements keep changing, so it's not exact."

"You mean the castle changes shape?" Harry said in surprise.

"Of course it does, mate. It's magic," Ron said, as if it were obvious. "So what happened with Malfoy, then?"

"Well, I was mapping out the dungeons when he saw me and accused me of spying on Slytherin. And then he used a Jelly-Legs Jinx on me."

"Aw, man, what'd you do?"

"Nothing," she said in embarrassment. "A Hufflepuff prefect saved me."

"That little git! You want us to hex him for you?" Ron asked.

"No! That'll just make it worse. He already jinxed me and got me in more trouble after Potions last week. And he accused me of setting Fred and George on him on Tuesday. I just want him to leave me alone. I don't get what his problem is."

"It's his whole family," Ron said. "Dad says Malfoy's family's been really anti-muggle pretty much forever."

"His family should have just stayed in France, then," Hermione complained.

"Maybe the French kicked them out," Ron joked. "You know, they said, 'Ne jamais faire confiance à un mec dont le nom signifie mauvaise foi.' "

Hermione's eyebrows shot up. "Tu parles français?"

"Oui," he shrugged.

"Uh, sorry. I don't," Harry said.

"He said, 'Never trust a bloke whose name means bad faith,'" Hermione explained. Harry smirked. "When did you learn French?"

"Mum made us all learn when we were little," Ron replied. He sounded annoyed about it. "I guess Mum and Dad were thinking about moving to France during the war, and they still wanted all us kids to learn it, 'just in case'. A little German, too, though I don't know why. The Weasleys would never be caught dead at Durmstrang."

"You speak three languages?"

Ron shook his head. "Mostly just the two, but I guess I know enough German and Spanish in case I got lost there or something."

"¿Oh, has estado en España?"

"Um, no, no, uh, viajan mucho—? Sorry—we don't travel much."

"Viajamos," Hermione corrected absently.

"Uh, right. Mum and Dad go to visit Bill or Charlie once in a while, but they can't…we can't really…" Ron started turning red as the conversation drifted a little too close to home— Hermione could tell he got a lot of his things secondhand. "So how'd you learn so many languages?" he asked her.

"My, uh, my parents like to travel." She felt like she should leave it at that. "I'm probably not that much better at Spanish than you are, though."

"I have enough trouble with just English," Harry said uneasily.

"Well, French isn't that hard," Ron said, surprising Hermione, who didn't expect him to describe anything that way.

"So…What were you making that map for, anyway?" asked Harry.

"Just to find my way around—and to show my parents what the castle is like. It's so confusing here with all the hidden doors and moving staircases. It seemed silly that they couldn't give us maps to at least show us where everything is."

"Yeah, that would be nice," Harry said.

"We almost got busted by Filch our first day because we got lost by the third floor corridor," Ron added.

"Me too! They need to put up a sign or something. Anyway, after we met that dog, I memorised as much of the castle as I could so it wouldn't happen again."

"The whole castle?"

"Everything on my map," she confirmed. "There are some parts I still don't know anything about."

"Like the third floor," Harry said.

"That's one of them. And some of the towers are always locked. And…um, have you ever looked at the Great Hall from outside?"

Harry and Ron looked at each other. "Yeah, I guess," Harry replied.

"Have you seen the little windows on top?"

Both boys shook their heads.

"Well, they're there. I'm sure they're above the enchanted ceiling, but no one seems to know how to get up there or even what's up there. Even Fred and George didn't know."

Ron looked suitably surprised. "They didn't? I thought they knew everything."

"So did I, but they couldn't find out anything about them. I was gonna try and find a way up there myself, but I…haven't got around to it yet."

"We could help you out," Harry suggested.

"Really?" Hermione's eyes went a little wider.

"Sure—when we can, anyway. I've got a lot of Quidditch practice for the match next week."

"Oh, right, Alicia's been going on about it…"

Harry was obviously very excited about the first Quidditch match, as was most of Gryffindor, since it had been so long since they'd been able to field a competitive team. Hermione politely sat through Harry's and Ron's detailed description of exactly how Quidditch worked. She still thought the part with the snitch was more than a bit silly—it almost seemed as if it were designed to be deliberately frustrating—but she held her tongue out of respect for the boys' obvious enthusiasm.

They talked for a long time about nothing in particular. They tried to talk about their families—what they could, anyway. Ron was from a wizarding family, so neither Harry nor Hermione understood the finer points of that; only Harry knew what a dentist was or understood much else that Hermione had to say about her parents; and Harry didn't want to talk about his relatives, who, from what Hermione could gather, didn't sound very nice.

Still they kept at it, moving on to books and films and plays, although they didn't have a lot they could share there either. Ron didn't seem to be much of a reader, even of wizarding books, and Harry had apparently led an extremely sheltered childhood. Objectively, she really didn't have much more in common with these two than she did with Parvati and Lavender…except that they did just face a mountain troll together. That definitely counted for something, so she didn't mind so much, now. Honestly, she felt like she didn't mind all that much about the girls at the moment, either. Maybe it was just a matter of perspective.

The plates were taken away after a while, and a while after that, people started heading up to bed, but the three of them kept talking, oblivious. They went on for a while about classes and what a greasy git Snape was, and Hermione told them about Professor Vector and the basics (very basics) of Arithmancy, and there was another round of speculation about how the troll got into the castle and just what was hidden on the third floor and whether it could possibly be related (which they dismissed as ridiculous), and a lot of other, less important things that none of the three would remember anything about in the morning.

And as they sat and talked, the pieces of Hermione's life slowly seemed to fall back into place, and she felt the tension slowly drain out of her limbs for what felt like the first time in weeks. She was utterly exhausted, but that wasn't what did it. Indeed, it was when the darkness closed in late at night, and she couldn't fight back sleep anymore whether she wanted to or not, that she agonised most over everything. But tonight, even though she was dead tired, she kept talking because tomorrow—tomorrow, she would worry about getting enough sleep, and fixing everything else, too. And she would need to worry about it, she knew, but for tonight, she was just going to not worry about any of it and just celebrate still being alive. And, she found, she was actually having fun with it.

Parvati and Lavender had said good night and gone up to bed an hour ago. They clearly wanted to talk some more, but they gave her her space for the time being. The Common Room was nearly empty by now, and a tired-looking Alicia came up and gently placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Hermione, I'm going to bed. Are you doing okay?" she asked.

Hermione's brain derailed for a moment. "Yes…" she said instinctively. "No…I don't know—I'm sorry, I just need some time. It's been a hard week."

"Okay, well, we can talk tomorrow if you want," Alicia assured her. "And don't stay up too late. You don't want to miss any more class—that goes the same for you, too," she told Harry. "We don't need you getting in any trouble before the match."

"Oh, bloody hell, that's right, we have Potions tomorrow," exclaimed Ron. Harry looked genuinely frightened at the thought. Professor Snape did seem to be harder on Harry than everyone else.

"We'd better get to bed," Harry agreed. He stood up slowly and leaned against a sofa. "What do you think we'll be brewing?"

"Probably a Dizziness Draught, based on how Professor Snape's been following the book," Hermione suggested, standing up herself and leaning on a chair.

"Aw, man, I didn't even look at that one," Ron whined.

"Me either," Harry said nervously.

"I have," Hermione said. "Hey, do you want to, um, switch partners in class tomorrow? I don't think Dean will mind, and we're both getting pretty good."

"Really?" Ron said hopefully.

"Are you sure?" Harry added. "I mean, you said you've been having a hard week."

"It's nothing, really. It's not that hard to follow the instructions."

"Wow…sure, thanks."

"Yeah, that's real nice of you, after…" Ron started. "I'm sorry—again."

"Well, you did save me."

"Yeah, but it was my fault in the first place."

She sat down and curled up defensively in the chair, and she shook her head dismissively. "It wasn't just that. Actually, it mostly wasn't that at all. I've just been having a really awful week—there was Snape, and Malfoy, and the pranks, and my study group was—well, that's not important. And I've been sleeping very poorly. I've been losing track of time, losing focus—"

"But you're still getting the best marks in our year," Ron protested.

"I know, but it's got harder and harder for me to keep up. I think I just need to back off the late night reading and get more sleep, but the stress has really been getting to me. It makes everything that much harder. And that's not all. There's so many things I can't tell my parents or the teachers, or even other students, some of it—like about the third floor. You two and Neville are the only ones who know about it. It's hard not having anyone I can talk to." She kept looking at Ron and fought to keep her hands from shaking. "That's the thing, Ron, I really snapped at you in class because I was already under so much stress from everything else. And then when you…said that about me…"

"I'm sorry—" Ron blurted out.

"I know, it's just…when you said that…it hurt so much because you were right." She clutched at the arms of the chair, fighting back tears. She couldn't believe she was saying this out loud, much less to these two, but it felt so good to get this weight off her shoulders. "I've been spending all my time alone, and I just couldn't take it anymore…And I think my real problem was I was being a lot harder on myself than you were…Anyway, I'm sure Alicia and the others will set me straight if I actually let them…It's good to know I do have friends to help out here."

"I'll say you do," Ron half-complained. "They've been setting me straight all day…Mind, I was being pretty stupid," he admitted, sitting back down again. "I knew the Twins liked you and stuff…I guess I was just really mad 'cause I couldn't do that spell. It's hard, you know? Having five older brothers. Bill was head boy, and Charlie was Quidditch captain. And Percy's a prefect, and even Fred and George get really good marks when they try. Everyone expects me to be like them—including the teachers—but even if I do get good marks, it's no big deal because they did it first. So when you beat me at doing that spell in class…" He trailed off, turning an unnaturally bright red in the firelight.

"You were jealous?" Harry suggested.

"Yeah, I guess. I was mad, anyway. Mum's always yelling at me about it and saying how I need to apply myself more if I want to do as well as them…She's gonna go spare when she hears about this."

Hermione thought Ron's mother had a point, but she kept that to herself. Still, that was unusually deep for the redheaded boy, undoubtedly brought on by being told just how big a git he was all day, by the sounds of it.

"Well…my cousin's a lot worse," Harry said uneasily as he tried to cheer Ron up. "He always said I was cheating if I got a better grade than him, and my aunt and uncle would take his side. I got really good at getting by with a D-plus."

Ron smirked a little, evidently have heard about Harry's family.

"Harry, no offence, but your relatives really do sound awful," said Hermione.

"Yeah, but it's alright. They can't bother me here, and they don't like magic, so they don't care what grades I get."

Hermione thought that sounded like one of the most dysfunctional families she'd ever heard of, but Harry didn't seem too keen to say anymore. When she tried, he turned it into a joke and changed the subject. Still, he didn't look that troubled about it. Maybe being away from them really was enough for him. Ron could open up a little more, but with Harry's unique situation and Hermione being an only child, they didn't have much to reply to him.

But then Ron asked about the Dizziness Draught, and one thing led to another, and, somehow, they managed to stay up and talk for another hour. On any other night, Hermione would have been having a fit over losing track of the time yet again, but tonight, she was okay with it. It was her choice, for once, and that, it seemed, made all the difference. She was a little surprised that she'd told the boys so much. But at the same time, she was a little surprised they'd been so open with her—maybe it was the late hour messing with all three of them, she thought. Still, it felt nice being able to talk to someone for a change and not having to keep secrets.

Actually, she felt very strange: giddy and tired and turned on her head all at the same time. Even though not much had objectively changed, something made her look at things differently—like all those friends who had crowded around her when she came into the Common Room. Now that she could finally look at things in a better way, she felt much lighter. And yes, she did need get more sleep, and she needed to talk to people and socialise more, too, but, surprisingly, even that fact was a comfort now that she understood it properly. Now that she knew what was really the matter, she was sure she could fix it.

And then there were Harry and Ron—the boys who were Gryffindor enough to save her from a mountain troll when she was barely speaking to them—she still had to wonder about the Sorting Hat's judgement when her main contribution had been to be Ravenclaw enough to come up with a half-decent plan to get them out of it. In any case, if she thought about it, she could relate to them no worse than her roommates, and they got in less trouble than the Twins. She had to conclude they really weren't that bad at all.

The Common Room clock chimed twelve, and Harry and Ron finally stood back up, again looking a little worried about finishing so late on a Potions night.

"I guess we really had better get to bed," Harry said.

"Yeah, mate," Ron agreed. "Snape's bad enough when I've got enough sleep."

"Yeah, we should," Hermione said.

There was an awkward pause.

"So…friends?" Harry said, looking at both of them—but mostly at her.

She froze. Harry smiled disarmingly. She looked to Ron, who had been more put off by her know-it-all-ness. The boy nodded slightly at Harry, then looked at her.

Hermione smiled. "Yes," she agreed. "Friends."