Chapter 33

Hermione POV

The next morning, Hermione was in the Great Hall for breakfast with Harry. She was up late into the evening with Juliette, and she knew the bags under her eyes were very visible. It wasn't great timing to feel like she wasn't looking her best, as she'd quickly realized that nearly every single pair of eyes in the Great Hall were on her. There'd been whispers as she walked in and even some head nods in her direction, and by the time breakfast was coming to an end, she was sick of it.

How did Ginny deal with this at the beginning of the year? she thought as she tried her best to focus on the eggs and toast in front of her. Despite her uncanny ability to answer any and all questions during a lesson, she wasn't fond of being the center of attention, at least not like this.

"Hey, Hermione?" Ron called down the table from where he was sitting with Lavender.

"What!?" she snapped, a bit too harshly for Ron's simply saying her name.

"Oi, calm down you lunatic! Errol here has got a letter for you," Ron said, slightly affronted. "I think he got confused and just dropped it with me."

"What?" Hermione asked curiously, much more civilly this time. She got up and walked over to Ron, mumbled an apology, and grabbed the letter from his hand.

"It's from my Mum, I recognize the handwriting," Ron said.

"Oh no…" Hermione said softly, remembering that Molly Weasley was an avid reader Witch Weekly - for the recipes.

"I'm sure it's fine Hermione, it's not like she sent you a Howler or anything," Ron said as he stuffed his mouth full of eggs and sausages.

Hermione took the letter and returned back to her seat next to Harry. She looked at him tentatively, not sure she even wanted to open it.

"Oh, go on, open it up. I'm sure it's fine," Harry said reassuringly.

Hermione opened the letter and scanned it, reading it quickly.

Hermione,

Arthur and I have just read the article in Witch Weekly and we wanted to let you know how absolutely appalled we are. We cannot believe that Rita Skeeter would go as far as to publicly out anyone, but to do it to children? I have half a mind to hunt her down myself and let her have it, but, well, Arthur has insisted I let him handle it through the Ministry. If any further articles like this come out about you though, you can count on me sending more than just a letter to the editor of Witch Weekly, I promise you that!

Regardless of how it all came out, we both want to let you know how thrilled and proud we are of you for embracing who you are, Hermione. We know it must not be easy, now with everyone suddenly knowing, but just know that we do love you, dear, and we support you. Of course, after Arthur heard about what happened to Ginny during the Quidditch World Cup through a colleague at the Ministry, we assumed we'd have been lending this same support to her, but she will come to us when she is good and ready to talk about it, I suppose. Well, Arthur supposes. I wanted to bring it up to her the moment we heard, but Arthur insisted that we wait for her to bring it up herself.

We are looking forward to the next time we get to see you. Remember that the Burrow is open to you anytime, whenever you need or want. Enjoy the rest of your term, and thank you in advance for keeping an eye on Ronald, Harry, and of course, Ginny. We appreciate and love you!

Much Love,

Molly Weasley

Hermione stared at the letter, tears welling up in her eyes. It was an incredibly thoughtful gesture for the Weasleys to think to reach out to her about this, to check on her. She knew that Molly had always considered Harry to be as good as one of her sons, but now she felt like maybe Molly considered her to be like her second daughter too. She gave Harry a watery smile and tucked the letter into her robes.

"Everything okay?" Harry asked, hesitantly as he took in her tears.

"Yes, everything's fine," Hermione nodded as she gave him another smile, sniffling a bit.

That afternoon Hermione was in the library, pouring over her Charms textbook. She was supposed to be meeting Ginny for a study session, but she still hadn't seen her since she abandoned Ron's party in search of Juliette. She wasn't exactly looking forward to their upcoming conversation. She felt guilty about the news catching the girl by such surprise, but she hadn't figured out a way to tell her about the relationship with Juliette without telling her everything. Even though she was happily with Juliette now, she couldn't bring herself to admit to Ginny that she fancies her too. Hermione caught herself, fancied Ginny, past tense, not present.

"Herm-own-ninny?"

Hermione looked up to find Krum standing in front of her. He had his lips pursed tight and his brow furrowed.

"Uh, hi Viktor. Care to join me?"

Viktor sat down silently. Hermione stared across at the boy.

Was he upset about the drama that Skeeter had alluded to? The love triangle?

"Herm-own-ninny… I heard about the article…" he started slowly. Hermione gulped, then nodded for him to continue. "I vos vondering if you are okay?" he asked, looking concerned.

"Oh, thank you Viktor, but I'm fine. Are you okay? I'm sorry that our friendship got you sucked into this whole mess, I know that you're not fond of being in the papers and – "

"Herm-own-ninny, I do not care about myself. I care about you," he said slowly. "Is it true, about the younger Marat?"

Hermione paused, then nodded.

"I see…"

"What?"

"Herm-own-ninny, I am not judging you, I vont you to know this. I am concerned about how someone like Juliette Marat vos able to vin over someone like you…"

"What do you mean?"

"Herm-own-ninny, you are very smart and you carry yourself vell… I haff known of the Marats for quite some time, and I haff seen Juliette vith more than her fair share of girls… None of them vere like you… I am just hoping that you are being careful, that is all," Krum looked directly at her, calmly.

"Viktor, I trust Juliette. I completely understand where you're coming from and I appreciate that you care about me enough to voice your concern, but I feel good about this. I feel good about her," Hermione smiled reassuringly at Krum who nodded back at her. Then Ginny walked up.

"Who do you feel good about? Juliette?" Ginny asked, setting her books down on the table.

"Well, yes, that is who we were talking about. Viktor was just voicing his concern about what he'd heard was in the Witch Weekly article and – "

"So, it's actually true?" Ginny asked, her face starting to turn red.

"Ginny, maybe we should talk about this somewhere else?" Hermione suggested cautiously, glancing at Ginny's set jaw and clenched fists.

"Like where? The woods out by the lake?" Ginny whispered angrily. Hermione looked at her, shocked and also a little hurt.

"Ginny, you are not being respectful of Herm-own-ninny…"

"Viktor, you're the one who warned us about Juliette to begin with!" Ginny exclaimed, earning them a warning look from Madam Pince. "Hermione just said that you had concerns!"

"Ginny, if Herm-own-ninny trusts Juliette, that is good enough for me. It is her relationship, after all. I haff said my piece, I see no need to continue the conversation," Krum said definitively, opening a book to read.

Ginny glared at him before sitting down and turning her attention back to Hermione.

"Why didn't you tell me?" she whispered demandingly.

"Well, despite what the article claims, this relationship is actually officially very new and we – " Hermione started, trying to maintain her composure.

"No, not that. Why didn't you tell me you were gay, Hermione? How long have you known that you've fancied women?"

Hermione blushed slightly, but was determined to maintain eye contact with Ginny.

"Since the beginning of the summer…"

Ginny's jaw dropped, "So when I was going through what I was going through at the Quidditch World Cup you… The whole time you… Why wouldn't you have told me?" Ginny hissed.

Hermione was thinking fast, trying to figure out how to explain herself without exposing that she was fancying Ginny at the time and didn't want her to put the pieces together. "Well, I just wasn't quite ready to let that be known about myself. I was still figuring it out, and – "

"Oh, and you think I was ready? Being outed by the Veela at the Quidditch World Cup and having everyone find out before I – before I even really knew…" Ginny whispered desperately, tears starting to form in her eyes.

"Ginny, I'm sorry…" Hermione reached over to grab one of Ginny's hands, but she pulled it away.

"Why are you with Juliette?" Ginny asked abruptly. Hermione gaped at her. "What happened to not trusting her? What happened to cutting her out? You go from that to suddenly being with her? What changed?"

Hermione remained silent. She desperately wanted to tell Ginny to mind her own business, but she couldn't bring herself to do so. She was with Juliette because of Ginny.

"You know how she treated me and made me feel… Why would you be with someone like that?" Ginny asked, imploringly.

Hermione couldn't explain it. She couldn't explain how kind and patient and understanding Juliette had been over the past few months, the chemistry and trust they'd built while Juliette was "distracting" her, without explaining to Ginny that she fancies her – fancied her.

"Fine, whatever. Why wouldn't we continue to pattern of you not telling me things…" Ginny spat angrily, getting up abruptly and slamming the chair into the table hard.

Many eyes throughout the library had fixed on their table now, and Madam Pince was beginning to walk over to tell them off. Ginny grabbed her books and threw one last furious look at Hermione before she stomped off through the library.

Hermione sat there, stunned. She knew Ginny had a temper, or at least Ron had whined about the so-called temper for years, but she had no idea what it would be like to be on the end of the very real rage that the youngest Weasley had in her small body.

"Herm-own-ninny, are you okay?" Krum asked gently.

"I… No… I'm not. I need to go talk to her. I'm sorry about all of this Viktor, I know you don't like attention being drawn to you and – "

"It is fine, Herm-own-ninny, no need to vorry. I am sure Ginny vill calm down soon, she is a good person," he gave Hermione a small smile, then went back to his reading.

Hermione quickly packed up her things, apologized to Madam Pince, and rushed out of the library to find Ginny.

Ginny POV

Ginny was overwhelmed with emotion again as she left the library. She was embarrassed by the scene she just caused. She was angry and hurt that Hermione had been lying to her for so long. She was disappointed in how she just spoke to and acted in front of Viktor Krum. And she… There was something else, but she couldn't quite figure out what it was. She started to run now, trying to get back to Gryffindor Tower as quickly as she could so she could talk to Demelza about what had just happened. She was so much more calm and rational talking to Demelza about all of this than when she was physically in front of Hermione discussing it with her. Seeing Hermione had made everything so much more real, and emotional, and

- CRASH -

Ginny had run into a wall of bodies, two of which felt like actual corridor walls. Her books had gone flying, and as she bent down to frantically pick them up, she heard a familiar drawl above her.

"So… It appears that you're not the most detestable Gryffindor at Hogwarts anymore, Weasley…"

Ginny looked up and saw Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle standing in front of her, blocking the corridor. She stood up, books protectively in her arms, trying to look as unbothered as possible.

"Move, Malfoy."

"Don't you want to know what I'm talking about?" Malfoy said, a slimy smirk starting to form on his face.

"I don't care what you're talking about. I'm late, and – "

"Oh, I think your little girlfriend can wait. Tell me now, why didn't you go after the Mudblood? Aren't the two of you close? I'm sure you knew she was just as disgusting as you are, fancying girls…"

Ginny glared at Malfoy, but remained silent, trying to keep her anger in. She knew there was no way of Malfoy knowing that Ginny was struggling with Hermione's lack of trust in her, but he'd somehow still located the exact trigger point to press down on, hard.

"Or, maybe you did try and you weren't good enough for the Mudblood? As deplorable as it is for her to fancy girls, it does appear that she did land someone significantly better than you… Besides her talent and looks, Juliette Marat has plenty of money as well… So that's three things right there that she's beat you in, Weasley… Is that why you're not shacked up with the Mudblood, hmmm? You don't compare…?"

Ginny felt like she was actually getting dizzy from all of the built-up pressure and rage that was trapped in her head. Her jaw was starting to ache from the set position she'd had it in, she could feel her fingernails digging into the covers of her textbooks, and she knew that her face surely had given her away, as she could feel the heat radiating off of it.

"I said, move!" Ginny shouted.

"I don't think so…" Malfoy smirked as the three boys starting closing in on Ginny.

Ginny dropped her books and quickly drew her wand, pointing it directly at Malfoy's nose.

"Don't push me today, Malfoy…" Ginny growled through gritted teeth. She thought she saw a brief flicker of fear in his eyes, when she heard footsteps running in behind her.

"Ginny, what's going on?" Hermione asked worriedly, as she took in the three boys in front of Ginny.

"Well, well, well, look who it is? We were just talking about you, Granger," Malfoy said smugly, his eyes flicking between the tip of Ginny's wand and Hermione.

Hermione stepped beside Ginny and drew her wand as well, pointing it in Malfoy's face, just as Ginny had, "Leave her alone, Malfoy."

"Or what? What are the two of you going to do, huh?"

"I believe zere are three of us 'ere…" Juliette said as she turned the corner into the corridor, twirling her wand casually between her fingers.

Malfoy looked to be a bit stunned by this, his face growing paler as Juliette strode to stand behind Ginny and Hermione, who still hadn't lowered their wands.

Ginny looked at Hermione out of the corner of her eye, and saw that Hermione had a small smile on her face. She felt her insides burn at this.

"Run along now, Draco. Or should I 'ave my parents contact yours to let zem know zat you spend your time at 'Ogwarts running around ze castle 'arassing young girls?" Juliette asked calmly, smirking as she saw Malfoy shrink at the use of his first name and the mention of his parents. "Sounds embarrassing when you put words to what you are doing, is it not?"

Malfoy glared at Ginny and Hermione before he took a few steps backwards, then turned and retreated down the corridor with Crabbe and Goyle.

Hermione turned to Juliette, "Thank you, Juliette. Do your parents really know the Malfoys?" Hermione asked, a hint of concern in her voice.

"Zey know of ze Malfoys, I would not say zat zey are even acquaintances. My parents are of a much 'igher standing zan 'is parents in ze Wizarding World. It would 'ave been mortifying I am sure if I was to 'ave my parents contact 'is in any way zat is not complimentary to ze family name."

"I see, well, thank you again. How did you know we were here?"

"I could 'ear your voice. I zink I am able to 'ear you from miles away now," Juliette smiled, her eyes sparkling at Hermione. Hermione smiled back, heat rising into her cheeks.

During this entire conversation, Ginny could feel the anger building in her body again, even more so than when Malfoy was taunting her. She watched as the two interacted, completely oblivious to her existence. Once Hermione finally tore her eyes away from Juliette's, she looked at Ginny and her smile instantly faded at the look on Ginny's face.

"Ginny, can we continue our talk from the library?" Hermione asked.

"No, I think I'm good…" Ginny said, glaring at Juliette, who stared back at her curiously.

"Ginny…" Hermione started.

"I said I'm fine, Hermione!" Ginny shouted.

Juliette took a step forward towards Ginny, but stopped when Hermione grabbed her arm. Ginny looked at Hermione's hand on Juliette's arm, and saw red. She turned and ran from the corridor, leaving her books all over the floor.