Tradition

2/10/96
Hermione awoke with a start. Her surroundings coming into focus reminding her that everything is different now. She slept in the slytherin dorm cause her friends think she’s evil. She slept in the slytherin dorm cause griffindor don’t think she’s good enough. She slept in the slytherin dorm cause they were nice enough to take her in.
She must be going insane, did she really just call slytherins nice? What is wrong with her?

“Oh, you’re up”
Her thoughts are interrupted by Astoria informing the dorm that the intruder among them had awoken.
“Lemme just introduce you to those you haven’t met yet...”
“That’s Millicent, she may seem a little cold but she’s an absolute gem if you get to know her.”
Astoria motioned towards a tall, muscular girl that Hermione remembered vividly from her second year. Well, not millicent per say, more her cat.
“Tracey, our resident gossip queen, seriously don’t get on her bad side she knows too much about everyone”
The short girl Astoria points towards giggles and sends a small wave in her direction.
“You and Pansy are already well acquainted obviously”- she continued with a short roll of her eyes.
“Then finally, there’s Jodie. I think she’s in your history class right?”
Hermione looked over at Jodie and recognised her as the slytherin girl that Pansy came to pick up on Mabon.
“And you guys obviously all know Hermione.”
“Hi guys” Hermione managed to blurt out.
“So following last night, we’ve all come to a decision, some more willingly than others,” Astoria shoots a pointed glare at Pansy ,”and we’ve decided that if you explain what happened we’ll help to get revenge on Potter and Weasel.”
“But why? You guys don’t even like me? Parkinson’s hated my guts since first year” Hermione managed to splutter.

Jodie chose this time to speak up, “Some of us may dislike you but trust us we dislike them more.”
“But why? What’ve they ever done to you?”
Millicent butted in, suddenly becoming very scary and very defensive as soon as Jodie seemed threatened, “It’s not them. It’s what they stand for and what gets done in their name. I wouldn’t expect a golden girl like you to understand.”
“What do you mean what they stand for? They’re light wizards they fight for the greater good right?”
The whole dorm seemed to take a deep breath as if waiting for Millicent to explode in Hermione’s face.
“Milly leave it”
Jodie’s soft spoken words seemed to calm the bigger girl down almost instantly, “let’s hear what she has to say about yesterday.”

So Hermione sat and explained. She explained all that had happened between them since Mabon. Their exclusion of her, their accusation of her being influenced by the slytherins. By the end of it Hermione was in tears, Astoria sat behind her rubbing soft circles into her back “We’re here Hermione, we’re here.”
Hermione hadn’t realised until this moment how much she had missed out on by not having female friends, she’d burnt all those bridges already in griffindor- whether that was by ignoring them or simply disregarding their viewpoint. It suddenly dawned on her that she wanted that. She wanted friends she could rely on to understand.
“Hey can you just wait in the common room while we discuss what we want to do?”- Astoria’s request brought her back out of her head.
“Of course.”

And that was how she came to be sat next to none other than Draco Malfoy, her bully of six years.
“I’ve heard about what Potter and Weasel said to you”
Oh here we go she thought glumly.
“It was unfair of them. I may be above you in all manners but that doesn’t give me the right to deny you to practice tradition. You’re still a witch even if you are a mudblood.”
“Oh.”
Well that was unexpected, he was still very much a dick but at least he acknowledged her as a witch. That was better than her friends at least.
“Thanks Draco.”
“Shut it Granger and if you tell anyone I said that I will not hesitate to skim you alive.”
There’s the Draco we know and hate, Hermione thought with a roll of her eyes.
But this moment she’d realise looking back was a turning point, because it was at this point she realised that the world wasn’t just in black and white and that not everything in the wizarding world was as simple as it seemed.

“Hermione, we’ve decided.”
Following Astoria’s voice she made her way back towards the girls dorm, nervously awaiting the decision that the girls had come to.
Astoria began, “So we’ve agreed to help you get revenge on your friends but we have each come up with our own condition; for me my condition is that you become our friend. I’ve watched you with the boys through the years and quite frankly they don’t deserve you and whilst we may come across as two faced bitches, I can promise that normally we’re as loyal as they come.”
That was something Hermione could easily agree to, she wanted friends as badly as they wanted her to become part of their little alliance.
Millicent’s condition came next, “You have to be willing to help protect us in the hallways, we take the brunt of the bullying in the school and teachers turn a blind eye, it would be helpful to have a different house’s prefect on our side.”
This took her slightly more by surprise; it seemed that today was the day that her world would be completely turned upside down. But the more she thought about it the more it made sense. Slytherins turning up to lesson with bruises that weren’t there before, things she’d always assumed we’re deserved. But now thinking about it why did she think they were deserved? Because they were all evil bullies? The more she thought about the more angered she got, this was a condition she could agree to in a heartbeat, how could she call herself griffindor if she wouldn’t fight for those in need.
Tracey, who up until this point hadn’t uttered a word in Hermione’s presence had an easy enough condition. “If you hear gossip from the girffindor common room that you think I won’t know then you have to tell me.”
When questioned on why this was her chosen condition Tracey simply responded, “would I really be a slytherin if I didn’t at least use this opportunity to my advantage? That’s the only real difference between our two houses, we’re willing to do what it takes to have the edge over others.” Hermione saw the point in this, out of all the houses their two were the most similar and really that was the only major difference- willingness to do what is takes.
Jodie’s condition was also one that Hermione agreed to without much thought, “look out for other muggleborns regardless of house.” This was something Hermione thought she prided herself on so this one she’d like to think she was mostly doing already, though she did recognise that she could stand to improve on her defence of those who she may not always agree with.
This then left Hermione with only one more condition to hear, the one she’d been dreading the most, Pansy’s.
“You have to learn, understand and celebrate the traditions of old.”
“I won’t convert to dark magic if that’s what you want Parkinson.”
“You can’t just convert to dark magic that’s not how it works.” Pansy retorts, knuckles going white against the arm of the chair she was tightly gripping.
“Yes you can, that’s what Ron told me the dark wizards did to muggleborns at the end of the war.”
“Yes and because Weasel said it, it must be true. Honestly this is why you need to learn, so that you stop taking your stupid little crush’s word for it and saying stupid ignorant shit that makes me want to slap you. Because if this is going to work I need to not want to slap you.”
“I DO NOT HAVE A CRUSH ON HIM.” Hermione all but shouted back.
“That’s really what you took from that. Typical.”
“Fine. Pansy,” Hermione said her name like a curse word, “if you know so much how about you teach me the traditions since I couldn’t find anything in the library.”
“Fine I will.” Pansy’s short response sealed the deal.
Why had Hermione done that? Why did she just sign herself up for more time with the one person in this new little friendship group that could she not only not stand but that also hated her. She could’ve been taught by sweet Astoria, soft spoken Jodie, gossipy Tracey or even over-protective Millie and any of those would’ve been better than having to spend hours learning about wizarding tradition form stuck up Pansy Parkinson.
But even that major downside couldn’t bring Hermione down from the utter triumph that was not only securing a plan of vengeance on the boys but also hopefully gaining some friends that would appreciate her on the way.