Chapter 3
Hermione kept running. She burst into the Gryffindor common room, eternally grateful that it was empty. Climbing up the stairs to her dormitory, she didn’t slow down. All she wanted was to be alone to process what she had seen. Fred and Katie. Of course. They were closer in age, they played Quidditch together, Katie was so pretty and nice. Why wouldn’t Fred want to be with her? Hermione slowed to a walk and, sniffling, pushed the dormitory door open as gently as she could. She hoped Parvati and Lavender would already be asleep. The last thing she needed was to wake them to witness her meltdown. Luck however, was not on Hermione’s side.
Both girls were sat upon Lavender’s bed in the middle of the room; Parvati’s bed was to the left, Hermione’s to the right. They were flipping through the latest edition of Witch Weekly, giggling at some article, probably about the next hot couple in the wizarding world, but their heads snapped towards the door as she entered. Immediately they spotted her red rimmed eyes and splotchy face, and both jumped up from the bed, rushing to her side.
“What’s happened?”
“Are you okay?”
“She’s clearly not okay, Lav. Look at her face!”
“Well obviously! I was just asking.”
“Come sit with us.”
“Tell us what’s wrong.”
Both of her roommates were talking so fast, Hermione could barely keep up. They were still talking as they each grabbed one of her arms and lead her back to Lavender’s bed. Before she knew it, she was tucked between them being handed tissues from Lavender and a box of chocolates from Parvati. They were gazing at her expectantly. Clearly she had missed whatever they had just asked her.
“Um, w-why are you b-being so nice to m-me,” Hermione stammered, her voice still wobbly after crying. “I t-thought you didn’t l-like me?”
“Of course we like you, Hermione!” exclaimed Parvati. “We usually just leave you to do your own thing because we know you find all our gossiping a bit pointless.”
“Yeah, exactly. Though even if we didn’t like you we still wouldn’t ignore you when you’re so obviously upset. We’re not complete bitches you know,” added Lavender.
“Oh,” said Hermione, feeling abashed. She had spent the past four years labelling the pair as just that.
“So, tell us what’s wrong. We want to help if we can.”
So, Hermione took a deep breath and told them everything. She wasn't really sure why she was spilling her soul to these two girls who were practically strangers but, nestled in between them, she felt safe and somehow trusted them not to ridicule her. Parvati and Lavender were the ultimate audience. They asked questions, they aww-ed over the sweetness of Fred, they gasped at the overheard conversation between Fred and George, they rubbed her arms and nodded sympathetically when she got to the sad parts, and they hugged her tightly when she told them about discovering Fred and Katie in the alcove. When she had finally finished talking, Hermione glanced up to find them both looking at each other, conspiratorially.
“Well…” started Lavender, drawing the word out.
“You know what you need to do, don’t you?” Parvati continued. Hermione shook her head, brow furrowed in confusion.
“You have to show him what he’s missing!” Lavender stated, as if it was the most obvious solution in the world.
Upon seeing her still perplexed face, Parvati elaborated. “If you don’t want Fred to see you as his little sister, you need to make him not see you as his little sister. You need to show him your sexy side.”
Hermione balked at that word. She was 100% sure she wasn’t sexy and could never be sexy. Lavender noticed and added “You are sexy, Hermione. Underneath all that hair and your hunchback from lugging around all those unnecessary books, you are incredibly pretty, and you have an amazing body. You just need to use some of that confidence you have in the classroom. Boys love confident women.”
“We’ll help you!” Parvati was getting excited now. In fact, both girls were practically shaking in glee.
“Makeover!” they both yelled together, jumping off the bed and pulling drawers open. All manner of items were suddenly being thrown on the end of the bed. Make up, brushes, lotions, pots of ointment, weird metal items that looked a bit like torture devices. Parvati rushed off to their shared bathroom and returned with her arms full of toiletries. Lavender had moved to her wardrobe, different items of clothing flying over her head onto Parvati’s empty bed.
“Wait, wait, wait!” cried out Hermione, sitting up on her knees. “What exactly are you two going to do to me? I don’t want to become somebody I’m not!”
“Oh no, no. We’re just going to help you bring out some of that natural beauty and show you how to show off your assets properly,” said Parvati in a soothing voice, coming over to run her hand over Hermione’s hair. Hermione felt strangely like she was being petted.
That evening was a whirlwind for Hermione. She tried on dozens of clothes as the girls poked and prodded her, calling out directions. She wasn’t overly sure what they were looking for but for some reason, she found trusted them and was shocked to discover that she was actually having fun. After the girls had established what they called the perfect “fuck you” outfit, Hermione was instructed to change into her pyjamas for the skincare, make-up and haircare portion of the evening.
While they worked on her, they continued to discuss Hermione’s problem.
“Fred’s blind if he doesn’t see what a catch you are.”
“Maybe we should find someone for you to snog in front of him, make him jealous?”
“Yeah, maybe. Could backfire though. Like with you and Seamus last year?”
“That’s true. Dean still hasn’t spoken to me after that.”
Hermione was being pampered from head to foot. Literally. Parvati was painting her toes while Lavender was running some product that smelled amazing through her wild mane.
“..and fuck George! What the hell does he know? He’s been following Angelina Johnson around like a sad, little puppy dog for YEARS now!”
“He’s the pathetic one! Can’t work up the nerve to ask the girl out. Everyone knows that’s why Fred asked her to the Yule Ball. George begged him to so no one else would take her but he was too much of a baby to ask her himself!”
Hermione suddenly found herself with a newfound appreciation for gossip. She hadn’t known about George and Angelina and now she did, her feelings about the conversation she had overheard at Grimmauld Place were starting to switch from upset and embarrassment to annoyance and indignation. How dare he judge her in such a way when he was no better? How hypocritical of him to mock her when he was doing the exact same thing, and for much longer by the sounds of it! Hermione had drowned out Parvati and Lavender’s conversation as she was processing the new information about George but was sucked out of her increasingly irate thoughts when she caught the mention of Ron’s name.
“Wait, go back a bit. What did you just say about Ron?”
“Well, I’m guessing that could be a reason why Fred’s holding back, you know? Doesn’t want to stand on his brother’s toes.”
“Sorry Parvati, I must have missed what you said before because none of that makes sense to me. Why would he be standing on Ron's toes?” Hermione was baffled. Fred’s holding back because of Ron? Why? Yet again, Parvati and Lavender seemed to know something Hermione didn’t.
“Because of the history between you and Ron? If Fred does have feelings for you, he probably won’t act on them due to loyalty to Ron,” explained Lavender, looking at her as if she was explaining something very simple to a young child.
“Nope, sorry, still lost over here. What history do Ron and I have? You mean because I’m one of Ron’s best friends? I get that might be a little weird and might explain the little sister thing but what does that have to do with loyalty to Ron?”
“Oh my god. Lav, she doesn’t know.”
“Know what? What are you talking about?” Hermione turned round from where she was sat so she could look from one to the other.
“Well, it was last year, after the Yule Ball,” began Parvati.
“Dean and Seamus were talking about it in the common room.”
“Yeah, it was all anyone was talking about for a while though.”
“I know! I even heard some Hufflepuff girls talking about it in one of the bathrooms. I think they were second years.”
Hermione exploded. “Will somebody, for the love of Godric, please just tell me what the hell you’re talking about?” Both her dorm mates gave her small, apologetic smiles.
“Sorry.”
“Yeah, sorry Hermione.”
“Ron called a sort of meeting between a lot of the Gryffindor boys,” Lavender finally began to explain. “I think Harry, Dean and Seamus were there, as well as Fred, George, Lee, some people in the year below us and all the boys in the year above.”
“Apparently, he told them all that you and he were destined to be together,” continued Parvati. “He said you had had a big chat and decided that you were going to be together, but you wanted to go slow and not make a big deal out of it.”
“Dean said Ron told them you and him were snogging every chance you got but you wanted to keep it quiet for now. Ron was sort of staking his claim on you before anyone got any funny ideas.”
“Said that now everyone had seen how pretty you could be, he didn’t want anyone making a fool of themselves by trying to ask you out, seeing as you were his already.”
“Made a lot of them back off, for sure. I know Seamus had said he was going to take a run at you but didn’t want to get in the middle of anything messy between you and Ron.”
“Uh, Hermione? Are you okay?”
No. Hermione was most definitely not okay. Her blood was boiling, and she had never felt so angry and betrayed in all her life. There had been no big chat. They certainly were not destined to be together. There was absolutely no snogging; she was not some piece of property that he could declare his like some petulant little toddler not wanting to share his toys. "Okay" was not a word in her vocabulary right now.
Hermione was going to have a little conversation with Ronald Weasley, and Merlin help him when she did.