20's

Hermione’s free period that day was spent wandering the corridors, it had been a good way to deter all the overly friendly faces. 

“Hermione!”

“So sorry but I’m terribly busy! We’ll catch up later!”

She’d then rushed around the corner and ducked into an alcove behind a tapestry waiting until footsteps stopped echoing in the hallway and then let her feet carry her wherever they pleased. 

They were over a month into term and everyone seemed to be adjusting as well as anyone could hope. Students seemed to vary between two extremes; staying meek and timid or loud, brash, and sometimes aggressive. McGonagall had explicitly stated to all older returning students that they were to set an example to the younger ones, they needed to show everyone how strong and united they were. There had been a few scoffs among the group of 8th years but McGonagall’s resounding glare had silenced them. They’d all been perfect model students following that conversation. 

Hermione was mulling that conversation over yet again as she walked. She wasn’t sure that everyone having to carry on as usual was the healthiest response to war trauma but who was she to judge. She wasn’t exactly the queen of mental health herself. 

She’d been so lost in thought she heard the fall before she saw it even though the 1st year had been 30 feet in front of her. The younger girl had tripped on her robes, the black fabric tangled around her foot, and her bag skidded across the stone floor scattering books, quills, and parchment. 

‘Oh no! No no no,” the girl sniffled, in her hands was a stack of parchment soaked through with ink. Hermione felt a stab of sympathy, this had happened to her more times than she cared to admit. She was stepping towards the girl when he seemed to appear from nowhere. 

Draco Malfoy. 

Frozen instantly she did nothing but watch him approach the girl. He’d been different this year, doing a remarkable job of blending in, to the point that he was almost completely unnoticeable. 

But Hermione couldn’t help but notice. 

“Excuse me, may I help?”

The girl looked up, startled and her faced flushed, “I was running late for Charms and then I had to go and fall all over myself and my essay is- my essay-“ Her voice had gotten high and squeaky towards the end as she frantically waved the stack of parchment that was dripping ink all over the floor. 

“Hey hey, just breathe okay? What’s your name?” Malfoy had silently summoned the girl's belongings and was crouched on the ground organizing them back into her bag.

“L-Lila,” she choked out, trying to take deep breaths to calm herself down like Malfoy had instructed. 

“I tell you what Lila as soon as you explain to Professor Flitwick what happened I guarantee he won’t be cross with you, especially not with a Ravenclaw,” Malfoy flicked the girl's tie and she gave him a timid smile before he gently pried the essays from her grip on it and siphoned the mess of ink from it. Lila let out a small gasp before snatching the pages from him. 

“Thank you! Oh please, please teach me that charm!” 

“I think Professor Flitwick might be better suited to teaching you than me.” With that Lila let out a gasp and grabbed her bag back before racing off down the corridor once more, a string of gratitudes following her.

Hermione had drifted forward during their exchange and was close enough to see the piece of lint on the back of Malfoy’s robes. She wanted to pick it off. 

Suddenly he stood and turned, sensing being watched, and froze just as she had minutes prior. It would have been comical had it been anyone else, they were mirror images of each other. Their eyes locked and they both opened their mouths before snapping them shut. Unsure of who would make the first move. The silence seemed to drag on and Hermione had just decided to walk away when words seemed to spill from her throat before she had a chance to stop them. 

“You’ve changed.”

It was a statement. A fact. Something she had silently speculated and now had concrete proof of. 

He looked down, back up, noisily cleared his throat. 

“Aren’t we meant to? I mean after everything I- we- after everything we went through. How could we remain..unchanged?”

And before she’d had a chance to even process his response he’d stalked off around the corner, running away from her and the conversation. 

A gasp was wrenched from her throat as Hermione was jerked awake. 

“How could we remain unchanged?”

The words had been haunting her for months, long before she’d had a screaming match with Ron and they’d had an eerily similar conversation.

“You’ve changed Hermione.” 

He’d spat it at her with such venom. 

“We all have Ron! How was I supposed to be the same after that? How could I not change?”

She’d been desperate in her attempt to get him to understand something he clearly didn’t. Not yet anyway. 

The clock on her nightstand read 4:47 A.M. and Hermione let out a groan in frustration. She’d do anything to sleep past 5 A.M. but it just didn’t happen most days and she’d rather be productive than lay in bed with her thoughts. 

Slippers cushioning her feet she slipped down the hall past Ginny’s room and into the kitchen, flicking the light on. A disgruntled noise immediately followed and Hermione snorted as she caught Crookshanks yellow eye glaring at her from the counter. 

He’d taken to sleeping in the wooden fruit bowl on the counter, more often than not it remained empty, despite the fact that Hermione had bought him three beds in her attempt to find one he found satisfactory. She still wasn’t quite over how much money she had spent on the silk-lined monstrosity that lay, unused, in the corner of her bedroom. 

Eggs were frying in a pan and coffee was just being poured into two mugs when an overly dramatic groan sounded from the hallway. 

“Having practice at 6:15 on a Sunday should be illegal, if I wasn’t halfway in love with Gwenog Jones I’d strangle her with my bare hands.”

Ginny claimed the bright yellow Tweedy bird mug on the counter and flung herself into the stool at the counter, flashing Hermione a grateful smile. 

“What’re you doing up so fucking early anyway, I thought the bookshop didn’t open till 9 today?” She slurped at her drink and watched as Hermione neatly arranged their eggs and toast on plates before sliding them across the counter. 

“Oh uh- Garth had a shipment come in early and I said I would help organize it.” It was partly true, there was a large case of books that needed to be organized but Garth would never ask her to come in early. He regularly told her she needed to relax more and that she was far too tense. 

“Bleh that's worse than having to do drills this early in the morning, hard pass.” Hermione shrugged and sat herself at the counter before slathering her toast in what some described as a ‘disgusting’ amount of butter. 

“You know me, always happy to be useful.”

Ginny rolled her eyes but didn’t bring up the topic again as she shoveled her breakfast down and rushed to her room to get changed. She was back before Hermione had finished her coffee and left her with a smacking kiss on her head and a promise to catch up later. 

A glance at the clock. 6:00.

Ugh. 

Now she had to find something to fill her time before actually going to work. It’d be easier to just get dressed and go there now but she knew Garth would kick her out if she walked in at this hour. The only place open at the moment was the coffee shop around the corner, the dinginess of it  made her feel more at home than the upscale place across from the bookshop. 

Shower, get dressed, coffee shop, work. Maybe she’d be extra nice today and bring in a box of muffins. 

The dishes from breakfast were left piled in the sink. Future Hermione’s problem.