August | Hermione Granger x OFC

Chapter Thirty

♡━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━♡

"I reckon the only way I could've impressed Roger more is if I tried the Wronski Feint, eh Rosie? You know all about that, don't you?" Willow boasted as they sat at breakfast the following day. That morning, Roger Davies had finally put the Quidditch tryouts results on the common room notice board, and Willow had been successful, as had Chester. The difference was, he hadn't been blabbing about it to anyone who would listen.

Robyn shrugged nonchalantly, "I don't know, I think it would be a bit odd for a Beater to try a Seeker move."

Willow ignored that, "Just admit it, Rosie, darling. You like me. You got Lana and me presents!"

"Presents?" Olivia perked up.

Robyn shook her head, "I did no such thing."

"How'd those books appear on our beds, then? Because it wasn't Luna or Olivia," Willow crossed her arms and leaned across the table challengingly.

Robyn pursed her lips in thought, before saying, "...Magic?"

"Ha! She jokes!"

"I know, I'm funny," she agreed.

"We're funny," Willow emphasised

Robyn nodded, "We're really funny."

"Aren't we?"

Robyn held out her hand and wiggled her fingers, "The laughs we have!"

Willow returned the gesture, "Between me and you!"

"We have some laughs!"

"Pranks! Laughs!" Willow scoffed and looked to the distance dramatically.

"...I'm not sure what's happening," Lana commented uncertainly.

"And now, I bid you adieu," Robyn stood from the table and flicked her banana peel at Willow.

"Naturally," Willow nodded several times, ignoring the banana peel. "You're good at that. Leaving perfectly lovely girls to go do slimy snake-y things with the Slytherins. Should call it the Robski Feint."

"We don't do slimy things. That sounds so weird," Robyn laughed heartily, then continued, "'Perfectly lovely girls'? I'm afraid I don't see any...Maybe I need glasses. Oh, and very creative. Ta ta," she walked off, but not without catching sight of Potter and Weasley looking worse for wear at the Gryffindor table. She thought she spotted a black eye on Potter, but as she said, maybe she needs glasses...

♡━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━♡

That evening after dinner, Robyn walked nervously into the library to meet Granger. If she would even turn up. She wasn't sure what exactly Potter and Weasley would have disclosed, or if Granger would blame her.

Not that she cared if Granger was annoyed at her.

She finally arrived at the isolated table they had sat at yesterday, and to her surprise, there was Granger.

She cleared her throat awkwardly, "Hi." Granger turned in her seat, stared for a second, then gestured her over with a tilt of her head. 'Okay, not as enthusiastic as usual, but not hostile either. Maybe she's not angry with me,' Robyn thought to herself.

"I'm angry with you," Granger said simply as Robyn took the seat across from her.

'Never mind.' Robyn bit her lip sheepishly, "...Are you?"

"Mhm," Granger hummed and looked down at the book she held, which Robyn could see was 'The Handbook of Hippogriff Psychology'.

"Why, exactly?" Robyn prompted, curious as to what Granger knew.

Granger set down her book and sat straighter, as if she were about to give a lecture. Robyn could imagine her using one of those pointer stick thingies that teachers used to draw attention to things on the board, reciting, "Reason number one why I am angry with you...Reason number two why I am angry with you..." et cetera.

In reality, she said, "You were there."

Robyn winced, "Technically, I wasn't. I left before—"

"Fine. You left," Granger interrupted. "You knew the Slytherins were going to hurt them."

She conceded, "Okay. I did."

"Yes. Well?"

"Well, what?"

"You shouldn't have left."

Robyn shook her head, "What was I supposed to do?"

"Not leave," Granger insisted.

"Oh, come on. Be reasonable. I couldn't have stopped them," Robyn insisted back.

"'Oh, come on'," Granger imitated her. "It was your brother. And your...boyfriend," she spat. Robyn scrunched up her face at that. "What if it had been me? Would you have left?" Granger challenged.

Robyn spluttered, "Well, that's just- different. They wouldn't hurt you like that. You're a girl!"

"Well spotted," Granger laughed humourlessly. "But they don't care whether I'm a boy or a girl or both or neither. I'm just a Mudblood to them."

They stared at each other, silently, intensely.

Robyn looked away first, then asked with a frown, "What's this really about?"

"I don't know, your morals?" Granger shrugged. "You let my friends get hurt."

"I'm sorry I'm not a brave and noble Gryffindor like you, okay? I tried to help them. I did help them." She was a little annoyed now as Granger seemed to be blaming her wholly for the incident. Why not blame the people who actually did the attacking? Or was Granger going to lecture them, too, once she was done with Robyn? She highly doubted it.

Granger laughed in disbelief, "How did you possibly help them?"

"Who do you think alerted the Prefects?" Robyn shot back.

Granger narrowed her eyes, still scrutinising. "...Did you?" she spoke softer than before, though didn't seem entirely forgiving either.

"Yes," Robyn sighed. "Look, we're here to help the hippogriff, not debate my ethics. So get on with it." She snatched the book from Granger's side of the table and began reading, very aware of the intense gaze still on her.

♡━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━♡

A/N: *Harry and Niall...entered the chat*

word count: 891😐 

- A