August | Hermione Granger x OFC

Chapter Thirty-Six

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15th of February 1994

Robyn was quietly making her way down to Potions with Luna and Willow. She was feeling quite down in the dumps as that past Saturday Granger had broken the news that Buckbeak had been sentenced to death.

Well, 'broken the news' was putting it rather lightly. The girl had been in floods of tears (again) and blubbered something about 'Buckbeak' and 'executed' and then hurried away to tell Potter and Weasley before Robyn could really do anything.

Astoria, who had been with her at the time, had looked positively baffled, but Robyn did not entertain her with an explanation. She simply pretended she had no idea what Granger had been on about, ("Those Muggle-borns are deranged," she had said, quite convincingly in her own opinion) and Astoria believed her, giving a neutral shrug; not showing whether she agreed or disagreed.

Robyn wasn't necessarily surprised at the verdict, but still, they had been working hard to make a case for Buckbeak, just to reap no rewards in the end.

She personally had been cheered up as Luna's birthday had been on Sunday and Valentine's Day followed. She had, again, received an origami flower. However, this time it was a red carnation with a green stem. Written on the stem in small, neat handwriting were the words,

Please, say to me

You'll let me hold your hand.

Happy Valentine's Day.

Whoever this person was, they were really quite poetic. And smart. Or at least, well read, as she had to ask Neville to identify the flower for her and its meaning. He had told her that as it was light red it most likely meant admiration.

So, she really did have an admirer. A secret admirer. How exciting.

Not so exciting was the fact that for Valentine's Day Draco had given her...

A kiss.

And she didn't like it.

Not really.

Not as much as when Blaise had done it, at least. Maybe she just had an aversion to Draco.

It was okay...but there was none of that stereotypical stuff, like, what was it? When one person likes another, they feel ___ in their ___.

She couldn't remember the phrase. 

Was it chizpurfles in their brain? That didn't sound right.

Hoo-hoos in their hoo-ha? No, too crude.

Flitterbies in their heart? Maybe that was it.

Anyway.

She knew Granger's morale hadn't been great recently (even after she tried to cheer her up after the Quidditch match) as Sirius Black had reportedly attempted to attack Weasley in his bed. Honestly, that had disturbed her just as much as it had Granger. The two of them had stayed out late that night (past curfew, again. What a bad influence they were on each other!); they easily could have passed the man while he lurked in the shadows. With that added stress, her fight with Weasley, her enormous workload, and the anxiety surrounding Buckbeak's trial...well, Robyn wouldn't blame her if she went off the rails.

And off the rails she went.

"Look at him blubber!" Robyn heard a familiar voice call out mockingly as she, Luna and Willow neared an entrance to the castle. The three girls exchanged a look and hurried their steps to see what Draco was going on about. As they came to the castle doors they saw him, Crabbe, and Goyle snickering amongst themselves. "Have you ever seen anything quite as pathetic?" Draco continued. "And he's supposed to be our teacher!"