Snake Got Your Tongue? (Drarry & Pansmione)

3. Truce

Hermione's POV:

I noticed how much skinnier Harry was getting every day. I had always been one to notice things but that wasn't something anyone could miss, even Ron noticed. It was scary, concerning- your best friend getting rapidly thinner and not being able to do anything about it. I've been trying to get him to eat, not forcing him, just pleading that he eat at least a bite. His happy demeanour seemed to have disappeared over the summer, and the bags under his eyes had become a considerable amount clearer. It was clear the war took a much larger toll on Harry than it did to others.

***

On Monday, I had potions with Slytherin. I arrived to the class early and took a seat behind Harry and Ron, the class began to fill up but i couldn't see Parkinson anywhere. Not that I care. When she eventually showed up, her face was red and her hair was messy, she looked like she had been crying.

"Miss Parkinson, you are five minutes late!" Professor Slughorn accused.

"S-sorry sir, it won't happen again." She stuttered. Weird..stuttering is very un-parkinson like.

"Good, take a seat."

She scanned the room, rolling her eyes when she realised the only free seat was next to me. She trudged over to my desk and plonked down beside me.

"Parkinson..are you-are you okay?" I whispered awkwardly.

"Why do you care, Granger?" she snapped.

"Well sorry for caring that you look like you've been crying non-stop all night."

"Gee, thanks."

"You know I didn't mean it like that. Tell me."

"It's just-"

"If you two would like to listen to me instead of having your own conversation, that would be appreciated." Professor Slughorn scolded.

"Sorry professor" I said embarrassed.

"Miss Parkinson, would you like to tell me the main ingredient in an ageing potion?" he asked.

"Is it murtlap tentacle?" she answered shyly.

"No, but if you were listening you would've know it's occamy eggshell." he corrected exasperatedly, and continued with the lesson.

Around ten minutes later, he assigned us to write an essay on the ageing potion. I began working on it and so did Parkinson. I reached over to dip my quill in my pot of ink, and so did she, her ink pot was right next to mine. Her hand brushed over my own and butterflies erupted in my stomach, we made eye contact and it was like time froze. I stared into her hazel eyes and I never wanted to look away. I'm not sure why the butterflies suddenly seized my insides, or why I felt as if I could get lost in those eyes and never want to leave, but I wasn't sure I wanted those feelings to go away. Our moment was interrupted by Professor Slughorn telling us that class was over and to hand our essays in by the next day. I stood up and started to collect my things and glanced over to Slytherin who was looking in the opposite direction, also packing away her things.

***after dinner***

Ron, Harry and I were chilling in the common room, I was reading a muggle book about romance, it was weird, I felt as though I resonated with it for some reason. Odd. Ron and Harry were playing a very heated game of snap, a muggle game I introduced to them last year at Christmas.

"Hermione, tell Ron that he can't do that! It's cheating!" Harry demanded.

"It's not cheating! Hermione didn't tell us any rules about the speed of how we flip the card!" Ron shouted, attracting a little more attention than he intended.

"What do you mean?" I asked, confused as to why they still hadn't told me what Ron had actually been doing.

"Look, I'll show you." Harry said, and then proceeded to very slowly take the top card off his deck and flip it over slowly, looking at it, and then finally place it on top of the main deck.

"Yes, Ron, that's cheating." I informed him.

"How!?" Ron asked.

"Because you're supposed to flip it at the very last second, if you look at it mid air, and very slowly," I said, rolling my eyes, "you're one more step ahead than you should be."

"I'm done!" he raged, "I'm going to bed."

"But Ron, we didn't finish the ga-" Harry said, getting louder with every word as Ron climbed up the stairs to the dorm, but finally being cut off by the sound of his door slamming.

"Well, I suppose it is getting late anyways, I'll be off to bed also. Goodnight Harry."

"Night 'Mione."

I walked upstairs and into my dorm to see a certain black-haired girl missing. I screwed my face up in confusion and plonked down into my bed, I took my book back out and continued reading it. I was shortly interrupted by the sound of the bathroom door clicking open and closed. I looked up from my book and saw Parkinson standing there in her silk black pyjamas and red, puffy eyes.

"Come here, sit down." I said out of nowhere, patting the spot beside me on my bed.

"What?" She asked, looking extremely confused.

"I just want to talk." I said. She slowly nodded and made her way over to my bed and gently sad down.

"Why have you been crying?" I said softly

"Why should I tell you, Granger? We're not friends." She said in a cold tone.

"Well then, why don't we be? Let's put everything from before behind us, yeah? A truce." I offered, holding out my hand for her to shake, which she hesitantly did. Her grip was so soft and gentle, I never wanted to let go, but that's just because i was happy, right..? I mean, I like boys.

"Well, if we're friends, I suppose you should start calling me by my first name." She declared, smiling. She has such a pretty smile.

"Same for you." I said, smiling right back at her. "So, Pansy, what's on your mind?"

"It's just that I-I like a girl, and I know she'd never like me back. That sounds cheesy, I know, but it's really got me down for some reason." she sighed and my face contorted in disbelief.

"How could someone not like you? You're beautiful, and you have an amazing personality. What's not to like?" I told her honesty.

"Y-you think I'm pretty?" she said, starting to tear up again.

"I think you're stunning." I said gently and looked into her eyes. We held eye contact for what felt like forever, and she moved her hand on top of mine. However, we were interrupted by the sound of the dorm next ours' door slamming. Why do we always get interrupted?

She jumped off the bed and walked over to hers. She mumbled a 'good night Hermione' and used her wand to turn off the lights, then went to sleep. I looked at her for a moment, admiring how peaceful she looked now, way different than before we had that conversation. I really did mean everything I said.