Hermione Granger and the Paradigm Shift

Chapter 5 - Part 1

The minutes seemed to crawl by at a snail's pace as Hermione waited for Harry's return to Hogwarts. It took all of her willpower to not curse when Professor McGonagall had informed her that Harry wasn't due to return until a full three hours after her arrival. McGonagall had given her a note from Dumbledore for Harry but that was secondary in her mind. A brief visit to Hagrid's hut had been a nice diversion but the task at hand was never truly forgotten.

She wanted to get through Harry's 'I told you so's' regarding the Half Blood Prince as quickly and painlessly as possible. Given how smug and dismissive she had been all year she was not expecting to come out of the encounter unscathed. At least it was Harry, she mused. If it had been Ron she was sure the gloating remarks would be frequent and never-ending.

Fifteen minutes after Harry's scheduled return she heard Ron loudly arguing with the Fat Lady on the the other side of the portrait and quickly opened the door, revealing an annoyed Ron and a slightly bemused Harry and Ginny. It appeared their impatience at not gaining entry to Gryffindor had been mitigated by listening to Ron go at it with the portrait.

"Don't mind her," Hermione said as casually as she could muster, "she went on a bit of a bender over the break and is still out of sorts."

"Who told you that?" the portrait responded before wincing and grabbing her head in pain due to her own loud outburst. She quickly recovered and continued on. "That is a scurrilous lie, and even if it were true I would never let it affect my sworn duty to Hog-"

"Abstinence," Hermione interjected forcefully, not wanting to engage again with the angry woman. "The new password is Abstinence."

"Good to know," Ginny responded pleasantly, shooting a grin at Harry before pushing past Ron and entering the common room. "I suppose I should find Dean," she continued as her grin faded slightly, waving them goodbye. Hermione glanced at Harry and saw that he now wore a small grin rivaling Ginny's prior expression. It was clear he had also picked up on Ginny's severe lack of excitement about seeing her boyfriend.

The grin was fleeting as he quickly looked her way. "Hi, Hermione. Good holiday?" he asked. It appeared he was as nervous as she was to talk about the legitimacy of the Half Blood Prince.

"It was fine," she replied, quickly forging onward before she lost her nerve. "Can we talk about-"

"Won-Won!" came an impassioned voice from behind as she felt herself being politely pushed to the side. She watched as Lavender latched onto Ron for several seconds before stepping back to look at him. As Lavender took in the sight of her boyfriend her smile disappeared as quickly as it came, morphing to one of confusion. "Why aren't you wearing my gift?"

"See you later," Ron muttered before quickly grabbing Lavender's hand and pulling her away.

"What was that about?" Hermione asked.

She turned back to see Harry now sporting a grin from ear to ear. "I promised him I wouldn't give any specifics but do you remember that perfume he bought you?"

Hermione nodded, failing to hide her disgust as she instantly and viscerally recalled the horrid smell she suspected could counteract the strongest of love potions.

"Imagine if there were a matching necklace to go along with that perfume and you have a pretty good idea of Lavender's gift."

She couldn't help herself and barked out a laugh so loud that Ron turned and shot Harry a dirty look.

"Now you've ruined it," Harry mumbled insincerely as he attempted to hide his grin from Ron and began pulling her to the opposite corner of the room.

"I'm sorry!" she exclaimed as she covered her mouth. It dawned on her that perhaps Ron and Lavender truly did deserve each other. "Thank you for your gift by the way," she continued as she gathered herself and took a seat.

"I know a voucher for Flourish and Blotts isn't very original but every time we go there's always two or three things you want to buy but don't and I thought-"

"I mean it, Harry. It was very thoughtful...much better than that perfume."

"That's a very low bar," Harry joked, clearly relieved his gift had gone over well. "And thanks for the gloves...I didn't expect to get Quidditch gear from you."

"Statistics show that Seekers are more likely to sustain injuries to their hands and it looked like you'd outgrown your old pair," she supplied nervously.

"You noticed that?" he asked, clearly impressed. "I didn't realize you paid that close of attention to Quidditch matches."

"I pay close attention to you at Quidditch matches ," she quickly responded before realizing how such a statement could be interpreted. "I mean...one of us has to look out for your safety out there and you clearly don't care."

Her stomach twitched as Harry smiled and nervously ran a hand through his hair. Shit. She had done so well the last few years of ridding herself of that nonsense and forced herself to refocus on more important matters.

She quickly pulled the Headmaster's note out of her pocket and handed it to Harry. "Professor McGonagall asked me to give you this."

"Looks like I have another history lesson with Dumbledore tomorrow night," Harry mumbled after reading and quickly stowing away the note. "So..." he continued, nervousness evident in his voice, "did you get a chance to to look at the book?"

Hermione nodded before swiftly pulling out the book and handing it back to Harry. She then fixedly stared at the table and started blurting out the words as quickly as possible.

"I was wrong," she spit out. "It's honestly fascinating...I should have heard you out and given it a chance before being so dismissive. I'm sorry."