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The continuous chatter in the Gryffindor common gradually began to lessen as time passed on, but Hermione made no move to head over to the first year girls' dormitory. She sat on one of the very comfortable armchairs by the mildly glowing fire, eyes glazing over Hogwarts: A History, which she has read over a hundred times already, but which never failed to fill her with amazement and wonder. As a muggleborn, everything about Hogwarts was new to her, and she never failed to be fascinated by the wonderful curiosities of the castle.
Her books and parchments have been packed into her bag, which was tucked safely on her bed up in the dormitory. She was done with all of her homework - she always managed to finish it before everyone else - but she used the Hogwarts: A History book as an excuse to stay in the common room a little while longer, hoping to get to the dormitories after her dorm mates, Parvati and Lavender, have fallen asleep.
When she was busy perusing the chapter on the staircases of Hogwarts, she heard someone approaching her. Looking up, Hermione saw Ron and Harry quietly crossing the common room to come over to her - they were walking from the direction of the portrait hole - she pursed her lips in disapproval, but didn't tell them off for being out of the common room so far after curfew.
They have become warmer to her only recently after the incident of the troll in the bathroom, and she didn't want to ruin it.
"Hi," said Harry awkwardly while Ron looked around the common room, as though seeing it for the first time. "Aren't you - er - going to bed?"
"I'll just finish one more chapter," she said with a smile.
Ron squinted at the book on her lap and made a face. "Haven't you read that book already?"
She looked coldly at him. "Yes, I have. But I find it very interesting, so I'm reading it again."
He opened his mouth to argue, but Harry elbowed him on the ribs and he shut his mouth. Hermione pretended like she hadn't seen it.
"Well, good night," said Harry.
"Night."
They headed up the spiral staircase towards the boys' dormitory, and once they have disappeared behind the door, Hermione let out an exasperated sigh, covering her face with her hands.
As excited as she had been about being a witch and coming to Hogwarts, she couldn't deny that the experience here hasn't exactly been up to her expectations. In the weeks leading to September, she had read all the books, and fantasised about coming to this wonderful wizard school, making loads of friends, learning so many new things. Well, she had learnt a lot in the few weeks she has been here, and was thoroughly enjoying the classes, but one thing that she was still behind on was making friends.
Hermione felt terribly lonely here. On the first night of Hogwarts, she had tried to be friendly to Parvati and Lavender, but quickly learned that she would never get along with them, and had soon stopped trying. She liked Neville a lot, who she had shared a compartment with on their way to Hogwarts, but it was clear that he felt intimidated by her. Dean and Seamus were always hanging out together and didn't seem very interested to talk to her.
That left Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, who she had also spoken to on their train ride. They weren't intimidated by her, nor were they giggly like her dorm mates, and were actually quite friendly to her whenever she spoke to them, although she knew they were sometimes annoyed by her presence. Hermione knew the problem was hers; her parents have always encouraged her to seek knowledge, to speak her mind and to not accept everyone's opinions blindly. This has led to her being rather bossy and possibly patronising, and she was aware of it. After they had saved her from the troll, she had promised herself that she would try to speak less and listen more to them, but she had just driven them away by being cold towards Ron, so it was safe to say that her plan wasn't working.
She pressed her fist over her mouth, wanting to cry all of a sudden. She was lonely, and she wasn't enjoying her time at Hogwarts as much. Sure the lessons were enjoyable, but she had no one to share them with.
"You're still here?"
Hermione jumped slightly and looked around. Harry was standing near her armchair, looking at her curiously. There was something in his hands, but she wasn't really paying attention to it - she was too busy trying to blink back her tears.
"Um - yeah," she said quickly, flipping through her book for no reason. "Couldn't concentrate."
Harry brought a chair and sat opposite her, rather awkwardly, and looked at her. Then he opted to stare at the fire as the silence between them grew uncomfortable.
"Is Ron asleep?" she asked, just to break the silence.
"Yeah."
Hermione focused on Hogwarts: A History, trying to finish the part on the moving staircases. But finally when she realised that she has been reading the same line for the past half an hour, she gave up and closed the book. Harry cleared his throat and looked at her, like he had just remembered something.
"Er - I got you this," he said and held up the box on his hands. She peered down and noticed that it had cakes and some brownies. "You weren't at dinner and I figured you might be hungry. Er - this isn't exactly dinner, but Fred and George - Ron's brothers - they are always sneaking out food from the kitchens, and I asked them if they had anything, and this is all they had." He urged her to take the box, which she accepted, surprised but happy, and took a bite out of a brownie. She really was hungry.
"Why weren't you at dinner?" asked Harry.
Hermione took some time to swallow the brownie before she answered. "I wasn't hungry. Here, have one." She offered him one of the cakes. Harry refused, but she insisted that if he didn't have one, she wouldn't eat hers either. He gave in finally, and for the next several minutes, they sat there near the comfortably warm fire, enjoying the sweets.
It was the first time since she had come to Hogwarts that Hermione was sharing something with someone. It felt nice.
"You know, you can sit with us in classes and in the Great Hall," said Harry. He wasn't awkward anymore now that he had seen Hermione wasn't going to lecture him on the history of Hogwarts, but he was still avoiding looking directly into her eyes. Hermione reckoned he was like this to everyone.
"I don't think Ron likes me very much," she said in a low voice, remembering the time she had overheard him saying to Harry that she was a nightmare. But Harry shrugged.
"You just need to get to know him a little," he said.
Hermione ate one more cake and closed the box. "Thanks for this, Harry," she said with a smile, and rose to her feet. "I'll go to bed now. Good night."
"Good night," said Harry once again and set of towards the boys' dormitory. Hermione stood there for a while, staring at the fire on the hearth, feeling much much happier than she had felt in the two months she has been here. Tucking the large book under her arm, she went off to the girls' dormitory, where Lavender and Parvati were fast asleep. She placed the book on her trunk, the box of sweets on the table by her bed and quickly changed into her nightgown.
But instead of going to sleep, she extracted a piece of parchment and a quill, and began to write a letter, lying on her stomach on the bed, cocooned protectively by her blanket.
Dear Mum and Dad, she began after dipping the tip of her quill in elegant black ink. And with a smile on her face, she wrote to her parents to let them know that she had made friends.
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this is super late and very short, so sorry about that. i'm not really sure if this what you were asking for, but i enjoyed writing it and i hope all of you enjoyed it too!
i'll try to go through the rest of the requests as soon as possible.
do let me know what you think, and feel free to drop requests if there's anything in particular you'd like me to write!
