Between Us - Dramione/Blinny

Ch. 11

That Wednesday was the last day in September, and Hermione was happy to have the rest of the afternoon off after one of her classes was cancelled for the day. She immediately made a beeline for the library since she had an essay that was due that Friday, happy to have homework to do as it helped keep her mind off everything.

As she made her way back to her favorite table, she noticed that Pansy was off in the corner hunched over a few books. She looked rather frazzled; her hair was pulled up into a messy bun with strands hanging out, and she had dark circles under her eyes from stress.

Hermione immediately made her way over to the table, plopping down next to Pansy. "Hey, everything okay?"

Pansy looked up quickly, unable to muster a smile as she sat back in her chair and rubbed her cheeks in frustration. "Not really. I've been in here all afternoon surrounded by books because I'm stuck on this History of Magic essay and I can't find the answer I need!"

There was an angry shhh from Madam Pince as Pansy's voice grew louder from frustration, and Pansy scrunched her nose up when the older witch turned back around. Hermione giggled slightly and shook her head, reaching over for Pansy's essay.

"Let's take a look," She said quietly, quickly skimming what Pansy had already written. "I think I know where you can find this out. Hang on just a second."

Pansy watched her curiously as she got up from her seat, making her way to the nearby shelves and pulling down two books before returning back to the table. "Here, these two should help."

"How did you know it was these two?" Pansy asked, carefully taking the two large books from Hermione.

Hermione raised an eyebrow. "Did you forget I basically live here?"

Pansy chuckled at that and opened the first book, skimming the pages as she said, "You didn't need to do that, but thank you!"

"Anytime!" Hermione smiled. "It's what friends do!"

"You mean you'd help your friends with homework?" Pansy asked.

"Are you kidding? I've been helping Harry and Ron with their homework for years," Hermione laughed quietly as she pulled her own notes out of her bag. "I'm actually surprised they didn't try to convince me into going to Auror training to help them through it."

Pansy frowned at that. "So basically the only reason the two of them passed was because of you?"

"I wouldn't say the only reason but I definitely helped," Hermione shrugged.

"Doesn't sound like they were that great of friends," Pansy said pointedly. "Using you to do their homework."

"It wasn't really using so much as..." Hermione trailed off, trying to find the right word.

"You can admit it, Hermione," Pansy said gently.

Hermione thought about it for a few moments, remembering all of the times that she would have to go over their essays for mistakes. "Honestly, with Harry's I was just proofreading for mistakes. Ron was the one that I would have to remind about him even having homework. It got very frustrating after a while, made me feel like a nag."

"That's never good," Pansy frowned. "Hopefully that doesn't carry over to other parts of his life."

Growing quiet, Hermione started to think about Pansy's comment. She remembered all the times that she or Mrs. Weasley would have to nag Ron about cleaning up after himself or doing a task that he should've already done, especially his homework. She didn't really want to think about how that would come to play out in the future if they lived together.