Sophia Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Chapter 9

That morning I got up at around noon, which was okay because it was a Saturday. I got dressed in some dark blue jeans and a white t-shirt. Since lunch is served at twelve-thirty I started heading down the stairs. Suddenly, somebody ran into me. "Sorry," I mumbled.
"Watch it." I looked up to see that it was Draco. His whole demeanor changed when he saw me and he smiled. "I'm sorry I thought you were-," he started to say.
"Anyone else," I said angrily. "You know you treat everyone else like dirt and then you are nice to me. Why is that? Why do you hate my brother so much? You showed your true colors the other day when you took Neville's Remembrall. He might be a little weird but what has he ever done to you? If he wasn't so nice he would have stood up to you. I'm not going to make the same mistake!" By then I was practically yelling. I stormed off and slowly made my way to the Great Hall. I couldn't believe he had the guts to talk to me after what had happened at flying lessons.
When I got to the Great Hall I stomped in and sat across from Harry and Ron with Hermione next to me. Harry and Ron were too caught up in their conversation to notice me but Hermione noticed and she said, "What's wrong with you today?"
"Nothing. What did I miss?" I replied grumpily.
"Professor McGonagall gave Harry a Nimbus Two Thousand," she says like it is no big deal.
"What?" I said.
She just shrugged and ate a spoonful of her pudding. This was great news. Now Harry and I could practice together. This also gave me an excuse to be on my broom. After a minute or two Ron and Harry took notice of me and Harry asked, "What's got you in such a bad mood?"
"Yes, pray tell us," Ron added teasingly.
"I'm guessing it's Malfoy problems," Hermione said. I froze. Why did Hermione have to be right about everything?"
"Of course it's not," Harry said, aggravated that we were now talking about Draco, "Is it?"
"No," I said, a little too quickly. Ron raised his eyebrow and they all gave me questioning looks, but didn't press me.
After a little while I headed to the library with Harry to pass time. This would probably be the first time that he had been to the library. Just like I had thought, when we made it to the entrance Harry said, "I imagined it as being big, just not this big."
I laughed as we made our way over to a section about famous philosophers. My mood had lightened but I was still frustrated. "Let's start here," I said. We searched and looked for anything that would give us a hint to what the three-headed dog was guarding. Finally, at around six forty-five we decided to head down to dinner. We had been in school for almost three months and tonight was the Halloween Feast.
We walked across the Great Hall and we sat in our normal spots except that Hermione was nowhere to be seen.
"Where's Hermione?" I said.
"How would I know?" Ron answered. I looked at Harry and he shook his head, however I could tell that he was hiding something.
I gave Harry my hardest stare, that I think even Professor McGonagall would be proud of. After a couple minutes he finally gave in.
"Don't be mad, but we got into a little misunderstanding," he said carefully.
"Why would I be mad? What did you do?" I said in a warning tone.
He took a deep breath and said, "Well, right before you and Harry went to the library Ron, Seamus and I were talking about how annoying she can be. We didn't know that she was right behind us. After that we haven't seen her all day. Some girls said that she was in the bathroom crying." He said this very quickly and it took me a minute for the words to seep in. When it did I found that I wasn't very mad, just hurt.
Right when my mood was getting a little better, it had to be ruined again. "Harry, Ron, why would you do this? She is my best friend whether you like it or not and both of you need to learn that." In a flash I had turned away from them and walked down the hall towards the girls' bathroom. The more I thought about it the more I felt betrayed. Harry is my brother, he is supposed to support who I hang out with, not criticize them. Sure she can get too uptight and act all superior most of the time but she is smart and she is proud of that. There's nothing wrong with that. As for Ron, I'm tired of him always being rude and negative about people, not just Hermione. He always assumes the worst.
I had just reached the bathroom door. I slowly pushed it open and went inside. The door swung close behind me. "Hermione?" I called, "Are you in here?"
As an answer I heard soft weeping in one of the stalls. I walked toward it and pushed the door open. There Hermione was, sitting on the ground with her head in her hands, crying. I wanted to tell her that the floor was disgusting and that she needed to get up but I couldn't bring myself to. Instead I just sat down next to her, on the ground and took her face in my hands. "Look at me," I said quietly, "Who cares what they say? They have a quarter of the intelligence that you have and they're nowhere near as compassionate."
She sniffed and said, "It's not just that. My only real friend is you. I had been getting along so well with them that I thought that I might make a couple more friends, but I guess that isn't true."
"And you're lucky for it too," I said, "You don't want those two as friends, they're complete jerks." I thought for a moment then nudged her shoulder playfully, "Plus, you've got me."
She smiled and said, "Yeah I guess I can't beat that , can I?"
"Nope, you can't," I replied, pulling her into a hug.
At that moment all I could think about was how glad I was that I didn't tell her to get off the ground and that I comforted her. She was right, I was her only friend and after today she was mine. We pulled away from each other and I said, "Let's go get some dinner."
"Yes, that sounds good to me," She said grinning.
We got up from the floor and made our way to the exit, but we never made it. Our path was blocked by a huge troll.