Abused

Apology

~Continued Flashback~

November 27, Saturday

Hermione couldn't get the girls' words out of her head. They had called her a slut. The only other person who had called her that had been Ron. However, she always convinced herself that he was only lying, trying to bring her down. But if others were calling her it too? Was is just a coincidence, or was she really... 

"No." Hermione reassured herself aloud as she slowed her frantic jog to a speed walk. "I am not a slut." She told herself this many times, but she couldn't seem to get herself to believe it. "No. I am not a-" Before Hermione could finish she assuring herself, she rounded a corner and ran into something hard. She fell back onto the floor and rubbed her head where she had hit it. 

"Oh god, I'm so sorry!" Hermione heard someone frantically apologize above her. Hermione shook her head and slowly looked up. 

"No, I'm sorry. I should've watched where I was-" Hermione cut herself short as she saw who was standing above her. "Theodore?" she exclaimed, surprised. 

"Granger?" Theodore seemed just as surprised as Hermione was. Theodore hesitantly held out a hand to help her up. Hermione took it and pulled herself up. 

"Thanks," she muttered. Hermione had never really talked to Theodore at all. He was never particularly nice to her, laughing at the mudblood jokes made about her, but he never did anything horrible either. Because of this, she never really encountered him very often. "I'll be going now," Hermione said as she looked at her feet and started to walk away.

"Wait, Granger!" Theodore called out after a few seconds. Hermione slowly turned, afraid Theodore would do something to her. She had had enough bad things happen to her this week to last a lifetime. 

"Yes?" Hermione said quietly. Theodore hesitated, as if he forgot what he was about to say. 

"I'm- I just wanna say- I-" Theodore stuttered, unable to string together whatever he wanted to say. Hermione crossed her arms. All she wanted to do was go and take a nap to forget about everything. Hermione was in the middle of her thought when Theodore suddenly spit it out. "I'm sorry!" he exclaimed. Hermione was taken aback. She stood still for a moment, unsure of what to do. 

"Uh, sorry about what?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. She couldn't remember anything really bad that he had done to her. She was also surprised because she was expecting him to insult her or something. Instead, he had apologized? Theodore sighed loudly. 

"For everything I ever did. I was such a jerk, and the worst part is that I knew that I was being horrible, yet I couldn't stop. I never fit in, and that was the only way I knew how?" Theodore looked Hermione in the eyes. She was still confused as to what he was apologizing about, so she raised her eyebrows questioningly. He put his face in his hands in embarrassment for a second, but then he continued. "Whenever Malfoy or anyone made jokes about you being a muggle-born, I would always laugh and play along, even though I knew it was wrong. I thought that maybe I could fit in this way, but I never thought about how you felt or how much it could have affected you. I'm sorry." Hermione was still in shock. She shook her head a few times to clear it. She stood speechless for a few moments before laughing. Theodore was the shocked one this time.

"I'm sorry!" Hermione gasped in between her laughing. After starting she couldn't seem to stop. Theodore chuckled awkwardly in response, but his laughing soon evolved into real laughter too. Soon, both were genuinely laughing so hard that they couldn't breathe. 

"Why are we laughing?" Theodore asked in between his gasps for air. Hermione shook her head, her stomach hurting from all of the laughing. When both Theodore and her stopped, she wiped the water from her eyes. 

"Oh god. I'm sorry, but I just couldn't help it. You caught me so off guard." Theodore chuckled. After their laugh session, he seemed to be more comfortable, and he had let out the tension that was in stance before. "It's just that you never really did anything remarkably mean to me. I didn't expect you to apologize for just laughing at some mean jokes." Theodore hung his head. 

"Maybe I didn't do anything horrible, but I just felt so bad. I remember my mother always telling me that even though some wizards think that Purebloods are better than muggle-born wizards, we're not. We shouldn't be judged on our heritage, but instead for what we do ourselves." Theodore shrugged, and looked back up at Hermione. 

"I like your mother," Hermione joked. "I wish I could meet her." Theodore smiled sadly. 

"I wish you could too, but she passed away when I was younger," Theodore explained. Hermione's face fell. She knew what it was like to miss your parents, especially after not seeing them for a long time. Even though neither of her parents had passed, she remember when she had erased herself from their memories which had been the hardest thing she had probably ever done. 

"I'm so sorry," Hermione said softly. "I didn't know." Theodore shrugged. 

"Not many people really do. I don't really hide it, but I don't flaunt it either. Anyways, I'm sorry I let people's teasing go on when I could have stopped it. I also always felt the need to join in with people like the Malfoy's because of my father." Hermione smiled.

"It's okay, Theodore. I forgive you," Hermione said happily. Theodore smiled widely. "Well, then, thank you so much for apologizing. I'll see you around!" Hermione waved goodbye as Theodore did the same, and they parted ways. Hermione smiled to herself. She barely remembered what she was sad about before. She knew the sadness was come back later, but she decided to enjoy this small moment of happiness. 

Theodore probably didn't even know how happy his apology had made Hermione, or how much she appreciated the distraction from her problems. It's funny how acts of kindness can help someone immensely, even if the person helping doesn't know it. 

Author's Note

Hi!! I'm sorry. I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while, but as I said, I had finals. As much as it pains me to say, school comes before this story, I'm sorry, but now it's summer!! Hopefully, unless something comes up, I will be able to post every Sunday! Hopefully... Okay! That's all. Love y'all and appreciate y'all so much! Kiss Kiss!