Sapphic September 2019 - Harry Potter Femslash Oneshot Collection

Day 10 - Choosing What Makes Her Happiest - Hermione/Tracey

Prompt: "You don't meant that."
Pairing: Hermione Granger/Tracey Davis
Rating: Teen
Word Count: 1,254
Summary: Tracey has had enough of her friends' snide and bigoted views of her relationship. She's putting her foot down, for better or worse.

Tags: EWE, Eighth Year, Established Relationship, Light Angst, Fluff, moving on from friendships that hurt

Choosing What Makes Her Happiest

There was a round of gasps the moment the words came out of Tracey's mouth. Not just from her friends, but from the other eighth years that were in the common room and doing a poor job of pretending to ignore their argument.

"You don't mean that," Pansy said, an edge to her voice that told Tracey to retract her statement or else.

Tracey squared her shoulders and lifted her chin a bit. She stared Pansy down and didn't even look to the others.

"I do," she said firmly. "If you can't accept that I have real, genuine feelings for her, if you can't move past your prejudices to support me and my relationship, then I have no interest in continuing our friendship."

A dark cloud settled over Pansy's expression but beside her, Daphne looked crushed.

"You'd really turn your back on all of us? For her?" she asked softly, as if she still didn't believe it was even possible Tracey could entertain the idea, let alone threaten them with it.

Beside her on the sofa, Draco stayed silent, but he was looking at Tracey with a calculating expression. Out of all of them, he had been the one to show the most change after the war, even if maybe he was the last one everyone expected it from. She had a feeling he respected her for what she was doing, but she doubted he'd ever admit it. Draco was and always had been a coward. He'd go with whatever the majority of their friends did, as always.

And if he proved her wrong? Well, that would be a nice change, and maybe if they really did make her go through with her decision she would still have at least one friend after.

"Real friends wouldn't make me choose," Tracey said shortly.

They hadn't, of course, not in so many words, but their constant snide comments and vocal disbelief about her feelings, the way they insulted everything about the person she was happy with, it amounted to the same thing. She could not be in a relationship that her friends constantly disrespected. She had to lose one or the other.

It wasn't as though she wanted to turn her back on her friends, but their actions, their attitude, it had no basis in anything but old prejudice. If their negative opinion of her relationship had been founded in anything valid, she would have considered their opinions, but they had no legitimate complaints at all.

It was as disappointing as it was disgusting after everything they'd all been through.

Sick of the matter, and sick of the feeling in her stomach as she sat there and told her friends that she would leave them behind if they didn't change, she stood.

"I won't discuss this further, there is nothing more to say. You either care about me and thus support what makes me happy, or you don't and there's no point continuing our association," she said, before turning her back on them and leaving the common room.

The sick feeling in her stomach intensified until her hands shook. It was a heinous act, to turn her back on her friends, but she could not suffer through their behaviour any longer. She knew she was in the right, and she hoped they saw it too and put her happiness above their outdated prejudices. If they didn't...she didn't want to think about it yet.

She tried to tell herself she was going to wander the castle aimlessly until she felt better, but her feet took her to the library, and she knew it was more intentional than she wanted to admit.

The library was as quiet as it always was, and as stuffy. It wasn't her favourite place to be, but it was where she needed to be. She wove through the shelves until she found who she was looking for, settled at a table and surrounded by open books and several sheets of parchment.

When she pulled out the chair next to her, Hermione took several moments to finish the thought she was scribbling down before turning to her with a tired smile.

"Am I late for pudding in the kitchen?" she asked, leaning over to kiss Tracey's cheek

Warmth rushed from her cheek through the rest of her body, and Tracey sighed softly and shook her head. It was a habit of theirs to sit in the kitchen and eat something sweet after Hermione was done studying for the night.

Hermione liked to check in with the House Elves, and after she had, and they'd forced many treats on her, she relaxed and became so easy to talk to. Those nights had become Tracey's favourite nights since returning to Hogwarts. Even the first accidental time it had happened, when she'd been hiding in the kitchens after a bad day and Hermione, too polite to ignore her, had struck up a conversation with her instead.

"No, I just needed to see you," Tracey said softly, shifting her chair closer to lean their shoulders together.

"Oh?" Hermione asked, leaning into the contact as well.

Tracey could see the moment her focus shifted entirely away from her study. She hadn't meant to distract her, only sit with her, but she appreciated the care behind it nonetheless. Hermione wasn't always very vocal about her feelings, but she said a lot in many different ways.

"Argument with my friends," Tracey said simply. They had talked of this before. "Maybe the last argument."

"I'm sorry," Hermione whispered, wrapping an arm around Tracey's shoulders and pulling her in closer.

It wasn't her fault, and Tracey was sure that not only did she know that, but she was really thinking some rather shocking expletives directed at her friends instead. Hermione was surprisingly careful not to insult Tracey's friends in front of her, regardless of the way they treated her. It only made Tracey feel even more sure of her decision.

If Hermione could outwardly respect her friendships, even when those friends insulted her often, and even if she really hated them herself, then those friends could damn well be civil in return.

"It's alright," she said. "It hurts, but it's time. I'm sick of the way they talk about you. I thought they needed time to adjust, but it's been long enough. These things happen, people change, friendships fade away. It hurts, but such is life."

With a soft sigh, Hermione picked up her wand and flicked it at the table. The books started closing and flying back to the shelves, and her parchments shuffled into a neat stack that slid into her bag.

"Let's go down early," Hermione said. "Pudding won't fix anything, but it's still something nicer to focus on."

Tracey smiled and let Hermione lead her out of the library. She was sure Hermione got that from Ron, she'd heard him make similar declarations about food over the years. It was true, but at the same time it wasn't.

Pudding didn't fix anything, and yet it had unexpectedly brought them together. They'd built their relationship up around it until they were meeting and spending time together outside the kitchens.

But it wasn't the really the pudding she focused on when they were in the kitchens. It was always Hermione. She could do without the sweet treats as long as Hermione remained.

"Sounds perfect," Tracey said, slipping her hand into Hermione's and linking their fingers together.

She could get through losing her intolerant friends, as long as Hermione remained.

End.