New Romantics | Hermione Granger Book IV

|33| Chapter Thirty-Three

T H I R T Y  T H R E E

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If Saffron had thought her third year was draining and challenging academically, she hadn't the faintest idea as to what was in store for her fourth year. For someone like Hermione, it would probably be as easy as casting a few sparks out of her wand, but Saffron struggled. Schoolwork never came easy to her and having to go through her two worst subjects first thing on her first day back was a daunting prospect. It was even more daunting when she got to Herbology, knowing that she had scraped a pass by a measly two percent last year. Even Lavender who arguably hated the subject more than Saffron did had done reasonably well in comparison to Saffron's abysmal result.

What was worse was that Professor Sprout hadn't forgotten about their exams at the end of last year and acted accordingly at splitting up Saffron, Lavender and Parvati, who had spent the last two years near Neville whenever they had group work to do, allowing the boy to happily go about doing all of the work himself.

"Why?" Lavender demanded, scoffing when Professor Sprout instructed them all to move away from each other. "We haven't even done anything! It's the first day back,"

"That's exactly why you're being moved, Miss Brown," Professor Sprout informed the girl impatiently, as Lavender whined and dragged her feet in the direction of Hannah Abbott and Susan Bones, two Hufflepuff girls. "A fresh start, and a fresh group for you to look at Bubotubers. That way you can actually participate and try your hand at squeezing them,"

"I'm not squeezing anything, ugh," Lavender mumbled under her breath, as Saffron took a place between Dean and Seamus, and Parvati did likewise at the edge of the large rectangular workbench, next to Zacharias Smith.

"What's that?"Professor Sprout called after her.

"I didn't say anything," Lavender lied glumly and that tone of voice was reflected in Saffron's attitude towards the subject by the end of the lesson when she was squirted in the face by the thick yellow pus.

"I'm dropping that class," huffed Saffron to Hermione. The two girls had stayed back outside the greenhouse as Hermione got the grunge off of Saffron. 

"You can't until after the OWLs," Hermione reminded Saffron with a small frown. "It should get better though, we're going to be learning about fungi soon enough which shouldn't involve anything too hands-on,"

"Sounds great," deadpanned Saffron sarcastically, as Hermione slipped her wand back in her uniform pocket, signalling to Saffron that all the pus was off of her. "Thanks for getting it off of me, I couldn't have had a certain someone seeing me like that, I'd say he already thinks I'm insane,"

Hermione didn't realise that the insane part referred to the time that Saffron had physically attacked Maya upon discovering that she had lied to her about their mother's old friend Amanda for years.  The certain someone Saffron spoke about, Olly, had broken up the fight not knowing who it was between and Saffron felt even more ashamed than she already did, considering her friend had seen her acting so vicious. Hermione's mind was elsewhere at that point.

"It's nice that you are in love, I've always wondered what that felt like," said Hermione thoughtfully making Saffron's jaw drop.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, I am not in love, Merlin... not at all," Saffron said in shock before chuckling. "It's just a crush, I don't think it's possible for it to be anything more than just that,"

"I was actually surprised, you know," Hermione told Saffron honestly. 

"Really?" Saffron arched an eyebrow at her. Hermione had been present in their dormitory on many an occasion when Lavender, with aid from Parvati, relentlessly insisted that Saffron had feelings towards her one non-Gryffindor friend. How it actually occurring surprised Hermione, Saffron didn't know. "I thought it was meant to be the most obvious thing ever,"

"It's just that I see the two of you together a lot," Hermione began to explain to Saffron, as they walked down the long stone steps to Hagrid's hut. "And I guess it's just hard to think about actually being friends with someone and then seeing them as more than that one day, all of a sudden. It's like when Lavender talked about me and Harry, I just can't imagine seeing him any different than I already do, as Harry," 

"I don't think it was that quick," Saffron admitted to Hermione, trying to process in her own mind how the build-up had gone. "It might have felt like that, but I think it was to do with not seeing him over the Summer. I thought about him a lot and then seeing him in Diagon Alley I felt it," She sniffled her nose as it started to get windier as they approached the class that was beginning to form in front of them. All the Gryffindors were there and the few Hufflepuffs that took the class were there too, having moved from Herbology with them. But the Ravenclaws and Slytherins were yet to arrive as they had more of a trek from the castle. "Then seeing him yesterday, it was almost like I was looking at a different person which is really scary because he's not. He's the same person, my friend and I don't want to mess that up,"

"You won't," Hermione assured her softly with a small smile.  "Just because I didn't expect it to happen doesn't me I don't think the two of you are well suited, I think you are,"

"You do?" Saffron asked hopefully. She was purposely looking for validation from Hermione because a stamp of approval on her feelings from her was meaningful to Saffron as it contrasted that of Lavenders and by proxy Parvati's. They didn't really care about how good of a person Olly was or how well he and Saffron would gell. The way Lavender spoke to Saffron told her that in her mind, looks reigned supreme. 

Hermione nodded. "Definitely. I might not know him that well but anytime I see the two of you together you have a smile on your face. I think that says a lot," She paused hesitantly. "Just don't forget about me if anything does ever happened between you both,"

"Never," laughed Saffron heartily and adamantly. "Honestly, I'm not even sure anything will happen but if You Know Who, a Basilisk, a wrongly accused murderer, a human who was pretending to be a rat and Ron can't come between us, then someone like Olly definitely can't,"

Both girls laughed down as they joined the group waiting for Hagrid to come out of his hut and Saffron felt much better than she did coming out of Herbology. Knowing that Hermione approved of how she was feeling meant a lot to her, and what meant more was staying true to her word that nothing would come between them or make them drift apart, whether that be a boy or some other tragic event that appeared bound to happen this year at Hogwarts.