In Another Universe

Chapter 7

[A/N: This chapter mentions music by the Brit shoegazing band Lush, specifically their album 'Split'; I don't own that music or any content by the band. :) However, if you'd like to get a better feel for the latter half of this chapter, feel free to put on that album and listen along with Granger. ;)]

"Well, that went better than expected, I bet," said Weasley without a hint of malice as everyone left the room. Granger lifted her eyes to meet his with a soft "hmm?" and found him, once again, smiling. "Good job, Granger," he said now earnestly, placing his hand on her shoulder and giving it a little squeeze. "I knew you'd kill it." And, with the smile fixed upon his lips, he once again winked at her as a way of saying goodbye and left the room.

She felt her cheeks flush a little and brought a hand up to quell the warmth, a hint of a smile turning up the corner of her mouth. However, as she swiveled around and found an unfriendly Lavender Brown facing her, the smile faded just as quickly as it'd appeared.

"Dr. Granger," she said with a smile that more closely resembled a grimace, though there was no pleasantry in her voice. "I was hoping to catch you, actually, I still had some questions..."

"Hermione! Are you ready to go?" suddenly called Ginny from the door. Granger and Lavender turned their heads to face her, both equally surprised. Ginny shrugged apologetically at Lavender: "Sorry, Lav, but we'd agreed to go for coffee and I can't really be late, I have football practice later."

"Another time, then," said Lavender with the same saccharine sweetness, and left the room behind Parvati, who had lingered outside the room.

Ginny kept the same passive expression until Lavender and Parvati had both disappeared from sight, and then turned to Granger with the fiery manner she associated more with Harry's girlfriend. "Sorry about that, I know we're not really on first-name terms, but you seemed uncomfortable, and I know Lavender can be a real nightmare." Granger gave her a puzzled look. "Ron's ex girlfriend," Ginny explained, in a tone that told Granger she wasn't very fond of her, "though I guess on-and-off would be a better term. They dated in secondary school, then broke up when they started uni, and dated again until a few months ago... I think she's trying to get him back, and she didn't like the way he was looking at you."

"Looking at me?" Granger said incredulously, and Ginny laughed openly, throwing an arm around her shoulders.

"Oh, Hermione —it's okay if I call you Hermione, right?—, you may be a genius, but I think we just found the one thing you might be clueless at." She pulled away her arm from around Granger's shoulders hurriedly: "Oh, sorry, I know I can get too friendly too fast, but I don't want to make you uncomfortable."

"No, it's really okay," Granger said reassuringly, and she meant it: something about Ginny made her feel comfortable and protected, even if Ginny was younger, and she felt as if she had a friend in her already. "And thank you for that, honestly. I didn't know what to do."

"No one does, she's a master at catching people off guard. She did it to me a bunch of times while she and Ron were broken up, trying to get me to talk about him," she said nonchalantly, and headed toward the door. She stopped under the door frame and pivoted to look at Granger again: "By the way, I know I only said the coffee thing to get you out of there, but I do actually have some free time before football practice, so, wanna go?"

"Sure!" Granger said, grabbing her bag. "Are we meeting Harry there?"

"No, just the two of us."

"Oh, I didn't think you'd want to get started on the project so soon—"

"Not for the project, silly, but because you seem cool and I'd like to get to know you better outside of 'that genius my boyfriend is friends with'," Ginny laughed again, and laced her arm with Granger's as she led her out of the room. "I'd like to be able to say I have a friend as brilliant as you."