Hero of the Story || James Potter x Hermione Granger Fanfiction

21 | you plus me is bad news

xxi.

you plus me is bad news

(Love on the Rocks by Sara Bareilles)

__________

September 24, 1977

She started getting ready at seven in the morning.

Fuelled by excitement and nervousness, Hermione had woken up at five, whilst the sun was just rising over the horizon. She tried to sleep again, because Merlin it was a Saturday after all, but sleep had been elusive. Hermione busied herself instead, grabbing her Arithmancy textbook from her trunk, and trying to read, but the words grew blurry. Hermione gave up after rereading the same line ten times and threw her book back in her trunk.

The brunette found herself staring up at her canopy as the minutes passed by, wondering if it would be all right to get up so early for Hogsmeade today.

It was silly how she was feeling this way, when in the end, James would tell her he was dating Lily. But, an annoying voice in the back of her mind reminded her that he didn't need to invite her for a full Hogsmeade trip together (and alone) just to break the news. The rational side of her brain pointed out it was probably his way of showing his gratitude for her help. The irrational side, the one who'd always short circuit every time she was talking to James, blubbered out that perhaps James just wanted to genuinely spend time with her.

'No, no, no,' she told herself countless times, every time her thoughts would stray in that direction.

She spent the remaining hours clearing her mind and calming herself down. Once her small clock struck seven, Hermione hauled herself out of bed and started to get ready.

Hermione rarely took long dressing for the day, but for some strange reason, she had a difficult time choosing what to wear. The 70's fashion still made her nose wrinkle a bit, since she mostly found the Muggle clothes too loud and extravagant. Anya still bought Hermione clothes the brunette knew she would never wear, but she didn't have the heart to tell her excited mother.

As she opened her trunk and scanned through her array of clothes, Hermione started to have a mini panic attack at the thought that she had nothing decent to wear. 'All right, calm down, all right,' she told herself, taking in a deep breath and closing her eyes. Her fingers ran through the different clothes, blindly pulling random garments and tossing them on her bed.

Hermione finally decided to wear a blue plaid jumper dress over a black turtleneck sweater. It was terribly cold outside since it was autumn, so she also pulled on some black tights to warm her legs.

By the time she was done, she clambered towards the full-length mirror in their room and blinked, surprised that she didn't look awkward in her clothes. As expected from a previous Pureblood socialite, Anya knew how to dress properly, even with Muggle fashion.

The brunette finally glanced at her voluminous hair and worried her bottom lip, wondering what she would do with it. There was a tub of Sleekeazy's in her trunk, so maybe it wouldn't hurt if she applied a few scoops on her hair just to tame it down.

Catching her thoughts, Hermione's hand climbed up to the bridge of her nose and massaged it in exhaustion. 'This isn't a bloody date,' a voice sniped snidely in her ear. 'You don't need to do such a ridiculous thing.'

In the end, she decided to just tie her hair into a long braid just to get it out of her face.

The door suddenly burst open and Hermione flinched, craning her neck over her shoulder to stare sheepishly at Dorothy.