little miss perfect ; hermoine granger

chapter 11

Ana's Pov:

As I watched Hermoine shut the door behind her, I was shocked. I mean, what the hell just happened? Harry likes ME? You know what? I can't deal with this right now I need to unpack. And maybe a little more than my clothes.

How could she just come in and say it, just like that? And without Harry giving her permission? That' not like Hermoine at all. The Hermoine I know would never do something like that. She really hasn't been acting like herself lately at all. I mean, at least not to me. Maybe I'll go ask Ron. If she hasn't been yelling at him for eating all the time, then I'll KNOW somethings wrong.

But then, I heard commotion coming from outside of my room. Probably just Draco bullying some first years AGAIN. As I walked towards my door to go tell him off, I heard Draco say "Now why have you come into our dorms, you filthy mudblood? We don't need YOUR kind in here infecting our living space." Oh no. He was talking to Hermoine. I just knew.

I sped up my pace until I was practically running down the stairs to get to the common room. I knew how much it affected her when he called her a mudblood. "Why do you care so much about my blood, Draco? It's getting kind of embarrassing at this point." I heard Hermoine trying to defend herself as I reached the bottom of the stairs and stopped.

"Malfoy, stop." I said as I looked at him coldly. Hermoine looked up to me, and her lips curved upward, etching into a little smile, but then, going back down as Malfoy said "Why, Alcott? I'm simply just letting our little mudblood here know that she's not welcome, as I've told her MANY times before, and that mudbloods don't belong in the wizarding world. Hell, they don't belong anywhere." I could tell that hit Hermoine really hard. She opened her mouth to try and say something, but then shut it and quickly ran out of the common room and slammed the door.

"God Draco! What is wrong with you?! You know, I always knew you were a bad person, but you're not just bad anymore, you're disgusting. And what you said to Granger? That's unforgivable." I yelled as I briskly walked up close to him and looked him in the eyes. "If I EVER see you talking like that to her, or ANYONE else again, I will personally and come shove my foot so far up your ass that you'll be in a wheelchair for the rest of your life." I said. I could tell he was affected by that. His lips curled, as if to indicate that he was...sad? But at that moment, I didn't care about him. I couldn't care about someone who caused so much pain to so many people. I turned around and quickly walked out of the common room to look for Hermoine. I had to make sure she was okay.

As I stepped onto the stairs, I could see her running off into the other hallway. "Hermoine!" I yelled as I started to run after her. Then, as I turned the corner, I saw her sitting on one of the benches, hidden in the back of the hallway. She was sitting there, holding her head in her hands, and sobbing. I slowly walked over to her and sat down next to her. "Hermoine, I'm so sorry." I said, kind of at a loss for words. As she sat there and sobbed, not responding to me, I put my arm around her shoulders and pulled her into my chest.

I didn't really know what else to do. So I just sat there and held her as she cried. "Ana, I know it wasn't your fault. I was an idiot for even coming to your dorms. I wasn't even supposed to. This is all my fault." She cried into me, but this wasn't her fault. Not at all. "Hey, this isn't your fault. It's Malfoys. There's nothing that could excuse or defend what he said to you." I told her, and then added "If it makes you feel any better, I told him off for you. Told him I'd shove my foot up his ass. He looked terrified." I said, and that got a small laugh out of her.

She pulled herself away from me, and looked me in my eyes. She looked so pretty, even when she cried. "Thank you, Ana." She said as we looked at each other. "Don't thank me, anyone with any sense would've done the same thing." I told her, as I took her hand. She looked a little surprised, but didn't pull away. A tear rolled down her cheek as she looked down at our hands, intertwined, then looked back up at me and smiled.

"No, most people are afraid to stand up to Malfoy. I mean, you know that sometimes even George and Fred are afraid to prank him." She said to me. "It's only because he uses his father as an excuse for everything. But plot twist, his father never hears about it." I told her and we laughed. She started to stand up, and I did too, as we were still holding hands. She let go of my hand and pulled me into a hug. It felt so nice, almost natural. "You know I'll shove my foot up anyone's ass for you, right?" I said to her, kind of ruining the moment as she laughed at my comment and pulled out of the hug.

"Yes, Ana." She said, still laughing a little. "But thank you, really. You mean a lot to me." She told me, and I could feel a blush creeping up onto my cheeks, as it did on hers too. "Of course Hermoine. You mean a lot to me too." I told her, as she started to walk away. She turned around and smiled at me, as she turned the corner and walked back out of the hallway. 

As I stood by the bench, watching her leave, I felt something that I'd never felt before. I don't really know what it is, but it felt really good. And I knew it came from Hermoine.