~6~

                                    

                                          
Things were going smoothly for Hermione and before she knew it, it was Hogsmeade weekend. 
She had planned on asking Ron to accompany her since they hadn't spent much time together since school started, but he's been avoiding her. She asked Ginny about it one night as they studied together in their shared dorm. Hermione decided to move into the shared dormitory for Head Girls with Ginny after all. Daphne had pouted, but Hermione had described it to her like shared custody. Slytherin got to keep Hermione, but Ginny got the sleepovers. She still had a bed in her room with her sister, but it was nice to have this slice of her old life back.
"I don't know, Mione. He hasn't spoken to me about it. He spends most of his time practicing for Quidditch. He seems unfocused, though. Something is bothering him." Ginny tucked her hair behind her ear and turned to the next page of her potions book.
The next day she approached the Gryffindor table at breakfast, receiving wary looks from her new house in the process. Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan looked up at her from their shared bowl of oatmeal and smiled at her. She was engulfed in their group hug a moment later, a large smile lighting up her face. 
"Hermione! We miss you so much," Dean lightly shook her shoulders. 
She pulled away and Seamus ruffled her hair. "We miss our resident swot. Who else are we supposed to copy off of?"
Hermione hit his hand away in mock annoyance. "I'm sorry I haven't made much time to visit the tower, I promise we'll catch up soon. Do you know where Ron or Harry is?"
Dean shrugged. "I know Harry took a walk with Ginny this morning to the Astronomy Tower. We didn't want to intrude on them and, well, with everything that happened there..." He trailed off and kept his eyes on his shoes. Hermione nodded in understanding. Dumbledore died in the Astronomy Tower. Not many students liked to visit the place their favorite Headmaster was struck down. 
"I think Ron is out on the Quidditch pitch. You can probably catch him before he hits the showers," supplied Seamus as he placed a hand on the small of Dean's back. 
She gave him a grateful look and left the hall with a wave. 
For a Saturday morning, the Quidditch pitch was mostly empty. She could count only four players in the air, only one of which was draped in red and gold. A decision was made to wait for him to finish while she read a book in the stands. He would notice her, surely he wouldn't ignore her so blatantly. He might be mad at her, but hopefully not outright rude.
She was engrossed in her book on advanced potioneering for almost an hour before she remembered where she was and what she was supposed to be doing. She stood and looked around for the familiar Gryffindor jersey before sighing at its disappearance. A sliver of anger danced its way into her heart before she stomped back into the castle.
A hand touched her shoulder and she whipped around. Theo retracted his hands and held them up innocently. "Woah, where's the fire?"
Hermione sighed and gave him a little smile. "Sorry, Theo. I'm looking for Ron, have you seen him around?"
Theo placed his hands comfortably in his pockets and gave her a look. "You're still looking for him? Wasn't that where you ran off to this morning, to find your knight in red and gold armor?"
"You could've just said no." She turned away with a roll of her eyes before he stopped her again.
"Relax, Hermione. He'll turn up. Anyway, a few people in our class are thinking about getting together soon and setting things straight. I don't know if you noticed, but things are getting tense again between us and the other houses. We want to show them that we aren't our parents and that we aren't as bad as they think. Do you think you can get the word out to the Gryffindors?" He looked a little nervous, but it was concealed well under his usual veil of charisma and nonchalance.