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Hermione yawned and shifted her heavy bag of books as she made her way back to the common room. She’d been spending way too much time in the library, even for her, but it was really the only option these days. The common room was, apparently, the perfect place for a romantic rendezvous, and her dorm room was, apparently, the perfect place for Lavender and Parvati to debrief these encounters in excruciating, heart-wrenching detail.
Exams had made a convenient excuse for her constant disappearances to the library, but the real reason, of course, was that she was avoiding Ron and Lavender. Although, really, Lavender wasn’t the issue. Lavender was just a girl, who liked a boy, and she didn’t owe Hermione an explanation or anything else. Ron , though. It was as if a switch had flipped in his brain, and seemingly without any provocation, he suddenly hated her. She had yet to be able to make any sense of his actions.
And, of course, there was still Professor Slughorn’s Christmas party.
The answer seemed fairly clear, and she really hadn’t had any inclination to bring it up, but... technically , they were supposed to go together, her and Ron, and technically , they had never canceled their plans. Ron hadn’t been speaking to her for weeks, his mouth too occupied with other activities that didn’t involve her, but she was sort of curious whether he was actually committed to going to the party still. Just as friends, of course—that much was abundantly clear at this point.
But her pride had already taken a hit, now that he had chosen Lavender, and plucking up the courage to ask him the first time had been hard enough. She wasn’t going to ask again. She wasn’t really bothered about finding another date—there wasn’t anyone else she wanted to go with—so her plan was to linger a bit in the common room before the party, not long enough to be suspicious, of course, and see if Ron turned up. If he didn’t, which seemed the likely outcome, she would go alone, or tag along with Harry and whoever he ended up asking. If he did, though…
“Baubles,” Hermione said to the Fat Lady.
“Another late night,” she scolded as the portrait swung open.
Most nights, the common room was empty by the time she returned. Tonight, however, the sole occupant was the reason she’d been out so late in the first place. Ron glanced up as she entered, momentarily distracted from what surprisingly appeared to be homework spread out in front of him. “Hey,” he said cautiously.
“Hello.” Hermione slowed her walk to the dormitory stairs, finally stopping. Those two words were the most civil they’d been to each other in weeks. Maybe ...She turned to face Ron, but he’d already gone back to his parchment. “Slughorn’s do is tomorrow night,” she said softly.
His hand clenched into a fist around his quill before he adopted a tone of forced indifference to ask, “Yeah, who’re you taking, then?”
“You, I thought,” she blurted before she could think better of it.
She caught one brief glimpse of surprise on his face before the now-familiar sneer was back. “I’m with Lavender now,” he said haughtily.
“I’m well aware. Almost didn’t recognize you without that shade of purple you’re normally sporting these days,” she bit back.
Ron rose to his feet and crossed his arms. “Well, then I dunno why you think I’d be going on a date with another girl.”
“I didn’t mean it as a date.” She was almost impressed with herself, how easily the lie came. “I never meant it as a date.” His mouth dropped open slightly, but it didn’t seem that he had a retort for that, so she went on, “I just thought that as my friend, if that’s even what we are, you might still want to honor your commitment to our plans, but I suppose I’ll make other arrangements.”
She turned to stalk up the stairs, but Ron called after her, “Reckon maybe you should see if Viktor’s available. You know, for a date .”
His comment was random enough to make her stop and turn back.
Viktor?
Where had that come from? Her curiosity had been piqued, but Ron seemed to be fuming about the idea for some reason, so, eager to get one last jab in before bed, she merely shrugged and replied, “Maybe I will.”