Never According to the Plan

That was 4 years ago now. That brave heart the Sorting Hat had seen inside her had certainly shown through her, over the past few years. Much to her surprise, her two best friends were now none other than Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley. If you told that to her 11 year old self, she definitely would not have believed you. The famous Harry Potter, and his ginger friend that had mud on his nose on the train to Hogwarts all those years ago.

Hermione Granger was now in her fifth year and Hogwarts and had recently been made a Gryffindor prefect, along with Ronald Weasley. Although, God knows how that happened. ‘He is the most untrustworthy, unreliable and inexplicably ignorant person in Gryffindor.’ She thought angrily. Harry had certainly been thinking something similar over the holidays, something that came as a huge surprise to Ronald, although not so much to her. Another reason that suggested Ronald wasn’t quite intelligent enough to be a prefect. No, Harry undoubtedly had been upset that Ron had got the badge instead of him, and he had not been afraid to show it. ‘Maybe that’s why he didn’t get it’ thought Hermione, ‘he’s too brash, too angry. He’s brave yes, and intelligent and everything a good person should be, but he’s not exactly good at keeping his anger under control.’ She couldn’t imagine him asking a rude, back-chatting third-year to go and visit their Head of House in an orderly and reasonably manner, she imagined it would at least involve some shouting and the drawing of Harry’s wand. And that was at least, it would be much more likely that he would just scream some curse at them in the hope to shut them up. Yes, at least Ronald wouldn’t do that. But he still didn’t seem like a good candidate for someone to represent their house! And there were only 2 from each house! Well, Professor Dumbledore had been known to make some interesting decisions. But, if it was good enough for Dumbledore, then it was good enough for her! Kind of. ‘Well,’ she mused, ‘he’s nice. Really nice. Like one of those, very few people you meet who are just genuinely nice. And he’s funny; he could always make anyone laugh. And he wasn’t exactly stupid; he had done some very intelligent things! He had been there as much as I had when the three of us had saved the Philosopher’s Stone and more so when I was petrified in the hospital wing, in the second year as Harry and Ron went down into the Chamber of Secrets. And,’ she thought to herself smiling, ‘he certainly wasn’t ugly. He was quite attractive, in an unusual, particular sort of way...’ Hermione shook herself firmly. What was she thinking? Albus Dumbledore didn’t pick Hogwart’s prefects because they were attractive, and funny. “Stop it” she told herself resolutely, “you can’t think of him like that. He’s your friend.”

“What’s that?” said Ron, who clearly had heard her muttering under her breath.

She ignored him, and continued to mutter, trying to make him think she was still deep in thought about some potion they had been brewing last Potions lesson. “Powdered moonstone, valerian root...” she muttered under her breath. Ron frowned, “powdered porcupine quills, and powdered unicorn horn... what else was there now?” She stopped muttering. She knew that was enough to throw Ron off, and stop him from questioning her premise.

“Syrup of Hellbore?” asked Ron, smirking as he looking at her.

“What?”

“That was what you were thinking about wasn’t it? The Drought of Peace we brewed the other day in potions? Only you were muttering about some of the ingredients just.” Ron looked rather pleased with himself. “But you forgot the Hellbore.”

“What, how did you, what?” Hermione was thoroughly confused now, which didn’t happen very often.

“What? You think because I’m not a smart-arse like you I don’t know the ingredients to a potion we brewed this week? Jeez Hermione.” He said it angrily, but the corners of his mouth were twitching.

“Wha- no of course, that’s not what I meant!” Hermione had finally composed herself. “I was just surprised that’s all, I didn’t realise you were suddenly the potions master!” She teased.

“Ha” Ron laughed, “nahh that’s just what Harry forgot to put in his isn’t it? When Snape vanished his potion? Yeah well, Harry’s been doing that essay that the git set him, and well...” Ron shrugged sheepishly, “I’ve been trying to help him.” He muttered this last part as though the idea was completely ludicrous.

Hermione tried to hide a smile. She hated the way Ron had so little faith in himself, but sometimes, it was just adorable.

“Not that I can be much help to him” Ron added quickly, “I’m no you...” he nodded his head at Hermione, “but two heads have got to be better than one, surely?”

“Yes” Hermione smiled encouragingly, “yes, of course.” She wanted to tell him to have more faith in himself, and believe in himself more, but she wasn’t sure quite how to get the words out. “Ron,” she started, but before she could get any further, Harry threw himself down onto the bench opposite them.

“Alright?” grinned Ron, eyebrows raised.

“Fuck off” replied Harry, but smiled nonetheless. “Finally finished that essay for Snape, thank God, gonna have to get started on that dream diary for Trelawney later.”

“Dream diary?” Hermione smirked, “sounds riveting.”

“Oh trust me it is” Harry responded, “Apparently dreaming I bought a new goldfish means I’m going to die a horrific and painful death.”

Hermione looked at him quizzically. “Seriously? You dreamt you brought a new goldfish?”

Harry and Ron looked at her, utterly perplexed. “What do you think?” Ron demanded, and Hermione laughed.

“No, to be honest with you,” Harry said, “I thought if I made up something as boring as that, she might let me live a few more years.” He sighed. “But apparently not.” He was long past the stages of fearing for his life after Divination lessons, but that didn’t make having your death predicted every week any more enjoyable. It was starting to become very tiresome.

Finishing their breakfast, they hurried to History of Magic, where Ron and Harry spent the vast majority of the lesson with their heads on the desk, much to Hermione’s disapproval. But even she had to admit, their timetable for Monday was the worst she’d ever seen. History of Magic, Double Potions, Ancient Runes and then Defence against the dark arts. All worthy subjects, made awful by the people teaching them. (Aside from Ancient Runes of course, that was her favourite subject). But she had to admit, she felt sorry for Harry and Ron, who didn’t have Ancient Runes to brighten an otherwise horrendous day. They had Divination, to make it even worse. She battled through the day however, and came out relatively positive on the other side. The same, sadly, could not be said for Harry. He had received zero marks again in Potions and had earned himself another week’s detentions with Professor Umbridge. However, Hermione found it hard to pity him when he spent all of his time biting her and Ron’s head off. She had asked Ron to have a word with him about it in Divination, but was not exactly sure how that had gone. Not well, she imagined.

However, when Harry returned to the Gryffindor common room that evening, after his detention with Umbridge he seemed quieter and more secluded than ever. Hermione tried to get on his good side as quick as possible by handing him a bowl of Murtlap Essence to soothe the words etched into the back of his hand, which indeed, looked extremely painful. He only nodded gratefully in response to this action, so Hermione could assume that he was in a better, or at least calmer, mood than previously.

Sadly that didn’t last long. Recently, idea’s had been forming in Hermione’s head about ways to improve her Defence Against the Dark Arts skills, seeing as Umbridge wasn’t exactly helping. She wanted to create a group of students, who wanted to learn the spells they needed, not only to pass their O.W.Ls, but also to defend themselves against you-know-who. Unfortunately though, she was having great difficulty thinking of someone to teach them to do these spells. They could always try to teach themselves, but sometimes, especially for the more difficult spells, you really need someone to show you how to do it. Hermione had only one idea of who to teach them, and although she knew the lessons would be great, she also knew it would be hard to persuade Harry to do it.

She was right, it was hard. And one hour later, she and Ron had been shouted and screamed at, as Harry had once again let his anger get the better of him and also smashed his bowl of Murtlap essence. However, she had managed to get him to consider the idea, and she knew she now, she could get him to agree, she just needed to give him time.