Gryphon's Wings and Crocodile Tears

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to any of these characters or places; they belong to the wonderful J.K. Rowling. It’s her world; I just play in it.


Chapter 1-The Aftermath


She gazed morosely out the window at the sweeping grounds of the Hogwarts campus without really seeing any of it. She couldn’t even bring herself to cry or make any other sign of her emotions. The people around her that didn’t know her well considered her lack of outward emotion to be strange or even cold. However, those who knew her well, and were not otherwise preoccupied, understood that this was nothing but a defense mechanism designed to keep Hermione Granger from having a breakdown. Her closest friends knew that if Hermione was to allow so much as one tear to escape and trickle down her cheek that she would be incapacitated for an indefinite amount of time.


Ron, of course, didn’t notice anything at all out of the ordinary with the way Hermione had been acting; as a matter of fact he was so dense that nothing short of him bearing witness to Hermione’s imminent breakdown could bring him to realize what he’d done. As long as he continued to see her familiar curly locks in front of him in class he would remain blissfully unaware of the mess he’d made.


The reason for his distraction was his new girlfriend, Lavender Brown, who it seemed was determined to keep Ron from noticing anything, (especially his ex-girlfriend’s pain) save her pretty smile. Independently of her boyfriend’s knowledge, Lavender had become determined to break Hermione’s “icy shell.” She claimed that her lack of emotion proved that Hermione could never have cared about Ron. The truth was that where Hermione was concerned, Lavender was more than just a little bit sore.


Lavender had always come in second to Hermione in every way that mattered at Hogwarts. The jealousy that had begun as a mere annoyance had escalated to a full rage when Hermione had once again been named Prefect at the beginning of this, their sixth year.


Academically, she was a distant second to Hermione; no amount of emotional distress, however severe, would ever change that (Which galled Lavender even further.). It didn’t seem to matter to her that she was also Ron’s second choice for a girlfriend, once again right behind the magnificent Hermione. As long as she’d managed to take him away from Hermione, she would be overtly satisfied.


Of course, it was only because of much plotting and the delicate weaving of a web of deceptions and half-truths that she succeeded in separating the couple in the first place. She knew that without resorting to such tactics that she could never have succeeded in separating the two of them. Even her best mate, Parvati, had abandoned her so she could “go off on some bizarre tangent of revenge, when she should be studying.” So, Lavender had been very lucky that it had worked, or she would really be alone. Lavender’s true motivation was definitely not to be with Ron, it was to take something away from Hermione. Her deepest secret was that she wanted to be with Harry, but she had never told anyone.


Because of her stony exterior, no one would have guessed that, since the break-up, Hermione’s thoughts were consumed with all the things she’d felt that she’d done wrong in her relationship with Ron. She had been aware of a certain amount of coldness in the way Lavender had regarded her for about a year, or so, but she could not fathom why. ‘Now? Well, it seems all too clear,’ thought Hermione, as she brushed a curl of her chestnut hair back from her chocolate eyes with her right hand and then she tucked it behind her ear.


Objective analysis was the only way that Hermione could look at the events of the past two weeks without opening the floodgates of emotion that lay ebbing, so violently, below the surface of her calm façade. She wondered, not for the first time in these past few weeks, just who could be so thoughtless, so…malicious toward her to make up lies about her. Let alone to do something even worse and twist a painful situation from her past around to make her look like it was her fault that that man had hurt her.


She had to physically shake her head to clear it of that awful memory. At least she had learned a lesson from being so open with others about having been abused as a child; be careful who you tell, not everyone, even those in Gryffindor, are trustworthy.


It sickened Hermione to think that a Gryffindor was capable of such an astonishing level of cowardice. They were supposed to be the house full of the brave and stout of heart, not the house of serpentine ambition. She smiled, wryly; it would take a lot of courage to try to pull off this little coup under her nose. And even more to have the impunity to think that they wouldn’t be caught eventually. She returned to staring out the window of the common room, at a loss for the words to explain her feelings for the first time that she could recall.


While Hermione sat staring out the window, in the same chair that she’d been in for the past week, at least when she wasn’t in class, Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley sat across the room considering the plight of their friend.


“I never figured Hermione for the type that would get so wrapped up in a boy, especially my brother,” said Ginny.


“Me neither. Ron, well he is my best mate, but what he did…it was just wrong”


“What I can’t believe is that he’s just letting that bitch throw it right back in Hermione’s face. I guess after years of being second to Hermione, Lav finally snapped.”


“What? You don’t mean to say that this whole thing stems from some kind of juvenile jealousy?”


“That is exactly what I mean. She…she doesn’t care for Ron at all; it all seems too convenient. Like she wants to take something from Hermione, and he’s the only thing within reach. I tell you, Harry, if she so much as looks crookedly at Hermione, I’ll…I’ll curse her so badly that her grandchildren will walk funny!”


Harry was a little take aback by the strength and conviction behind Ginny’s words. At the same time he was touched, Ginny seemed the type of person that it was good to have as a friend, but immeasurably worse to have as an enemy. He was glad to be on her good side. She had blossomed since Hermione had taken her under her wing.


With a sigh, Harry tried to take in the fact that the two people on which he had come to rely suddenly could not be within twenty feet of each other. He absentmindedly reached up and rumpled his hair with his left hand; this was a habit that he had picked up from a memory that was not his own last year.


This was bad. What on earth was he going to do without Ron? Ron had always found a way to help him when he was in a pinch. Not to mention the fact that he was always up for the dangerous, and often times ill conceived, adventures that the three of them had shared over the past five and a half years.


The alternative seemed equally depressing to him. What would his life be like without Hermione? She was a very large part of the reason that he had been so successful, both academically and in his unauthorized extra-curricular activities. Her help with everything from homework to knowing exactly the right charm to save all of their skins had proven invaluable to him time and again. One cannot be made to decide between his two best friends.


Harry was, understandably, torn. In the end he decided that he needn’t make a choice, but that a good friend desperately needed his support. It was difficult to see Hermione so crushed by Ron’s thoughtless actions. This was especially hard on him because from the first time that he noticed the attraction between his two best friends, he felt that the two of them were meant to be together. How could that have all been ruined in one moment? Ron had to be made to see past his own foolish pride and see also how he’d hurt someone who loves him utterly. Harry had to help her. It was only fair, after the years of assistance she’d provided him without ever considering what he might do for her in return, it was the very least that he could do.