smirking_muse

Title: Sandwich with a Side of Friendship (Part 2)
Author:

smirking_muse
Rating: still PG, will go up in later parts
Warnings: Completely AU (no magic mentioned, at university), pre-slash
Pairing: Hermione/Pansy
Disclaimer: Belongs to JKR, various publishers, WB, etc. I am not making any money, do not intend to infringe on copyrights, and am only doing this for fun.
Summary: Pansy hates university, but Hermione might be able to change her mind. A friendship forms between the two, which later transforms into something more.
Author's Note: I decided to continue the story. Although Pansy is not mentioned in this part, she will be back! Please let me know what you think- concrit is more than welcome!

Hermione returned to her room, marvelling at the evening’s events. Though they had failed to find the hidden rooms, Pansy and she had enjoyed themselves.

Before entering her room, she took a deep breath. No one knew how exactly they decided where incoming students would room, but the system seemed arbitrary, as though an inanimate object could have decided their fate. Hermione’s situation was consistently tense, and she tried to avoid being in the room as much as she could.

After walking into the room, Lavender and Parvati quickly glanced up from their current task but didn’t greet her. The two girls had quickly become friends, and Hermione had become the third wheel. They seemed very similar to each other, and it meant that Hermione was the one who got the brunt of any ill-will in the room. Hermione was stilled a little riled up from her evening and knew they wouldn’t let her turn the light off to sleep, so she walked over to her movies. She thought she might just pop on Four Weddings and a Funeral, but when she looked through her DVDs, she could not find it.

A quick glance over to Parvati’s desk told her it was sitting over there. Hermione wasn’t sure if she should say anything. She looked more closely at their current task. They also had acquired her markers from her desk, and it appeared that they were colouring signs for someone. All her good feelings from earlier dissipated, Hermione swiftly stalked over to the other two girls.

“May I please have my movie and markers returned?” she asked through her teeth, staring at the movie.

“You can have the movie,” Lavender proclaimed graciously, “but these markers are mine.”

“Then why are there ‘HG’s on the ends?” Hermione intoned, seeing red.

Parvati giggled, as though it was funny to take other people’s things without asking. Hermione was happy to share, but she did want to be asked. It was one of the first things she had told her roommates when they had gone over the list of questions that were supposed to transform them into perfect mates. This was one of her only pet peeves. Would it be so difficult to ask? Apparently, it would be.

“You know what? Fine,” Hermione fumed. “Borrow my markers. I can’t take this anymore.” Perhaps she was overreacting, but this was just infuriating. She snatched the movie off the desk and went over to her bed.

“Oh, Hermione,” Lavender said sweetly. “Will you be around tomorrow?”

Hermione didn’t trust herself to speak, so she nodded.

“Oh, good,” she responded. “Parvati and I will be going to some parties, and we don’t the room to look messy if we should bring someone back.” They glanced at each other and giggled some more. “Do you think you could vacuum and straighten up a little?”

Hermione did not even glance at them. She was ready to throttle them! They both came from families where maids were the norm, and she was used to doing her own cleaning. Since she had straightened up and vacuumed a few times, they now treated her like a maid. She stormed out of the room, movie still in her hand.

After walking out into the hallway, she fought away some angry tears and took a few deep breaths. Once she was calm enough to see straight, she walked down to the boys’ side of the dorms. As soon as she got to the room she was looking for, she knocked on the door.

“Come in,” a deep voice said. It was probably Neville. His desk was closest to the door. She did not know Neville well, but he seemed to get along with Ron and Harry well.

She opened the door. “Hi, Neville,” she said at seeing him. At her voice, Harry looked up from his computer.

“Hermione? Is everything okay?” Harry asked concernedly.

“No,” Hermione’s lip shook. “I can’t take it anymore. They keep taking my things- thank goodness I wrote my initials on just about everything or I would never get anything back. And now, they are asking me to clean for them. As though they couldn’t run the vacuum themselves!” By now, tears were dripping down her face. Harry walked over to where she was and put his arms around her.

He wasn’t very good at this kind of thing, but he did try. “Shh,” he said softly. “There, there. It will be okay.”

“No, it won’t,” Hermione replied through her tears. “I can’t do it anymore! I just- I can’t.”

Ron walked into the room right about then. He took in the scene: Neville at his computer, pretending nothing was happening, but looking uncomfortable, and Harry with his arms around a crying Hermione.

“What’s going on, Harry?” Ron whispered. He looked pretty confused.

“It’s just my horrible roommates! How do they decide this rooming thing anyway?” Hermione answered for Harry.

“Ah,” Ron said. “Well, we can easily go and take them out for you if you’d like.”

Despite the gravity of the situation, Hermione laughed, though it came out as a choked sound through her tears. Hermione took a couple deep breaths and wiped her eyes. She felt better now that she was among friends and had gotten it out. The friendly hug helped too.

“Well,” Harry grinned. “While I’m sure Ron’s idea has a lot of merit, I think what you really need to do is move out of that room. If you go talk to the director of our dorm, McGonagall, I think her name is, she should be able to help you find a new room. You’ll probably need a roommate though. You’re welcome to stay on our floor as much as you’d like.”

“You can borrow my sleeping mat for tonight if you’d like,” Neville spoke, seemingly much more comfortable.

“Thanks,” Hermione replied. “I’ll definitely take you up on that tonight.”

“I still think we should just take them out,” Ron mumbled. “Then we’d have a nice, big party room.” They all laughed, the tension released.

“Oh,” she said. “I brought a movie.”

Part 1 Part 3