Stupidity
~~~~~
“AHHHHHH!!” Hermione screamed as a bludger flew at her face. It was her first real practice with the team, and her first time using the actual Quidditch balls. She did a roll on her broom, narrowly avoiding a serious head injury.
“Nice job, Hermione,” Harry told her, drifting down a little to make sure she was alright. “But where were you Colin? Seamus had the other bludger covered. You should have hit that one away from Hermione”
Colin Creevy and Seamus Finnigan had been the two Gryffindor beaters since Fred and George left Hogwarts. It was difficult sometimes, as Colin often let his mind wander to Harry’s playing, but they were the best Gryffindor had.
“Sorry Harry,” Colin said sheepishly. “I’ll pay more attention.”
“Make sure you do. It would not be a good thing to kill one of our players before this big match.’
At that, Colin looked slightly pale, but he held a determined expression on his face.
“Let’s try that formation one more time,” Harry said, flying back up to his position.
The three chasers, who were Ginny Weasley, Dean Thomas, and a fourth year named Ryan, got into their places.
Harry threw the Quaffle to Ginny to begin. She threw it to Ryan who threw it to Dean who threw it back to Ginny. They were making various patterns that somewhat resembled figure eights as they passed the Quaffle around. Ginny was the one who finally threw it towards the goal posts, and not very gently either. Harry watched eagerly, hoping Hermione could save it. He saw her make a quick dive towards the left goal, just barely hitting it with her forearm. It was just enough to change the path of the Quaffle, preventing it from scoring.
“I DID IT!” she yelled. “I BLOCKED ONE! AND I DIDN’T EVEN FALL OFF MY BROOM IN THE PROCESS!”
“That was a great save, Hermione!” Harry said, feeling much better about the upcoming match. If she could block one of Ginny Weasley’s goals, she would do okay against Ravenclaw. He decided to end practice early so they could go celebrate with a butterbeer before bed.
~~~~~
As they walked into the common room, Hermione spotted Ron sitting in an armchair reading Hogwarts, a History. He was really getting quite close to finishing. She had thought he would have given up before he was even halfway finished with the book. She smiled at the fact that he was so determined to prove that he could do it.
She and Harry went to sit down next to Ron. She stopped smiling as she remembered that she was still supposed to be mad at Ron from their last fight.
“So, how’s the book coming, mate?” Harry asked Ron with an evil grin.
“It’s okay. I’ll just be glad when it’s done. And Hermione, I’m sorry about the whole Viktor Krum thing ”
She glared at him for a few minutes. She could tell Ron was getting a little uncomfortable being stared at. He was starting to fidget a little. Once she thought he’d had enough torture, she smiled at him.
“It’s okay. I’m sorry too. What are you going to read next?” Hermione asked, laughing at the look of relief on Ron’s face.
“Next?”
“Yeah, you know, once you’re done with this one.”
“Um, I don’t know. I thought I was going to be done reading once this one was finished.”
“Oh, no, you’re not done. You’ve still got two and a half weeks of reading.”
“I try not to think about that.”
“Ron, if you keep insulting reading like that, I’m going to make sure that the next book I recommend is more boring that one of Professor Binns’ lectures.”
“Please, anything but that,” Ron whimpered.
“If you apologize.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Good.”
“Hermione, how was Quidditch practice?” Ron added, trying to change the subject.
“Oh, it was great! Hermione blocked a really hard goal against Ginny!” Harry answered for her.
“I believe I was asking Hermione.”
“Sorry. I guess I’m just used to answering all the questions that have the word Quidditch in them.”
“Ha, ha,” Hermione said. Directing her attention back to Ron, she answered, “It actually wasn’t too bad. I will be glad when the next game is over, though. I don’t like the pressure.”
“I thought you said that pressure helped you do better.”
“Only on tests. It forces you to study hard, and when you’re well prepared you’ll do well on the test for sure. With Quidditch, you can prepare all you want, but it depends mostly on how you’re feeling that day. Just having the sun in your eyes or something can make you lose the whole game.”
“That’s not true. Tests depend on the day too. If you’re tired or something, your mind kind of goes blank and you can’t remember anything,” Ron argued.
“Not if you’re prepared. If you really know the information you’ll be able to remember it eventually.”
“That’s just you. Your brain is like a textbook. The rest of us are unable to remember every word we study.”
“You would if you studied harder.”
“I don’t feel that it’s worth it.”
“So, you think I’m just wasting my time reading and studying and getting good grades?”
“No. . .” Ron said, afraid of where this was going by the tone of her voice.
“Yes you do! You just think I’m some good-for-nothing bookworm who doesn’t have a real life. Well you know what? You may think this way now, but when you can’t get a decent job and you’re living on the streets, you’ll wish you listened to me!” Hermione yelled as she stormed up to her dormitory.
“What did I say that made her so mad?” Ron asked Harry, slightly confused.
“I think it was the part about you thinking it wasn’t worth it to study. It sounded like you thought she was stupid for studying all the time or something.”
“I didn’t mean that!”
“Yes, well, she took it that way. Girls think different then we do. They find all these hidden meanings and stuff.”
“But I don’t put any hidden meanings in what I say!”
“But she doesn’t know that.”
“This is hopeless. I will never understand the way her mind works. How do you know all this stuff, anyways?”
“I don’t know. I think I’ve been spending too much time with Hermione while she’s been playing Quidditch with me and you’ve been reading.”
“Ugh, don’t say reading in front of me. I can’t wait until this month is over.”
“You know, you could give up.”
“No. I absolutely refuse to give Hermione the pleasure of proving me wrong. She does that too much already in class.”
“Well, if you keep all of this up, she’s never going to speak to you again. She only made up with you from the last fight five minutes ago, and she’s already mad again.”
“Seeing as I don’t usually know what I did wrong until afterwards, I don’t think there’s any way I can prevent doing something stupid again.”
“You could just not talk at all.” Harry suggested.
“Shut up, Harry,” Ron said as he threw one of the chair’s pillows at his head.
~~~~~
On to The Gift-->
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