36 Chapter 36: Lionheart

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9 November 1991, Hogwarts

Harry took out his wand and murmured, "Tempus!" and realized that it was almost noon. He had spent over five hours in the room and he needed to hurry up to get back to their daily meeting in the library. After all, he had a few things to say to her about Halloween.

Harry called Hedwig back and got dressed. A few minutes later, he and his owl left the room and headed towards the library.

Well, long story short, Hermione never showed up at the library that day. Or any of the days for the following week. It was odd for her. She would never stay away from there for too long. Harry had first thought that she was traumatized from the fight with the troll, but she seemed oddly chipper for someone who had almost died a few days prior.

Hermione was going to the library, but only to take out books, and didn't actually study there. She probably stayed in the common room with her new friends. Oh, yeah, that was a thing. For some reason, she decided that Longbottom and Weasley of all people were good enough to be her friends. He did find that out the hard way, when he saw her toddling after them, trying to get them to stop leaving their assignments to the last minute.

It was disgusting, and Harry had seen the two boys practically insult her for months, and for some reason, she just forgave them, and practically started tutoring them. It put him in a foul mood, to everyone's confusion. After all, their friendship was supposed to be secret.

And so, with new friends from her house, Hermione practically forgot about Harry, or maybe even actively avoided him. It hurt, even if he didn't want to admit it. It really hurt when someone just spits on your friendship like that. Harry had taken a leap of faith with Hermione. He didn't see the member of the golden trio, he didn't see the brave bookworm from the stories, he only saw a lonely girl that was as socially awkward as he was and offered her a hand in friendship. He knew how terrible being alone was, and he was willing to spare the girl. And in return, she spat on his goodwill and abandoned him for the first people that offered her a hand in friendship.

Still, being alone was something Harry was used to. He was alone with the Dursleys, and he was alone in his previous life. And so, the young Slytherin persevered. He stopped sitting by Hermione during classes, even if it was assigned to him previously. The professors seemed to see that whatever cordiality there was before was gone after Halloween and just pretended that nothing happened. Well, every professor except Snape, of course, was delighted at the sight of Harry being uncomfortable.

Harry had decided to sit next to Daphne during class. The potion master had noticed the switch and wasn't having any of it, "Potter, why are you sitting here?"

"Because we have potion class, professor?" Harry responded in mock confusion.

"No, I have assigned you to partner up with Granger, and you will continue to do so until I say otherwise. Do you understand that, Potter?"

Harry grimaced and moved to sit next to Hermione, who looked just as awkward as he felt. The man proceeded to continue the lessons, and Harry promptly ignored his partner as the professor continued to explain the properties of the potion they were brewing, as well as the different techniques of doing so.

When the man finally told them to read the instructions and start brewing, Harry silently went to pick up the potion ingredients and started preparing them. He didn't even look at Hermione when he told her, "I'll prepare the ingredients. You, get the potion started."

The girl stammered in response, but Harry ignored her and focused on dicing the hellebore roots and crushing the unicorn horn that was needed by the potion. They worked in silence, with Hermione working on the potion, and Harry fixing the small mistakes that she – unknowingly – does. Snape was very harsh with his grading when it came to Harry's potions, and he didn't want to get lower grades because of his unspoken spat with Hermione.

As usual, Snape just sniffed at their potion and didn't say anything. That meant that it was practically flawless. By the time class was over, Harry just walked in the other way without saying a word to his former friend.

Harry let out a grimace when Hermione ran after him, "Harry! Harry!"

The last Potter stopped and turned, "Yes?"

"Can we talk for a minute?" the Gryffindor asked.

Seeing no harm in it, he nodded in acceptance, and the two of them entered an empty classroom.

Harry took a look at Hermione, who was awkwardly fidgeting, "What is it?"

The girl flinched slightly and responded, "Are we okay?"

"I'm afraid I don't understand what you're talking about," Harry responded.

"Oh, come on Harry. You barely said anything to me during our potion class," the bushy haired girl protested.

Harry though snorted, "You're seriously asking this? You practically ignore me ever since Halloween, and just because I don't talk to you during class, you think that something is wrong."

The girl's face paled, "Oh Harry, I'm so sorry. I was just caught up with Neville and Ron that I didn't really make time for you."

"Hermione, let's be frank. You didn't just forget to make time for me, you forgot entirely about me," Harry said.

"I didn't forget about you. It's just… It was nice to be appreciated in my house is all. I never felt at home in the Gryffindor common room, but now people are nice to me. They talk to me, they ask for my help," the Gryffindor tried to explain.

"And that made it alright to completely forget about your actual first friend?" Harry replied with some bite in his voice.

"You're the one who insisted that our friendship be secret," Hermione bit back, "you can't just expect me to disappear every day from everyone just to hang out with you."

"That's a fair point. But it's not enough to just outright ignore me. And with Longbottom and Weasley of all people."

"What's wrong with Neville and Ron?" Hermione answered while gritting her teeth.

"Ron Weasley is a lazy boy that is jealous of everyone around him and channelled this jealousy into putting people down. Neville Longbottom is an arrogant brat who thinks the entire world revolves around him because of some fluke that happened to him when he was still in diapers. I wouldn't call them to be good friend material." Harry said.

"It wasn't some fluke, he killed you know who, for Merlin's sake. And you don't get to judge who my friends are," the girl answered back.

However, Harry wasn't done there, "Weren't they the people who you complained about because they kept pranking and bullying you, calling you names because they were jealous of how much you're better than them in your classes?"

"They saved my life, Harry!"

"And you wouldn't have needed saving from the troll if they hadn't insulted you, to begin with."

Hermione stubbornly didn't back down, and Harry decided to just press on. He sighed in exasperation, "Look, Hermione. I know that Longbottom and Weasley don't like me, and I don't care. I never did anything to them, while they tried to attack me multiple times. Being friend with me and them is not going to work out, and you know it. I personally don't care about you being friends with them, but they won't feel the same. You can't live a double life like that Hermione. One day they will find out about it, and you can guess how they will react. You will have to choose between us. No, you have already chosen. You just didn't want to make it final. You're smart enough to understand what's going on, you're just afraid that your new friends would drop you, and you're keeping me as a safety net."

Harry looked Hermione directly into her eyes and continued, "Well, I'm not anyone's safety net. I was able to maintain friendships with my housemates and you, without anyone taking priority over me. You could have done the same if you had chosen anyone but Longbottom and Weasley, but you did, and from the look of it, you will not budge. So, what's the answer, Hermione? Who are you picking? Me or them?"

Hermione looked down and didn't answer, and Harry understood exactly what her answer was. After all, it was what he expected, "The fact that you're looking like that means that you're choosing them. And that means that we're done, you and I. I don't have the energy to hate people too much, so from now on, we're strangers. Granger and Potter."

"Harry…" Hermione, no, Granger, opened her mouth to argue back but closed her eyes.

The Potter scion just shook his head, "You know, it's good that we stopped being friends this early. Someone who would have dropped me at a moment's notice for something they think is better is not someone I want as a friend in the first place. You could have tried, Hermione, but you took the coward's way out."

Harry just turned to leave. He almost wanted to reveal to the girl that he was the one who had saved her from the troll. But he knew that this would shatter her entirely. She was a conflicted girl, but she was already practically crying, and he didn't need to be cruel just to hurt her more. In a way, Harry still cared for her to not hurt her unnecessarily.

So, he just left, ignoring the sobs of the girl in the room. He forced himself to not come back and comfort her. It would be the complete opposite of what he wanted. Although Harry thought back at the fight with the troll and noticed how similar the aftermath was to the books. Hermione had become friends with the boy who lived and Ron Weasley, and the golden trio was born. They would start going through one daring adventure after another, each leading to Voldemort somehow.

Was it fate? Was Hermione Granger always meant to help the boy who lived survive his trials? Or was there someone else arranging for it? Harry could see Dumbledore pulling a few strings to give the child of the prophecy a loyal witch with a lot of potential that would push him to not stagnate in his magical education.

But this was too late to ponder on some primordial force pushing the world towards a certain direction. Or even a headmaster with the mental capabilities and deviousness of James Moriarty. With magic very little was impossible, but Harry was still a beginner in understanding it.

As for Hermione, he didn't really hate her. Or even dislike her. She had made her choice, and Harry had other friends. He could respect that. But why were his eyes teary as he stood in front of the Slytherin common room entrance? Why did it hurt so much to see her practically admit that she liked Longbottom and Weasley more than she does him?

He kept pondering that until he came to a realization. For all his maturity and intelligence, Harry still wasn't that experience when it came to emotions. He was practically emotionally stunted in his past life, and in this one, he still had the emotional maturity of a child, even if he did his best to keep them controlled. Harry was a child, even with all the memories of his past life. He was still growing, learning his place in the world, and having lost a friend, when he had so few for years, did hurt.

Harry felt as if some weight had come off his shoulder somewhat. He felt lighter when he finally accepted a part of himself. He always thought of himself as Harry, the man, but never as Harry, the child. He was so consumed with learning magic that he had forgotten a part of himself. He was allowed to be hurt by what happened. He had given his trust to someone, something that he rarely did, and it was neglected. Damn right, he was right to be upset.

With that realization out of the way, Harry simply wiped his tears, put on a fake smile and walked into the common room. He was immediately accosted by Blaise who wanted to challenge him in a game of chess. The Potter scion rarely ever returned to the common room just after lessons, preferring to try out new spells or just stay in the library.

The two boys were later joined by Daphne and Tracy and just hung out. Telling each other stories, or just playing games. They spent hours just enjoying each other's company, and the pain that Harry was feeling was numb by the end of the night. It was nice, remembering that even with Hermione gone, he wasn't alone.

It was one of the happiest evenings he had ever experienced. And by the end of it, Harry realized that he had almost forgotten about his former friendship with Hermione.

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