\u201cAre you mad at me?\u201d Hermione sat alone in thought and Harry was worried she was upset for learning he didn\u2019t trust her enough to tell her things.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat? Oh, no, I was just thinking about something related. I\u2019m actually proud of you, and I feel very warm and cozy about it, because knowing you kept her secrets means you would keep mine as well, and that makes me feel secure. No, I was thinking about Ron. When I told you something, it remained between us. But when I would tell Ron something, it was in the public domain. He would even mock me over it in public, and that made me furious. But somehow, I always forgave him for it. During our first two years at school, I can remember a dozen things he said to me, or about me, that hurt me as much as anything Lyra ever said, and yet we locked Lyra out instantly as an enemy, and Ron was seen, I don\u2019t know, as an insecure, well-meaning buffoon, I guess\u201d, she seemed to be angry at herself.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was thinking about that too. Not now, but other day. How we just assumed his heart is in the right place \u2013 he\u2019s a Gryffindor. He\u2019s a Weasley. They\u2019re all good folks. But Lyra felt dangerous, focused, in enemy camp. If Ron said something hurtful, we assumed he\u2019s insecure and trying to prop himself up. If she did it, we assumed it was a weapon intentionally aimed to hurt us. I don\u2019t even understand how he got sorted into Gryffindor, but then again Peter Pettigrew was a Gryffindor. I just foolishly assumed then that everybody in Gryffindor has to be good, and everybody in Slytherin has to be bad. And they all kept giving us those baleful looks, unlike the Hufflepuffs who were nice to everybody, or Ravenclaws who were aloof\u201d, he reminisced.<\/p>\n
\u201cPart of it was just childish competitiveness. If you sort kids in two classes, each class will start trying to prove they are better and see the other as the competition\u201d, she noted. \u201cEven if the classes are sorted completely at random, and they are called A and B\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s true\u201d, Harry conceded. \u201cHowever, when you add serious politics and war into the mix, it becomes really bad. I was told \u2013 by Ron, as a matter of fact \u2013 that Slytherin produces the most dark wizards of all houses, and that the Dark Lord and all his followers were from Slytherin, and their children are now going to be sorted there as well. You can imagine how I reacted to that. Also, I saw Ron in rags and looking neglected, complaining about being the youngest in his family and how everybody is appreciated more than him and whatever he does will not be seen as special, and I saw myself in that \u2013 I was also in rags, I was always told I don\u2019t matter and I\u2019m just a waste of space and food. When I look at it now, I see him as an inherently insecure, ungrateful kid who never really learned to appreciate anything and was just entitled, felt everything he had was nothing and wanted more because he thought he deserved it. And you don\u2019t even know the half of the nasty things he said about you when you weren\u2019t there, and I\u2019m not repeating those\u201d, he grinned.<\/p>\n
Hermione giggled. \u201cAnd then Lyra came to our compartment, looking confident and important, well dressed, dignified, and we both interpreted that as haughty, spoiled and nasty, and she made faces at Ron\u2019s clothes and even more when I said that my parents were muggles, and made that hamster joke when I was already sensitive to having those big front teeth\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cNice hamster you\u2019re having, Potter. Did you buy it in Diagon Alley, or did it follow you on its own?\u201d<\/i>, Harry reminisced. \u201cThat felt like such a nasty thing to say to someone, that I instantly sorted her in the same box as Dudley and all other nasty bullies I ever met\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was nasty, and it hurt\u201d, Hermione remembered, \u201cBut it was by no means worse than what Ron kept saying about me, if you remember\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do, in fact, and I can\u2019t understand why I didn\u2019t react the same way to him. Probably because he looked poor and neglected, and in my mind people were either poor and neglected, or bullies\u201d, he frowned. \u201cNow that I think of it, he was a terrible pig who cared more about food and his personal comfort than people, and she was a wonderful person who just managed to say all the wrong things\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then she got sorted into Slytherin and we took it as a confirmation that she\u2019s an enemy, and he got sorted into Gryffindor and we took it as a confirmation that he\u2019s a trustworthy friend\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cExactly\u201d. They looked at each other in silence.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhenever she tried to approach me in the hallways, I would give her a nasty look, because she was the enemy, a bully and a nasty person, and never even talked to her if I could avoid it. I didn\u2019t see her as a person \u2013 she was just something you need to fight and defeat, and the fact that she looked like a pretty girl felt like a trick of the enemy that made her worse\u201d, Harry remembered.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then she had enough and saved us from our own nastiness and stupidity by ordering you to take out your wand and kill her, if she\u2019s the enemy and vermin, and if not, to treat her with dignity\u201d, Hermione smiled.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was too self-righteous to feel ashamed of anything at that time, but she really made me feel ashamed of myself\u201d, he smiled. \u201cShe forced open the box I put her in and made me realise that she\u2019s a girl with feelings and that I actually treated her horribly\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat, and how smart and dignified she was, and how articulated and sophisticated under stress. I already knew she was a top student, but class is one thing; seeing that display was quite another. I went from having classified her as a nasty cow, to wanting to be like her\u201d, Hermione smiled. \u201cAnd when you talked to her and explained how she was, I felt really miffed for missing out\u201d.<\/p>\n
A perfectly balanced tray levitated itself beside them.<\/p>\n
\u201cSnacks\u201d, Lyra shouted from the kitchen.<\/p>\n
\u201cThanks\u201d, they shouted back. \u201cSmoked salmon, buttered toast, Earl Gray tea\u201d, Hermione noticed. \u201cYou\u2019re spoiling us\u201d, she shouted.<\/p>\n
\u201cShut up and eat, you\u2019re pregnant\u201d, Lyra shouted back.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not missing Ron any more\u201d, she gave Harry a conspiratory whisper as he snickered.<\/p>\n
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\u201cAre you mad at me?\u201d Hermione sat alone in thought and Harry was worried she was upset for learning he didn\u2019t trust her enough to tell her things. \u201cWhat? Oh, no, I was just thinking about something related. I\u2019m actually … Continue reading