Just A Letter Home (Open)

Hermione finished the letter that she'd been writing and stood up, looking around at the owls that were perched above her head. She would have asked Harry if she could borrow Hedwig for her letter, but the Snowy owl was out hunting at the moment, and Hermione didn't really want to tell her friend what she was sending to her parents. She had to tell someone about what had happened with Draco in Hogsmeade, and her mother seemed the best bet. She'd understand, even if her daughter had told her about the horrible way that the Slytherin blond had been treating her over the years.

"Come down here, please," she beckoned to a beautiful Tawny colored owl. It fluttered down onto her outstretched arm and allowed her to attatch the letter to its leg. She carried it to the window and stroked its feathered head.

"This is going to the Dentists Granger, in London. If there is a reply, would you wait for it?"

The owl hooted softly and nipped at the Gryffindor's finger affectionately before soaring off into the gently darkening sky.

"Oh, Mum, I hope you do understand. I want to be with Draco, and he's willing to be friends for now. If it does go to a more... personal and romantic level in the future, I need to have someone to be able to talk to about it."

The sound of someone's footsteps behind her reminded Hermione that she'd not closed the door of the Owlery. She froze in place and turned slowly to face the door.

"Um... How much did you hear?"

Mia had come back to Hogwarts to write up another historical piece on the school. It wasn't the most exciting of stories, but Mia loved Hogwarts. She had so many fantastic memories from her time here, and writing about its illustrious history warmed her heart. Plus, she had been leaning towards more dangerous leads, as of late, and she didn't need to get in another argument with her protective boyfriend. He had been upset about her going on her own to visit a vampire. She had fought his concerns as first, but when he said he just wanted to discuss things like that with her beforehand, she kind of just melted. She could never really refuse him anyway, even if she wanted to. So, that was the other reason why she had volunteered for this article. It was nice and safe.

She had visited much of the lower half of the school, and now she was heading up to the Owlery. She used to come here all the time just to get away from everything. Especially the fact that her half-brother was in Ravenclaw with her and he hadn't even known that they were related. And she had chosen to keep it from him because she didn't know how to tell him. And within the last six months, she actually had told him. And he literally flipped out. She was convinced now that he hated her, and that was why he was avoiding her. It hurt to know that he was holding something over her head she had decided to keep from him as a twelve-year-old. It seemed to her that he should be mad at their father for not telling him. But either way, she didn't have Gavin in her life now. And it hurt.

She was about to walk into the tower when she heard a voice. She stopped before going in, and even though she tried not to, she couldn't help but hear what the girl had said. She took a few more steps forward to alert the girl of her presence, then she blushed when she was asked what she had heard.

"Well, I believe I heard enough to know you might need someone to talk to. My name is Mia, by the way. I'm a reporter for the Prophet. Oh, but don't worry. This conversation is strictly off record. Did you say something about being in love? I might know a little about that."

Hermione turned bright red and she covered her face with her hands. Oh, no!!! She'd been overheard, and even though it hadn't been by Harry, Ron, or even Draco, the only one that actually knew how she felt, this was a reporter! A reporter?! She dropped her hands and narrowed her gaze at Mia.

"You work for the Daily Prophet? What, are you here to do a report on Harry?" She instantly regretted her words. "I'm sorry, I guess I'm just really protective of him and his privacy. He can't help being The Boy Who Lived."

She moved over to the woman and introduced herself, holding out her hand in greeting. She didn't know how to explain what she'd been talking about to her, even though the woman had said that she knew something about being in love.

"Well, Mia, I didn't actually say anything about being in love. I said that if the person that I liked would ever choose to have our friendship go to a more romantic level, I would need someone to talk to about it. But now I don't know if I did the right thing. My mum might not like it that my heart has chosen the person who has served to be my chief tormentor. But you can't chose who you like or love, can you?"

She turned to the window, staring off in the direction that the owl had taken her letter. Maybe telling her mother was a good thing, maybe not. But it certainly couldn't hurt to tell someone that didn't have a stake in either side of the relationship, could it? But first, she had to make sure that this wasn't going to appear in the Prophet.

"I would like to tell you, but I have to be sure that you aren't going to print what I'm saying. So, if you don't mind turning over any item that you might have to record my words?"

Mia smiled softly and resisted the urge to roll her eyes. It was nosy reporters like Rita Skeeter that gave honest journalists like Mia a bad name. Mia had not started a job at the Prophet to wheedle information out of people, or to become famous. She did it because she loved writing, and she felt that people needed to know the facts. Truth be told, she really only wanted to write novels. But until she did that and actually got published, she would need something to pay the bills. She sighed and pulled out every writing utensil she had on her person and pulled out her pockets to show there was nothing else.

"You see? No ulterior motives. Just two girls chatting in a high tower covered in bird droppings. That's a normal occurrence, right?"

She smiled and took out her wand, saying, "Scourgify," to an offending stool, then sat and faced the young girl.

"I am not here to do a story on Harry Potter, or any other young, defenseless student. I'll let other, more...ambitious...reporters handle that. I'm just writing up a piece on the school itself. And yes, I know you didn't say love. I was more or less speaking of matters of the heart in general. I may not be an expert, but I am in love with my boyfriend. A man I very much wish would propose, but I suppose I must be patient on that score. He's American, you see, and I believe their customs on these sorts of things might be different. But between you and me...that's a load of shite. He's just worried I might not accept him. Silly man, I've been with him for nearly six years. How could I say no to the one I love?"

She smiled at the thought of her beloved, the one she knew would love her more fully than any other person in the world. But she looked curiously at the girl before her and thought about what she had said regarding the boy she had feelings for.

"Wait...did you say chief tormentor? I don't mean to pry, but...what does that mean, exactly? And I'm sorry, I don't know your name," she said politely.

Hermione listened to Mia and found herself blushing faintly. She thought that she'd blown things slightly out of proportion. She wished that she wasn't so outspoken sometimes, especially when it was to people that really meant no harm, but then she thought that there was no way that she could have known in advance. She was just a naturally suspicious person, and it had probably been brought on by, as she had called him, her chief tormentor.

Hermione knew that Draco had been so mean and just plain horrible to her for the last three years, but like she'd been saying to herself, and in the letter to her mother, the heart has a mind of its own, and it is the one that chose who it wanted. The soul knew its mate, and though Hermione hardly thought that Draco was her soul's mate, if they turned out to be that way, she would hardly complain.

She brushed her crazy hair from her eyes and smiled warmly at Mia. She hadn't meant any harm, the same as the woman hadn't. And to listen to her tell a story about the person that she loved, it made her feel better about opening up about how she felt.

"My name is Hermione Granger, and the person that I'm interested in has been rather..... hurtful to me in the past. He's made fun of my teeth, my hair, my parentage, whatever he could find as ammunition. He would never pass up a chance to tease me. But I've found that over time, my heart was more attracted to him than it should be, and then we ran into each other in Hogsmeade the other day."

She fell silent with a blush and a smile.

Hermione

Mia bit her bottom lip in concentration, trying to decide what was best to say to the young witch who sat before her. This guy didn’t sound like he had her best intentions at heart, but then again, she hadn’t heard the other side of the story. Maybe the young man in question had a good heart, he was just too arrogant or stupid to know that making fun of the girl you like was not the best way to go about wooing her. There were a lot of guys out there who were convinced that hurting the girl would grab her attention or something. It was ridiculous, but it was common. Thank Merlin Steven wasn’t like that. She would have put him in his place very swiftly if that had been the case. She smiled softly and sighed.

“Well...I am not an expert, or a professional. But I do know that there is a difference between attraction and true feeling. If he treats you badly, he might not be worth anything more than a crush. But...maybe he was just too scared to show you his true feelings. If I were you, I would be extremely wary. Make sure you know what you want in the long run, and try not to just go after what would feel good now.”

Then again, maybe going after something superficial might be rather fun. Mia wouldn’t know. She didn’t date much in school, and she had never been one for non-committal flings. Besides, she had met Steven back when she was nineteen, and they had been together ever since. Yes, Mia was definitely a long-term relationship kind of person. But maybe Hermione wasn’t...or maybe not yet, anyway. And in all reality, she had plenty of time.

“But you are young, yet. Maybe you should figure out what exactly he wants before you decide. Sometimes guys can be quite confusing. Don’t let them trick you into thinking that you are the complicated one. They have their intricacies, the same way we do.”

Hermione listened to Mia and nodded as soon as she'd finished speaking. But what she'd said was in response to not having heard the rest of the story first. She wondered if the woman would say the same thing after she'd learned what had happened in Hogsmeade.

"Well, I haven't told you the rest. When I ran into him in Zonko's Joke Shop, we got to talking, and I accidentaly let it slip that I was attracted to him. I thought he'd be disgusted and I would be forever mortified. But he was very nice, and told me that he wanted to be friends with me. I'm hoping that it becomes more than that in the future, but I'm not going to push him. He had every opportunity to tell me that he wasn't interested, but he didn't. In fact...." She turned Gryffindor scarlett. "We kissed for a little bit."

Hermione hadn't told her mother this in the letter, and didn't intend to for a little while. She knew that her mother and father would say the same thing that Mia had said, and probably add that she should turn her affections to someone else. Someone that they thought would be more worthy of their only child, and less likely to hurt her in the future. She didn't know how to make them understand that her heart was already Draco's, if he chose to take it, that was up to him. But until she knew if they had a chance or not, she was going to leave her affections where they were. Focused on him, but not so much that he thought she was smothering him. She would stay as his friend for now, until he decided what it was that he wanted to do.

Mia smiled like a giddy school girl. She remembered when she had first kissed Steven. It was heavenly. He was so fantastic with things like that, and even after being together for so long, he still made her go weak in the knees. She was sure he made plenty of other girls do that same thing, but she was the only one who could call him hers. And that thought made her tingle everywhere.

"Well, kissing is good, right? Or perhaps better than good, depending on the boy. But it's still not the most important thing in the world. If that's all it is, then go for it, by all means. But if feelings are involved, you'll want to be careful."

She sighed and looked up to the high ceiling of the tower, watching all of the beautiful birds up there. All of this talk about love and relationships made her want to go to the Ministry and surprise her boyfriend. She knew he worked hard and she didn't want to interrupt that, but she also loved seeing the way his face lit up when he saw her. She was so lucky to have found someone so fantastic, who loved her in return. She turned her gaze again to Hermione and she sighed.

"Well, I have probably trespassed on your time long enough. Like I said, I'm not an expert. But I wish you the best. And if you ever want another unbiased opinion, you can contact me at the Prophet."

She smiled and walked to the archway that was the entrance and exit into the tower. She turned back and nodded in goodbye.

"It was nice to meet you, Hermione."