Which was silly, Hermione acknowledged as she listened to Harry talking about the Laws of Transfiguration and why he thought it should be possible to transfigure something living out of something non-living.
Harry wasn't her friend just because she'd helped him with his homework and contributed to solving some of his more adventurous problems. But she couldn't help remembering how Ron and he hadn't talked to her for weeks after the Firebolt incident. The initial falling out had largely been her own fault. She had gone behind Harry's back; if she'd talked with him…
But the length of time that they had taken to reconcile and her increasing depression at their failure to forgive her had been the fault of the boys. It had taken far longer than she had anticipated (and indeed calculated when she had weighed up her decision to take the broom situation to their Head of House). As Harry usually didn't hold grudges (besides Professor Snape who regularly tested her own deep-seated belief that all teachers deserved respect and Draco Malfoy who was a prat of the first order), she blamed Ron who had also been waging war at her over Crookshanks and Scabbers.
Her friendship with Ron was a completely different animal to her friendship with Harry. She doubted that without Harry, she and Ron would ever have been friends. It had been because of Harry that both boys had arrived at the bathroom in time to rescue her from the troll – the incident that had effectively begun the trio's friendship. Ron had disliked her intelligence and thought she was a bossy know-it-all and she hadn't been that enamoured of him either. But the day after the troll, when Harry had excused himself for the bathroom, Ron had quietly apologised for insulting and upsetting her, and offered her a slightly battered chocolate frog he'd been saving. Hermione had been touched at the gesture and sacrifice (because she knew how Ron loved his sweets) and accepted. Since then, their friendship had been a mix of the tension that had characterised their relationship before the troll (in other words, sniping at each other) and after (namely, something rather sweet and affectionate).
By comparison, her friendship with Harry had none of the volatility of her friendship with Ron. It was much more straightforward; they each accepted the other despite the irritation of their various flaws (Hermione knew she drove him round the bend with her attitude on studying and her bossiness at times whereas his ability to outright ignore authority and be stubborn drove her nuts) and treasured the friendship between them. She had a poster in her muggle bedroom that stated 'friends are people who know your flaws and love you anyway' and she thought it summed up her friendship with Harry perfectly. Perhaps, Hermione considered as Harry led her, drinks in hand, out to the garden to meet Simeon's wife and son, it was because neither she nor Harry had experienced friendship before Hogwarts (one of the few things Harry had let slip about his life with the Dursleys). They both appreciated their friendship more because of that.
And that was why she had been so hurt by his and Ron's refusal to speak with her. She had forgiven them both – partially because they'd been truly repentant, partially because she'd been truly repentant, and mostly because she'd missed them. But the whole incident had prompted Hermione to think about her friendships once the school year was over, and she thought it had maybe prompted Harry into thinking about his friendships too.
Since the beginning of the Summer and his return from the healing clinic, they'd grown closer. Some of it, Hermione believed, was her inclusion in the House of Black, but most of it seemed down to Harry's own decision to cultivate a closer relationship with her. He'd written to her (and OK, Ron too) in a journal which she had read cover to cover and more than once; he'd changed to Runes and dropped Divination and they were now studying together for the opportunity to skip a year; he'd asked Sirius if Hermione could join him for his Potions and his politics lessons without her reminding him; he'd let her hold his hand and comfort him in the Chamber of Secrets.
And she was warmed by his actions. She knew Ron held a special place in Harry's world because Ron had been his first friend of his own age but now she felt she occupied something of a special position too beyond his first female friend – a more equal position, and it reassured her to some degree that Harry wouldn't just take Ron's side in future. She wasn't certain that had been Harry's intent but it was the result.
Interestingly, Harry had also seemed to make the same decision as she had about making more friends. Losing Harry's and Ron's company had made Hermione realise just how isolated the trio was – how isolated she was. Neville had been quite sweet to her – if he saw her in the Gryffindor Common Room he'd sit and chat with her if Ron and Harry weren't around. She'd also taken some solace in her Arithmancy study group which included Padma Patil and Lisa Turpin but they only met twice a week and truthfully, they focused more on studying than getting to know each other. No, she had decided early on in the Summer that she needed to make some additional friends outside of Harry and Ron. Luckily, Harry seemed to have come to the same conclusion and the Summer's activities had been great at building some decent nascent friendships with Susan, Hannah and Neville.
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