Harry Potter Oneshots

Hermione Granger - Unsteady

Summary : you’ve been having mental health problems, and lying to her about it.
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Prompts : “You are a terrible liar.” , “You promised me you would never say that.” , “You are important to me.”

TW : angst.

Word count : 1.4k
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You didn’t mean to lie about it. You wanted to tell her. At least, that’s what you told yourself.

She cared about you, why wouldn’t she want to know when your mental health was dropping.

Unsteadily.

It was fine until about three months ago. When you lost your brother, Cedric to the dark lord. Things weren’t the same after that. You knew the healing process would be a difficult one, but it was definitely slower than you had thought.

Hermione had figured it out. After four years of being your best friend, she could tell when things were overwhelmingly bad.

She noticed you slip away from your usual free-spirited self. You were once such a carefree soul that it hurt her heart to see you so distraught.

She visited your dorm one morning. The sun was shining lazily through the crenellated glass windows, casting hazy almost-lights on the walls and corridors.

Shadows were wisps of wings, fluttering against the stone, echoes were callings from soft voices.

The world was so peaceful.

Yet your mind was a raging storm.

The thunder of your thoughts was so overwhelming, that you felt yourself shake and jump. The lightning struck through those happy memories you held dear, and cracked them into pieces. The rain rolled down your face endlessly, never stopping, never slowing.

You were in constant denial and grief over the events of the previous months.

Cedric was everything to you.
He was your role model.

When you were upset, he would talk to you. When you were happy, he was the first person you went to, to tell him about your day.

And now he was gone. And nothing would change that.

You stifled a sob, pressing your face into your hands and taking shuddering breaths.

The memory of his glassy eyes and pale face haunted your dreams.

The image of his lifeless features were imprinted behind your eyes.

It was then that you heard a knock on the door, jolting you from your thoughts. You only wished it wasn’t Hermione.

Because you knew, if she took so much as a single look at your face, all your secrets could crumble like the happy memories of Cedric Diggory.

And the dam would finally break.

You wiped your tears and plastered a fake smile.
As you walked past a mirror, even you knew the smile would falter the moment the door opened.

And you were right.

For it was Hermione, and your hopes of faking your pain were gone.

She looked at you and you looked back.

She placed her hands on your shoulders and frowned.

‘How are you doing, Y/n, really?’

You shrugged. ‘Just fine considering my brother was murdered,’ you muttered, sitting against your bed and tucking your knees to your chest.

Hermione sat beside you, placed her hand over yours.

‘You are a terrible liar. I know you’re struggling, Y/n, but there’s something you’re not telling me. I’m worried about you. I miss you.’

She did miss you. She missed the extroverted, excitable young woman you had grown into. She missed sneaking into the kitchens in the middle of the night to steal food. She missed how you constantly teased her about Ron, and how she constantly teased you about not having a crush on anyone in school.

She missed your laugh and the way you leaned your head on her shoulder when you were tired. She missed your smile. And the light behind your eyes when you got excited.

She missed you.

‘I really do, Y/n, won’t you tell me what’s going on?’

You swallowed.
‘It’s … a lot.’

Hermione squeezed your hand tighter.
‘I’m here to listen. What’s troubling you?’

You took a deep, shaking breath.
‘Since Cedric died, I— I’ve been in a really dark place. I haven’t been taking care of myself, obviously.’

Hermione nodded. ‘I noticed. We all noticed, Y/n. Harry and Ron. We want to help you.’

‘You can’t,’ you whispered. ‘I … I’m giving up. I don’t want to be her anymore.’
Hermione felt tears sting her eyes like thorns.
‘You promised me you would never say that. Come on, Y/n, we’re here for you, okay? We’re all here. You can’t give up. We need you.’

You sniffed, wiping at your eyes. Hermione looked at you. Really looked at you.

She saw the skin underneath your eyes, how pale your face was, how tired your eyes were.

‘Have you been eating?’

You shrugged. ‘Not that much. But I’m not hungry. It’s okay.’

Hermione scoffed quietly.
‘It’s not okay. You might hate yourself and everything else at the moment, but you are important to me, Y/n. I’m going to get you food, I’ll be back.’

***

She returned not long later, with a tray of food and two very concerned boys.

Harry took a seat beside you and reached for your hand.
‘I’m so sorry about Cedric, Y/n. I could have saved him if I—’
‘It wasn’t your fault Harry, everyone knows this. It’s okay.’

He smiled, placing a soft kiss on your temple.
Ron, after handing you the tray of food with a smile, moved over and placed a heavy hand on your shoulder.

‘I’m not the soppy type, Y/n, you know that. But you’re going to be okay. We’re all here for you.’

‘That’s right,’ Hermione chimed in. ‘we won’t ever leave you. You don’t have to pretend you’re okay and suffer in silence. You just need to tell us. We’ll always help.’

You sniffed. ‘I don’t deserve you,’ you whispered.
‘Nonsense.’ Hermione rested her head on your shoulder.
‘You deserve all the happiness in the world. I know it’s hard, and I know you feel like you’re not going to get better, but you will. And we’re going to make sure of it.’

***

A few hours later, the four of you were on your bed, talking and laughing about God knows what. Your smile was contagious, Hermione noticed, as she looked over at you. She truly missed it.

You wiped at your eyes, though, unlike before, these were happy tears. Tears that reminded you of how lucky you were to have people in your life that cared so much.

Hermione yawned and leaned back against Ron, who, after a moment’s thought, placed an arm on her waist and drew her closer. You raised an eyebrow at her and she glared at you.

Though deep down, she was alight with joy. Because you were slowly but surely becoming your old self again.

You were getting better.

A/N
This isn't amazing, but at least it's an update haha

xxx