Hero of the Story || James Potter x Hermione Granger Fanfiction

22 | you can make me wait forever

And so, this whole James Potter thing was a conundrum. The logical side of her kept on placing down facts as to why this was bad news. Unsurprisingly, the fact that Harry Potter would not exist was at the very forefront.

The wholehearted side whispered that she just wanted to be happy.

This went on for days and Hermione knew crossing paths with James was inevitable.

The Marauders were bloody serious with their studies this year because of their NEWTs. Peter was a nervous wreck, knowing that more than the OWLs, this year could make or break his dream of becoming an Auror. As usual, Remus was the less rigid among the four when studying, because he wasn't planning on becoming an Auror anyway. Sirius was – well – Sirius and then, there was James.

When she spied the group sauntering inside the library, silently horsing around until Remus had to shush them, Hermione's back had snapped ramrod straight. Her jaw was set, her eyes wide and wild, and she had been mercilessly worrying her bottom lip. James brought up the rear of the group, too busy scanning a parchment in his hands.

Peter greeted her with a hug and slid down on the seat beside her. Remus gave her a kind smile while Sirius winked. "Miss us, Whiskers?" the smug wizard asked.

Hermione merely rolled her eyes and wordlessly glanced down at her textbook once more. She tried to start reading and to ignore the wizards altogether, but much to her horror, James chose to sit on the chair across from her.

"All right, Hermione?"

She stiffened at his address, unsure how to answer his question. Hermione slowly lifted her eyes towards him and tried to decipher what he was feeling. James was coolly look at her, his mesmerising eyes never betraying any emotion besides mild amusement.

"Yes," she breathed out, realising her silence had stretched too long.

James lightly smiled at her and went back to scanning his parchment.

Hermione suspiciously stared at him, waiting for another quip that would broach their conversation they'd had back at Hogsmeade, but James started to pull out his things from his bag to study.

The brunette reluctantly went back to her textbook and blocked any external distractions. Good thing this was an Arithmancy textbook; Hermione soon found herself lost in the sea of words.

She jotted down notes on her parchment, her fingers furiously gripping the stem of the quill to quickly put her thoughts into words. Such was her grip that the stem of her eagle quill broke in two. "Damn it," she hissed, blindly rummaging inside her backpack in search of a spare quill.

A handsome black quill with golden strands was then pushed towards her. Hermione instantly recognised it as the turkey quill James had bought during Hogsmeade weekend.

Blinking in surprise, her blue eyes landed on James. He was smiling at her in amusement, his hazel eyes trained intently on her broken quill. "Well, somebody once told me turkey quills are the finest ones," he said, gesturing at the quill in front of her.

His hazel eyes then shifted to her face and Hermione felt a blush creeping up from her chest.

"Thanks," she murmured, hastily glancing down at her parchment and grabbing onto the turkey quill. It was soft and light to touch, and Hermione was almost hesitant to use it. She was aware how tightly she gripped her quills, and this one in her hand had cost a fortune!

"They're durable," James whispered, bemused with how she deliberately scratched on her parchment. "It won't break easy. Promise."

Hermione wordlessly nodded and focused once more on her homework.