- Hermione's Point Of View -
"I'm sorry, Hermione. We can't be your friends anymore."
I thought I was hearing things. I hoped that I was hearing things. I prayed that I was hearing things because the thing that I just heard was nothing something that I thought I would ever hear from anyone of my best friends. I had known them since I first came to Hogwarts School of Wizardry & Witchcraft, we had been through so much together and now...I'm hearing this?
"What do you mean that you can't be my friends anymore? What kind of thing is that to say to someone? To one of your best friends, Harry?" I asked him as I looked at the three of them with wide eyes.
"Ex-Best Friend, Hermione. Harry just said that we don't want to be your friends anymore." Ron spoke in a cold voice, not a single look of regret or compassion on his face, nor on his sister's. She just stood there and looked at me, like I was a stranger.
"I...I don't understand. What brought this about? After everything that we have been through, why don't you want to be friends anymore?" I asked but my voice was waning, I could feel my heart racing and the tears threatening to fall from my eyes but I was not going to let them see me cry.
"Seriously? You're asking us why? Hermione, look at yourself - You have cat ears, cat eyes, claws, and fangs; even a fucking tail. Why would any of us want to be around you, let alone seen with you? You're a Freak." Ginny, who had remained quiet during this entire interaction, spoke with a scoff as if I was asking a question I knew the answer to. I looked at them in awe - They were dumping me because of something I had no control over?! Over how I looked?!
During our last investigation to discover the identity of the Heir of Slytherin, Harry made the idea that a student in Slytherin was the Heir and asked me to steal a strain of her hair and a Polyjuice Potion from Professor Snape's Potion Class to turn into her and see if the Chamber of Secrets would open to us but something went wrong - the hair I collected from her rode was in fact cat hair instead of hers and it turned me into a Humanoid Cat. We went to Madam Poppy in hopes that she could turn me back and she managed to reverse most of the damage, however, not all of it - The Cat Ears remained at the top of my head, slightly protruding through my wild brown curls. The Tail remained light swishing at the back of my legs. My nails remained sharped into the points of a cat's unsheathed claws and my canines had grown in length. My brown eyes were darker in color and the once round pupil had now shrunk into the diamond-shaped of the cat's pupil, lucky for me, I could still see in color.
Madame Poppy told me that the potion had some kind of unknown reaction to my blood and was rewriting my DNA the moment I drank the potion, while the full cat features on my face were able to be reversed, some of them had already been written to my genetic code, causing me to retain the features I had at this moment. She told me that she would take a sample of my blood and take it to St. Mungos to find out just what went wrong in the rewrite. During that time, she made sure my life was not in any danger with the new feline parts and it turned out that they were perfectly accepted into my DNA, so there were no complications - that was the first good news that I got that night. She kept me overnight to see if the cat's features would fade away overnight but when they didn't, she knew that it was going to permanent. She sent a letter to Dumbledore and Professor Mc' Gonagall, stating my condition and I was waiting for a word with them. In the meantime, she said that I was clear to leave the Hospital Wing and that my friends were waiting for me in the hallway; I was excited, thinking that they came to see if I was doing okay but when I told them that the features were permanent, this was welcome I got.
"So, let me get this straight - You are dumping as your friend because of how I look? Because I was dealt a bad hand while on a mission that you, Harry Potter, wanted to undertake to find something out?! Because I was willing to make the sacrifice in case something went wrong, you're cutting me out of your lives because of that?!" I hissed at them. I literally hissed at the, I could even feel my ears dart to the back of my head in an aggressive manner.
"That exactly what we are saying, Hermione. Aren't you supposed to be the 'Brightest Witch of Our Age' because that was kind of a stupid question you just asked. Who would want to be seen with a Cat Freak? Not the Boy-Who-Lived nor would any of the Weasley Siblings." Ron said in an 'it's so obvious' tone of voice; this pissed me off even further.
"I'm the one who took the risk for you so you didn't get hurt and you thought it okay to just discard me when I end up like this, Potter?!" I hissed, pointing a clawed nail at him; he didn't look away.
"Look, I get you're mad but that has nothing to do with me. You were supposed to take the consequences because I am the only one who can stop Voldemort and I can't do that looking like a freak - I'm the Boy-Who-Lived, not the Cat-Who-Lived. Besides, better you than me - You're just a Muggleborn, Hermione; it's not like you have some kind of high standing in our world. The only things that you could really contribute are your brains or constant nagging." Harry said as he shrugged his shoulders. I looked at him with my mouth slightly ajar; I wanted to say something, anything, but the pain in my heart was not going to let me do that. Ron decided to speak once again.
"Look, we can still be partners during class because we still need to keep our grades up to go to Hogsmeade and be able to play Quidditch, but other than that, we don't want you around us. We don't want you sitting with us at meals or in the Common Room because we don't want to catch...whatever it is that you have. So...yeah. See ya, Granger; we're late for breakfast." Ron said as all three of them turned their backs to me and walked down the corridor to go to the Great Hall for Breakfast.
I looked at the ground as the memories of the times we spent together started flashing through my mind - Meeting on the train, the Sorting Ceremony, The Troll Attack, everything; and with every image, my heart broke more and more before I finally gave in to the tears and held myself, crying alone in the hall. It was about 4 minutes before I felt someone embrace me from behind, I looked to see Madame Poppy holding me with a sad motherly look in her eyes; I turned to face her and started to sob into her chest she just held me and gently caressed my head, whispering sweet nothings in my ears.
"Hush, sweet child. They are not worthy of your time or your tears. Everything is going to be alright." She whispered to me. I clenched her apron and cried harder.
"How could they do this to me, Madame Poppy? After everything we have been through...all the sacrifices that I have done for them...What was I to them? Was I just something to use?" I whimpered to her. I felt her gently stroke my head as she looked down the hall, I could smell her scent - it was sweet like strawberries and honey. It was very comforting, like her presence.
"There are a few people in this world when it comes to friends, Hermione: There are those who are friends for as long as they are needed or need something from you & There are True Friends -Who would never leave or forsake you, no matter what. They are not the ones for you, dear child. Please, do not cry for them." She said as she started humming to me. "Merlin was showing you now because he has something grand planned for you, Hermione. Now that the veil has been lifted, all you have to do is wait for him to show you what he has planned for you, Child."
I just stayed there, weeping in her arms and clinging to her like a child scared that their mother was going to disappear and leave them all alone, and she left me. A few moments like that and she called me back into the Hospital Room while calling Professor Mc'Gonagall - I didn't go to my classes that day.
- END -
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