Victim of Brilliance

Hermione Granger's fantastic.

Ask anyone.

Ask the staff at Hogwarts.

Ask the pupils at Hogwarts.

You can even ask the Slytherins - they might need some encouragement, but they won't - can't - deny the fact that she's utterly brilliant.

Ask my family.

Therein lies the problem, I suppose. My family would be the first people to step up and wax lyrical about Hermione Granger and how wonderful she is.

Ron goes without saying, of course. Ron, as much as he criticises her work ethic, and her obsession with house elves, would knock you down if you so much as looked funny at her. Ron's had a crush on her for as long as I can remember. He admires her so much... he doesn't even care that everyone at home teases him mercilessly about it.

Fred and George... you'd never think that these two would consider Hermione to be anything more than pleasant, but they do. Much as she's a stickler for the rules, they still like her. They've always respected her, that's for sure. And then there's the slightly more hormonal aspect - more than once I've come across scraps of paper with lists on them, entitled 'Hogwarts Hotties', and she's usually a feature.

Percy liked her from the start. Oh, not in that way, but her seriousness and respect for the rules appealed to him. He constantly yakked on about how I should 'follow Hermione's example', etc. If I hadn't seen how besotted he was with Penelope Clearwater, I'd have been planning their wedding in a second.

Bill and Charlie barely know her, but if you think that's an impediment, you'd be wrong - Bill and Charlie and very adept at forming accurate impressions of people within seconds of meeting them. Both of them admit to admiring her for her quick mind and sharp wit. They also personally agree that it doesn't hurt that she's fairly attractive, but they don't know that I heard that part of the conversation.

Mum and dad plan to have her in the family, one way or another, because they both think 'she's a lovely girl' and that their boys could do a lot worse. They seem pretty keen on setting her up with Ron, but they both know that it can't happen... at least, not yet.

That's because, as much as all the boys in my family like her, someone else got there first.

Hermione Granger's fantastic.

Ask Draco Malfoy.

I suppose it was inevitable, really. When Dumbledore announced to the Order that Draco Malfoy had turned spy, she was the only one of us who thought we should give him a chance. She was the only one who helped him settle into Order life. She was the only one who would practise spells and curses with him, because she was the only one who trusted that he wouldn't turn around and kill her.

She was the only one who got him to open up. She was the only one that he would allow himself to relax with. She was the only one he could learn to trust.

She was the only one he could learn to love.

Inevitable it might have been, but unsurprising? You should have seen people's faces.

They knew him by then, though. They knew he'd die for her in an instant, and she for him. So there it was. Draco and Hermione. Together through it all.

I don't think it would matter, you know. All of it. My family and friends loving her the way they do. It doesn't matter, really, but there's one more person who thinks she's fantastic, and it all hinges on him.

Harry Potter.

She's taken care of him throughout the years. I understand that. They've been best friends since forever; they understand each other in a very particular way because of their Muggle backgrounds. They share all these jokes that make no sense to anyone but them.

The thing is... he's my boyfriend.

And yet I feel...

I think...

I know that if I asked him to choose between me and her, he'd choose her.

Because she's that fantastic.

I suppose the real question here is - what do I think of her?

Hermione Granger's a bit bossy sometimes. It's always work, work, work with her, and her sense of humour seems to be a bit lacking. She doesn't really care about hair, or make-up, or even dating. We're not alike at all.

But she's always been there for me. That first year of mine at Hogwarts, she made sure I knew that she was there to talk to, or get help from, if I wanted. I think she was even a little hurt when she discovered that I'd undergone a terrible ordeal and hadn't felt that I could talk to her.

After that, she's been like a sister to me. I poured out my soul to her about Harry, and Michael, and Dean... and then Harry again. She does have a sense of humour, but it's an intelligent, wry sense of humour that apparently only Malfoy understands.

She's never judgemental. She never scolds unless she thinks there's a really good reason. She's truly loyal, and she loves us all so much.

And we love her.

She really is fantastic.

Which, I suppose, is why it's going to really hurt everyone tomorrow morning when they discover her still, lifeless body in her bed. It's too late to do anything about it now. I already stirred the poison into her drink. The Order will put it down to their own stupidity, not watching the house closely enough, not realising that she was a prominent target, or something. They'll never guess it was me.

My family will get over it. After all, there's another girl around here that they can lavish their attention on; someone they haven't paid enough attention to in quite a while...

Me.

I can barely stop myself from snickering as I watch her raise the mug of hot chocolate to her lips...

Only to have it brutally knocked out of her hands by a very murderous-looking Draco Malfoy. She gasps and says, "Draco..." but all I can hear is a dull, horrible, unforgiving roar echoing through my ears and around my brain. The world is moving in slow motion.

Malfoy is holding a small paper packet - the packet that contained the ricin powder I put in her drink.

And he is looking directly at me.

I bury my head in my hands.

It's all over.

End