Different Perspectives

So, it had indeed started in second-year: the first flashes of affection. But she hadn't known what they meant, she had just been utterly confused by them.

And then there was the dreaded third-year. Third-year was one of the most awful years of Hermione's life. With that dreaded Time-Turner practically dictating her life, she barely had a moment to enjoy any time with Ron or anyone else. She had been so concerned with her classes and trying to remember what time it was. And although she had been grateful she had to it save Sirius, she had most relieved when she handed it in.

And third-year was when she realized once again how important both Ron and Harry were to her. She had had that awful fight with Ron, and Harry had taken Ron's side, so she had been all alone. That, coupled with the insanity of traveling in time, made her absolutely miserable. There were night she had sat up at night, too stressed out to go to sleep, and all she could think about was how much she wished Ron and Harry were behind her. Harry would talk to her every so often, but the only words she had heard out of Ron's mouth were hurtful ones directed towards her. That had hurt her more than any time traveling mishap could ever hurt her.

Probably the lowest point she had hit was when she was at Hagrid's one night...

**

March 3^rd, 7:45 p.m.

"All right, Hagrid," she said briskly, "I can't stay for too long, but I wanted to let you know about some information I found in the library today." She pushed the piece of parchment towards him. "Look, I finally found a case that could be relevant. In 1345, a hippogriff attacked a wizard, and he brought charges against the owner. However, the hippogriff was released since there was no actual proof that the hippogriff attacked the victim, it was only hearsay since no one actually witnessed the actual attack."

"But how's that goin' help us?" Hagrid asked, brow furrowed as he read Hermione's neat script.

"Because," Hermione explained, "this proves that hearsay is not alone to convict and execute a magical being. There is no proof that Buckbeak attacked Malfoy without provocation. All the Ministry is going on is Malfoy's statement. They didn't even make a preliminary examination before convicting and bringing up charges. Therefore, Buckbeak was charged unlawfully, and the charges should be dropped." She leaned back in her chair exhaustedly. "I can help you draw up the motion to dismiss if you'd like, and that, along with your statement, and possibly the statements of other students should be enough to get Buckbeak released."

"I don' know, Hermione," Hagrid said uncertainly. "Malfoy gots the panel in his back pocket--they're gonna take his son's statement seriously, won't they?"

She bit her lip. This was the one loophole she could find with the case, and she had to admit, it was a big one. "Well, we can worry about that with the appeal," she said with what she hoped was definite optimism. "If we even need it. Dumbledore will most likely be able to help us if we need it, and I still think we have a very good chance at getting Buckbeak off on his first trail. After all, you are a Hogwarts professor now. The only case Malfoy has in his word. They should value your statement over his, especially if we use Malfoy's disciplinarian record as evidence to show that he has a record of causing problems within the school."

Hagrid's face finally brightened with a grin as he processed what she just told him. "Reckon we have a right good chance now, don' we?"

Hermione smiled for the first times in days. "I think so." She stood up. "I better get back to the castle. I'll leave this with you so you can look over it. I'll come back later so we can go over exactly what you need to say."

"Can yeh stay for a cuppa?" Hagrid asked, gesturing with one of his large hands over to the stove where the teakettle was heating up. "It'll be ready in a minute."

She hesitated. She had to finish her Muggle Studies essay, read three chapters for Study of Ancient Runes, do several Arithmancy problems, and some ridiculous Divination homework, and then she wanted to review her readings she had done earlier for Transfiguration and Potions. But she had just spent the whole day in the library, and she did deserve a little break. "Well, I suppose I could stay for a few minutes," she finally relented.

"Good," Hagrid lumbered over to the fire to retrieve the kettle as it whistled and poured the liquid into two mugs. "So," he asked over his shoulder, "I heard that you had a little excitement las' night?"

Hermione's stomach twisted as she thought back to last night. She had fallen asleep with her head on her Muggle Studies book when Ron's scream had jerked her out of her dead sleep, and she spent the rest of the night wide-awake and terrified. Ron could have been killed, and the thought scared her more than she'd care to admit.

"Yes," she replied, "Sirius Black managed to get into the tower and scared the wits out of all of us."

"I know," Hagrid answered as he brought her tea. She wrapped her hands around her mug, not drinking it but just savoring the warmth on her palms. "I hear he wen' after Harry?"

"Not exactly," Hermione swallowed hard, her eyes prickling again when she was reminded of the fact that both of her best friends could have lost their lives last night. "He managed to get the password, went straight up to Harry's dorm, but I guess he didn't know which bed Harry was in, and ripped open the curtains to Ron's bed instead with this huge knife. The sound woke Ron up, and he rolled over, and yelled, and then Black ran out of the tower." God, she really wished her eyes would stop stinging like this. She had managed not to cry in front of Harry and Ron and the rest of the common room last night while they waited for news about Black, and she wouldn't cry now.

"He's all righ' then?" Hagrid asked softly.

"Yes," Hermione forced herself to take a long sip of tea to help mask the tears. "I mean, he seems to be fine, I think he actually is enjoying himself, for once everyone's paying attention to him and I think he's likes all the attention. But I don't know for sure, I mean, we still aren't exactly speaking at the moment."

"Still?" Hagrid pressed gently.

"It's all so silly, really," Hermione forced herself to laugh, but it even sounded hollow to her, "I mean, I guess Crookshanks did happen to eat Scabbers, but that's not my fault, is it? Besides, at the time, we had no proof about Scabbers even being dead, and I guess I did say some things I didn't mean, but honestly, we have argued before, and we've gotten over it, why should this be any different? And I'm sorry if this is selfish, but I think that Harry should at least have the civility to spend at least some time with me every once in a while. I mean, I am his friend too, and he's only said about ten words to me in the past couple of weeks..." The unwanted moisture was brimming fuller than ever in her big brown eyes, and when she blinked, the drops started to drip out and once the dam was released, there was no going back. "I'm just so tired!" she finally burst out, dropping her face into her hands to stifle the tears, but just ended up spilling her now cold tea and shattering the mug in the process. "Oh, Hagrid, I'm so sorry!" she wailed as she quickly got to her knees to pick up the broken pieces and mop up the tea.

Hagrid got to his feet to help her clean up the mess, or so she thought. Hagrid just abruptly pulled Hermione to her feet and sat her back down in the chair. "I'll ge' it," he told her before grabbing a dishrag and sopping up the tea.

Hermione managed to smile shakily at him as she wiped her eyes, but more tears just kept leaking out. "I'm sick of this, Hagrid," she admitted. "I'm tired of actually dreading to go to class, I hate that I don't want to go to the library anymore because I know that it'll only remind me of how much work I have to get done. I'm tired about being confused about what class I need to go to or what day it even is. I'm tired of avoiding Ron and Harry, and trying to get them to talk to me, and I hate that I look as awful as I do and I feel as awful as I do, and..." She trailed off helplessly. "I just don't know what to do, Hagrid."

"Firs' yeh gonna just calm yehself," Hagrid soothed. "Gettn' yehself all worked up ain't gonna help yeh." Hermione sighed and laid her head down into her arms, taking several long shuddery breaths, finally feeling her eyes dry up. Hagrid patted her reassuringly on the head. "An' now let's take one thin' at a time, shall we?" Hermione lifted her head up and nodded. "Firs', maybe yeh should consider droppin' a few of yehr courses..."

"No!" Hermione burst out. "I can't!"

"All righ'," Hagrid said instantly, knowing not to push her. "Would yeh jus' think abou' it?" Hermione nodded again. "Then, mehbe yeh should try to talk to Harry and Ron agin?"

"I don't even know what to say to him anymore," Hermione whispered.

Hagrid studied her for a minute. "Don' worry about it none, Hermione," he finally said. "Yeh've helped me out with this Buckbeak stuff, an' I'm gonna help yeh."

"How?" Hermione demanded.

"Jus' wai' an' see," Hagrid said reassuringly. "Yeh feelin' better?"

She wiped her eyes again. "I am, actually. Thank you."

"If yeh ever need someone to talk to, yeh can always cum see me," Hagrid said. "Don' let this get all bottled up. An' make sure yeh getten some sleep." He looked at her knowingly. "I know yeh aint."

"Yeah," Hermione admitted with a sigh as she got to her feet. And she knew it was true especially since when she had just stood up, she had gotten rather light-headed and had to pause to collect herself. She couldn't add a trip to the hospital for exhaustion to her list of problems. But then, maybe Ron and Harry would hear about it, and he'd actually try to make up with her if he was worried about her. Hermione shook her head in disbelief. She couldn't believe that she had actually considered for a minute going to the hospital just so she could get her best friends to talk to her. She really was getting scatterbrained in her exhaustion.

"Yeh sure yeh gonna be all righ'?" Hagrid asked, peering at her worriedly. He had noticed she was taking a fair bit of time standing there, clutching the back of her chair.

"Yes," she said, "I better go." She pulled on her robes and paused before heading out of the hut. "Hagrid," she smiled gratefully at him. "Thanks. You're just what I needed right now." But as she walked out of the hut, all she could think about was what she really needed right now: Ron and Harry.

**

The depression Hermione had sunk into during those few months had been more draining than any dementor had ever been. Okay, granted, that wasn't exactly true, but going through it such a long time was much worse than a few minutes of extreme depression, in her opinion.

But that all had lifted when she and Ron had made up later that week. She still was very stressed out and irritable, but at least her best friends had been with her. They weren't the greatest at comforting her, mind you, but at least they made the effort. That had meant more to her than any Cheering Charm. And she had learned that despite the fact that Ron and Harry were such boys, she knew now that she couldn't live without them.

That fact had been drilled into her head later that year, at exam time...

**

June 6^th, 11:04 a.m.

Hermione climbed into the old wooden trunk at the end of the obstacle course that Professor Lupin had created, feeling rather confident about herself. She had broken the grip of the grindylow with the utmost ease, repelled the Red Caps in the potholes with a quick Banishing Charm (she was quite proud of this considering that that particular charm was in the Standard Book of Spells, Grade Four and they were still plowing through Grade Three), and completely ignored the hinkypunk's misguiding light to safely wade her way through the marsh. Now all that was left was the blasted boggart. Hermione had to admit that she was slightly uneasy due to the fact that she had never faced one yet, the only third-year who had not been up against a boggart. But she had done everything else quite successfully, so she banished aside her doubts and closed the lid of the trunk.

She quickly lit up the end of her wand, illuminating the interior of the trunk in a faint light. Her analytical mind racing, she tried to guess what her boggart could possibly be. It could be perhaps being expelled or leaving Hogwarts and the magic world forever. And she did have a secret fear of heights, but what would the boggart turn into for that?

The only thing in the trunk along with her was a body, lying face down. She swallowed hard, seeing the blood creeping out of the corpse. It's just a body, she told herself firmly, you can handle seeing a dead body. Just make it funny. Hermione raised her wand, trying to invent a way to make a bleeding corpse amusing, but that's when the body abruptly turned over.

It was her dad.

Hermione sucked into her breath sharply; she wasn't expecting that. All of the students' boggarts had been some trivial childhood phobia, so she was expecting something along those lines. But her father dead? That was too frightening for words.

With a pop, the boggart shifted to her mum.

She shook her head to clear it. All right, think logically, she told herself, if it were a real corpse, it wouldn't change from Dad to Mum right before your very eyes, now would it?

And then it was Harry.

Hermione lost the little self-control she had just gained. She didn't think she would be able to utter the spell if she wanted to, since she was hardly breathing. No, the voice at the back of her head reminded her. She shook her head again. Come on, get a grip, she reassured herself, this is Harry, after all, who has all ready survived a fifty-foot fall from his broomstick this year. Nothing can hurt Harry. This fact comforting her, her breath returned and she randomly thought of Harry doing a headstand and sticking his tongue out at her, a trick that her best friend from her Muggle school she had attended before Hogwarts would do that could always make her laugh. That's how she'd do it.

But with a pop, the body switched from Harry to Ron.

Ron's red hair was matted with almost black blood, his mouth slightly open, his eyes wide open and staring straight up. Hermione instinctively took a step backwards, dropping her wand as she clapped both hands over her mouth. No, no, no, not Ron, not Ron. She thought of the time Sirius Black had broken into the Gryffindor Tower and how this could be true, if Ron hadn't woken up in time, it would have been true. She would have lost him forever. It could happen.

I can't, she thought faintly, I can't do this. She numbly bent down to pick up her wand, not caring that she could possibly fail her exam because she couldn't defeat this boggart, the only thought she could think was that she had to get out of here because she couldn't stand seeing Ron like this.

And then Ron's head lolled towards her so his once-expressive eyes, now deadened, were resting directly on her.

Hermione lost it. She burst out of the trunk, screaming hysterically.

"Hermione!" said Professor Lupin, startled. "What's the matter?"

She hesitated for the briefest of a second, eyes flickering over to Harry and Ron, who were staring at her with almost identical expressions of dumbfounded shock. She couldn't tell them what she had really seen. Her mind quickly flashed back to the first day of Defense Against the Dark Arts, walking back to the classroom from the teachers' room to get their bags...

"...I wish I could have had a turn with the boggart..."

"What would it have been for you?" said Ron, sniggering. "A piece of homework that only got nine out of then?"

That's too silly, she thought, but the whole concept her boggart pertaining to her grades wasn't all that ludicrous. After all, it was exam week and she was very stressed out. She was going on practically no sleep, and both Professor Lupin and McGonagall had expressed their concern about her overworking herself. Lupin would buy it if she said was so upset about failing...

"P--P--Professor McGonagall!" Hermione gasped, pointing into the trunk. "Sh--she said I'd failed everything!"

**

She had been tormented by visions of Ron's corpse sooner than she had expected, Hermione remembered with a shiver. Later that same night, Ron had disappeared down the Whomping Willow with Sirius. All she had thought about the hour she had hurried through the passage with Harry and Crookshanks was her boggart, and that it was coming true, and how sick and ill that made her feel.

It hadn't helped that right before he had been taken, Ron had done one of the bravest things she had ever witnessed. She had always known what a loyal friend Ron was, but that night certainly clenched it. He had proven himself to Harry by telling Sirius that Sirius would have to kill him if Sirius wanted to kill Harry, and he had proven equally as faithful to Hermione too...

**

June 6^th, 6:06 p.m.

"Scabbers, keep still," Ron hissed, clamping his hand over his chest. The rat was wriggling madly. Ron came to a sudden halt, trying to force Scabbers deeper into his pocket. "What's the matter with you, you stupid rat? Stay still--OUCH! He bit me!"

"Ron, be quiet!" Hermione whispered urgently. "Fudge'll be out here in a minute."

"He won't--stay--put...What's the matter with him?"

Hermione frowned as she watched the struggling, clearly terrified rat. A slight movement in front of them attracted her attention to her cat, Crookshanks, slinking his way towards them as if he could see them despite the fact they were under the Invisibility Cloak.

"Crookshanks!" Hermione moaned. "No, go away, Crookshanks! Go away!"

But the cat just kept coming--Hermione honestly wondered at this moment if her cat really did have it in for poor Scabbers. He certainly was relentless in pursing the rat.

"Scabbers--NO!"

Hermione gasped as Scabbers finally broke free of Ron's fingers, leapt away, and scurried away. Crookshanks sprang after him, and much to Hermione's surprise and fear, Ron ran off after the rat and cat.

"Ron!" she moaned. With a quick glance at Harry, they both took off at a run after him, Hermione pulling free of the restraint of the Invisibility Cloak. She was quite out of breath as she skidded to a stop in front of Ron, who was on the ground with Scabbers back in his pockets and his hands tightly clamped over his pocket.

"Ron--come on--back under the cloak.." Hermione panted. "Dumbledore--The Minister--they'll be coming back out in a minute..."

Her warnings trailed off as she suddenly heard pounding of paws. Hermione's jaw dropped as she saw a huge, pale-eyed, jet-black dog quietly and swiftly making his was towards them.

Harry instantly went for his wand, but he never got it in time. The dog went straight for him, leaping on top of him so his paws hit Harry square on the chest, knocking Harry off his feet. Hermione yanked out her own wand as the dog rolled off of Harry and turned around. Harry was too dazed to move. The dog for a brief moment locked eyes with Hermione, revealing his huge teeth at the sight of her wand.

But before she could do anything, or before the dog could do anything else, Ron was on his feet. He didn't go for his wand since his hand was still on Scabbers, but with his free hand, he quickly shot an arm out in front of Hermione and pushed her quickly backwards.

"Get behind me," he hissed before striding forward and shoving Harry out of the way too as the dog charged again. Hermione opened her mouth to protest when something struck down from behind. She managed to regain her balance before falling, and her head jerked up in time to witness the dog's jaws clamp down on Ron's arm, but the assailant from behind struck Hermione again, so hard on her back that she fell face forward into the ground. She heard the sounds of struggling and she felt something brush pass her. Hermione got to her feet, twisting around as she watched Ron being dragged away. Before she could get her wand out again, she was hit hard for a third time, this time on the shoulder, and she couldn't suppress her shriek of pain and she fell again on the ground.

Harry by this time had lit up his wand, revealing that they were at the base of the Whomping Willow, and Ron was being forced into a gap in the roots. Ron was fighting as hard as he could, but his head and chest were out of sight. Harry was yelling Ron's name, but she was fighting too hard to not cry. She held her breath as Ron wrapped one of his legs around a root. Come on, Ron, hold on a little longer, she begged silently as she ducked another branch, we're almost there, we'll get to you in a minute.

CRACK

Hermione almost swayed on the spot when Ron's leg broke and he vanished completely from sight. No, this wasn't happening, no, no, no...

Her boggart was coming true.