A New Day Has Come

Disclaimer: I do not own the song A New Day Has Come by Celine Dion

She put her head in her hands, her elbows on the desk in front of her. She tried to hold the tears in, but they wouldn't be imprisoned behind her eyes and forced their way out from behind her palms, tracing paths down her cheeks.

The Muggle music she had put on played softly in the background. She knew her Astronomy homework would be blotted and wet if she stayed over it like this, so she backed away, trying to wipe her streaming eyes on the back of her hand as she crossed the room to her four-poster bed in the corner and sat down upon it.

They said it was just a joke, why is she taking things so seriously? She needs to lighten up, they didn't mean it, she shouldn't take things so personally. The tears fell faster.

The rain pattered gently on the windowpane. She decided to take a walk. Rain was so peaceful; it never hurt anyone, it just fell and gave life to the earth, cool teardrops falling from a leaden sky.

Throwing back her hood once she reached the courtyard, she tilted her face to the sky and felt the rain kiss her hot cheeks. A line from one of her favorite Muggle songs floated into her head: let the rain come down and wash away my tears, let it fill my soul and drown my fears.

Not being noticed as a girl by the male gender was bad enough, but when her own friends rejected her... A cold dagger pierced her heart, and her tears became one with the water that flowed from the sky. What was with them? Joking was part of their natural habit; they did it unthinkingly. What they didn't realize was that it hurt. A lot.

She had asked Parvati about it a few days ago, when she had made a comment about another girl and the victim had tried valiantly to laugh it off. Hermione had talked with her afterwards, though, and the girl felt the same way she did. They all said it was just a joke, but jokes cause pain, laughter only at someone else's expense.

She remembered the way Parvati had taken her question. Her eyebrows went up, and she looked at Hermione like it was the simplest thing in the world, and she couldn't believe she didn't understand it. But she knows we're joking! But you mean it.

She remembered the time they went into Hogsmeade for lunch one day, about ten or fifteen of them, and as they sat, laughing and chatting, one of the girls went off to the bathroom. As soon as she was gone, Parvati got the rest of their attentions, and instructed them to all ignore the girl when she returned. It would be a laugh.

The girl had come back, and Hermione tried to not obviously ignore her, but everyone else was, leaning into the table and turning their shoulders just enough to block her out but still be subtle. They would stage loud conversations that were obviously meant to keep the girl in the dark, and whenever she tried speaking, they would either take no notice or exclaim to each other, "Do I hear a sound? Is that the breeze blowing?"

The girl had quietly left the table and gone outside to the back of the building, to be found sitting on the ground, crying. And now Hermione was the main subject of their jokes. Most times it was general, but sometimes they would decide to have a single person bear the brunt for a few days or so.

The rain continued to fall. She thought they were her friends. She decided to be strong, and if they tried it again, say something. Maybe they would call her uptight, but maybe she would also save someone else. All those corny lines about standing up for yourself and things that she had heard didn't seem to explain the resolve she had made. And if it continued, she would distance herself from them.

She closed her eyes, feeling the raindrops beat upon her eyelids. The rest of the song she had remembered came to her: let it shatter the walls for a new sun, a new day has come.