A Life More Ordinary

Do you eat, sleep, do you breathe me anymore?

Do you sleep, do you count sheep anymore?

Do you sleep anymore?

Do you take plight on my tongue like lead?

Do you fall gracefully into bed anymore?

I saw you as you walked across my room.

You looked out the window, you looked at the moon.

And you sat on the corner of my bed, and

You smoked with the ghost in the back of my head.

And I don’t know, and I don’t care

If I ever will see you again.

I don’t know, and I don’t care

If I ever will be there.

Do you eat, sleep, do you breathe me anymore?

Do you sleep, do you keep me anymore?

You kick my foot under the table,

I kick you back;

I can’t say I’m able to

Stand for you or

Fall for you ever again.

Wish for a perfect setting?

Wishing that I am letting you

Take me where you want me

All over again?

You can’t give yourself absolutely to someone else.

And I don’t know, and I don’t care

If I ever will see you again.

I don’t know, and I don’t care

If I ever will be there.

I saw you as you walked across my room.

You looked out the window, you looked at the moon.

And you sat on the corner of my bed, and

You smoked with the ghost in the back of my head.

Do you eat, sleep, do you breathe me anymore?

Do you sleep, do you count sheep anymore?

Do you sleep anymore?

I don’t know, and I don’t care

If I ever will be there.

Will be there?

Hermione stomped into Ginny’s dormitory the next morning. She was apparently still angry with Ron and Harry. Hermione threw open the curtains that surrounded Ginny’s bed, waking her up.

“Ginny, wake up.” Hermione said as she began pulling Ginny’s clothes from her wardrobe.

Ginny sat up and rubbed her eyes. “Hermione, why are you in here so early?”

Hermione looked up from the wardrobe. “Ron and Harry are still being prats! Do you know they refused to speak to me when they saw me in the common room this morning?”

It took Ginny a few minutes to remember having the argument with Harry and Ron the previous night. Suddenly it all came back to her clearly and she sighed. “Merlin, this is the last thing I want to deal with right now. I have tests to study for and an essay to write. I don’t need Ron and Harry skulking around looking sulky, distracting me from my work.” Ginny walked over to Hermione and took her clothes from her. “Are you mad at me too?”

Hermione looked shocked at Ginny. “Of course not! I don’t think it was right that you lied to Harry, but you didn’t do anything that required that big of a blow up. You don’t have to go anywhere with him. Besides, it’s not like he’s never lied to any of us. He and Ron are being big babies. I can’t imagine why Ron is so mad.” She sat on the bed and waited for Ginny to finish dressing.

Ginny looked up from the wardrobe mirror where she had been tying her Gryffindor tie. “He wants me to go out with Harry as well. Then both you and Harry would be members of the Weasley family. His best friends would be family. I suppose he’s mad because he thinks that I think I’m too good for Harry. I know it can’t be because he’s actually mad that I lied.” Ginny finished tying the tie and sat down on her bed to pull on her gray knee socks and shoes. “He lies all the time as well. He’s not that big of a hypocrite.” Ginny finished this last sentence with a bit of a grunt as she was trying to shove her foot into her black Mary Jane shoes. Ginny stood and held her hand out for Hermione to take. “We’re going to have to go down to breakfast and face their wrath. Let’s get it over with.”

Hermione stood and they went down to the Great Hall together. Just as Hermione had said, Harry and Ron were sitting with Dean, Neville, and Seamus. Harry and Ron usually sat away from the three boys and usually saved a seat for Hermione. Today, the two had joined the ranks of the Gryffindor bachelors and had not saved Hermione a seat. “Look at that! They didn’t even leave room for me!” Hermione fumed.

Ginny looked at the long Gryffindor table. “There’s room at the end. We’ll sit with Colin and Dennis. I usually eat with them anyway.”

Hermione nodded her assent and the two girls sat beside the Creevey brothers. “Good morning, Colin. Morning Dennis,” Ginny said cheerfully to the two sandy haired boys who were sitting across from them.

Colin looked positively shocked to see Ginny and Hermione sitting across from him. “Ginny? What are you and Hermione doing here? Don’t you usually sit with your brother and Harry?” His blue eyes were as large as china plates.

Ginny spooned some scrambled eggs onto she and Hermione’s plates. “Not this morning. Ron and Harry are being pissy, so we decided to sit elsewhere.” As she leaned forward to take the nearest pitcher of pumpkin juice, she could see Harry and Ron in her peripheral vision. It seemed they were leaning forward as well, trying to look back at Hermione and herself. Ginny turned to Hermione. “Do you see what I see?”

Hermione looked up from the book she had propped against the water jug. “What?”

“Thing One and Thing Two are staring down the table at us.” She nodded in Harry and Ron’s direction.

Hermione turned her head in their general direction. “What were you saying about the Hufflepuff table?” Hermione continued pretending to look at the Hufflepuffs, while really craning her neck to see what the two boys were up to. “What’s their game? I thought they were mad at us?”

Ginny took a bite of the bacon she had on her plate. “I suppose they wanted to know if we were feeling the stinging pain of their rejection.” Ginny poured herself a glass of the pumpkin juice. “I feel sorry for you. You have to have class with them all day!” Ginny shook her head in disbelief.

Hermione closed her eyes. “That’s right! How could I forget?” She placed her hands on the sides of her head. “What am I going to do? It’s going to be awful. People are bound to notice.”

Ginny felt sorry for Hermione. “Listen, if you want to apologize, you can. I know it’s going to be harder for you. I’ll understand.” She placed a hand on Hermione’s back and began patting it.

Hermione looked up at Ginny. “What? And have them think that they were right? I’m not going to leave you alone. I’m not that kind of friend, although they may be.”

Ginny pushed her plate of food away. “How about this: I’ll meet you outside of your classes and walk with you to all our classes. Most of our classes are pretty close anyway, it’ll be fine. That way they can’t snub us in the halls because we’ll be together. You can sit away from them in your lecture classes. You’re not even their partner in potions anyway, so they can’t really do anything horrible to you.”

Hermione nodded and smiled at Ginny. “Thanks, Gin.”

Ginny shook her head at Hermione. “No, it’s me who should be thanking you, Hermione. You’re standing by me when I’m fighting with Harry. You don’t have to and you are anyway. I appreciate it.”

Hermione pulled Ginny in for a hug. “We girls have to stick together.” When they pulled apart, Hermione gasped. “Oh! We have to get to class. C’mon!” She stood and began putting things into her schoolbag.

Ginny stood along with her. “What’s your first class? Herbology?” Hermione nodded. “Great, my class is Binns. We can walk to Binns class because it’s on the way to Herbology.”

They walked together to class and Ginny felt sad to be leaving Hermione alone. She awful that Hermione and Ron were arguing because of something she had done to Harry. It was wonderful of Hermione to stand by her and she thought about how close she and Hermione had become. Hermione was almost like a sister to her, Ginny realized. It was better than being just her friend. Hermione was the best friend she ever had. She had been the first girl who had listened to Ginny when she had her crush on Harry. Hermione had been there for her the summer after her first year to listen to Ginny when she woke up from nightmares about Tom Riddle and the Chamber. She genuinely hoped that she and Ron could patch up their differences. Someday she wanted Hermione to really be her sister.

Ginny sat through Binns’ boring class and dutifully took notes. She remembered when Hermione had taken her aside before she started at Hogwarts and warned her how boring History of Magic could be. She had told Ginny how exciting it really was and had encouraged Ginny to make sure that she paid attention. Ginny had a hard time staying focused but had realized early on that Hermione was right. After Binns’ class, Ginny hurried to the Herbology greenhouses to meet with Hermione and go to lunch.

“How was it?” Ginny asked. Hermione had been the first out of class and was folding her work smock to put in her schoolbag.

“Vile!” Hermione placed it in her bag and looked up at Ginny. “Ron and Harry ignored me the whole time. I would ask them politely to pass me dragon dung or hippogriff manure and they’d ignore my requests!” Just then, the focus of Hermione’s anger passed the girls by without a backward glance. “Twits!” she yelled after them.

Ginny frowned at Hermione. “Are they really being that bad? It’s not like them to just plain ignore you like that.”

Hermione snorted. “Are you new here? Don’t you remember when I was in third year and I told Professor McGonagall about Harry getting his Firebolt?” Ginny shook her head. “Anyway, they refused to speak to me for weeks. They were being just as nasty as they are now. Thank goodness I had you!” Hermione smiled at Ginny.

“I just can’t believe the two of them are being such idiots!” Ginny pulled open the door that led to the inside of the castle and held it for Hermione to walk through.

“That’s not all. I was reaching up on one of the shelves for a terracotta pot to repot my Mimbulus Mimbletonia in and Ron boxed me in.” Hermione sighed dramatically about this.

Ginny looked at Hermione quizzically. “What?”

“He came up behind me and put his arms on either side of me, while I was trying to reach for the pot, which I obviously couldn’t reach. I could feel his warm presence behind me, just exuding his snoggability.” Hermione stopped when Ginny began giggling and laughing about Ron’s snoggability. “Anyway,” Hermione said in an exasperated voice, “he got the pot down for me and just walked away. It was all so very frustrating!”

Ginny looked at Hermione while they entered the Great Hall. “I dunno, sounds kind of sexy to me.”

Hermione looked back at Ginny like she’d grown another head. “He’s just trying to frustrate me. He wants me to give in and apologize. He’s doing it to fog my brain with sex! I won’t have it!” Hermione concluded her statement with a stamp of her foot and sat down at the table.

Ginny sat next to her and looked dejectedly in Harry’s direction. “At least he wants you. I have no idea what to do about Harry. I can’t even figure out why he’s so angry.” She watched as Ron and Harry were sitting with the bachelor boys again. “What can we do to make them miserable?”

Hermione ladled some stew into a bowl. “Well, what do guys think with?” She quirked an eyebrow at Ginny. “Let’s fight fire with fire.”