Hermione was currently dealing with the predicament of having girl friends who kept bothering her about Harry Potter, who was probably the first true friend she'd made in her entire life and someone who was far different then what the books and newspaper wrote about him.

But still, she doubted that she could tell her friends that Harry Potter was an abused child and that he didn't like people as a general rule.

The problem was that somehow the news that she was with Harry when he fought the Slytherins had leaked out. And now she had the unfortunate task of dealing with her class and house mates who bothered her at every turn in order to get to know more about the mysterious Harry Potter.

Though to say the truth, it was not like she knew a lot about him either. She just knew that he had been abused as a child by his relatives which was the reason why he was not comfortable with other people but that didn't explain his knowledge about charms and transfiguration.

It was hard for her to accept the fact that he was in fact, smarter than her in those subjects since she had always prided herself in being the number one in all of her classes and it was a big blow to her pride when she realized that Harry was far more knowledgeable in those subjects than her and that the only reason why she was the number one in her class was because he didn't bother with those classes.

But still, he was her friend and she was not going to tell the girls about him. Especially when all they see in him is The Boy-who-lived and not the real Harry Potter.

But as it usually happened with her. What she wanted from her life and what she got from life were two totally different things.

Which was why she was sitting in the common room and trying to complete her homework while being constantly harassed by Lavender Brown and Parvati Patel.

"Do you know what he likes to eat. Or his favorite color?" Lavender asked excitedly and Hermione wished for the nth time that they would simply leave her alone.

She was alright with the fact that they didn't want to be her friend but to know that they were only talking with her because of Harry hurt her pride even more and filled her with sadness.

"I don't know." She said with gritted teeth trying not to let the irritation show in her face "Look, you might think that me and him are best friends because we were sitting together but that's just not true. I was just there when he fought with Draco and the other Slytherins and that's it. I don't really know him any more than you do."

"Granger. If you don't want to tell the truth then you could just say so. You don't have to elaborate such lies you know." Parvati huffed and left, Lavender only a step behind her with a scathing remark on her lips "Yea. I don't know what he sees in the know-it-all."

And with that, both the girls were gone, leaving her behind on the verge of tears. But she wouldn't cry. She wouldn't let them see that they'd won. That they'd hurt her. She wouldn't let them have that satisfaction.

But try as she might, their words had cut her deeply and there was only so much bullying she could take on her own. So knowing her limit and knowing that she would start sobbing any minute now, she decided to go to the bathroom to cry when a person suddenly appeared in front of her before she could react, she was enveloped in a tight warm hug by that person whom she soon realized was her new friend Harry Potter.

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It didn't take long after she was hugged that she let go of her emotions and started openly crying in his arms. Feeling relieved at being hugged by a friend and horrified that she would dirty his robes and that he would leave her because of that.

But all her thoughts were put to rest as he hugged her firmly as she cried and started soothing her instead. And she realized with some morbid fascination that she had not been soothed like this in a very long time. Mostly because of the fact that she hadn't openly cried in front of her mom and dad in a very long time.

They were already too worried about her lack of friends and she didn't wanted to worry them even more by letting them know that she was being bullied in the school by her peers.

Crying while being hugged like this made her feel safe. Safer than she had in a long time. Even though she felt a bit embarrassed about the whole situation.

It was then that she suddenly remembered that they were still in the Gryffindor common room and she look around wildly for the commotion that might have occurred because of Harry's presence and their close proximity but to her surprise, everyone in the common room was avoiding them and acting like they didn't exist.

"I call it the shroud of Concealment." She heard Harry murmur in her ears and felt a tingle go through her spine at his soft voice "It's a passive ability of mine that keeps attention off of me." Then he broke the long hug leaving Hermione feeling a bit empty all of a sudden.

"Now. Why were you crying. Did those girls said something mean to you?" he asked as he looked in her eyes and years of conditioning took over at once and she shook her head dramatically before he held both her cheeks and narrowed his eyes at her, looking more intimidating that she ever remembered him being and she was suddenly reminded of the fact that he had dealt with a few 7th year Slytherins like they were unruly children and gulped at that thought.

"The truth now Hermione." He said and then added a bit softly "Were those girls being mean to you?"

She wilted under his intense gaze and nodded her head, wondering what he'll do with that news before he took her hand and pulled her toward the door and she suddenly realized something that she'd missed all this while.

"Wait! How did you enter the Gryffindor common room in the first?" she asked and he slowly turned to her before giving her a toothy smirk that looked quite out of place in his usually blank face.

"I used imperius curse of the Fat Lady and forced her to open the door for me." He said and her eyes went wide with shock.

"W… what?" she almost shouted but then realized where they were and lowered her voice though the urgency in her voice remained "Why would you? You know that it's illegal to perform the curse and you could be sent directly to Azkaban for performing that spell."

But instead of looking concerned, like her, he simply gave her a cheeky smile "Relax Hermione. No one saw me performing the curse and you're the only person to know so I'm perfectly safe." He said with a smile that only went to irritate her even more.

Couldn't he see how serious this whole thing was.

"Harry." She whispered with urgency before clutching his hands tightly to stop him from walking and turned him so that they would be face to face and said "Please promise me that you won't use that curse. Ever again. Please." She almost begged but instead of getting serious, he suddenly stopped smirking and then smiling kindly at her instead.

"I didn't use the Imperius Curse Hermione. I was just saying that to take your mind of other things. In truth, I followed one of the Gryffindor boy inside under the Shroud of Concealment nothing more." He said with a smile and Hermione suddenly felt the urge to shout at him for making a fool out of her and rant at him for making such a stupid joke but his kind smile melted all the anger out of her and she realized that it would be pointless to try and get angry at him right now so she simply huffed and turned away from him but try as she might, the corner of her lips turned upward regardless as she realized that it was the first time anyone has joked with her in such a way in Hogwarts.

It felt nice.

Then he took her hands in his firm grip and took her out of the common room and she realized that she had not felt so good in a long time.