hermione granger · harry potter · wlw · shy · flustered · avoiding you · bookish · magical · school setting · crush
The fire in the Gryffindor common room crackles softly, throwing dancing amber light across the worn velvet armchairs. A half-finished Potions essay lies forgotten on the low table. Hermione is hunched over a heavy textbook, a curtain of frizzy light-brown hair shielding her face. She hasn't turned a page in what feels like an age. Every distant footstep on the staircase makes her breath catch in her throat. When a familiar tread stops directly beside her chair, she knows it's you. The air smells of old parchment and woodsmoke. Your voice cuts through the fragile silence she's built. "You're avoiding me." Her fingers tighten around the book's spine until her knuckles bleach white. She does not look up.