Dithering, she glanced over to see how Harry was doing. He and Katie seemed to be explaining the basics of Quidditch to the new Hopeful while the Weasleys held a confab. The other girl seemed to be doing most of the talking, if her whooshing hand movements were anything to go by. It was a completely irrational feeling, Hermione knew, but Katie made her nervous. Unbidden, her father's voice bloomed in her mind.
"Hey, if a girl comes off as a sports fan she's liable to get snapped up pretty quick. I've seen it happen. " He had meant it to be encouraging, for it to be some way for she and Harry to have something to bond over, but now it was coming back to haunt her.
"If he's honestly looking for a Quidditch witch -, " Hermione had said then, " - they're not that hard to find. Half the team is female. "
'So much for being so mature, ' she thought to herself.
Was this what life was going to be like for her from now on - panicking whenever another girl comes close or Harry wanders out of sight, or was it just something about Katie that did it?
'She's everything I'm not, ' Hermione thought, sizing up the other girl. 'She's an outgoing, energetic, sports-loving, sociable girl with access to the tiny-but-possibly-crucial corner of Harry's life that I don't. '
It was then, after Harry answered some question of Colin's, and probably down-playing any role he had in the Quidditch team's success, that his gaze flickered up to hers and he smiled.
'Katie doesn't have that, ' she told herself as she returned his smile. 'On paper it looks like she'd make a much better match - but she doesn't have that. '
Setting her butterbeer down and choosing a couple sandwiches at random and an unopened bottle of the sinfully good drink, Hermione quickly walked over to him and handed them over. If left to himself Harry probably wouldn't eat at all.
"I'll be back," she said, giving him a bit of a hug and Katie a pleasant smile.
Hermione didn't wait for a response or follow-up question but immediately returned to the refreshments to reclaim her butterbeer and grab a club sandwich. Katie placed firmly behind her - only the worst sort of girl would make a move on Harry after something like that, and those were the kind of girl Harry would never date - she made her way to the bright but lonely girl with lettuce on her knees.
"Is someone sitting here?" Hermione asked, standing next to the chair the girl's father had occupied. There was always the chance the girl simply didn't want company, so it was always best to be polite.
"I don't see anyone, but I don't suppose that means that no one isn't there," the dishwater blonde replied in a way only a grammarian could decipher. What struck Hermione almost as much as the convoluted speech was the girl's strangely protuberant eyes.
"If you try and find someone," the girl continued, "make sure you give them my apologies. Especially if only you can see them. Invisible people have feelings too."
"Right," Hermione said, feeling like she had suddenly found herself in the deep end of the pool and unable to feel the bottom. She took the seat anyway. "Would you like my lettuce," she asked, "or are you taking it off because you don't like it?"
"Oh, yes please, if you don't mind," the other girl said. "We've had several gurdyroots disappear from our garden lately and think a rogue wolpertinger's nesting somewhere close by. Of course it could be a hornhare or someone's pet jackalope that's run away; they're very quick, you know."
That made Hermione pause for a moment. It wasn't often she was faced with a hole in her knowledge, but this certainly fit.
"I'm afraid I'm not familiar with any of those animals," she said finally, handing over her lettuce. "I've read Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, but haven't seen any mention of them. I'm Hermione Granger, by the way."
"Luna Lovegood," the girl introduced herself. "I'm surprised they're not mentioned," Luna said in her vague way. "Daddy says there are loads of creatures that people don't believe exist though. They didn't believe the Lobalug existed until merpeople started using it as a weapon. Of course they may not have thought they were fantastic enough; they're quite common in some areas, though only the hornhare are native to Britain. They're like rabbits but have a tiny horn like a unicorn."
"That's very interesting," she said diplomatically, not sure if the girl was making it up or not; the part about lobalugs was certainly true.
Hermione briefly considered deeming the friend-making experiment a failure and running back to Harry when she saw the woman-in-green slink into the room. Her dislike of the way that woman had looked at Harry had nothing to do with inadequacies at Quidditch. Darting back to him now would only serve to draw the woman's attention to him again when there's a chance he'd go unnoticed in the crowd. Thankfully, Mr. Lichfield was already swooping in to divert the woman.
"So Luna," Hermione said more for polite cover than anything else, "why don't you tell me about yourself?"
The younger girl put a slice of tomato in her mouth and seemed semi-surprised that she was still there.
....
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