She Hit Him: A Two-Part Story

She hit him. She actually hit him!

Ron couldn't believe his eyes. Hermione Granger, the girl who always followed the rules and who was fairly even-tempered, had just gone up to Draco Malfoy and slapped him across the face.

Ron didn't know what he was feeling. He had always secretly admired Hermione for her ability to study late into the night, while he lost motivation after simply looking at the blank parchment for too long. But he never thought he'd be standing here in awe of how she stood up for herself against Malfoy.

Ron was taken completely by surprise by Hermione's boldness. In the minutes that followed, it was even difficult for him to form words. Where did this side of her come from? And what else could she be hiding? Ron found himself thinking involuntarily.

No, stop it, you don't think of her like that.

Or did he?

---

She hit him. She actually hit him!

Hermione couldn't believe it. One minute, she had been fuming silently at hearing Malfoy's words about Hagrid, and the next, she was storming towards him and slapping her had swiftly across his face.

Hermione didn't know what she was feeling. There was so much anger at Malfoy coursing through her veins. There was also a small sense of pride – she had never stood up for herself like that before. She usually dissolved into tears. That was one thing she admired about Ron: that he always had some sort of comeback in these situations.

Hermione was still too upset about Malfoy to pay much attention to what was going on. She did, however, notice that Ron sounded, dare she say, impressed with the way she handled the situation. She could feel her anger subside a little at the thought of Ron; having him look at her in such awe was definitely a good side effect of having hit Malfoy.

Her thoughts of Ron were cut off by another, more urgent thought: Oh dear, I need to go to Ancient Runes!