“I just don’t see what his problem is, that’s all.”
Ginny’s spoon was stuck halfway between her mouth and her bowl of soup, dripping steadily back into the silver dish. She stared blankly at Hermione, blinking deliberately every now and then at her best friend, disregarding her dinner. Oblivious to the girl sitting dumbstruck across from her, Hermione viciously cut another slice of her steak she had chosen from one of the magically food-filled gilded platters.
“Are you kidding me?” rasped Ginny.
Hermione looked up, greatly resembling a poor and defenseless woodland creature caught in front of an oncoming muggle car. Ginny had never said that to her, at least not in that tone of voice. Usually, when she said that, it was when she found Hermione still awake in the wee hours, reading or doing homework in the common room.
“What?” said Hermione, continuing to play with her food.
“You’re seriously worrying over some snooty Ravenclaw prefect who’s the silent type?”
“Well, yeah,” muttered Hermione. “It’s so annoying, it’s as if he doesn’t think I’m worthy to talk to or something.”
“Wait, wait, wait. Let me get this straight,” said Ginny as she let her spoon clatter to the wooden table. She set her elbows on the table and tucked her hair behind her ears, showing that she meant business. “The Hermione Granger I know would not be worrying over what a boy thinks of her, especially someone who isn’t Harry or Ron.”
“But this is different!” indignantly whispered Hermione after she took a drink of her water.
“No,” said Ginny in a mocking tone. “It’s not, silly goose.”
“What did you just call me…”
“You’re getting all worked up over someone who obviously isn’t getting worked up over you, and that’s just wrong. He obviously isn’t worthy of your stress, if he doesn’t think that he should talk to you. He’s probably some jackass pureblood. You’ve got other more important things to worry about. Besides, maybe he just wants to be done with his prefect duties, go to bed, and not worry about striking up conversation with his weekly partner; seems practical to me.”
“Well, when you put it that way…”
“Trust me, Hermione,” Ginny said, picking up her spoon where she had dropped it and dipping it into her soup. “Forget about that snooty Jasper Holloway and get on with your life; he’s not worth it.”
Hermione heard her own words echo around in her head in Ginny’s voice. She told Ron and Harry over and over again that Malfoy wasn’t worth it whenever the ferret started to get to them, and had said that to Ginny a few times when she would come to her with boy troubles. It stung hearing them come out of Ginny’s mouth like that, so bluntly.
So ironically.
And it stung even more that she knew Ginny was right. Jasper wasn’t worth her time and stressing over if he continued to act this way. So what if he didn’t feel like striking up a conversation? Prefect duties were more important anyways, of that she was sure.
Suddenly losing her appetite, she bade Ginny a good night and grabbed her messenger bag from the floor next to her and started walking out the Great Hall. Maybe she could get a bit of homework done in the hour before her prefect duties started. Rolling her eyes, she started jogging up the stairs. She needed some complicated Ancient Runes to puzzle over if she was going to forget about Holloway for an hour.
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