artsy_aura

mood: bouncy

Title: The Food-Chain
Author: artsy_aura 
Disclaimer: Am not JKR. Do not even pretend to make money off of this.
Pairing: Possibly implied Fred/Hermione
Rating: G
Summary: She had done it out of self-defense, really.
Genre: Humor
Author's Notes: Not beta'd. Somewhat of a birthday fic for sellthelie .

She had done it out of self-defense, really.


She had always been a bit of a swot, and though she had hoped things would be different at Hogwarts, knew her place in the food-chain so to speak. Even during her last year at primary school where she had been one of the oldest (and therefore near the top of the ladder) she had been on the bottom of the heap for her age group.
 

She was highly intelligent and very proper, which led to her nearly always being the teachers' pet (it wasn't that she tried for that position, she just had always been more comfortable with adults than she had been with her peers) and yet she lacked that natural charisma that one needed to make up for this 'sin' in her fellow students' eyes. Her 'ranking' always ended up below the popular kids, below the rich and/or beautiful ones, and below the athletes and the class-clowns. She always ended up somewhere around the kid that always gets picked last for team sports (although she was lucky enough not to be as totally athletically challenged as she was socially) and the one that always seems to unintentionally embarrass themselves in highly public settings. Her popularity would usually take a short upswing around testing time, but with these factors against her and the odd things that occasionally happened around her (that she had since learned was accidental magic), she was always thought of as the strange, stuck-up, suck-up, little swot.
 

So before even entering Hogwarts she already realized that she would no longer be an even moderately big fish in a small pond. No, she would be a small fish in a big pond (that was Hogwarts) attached to a huge lake (of the Wizarding World). Not only would she not know the territory or the players but there'd be a whole new rule-book for her to learn. All she could do was go by what she knew and hope she learned really fast.

This is probably why she noticed them right away.

Her years of being isolated (even when surrounded by her classmates) and being picked on (with varying degrees of cruelty) had honed her instincts when it came to spotting those who were likely to find amusement through others' misfortune. While there didn't appear to be any maliciousness in their behavior, the Weasley twins did like to make spectacles of themselves and others. They liked being the center of attention, pulling pranks, telling jokes, and pointing out things that they found amusing (whether the cause of their amusement appreciated it or not). She had no desire to be the butt of anyone's joke.

So she watched them.

She was careful to keep track of them when they were in the same room (not wanting either of them to come up behind her) and she paid attention to how they interacted with each other and other students (especially what they did or used to cause reactions). Within the first week she had a few general guidelines for herself, such as: never eat anything they offered, never eat anything off of something they had touched, and never get caught between them. She had, however, been quite lucky in regards to the twins. While she couldn't escape the students in her own grade, they were a couple of years older than her, and their 'ickle' brother 'Ronniekins' was more than enough of a source of amusement for them (out of the First-Year crowd) that it was a few weeks before the little book-worm even caught their eye.

The first time she noticed them talking in hushed voices together while one nodded in her direction she knew her time was nearly up. As soon as their backs were turned (she had seen them do this maneuver before: 'ignore' their 'target' for a few minutes and then go in for a 'sneak-attack') she packed up her things and slipped out of the room.

The avoidance policy worked well for about a week but she knew it would be best not to keep it up as they might realize she was on to them and that would only draw more attention her way. She changed tactics on Friday night.

The Common Room always got more raucous at the start of the weekend, so instead of disappearing to the library or into her dorm room, she stayed (at a table with her back against the wall) and did some pleasure reading for a change. Over the top of her book she also indulged in some people watching. Two people in particular. Noting that the twins seemed to have provided the refreshments, she stayed for a couple of hours but politely declined whenever the sweets got passed her way.

By the time they finally cornered her (she had been so involved writing an essay that she hadn't noticed their approach until they had her surrounded) she had spent more than a month observing them.

They sat on either side of her on the couch she had commandeered for the use of the coffee table in front of it. One twin flung his arm behind her as they both turned to face her, boxing her in.

“Sooo...” the other twin started (she saw that along with the loosened tie that his brother sported, the top button was undone on his dress shirt).

“Granger...” the twin with his arm behind her continued, his eyes already sparkling with their joint amusement (he, she noticed drew his face into more of a smirk at the thought of whatever it was they had planned rather than the genuine smile that the other one wore).

She turned to the first twin that had spoken and, trying to imitate his drawl, returned “Sooo, Fred.” Then, facing a no longer smirking twin, stated “George.” with no hint of indecision in her voice.

Both twins were so stunned that a girl that neither had ever spoken to knew which one was which (considering that even their family and best friends had trouble telling them apart), that they completely forgot about what they had planned.

When nothing seemed to be forthcoming from the brothers, she quietly went back to work on her essay (though she did pay more attention to her surroundings).

And that's when Fred really took notice of Hermione.

~end