The Gryffindor wraps her robes tightly around her as she treads with trepidation, not wanting to slip on the now iced-over floor.
"Diana? Are you okay?"
Diana looks up from where her head was resting in her arms and Hermione becomes alarmed by the tears that were streaked on her face.
Never had anyone seen Diana Lovegood cry, many believed she was too happy to do so. It was almost a kick to the gut of most people as they hoped to be as happy as Diana Lovegood was but to find out no one was happy all the time was like the extinguishing of hope for themselves.
Hermione carefully sits next to the girl who sniffles quietly.
"So, an ice spirit?" Hermione asks and Diana allows a small smile to fall on her face.
"Quick guess,"
"Reading as many books as I do, you pick up a few things," Hermione says.
Diana takes the gloves from her hands, showing Hermione what she hid under the gloves. The nails were blue like the ice that coated the room and white snowflakes, almost like tattoos, dotted and swirled across her hands.
"It's pretty," Hermione says, admiring the individuality of each snowflake.
"I didn't always have this," Diana pauses as if searching for the right word. "Ability"
"No?"
"No," Diana shakes her head. "I had the gene, as you obviously know, it's genetic"
"So, you were a carrier of the gene?"
"Yes, it was dormant in me, but my mother knew I had it," Diana says. "It's in the eyes you see, Luna's and my father's eyes are a deep grey but mine are blue, ice blue. That's one of the signifying marks"
"So how did the gene awaken?" Hermione asks. "The kind of magic required to do that is beyond anything accidental magic can achieve"
"My mother," Diana says, a soft smile on her face as she thinks about her. "She had a laboratory in our house, she created spells. Trying to make the world a better place"
"Had?"
"One day a spell went horribly wrong," Diana says. "Luna and I were both there. But Luna was behind the protective shield my mother had put up. I was lucky, my mother wasn't"
"Oh Diana," Hermione felt her heart reach out to the girl, she couldn't imagine her life without her mother.
"The blast from the failure was so strong that it awoke the gene," Diana says. "And I've been cursed with this ever since. Normally I have a semblance of control but when my emotions are strong, I lose that control"
"Is that what the private tutoring is?" Hermione asks and Diana nods.
"Trying teach me control and how to use it as a shield against people who would want to weaponize it," Diana says.
"Do you enjoy it?"
"No," Diana says. "I prefer to make pretty things"
Diana holds her hand out and a small ball of snow forms and Hermione watches as it moulds itself into the shape of a butterfly. Diana raises her hand, and the butterfly takes flight, soaring around the classroom before exploding. Light snow falls on the two girls as they look at where the butterfly had been.
"That was amazing!" Hermione says.
"I like pretty things," Diana says with a smile and Hermione waves her wand, muttering a quiet spell.
A small flower sprouts from the end of her wand and she hands it to Diana who waves her hand around it. A ball of ice covering it.
"The ice keeps it alive," Diana says. "So, I can keep it forever"
The student population expected many things of Hermione Granger. To pass all of her exams with the highest grades in their year. To try and keep Harry Potter as close to being in line as she possibly could. To most likely become Minister for Magic someday.
But no one ever expected her to befriend Ditzy Diana.
Hermione waves goodbye to Diana as they part ways and she sits with her two friends.
"You're friends with that loon now?"
Hermione raises the textbook she was about the start reading and hits Ron harshly with it.
"She's very sweet," Hermione says. "And was in need of a friend. It reminded me of first year when a little git insulted me, and I was terribly upset"
Ron raises his hands in surrender before turning away from Hermione.
"So, what's she like?" Harry tries to keep his tone casual but from Hermione's raised eyebrow and Ron's head turning so quickly Harry was surprised he hadn't broken his neck; Harry knew he hadn't been as casual as he had hoped.
Hermione places her textbook down, revealing a shit-eating grin on her face as she begins to talk to Harry about Diana, not divulging her secret as she did. Harry's dreamy smile told his friends everything they needed to know.
Harry Potter had it bad for Diana Lovegood.
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