Room 308, Thursday evening

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Hermione was writing. A lot. Several pages in her notebook had been covered in her own handwriting, and years of writing superfluous reports far longer than they would have ever needed to be in any universe meant that her wrist wasn't even tired. If anyone asked, she wouldn't tell.

Crookshanks and Wadsworth were fed, she'd already checked her voicemail, and she was fully prepared in case anyone's hand was bleeding.

[Open!]

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[wannabe-pan.livejournal.com]

Andrew stepped into the room looking amazingly uncomfortable, he was holding a plate of cookies. "Um, hi there," he started, but found he didn't quite know what to say next.

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"Hi," Hermione greeted him, smiling. "I kind of didn't expect to see you."

[wannabe-pan.livejournal.com]

"Well, um, I wanted to bring you these," he said, holding out the plate of cookies. "They're oatmeal craisin. I used dried cranberries instead of raisins. I think it gives them a, um, nice flavor."

He found himself staring at Hermione's forehead, as though he could see an addled brain behind it. "How are you? Is everything okay?" he asked, very maternally. Then he checked himself, remembering that that particular reaction was why he wanted to apologize in the first place.

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Hermione stood to take the plate, surprised. "Thank you. That's very nice of you," she said. "I've been all right. Social. Yourself?"

[wannabe-pan.livejournal.com]

"I've been great," he lied. Andrew took another deep breath, "I, um, I owe you an apology." He thought about how he had expressed his false concerns about Hermione to Umbridge and suddenly felt about three inches tall.

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Hermione frowned and asked, "What for?"

Clearly, she'd missed any signals there might have been.

[wannabe-pan.livejournal.com]

"For being a lousy date!" If she didn't know what he had done, maybe it was best to not clue her in.

"And for going to Umbridge and telling her that I thought you were unstable and might harm some of the students -- I am so sorry, it was so very wrong, I'm a horrible, horrible person and I hate myself for it." Or he could be honest for a change.

He grinned weakly and braced himself for yelling.

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Hermione blinked, stunned, and wasn't entirely sure how to react. "You... you told Umbridge you thought I would hurt people?"

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Andrew tried to hide his face behind his hands, "I, um, I heard that announcement she made about you and then we were on a date and I was all, hey, it the mentally unbalance girl spreading lies, and you were all angry about people from your old school, and I thought I should let someone know..."

He turned away from Hermione, "I didn't know."

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"Oh," she said, taking this in.

"Because I wouldn't, you know," she said quickly. "I'm usually the one telling everyone else not to do things and don't get people hurt or in trouble. Except that one time with Malfoy but that was years ago and he deserved it. I really wouldn't."

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"I know that now. Nothing that woman says can be trusted. I'm totally going to try and make this right. I'm setting myself firmly against her evil ways!" Andrew jabbed a finger in the air for emphasis.

"In fact," he took a step towards Hermione, arms open for a hug.

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Hermione grinned despite herself. "You realize that would put us within eight inches of each other," she warned.

[wannabe-pan.livejournal.com]

"Maybe we should take a picture," Andrew suggested, moving in to complete the hug.

[smartestone]

She hugged him back and said, "I do appreciate your honesty."

And if he was pulling a double cross, she knew she'd have to sic some canaries on him or something.