In this world, there are always some things people are simply not good at.
For example:
Some struggle with running.
Others can't memorize—no matter how hard they try, vocabulary, sentences, even entire passages just won't stick.
A few can't read aloud smoothly—despite having gone over the text several times, they still stutter and stumble every time.
Some people can't comprehend what they're learning—everything seems to make sense in class, but come exam time, it's like their mind goes blank.
And then there are those who just aren't good at learning, period.
For Hermione, it was this: while she excelled in every other subject, she was like a completely different person in flying class.
Even flaws she hadn't shown during lessons before were laid bare before Sherlock's eyes.
Which only made it all the more humiliating for her.
The harder she tried to overcome it, the more flustered she became.
Seeing this, Sherlock eventually took matters into his own hands.
After several days of one-on-one lessons, the results were… acceptable.
He'd managed to help Hermione somewhat overcome her fear of heights.
The truth is, everyone suffers from a bit of acrophobia.
It's just that some people are affected mildly, while others react more severely.
Most people who say they're not afraid of heights simply haven't reached a high enough height yet.
Based on Sherlock's analysis, Hermione suffered from a specific type of phobia—one that could be addressed directly and effectively.
So he took her up on a broomstick, gradually increasing their altitude until they hovered at the point where her fear would kick in. Each session lasted at least thirty minutes.
At first, she was a little embarrassed by how close the training brought them physically.
But that quickly gave way to pure terror.
Once they reached a certain height, Hermione would start shaking uncontrollably, her limbs icy cold, breaking into a cold sweat even in the middle of winter—and before she knew it, tears would stream down her face.
The first few times, she even blacked out.
If Sherlock hadn't noticed and caught her in time, she'd have fallen straight off the broom.
After enough tries, Hermione seriously considered giving up.
This is too much!
But seeing how unbothered Sherlock looked—he even gave off the attitude of "Well, if you quit, it'll just save me the trouble"—Hermione gritted her teeth and pressed on.
Compared to others, she was only willing to open up to Sherlock.
Nearly two months into the school year, her relationships with her roommates—and really, the whole class—were far from warm.
Truthfully, her connections with her peers were no deeper than mere classmates.
And she knew it.
She'd experienced the same thing in Muggle school before.
Most of her classmates thought she was stuck-up, show-offy, and bossy.
As the saying goes: Good advice is hard to take.
In this world, unless someone has a very specific personality, no one enjoys being constantly lectured—especially not at this age.
Teenagers don't even want to hear it from their parents, let alone a classmate.
Coming to Hogwarts didn't change that.
Her fellow students thought she cared too much about rules, obsessed over house points.
But this was Gryffindor, after all.
Take the Weasley twins, for example—the young lions were never ones to toe the line.
The reputation of being "reckless troublemakers" might've been a stereotype, but it wasn't entirely unfounded.
Hermione had clashed with her classmates more than once because of this.
Even Harry and Ron weren't spared.
It all started with Malfoy challenging Harry to a wizard duel.
Hermione overheard and tried to offer them a word of caution in private.
Her intentions were good.
But the way she delivered it… not so much.
"You absolutely can't be wandering around school at night! Just think—if you get caught, how many points would Gryffindor lose?
And you will get caught—this is so selfish of you!"
It wasn't exactly the most pleasant way to phrase things.
What made it worse was what she did afterward:
She waited outside the Fat Lady's portrait at midnight to see if Harry and Ron would sneak out.
Fortunately, Harry had listened to Sherlock and didn't go meet Malfoy.
So Hermione waited for nothing.
Instead, she ran into poor Neville, who'd forgotten the password and couldn't get back in.
Hermione brought him back to the common room—so at least that turned out to be a good deed.
The next day, when Harry and Ron heard about it from Neville, they were stunned.
Is there really someone who loves meddling this much?
Naturally, their attitude toward her soured even further.
Especially when Ron, in the middle of retelling how Malfoy chickened out, casually mentioned what Hermione had done.
That sealed her fate.
The rest of the first-years in Gryffindor now openly excluded her.
Except Neville.
He still appreciated how she'd helped him find Trevor on the train and gotten him back into Gryffindor Tower.
In this atmosphere, it was no surprise Hermione felt isolated.
And aside from Neville, Sherlock was the only one who didn't push her away.
He continued to be casual with her as always, and never stopped offering her individual lessons.
To Sherlock, none of this was a big deal.
Out of curiosity, Hermione once asked him why.
But his answer took her completely by surprise.
"Why not just ignore them?"
Sherlock genuinely didn't understand her frustration.
"If you believe you're right, then why care what others think?"
Back in Muggle school, Sherlock had been ostracized too.
It wasn't uncommon.
His personality and behavior didn't exactly make him popular—he was always blunt, pointing out others' mistakes without regard for timing or tact.
But so what?
Other people's opinions meant nothing to him.
Some had even tried to bully him.
Pouring ink over his homework. Hiding bugs in his pencil case. Spiking his breakfast.
But somehow, everything they did always ended up backfiring.
They'd open their bags to find their own books soaked in ink—with a toad tucked in for good measure.
One ended up eating so much salt in their porridge they questioned reality itself.
There was even one brute who tried to challenge him physically—he walked away with two missing front teeth and never dared try again.
Hermione couldn't help but envy Sherlock's ability to simply not care.
She wanted to be like that—but she just couldn't.
"If it really bothers you that much," Sherlock said, seeing how distracted she was, "I do have a suggestion."
He tried looking at the problem from her perspective for once.
"You could try… not treating grades as the be-all and end-all."
"That's impossible!"
Hermione immediately snapped back—after all, she'd always held herself to the highest academic standards.
"Professor Snape is already deducting points left and right. If we don't follow the rules, then—"
"Miss Granger," Sherlock interrupted, "your brief eleven—no, twelve years of life experience are not quite enough to grasp the full picture of reality."
Hermione: (ー`ー)
"Reality is this: either you keep doing things your own way and stop caring what others think...
Because let's face it—you're not a Galleon, you can't make everyone happy.
Or you change your mindset and try to fit in."
It wasn't pleasant to hear, but Hermione had to admit—Sherlock had the right to say it.
He was someone who lived that way.
She'd seen firsthand how blunt and, frankly, awful he could be.
Like when he told Ron and poor Neville that they were "dragging down the house IQ."
Or when he snapped at a certain someone just for standing nearby, claiming he was "disrupting his thought process."
Or, not long ago, when he insisted on clarifying that he was twelve years old…
Compared to that, Hermione's attempts to uphold the rules were practically saintly.
She was just enforcing school policy—he was launching full-on personal attacks!
And yet Sherlock remained completely unaffected by the opinions of others, utterly unmoved by the whispers and judgment around him. He did what he wanted, always.
Hermione could only admit defeat.
Say what you will—at least he walked the talk. She couldn't compete with that.
In the end, she didn't take his advice.
She chose to try and change her situation her own way.
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