Even reading wasn't enough to keep Hermione from getting lonely. Yes, she might regularly spend hours upon hours researching, but she had grown used to Percy's presence, to voicing aloud ideas that came to her as she read and getting his opinion. Although the novels on her shelf were hardly information-dense texts, she still missed the easy camaraderie of being able to ask a semi-rhetorical question and having an answer shouted back to her from several bookshelves away.