A Broken Romance
[With a little Hogwarts mixed in]
Chapter One
Today. She had to do it today. Every day for over four years she had told herself that but every day for over four years she had lost the courage. But this time she was determined. Her heart, more so than her mind, told her that today was the day. She had precious little time left. It was the end of her first semester at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy. And now was her only chance. As predicted by many, she was prefect for Gryffindor House and Professor Dumbledor himself secretly told her that in her seventh year she would become Head Girl if her grades didn't drop. Which of course they wouldn't. Like last year, there would be a ball. But this one had nothing to do with the Triwizard Tournament, and had a different theme. It was called the St. Valentines Dance because, unbeknownst to most, St. Valentine had been a very powerful wizard. They were celebrating the day he died, rather than February 14th. And Hermione knew that today was the day that Harry was planning on asking Cho Chang to the dance. She shook as she got dressed. She spent more time than usual making herself look nice, adding makeup and SleekEazy mousse to her hair as she had at the Yule Ball. But she was not going with Krum. She had, however, went to Brazail with him over summer vacation. But there something horrible had happened. Krum got engaged. Hermione got enraged. She had came all the way to Brazail to see him and he runs off with some French priss! It was than that she realized how much she was deeply in love with Harry Potter. She used to think it was some silly schoolgirl crush because they were, after all, a boy and a girl and it was bound to happen. But now she knew it was not just a petty crush. When she was with him her breathing was hard and her hands shook. Whenever they parted she went into a kind of trance, where all her thoughts were based upon him and only him. But no more. For today she would reveal her feelings to him and he would smile and take her up in his arms and embrace her….how many times had she replayed that fantasy in her head? Taking a deep breath, she stepped out of her dormitory. It was early yet. Hermione knew Harry woke early on Quidditch Saturdays and this just happened to be one of them. She hoped to catch him right before he left the Great Hall for practice. The match was against Ravenclaw, Cho's house, and she knew if she asked him after the match he would be so swooned after staring at her for so long that he wouldn't even understand what she was saying. As she took bold steps toward the potrait hold out of the common room, the last person she wanted to see at the moment scared the crap out of her and tapped her on the shoulder. Hermione yelped and jumped up before realizing it was only poor Neville. "Er, Hermione?" "Yes, Neville?", Hermione replied in an exasperated tone. "Well I was wondering…Erm….If you would umm, if it wasn't too much trouble, and if you weren't already doing anything, if you would umm.." "Yes Neville?" Hermione snapped. "Go to the ball with me" said Neville very quickly. Hermione's jaw dropped. She hadn't expected him to say that. She was repenting her shirtiness with him just seconds earlier. Her expression softened. "Oh Neville! I-can I get back to you on that?" "Sure!" replied Neville excitedly, obviously astonished she hadn't said no right away. "Well..see you than Neville." "See you!" "Great" thought Hermione "I just get the courage to ask my dream boy to the ball and the class dork asks me" Shaking her head, Hermione made her way to see Harry. As she reached the Great Hall, she could hear talking coming from inside. That was odd. Even this early in the morning there was enough conversation in the Hall to not be able to pick out one specific one. Curiously, she opened the doors to find the most shocking scene in front of her. There were only two people in the Hall. Two people wrapped around each other, talking in low tones to each other…obviously not aware of her presence. The girl had long, shiny jetblack hair and a slim, tall figure. The boy-and here was were Hermiones nightmare began-had messy, stuck-up-in-the-back black hair and huge, icy green eyes. And across his forehead-Hermione let out a dry sob. Across his forehead was a lightning-shaped scar. The girl, who turned her head at the noise, was none other than Cho Chang. Hermione was too late. Tears were streaming down her cheeks as she ran back up the stairs…down the corridors…through the secret doors and up to the picture of a fat lady in a pink dress. Hermione, in a terrible state, uttered the password, flung herself into the common room, up the stairs to her dormatory and onto her bed. She ripped the curtains shut and performed a muteness spell so that no one could hear her weeping. For hours she stayed there, howling silently like a wounded dog. She recalled every time she fell for him…all the Quidditch matches…all the times he faced Voldemort and every time came back, unscathed. She could see the times they went through together, remembered fondly every second she had spent with him, even when they were fighting. And still the tears poured down her cheeks. She shook madly, overcome with fits of sobs. It seemed as though her pain would never cease. She knew she was missing the Quidditch game but she didn't care. She didn't think she could ever look at him again.
Meanwhile, at the Quidditch game….
"Where is Hermione?" asked Ron. "I talked to her just this morning", answered Neville. "She seemed fine last night", added Lavender Brown, a girl in her dormatory. "Are you sure you didn't see her again this morning Neville?", inquired Ron, his brow furrowed in worry. "No! I just asked her to-talked to her before she left for the Great Hall for breakfast this morning". "What about Harry? Maybe he knows", implied Parvati Patil. "Harry has been with Cho Chang all morning, doing God only knows what", said Ron bitterly. "Cho Chang?" Lavender and Patil said, shocked, mouths hanging open. "Yeah, they just hooked up last night, didn't you hear?" asked Ron. "No!" Patil and Lavender cried out together. "Well I hope she turns up", said Neville, "For more than one reason." But no one seemed to have heard him. All eyes were on the Quidditch match, during which Cho and Harry would be facing each other as seekers. The match was an intresting one. Because Harry and Cho seemed to almost be attached at the hip, they cought the snitch almost simuntaniously, each refusing to grab it before the other, and during such playfull spats the golden snitch would fly off again. It was a long, rough two hours before the game ended. Harry and Cho seemed to not want to leave each other to go to the locker rooms and only did so when they promised to not be longer than two minutes. After precisly two minutes each came out and hugged as though it had been two years instead. Ron shook his head disgustadly and waited until he and Cho were only holding hands to go talk to Harry. "Harry?" he said. "Yea?" replied Harry, tearing his eyes away from Cho's. "Have you seen Hermione this morning? She's missing-she even missed the game!" As one, Harry and Cho shook their heads. "That's strange. But, no, I haven't seen her" Harry said. Ron nodded as he headed up to the castle. He, especially, was missing Hermiones' company because without Harry to talk to she was all he had. Trudging up to the doors to the castle, Ron jumped as Draco Malfoy tapped him on the shoulder. He turned. "So, missing your filthy mudblood friend Ron? After all, with Harry with Cho, you don't have anyone to talk to". Crabbe and Goyle, Malfoy's cronies, sniggered stupidly. Something inside Ron snapped. "DON'T-CALL-HER-THAT!" He yelled, shaking. "Oh really Weasel? What are you going to do about it? Have your savage friend Hagrid give me detention?" He snorted in laughter. Ron pulled back his fist somewhere to Wales and brought it back to hit Draco squarely in the chin. "Or that." Cried Ron, triumphantly. Draco staggered to the ground, holding his injured chin. "I'll get you Weasly!" He uttered, because it was obviously painful for him to speak with his jaw like that. Ron ran in breakneck speed to the Gryffindor common room. Without pausing to think, he threw himself into the girl's dormitory. "Come out Hermione, I know your in here!" He shouted shrilly.