A/N: This originally started off as a one-shot, but as I came to the ending I came up with another chapter. I hope you like this one, tell me what you think!
Disclaimer: This wouldn't be fanfiction if I were J.K. Rowling, now would it?
It was her decision to make and her mind was set. She looked over the edge of the astronomy tower just to see if it was as high as she remembered. It was. Pulling back from the ledge she looked up to the stars just one last time and regretted her decision immediately. The silver of the stars reminded her of his eyes. That's what she loved most about him, his eyes. No matter what he was hiding, how guarded his face was, she could always see his true self in his eyes. She thought about the time in the library when he first opened up to her.
She was sitting in the library, hyper aware that he was sitting at the table next to her. She discretely peeked at the parchment in front of him a saw that he was working on the same homework assignment she was.
"If you insist on starring you could at least have the common courtesy to ask if I needed any help," he barked at her without looking up.
"Like you'd know anything about common courtesy," she replied.
"More than you, Granger. Or did you forget, I was raised in pureblood society, common courtesy was hard wired into my brain,"
"Well from what I've witnessed, you have no more common courtesy than a dog who has yet to be house broken," she said as she slammed the book she was reading shut. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to be going. How's that for courtesy?"
"Almost acceptable, but if you were truly being polite you would ask if I needed any assistance since you are working on the same assignment as I am," he said, again without looking up.
"Are saying you need help?" she asked him.
"No," he spat. "I'm just saying that if you were a good person that you-"
"Number seven?" she questioned knowingly.
"No!" he yelled, then looking up at her finally, "yes."
She sat down next to him at the table and pulled her parchment out. She showed him how she had discovered the answer and a look of enlightenment came over his features. Without thinking she moved onto the next problem. Whenever he needed her assistance she helped and vice versa. Before she knew it, the assignment was completely finished. She gathered her books and began to leave.
"No one finds out about this, bookworm." He said to her back.
"Now why would I do that, ferret?" she replied then left him alone.
A small laugh escaped her lips as the memory slipped away. It was the first time he was ever civil to her in any way. Albeit, it was only because he needed the answers to his homework, but still, he talked to her without insulting her once in the entire conversation. That gave her hope. That was when she knew that there was something more to his name and horrible reputation. There was something underneath it all.
It was late and the room of requirements echoed with the faint sounds of a piano. She sat across from him on a pile of pillows in front of a roaring fireplace, there were books scattered everywhere between them.
"Lapifors?" he asked her while flipping through an old and dusty text. "I can't find it anywhere."
"It's used to transfigure rabbit statues into rabbits," she replied. After realizing what she had explained, she laughed.
"No wonder, I never had any rabbit statues growing up," he laughed with her. "What need would anyone have for that spell?"
"I'm not sure; I too never had any rabbit statues as a child." She flipped the page of her book and he looked up at her.
"What's it like?" he asked. "Living in your world?"
"I would hardly call it my world, but it's not much different from this one. You have to do everything by hand, though. And there's none of this blood feud nonsense. Although there is a racism that doesn't really exist here."
"What do you mean?"
"People discriminate against each other because of their skin color, or where they were from. It's all ridiculous if you ask me," she went back to reading her book.
"So me calling you a mudblood, that would be racist?"
"In a way, I suppose so."
"I'm sorry," he whispered.
She looked up at him, confused. "What?"
"I've been meaning to say it for a long time. We've been spending more and more time together and it's been eating away at me," he gazed into the dying flames. "It was always drilled into my mind to hate you, so I never knew any different. Hate was the only thing I saw in you, at first. But now, now that I've spent time with you I've destroyed that handicap that was once placed on me and that's what I've come to see hate as, a handicap. If only I'd seen sooner that blood didn't mean anything, if I'd been born to different parents, maybe I'd have befriended you sooner. But my life is already destroyed by my hatred. Every time I see you, I'll think of the dirty blood in your veins. I wish it were different.
"I hope you can understand, even though I see you so differently now than I ever have, I will always hate you. I am incapable of anything else."
"Do you mean that, truly?" she asked.
"Truly, I do," he whispered.
The wind blew across her face. She inhaled the scent of the warm fall night. Ever since he told her that he would always hate her, her mind seemed to be clouded. She saw his face whenever she closed her eyes and heard his voice in her dreams. She went to see him one last time.
"There has been something on my mind for a long time," she said. "I don't really believe that you can only hate. I just think that you are too scared to try and get past it."
"Me? Scared? You're mad, I fear nothing and no one and you are an insolent twit to think other wise," he said venomously. "You're just a stupid girl. You know nothing about me."
"I know you want to be different, but I also know that you won't try to be. What do you have to loose by loving?" she demanded.
"You have no idea what you're talking about."
"Then tell me! Oh might one! Tell me what it is that you have to loose! Nothing!"
"Everything!!! I stand to loose everything just by acknowledging your filthy existence. You don't know anything about my life! My family would kill me for much less than loving someone like you! They would kill YOU!" His face was red with rage and his hands were shaking.
"Someone like me?" she asked. "And what would that be?"
"Just leave," he said quietly.
"What am I?" she yelled, ignoring his command. "You can't even say it? You can't bring yourself to hurt me anymore! You love me too much to-,"
"Mudblood," he whispered.
"What?" she asked, stunned.
"You're a filthy little mudblood and that's all you'll ever be!" he yelled.
"You don't mean it," she whispered, tears in her eyes.
"Truly, I do."
She took a small bottle from her pocket. If the fall wouldn't kill her, the poison would. She opened the vial and watched a small stream of blue smoke float from the opening. She chose the potion that would cause the most pain. Being a stupid mudblood, she deserved no less. It burned as it went down her throat and she could feel it smoldering in her stomach.
She looked over the edge and the ground below seemed to call her name.
"Hermione."
She climbed up onto the ledge.And spread her arms wide.
"Hermione."
With one quick breath, she shut her eyes, and jumped.
"Hermione, no!"
A/N: So, what did you think??? So far it's one of my favorites!!!! Don't worry, the second chapter will be up shortly. I think I'll probably leave it at two though.
The Princess Wolf