"Harry, you can't be serious," Hermione said in utter disbelief. Harry just shook his head, rolling his eyes.
"But I am serious!" He insisted for the sixth time. She just doesn't give up, does she? He thought.
"But … but … that is pure insanity!" She replied. "And stupidity! You can't do this, you could die, don't you understand that?!"
Harry and Ron turned to her, shaking their heads.
"Hermione, do you realize exactly how many times we could have died?" Ron asked. Hermione gaped at him. "Hundreds. We faced Voldemort, for heavens sake! And you really think that one more time would scare us? You know us better than that, I mean, really." They turned and began walking away once again.
Hermione stood there for a moment, puzzled and aggravated. She could not comprehend why they would even consider doing something so irrational. Boys; so typically stupid.
"You can't just go and try to conquer evil all by yourself!" She squeaked out, scared of the possibility they wouldn't listen to her, like they always do.
"Now, Hermione, we are big boys now," Ron said sarcastically. "We can do things without our mothers" (he gives her a deliberate look) "on our backs, thank you very much."
Hermione gave him the "look." He cringed a little.
"Look, I'm sorry, but we're not kids anymore. We can take care of ourselves. We know what we're doing, I swear. If we didn't know what we were doing, we wouldn't be going. We're not stupid, you know."
Hermione scoffed. "Well, the way you are acting, (which is stupid!) I would have to disagree!"
"Would you guys please stop arguing?!" Harry said, trying to hold back laughter. "Ron, no matter what you say, Hermione is still going to try to stop us." Hermione nodded her head, looking a little smug. "And Hermione, no matter what you say, we're still going to go." Hermione's smug look quickly faltered and appeared on Ron's face. "Either way, you both lose."
Ron looked at Harry and frowned. "Way to ruin a good mood, mate."
"You're welcome," he said with a smile. " Now, we have to get going. There isn't much time." Harry looked over at Ron, who was glaring at Hermione. Even though they had been courting each other for a year, they still could not get along. Harry wondered why they could argue as they do, but understand when he thought of his own girl friend, Ginny. They fought all the time, but that didn't affect their love. He laughed quietly to himself thinking of all the times Ron and Hermione had argued over silly little things, like when Ron needed to take out the garbage, or when Hermione was always "on his back."
They were looking at Harry when he came out of his thoughts, realizing how much time they had left. He sighed.
"Well, come one," Harry said. He glanced at Hermione, who seemed very angry. "I guess you're not coming?"
As soon as he asked that, he knew he shouldn't have.
"WHAT?!" She screeched, face red. "Of course I'm coming, I'm not letting you two get killed!" Hermione said, looking offended. "You wouldn't think I would honestly let you go without me, even though this is possibly the most idiotic thing you have ever done?" Harry and Ron shrugged, eyes a little wide from her sudden outburst.
"Now look what you've done, she's going to be moody the whole time," Ron said out of the corner of his mouth. Hermione focused on Ron now, and his face get suddenly flushed. "Oh, no."
"Brought it on yourself," Harry snickered to him softly.
"RON! I cannot believe you either, I am just trying to help you out from, oh, you know, DYING!" She's using her screech voice a lot today, Harry thought. "You would think that someone would appreciate that, huh?" Hermione said in a smart-aleck tone.
"I'm sorry, Hermione," Ron replied, his eyes sad. "But this is a really dangerous task, and, well, I wouldn't want you to get, uh, hurt, or anything." He instantly went from white to a very bright red. "I wasn't trying to offend you." Suddenly Hermione looked guilty, but her angry face covered it up in mere seconds.
"Well, I accept your apology, but I'm a big kid, too," She said. "And I can take care of myself just fine. It's really you I'm worried about." Oh, God. Harry thought. Mushy time.
"Okay now," Harry said, trying to change the subject. This kind of thing was not his forte. "We've established that Hermione is going, she can take care of herself, and we're all 'big kids', but we really do have to get going soon."
"Yeah, we do, Hermione," He agreed.
Hermione pulled her fingers through her thick hair, thinking hard. She sighed deeply and looked a bit defeated. "Okay, fine," She said with a sense of stubbornness in her voice. "We're going. But we have to be careful, alright?"
Harry and Ron looked at each other, smiling. "Yeah, sure, no problem," They said.And the three were off, on a mission, a mission to stop their enemy for seven years.
Draco Malfoy.