Ronnie?" He paused, taking a deep puff of the deadly gases in his cigarette. Looking at the cigarette fondly he smiled to the mirror, "Speeding up the death process." He said taking a deep puff.
A breeze of air piled into the bathroom from the outside hallway and Ron straightened up, fearful that some old Hogwarts chum would see him. He breathed a short-live sigh of relief when Percy stepped in. Short-lived because he could always expect Percy to berate him with insults about his appearance, smoking, and all in all, his life.
Percy opened his big-ass mouth and Ron shuddered in anticipation but instead a set of unexpected words flew out. "He's here."
Ron jumped out of his wasted state. "Him? You sure? Shit! Can't you keep him out of here?"
Percy snapped right back at him, "Me? Keep the most powerful wizard out of my restaurant? And what? Be bloodily murdered? Quick thinking there, Ron."
Ron narrowed his eyes and went to the door to take a look at Him.
"Shit, it's Him alright."
Percy nodded his nervous face.
"What do we do?" Ron asked him.
"We wait, we watch, and most of all, we pray he doesn't kill anyone."
They walked toward the door together, and leered with a certain dread at the most powerful wizard in the world.
***
Hermione Granger looked at her first paycheck happily. She was working her way up to being one of the most successful muggle-born witches ever. She was theTansfiguration at her alma mater, Hogwarts.
She nodded her head smugly to one of ditzier Gryffindors students in her year. Lavender Brown just gave her a fearful look and turned back to her latest customer. Hermione shrugged, that girl had always been a bit paranoid, gibbering about her divination and such.
Suddenly, Hermione felt a dark presence standing over and looked up to greet Lavender. Instead a quite different set of eyes met her own.
Green eyes.
"Mind if I join you, Hermie?"
***
Harry Potter enjoyed the look of fear that came on her face just then. As a matter of fact, he just plain enjoyed all fear.
Sitting down across from his frightened former friend, he smiled.
She looked at him with pleading eyes, "Why Harry? Why did you become..become..."
Harry looked at her as if she were an ant on a hot day and he was the boy holding a magnifying glass. "What? Evil? Is that really what you call this? I mean, I have plenty of excuses. Orphan, bad foster parents, a girlfriend who cheated on me with best friend."
Hermione nervously brushed her hair back. "Oh Harry, I loved you, but Ron loved me I had to...to..."
Harry leaned forward suddenly. "What's wrong, kittycat? Cat got your tongue." He said grabbing her arm and casually flicking his finger against her mouth.
"Let go of me." She moved away from his cold grasp. His hand was so cold....like he wasn't even human.
"Ooh, feisty kittycat, messing with the most dangerous wizard in the world, and besides, I thought you loved me."
With all the courage in her Gryffindor heart she spit in his face. "That's right, you look asshole, loved. With a big fat D. Because after all, who could love you! You're not even human."
"Harsh words, kitty," He brushed his hands against her face, causing her to squirm, "And such a beautiful kitty too..." He leaned forward, as if to kiss her, but then with a sudden jerk of his face he instead spit on her face. "Now we're even."
Hermione wiped her face quickly, for his saliva was practically venom.
"Harry, I know your still in there, some part of the sweet caring Harry I used to know is still in there. Come out, Harry Potter, stop acting like this, what went wrong?" She said in quick fast paced words.
Harry turned around, angered. "Everything, Hermione! Every fucking thing! But you wouldn't understand about things being messed up would you, my perfect little kitty cat?"
"Harry...." She let her voice trail off. It wasn't Harry anymore, she reminded herself, Harry had died long ago. This was some evil shell of Harry.
***
"What do you see?" Ron asked as Percy took his turn peeking out the door.
"Shit! He's with Hermione." Percy said and Ron pushed Percy out of the way to better his view.
"Oh my god, he might kill her!" Ron said sinking to the floor in utter fear.
Percy smiled somewhat cruelly, "You'd die if that happened. The love of your life, gone. Not that it would matter, she only dated you for pity anyway."
Ron spun to face his brother, "Fuck you." He said punching him hard in the face. Bright red blood mixed in with his red facial hair, causing a rather interesting contrast of hues.
***
It wasn't Harry anymore...the thought echoed through her mind. But was Harry still in there? Some shell of him that might never come out again?
But maybe, just maybe, she could get through to the Harry she had known, the Harry she had loved.
All of a sudden she got an idea. It could work. Maybe, just maybe.
***
Lavender Brown watched out of the corner of her eye.
"My fortune teller told me I would meet a new powerful man but this is going a bit far." She said to herself.
She picked up a tray of water, "At least I got him good water, it's like, purified and everything."
"Like, here's your water, I'll um, take your order later, or something....?"
"How about, like or something?" The dark wizard said with a sneer.
"Touchy, touchy." She mumbled under her breath.
She watched as Hermione took a big swig of water. She looked kind of scared. " I should really help her." Lavender thought. She took a look at the evil glint in Harry's eyes. "Oh well, she's screwed anyway."
***
Hermione didn't drink that water, she inhaled it. She was going to need it. She was getting ready to do the single most dangerous stunt possible.
***
"Well, Lavender looks cheerful." Muttered Percy sarcastically, rubbing his injured nose.
"Har-Har." Ron dryly muttered. He had been pacing the length of the bathroom nervously.
"Hermione looks like she's gonna faint."
"If He doesn't kill her first."
"Don't talk like that Ron, God, try to optimistic."
Ron stopped pacing. "Why? Has life ever treated me good? Look at me Percy! Just look at me. I'm a wreck. I sigle handily fucked up my best friend by seducing his girlfriend. How can I go on living after that?"
Percy looked up, shocked. "Is that why you've been falling apart? Because you thought this was all your fault? Har...He was going to turn bad either way."
"Har...he? What Percy, to afraid to say his name? What is he now, Voldemort?" Ron paused for a moment. "God, that's the first time I ever said his name."
"Maybe I am afraid, Ron. Because he's a hell of alot more dangerous then...then...oh I still can't say his name."
In unison both brothers asked a simple question, "Why?" Why had Harry turned evil? Why had Ron's life went down the drain? Why had so many people died? Why?
***
Hermione took a very deep breath. "Harry...." She said, aware that she was the only person to use his name in years.
"Yes,"
"I love you." It took everything in her to conjure up the courage to say those three simple words. She didn't know if she meant them or not, but as she said them she felt as though a great burden had been lifted off her shoulders.
For a moment Harry's face contorted. He wasn't that hard shell he had been. He was just Harry. It only lasted a moment. That drop of his mask. But she had cracked his mask at last.
His face hardened again, but she wasn't done yet. She leaned forward quickly and kissed him.
"Why, Harry?" She asked when it was over. "Why did you turn evil?"
"I guess I was following my cousin's footsteps." He said mysteriously, giving her a taunting grin to let her know he was back to his old self.
"What?"
"Tom Riddle's father left his mother and took up a brief residence with the town's....Scarlett woman. He had a daughter with her during this brief affair, who married James Potter, Sr., they had a son, my father. Didn't you ever notice how similar we were, Hermione? How he looked so very much like me and my father? He killed my father out of hate for his own father, but me, no he couldn't kill me. He saw such promise in me. So he poured his power into me, he regretted it later of course, I ruined his life, he was angry with me. Tried to kill me because I was in Gryffindor but soon he realize it was the perfect alibi. So he watched me, plotting against me at times, but only to strengthen me. Make me strong. It worked didn't it, Hermione?"
"Why didn't you resist him, Harry, why?"
"I think you know the answer to that, Hermie dearest."
"I'm afraid I don't." She said glumly. He went to stand and Lavender Brown quickly picked up on this.
"Come again!" She squealed. With a quick grab of his wand and a flash of green light she was gone. In her place stood a small pile of dust.
"Thank you," He said to the dirt, then, turning to Hermione and giving her a meaningful stare,
" I will."
"I still don't know why."
"Then I suppose," He said, "You can only wonder."
Chapter 2
Draco Malfoy had everything a wizard could want. He was rich, married, and his wife was pregnant. The job at the ministry was working out well, and he already had a full blown affair with one of his superiors, Cho Chang. Life was good.
Tonight, Draco was throwing a party to honor the soon-to-be birth of his first born. His wife, the wealthy Pansy Parkinson, looked proudly at her stomach and patted her dyed hair with great admiration. Draco had marriaged her not for beauty, and certainly not for love, but to increase his fortune. Now, after some money on a Face Magic Wizard Pansy had a new nose, chin and grey contacts.
Draco thought her quite pretty now, though he shuddered whenever he imagined their children.
His mansion was gorgeously decorated and Pansy was dressed in an elegant set of dress robes, which had cost a small fortune, thought Draco bitterly. He shuttered to think how tightly corseted she must be in order to look less....fat.....and to cause her milk-filled breasts to peek proudly out of her neckline.
Draco sighed, the party was sure to be tedious, though one small amount of excitement did echo through his heart, Cho was coming. Draco hated to think that he might be capable of love, but if anyone held his heart, it was her.
He thought happily of her natural beauty and could only wish that the party was for her and not this false plastic thing they liked to call Pansy.
Bitterly he shrugged, but soon felt his heart jump as he saw Cho come to the door.
***
Cho liked having her way. Mainly, where men were involved. Cho dressed to kill, her robe's neckline hung lower then anything Pansy would ever dare to wear, and her long elegant Chinese hair was swept into a loose romantic bun with tendrils falling down in soft curls courtesy her beloved curling iron.
She smiled and twirled in front of the large mirror in the Malfoy's manor, she gave a large grin, her pearly white teeth shining, yet inside she gave a sigh. If only this was hers.
Yet, Cho knew one of the simple facts of her life. She was not the kind of girl boys married. She was the kind of girl boys dreamed of, longed for, wanted, but not the type they loved. No, she thought with a sad sigh, no one would love her.
She then remembered the one boy she had really loved. Cedric, with his soft good looks and well-manered behavior he had seemed like a dream. He, too, knew the desire that people felt for the handsome and beautiful, he had understood her.
He had died.
She thought, with a shudder, of the only other man who, perhaps, had loved her. She questioned if things had been different...perhaps something could have happened.
Yet he was no longer a he. He was He.
***
Draco Malfoy put on his best fake voice.
"Oh HELLO, Cho, how are you doing?"
Cho smiled, "Just fine, why Pansy you look so beautiful, now Draco," She gave him a little wink, "what did you say you wanted to show me?"
"Oh just some buisness ideas, oh don't put on that face Pansy, I have to do a little buisness, just think of all the money we'll make." Pansy, who had looked upset, smiled at the word money, and went over to entertain guests, or rather, to fish for compliements.
"What a ditz!" Cho said, spring a curl, "That was way too easy." Draco smile and led her into his "office".
"I know, I can't stand her, whenever I'm with her, all I think about is you." He leaned in and kissed her, and Cho felt the happy feeling that came from being wanted. Yet she still felt so empty, so very em....
"Cho Chang," a menacing voice said with a dull grin, "I thought you loved me, you certainly acted like you did whenever you wanted to distract me into loosing Quittich."
"You?" Cho breathed.
"Yes, the one and and only Me."
***
Harry Potter craved death, he craved the sight of blood speckled across his hands, craved the sight of the green light shooting from his wand and the curses forming in his mouth. Yes, he longed for it, like cats yearned for milk, a dog for it's water. It was his lifeblood, he needed not food to survive but instead, death.
Draco looked at him indisbelief, "It's Him! Dear God, He's going to kill us." Draco thought to himself in utter horror.
Harry smiled, "Right you are Draco,"
Draco gasped, "You, You, You read my mind!"
Harry laughed and nodded, "That's your mind? Pitifully small thing isn't it?" He gestured to Cho, "His other thing that small?"
Cho's hands flew to her mouth, "Oh!"
"What? We all know you and his... "Manhood", and I use the term man loosely, are quite well aquianted!
Draco stepped forward, utterly insulted, stepped forward. "Why if you couldn't kill me with a twitch of your wand, I'd knock your teeth out!"
Harry smiled and looked his wand, "Oh yes, the killing, I almost forgot."
He lifted his wand and Cho's hands flew to Draco's in fear. Harry smiled as he heard her give the choked sob. Fear, oh, he lived on it, he breathed on, it, yes fear, perhaps that was his true lifeblood. It was not the death but the fear it caused.
He waved his arm in the air, hands tightly clenched around his wand. "Twitch!" He shouted, jerking the wand. Cho nearly fainted into Draco's arms.
"How sweet, into her lover's arms. But why, my dearest Cho, didn't you ever love me, I certainly loved you."
Cho burst, "Why, why you scoundrel! You aren't capable of love! You wanted me! Just like so many other have and do! You didn't LOVE me! You don't know the meaning of love! But Draco does! And I do! Because I love him! I love him! I love him! I love HIM!"
For a brief moment of insanity it was just her and Draco, no longer was the evil man there, but just him and her, her and him. "Do you really, my darling?" Draco said tenderly.
Harry chuckled, "Didn't she say it enough to prove that? Really you silly old fool, that's quite evident. But just the same I'm going to kill you, whether there's love involved or not."
"Why?"
"That's quite obvious, but of little importance, now will you just stop having this kodak moment and act scared. I"m going to kill you, for God's Sakes!"
There was a creak at the door, "No You aren't,"
His eyes softened and his malicous grin faded, but the latter was replaced momentarily. "Hermie,"
***
Hemione Granger by far was the most unusaul guest to enter into the Malfoy Manor that evening. She was in a nightcap and long flowered robes, obviously just awaken. Her hair was astir and sticking up in every direction, and she was quite a sight to be seen.
"What brings you here, kittycat?"
Flinching at the nickname, she firmly stood her ground, "Harry," She said, causing her companions to shudder, "I heard about how Pansy was found dead in the bathroom a few minutes before, and I apparated to the closest spot I knew."
"Oh yes," He turned to the two lovers, "I took care of the wife, so she wouldn't have to be scandalized when she foun the two of you dead, lying in each other's arms."
Draco took a deep breath, enraged, "You Bastard! She was pregnant with my child! And you killed her! You're worse then a muderer, you're a...a..."
"A what? There's nothing you can call me that I haven't already been called. My, my, I only did the job minutes ago, news certainly travels fast."
Hermione began to babble, as she usaully did when she was nervous, "Well aparently she has a Hufflepuff cousin-in-law invited and well, you know how they like to gossip, she called me and....well I just thought it cruel of her, as the blood was still warm and all, but then I realized I should get down..."
"Oh Hush! Your babbling annoys me, my pet. Now love, I'm in the middle of a murder, if you don't mind."
***
Draco examined the going-ons very carefully. Mainly his own eyes followed the expression in Harry's eyes, and he saw that it matched very carefully the look in Cho's eyes when she looked at him. There was no doubt it Draco's mind, Harry loved Hermione.
"You can't kill them!" Hermione yelled, and Draco could only hope Harry would listen. Draco racked his brains for some way to fight him, but Harry could reflex almost every curse, every hex. It was like dealing with an even more powerful Voldemort. And how similar they were too, only Harry had no followers, no allies. Harry was a one man army, filled of death and destruction.
"I can and I will, and there's no way you can stop Me."
"But why, Harry?" again Draco flinched at the name, the name everyone else was too afraid to use. The name that had been replaced by "Him" and "He" always capitilazed and emphazized as though he was God. yet he was the opposite of God, he was the devil, the devil as strong and hateful as any bible totter could every describe to you. "Harry, I don't understand, why do you kill them, what's in it for You?"
"I told you, my dear, you can only wonder." With that he raised his wand and pointed it at Draco, his grin intensifying as Draco shuddered in fear.
Hermione looked at him, with sudden understanding, "It's the fear isn't it? It's the fear You live off of. That's why You kill, to feel people fear You. To smell the stench of death. That's why. That's totally why, isn't it!?"
Harry struggled to smile, "I don't know what your talking about, kittycat, I have my reasons."
Hermione nodded, "Yes, the one I named." She said bluntly.
"Oh shut up, stupid cat, and let me kill them."
"Don't show Him fear! Don't give Him what He wants! Be strong!"
Draco smiled, shamed to take the advice of a Mudblood, but happy to have a chance to live, or at least beat his murderer at his own game.
"Kill me, go ahead, I'm not afraid of death, and rather, I'm not afraid of you."
Harry brushed some sweat from his face, "Yes you are! You're too afraid to even say my name."
Draco took a deep breath, "What ever do you mean, Harry?"
Harry let out a screech of apparent pain. "Ugh!" He threw his wand at Draco, and then quickly summoned it back, shrugged, and walked away.
"You may think you beat me this time, Hermione, but really," He said as he walked through the doorway, "I'm just giving you break." And with that he gave a spine-chilling laugh and dissapeared.
Hermone sighed, "Goodbye, Harry."
"You love him, don't you?" Cho said, having recovered her strenth.
"Yes, just a bit." And then she smiled the sad smile of lost love and began to leave.
"Hey Hermione!" Draco yelled quickly.
She turned, "Yes?"
"Thanks....mudblood."
She smiled, "Your welcome....Dragon breath."
And with that they parted ways, leaving Draco and Cho wondering what to do know that they were free to marry, and Hermione wondering if she know knew why.
And far away Harry himself was wondering about the events of the day. "Well," He would reason, "One and half deaths in one day isn't that bad, she certainly was very scared of me....why, I bet even the little fetus was scared of me...."
Chapter 3
Hermione Granger apparated to a bench in front of her apartment, I must look like a fool, in my nightgown and all. She lamented.
She looked down at the nightgown and raised an eyebrow, it was low cut and not very modest, a gift from Ron right before the breakup.
A gift for me? Yeah right, more of a gift for him.... She thought with a laugh. She needed a good laugh, after the events at the Malfoy manor.
She stood up and walked towards the dark apartment.
"Back to the old hell-hole....I swear next paycheck I'm moving out....oof!" Her lament was interrupted by a sharp knee in the back.
"Gimme all your money!"
Hermione threw her hands up in the air as much as she could, "Oh honestly I can beat the Dark Lord but I can't even prevent a mugging! This is too much...." She stopped and thought for a minute, "I'm talking to myself while I'm being robbed..."
"Gimme your money!" The owner of the coarse hands that grabbed at her sides said. That voice....it's so familar.....
"Ron? Is that you? Don't answer yet...first...geroff me!"
The coarse hands let go, "Hermi?"
"Yes, and don't call me that, it's annoying. What are you doing out on the streets like this? Besides trying to mug a woman who obviously doesn't have any money, do you honestly think I keep my money in my pajamas?"
Ron smiled sheepishly and Hermione stared at the piece of red hair poking out from beneath his skee mask, "Percy kicked me out without a dime, seems I broke his nose."
Hermione smiled a bit, though she was still a tad bit stirred up because of the near-miss mugging.
"Do you have any place to stay?" Hermione inquired.
"No where in the world, why else would I be desprate enough to rob a woman in her nightgown? Why, I gave you that one, didn't I, I thought you might have burned it."
"Oh Ron, don't talk like that, here you can come in the apartment and crash."
They began the long walk up the stairs, "Let's just apparate right in," She took his hand and they apparated as one, as he couldn't by himself seeing he did not know the location.
***
Ron Weasley studied the steady blush against Hermione's cheeks as she held his hand. Ron decided the need for a joke was evident, "Well," He said staring at her hand in his, "you sure get right to the point."
"Oh shut up, Mr. Pajama Burglar," She said as she wrinkled her nose, but then she smiled and gave a short laugh, the kind of laugh that made Ron love her. He sighed deeply, after all that had happened, her heart still seemed to belong to Harry.
Ron looked about at the apartment surrouning him and wrinkled his nose in utter disgust but quickly whipped the look off his face as Hermione turned to face him.
"Oh dear!" She shouted, "There isn't anywhere to sleep in here!" She said a she stared at the small bed that housed herself, and the barran wooen floor sourrounding it.
Well, duh. Ron though to himself with a silent laugh, he loved Hermione but with all her brains she coul sure act ditzy.
Ron straightened his chest and decided to act heroic, it was amazing how being with Hermione changed his whole persona, if only I was well-shaved and didn't smell like cigars and alcohol, he thought. "Well Hermi-" He stopped himself,"on-e, I just have to sleep on the floor,"
Hermione waved her hand dismissevely in the air, "I will have no such thing, we're just have to share the bed. We've certainly done it enough before." She said with a smile and this time it was Ron's turn to blush.
***
Hemione couldn't believe her day, first she had saved Draco Malfoy's life and discovered yet another of Harry's deep dark secrets, but she had also almost been mugged by her ex and was currently sleeping in the same bed of him while wearing a low cut piece of lingerie he had given her.
"Life works in weird ways." She muttered quietly.
"What was that?" Ron asked, waking from his slumber, as he spoke his arm brushed aginst Hermione's side for they had to sleep very close in the small bed.
"Oh Ron," She cried as she threw her arms around Ron, "Things have just been so misreble lately!"
Ron, who was quite pleased to feel her arms around him, even if it was only because she needed to be comfroted, tried his best to actlike the comforting soul she needed, "What's wrong dear?" He asked as he stroked her hair. He tried not to show how even the slighest contact with her made his heart beat faster.
"Harry, he's turned into such a monster, a murderer!" She soon went into detail of the events at Malfoy's manor and how Pansy, pregnant and all, had been killed. "And the worst fact of it is....I love him!"
Ron felt his heart sink into the quicksand called heartbreak, "Oh Hermione, you could do so much." He cooed gently. Percy would find this funny, me being so sweet and gentle when I'm really nothing but a low-down drunk.
Hermione looked at him, her eyes filled with both compassion, and horribly, pity. If there was one thing Ron couldn't take, it was pity. "Ron, you're being so sweet to me, even when your own life s so misreble, your so sweet Ronnie, so sweet."
Ron couldn't take it any longer, "Hermione, I love you so much, I know I'm a fool too, but I do." He leaned forward, as if to kiss her.
Hermione laughed so suddenly Ron almost had a heart attack, "Your not kissing me when you smell like cigarette smoke and your have that misreble beard on you."
"That's what you think," He said with a laugh, and he leaned in and kissed her, and kissed her, and kissed, and....
***
And yet, not at all far away, a pair of eyes were watching the events.
The eyes owner sat there, enraged, an plotted his revenge.
Yes the eyes were filled with anger and hate.
Green eyes.
Chapter 4
Hermione sat up in her tiny bed, her eyes fluttered over to the blinking clock.
"Nine-Thirty! Ugh I"m late!"
Her eyes rested softly on Ron, sleeping tenderly beside her. She smiled a little, looking at 5 O'clock shadow.
Stepping gently out of her bed she stepped on top her nightgown, which lay in a crumpled heap, half-under half-nest to the bed.
She realized it was very cold inside her apartment, and that she was shivering. She walked towards the dresser and quickly put on some clothes.
How odd she thought, It's the middle of August and it's freezing in here. She shuddered again at the unearthly cold, it was almost like there was something evil in the room....
***
By the time Ron Weasley woke up, Hermione Granger, the love of his pathetic life, had already left for work.
"Twenty-two and already a workaholic" He thought with a laugh. He slipped out of bed and into the same boxers and pants he had been wearing the night before, since he had no change.
"I'll just borrow one of Herm's oversized T-shirts." He said as he began to rummage through her dresser.
He found a T-shirt quickly but curiosity got the better of him. He knew from experience that any private item would be "hidden" at the bottom of her top drawl. Of course he was a bit of wary, since his last rummage and led him to her diaphragm case.
"What the hell, might as well." He said as he pushed aside her panties and stared n ihorror at the first item in view.
A picture of Harry.
***
Anna Murphy was not known for her patience. Rather she was known for being sharp tongued, rude, sarcastic, and highly likable.
"Herm! C'mon now, be a dear!" She said, she talked very quickly and her tongue moved even quicker. Anna was Irish to the very last bone of her. Temper especially.
"Oh Lord! Will ya get off ya bum and answer it." She said, her voice high-pitched and as sharp as the angles of her face.
Inside, Ron, still staring helplessly at Harry's picture, did not know what to do. Anna was a former friend of his, who had transferred to Hogwarts after her own school in Ireland had been destroyed by Voldemort.
In short, he and Anna had fallen on bad terms. It was a long story.
Ron decided he better answer, otherwise she might break the door....
Anna nibbled at her hair impatiently. It was a bad habit of hers. She had very pretty hair too, her father had always told her it was the color of Irish Sand. She had never figured out how exactly Irish fan was designed, only that that was her hair color.
Thinking of her father made Anna take a long drag on her cigarette.
The door creaked open, "Herm?"
A cold voice replied, "Sandy."
Anna saw that it was Ron and her coldness matched his, "I go by Anna now," She said waving her cigarette though the air, "Sandy's a girl's name, I'm a woman now."
"Since when have you smoked?" He asked, staring at the cigarette
"I love smoking. I've been for ages."
"You never smoked before." He said, studying her carefully.
"Correction, Sandy never did, Anna does." She took another drag. "And you do too, don't lie, I can smell you from here."
Ron wrinkled his nose in disgust, "Well enough of this polite conversation, Anna. Why are you here?"
She smiled a large fake smile, "Just to drop off some papers, tata old friend."
"Well," Ron said to himself, "that was pleasant."
A breeze of air piled into the bathroom from the outside hallway and Ron straightened up, fearful that some old Hogwarts chum would see him. He breathed a short-live sigh of relief when Percy stepped in. Short-lived because he could always expect Percy to berate him with insults about his appearance, smoking, and all in all, his life.
Percy opened his big-ass mouth and Ron shuddered in anticipation but instead a set of unexpected words flew out. "He's here."
Ron jumped out of his wasted state. "Him? You sure? Shit! Can't you keep him out of here?"
Percy snapped right back at him, "Me? Keep the most powerful wizard out of my restaurant? And what? Be bloodily murdered? Quick thinking there, Ron."
Ron narrowed his eyes and went to the door to take a look at Him.
"Shit, it's Him alright."
Percy nodded his nervous face.
"What do we do?" Ron asked him.
"We wait, we watch, and most of all, we pray he doesn't kill anyone."
They walked toward the door together, and leered with a certain dread at the most powerful wizard in the world.
***
Hermione Granger looked at her first paycheck happily. She was working her way up to being one of the most successful muggle-born witches ever. She was theTansfiguration at her alma mater, Hogwarts.
She nodded her head smugly to one of ditzier Gryffindors students in her year. Lavender Brown just gave her a fearful look and turned back to her latest customer. Hermione shrugged, that girl had always been a bit paranoid, gibbering about her divination and such.
Suddenly, Hermione felt a dark presence standing over and looked up to greet Lavender. Instead a quite different set of eyes met her own.
Green eyes.
"Mind if I join you, Hermie?"
***
Harry Potter enjoyed the look of fear that came on her face just then. As a matter of fact, he just plain enjoyed all fear.
Sitting down across from his frightened former friend, he smiled.
She looked at him with pleading eyes, "Why Harry? Why did you become..become..."
Harry looked at her as if she were an ant on a hot day and he was the boy holding a magnifying glass. "What? Evil? Is that really what you call this? I mean, I have plenty of excuses. Orphan, bad foster parents, a girlfriend who cheated on me with best friend."
Hermione nervously brushed her hair back. "Oh Harry, I loved you, but Ron loved me I had to...to..."
Harry leaned forward suddenly. "What's wrong, kittycat? Cat got your tongue." He said grabbing her arm and casually flicking his finger against her mouth.
"Let go of me." She moved away from his cold grasp. His hand was so cold....like he wasn't even human.
"Ooh, feisty kittycat, messing with the most dangerous wizard in the world, and besides, I thought you loved me."
With all the courage in her Gryffindor heart she spit in his face. "That's right, you look asshole, loved. With a big fat D. Because after all, who could love you! You're not even human."
"Harsh words, kitty," He brushed his hands against her face, causing her to squirm, "And such a beautiful kitty too..." He leaned forward, as if to kiss her, but then with a sudden jerk of his face he instead spit on her face. "Now we're even."
Hermione wiped her face quickly, for his saliva was practically venom.
"Harry, I know your still in there, some part of the sweet caring Harry I used to know is still in there. Come out, Harry Potter, stop acting like this, what went wrong?" She said in quick fast paced words.
Harry turned around, angered. "Everything, Hermione! Every fucking thing! But you wouldn't understand about things being messed up would you, my perfect little kitty cat?"
"Harry...." She let her voice trail off. It wasn't Harry anymore, she reminded herself, Harry had died long ago. This was some evil shell of Harry.
***
"What do you see?" Ron asked as Percy took his turn peeking out the door.
"Shit! He's with Hermione." Percy said and Ron pushed Percy out of the way to better his view.
"Oh my god, he might kill her!" Ron said sinking to the floor in utter fear.
Percy smiled somewhat cruelly, "You'd die if that happened. The love of your life, gone. Not that it would matter, she only dated you for pity anyway."
Ron spun to face his brother, "Fuck you." He said punching him hard in the face. Bright red blood mixed in with his red facial hair, causing a rather interesting contrast of hues.
***
It wasn't Harry anymore...the thought echoed through her mind. But was Harry still in there? Some shell of him that might never come out again?
But maybe, just maybe, she could get through to the Harry she had known, the Harry she had loved.
All of a sudden she got an idea. It could work. Maybe, just maybe.
***
Lavender Brown watched out of the corner of her eye.
"My fortune teller told me I would meet a new powerful man but this is going a bit far." She said to herself.
She picked up a tray of water, "At least I got him good water, it's like, purified and everything."
"Like, here's your water, I'll um, take your order later, or something....?"
"How about, like or something?" The dark wizard said with a sneer.
"Touchy, touchy." She mumbled under her breath.
She watched as Hermione took a big swig of water. She looked kind of scared. " I should really help her." Lavender thought. She took a look at the evil glint in Harry's eyes. "Oh well, she's screwed anyway."
***
Hermione didn't drink that water, she inhaled it. She was going to need it. She was getting ready to do the single most dangerous stunt possible.
***
"Well, Lavender looks cheerful." Muttered Percy sarcastically, rubbing his injured nose.
"Har-Har." Ron dryly muttered. He had been pacing the length of the bathroom nervously.
"Hermione looks like she's gonna faint."
"If He doesn't kill her first."
"Don't talk like that Ron, God, try to optimistic."
Ron stopped pacing. "Why? Has life ever treated me good? Look at me Percy! Just look at me. I'm a wreck. I sigle handily fucked up my best friend by seducing his girlfriend. How can I go on living after that?"
Percy looked up, shocked. "Is that why you've been falling apart? Because you thought this was all your fault? Har...He was going to turn bad either way."
"Har...he? What Percy, to afraid to say his name? What is he now, Voldemort?" Ron paused for a moment. "God, that's the first time I ever said his name."
"Maybe I am afraid, Ron. Because he's a hell of alot more dangerous then...then...oh I still can't say his name."
In unison both brothers asked a simple question, "Why?" Why had Harry turned evil? Why had Ron's life went down the drain? Why had so many people died? Why?
***
Hermione took a very deep breath. "Harry...." She said, aware that she was the only person to use his name in years.
"Yes,"
"I love you." It took everything in her to conjure up the courage to say those three simple words. She didn't know if she meant them or not, but as she said them she felt as though a great burden had been lifted off her shoulders.
For a moment Harry's face contorted. He wasn't that hard shell he had been. He was just Harry. It only lasted a moment. That drop of his mask. But she had cracked his mask at last.
His face hardened again, but she wasn't done yet. She leaned forward quickly and kissed him.
"Why, Harry?" She asked when it was over. "Why did you turn evil?"
"I guess I was following my cousin's footsteps." He said mysteriously, giving her a taunting grin to let her know he was back to his old self.
"What?"
"Tom Riddle's father left his mother and took up a brief residence with the town's....Scarlett woman. He had a daughter with her during this brief affair, who married James Potter, Sr., they had a son, my father. Didn't you ever notice how similar we were, Hermione? How he looked so very much like me and my father? He killed my father out of hate for his own father, but me, no he couldn't kill me. He saw such promise in me. So he poured his power into me, he regretted it later of course, I ruined his life, he was angry with me. Tried to kill me because I was in Gryffindor but soon he realize it was the perfect alibi. So he watched me, plotting against me at times, but only to strengthen me. Make me strong. It worked didn't it, Hermione?"
"Why didn't you resist him, Harry, why?"
"I think you know the answer to that, Hermie dearest."
"I'm afraid I don't." She said glumly. He went to stand and Lavender Brown quickly picked up on this.
"Come again!" She squealed. With a quick grab of his wand and a flash of green light she was gone. In her place stood a small pile of dust.
"Thank you," He said to the dirt, then, turning to Hermione and giving her a meaningful stare,
" I will."
"I still don't know why."
"Then I suppose," He said, "You can only wonder."
Chapter 2
Draco Malfoy had everything a wizard could want. He was rich, married, and his wife was pregnant. The job at the ministry was working out well, and he already had a full blown affair with one of his superiors, Cho Chang. Life was good.
Tonight, Draco was throwing a party to honor the soon-to-be birth of his first born. His wife, the wealthy Pansy Parkinson, looked proudly at her stomach and patted her dyed hair with great admiration. Draco had marriaged her not for beauty, and certainly not for love, but to increase his fortune. Now, after some money on a Face Magic Wizard Pansy had a new nose, chin and grey contacts.
Draco thought her quite pretty now, though he shuddered whenever he imagined their children.
His mansion was gorgeously decorated and Pansy was dressed in an elegant set of dress robes, which had cost a small fortune, thought Draco bitterly. He shuttered to think how tightly corseted she must be in order to look less....fat.....and to cause her milk-filled breasts to peek proudly out of her neckline.
Draco sighed, the party was sure to be tedious, though one small amount of excitement did echo through his heart, Cho was coming. Draco hated to think that he might be capable of love, but if anyone held his heart, it was her.
He thought happily of her natural beauty and could only wish that the party was for her and not this false plastic thing they liked to call Pansy.
Bitterly he shrugged, but soon felt his heart jump as he saw Cho come to the door.
***
Cho liked having her way. Mainly, where men were involved. Cho dressed to kill, her robe's neckline hung lower then anything Pansy would ever dare to wear, and her long elegant Chinese hair was swept into a loose romantic bun with tendrils falling down in soft curls courtesy her beloved curling iron.
She smiled and twirled in front of the large mirror in the Malfoy's manor, she gave a large grin, her pearly white teeth shining, yet inside she gave a sigh. If only this was hers.
Yet, Cho knew one of the simple facts of her life. She was not the kind of girl boys married. She was the kind of girl boys dreamed of, longed for, wanted, but not the type they loved. No, she thought with a sad sigh, no one would love her.
She then remembered the one boy she had really loved. Cedric, with his soft good looks and well-manered behavior he had seemed like a dream. He, too, knew the desire that people felt for the handsome and beautiful, he had understood her.
He had died.
She thought, with a shudder, of the only other man who, perhaps, had loved her. She questioned if things had been different...perhaps something could have happened.
Yet he was no longer a he. He was He.
***
Draco Malfoy put on his best fake voice.
"Oh HELLO, Cho, how are you doing?"
Cho smiled, "Just fine, why Pansy you look so beautiful, now Draco," She gave him a little wink, "what did you say you wanted to show me?"
"Oh just some buisness ideas, oh don't put on that face Pansy, I have to do a little buisness, just think of all the money we'll make." Pansy, who had looked upset, smiled at the word money, and went over to entertain guests, or rather, to fish for compliements.
"What a ditz!" Cho said, spring a curl, "That was way too easy." Draco smile and led her into his "office".
"I know, I can't stand her, whenever I'm with her, all I think about is you." He leaned in and kissed her, and Cho felt the happy feeling that came from being wanted. Yet she still felt so empty, so very em....
"Cho Chang," a menacing voice said with a dull grin, "I thought you loved me, you certainly acted like you did whenever you wanted to distract me into loosing Quittich."
"You?" Cho breathed.
"Yes, the one and and only Me."
***
Harry Potter craved death, he craved the sight of blood speckled across his hands, craved the sight of the green light shooting from his wand and the curses forming in his mouth. Yes, he longed for it, like cats yearned for milk, a dog for it's water. It was his lifeblood, he needed not food to survive but instead, death.
Draco looked at him indisbelief, "It's Him! Dear God, He's going to kill us." Draco thought to himself in utter horror.
Harry smiled, "Right you are Draco,"
Draco gasped, "You, You, You read my mind!"
Harry laughed and nodded, "That's your mind? Pitifully small thing isn't it?" He gestured to Cho, "His other thing that small?"
Cho's hands flew to her mouth, "Oh!"
"What? We all know you and his... "Manhood", and I use the term man loosely, are quite well aquianted!
Draco stepped forward, utterly insulted, stepped forward. "Why if you couldn't kill me with a twitch of your wand, I'd knock your teeth out!"
Harry smiled and looked his wand, "Oh yes, the killing, I almost forgot."
He lifted his wand and Cho's hands flew to Draco's in fear. Harry smiled as he heard her give the choked sob. Fear, oh, he lived on it, he breathed on, it, yes fear, perhaps that was his true lifeblood. It was not the death but the fear it caused.
He waved his arm in the air, hands tightly clenched around his wand. "Twitch!" He shouted, jerking the wand. Cho nearly fainted into Draco's arms.
"How sweet, into her lover's arms. But why, my dearest Cho, didn't you ever love me, I certainly loved you."
Cho burst, "Why, why you scoundrel! You aren't capable of love! You wanted me! Just like so many other have and do! You didn't LOVE me! You don't know the meaning of love! But Draco does! And I do! Because I love him! I love him! I love him! I love HIM!"
For a brief moment of insanity it was just her and Draco, no longer was the evil man there, but just him and her, her and him. "Do you really, my darling?" Draco said tenderly.
Harry chuckled, "Didn't she say it enough to prove that? Really you silly old fool, that's quite evident. But just the same I'm going to kill you, whether there's love involved or not."
"Why?"
"That's quite obvious, but of little importance, now will you just stop having this kodak moment and act scared. I"m going to kill you, for God's Sakes!"
There was a creak at the door, "No You aren't,"
His eyes softened and his malicous grin faded, but the latter was replaced momentarily. "Hermie,"
***
Hemione Granger by far was the most unusaul guest to enter into the Malfoy Manor that evening. She was in a nightcap and long flowered robes, obviously just awaken. Her hair was astir and sticking up in every direction, and she was quite a sight to be seen.
"What brings you here, kittycat?"
Flinching at the nickname, she firmly stood her ground, "Harry," She said, causing her companions to shudder, "I heard about how Pansy was found dead in the bathroom a few minutes before, and I apparated to the closest spot I knew."
"Oh yes," He turned to the two lovers, "I took care of the wife, so she wouldn't have to be scandalized when she foun the two of you dead, lying in each other's arms."
Draco took a deep breath, enraged, "You Bastard! She was pregnant with my child! And you killed her! You're worse then a muderer, you're a...a..."
"A what? There's nothing you can call me that I haven't already been called. My, my, I only did the job minutes ago, news certainly travels fast."
Hermione began to babble, as she usaully did when she was nervous, "Well aparently she has a Hufflepuff cousin-in-law invited and well, you know how they like to gossip, she called me and....well I just thought it cruel of her, as the blood was still warm and all, but then I realized I should get down..."
"Oh Hush! Your babbling annoys me, my pet. Now love, I'm in the middle of a murder, if you don't mind."
***
Draco examined the going-ons very carefully. Mainly his own eyes followed the expression in Harry's eyes, and he saw that it matched very carefully the look in Cho's eyes when she looked at him. There was no doubt it Draco's mind, Harry loved Hermione.
"You can't kill them!" Hermione yelled, and Draco could only hope Harry would listen. Draco racked his brains for some way to fight him, but Harry could reflex almost every curse, every hex. It was like dealing with an even more powerful Voldemort. And how similar they were too, only Harry had no followers, no allies. Harry was a one man army, filled of death and destruction.
"I can and I will, and there's no way you can stop Me."
"But why, Harry?" again Draco flinched at the name, the name everyone else was too afraid to use. The name that had been replaced by "Him" and "He" always capitilazed and emphazized as though he was God. yet he was the opposite of God, he was the devil, the devil as strong and hateful as any bible totter could every describe to you. "Harry, I don't understand, why do you kill them, what's in it for You?"
"I told you, my dear, you can only wonder." With that he raised his wand and pointed it at Draco, his grin intensifying as Draco shuddered in fear.
Hermione looked at him, with sudden understanding, "It's the fear isn't it? It's the fear You live off of. That's why You kill, to feel people fear You. To smell the stench of death. That's why. That's totally why, isn't it!?"
Harry struggled to smile, "I don't know what your talking about, kittycat, I have my reasons."
Hermione nodded, "Yes, the one I named." She said bluntly.
"Oh shut up, stupid cat, and let me kill them."
"Don't show Him fear! Don't give Him what He wants! Be strong!"
Draco smiled, shamed to take the advice of a Mudblood, but happy to have a chance to live, or at least beat his murderer at his own game.
"Kill me, go ahead, I'm not afraid of death, and rather, I'm not afraid of you."
Harry brushed some sweat from his face, "Yes you are! You're too afraid to even say my name."
Draco took a deep breath, "What ever do you mean, Harry?"
Harry let out a screech of apparent pain. "Ugh!" He threw his wand at Draco, and then quickly summoned it back, shrugged, and walked away.
"You may think you beat me this time, Hermione, but really," He said as he walked through the doorway, "I'm just giving you break." And with that he gave a spine-chilling laugh and dissapeared.
Hermone sighed, "Goodbye, Harry."
"You love him, don't you?" Cho said, having recovered her strenth.
"Yes, just a bit." And then she smiled the sad smile of lost love and began to leave.
"Hey Hermione!" Draco yelled quickly.
She turned, "Yes?"
"Thanks....mudblood."
She smiled, "Your welcome....Dragon breath."
And with that they parted ways, leaving Draco and Cho wondering what to do know that they were free to marry, and Hermione wondering if she know knew why.
And far away Harry himself was wondering about the events of the day. "Well," He would reason, "One and half deaths in one day isn't that bad, she certainly was very scared of me....why, I bet even the little fetus was scared of me...."
Chapter 3
Hermione Granger apparated to a bench in front of her apartment, I must look like a fool, in my nightgown and all. She lamented.
She looked down at the nightgown and raised an eyebrow, it was low cut and not very modest, a gift from Ron right before the breakup.
A gift for me? Yeah right, more of a gift for him.... She thought with a laugh. She needed a good laugh, after the events at the Malfoy manor.
She stood up and walked towards the dark apartment.
"Back to the old hell-hole....I swear next paycheck I'm moving out....oof!" Her lament was interrupted by a sharp knee in the back.
"Gimme all your money!"
Hermione threw her hands up in the air as much as she could, "Oh honestly I can beat the Dark Lord but I can't even prevent a mugging! This is too much...." She stopped and thought for a minute, "I'm talking to myself while I'm being robbed..."
"Gimme your money!" The owner of the coarse hands that grabbed at her sides said. That voice....it's so familar.....
"Ron? Is that you? Don't answer yet...first...geroff me!"
The coarse hands let go, "Hermi?"
"Yes, and don't call me that, it's annoying. What are you doing out on the streets like this? Besides trying to mug a woman who obviously doesn't have any money, do you honestly think I keep my money in my pajamas?"
Ron smiled sheepishly and Hermione stared at the piece of red hair poking out from beneath his skee mask, "Percy kicked me out without a dime, seems I broke his nose."
Hermione smiled a bit, though she was still a tad bit stirred up because of the near-miss mugging.
"Do you have any place to stay?" Hermione inquired.
"No where in the world, why else would I be desprate enough to rob a woman in her nightgown? Why, I gave you that one, didn't I, I thought you might have burned it."
"Oh Ron, don't talk like that, here you can come in the apartment and crash."
They began the long walk up the stairs, "Let's just apparate right in," She took his hand and they apparated as one, as he couldn't by himself seeing he did not know the location.
***
Ron Weasley studied the steady blush against Hermione's cheeks as she held his hand. Ron decided the need for a joke was evident, "Well," He said staring at her hand in his, "you sure get right to the point."
"Oh shut up, Mr. Pajama Burglar," She said as she wrinkled her nose, but then she smiled and gave a short laugh, the kind of laugh that made Ron love her. He sighed deeply, after all that had happened, her heart still seemed to belong to Harry.
Ron looked about at the apartment surrouning him and wrinkled his nose in utter disgust but quickly whipped the look off his face as Hermione turned to face him.
"Oh dear!" She shouted, "There isn't anywhere to sleep in here!" She said a she stared at the small bed that housed herself, and the barran wooen floor sourrounding it.
Well, duh. Ron though to himself with a silent laugh, he loved Hermione but with all her brains she coul sure act ditzy.
Ron straightened his chest and decided to act heroic, it was amazing how being with Hermione changed his whole persona, if only I was well-shaved and didn't smell like cigars and alcohol, he thought. "Well Hermi-" He stopped himself,"on-e, I just have to sleep on the floor,"
Hermione waved her hand dismissevely in the air, "I will have no such thing, we're just have to share the bed. We've certainly done it enough before." She said with a smile and this time it was Ron's turn to blush.
***
Hemione couldn't believe her day, first she had saved Draco Malfoy's life and discovered yet another of Harry's deep dark secrets, but she had also almost been mugged by her ex and was currently sleeping in the same bed of him while wearing a low cut piece of lingerie he had given her.
"Life works in weird ways." She muttered quietly.
"What was that?" Ron asked, waking from his slumber, as he spoke his arm brushed aginst Hermione's side for they had to sleep very close in the small bed.
"Oh Ron," She cried as she threw her arms around Ron, "Things have just been so misreble lately!"
Ron, who was quite pleased to feel her arms around him, even if it was only because she needed to be comfroted, tried his best to actlike the comforting soul she needed, "What's wrong dear?" He asked as he stroked her hair. He tried not to show how even the slighest contact with her made his heart beat faster.
"Harry, he's turned into such a monster, a murderer!" She soon went into detail of the events at Malfoy's manor and how Pansy, pregnant and all, had been killed. "And the worst fact of it is....I love him!"
Ron felt his heart sink into the quicksand called heartbreak, "Oh Hermione, you could do so much." He cooed gently. Percy would find this funny, me being so sweet and gentle when I'm really nothing but a low-down drunk.
Hermione looked at him, her eyes filled with both compassion, and horribly, pity. If there was one thing Ron couldn't take, it was pity. "Ron, you're being so sweet to me, even when your own life s so misreble, your so sweet Ronnie, so sweet."
Ron couldn't take it any longer, "Hermione, I love you so much, I know I'm a fool too, but I do." He leaned forward, as if to kiss her.
Hermione laughed so suddenly Ron almost had a heart attack, "Your not kissing me when you smell like cigarette smoke and your have that misreble beard on you."
"That's what you think," He said with a laugh, and he leaned in and kissed her, and kissed her, and kissed, and....
***
And yet, not at all far away, a pair of eyes were watching the events.
The eyes owner sat there, enraged, an plotted his revenge.
Yes the eyes were filled with anger and hate.
Green eyes.
Chapter 4
Hermione sat up in her tiny bed, her eyes fluttered over to the blinking clock.
"Nine-Thirty! Ugh I"m late!"
Her eyes rested softly on Ron, sleeping tenderly beside her. She smiled a little, looking at 5 O'clock shadow.
Stepping gently out of her bed she stepped on top her nightgown, which lay in a crumpled heap, half-under half-nest to the bed.
She realized it was very cold inside her apartment, and that she was shivering. She walked towards the dresser and quickly put on some clothes.
How odd she thought, It's the middle of August and it's freezing in here. She shuddered again at the unearthly cold, it was almost like there was something evil in the room....
***
By the time Ron Weasley woke up, Hermione Granger, the love of his pathetic life, had already left for work.
"Twenty-two and already a workaholic" He thought with a laugh. He slipped out of bed and into the same boxers and pants he had been wearing the night before, since he had no change.
"I'll just borrow one of Herm's oversized T-shirts." He said as he began to rummage through her dresser.
He found a T-shirt quickly but curiosity got the better of him. He knew from experience that any private item would be "hidden" at the bottom of her top drawl. Of course he was a bit of wary, since his last rummage and led him to her diaphragm case.
"What the hell, might as well." He said as he pushed aside her panties and stared n ihorror at the first item in view.
A picture of Harry.
***
Anna Murphy was not known for her patience. Rather she was known for being sharp tongued, rude, sarcastic, and highly likable.
"Herm! C'mon now, be a dear!" She said, she talked very quickly and her tongue moved even quicker. Anna was Irish to the very last bone of her. Temper especially.
"Oh Lord! Will ya get off ya bum and answer it." She said, her voice high-pitched and as sharp as the angles of her face.
Inside, Ron, still staring helplessly at Harry's picture, did not know what to do. Anna was a former friend of his, who had transferred to Hogwarts after her own school in Ireland had been destroyed by Voldemort.
In short, he and Anna had fallen on bad terms. It was a long story.
Ron decided he better answer, otherwise she might break the door....
Anna nibbled at her hair impatiently. It was a bad habit of hers. She had very pretty hair too, her father had always told her it was the color of Irish Sand. She had never figured out how exactly Irish fan was designed, only that that was her hair color.
Thinking of her father made Anna take a long drag on her cigarette.
The door creaked open, "Herm?"
A cold voice replied, "Sandy."
Anna saw that it was Ron and her coldness matched his, "I go by Anna now," She said waving her cigarette though the air, "Sandy's a girl's name, I'm a woman now."
"Since when have you smoked?" He asked, staring at the cigarette
"I love smoking. I've been for ages."
"You never smoked before." He said, studying her carefully.
"Correction, Sandy never did, Anna does." She took another drag. "And you do too, don't lie, I can smell you from here."
Ron wrinkled his nose in disgust, "Well enough of this polite conversation, Anna. Why are you here?"
She smiled a large fake smile, "Just to drop off some papers, tata old friend."
"Well," Ron said to himself, "that was pleasant."