"What am I doing?" Hermione Granger whispered to herself as she looked around the deserted sixth floor corridor.
It was well past midnight and she was out and about, wandering the castle as though it was something she did on a daily basis. Her feet hitting the floor in an inaudible fashion making sure she wouldn't be heard. She'd made sure to wear the quietest pair of footwear that she owned - So what if it was a mouldy looking pair of loafers? They did the job. Hermione knew not to go into the North corridor on the second floor, because Peeves the Poltergeist hung out around there, and she even knew which hallways were being patrolled and in order to avoid them, she had planned it all out. She couldn't risk being caught and putting yet another black mark on her permanent record (which already held a fair bit of things: breaking into forbidden rooms within Hogwarts, stealing a condemned Hippogriff, and helping a wrongly accused man escape from the ranks of the Dementors, being just a few of the items.) Although, this time it would be on her own accord and wouldn't involve her best friends Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley in any way. Hermione had a tiny scroll of parchment rolled up in her hand, accompanied by a quill and in her other hand, an ink bottle, she was on her way to The Owlry.
Finally reaching the last set of stairs that she would be climbing on her journey, Hermione let a sigh of relief pass her supple lips, as she started up them. She wasn't going to The Owlry for some time alone, or even privacy - okay, so maybe the privacy part, but did she really want Harry and Ron looking over her shoulder as she wrote a farewell letter to Viktor? No, she didn't - her thoughts exactly.
Hermione and Viktor had kept a steady relationship since Hermione's fourth year at Hogwarts, when they had met during the Triwizard Tournament. From that point on things had snowballed into an extravagant, passionate relationship and both had been head over heels for the other; for a while at least. Coming into her sixth year at Hogwarts, Hermione had noticed a change in Viktor. The summer before she'd gone into fifth year, Hermione and Viktor had been inseparable. Like glue on paper: once it stuck, it stuck. You couldn't peel it apart without leaving a bit of paper in the glue or vice-versa. Viktor had visited Hermione plenty of times before the summer was over, it was as though they were already planning an entire life together (which they pretty much had).
At that point in time everything had run smoothly, everything going just as planned, it took a turn for the worse going into the summer before Hermione's sixth year. Viktor's letters had started to come in longer intervals, making Hermione anxious and worried. Occasionally she would have to wait for two weeks just to receive a letter; and even then the letter she did receive was short and rather vague about what was going on between the two. As the summer led on Viktor had only visited Hermione once, and when he had, he'd only stayed for a few days. He'd said it was because of Quidditch training, but Hermione had known damn well it wasn't; Viktor had been given a month off in the summer for his own use. As of then it'd been a month since she'd heard anything from Viktor, nothing at all, and she was giving up. She refused to be played with like some rag doll that was only good enough when he needed her, and was ending it all. Anyway, she'd just plain lost interest in him after he'd failed to notice her existence all summer; until he needed her of course.
Why had Hermione waited until well past midnight to go and send him a letter, and risked getting caught and punished? Simple, she hadn't wanted any uninvited visitors to barge in on her as she got all of her emotions down on paper, and she couldn't risk people finding out how hurt she really was either. Hermione wasn't an emotional person, for the most part at least. There had been times when she'd completely lost it unwillingly, (Times like these usually involved a certain Malfoy or his posse of Slytherins, who, of course didn't do anything without their reining leader, so in regards to them it always included Malfoy) but ideally she never really wanted to show negativity. And now, as Hermione trudged up the stairs towards The Owlry, emotion was overwhelming her, she couldn't believe she was about to do what she'd been longing to do for a while now.
As Hermione finally swung the door open at the top of the, (what seemed to be) gargantuan staircase, the smell of straw and owl droppings washed over her, not exactly something one looked forward to getting blown right in the face with. Entering the large Owlry, a shiver shot down Hermione's spine. It was freezing up there, probably due to the fact that the windows had no glass in them… if they had, then the idea of the Owlry would be pointless. The Owlry was there so that the owls could come and go as they pleased, leaving less work for their owners who had a lot of school work to attend to, and frankly not enough time on their hands to look after the birds too. Getting used to the smell that had enveloped her, Hermione walked fully into the Owlry and took a seat on the floor, her back to the wall. Hermione didn't know how exactly she was going to break up with Viktor, she loved him and would have done anything for him, if only he'd been more committed to making their relationship work. So, Hermione sat thinking, something she did best, about what to put in her letter to the love of her life. She didn't want to hurt him but at the same time she wanted him to be just as hurt as she was when he'd lied to her about why he wasn't staying with her longer during the summer. She, like any other sane woman in the world, suspected he was cheating on her. After-all he could have any other woman he wanted, he /was/ famous, and not that unfortunate looking either. The way his ebony locks fell into his face was genuinely sexy, making him attract a lot of stares. At first, this had bothered Hermione, having everyone looking at Viktor as though he was a piece of eye candy, even though he was. He was her eye candy though. She'd eventually gotten over it as she'd begun to trust him, after-all if he loved her he would be looking at only her anyway. After thinking for what seemed like an eternity (or all of ten minutes) Hermione finally started to write, her hand scrolling across the page with ease, as though she'd written the entire letter in her head before-hand. When she finished she read it over the words sticking in her mind.
Dear Viktor,
I don't know what's going on between us anymore, I don't know how you feel, and mostly, I don't know where I fit into your life. I don't know if I want to fit into your life anymore, either. It seems like involving myself with you is involving myself with the potential of being hurt repetitively, and I don't want that from the person I'm supposed to love, and that is supposed to love me back. If you do not understand why this letter is coming your way then I'm really sorry, but you should know why. I don't like liars, and I especially don't like it when people who are really close to me lie. If you still haven't gotten the clue then you're just plain dumb. Good bye, Viktor. Have a nice life.
Hermione.
(P.S, Don't even bother responding with some bullshit letter telling me why I've assumed wrong, I don't want to hear it.)
As Hermione looked down at the finished letter, a defiant smirk crossed her face. She knew she was being harsh, but for one it felt good to be the one ending things instead of her waiting and ending up getting hurt even worse than she already was. Standing up, Hermione looked around the inside of the Owlry, pondering where Hedwig might be at this time of the evening. As she began to walk down the isle of owls, each of them cocking their heads and looking at her in turn, Hermione gave up and just decided to use a school owl instead, that way Harry wouldn't ever suspect anything. After tying the letter soundly to the tawny barn owls leg and sending it out the window Hermione just stood and looked out the window staring at the horizon, her eyes slowly filling with tears.
It was finally over.
