With another gut wrenching sob, Hermione got herself out of bed. Ron was such a prat. Didn't he realize what he was doing to her?
She gathered up the pieces of her broken heart, careful not to let her thoughts stray to that fateful night.
Her attempts were in vain. The moment she tried resisting to the onslaught of memories, they seemed to get stronger, like her mind was determined on making her relive it a million times over every hour.
Hermione's head felt like it was going to explode. She saw it as clear as day
Hearing Ron in the room with someone other than herself. Then, just when she was about to walk in, the moaning had started. At first, it was small, but the sounds grew louder and louder. Hermione knew she should have left, that it would have hurt more to stay and listen to whatever things Ron was doing in there.
But she couldn't. Hermione was frozen in place, her hand resting on the doorknob.
She only had to listen for a couple seconds (no matter if she didn't even want to be there in the first place) to realize just who was in there with Ron. That bitch Cho Chang.
It seemed like forever before they stopped, their breathing quieting down to normal, and even then, she couldn't bring herself to leave.
Something wet hit her hand. Hermione raised a shaking hand to her cheek and realized that she was crying. Big, fat tears were slowly making their way down her face.
Just when she had gotten control over herself and been about to leave, Cho's voice rang out in the silence.
"I told you I could make you forget." She sounded smug.
"Yeah. I don't know what I was thinking, mooning after Hermione like that."
They were silent for a couple moments, both of them apparently thinking.
"Ron?"
"Cho?"
"Tell me you love me. Please?"
Oh, how much torture did she have to go through?
"I love you."
That was the exact moment in time when Hermione's heart broke into a million itsy bitsy pieces that, even if you could fix, you'd never be able to find all of them. There would always be something missing. That piece of her heart that had always belonged to Ron was gone. Forever. It wasn't coming back.
The new couple in the room had been silent for awhile, and Hermione realized they had fallen asleep. Slowly, she turned the handle and cracked the door open about an inch. They were in eachother's arms, looking completely peaceful as they slumbered.
Holding back the beginnings of a sob-fest, Hermione left them alone and, as silently as she had come, she left.
She had ran to her room and burst into tears.
The memory kept running through her head, like a broken record.
And then, it stopped. Paused, as if the record had finally played it's last note.
One scene stuck in her head: Ron and Cho curled up together, looking completely happy.
Rage the likes of which Hermione never knew she posessed ignited within her soul. Ron was hers and hers alone. Cho would pay for stealing him from her. The tears stopped abruptly. Oh yes, she would pay.
~Time Skip~
Hermione's plans were done. Every loose end was tied up. No one would be able to trace the crime to her, and even if they did, they would never be able to catch her. It was perfect.
The bushy haired girl grinned a terrible grin as she thought of what she was about to do. She hid it as she found Cho. With a non-threatening smile she asked Cho to speak to her privately. Cho, being the idiot that she was, agreed with a kind-hearted smile of her own and followed Hermione out onto the Hogwarts grounds.
They came to the Forbidden Forest.
"Why are we here?" asked Cho nervously, "We're not supposed to be here."
"It's okay," she reassured the girl, "This is really important and I can't have anyone overhearing it."
Cho nodded and kept following her.
Finally, they came to the place Hermione had picked out. It was perfect.
Hermione turned to Cho. Her face was calm, but her eyes betrayed a hatred that petrified Cho on the spot.
"I hate you."
"Wh-what?"
"Oh, you heard me. I hate you."
"But I've never done anything to you!"
"That's where you're wrong. You've done a horrible thing, Cho. A horrible, horrible thing."
At that moment, Hermione dropped all pretenses of friendliness. The grin that split open on her face sent chills down Cho's spine and shocked her into silence.
"What? Not gonna ask me what it is?"
There was an air of a command in the other girl's voice, so Cho asked, "What did I do?"
"HA! You think I'm gonna bother explain it to you? Cho made a funny!"
Or not.
Hermione picked something up off the ground. A twig.
Then, she pulled her wand out of her cloak, muttering a transfiguration spell that Cho couldn't hear, though she strained her ears to do so.
The twig wasn't a twig anymore. It had grown into a wicked looking butcher's knife.
She looked into Hermione's eyes, there was a sinister glow about them.
Suddenly, Cho knew what Hermione had brought her out here for. Raw panic took hold of her as she simultaneously broke out into a cold sweat.
Not knowing what else to do, Cho started backing up, making sure to keep her eyes on her assailant.
Hermione matched her step for step while brandishing her weapon and cackling.
Cho gasped as she felt the rough bark of a tree against her back.
The tiny gap in her concentration was all the opening Hermione needed. Without preamble, she pounced with a stealth you wouldn't expect from a book worm like her.
With that wicked smile of hers plastered on her face, Hermione felt the skin and muscles of Cho's chest give way to the blade of the knife. A couple of ribs got in the way, but a few more stabs was all it took for her to break through those, too. Cho screamed each time the knife plunged though her flesh.
Finally, she slumped to the ground, the pain proving to be too much.
Hermione kneeled down next to her, watching as her life blood left her.
The last thing she saw before the life faded from her eyes was Hermione's bloodied, smiling face.
Hermione chuckled as she watched the blood drip from the multiple stab wounds in Cho's chest. A certain sense of peace settled over her.
Deep inside her, she knew that the satisfaction she was feeling was morbidly wrong, but Hermione couldn't find it in her to care.
With an another cackle, Hermione waved her wand at Cho's corpse and said another spell. The dead girl promptly turned into a twig not unlike the one that the knife used to be.
Hermione started to walk away, but it seemed wrong to just leave her there.
She turned around and retieved the stick.
Before she stuck it into her cloak for safekeeping, she examined it. It was about 3 inches long and had a bunch of gnarled knots towards the top.
Hermione giggled. Cho Chang, one of the most popular girls in the entire school, had been reduced to an ugly, knotted twig by none other than herself.
She tucked Cho into her cloak, still giggling.
She would keep it as a reminder of what she just done.
Hermione walked back the castle, alone, and reported Cho's sudden disapearance.
No one ever suspected a thing.
The knots were the stab wounds. Did anyone catch that?
This is my first attempt at something like this, so forgive me if it sucks....
Please, enjoy it, and review if you feel inclined to do so.
~Funky Bracelet Chick