Author's Note: So I'm hoping everything is good. It should be picking up, so just bear with me. Please review! Feedback is always appreciated. Thanks! :)
Raynea approached the Gryffindor table once she entered the Great Hall, but not before she scanned the area for Ginny and Harry. She found them almost immediately. They were sitting towards the end of the table, secluded from the rest of the crowd and sitting only centimeters apart. She also couldn't help but notice that their hands were intertwined and they were both wearing extremely broad grins on their faces. Raynea scooted past them quickly, hoping they wouldn't notice her. Unfortunately, she wasn't that lucky. Harry looked up at her for a moment and waved in greeting. Ginny also directed her attention towards Raynea, her smile disappearing somewhat.
"Hey Rayne," she said softly.
Raynea forced a smile and offered them both a friendly wave.
"Hey guys," she uttered before hurrying off to sit with Ron and Hermione.
Ron seemed very distracted by something a ways down the table, while Hermione kept her nose buried in a book. Raynea's advance towards them caused Hermione to look up from her book for a moment and smile, but Ron remained enticed by something else.
"Hey Raynea," Hermione said, marking the place in her book before closing it.
"Hi guys," Raynea returned, placing her bag on the floor beside her feet, "How're things?"
"Not much different since breakfast," Hermione replied with a sigh, "How are you doing, Raynea? You feeling alright?" Her eyes flickered over to Ginny and Harry for a split second before she directed her attention back to Raynea.
"I'm fine," Raynea said, sounding confident even though she knew in her heart she wasn't.
"You sure?" Hermione pressed further.
"Yeah. There's no reason not to be," she stated.
Hermione smiled at her friend, trying to be especially delicate considering the news from this morning.
"I appreciate what you're trying to do, 'Mione," Raynea said, "But it's really unnecessary. Everything's fine."
Hermione sighed, "You're not very convincing you know."
"Really? Cause I think I'm a damn fine actress," Raynea joked as she took a sip from her goblet.
"I'll let it go," Hermione snickered, "There're better things to talk about anyway. For example, what on earth are you staring at, Ronald?"
Ron didn't respond. In fact, he acted as though he hadn't heard his friend at all. His gaze remained halfway down the table.
"Ron…" Raynea said in a raised voice, "….Ron!"
"Huh?" Ron exclaimed, quickly shifting his head and directing his glance at the two girls sitting across from him.
"What's got you all distracted?" Hermione questioned with a chuckle.
"I'm not distracted," Ron scoffed as he picked up his fork, "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Yeah, okay," Raynea said disbelievingly with an eyebrow raise, "I don't know what it is with you blokes…"
Hermione giggled as she began to spoon food onto her plate.
***
Raynea felt extremely relieved once lessons had ended for the day. She was fortunate enough to make it out with little homework and no sightings of the happy couple. Unfortunately, irritation was not absent from the remainder of her afternoon.
"Miss me?" questioned a cool, sly voice from behind her.
Raynea glanced over her shoulder and found a tall, pale figure treading only a few steps in back of her. She rolled her eyes before turning around to face him with a sour expression on her tan face.
"Twice in one day? How lucky for me," she sighed as he took a few paces toward her.
"Hey, I'm like the gift that keeps on giving," Malfoy responded with a cocky smirk.
"Haven't you pissed me off enough for one day?" Raynea asked in annoyance.
"Trust me," he said, stepping even closer to her, "I never tire of this."
Raynea looked up into his pale grey eyes, feeling only hatred for him. She would never figure out why he was always around and always seemed to take an interest in making her miserable.
"Well learn to," she shot back before turning on her heel and quickening her pace to avoid him. Of course, she wasn't surprised when he continued after her.
"Come on McCoy," he began as he ran up beside her, "Can you even imagine a day without me? I'm a joy to be around."
"Depends on your definition of the word," Raynea stated, her voice coated with irritation. She started her trek up the stairs and he followed, though this wasn't a big surprise to her.
"Why do you keep following me?" she demanded, hardly able to stand his proximity to her.
"I dunno. Got nothing better to do," he replied.
"I find that extremely hard to believe. Why don't you go bother one of your Slytherin whores? At least you'll get a lay outta that," Raynea snapped as she stomped up the stairs.
"Nah, I'm fine right here, really," he replied with growing amusement, "Besides, it's all been there done that. I could use a break."
"So you choose to antagonize me? Perfect."
"I'd say so, yes."
"While I should be used to dealing with you, I'm really not in the mood for it today. Please, just…go away."
"I don't think you want me to do that."
"What gives you that idea?"
"How often do you get to have such a skilled verbal sparing match with one of your Gryffindor gits?"
"Well considering I actually like them, a verbal sparing match isn't necessary."
"Besides," he continued on, "Don't I help take some of the pain away?"
"From what?"
"Oh, please," Malfoy laughed, the smirk ever present on his pale, pointed face, "Potter and Weasley. I know it's driving you mad."
"I'm just fine," Raynea responded, able to detect the doubt in her voice herself.
Malfoy would easily be able to see right through her.
"Yeah, you sound very convinced," he shot back.
Raynea stopped suddenly once they reached the top of the stairs and whipped herself around swiftly to face him.
"Why do you even care, Malfoy?"
"I don't care," he scoffed, "I swear, you really are going mad."
"Maybe you're right. How mad would I have to be to think that you would actually give a damn about me?"
"Exactly," he verified as he raised one eyebrow.
Raynea sighed and shook her head before heading off down an adjacent hallway, this time without Draco Malfoy tagging along after her.
Draco sighed heavily and ran his hand through his hair as he stared after her. It had been the same thing for the past five years. He would taunt Raynea and make her miserable as often as he possibly could, always deriving a sick pleasure out of it. For the first four years he did this purely out of the badness of his heart. However, his fifth year he made a shocking and, in his opinion, revolting discovery. Despite all their differences, despite all the insults they had thrown back at one another, and despite how much he thought he despised her, he had actually developed a sick attraction to her. An attraction he was very keen to act on.
* **
Raynea trudged into the Gryffindor common room, passing by a few of her friends in the vicinity without uttering a simple "hello." She stomped up the narrow staircase, feeling as though each one of her legs was being weighed down by an additional fifty pounds. After entering the sixth year girls' dormitory, Raynea collapsed onto her bed without even bothering to take off her shoes.
Hermione was sitting on neighboring bed with books and papers spread out in a circle around her. She looked up at her collapsed friend and smiled in mild amusement.
"What happened?" she inquired.
"Malfoy," Raynea groaned in frustration.
"Ah, I see," Hermione said as she continued to work on her homework with diligence.
"I swear…that guy pisses me off just by breathing my air. We're going on our sixth year of pure hatred and he still….ugh. Whatever…" Raynea didn't have the strength to continue her rant. It had been a long, eventful day. Just when things seemed to be looking up, something had to bring her down.
"Come on, Raynea. It'll be fine. You just need to find the proper distraction. Spending extra time on your homework tonight would do nicely," Hermione suggested in an effort to help her distraught friend.
Raynea gave Hermione a strange look and sat up briskly.
"I'm annoyed, Hermione. Not certifiable," she stated sarcastically. Hermione rolled her eyes but offered a slight chuckle.
"Why don't you take a work break and come down to the common room with me?" Raynea said, eager to distract herself by spending time with her friends.
Hermione sighed and replied at long last, "Alright, Raynea. I know you've had a rough day so I will take a ten minute break with you."
"Wow…how adventurous of you," Raynea replied with a smirk. Her friend chose to ignore the sarcasm and the two girls headed down to the common room.
When they arrived, a surprise was awaiting Hermione that would cause the crappiness of her day to rival with Raynea's. A sickening display was sprawled out across the couch that the two girls were shocked to see.
Ron was shamelessly snogging Lavender Brown in front of the fire place and fortunately everyone else had cleared out for dinner. However it seemed Lavender and Ron weren't too worried about privacy, as they continued to make out even after Hermione and Raynea had entered the room.
Hermione looked as though she was going to be sick and go to pieces all at the same time. She inhaled heavily before running back up the stairs with Raynea right on her heels. Once they had re-entered their dormitory, Hermione sat down slowly on her bed, careful to turn her face so Raynea wouldn't see she was crying.
"'Mione?" Raynea said cautiously as she approached her friend and sat down on the bed beside her.
Hermione made even more of an effort to keep her face hidden and didn't say anything in reply.
"Hermione?" Raynea repeated, this time more assured. She had a feeling she knew what was going on, but she didn't want to assume.
"Hermione…you don't…have feelings for Ron, do you?"
There was a long pause, so Raynea decided to press further.
"Cause if you did…it would be okay."
She heard a loud sniff and a break in Hermione's breathing as she began to openly sob.
"Aw, 'Mione," Raynea said sympathetically, her heart breaking as she heard her friend weeping.
Hermione's sobs grew louder as she turned to face Raynea. Her face was coated with tears and she looked absolutely devastated. She leaned onto Raynea's shoulder, as Raynea wrapped her arms around her in comfort.
"It's gonna be okay," Raynea said, in an effort to be encouraging.
"Yeah…it will be," Hermione began in a broken voice, "I'm never talking to that prat again!"
"You don't mean that."
"Yes I do," Hermione responded as more tears spilled from her eyes, "I should've seen this coming. They've been noticing each other a lot lately and we all know Lavender will snog at the drop of a hat. I mean, don't you remember how distracted he was at lunch today? It was because of her."
Raynea stayed silent, knowing Hermione was right. She didn't want to offer comfort or advice when it seemed that Hermione didn't want it. She needed a good cry and to be away from everyone for a little while. Hopefully then she would start to feel better.
"I don't know how you handled the news about Harry and Ginny so well this morning…" Hermione said suddenly, shocking Raynea a bit.
It was the first time that she had directly mentioned it all day. Hearing it said out loud made the whole situation seem a lot rougher. Raynea felt the sting of her friend's words, even though the hurt was completely unintentional. She felt her throat start to tighten, but she ignored it. She had to be there for Hermione, no matter how lousy she was feeling at the moment.
***
Hermione's tears stopped once everyone had returned from dinner. She had decided to go to bed early that night, needing a good rest and to avoid Ron and Lavender while the wound was so fresh. Raynea headed down to the common room once she knew Hermione was asleep.
Everyone was spread out among the various chairs and couches throughout the room laughing and having a good time. Raynea felt horrible for Hermione. Everyone else seemed so at ease, while Hermione was stuck upstairs being miserable. Raynea was also unfortunate to catch a glimpse of Harry and Ginny sharing one arm chair, their arms wrapped around one another and their faces nearly touching. Raynea outwardly cringed and looked away. She was looking for a different couple, anyhow. She spotted Ron and Lavender kissing on the same couch, this time less intensely. Raynea rolled her eyes and sighed as she treaded over to them and tapped Ron on the shoulder lightly.
"Ron?" she said firmly to divert his attention from the brown haired girl attached to his face, "Ron?"
She repeated herself after a few seconds went by without a response. Ron detached himself from Lavender and looked up at his friend with a goofy grin.
"Hey Rayne. Whatcha need? I'm kinda busy," he asked in rapid succession.
"We need to talk," she replied forcefully.