Ron and Harry were making their way to the Gryffindor Common Room. They both stopped in front of the Fat Lady.
"I think Hermione's hanging out on one of the towers again" Ron said to Harry, "I'm gonna go look for her. See you later", Ron added. With that statement, he turned around and exited the corridor. Harry looked after him. He told the Fat Lady the password and ran into the common room. He climbed the steps to the dorm in full speed to retrieve his Invisibility Cloak.
***
Ron was
climbing the steps of the Astronomy Tower. He was hoping to surprise
Hermione by sneaking up behind her. He reached the top of the steps
and wasn't surprised to see the door open. Hermione was
right
their leaning against the tower and looking up at the sky. Ron
quietly stepped right behind her and grabbed her waist. Hermione was
so surprised that she turned around and landed a slap right on Ron's
cheek. Ron stumbled backwards.
"What was that for" he asked her laughing as he stood up again.
"I'm so sorry" Hermione said sarcastically as she turned her back at him again, grinning.
Ron came up behind her and hugged her from the back and started landing kisses on her knew that times like this were rare and he wanted to enjoy every minute of it. Hermione let him for a moment before she turned around and wrapped her arms around his waist. She then looked him in the eyes. He could see his own reflection on her eyes. He slowly placed his hand against her neck. He could fell Hermione's pulse through his hand which was beating fast and hard. She was slowly bringing her face close to his. Ron did the same to her and their lips met. He could fell Hermione's pulse raise as he kissed her. It was a beautiful moment for both them. However, they didn't know they were being watched.
Harry was on the same tower a few feet away under his invisibility cloak. He was starting to feel hopeless. How could he get to Hermione if Ron and Hermione loved each other so much. He continued watching the scene. Harry had become a stalker.
****
Draco was on
top of the Astronomy Tower at Hogwarts. It was a cold, misty night.
The rest of the school was in the Great Hall having dinner, but Draco
wasn't hungry. Draco was lost. He didn't care about life anymore, not
after what he had just faced. He was sitting in in the middle of the
tower, under the stars, thinking about what he should do. He didn't
want to be in Hogwarts anymore. He expected to enjoy the company of
people in Hogwarts, but they were just making everything worse. He
didn't care about living anymore, he would rather die than live. The
more he thought about the past events of today, the more he felt like
killing himself : "Hey you" the skinny on said to
him,rudely. Draco could see them looking at him from the reflection
of his mirror. "Yes", Draco said turning
around. "Aren't you that son of a *****. " the big
kid said. Draco tried his best to not react to that. He wanted to
make friends not enemies. "I'm Draco" Draco answered
kindly raising his hand. It was no like himself to be this
kind. "Shuttup" the other two said at the same time.
Both of them had drew out their wands. "Your father
killed my father" the skinny one said angrily. Draco stood quite
still. "I'm very sorry for all the things my father had
done" Draco said quietly, "but it isn't my
fault" "Shuttup" "Please listen to
me fo- "Shuttup" the big one repeated. Then without
warning he yelled, "Crucio"
It had happened this morning when he was
getting washed for the day. He had just finished taking a shower and
getting dressed. He was drying his hair with his wand when 2 other
guys had walked into the bathroom. Draco had barely taken notice of
them. One of them was rather skinny, while the other was a muscular
and buff.
***
Hermione was climbing the steps up to the Astronomy Tower with her school bag. She wanted to do her homework up on the Astronomy Tower tonight. She changed her mind as she stepped onto the tower. It was way too foggy. She couldn't see anything within 10 feet of herself. However, she could still see a kid standing on the ledge of the tower, looking down. He had blond hair.
***
Draco took a deep breathe, and got ready to jump. He was shaking even more violently than before. He closed his eyes and crouched down to jump. Well, this is it Draco, he said to himself. HE could feel tears streaming down his face. Then suddenly someone enclosed a warm hand into his cold one. Draco suddenly felt very warm, but not a bit relaxed.
"Draco" a quiet voice said to him. Draco opened his eyes to find himself in crouching position.
"It isn't worth it" the same quiet voice said to him again. Draco started crying even harder.
"I-I have no-nothing left" he sobbed. He let all of his feelings crash down onto him and began sobbing.
The soft hand pulled and Draco followed its command. He stepped out of the ledge, looking away from the person. He already knew who it was. It was Hermione. It was the Hermione he had been so mean to for so many years, yet she still saved him from himself.
"You could always start over" Hermione said looking at the back of Draco's head.
"I can't" Draco said quietly.
"Do you think your father has ruined your whole life" Hermione said, still grasping his hand. "Don't listen to anyone. This isn't worth killing yourself"
"How do you know that I'm doing this because of my father" Draco asked, calming down a little.
"I don't" Hermione answered, "I guessed."
Draco stared down, thinking hard. He wanted to jump bute he couldn't, beacuse Hermione made sense. It isn't worth it. He jumped back onto the tower platform and turned towards Hermione, the girl he gave misery too for the last 8 years, and yet here she was saving him. Her beatiful face stared back, she seemed calm but Draco knew she was worrying about him at the moment.
"I'm sorry Hermione" Draco said. "I'm sorry for being mean to you for all these years. You are right, it isn't worth it. Thank you"
Hermione finally let go of his hand. "You're welcome"
Harry was in bed. He was fighting with himself through his thoughts.
I can't betray Ron's trust.
Yes you can, you love her and you need her.No, I must not. Ron-
Screw Ron.Harry had finally made his decision. He needs Hermione, he needs her more than keeping a freindship with Ron. He was right, screw Ron. But the question was how. How in the world was Harry going to get to her with her going out with Ron. Three ideas came to his mind. All of them seemed cruel and inhumane to him, but if this was the price to get Hermione , then it would be worth it. His first idea was to kill Ron, or wipe him out of Hermione's life. But he quickly drove that one out, it was quite unneccesary to take a freind's life. His second idea was to get them to break up, but this seemed impossible. Harry, and probably everybody else, knew the only way they would break up is if one of them dies. They were meant to love each other till the end. The third and final idea Harry had was to love Hermione in secret. Out if Ron's, and everyone else's, eyes. This seemed possible, but only settled with this idea and pondered over it. How ? How was this going to made possible. He thought hard for a while and finally fell asleep.
A crack of sunlight hit Hermione's empty bed in the girl's dormitory. The sheets were all well done and Crookshanks was crawled up on top of Hermione's bed. The rest of the girls were still sleeping. Slowly the room became totally engulfed in sunlight and Hermione was finally visible near the exit. She was already dressed and up before the whole school and was planning to get a little homework done in the common room. She picked up her school bag and opened the door. She could hear some movement down in the common room. Wonder who that could be, she thought before descending down the steps. When she got down she saw Harry moving around and kicking things. He seemed to be angry at himself, or he seemed to be thinking hard. It was the same look he had when she caught him staring at her in the Hogwarts Express.
Hermione slowly ascended the stairs again. She didn't want to be down there at the moment. Actually she didn't want to be near Harry at all. Something was up, and she knew. She knew it was something to do with something that could possibly jeopardize her and Ron's relationship. She opened the door to the girls dorm and quickly hid under her blankets, a little scared. When she thought it was safe again, she left for first period, skipping breakfast because she didn't want to see Harry.
***
Draco was doodling mindlessly on his sheet of parchment during his Defense Against the Dark Arts Class. The professor the school had hired this year was so boring. Cyclic was his name.
"MR. MALFOY" Cyclic called from the front of the room.
"Yes sir" Malfoy answered rudely drawing his attention away from his doodles.
"Pay Attention or I will assign you a detention" Cyclic said quietly with a frown.
Malfoy looked down. He really didn't need this class. It was like a waste of time. If anyone in this school knew about the Dark Arts it was him. He yawned loudly and resumed doodling in his piece of parchment. He had no idea what he was doodling but when he looked back down at his paper he saw random wavy lines and a hippogriff. He also noticed something that made his hair stand up. He had, in multiple areas on the parchment, wrote out "Hermione" in an untidy scrawl. He didn't even know if he did it on purpose or on accident. But what could have possibly made him involuntarily write Hermione on his paper. Am I in love, he asked himself. He took a moment to think about Hermione: she is pretty. No, she is beyond pretty. Its a beauty that can't be put in words.
He immediately stopped thinking. He was in love and he knew it. So what, he thought, I'll just ignore my feeling for her. He had no idea how hard that was about to become.
***
"Harry, we need to talk"
Harry turned around to see Ginny standing behind him, with a worried look on her face. They were both in the common room alone during their break.
"Yeah, what" he answered her sulkily.
"What had gotten into you. What about us ? Don't you love me anymore" Ginny asked in a quick whisper.
Harry looked at her and thought about lying to her and saying that he did still love her, but he needed some time alone. Then he thought better of it and gave her the truth as kindly as he could.
"Ginny", he started, "We've had some
good times together but-"
He stopped as Ginny took a quick
gasp. Harry didn't have to say more. He already knew that Ginny
knew.
"Listen, I'm sorry" he said desperately, "but I don't think this is gonna work out"
Ginny looked hurt, she looked more than hurt actually. She was heartbroken, but she didn't show it. She just quietly walked out of the common room leaving Harry rooted on the spot.