Author Note: Hi guys, I am so sorry this took so long to get out. Real life was not kind to me after my internship. BUT here is a new chapter. I am now on a three month break from uni, so I may (work pending) have more time to write now. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter.
Chapter Seven
Hermione grumbled as she walked, no as she stalked, to the Great Hall for dinner. She wasn't in the best of moods since she was released from the hospital wing only moments before. She was grateful that she was able to get some form of rest before the nightmare came. Luckily for her Madam Pomfrey was able to wake her up before the man was sighted and she began screaming. However it wasn't easy for the older woman to wake her up, Hermione thrashed as soon as she was touched and once she had even hit the poor woman in the nose. Eventually she was up from her sleep, without screaming for once. Madam Pomfrey checked her over, and made sure that her patient was okay before giving Hermione a clean bill of health. Hermione thanked the nurse and left the hospital wing as quickly as possible.
Hermione had briefly wondered why the nurse had let her sleep, after all head injuries were quite notorious for being unpredictable, even among wizards, and why she was released so early, as the patient needed to be watched for twenty four hours after the injury occurred. Hermione had put it down to the nursing thinking that it was not too serious, and she herself knew that it wouldn't be, after all she had had worse injuries. Her thoughts continued to travel while she made her way through the corridors, eventually settling on Ron and his actions earlier in the day.
Hermione was not at all impressed with the way that her friend had been behaving of late, especially towards any Slytherin who was proven to have been a part of the Death Eaters, however he specifically attack Malfoy in particular and Hermione could understand why. What she couldn't understand though is why he singularly laid all the blame of every death eater on Malfoy. She knew it wasn't healthy for either Malfoy or Ron but there wasn't much that she could do to stop it other then try to prevent any fights that may occur. Try being the key word.
She walked through the doors into the Great Hall and even while lost in her thoughts, she immediately noticed that the vast room quietened down to a noise level only just above a whisper. It seemed that the news of the fight had spread quickly, not that she expected anything else, after all this was Hogwarts. She simply ignored the stares of the people, used to such things happening yet nothing would take away the irritation that came when this happened. She took a seat beside Harry at the Gryffindor table, Ron sat on the opposite side of the table and began to fill her plate for dinner. Harry nudged her lightly in the side and she looked at him, smiling lightly when he gave her a small, yet silly, grin which told her more then words could say, and because of that she smiled back at him before returning to dinner.
She managed to eat all of two mouthfuls before Ron spluttered out an apology, and typical of Ron flying food was involved. Hermione crinkled her nose at the display.
"Ron, please, I have asked you before not to talk when your mouth is full, especially if you are apologising. It doesn't look good at all and it makes it seem as if your apology was a last minute thought and it doesn't look sincere." She scolded the redhead watching him carefully with a disapproving stare as he quickly chewed and swallowed what looked to be a large amount of food.
"Sorry 'Mione." He repeated, this time not spitting his food everywhere. "You know, for this afternoon and for now." Hermione sighed, there was nothing she could really do, she couldn't hold onto the fact that he hurt her as it was an accident and she didn't think that anyone, not even his mother could clean up his eating habits.
"Ron, I forgive you for this afternoon, after all it was an accident. As for the food, well, that I can't really help you with, you just have to learn proper manners. It is simply deplorable how you eat, its like watching a lion devour its prey and not something that anyone wants to see. Even Goyle has better manners then you." She said, putting her cutlery down, and grabbing the glass of pumpkin juice in front of her, taking a small sip and savouring the taste before continuing.
"Ronald, I'm concerned about you, just as much as you are concerned about myself. While we are here I want to address your eating habits for good, since you know what will soon happen." Ron shook his head while stuffing another chicken drumstick in his mouth, chewing quickly and swallowing before answering her.
"Not now, 'Mione, I need to eat." Hermione looked out the corner of her eye and watched as Harry shook his head. She turned to face Harry and addressed him this time, leaving Ron alone to eat.
"Harry, if you are finished may I speak with you please?" Harry nodding in acceptance and the two made their way out of the Great Hall, leaving Ron alone with his food after informing him that they were going back to the common room. They walked silently through the hallways until they were at the moving staircases when Hermione couldn't stand the silence anymore.
"Harry, I need you to look after Ron." She blurted out, wincing as she said the words, she had hoped to ask better then she had.
"Hermione you don't have to...," Harry started but Hermione stopped him before he could finish what he was going to say.
"Harry, please. You know what I said and I will stand by it, I can't stay and you know that." She paused in what she was saying as several students from Gryffindor walked past on their way to the Great Hall, even though dinner was halfway through by now. "You also know how Ron feels about me." Harry stopped in his tracks in the middle of the moving staircase that Hermione had just stepped off.
"How did you find out? He thought that you didn't know." He asked, both forgetting for a moment where they were until the stairway beneath Harry slowly began to move away from the landing. Startled out of his semi-stupor he bolted up the staircase and onto the landing before it was impossible to get off on the landing.
"I may have my head in books all the time Harry, but that doesn't mean that I don't know when someone fancies me. Ron wasn't as secretive as he thought and has made his intentions clear on a couple of occasions, although it was unintentional. But it is because of his infatuation with me that my leaving will hurt him and further plunge him into a deep depression. I need you to not let that happen Harry." She told him, her eyes pleading with the man in front of her.
"How Hermione? When you leave I doubt I will be able to even look after myself." asked Harry, wearily almost as if it were acceptance of defeat, but Hermione knew that Harry had still yet to truly recover from the horrors of the war, and that the knowledge that she would be leaving him had finally done what Voldemort couldn't do. She was on the way to breaking him.
"You can Harry. You are so strong, more then you know. Do not give up. I may not be here in person but I will always, always be here." She placed her hand over his heart. "You and Ron will need each other and you will move on, your strength lies in your friendship with him, your brother. However, I fear that if either of you fall into the darkness of despair then neither of you will survive to see the long years of your life." Hermione wiped away a tear that fell from her eyes and reach out to wipe away his. Their tears combined on her fingers and fell to the ground.
"Hermione..." He whispered as her fingers caressed his cheek.
"Harry. You have to help him where I can't." She said. "I can't watch for much longer as he eats himself to death because of Fred. I don't want to imagine what it would be like when I leave knowing that I can never come back."
"Never?" Hermione gave Harry a look that would break not only his heart but would have broken hers as well if she saw it. Hermione shook her head, tears falling unstopped from her eyes.
"Never." Hermione shook her head even harder, tears falling even faster. It was in this moment that Hermione truly realised that she would never see her friends again and the fact finally hit home hard, almost taking her breath away at the realisation. "Never. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry Harry." She repeated, no more then a whisper before she turned and ran down the corridor and fleeing away from Harry and up to the astronomy tower never knowing that curious grey eyes watched her as she passed by one of the many intersections.
Upon finally reaching the top of the tower she tripped upon the final step and fell to the ground but she did not get up, she only continued to cry because she did not care if she hurt herself, after all what could hurt her more then hurting those she cared about? She cared not that her hands had been shredded upon the uneven stone floor, nor that the cuts upon her knees were filled with tiny stones, nor that she left the door open for anyone who came up to the tower to see her reduced to crying out of grief.
Hermione didn't know how long she lay on the floor of the tower crying and when she looked up she noticed that the sky was black with nightfall with a few stars beginning to awaken from their slumber. She didn't wipe her eyes as she stood back up, nor did she clean the sluggishly bleeding scrapes upon her slowly throbbing hands and knees. She made her way to the edge of the tower and placed her clenched fists upon the battlements, not caring about the blood running between her fingers, nor the pain that lanced up her palms as her fingernails dug into the cuts. She looked at the stars and watched as one by one they appeared in the sky. Many things flittered through her mind, most specially how her friends would cope when she left for good, eventually her thoughts drifted to her uncles, and the anger and contempt that she had always held against them began to surface
"Are you happy?" she asked to the sky, her body shook with anger as she glared at the stars that dared mock her in her sadness. "Is this what you wanted?" Hermione took a deep breath before screaming to the stars. "ARE YOU HAPPY?" Hermione buried her head in her hands, blood covering her face, yet uncaring as it did so, not bothering to wipe off the blood that dripped onto her white shirt. She did not notice that raw magic was beginning to crackle and pulse around her in a bright halo of violent shade of crimson that was stained with the deepest black, her anger clearly visible now to any who dared brave visiting the tower now.
She breathed deeply to try and help control her temper at the stars, no the celestial beings that hid behind the guise of stars. Hermione was able to reign in her temper and the crimson aura dimmed slightly. She looked up at the stars again, looking for a particular star. It was alway hard to see, being as faint of light as it was, although it was never there most of the time, and Hermione was not surprised to see the star in the heavens this night, especially next to the star that it was. Hermione observed that the hidden star was almost next to a star that pulsed in its intensity in a seemingly random pattern. She glared at both stars and who they represented.
"I hate you. I hate you both." She spat, not caring that she sounded insane. After all which sane person talked to stars? The crimson aura of raw magic that once surrounded her returned in a startling shade of blood red. "Do you hear me Hades, I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU, I HATE YOU!"
"It's nice to hear that you hate someone other then myself Granger. Who is this 'Hades' you hate so much? Surely even you must know that the Greek God of the Underworld is not a real being?" Hermione, startled turned to face the person who had spoken and interrupted her tirade. She glared at the figure who was leaning against the wall with an almost calm demeanor, if only they weren't so alert and stiff, as if waiting for an attack. She noticed that they flinched slightly when she glared at them however it was more the sight of her that made the person flinch. Her face, hands and parts of her crumpled white uniform shirt stained with blood giving her the appearance that she had been involved either in a fight or murdered someone, the crimson aura and the wild raw magic whipped around her body, causing her hair to dance around her face, sliding along her cheek almost as if it were caressing the bloodstains lovingly. To see her as she was would frighten even the most seasoned aurors and warriors. She almost looked like a fallen angel set upon revenge, deadly in her beauty.
"Get out of here Malfoy." She hissed at him. "Leave." He didn't move, only smirked.
"Granger, Granger," he patronised her, shaking his head in amusement, yet keeping his eyes on her. "Is that anyway to talk to a prefect?" Hermione crossed her arms across her chest, staining the shirt further, before turning away from the man and back to looking at the sky, her aura still pulsing crimson. Hermione breathed deeply for a few moments trying to reign in her temper before dealing with the next nuisance to plague her. Finally her temper was under more control and the crimson aura that surrounded her disappeared completely.
"Malfoy, don't make me ask you again." She said wearily, not looking back at him.
"You never asked me anything Granger. You tried to order me." He said, somewhat smugly. Hermione tensed slightly, trying to keep her anger in check before gritting her teeth and addressing him again.
"Malfoy, can you get out of here and leave me alone?" She heard him shift on the stones behind her.
"You never said please." Hermione had had enough, she was not going to beg him to leave and she was not going to say please to that ferret. She turned and faced Malfoy, pulling her wand out of its holder and aimed it at the arrogant wizard before her. Malfoy, instantly on guard, immediately stood straighter and did the same. The two stared each other down.
"I will never ever say please to you Malfoy. You do not deserve it." He gave a small laugh.
"That's where you are wrong Granger. You see, there seems to be something that you have forgotten with all that has happened within the last twenty four hours. Do you know what that is?" Hermione didn't answer him, she just kept glaring at him. "You are no longer head girl. In fact you are not even a prefect anymore which means that I am now of superior ranking and can cause you a lot of problems. The first of which is taking points and the second being that I can give you detention for being out after curfew." Hermione noticed that he was grinning at the predicament that she had now found herself in, although she didn't believe that she was in that much trouble anyway.
"You can do that, at least you can try anyway. However, being able to do so and use the privileges of the position doesn't mean that you deserve it, Malfoy. There are standards which a prefect must set and you don't do so." She watched as his smirk slipped a bit and his left eyebrow twitched in mild annoyance. "You don't deserve the position of Prefect, you got that by default." Hermione hardly had anytime to react and throw up a shield charm as a spell came flying towards her.
"Shut up, you stupid mudblood." He hissed at her, firing another spell at her which she deflected with ease this time as she was prepared for it this time. "What do you know?" another spell deflected.
"More then you apparently." She spat, sending a non-verbal spell back at him. "Why in the name of Hades are you attacking me ferret?" Another spell was sent her way at the reminder of his fourth year mishap. She skipped to the side, dodging the spell with ease and it flew over the battlements of the tower. "After all I am just stating the truth. There were no Slytherin males who could take the position of prefect, and since you had already been one before, you were the default choice." Malfoy glared at her and sent another spell her way which she easily blocked.
"Quiet Mudblood." He spat, his anger nearly as palatable as her had been only minutes before he sent another spell at her, this time it was a streak of crimson which she managed to avoid by ducking. Hermione frowned at him, once it registered what curse he had tried to hit her with.
"Expelliarmus! Levicorpus!" Hermione yelled, her spells, fueled by the simmering anger that she still contained, managed to disarm and flip Malfoy upside down with astonishing speed as the spells hit him square in the chest one after the other. Hermione kept her wand pointed at Malfoy and she slowly stalked towards him, her eyes promising death if he even moved or spoke. Malfoy noticed the gleam in her eye as being deathly serious and stopped struggling to be freed from his upside prison.
"Listen well, I shall only say this once." She commanded and through the haze of anger she noticed as Malfoy gulped audibly. Hermione placed her wand back in it's holder for safe keeping. Unknown to her the crimson aura had returned making her appear more ethereal and otherworldly, yet in a dangerous way. "Never attack me again, you will lose." Malfoy snorted in protest quietly, yet she still heard him, her eyes narrowed in response. Hermione purposely allowed her magical defences to drop and the raw magic picked up around her again, beginning to smother Malfoy with the sheer intensity of her power. Her eyes glazed over and her voice gained an echo-like quality to it and to all outward appearances she was in a trance and no longer in control of her actions, however the opposite was actually true. Hermione was in full control.
"I hold more power in my little toe then you ever will Malfoy and this is but a taste of the power I can unleash upon an individual. As I have told you before there are beings out there who are more terrifying then the Dark Lord, beings who make even the strongest scream in the night because of fear." Her magic withdrew back into her body releasing Malfoy from the spell that were binding him. As the levicorpus was released, he fell to the floor near the centre of the tower and landed upon his back, knocking his head upon the flagstones and forced the air to be expelled from his lungs. Hermione walked over and stood next to the deeply breathing man. She placed her foot upon his chest.
"I warned you once about curiosity. Now I warn you again. Go no further. Do not try to taunt me, do not even try to acknowledge whatever information you have learnt." She pressed her foot harder onto his chest, giving as small half smile of satisfaction when she felt him shift beneath her foot to try and escape the ever increasing pressure. "Next time, I will take your memories, and it won't just be the memories of information you learnt, I will take everything from you and leave you with nothing. I will strip your mind until it is naked and exposed and have your memories of the war given to the Ministry. You will be left with nothing. You will be nothing more then just an empty shell, void of all life. The prisoners in Azkaban who have received the Kiss will be more animated and more alive then when I am through with you. Understood?" she asked the pale man beneath her. There was a moment silence as she waited for him to answer, until at last he spoke, but not the words she was expecting.
"You know I can see your knickers from down here." He said, laughter clearly evident in his voice. Hermione growled and pressed her foot harder into his chest, feeling his ribs beginning to protest from the pressure. "Alright!" he almost yelled in panic, not wanting his ribs to be broken, they were already going to be bruised in the morning. "Alright, I get it. I ask again, no more memories. Now get your bloody foot off my chest, you bitch."
Hermione glared at Malfoy making sure he was sincere in his promise and once she had determined that he would be, at least for now, she removed her foot and made her way to the doorway. She heard as Malfoy shifted around behind her. Hermione paused on her way out the door, she turned to face him. She noticed that he had lifted himself up off the ground and shifted so he sat with his back leaning on the wall trying to catch his breath.
"Oh, and Malfoy?" He looked up and glared at her, his hand absentmindedly rubbing at his chest where she had half stood on him. Hermione however was not at all bothered by the glare he sent her and she looked him dead in the eyes. "You are never, ever going to see my underwear again." And without pulling out her wand she cast upon him one more spell before turning and heading out of the tower, not even waiting to hear him fall unconscious, the words echoing around the almost abandoned tower.
"Obliviate."
