A/N : hey, another chapter for you guys! 'coz I luv u! (and this is my day off and I'm procrastinating on studying). Bit of drama in this chap too…
Hope you like it!
Big, slurpy kiss!
Disclaimer : would you even believe if I said that I owned HP? Well then…
He paused, staring at the cold, dark floor, then turned around and disappeared into the shadows, even before she could say anything else to him.
Chapter Seven :
Hermione sighed and buried her face in her hands. She felt a burning in her throat and struggled to keep her emotions under check. She checked the time on her wristwatch. There was still some time until the patrol ended. But she felt drained and thought better to give her mind some rest.
So she straightened up and headed to the dorm, her feet carrying her of their on accord and her mind swirling with thoughts and emotions.
She didn't find Malfoy anywhere in the dorm. She lay on her bed. Crookshanks was nowhere to be seen either. She closed her eyes, thinking about Malfoy and his mother, for she realized that the form of the woman that the Boggart had taken was none other than Narcissa Malfoy. She shuddered involuntarily as she remembered her hollow, dead eyes. Malfoy's greatest fear was his mother turning into an inferi. She suddenly felt a pang of pity, for the first time in the years she had known him, for Malfoy. No one should have to fear such a horrific fate for their mother, she thought sadly.
Hermione felt sad for him and imagined him skulking through dark corridors and picturing his mother's lifeless face again and again.
She turned onto her side and brought her knees upto her chest, hugging them with her arms and sighed sadly again, before slipping into sleep filled with nightmares about dead, cold hands and a certain red head laughing cruelly.
She woke up the next morning, feeling more tired than ever due to her disturbed sleep. She sat up and swung her legs down by the side of her bed. She had left the door open last night and could see that Malfoy's door was ajar as well, which meant that he hadn't returned to the dorm the previous night. She breathed out heavily and stood up. She was in a dilemma about speaking with him about last night's incident, but that would mean bringing up her Boggart as well, and she was not ready to discuss with Malfoy of all the people about the matter.
She sighed again then dressed and headed for breakfast.
Being a Sunday, there were only a few early risers digging into their breakfast lazily. Hermione looked around and was surprised to find Malfoy sitting at his Slytherin table, he had shadows under his eyes and seemed paler than usual. He was dully playing with his food.
Hermione had half a mind to go and talk to him, but decided against it and sat down at the Gryffindor table instead. She buttered her toast, occasionally glancing at the morose blond, who was still staring down into his breakfast.
"Hi Hermione!"
She turned around quickly to find a sleepy looking Ginny yawning at her.
"Good Morning, Gin," Hermione smiled at the red head taking the seat beside her. "You're up early today?"
Ginny just shrugged, reaching for a toast. Sensing something wrong, Hermione frowned at her.
Ginny looked up in the process of applying copious amounts of jam to her toast and caught Hermione looking at her questioningly. She put down her toast and sighed.
"OK", she said, "I broke up with Dean last night."
"What! But why?" Hermione asked, her eyes widening.
Ginny shrugged again. "He caught me speaking with Michael Corner yesterday and went ballistic, even though I tried to tell him that nothing was going on", she explained, "and anyway, I always thought it'd never work between us, in the end I just got tired of it all and dumped him," she said picking up her toast and taking a small bite. "Ron would be happy," she noted quietly.
Hermione patted her arm sympathetically.
"Ron wouldn't be the only one to be happy," she said giving her a meaningful smile.
Ginny appeared not to listen to her, although her blush gave her away.
"Anyway", she said after a while. "I'd better go and get ready. I promised Luna, we'd work together on the Transfiguration essay in the library today," she said standing up.
Hermione nodded as she watched her leave the Hall. Her eyes immediately fell on Malfoy, who had got up from the table and was walking morosely out and the absence of his usual i-own-the-whole-bloody-world strut was odd to say the least.
She sat indecisively, her fingers drumming on the table. She stood up abruptly before she lost nerve, and made up her mind to after him. She hurried to the doors from which he had disappeared.
Just as she stepped onto the threshold, she bumped into someone.
"Ouch! Watch where you're going, will you?"
"S-sorry!" she said disentangling herself from the fallen body.
"Hermione?" the voice sounded surprised.
"Ron?!" she exclaimed straightening herself.
"Where are you off to in such a hurry?"
"Oh…um..," she said staring at him, it was disconcerting seeing him after what happened last night. "..forgot something..um..in the library", she said looking away, "so – so where's Harry?" she asked not seeing him around.
"Oh, Harry said he had some work to do in the library," Ron shrugged.
This made Hermione raise her brows, since when had Harry done homework early on a Sunday morning and that too after the first week!
Ron clearly was not disturbed by this, "'K then, I'd better go and eat," he said nodding towards the Great Hall.
"Yeah, see you later," she called watching him go inside.
She hurried forward, but Malfoy had long since disappeared. She tried a few empty classrooms along the way, but there was no sign of the blond. Sighing, she thought she might as well go the library herself.
She saw Ginny and Luna sitting at a table working on their essays, atleast Ginny seemed to be working – Luna was humming to herself and watching the dust patterns in the ray of light from the window, enthralled.
Hermione found Harry a couple of shelves away, buried in a large book.
"'Quidditch through the Ages' again?" Hermione asked raising her eyebrow, reading the title of the book. "I thought Ron said you were working?"
"er… I got bored," he said in a small voice, slightly cowering from her. She sat beside him looking a bit patronizing.
She took the Potions' book lying ignored next to him and started working on her essay. He took the cue and reluctantly started on his as well.
After sometime, she noticed him looking distractedly over her shoulder. Frowning, she peered around the book shelf behind her, a mane of red hair caught her eye and she smiled to herself.
"You know Harry", she said quietly, having caught him looking again, "she broke up with Dean yesterday."
"Wha..? What are you talking about?" he said quickly bending down to his book.
Hermione stared severely at him.
Harry sighed and looked up to face her. "Yeah, I heard Dean telling Seamus last night," he said looking abashed.
"You know you can ask her out now. She's been waiting for that for ages."
Harry didn't answer but returned to his book blushing furiously. She smiled at this.
"By the way, there's a Hogsmeade visit the weekend next," she said continuing to write on her roll of parchment.
"Just saying!" she added mischievously when he looked questioningly at her.
Having finished the Potions' essay atlast, Hermione was happy and agreed at once when Ron suggested that they visit Hagrid, at lunch.
So with their pockets heavy with Hagrid's notorious rock cakes, they returned to the castle for dinner.
She went back to the dorm, looking at her watch anxiously. She hoped Malfoy would show up before patrol time began. She had no idea of what she would say to him, or indeed if he had any inclination to listen to what she had to say, but knew she had to try – if not for anything but to ease her own mind. Time went by, but still no sign of Malfoy. Disappointed, she headed out, this meant that she had to hunt for him in the dark corridors.
But the elusive blond was nowhere to be seen. Feeling a bit glum, Hermione proceeded to do the patrol alone. She was heading down a hallway, when she heard a series of bangs from somewhere at the end of the corridor and paused. deja vu did you say? She took her wand out and waited, the bangs grew louder and suddenly she heard a high pitched cackle. She ducked just in time into a nearby classroom, as Peeves swooshed around laughing hysterically at some mischief he had apparently caused. Closing the door quietly behind her, she pressed her ear to the door, Peeves seemed to be bouncing along the corridor.
Deciding to take refuge in the classroom until danger had passed, she turned around and gasped – "Malfoy!"
OoOoOoO
A/N: oh, God! I'm having serious doubts about my writing skills and to be honest was not much satisfied with chapter. What do you think?
Anywaz m'love, review.
