Hermione tightened the blankets that had fallen from her shoulders around herself. It was quite late but she still hadn't been able to fall asleep yet. Rolling onto her side, she could see the sparkling stars piercing the night sky, through the hangings that were slightly open. Hermione wished she were young again so she could make a wish on a star and believe it to come true. But she was not a little girl anymore and she knew that would be childish.
It would never work anyway she thought miserable.
She had been telling herself all night that Harry and Ginny were wrong about Ron. He would never kill someone, even if it were someone he loathed. Ron did have a temper, but she refused to believe that he could be so cruel. Fed up with herself for thinking so much about someone who didn't even want to be her friend anymore, Hermione shut her eyes and tried to, finally, get some rest.
Hermione swayed her hips to the beat drunkenly. She tossed her hair and laughed as someone grabbed her arm and swung her around. Silver-blue eyes met brown.
"Draco, what are you doing?" Hermione laughed.
"What I should have done a long time ago," Draco replied before pulling Hermione to him and kissing her swiftly.
"I've wanted to do that for a while. And before its too late," Draco spoke and kissing her.
Hermione looked curiously at Draco, not understanding what he meant by, 'before its too late.'
"Look I don't have a lot of time to explain," Draco started, "Just follow me."
Hermione nodded her head and let Draco lead her away from the ongoing party. He led her up several flights of stairs until stopping in front of a wall. Hermione was about to walk past him when Draco started walking back in forth muttering something under his breath as went. Hermione raised an eyebrow at him before it struck her. The room of requirement! Of course, I almost forgot about it. What a perfect place to talk without having anyone to interrupt you.
After Draco had walked back and forth three times, a door appeared where the wall was. He looked back at Hermione and took a deep breath. Here we go.
Draco opened the door and held it open for Hermione to step through. He then closed the door and turned to see a rather gray room surrounding him. There was long bed by the corner and the only light source came from a few burning candles.
"What the heck were you thinking about Draco?" Hermione asked skeptically eyeing her surroundings, though there wasn't much to look at.
"I just thought about needing somewhere quite to talk," Draco said eyeing the bed with disgust.
Hermione looked in Draco's direction before speaking. "I hope that was the only thing you were thinking about Mr. Malfoy."
Draco shrugged his shoulders and looked sheepishly at Hermione. Hermione rolled her eyes and him and went to the bed and sat down. Draco followed after her and took a deep breath.
Now or never Malfoy, he thought.
"Hermione, I care about you so much and I wouldn't be doing this now if I didn't. So please believe me that when I tell you the truth…about us…that I never meant to hurt you," Draco said softly.
The next few moments were a blur to Hermione. It seemed as if Draco was pouring out his soul to her, but yet, she couldn't hear a thing. After so long Draco stood up and walked to the door. He paused and looked back at Hermione sitting quietly on the bed.
"I'm so sorry Hermione," Draco said before turning the doorknob and stepping out of the room.
Hermione set up in her bed gasping for air. She felt like she had been holding her breath under water for the longest time. Sweat was dripping from her forehead and she felt like she was about to vomit. She threw the covers away from her body as she set up on the edge of her bed. Scenes of her past flew through her mind so fast like a carousel on acid.
Images of her and Draco, of Harry…Ginny…Ron…Blaise…Draco…
Hermione rocked herself back and forth praying for the images to go away and let her be. But they had other ideas. The images sped up even faster and voices rang out inside her head. So loudly that they made her head start to throb. She started to wheeze and fell from the bed to the floor and started to pound her fists onto the ground trying to tell the voices to stop.
"Leave me alone!" Hermione shouted, still pounding at the ground.
Tears ran down her cheeks and she pleaded with her mind to stop tormenting her. Suddenly the images stopped and she was able to breath again. She set up slowly and wiped the stained tears from her cheeks. Thanking the stars for getting rid of the horrible images and voices in her head, she decided she needed to get of her room for a while. She dressed quickly and made her way to the Great Hall, hoping to see Blaise there.
Harry, Ron, and Ginny were already in the Great Hall eating lunch. Harry and Ginny were trying their best to convince Ron that he should forgive Hermione and be friends with her again.
"Ron there's no reason why you shouldn't be friends with Hermione. She never did anything to you," Ginny tried to explain, sending Harry a pleading look to help her.
"Yeah, Ron. Ginny's right. Why can't all of us just be friends again?"
Ron looked at both of them disgustingly not believing that they were trying to make him be friends with her again. And he had every right not to like her after what she had done. Of all the people at Hogwarts she just had to like Draco. If it had been anyone but him Ron might have been okay with it, but she had chosen his and Harry's worst enemy to get friendly with. No, he would never forgive her for that.
"Ron stop being stupid. You're giving a wonderful friendship with an amazing girl. Don't spend the rest of your life hating Hermione for something you think she did. If there is anyone to blame, it's you. You never told her how you felt about her, maybe if you had stopped being so stubborn and told her that you liked her, she would have told you she felt the same way, and you two would be happy together right now. But you didn't do that did you? No. So you're the one that screwed everything up Ronald, not Hermione," Ginny lashed out. She gathered her things and stormed out of the Great Hall not looking back at her brother who was staring, wide-eyed, where she had been sitting.
"She is right you know," Harry said easily not looking at Ron but toward the entrance doors instead.
Hermione walked through the open doors and stopped short looking around. She didn't see any sight of Blaise or Ginny and started to get nervous.
Maybe this was a bad idea.
She was about to walk out when she saw Harry waving her over. She thought better of it since Ron was sitting with him but she managed some courage from deep inside her and marched over to where they set.
She smiled at both of them and greeted them very friendly, like old times. Harry greeted her back, smiling. He then jumped up quickly and made a hasty retreat from his two friends, shouting goodbyes to them and waving with a goofy grin as ran out of the Great Hall.
"Well, this is awkward," Hermione, said before falling silent not knowing what to say to Ron. There were so many things she did want to say but she didn't know how.
"Well..umm..you know this doesn't make us best friends or anything. At most all we can be is acquaintances," Ron said bitterly but with a small smile on his face. He then stood up from his seat at the Gryffindor table, and nodding to Hermione, he made his exit.
Hermione watched him leave, smiling to herself the whole time. Not friends but it's a start.
A/N:I'm back! lol. So sorry it took so long to get this chapter out. School took over my life but its finally summer so I have some time to work on this now and hopefully finish it. I know Ron seems to become friends with Hermione again pretty quickly but don't worry there will be a few minor complications. Please RnR and tell me what you think. See you in the next chapter! Bunnyr
