"A Love in Reverse"
by: S. Schumaker
Rated MA: for sexual themes, content, and adult language.
Please don't read this if you are under 17 years old.
(AN: Well my fellow readers . . . if you've been paying attention you'll notice that this story has way more chapters and is tons further along than the others I have posted up here on ! Know why? Because of all you readers! Plus, I really do enjoy this story a lot! Anyway, this chapter is the breaking of the trio. Each view will be represented and well, I'm going to torture these characters a little. Up for tagging along?)
Chapter Seven – Collisions
"Mr. Longbottom!" A slam from the professor's wand contacting the desk startled Harry out of his trance. He lifted his gaze up off the desk, bringing his focus back to his transfiguration class. He always seemed to have a hard time getting back in school-mode after the holiday break, but this year it seemed even harder. Glancing next to him, he watched as Professor McGonagall yelled at Neville about his current spell casting. Even that couldn't keep his mind focused.
Turning slightly in his seat, he glanced back behind him, his eyes landing on Hermione. She was busy turning her desk into a pig and didn't seem to notice his gaze on her. As Harry watched her, he wondered how she could stay focused, but then again this was Hermione. Harry turned back around, only to turn the opposite way, toward Ron. Ron, however, seemed just as distracted as Harry was, his gaze locked in an intense glare toward him. As Harry looked at Ron, he could literally feel the hatred Ron held for him. But, really, Harry couldn't blame the guy for his feelings. Harry turned back around to the front of the room quickly, believing his friendship with Ron to be doomed.
Later that day, as Harry sat alone in the Great Hall, barely munching on his lunch, Fred and George Weasley came crashing down next to him. "Hiya, Harry!" George greeted. Fred simply waved a hand in his direction before grabbing a handful of Harry's lunch and swallowing it down.
"Hi guys." Harry answered quietly, not really feeling up to talking to either of them.
"So, we were hoping that you would explain something for us." Fred finally said, slapping his arm down over Harry's shoulders.
"Oh?" Harry asked, looking at the twins strangely. He definitely wasn't going to be trying one of their new products or candies that was for sure!
"Yeah, well, you see, we asked Hermione and Ron, but both of them just flushed up and ran away from us, but you. We know that you're a bit braver than the two of them." George continued, leaning over the table to get closer to Harry.
"Anyway, what's going on with the three of you? The infamous trio hasn't been seen together since the party the other night. What happened? Did you get into a big fight or something?" Fred wondered, looking at Harry with gossipy eyes.
Harry instantly stood. He couldn't talk about this, and certainly not with Ron's older brothers. If they ever found out, they'd probably come after him eager for revenge in the sake of their kin. "Uh, we're not fighting . . . it's nothing. We just have a lot of homework to catch up on and we haven't had a chance to hang. That's all." Harry croaked out, his lies blatantly obvious to the two boys. "I've gotta run. Catch up with you guys later." Harry grabbed his books and bolted out of the Great Hall, his lunch left forgotten on the table.
As Harry pulled the large doors of the Great Hall open, and ran through them, he ran straight into something and was pushed back onto the floor. His own body's inertia enough to push him off his own two feet. Harry groaned slightly on the floor, the hard surface beneath him making his body ache with the collision. "I'm really sorry. I wasn't paying atten-" Harry glanced up at whom he had collided, only to be staring into the deep brown eyes of Hermione.
A sudden flash of her nakedness ran over his eyes, causing a deep desire to fill him up. He could almost feel himself getting harder as she roamed her eyes over his face. How he longed to grab her, pulling her on top of him and ravishing her right then and there, but she backed away long before he could connect his thoughts to the actions. Whatever the reason was behind his new found attraction for the girl, he didn't want it to disappear. He was shocked that he had never taken steps in that direction before, she was quite beautiful.
As he sat on the floor, his mind wandered over what feelings he had of her. He knew it was stronger than mere friendship now. No friendship he had ever had before caused such lust to fill him, such excitement. But, what he felt for Hermione were still slightly out of reach for him.
As she stood above him, blushing at their contact. She stuttered to herself slightly before rushing past the still fallen Harry into the Great Hall. She simply couldn't face him. All day long she had been making herself concentrate on her school work and it was actually going quite well, but now that she didn't have a lecture to be listening to or a spell to cast, she found herself knocked off her guard and with only an uncomfortable feeling in her path.
She sighed loudly as she slumped down in a chair inside the Great Hall, pulling out a book, hoping for another distraction to her confused feelings. As she began reading the pages, she couldn't help but think over what had just happened in the hallway, and why that awkwardness was there in the first place. Why was she so drawn to Harry in the library yesterday? What would make her do something like that? She couldn't believe that it was simply a lust-driven event because she had never lusted over Harry like that before . . . at least, not that she'd known of.
She violently shook her head. Repositioning herself over the book below her, trying to get some reading done before her next class. But, after only five minutes of her intense conversation, she was once again distracted by some shouting by a group of boys near her. She lifted her gaze, slightly annoyed at the teenagers. She glanced around the room briefly before spotting the Weasley twins harassing another boy. She smiled to herself, before standing up to help save the poor boy from the torture.
As she moved a little closer, pieces of their conversation were loud enough for her to hear clearly.
"Knock it off, George, Fred. I don't want to get into it with you. Really!" The tortured boy shouted out.
"Oh come off your high horse and share. It's not like we won't find out about it eventually anyway, you know?" George replied, as Hermione moved ever closer to the group.
"He's right, you know? We Weasley's discover everything that goes on in this castle. So spill it!" Fred continued, scooting closer to the boy before him.
"All right already. I'll tell you! Geez!" The boy said with a huff, his annoyance clearly evident to Hermione. She moved a little faster, hoping to help out the boy before he spilled the secret he seemed to be trying to hide.
"Now George, now Fred. That's enough don't you think. Quit torturing this poor boy-" Hermione stopped short of her speech when her eyes landed on whom the Twins were harassing. It was none other than their younger brother Ron. Hermione gasped deeply, taking a step back. She couldn't help but feel really sad and hurt all over again. Ron's words came crashing back to her.
"Do you really want to be the whore that gave herself to the famous Potter, the boy who lived? ... I cannot believe that you would be so shameless, throwing your clothes off at the snap of Harry's finger. He really has turned you into a slut, hasn't he?"
Hermione could feel the tears well up in her eyes all over again. She turned from the table quickly.
"Hermione! Please wait! Can we talk?" Ron shouted out, standing up at the table, holding a hand out to her. Hermione could only shake her head, before she raced back to her own table, grabbed her book and bolted out of the Great Hall. She simply wasn't ready to face either of her best friends.
George cleared his throat below him, a slight smile twinging at the edge of his lips. "Want to tell us what that was all about?"
Ron simply sat back down in his seat, feeling absolutely terrible. What he had said to Hermione last night was simply unforgivable. He knew that, it's just his overactive temper got the best of him. As he laid his head down on the table, he thought about how he could make it up to Hermione. How he could show her how sorry he was . . .
When nothing came to mind and his brothers pestering got tiresome, he stood from the table and also walked out of the Great Hall. He walked up and down the halls of Hogwarts, his mind ever playing what he saw in the library the day before. An extreme hatred for Harry flared up, and in an instant was replaced by a severe guilt toward Hermione, only to soon be replaced by that angry again. It was a terrible cycle in his brain that wouldn't allow him to concentrate on anything else.
After walking for another minute or so, he found the ex-best friend that fueled his anger sitting in a window sill. As Ron's temper flared up again, he couldn't help but notice the sad expression on Harry's face. But, as all hot-tempered individuals are, Ron pushed that thought from his mind, and walked up to him with his fists clenched and his anger burning.
"Hey!" Ron yelled out, shoving Harry slightly. Harry, startled out of his thoughts, turned to face the voice. Ron's glare burned into Harry's eyes and all Harry felt he could do was jump down from the window and back away from him slowly.
"I'm challenging you. Right here, right now." Ron spoke. His ears tinting red from his hatred.
"Challenging me? What do you mean?" Harry asked, his hands getting sweaty with nervousness. He knew Ron's temper well and had never seen it flaring up quite like it was at that moment. Harry took another step back, fear rising inside of him.
"To a duel. May the best wizard win." Ron answered, taking a stance with his wand pointed toward Harry.
"Wait a minute!" Harry held up his hands in defense. "Let's just talk about this. You don't want to hurt me; at least I hope you don't."
"Hurt you? Of course I do. You betrayed me in the worst possible way. I can never forgive you!" Ron shouted, his wand shaking due to his quivering hands.
"Listen, I never meant to hurt you. None of this was supposed to happen. I don't know why it happened, but we all just need to calm down and talk through this." Harry tried to mediate, taking another step back.
"No talking! Just dueling!" Ron shouted out before sending a powerful spell toward Harry. Harry went flying backwards into a table holding a breast statue of some famous wizard before him. It came crashing down to the floor, making a great noise and alerting the fellow students around them of what was occurring.
Harry slowly rose from the floor, dusting off his robes. He reached around him, grabbing his wand and holding it out toward Ron. "If this is what you want, I have no choice but to fight you." Harry sent his own spell toward Ron, watching as he too flew backwards and landed hard on the floor. A group of students gathered around the duel, watching intently and wondering what started it up between the two good friends.
Ron quickly retaliated, but his spell flew past a sidestepping Harry. The two battled it out, moving along the hallway as each kept firing spell after spell, and dodged them in return. The onlookers began to grow as the students coming from lunch made their way through the hallway. More and more people began surrounding the two duelers and neither noticed the crowd forming as their screams and hateful words kept flying.
"How could you do this to me? And with her? Does neither of us mean anything to you, Potter?" Ron threw a stunning charm after his opponent, watching it bounce off a wall and mistakenly hit a first-year in the crowd.
"You are insane! I never meant to hurt you or her for that matter!" Harry dodged another attack, shooting off some sparks toward Ron. He swiveled around a coat of arms, aiming at Harry behind it.
"Then why'd you do this? You certainly weren't thinking of my best interests up in the library!" The back and forth attacks continued on past a seemingly empty classroom. "She's not just another notch you can add to your bedpost! Hermione is better than that! All you did was treat her like a slut!"
Harry muttered a curse, screaming out words he barely recognized: "I would never think, act, or treat her like one! I'm sorry that this hurt you… but… but I'M IN LOVE WITH HER!" The words echoed down the hallway and up the large staircase full of watchful students. Harry didn't even realize what he'd said, but took Ron's hesitation as a chance for one final spell. "Expelliarmus!" Ron's wand flew out of his hand and landed softly in his own.
Harry's breath was quick from the duel and as he attempted to slow his beating chest, he realized where he was and what he'd just said. Looking around him, he saw Ron's stunned expression along with about a third of the student populations. His eyes roamed the crowd even further, unsure what to do or say. His eyes landed on the doorway to that empty classroom they had just passed only to see the one face he couldn't face. Hermione's. She looked just as flabbergasted as the rest of the crowd at Harry's words only this was the one person that truly mattered to him. The one face he needed relief in.
Her legs seemed to turn to jelly as his words "I'm in love with her" kept replaying over and over in her mind. She slowly began sliding down the door frame until her knees hit the floor. What on Earth had she just heard? Was this true? She couldn't believe her ears, but as she noticed the shocked faces around her, she knew that what she thought she heard was real. Looking around the crowd, her face flared up in embarrassment. This was not where she wanted to talk about this. She grabbed her fallen book bag and raced past the crowd. Bumping into both Harry and Ron on her hasty retreat.
"Hermione!" Harry and Ron both screamed in unison behind her. Both too stunned at what had previously transpired to follow her. Once she had disappeared down another hallway, Ron and Harry turned back to each other. Unsure how to handle the aftermath of the duel, they each simply turned away from each other and broke through the crowd of students as they departed with more confusion that what they had started with.
To Be Continued . . .
(AN: It's taken me nearly five years to update this and I do sincerely apologize for that. It's taken me a long time to figure out just where I wanted this story to go and not rush myself in the process. I hope you like the changes that were made to this chapter. Please let me know if reviews what you think and expect new and further updates soon! Thanks so much!)
