Harry Potter and the Torrid Affair

Chapter 9: A Longer Shelf Life Than Normal

Harry walked into the Common Room, and everyone inside was standing against the walls, looking at him. He smiled nervously and said hello, and everyone else waved back at him.

"Umm…" Harry said, "do you know where—?" Everyone pointed to the girl's dormitory staircase.

"Damn," Harry muttered to himself. "Well, um…could someone go get her?" The other students began to murmur, except for one.

"I'll get her," Parvati said, and without another word she strode up the staircase. Harry breathed a sigh of relief, but then was annoyed with the other students still staring at him.

"Not to be rude," he said, "but don't you all have better things to do?" The students quickly occupied themselves with homework, Gobstones, and whatever else they were doing before. A short time later, Parvati came back down with an irate Hermione. When she saw Harry, she dragged him back out of the Common Room.

"Thank God," she said, giving him a hug, "I need someone to vent at."

"Great…" Harry said, fearing an onslaught of passionate anger only Hermione could summon.

"He's such an ass," she said, already warming up.

"Hermione, you might want to start from the beginning," Harry said. Forcing her to collect her thoughts seemed to cool off her anger. When she had her story settled, she told Harry what had happened in the past five minutes. This is what she said.

So I'm sitting in the Common Room, doing my homework, minding my own business, when Ron walks over and says he needs to talk to me. I tried to ignore him, but he kept pestering me, so I put my homework off to the side and told him to make it quick.

"Hermione," he said, "I know I acted like an ass the other day and said I didn't want to be your friend, but I'm desperate."

"Desperate?" I asked him, "desperate for what?"

"It's just…I'm struggling badly with my homework, and I never realized before how much I needed your help."

"Great, so now I have to be your tutor? After everything you said to me, now you want my help? Well, you can forget it. I'm not going to let you treat me like garbage anymore."

Then the little prat started to whimper, as if that would make me change my mind.

"Please," he said, "if you don't help me I'm going to flunk out."

"That'll have to be your natural consequence," I told him, "Maybe you'll learn to treat your friends like human beings."

"Damn it, Hermione, I'm trying to make amends here."

"No you're not! You're just trying to use me again! Is that how it's always been? Have you always just pretended to be my friend so you could get by in school?"

By this point we were attracting a lot of stares from the other students, but neither of us cared.

"It's not like that at all. Don't try to make me out as the bad guy. You're just as guilty as I am."

"Right, because I actually had the nerve to stand up for myself whenever you've acted like a git! I've helped you for years, Ron, and I've gotten nothing in return. You tell me who's the bad guy here."

"God, you're a piece of work. I've helped you loads of times before."

"No you haven't! You were always the one who put me down! The Society for the Protection of Elfish Welfare—"

"What, spew? That was a dumb idea and you knew it."

"See? That's how it's always been with you! Putting me down, insulting me, making wiseass remarks, and I'm supposed to tolerate that? No, that's why we aren't friends anymore, Ron. That's why there's no WAY I'm helping you with your work."

"Give it a rest, Hermione. You're just jealous I'm locking lips with Lavender instead of you!" We now had an audience, and they started to mutter at that comment.

"Get over yourself! This isn't about her at all!"

"Yes it is, Hermione. And trust me, if you act like this with every guy you like, you're never going to get laid."

That was the last straw. I drew back my arm and smacked Ron as hard as I could, then stormed up to my room without looking back. I think the Common Room was dead silent for a good two minutes after I left.

"Hermione," Harry said, "I'm so sorry."

"Forget it, it's over now. Can we go to the library to study? I don't want to go back in there and see him."

"Absolutely. I'll get our things." Harry walked back into the Common Room, still in disbelief about the story Hermione had told him. If it were true, Ron and Hermione would never speak to each other again.

Lavender finally stopped Ron in the corridor and pleaded for him to tell her what happened.

"Do you really want to know?" Ron asked.

"Yes, I do! Who could have possibly made you this upset?"

"Her," Ron said scathingly, and Lavender's temple began to bulge.

"God, that girl gets on my nerves. What happened this time?"

"All right, I'll tell you what happened. You might want to sit down for this." Lavender conjured up two chairs, and the two sat on opposite sides of the corridor. Once they were situated, Ron told Lavender the following story.

So, you know how much I've been struggling with my work lately, right? Well, I know you won't be happy with this, but I had to ask Hermione for help or I stood a good chance of flunking out of Hogwarts. So I go over to her and try to ask her delicately for a word, because I know she's still raving mad with me.

"Hermione?" I asked, "Can I talk to you for a second?"

She pretended not to hear me, so I had to pester her a bit before she'd put her work aside and listened. She huffed and finally set her work aside, then gives me the nastiest look and says, "Make it snappy."

I'm already annoyed, but I took a deep breath and said, "Hermione, first of all I want to apologize for the way I've been acting lately. You're a wonderful person and you don't deserve someone like me treating you like garbage."

"What do you want, Ron?" she says back, real snippy, like my mum when she's upset with me.

"Look, I'm doing really badly in school right now, and you're the best student in our class and I really need your help or I'm going to flunk out."

"Absolutely not," she says, without offering a bit of explanation.

"Hermione, please, I'm desperate."

"Really? You're desperate? You weren't desperate when you told me I was a poison to you."

"Hermione, I know I acted like a complete ass and I want to make it up to you. You're the only chance I've got of passing this year."

"Ron, for all I care, you can drop out and go home. The school would be much better off without you."

I was flabbergasted. How could Hermione say such a cruel thing? I was stumbling, not sure what I was going to say. What's worse was the students around us were starting to watch us.

"Hermione, if this is about Lavender, than maybe the three of us—"

"This isn't about Lavender, you prick! It's about the way you've treated me for years! Always putting me down, making rude comments, treating me like an idiot!"

"Like when?" I asked, feeling my temper rising.

"Don't you remember, the Society for the Prevention," or whatever she called it. She was talking about spew.

"Hermione, that was a lost cause and you know it."

"That's how it's always been with you. And you just expect me to put that all aside so you can use me to pass your classes for you. I'm not doing it."

That's when I started to break down. I had to hold back some tears. I couldn't believe one of my best friends could betray me, all because of some petty jealousy.

"Oh, grow up, you big baby," she said, "It's about time you helped yourself."

The entire Common Room was watching us now, and they shook their heads at what Hermione was saying.

"Give him a break, Hermione," Seamus said, to my surprise, "can't you see he's sorry?" The crowd started nodding in agreement. I was deeply moved.

"Come on," she said, "don't let him fool you into feeling sorry for him. He's been treating me like garbage for years."

That's when, regrettably, I snapped.

"God, Hermione, when did you become such a bitch?" As soon as I said it, I instantly regretted it. But before I got a chance to apologize, Hermione slapped me as hard as she could. It still stings, even as I'm talking to you.

Well, there was no use sticking around after that. I stormed out of the Common Room to retain some sense of dignity.

"What an awful thing to do," Lavender said. "Ron, I'm so sorry. You don't deserve to be treated like that."

"Well, Lavender, what can I say? I deserve it, the way I've been treating her."

"No, you don't, Ron. You're one of the kindest people I know." Lavender got up and gave Ron a hug. Ron almost started crying again, but he kept it together.

"I'll help you," Lavender said, "and believe me, you won't need Hermione to pass your classes." Suddenly, around the corner came the wheezing Argus Filch, accompanied by his cat Mrs. Norris. His nose crinkled at the sight of them.

"What the 'ell are you doing in my corridor?" he asked. "Get rid of these chairs and go back to your Common Room." Lavender made the chairs vanish, and the two of them wasted no time returning to the Common Room, where Lavender tried to help Ron tackle his massive pile of work.

Had Harry and Lavender chosen to compare notes, they would have realized how remotely different these two accounts were. Hermione made it look like she was defending herself from an onslaught from Ron. Ron, however, had painted Hermione as a cold, heartless person. One important fact was consistent in both of their stories, though: Hermione really did slap Ron in the face.

As it was, though, Lavender was feeling quite confused about what Harry had told her. She certainly didn't believe Harry was in love with her; the idea was simply too bizarre to take seriously. She did wonder, though, what Harry had been implying when he mentioned Ron's pumpkin juice. Lavender quickly deduced the only explanation for it: Harry suspected Lavender of spiking Ron's drinks with Amortentia.

Lavender didn't blame Harry for thinking so, even though it was not true at all. There was no other way to explain Ron's rejection of Hermione. She was, however, insulted that Harry could think her capable of such treachery. She loved Ron dearly, but she wasn't that obsessed with him.

Harry left Lavender alone after that night, and, unusually, stopped talking to Ron as well. This was most unexpected, as Harry was usually always by Ron's side when he was going through a tough time. Lavender noticed this change more than anyone, but the other Gryffindor students found it odd as well.

That's when the rumors started. Students were starting to ask each other questions about the two close friends. Why wasn't Harry on Ron's side? Why has he been studying with Hermione all this time? He has spent a lot of time with her, hasn't he? What's up with that?

Romilda Vane, fearing the worst, complained to her friends that The Chosen One was simply paying attention to nobody else but Hermione. Harry overheard this on Friday, and he addressed this to Hermione as soon as he could.

"Harry, Romilda is smitten with you. She's lost her head and is overreacting."

"Yeah, but I'm starting to hear other people asking questions. What if somebody finds out about us?"

"Harry, please. They'll find something else to talk about by tomorrow night."

Harry was not sure. Rumors about him seemed to have a longer shelf life than normal, especially those about Harry's potential love interests. That's when he remembered something from two years ago.

"Hermione, don't you remember when the rumors of that love triangle were being past around two years ago?"

"Yes, I do."

"Rita Skeeter published articles about those. Entire news articles! What makes you think this will be any different?"

"Harry, don't start panicking. If something like that fiasco ever happens again, we'll deal with it when it does. Just…relax. And don't forget about tomorrow night, either. I might just have a surprise for you."

That calmed Harry's nerves, and he returned to studying with Hermione in peace. Neither of them knew the ugly turn these rumors would soon take.