Breaking Boundaries
By: Somewhere Sky

Disclaimer: Of course, as always - the rights to the Harry Potter realm of fiction belongs solely
to J.K Rowling and her brilliant mind. Although I may admit, I shall always be slightly jealous.

Chapter 10:
New Found Insecurities

Hermione returned from her afternoon in Hogsmeade in a notorious rage. She was fuming, not only had Draco Malfoy made the snide remark that Hermione was completely and arbitrarily empty; he had told her that she was heartless. If Hermione had prided herself in anything other than her intelligence it was definitely the size of her heart. She believed that for someone who had suffered countless times that she was still incredibly strong and loving – according to Malfoy that wasn't true at all. Not only had this sparked her flaming emotions, while stomping through the halls Hermione had mistakenly walked past Ron who shot several undeserved comments towards Hermione's sexuality. They rang like blisters in Hermione's mind: Dyke, Dirty Pussy Muncher, Faggot, and Disgrace to women. The more the words played through Hermione's thoughts, the more she was beginning to agree with the red-headed git who slammed into her shoulder as he walked past.

The thought hit her like a pound of glass shards, maybe Ron had a point.

Hermione did leave him, in a way, for his younger sister. The only technicality that would change the fact was that their relationship had already been teetering on a break-up long before Hermione had accepted her love for Ginny Weasley. By some invisible date rule – Hermione had done a very unkind thing to her best friend. Regardless of whether or not their relationship was successful Hermione owed it to Ron not to go on dating someone in their shared circle of friends and family, or at least confront him about it at first. What bothered Hermione most though was that dating a girl was seeming to feel "unnatural" and she was feeling as though maybe Ron's outburst was completely called for. Both girls might've needed the slap in the face to realize that no two women belong together. At the same time Hermione knew deep in her heart that there was nothing unnatural about loving Ginny Weasley – it was very much so: a beautiful thing.

It had taken Hermione so long to accept that she loved the girl she grew up with and it took her even longer to actually confront her emotions and make a move otherwise she might have lost Ginny forever.

"Ugh!" Hermione grunted loudly in the hallway.

Here she was again, back to that terrible stage of insecurity. As the brightest witch of her age, Hermione had never felt so much doubt corrupt both her mind and her heart. How had she managed to allow Ron, her best friend and Ginny's brother, to convince her that there was no possibility of happiness between Ginny and herself?

With a hothead and an angry growl, Hermione shouted the password at the Fat Lady. Not only had she received a grunt in response but the portrait had slammed open so loudly in shook Hermione's body and grabbed the attention of each Gryffindor girl and boy inside. Hermione ignored the cold stares and confused glances as she began to storm away to her dormitory, she secretly hoped Ginny would not be there. Hermione was not ready to discuss how she was feeling to anyone right now, especially not the girl she was questioning her love for.

"Hermione!" a first year yelled in her direction as her hand clasped the stair-railing.

"What?" she said through gritted teeth.

"There's someone outside the portrait knocking for you." The young girl looked down as she said this in fear that she might have said the wrong thing to the older, angrier Gryffindor Head Girl.

Hermione didn't respond to the frightened first-year and instead marched toward the door, and as it gracefully opened – she became furthermore infuriated.

"I do not have time for this Malfoy" her voice high in fury, it's tone frightening yet another young Gryffindor as they tried to scrambled out the portrait beside her.

"Ah yes, but McGonagall demanded we try once more in trying to resolve our differences." He mocked the headmistress' voice. Just for a brief moment, very brief, he noticed s small smirk shaping Hermione's face.

"What now than ferret?" she mumbled in keeping with her harsh tone while addressing the confident Slytherin boy.

"I figured we'd go down to the Great Hall, what a shocker to have us sitting at the same table." He smiled, but both Lion and Snake knew the consequences of such an audacious gesture in such a public area. It was, without a doubt, going to be a challenge for one or both of them. If Draco Malfoy had yet to disarm Hermione's hatred for him, it was going to be a larger conquest to win over a table of seething Gryffindor's who had lost family and friends to Voldemort and his Slytherin followers a few months ago when the Wizarding world had faced one of its greatest wars. Yet, Malfoy insisted they do this to please McGonagall who would be watching them the entire time and who would grimace when she saw no improvement.

Hermione nodded in agreement to the idea and requested that Malfoy wait outside as she gathered some school books and dressed in appropriate attire for dinner. While she was in the common room Hermione glanced around for Ginny, but it seemed as though while standing chatting to Malfoy, all the Gryffindors had already left to the feast. This notion made Hermione tremble slightly as she hoped to have enough confidence to follow through with Malfoy's plan.

"I'm ready." Hermione said, stepping out of the Fat Lady's portrait to greet the blonde boy as they began their descent to what seemed like harsh punishment. Malfoy made several attempts to calm her, reassuring Hermione that his charm and wit would win the love of even the angriest Gryffindor. He attempted to say that he would make each of the ladies swoon and the men jealous – but even he couldn't finish his sentence as they stood side by side at the entrance of the Great Hall. All eyes were literally on them, Hermione & Draco, it was like an unshakable chill.

Hermione directed the less confident Malfoy to a seat saved for her by Ginny with Harry on the other side. Hermione made a mental note to herself that Harry had been even less social with her lately; he sat avoiding Hermione's eyes as he looked down into his food. Ginny too sat without a smile but not a scowl either – so Hermione took this opportunity to introduce their guest of dishonour.

"Um – everyone, Malfoy. Malfoy, uh everyone." Hermione choked. She could feel the mound of hate alternating toward her now that she had brought a Slytherin to the table. She could already hear Ron's veins in his forehead about to burst with loathing but she ignored him as she and Malfoy took a sit on the bench. Ginny immediately grabbed hold of Hermione's hand beneath the table in comfort, and she began talking to her sweetheart about Quidditch to distract the table from Malfoy appearance.

With Ginny's start on the Gryffindor Team's first match against Hufflepuff, the hatred had come to a ceasefire. It seemed as though the focus was now on Ginny and slowly people began forgetting Malfoy was even there. Gryffindor had beat Hufflepuff by a whopping 500 points which brought not only a victory but a record for the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Soon after the entire table erupted into chatter about not only Quidditch, but also the war and Professor Trelawney (who had taken to buy a hideous new pair of star-rimmed glasses that made her look quite foolish). Hermione felt less anger radiating from the table as Malfoy began joining into the conversations. The only one unhappy with this new development was, of course – Ron.

"How can you all just sit there and pretend that his Aunt didn't torture and kill half your family members, and his father almost killed my sister. How can you pretend nothing happened and that they hadn't tried to kill all of us? Especially you Hermione – I know you still look at the scar on your arm!"

"Ron –"Hermione started. She had tried hard to forget that there was permanent reminder that she was a mudblood scraped into her flesh, as if Bellatrix LeStrange would allow Hermione to forget it.

"No Hermione, I watched you screaming that day, I saw the tears and the way she tortured you – it hurt me too! They killed my brother Hermione, they made our lives hell, hwo can you just let him into our world like this?"

"Ron, just let me –"she had tried again.

"First you ignore me and lead me to believe we're over, next you leave me for my sister and now to top it all off you are befriending our bloody enemy Hermione!"

" I HAVE TO! MALFOY IS AN ASSIGNMENT GIVEN TO ME BY MCGONAGALL. I HAVEN"T DONE ANYTHING TO HURT YOU! I"D RATHER HAVE BELLATRIX CUT INTO MY ARMT HAN LISTEN TO YOU HARASSING EVERYONE. I LVOE GINNY AND BECAUSE OF YOU I'm AFRAID TO –"

"Yeah, well…"

"NO, YOU DON"T GET TO DO THIS RONALD. GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR PUMPKIN-STUFFED ARSE AND STOP BEING A PRAT!" Hermione slammed her goblet down onto the table some cider spilling off onto her plate of food.

When Hermione finished Malfoy had began applauding the angry Gryffindor woman but the look he received from Hermione had stopped the clapping immediately. With the outburst finished, Ron red and fuming on the other end, Hermione sat arms crossed and fuming herself. The argument hadn't stopped the table from chatting at all – they all continued to converse with Malfoy. Now it was Hermione's turn to remain silent and rather than remaining silent in a time of anger – she stood up from the table tossing Ginny's hand back into her lap and heading out of the Hall for what seemed like the thousandth time since school had began in September.

She hadn't noticed the boy following closely behind her.

Another chapter complete! This one was a little steamy – at least Hermione got to yell at Ron, but oh no – not she's confused about Ginny again! This Gryffindor cannot make up her mind.
Chapter 11 should be up soon, as always Read & Review!

Somewhere Sky