12
Sarah POV
I had returned to the Great Hall after my stint with Malfoy, and perhaps it was the look on my face that made Harry believe that he'd really hurt me by asking. That made me feel sick, sick to the core for the lies they believed. The rest of dinner was composed of careful conversation about the Quidditch Game coming up, Slytherin vs. Gryffindor. Ron was still dead nervous, even though we all assured him that he'd be a brilliant player if he'd only forget his nerves and focus. The morning of, Hermione was insistent that she saw Harry spike Ron's drink with Felix Felices; something that was punishable by expulsion. My nose had been in a book at the time, secretly scanning the hall for Malfoy, so I hadn't noticed anything. Harry refused to even accept Hermione's claim, being very blithe about the whole thing. Acting neutral, I joined Hermione in the stands, half watching and half daydreaming. I'd expected Malfoy to be playing- he was the Slytherin seeker after all- but he had a replacement, which instantly made me suspicious. Where was he, what was so important to do when the whole school was at the Quidditch Pitch? Hermione scoffed under her breath, trying to look mad but cheering and clapping whenever Ron saved a goal. I wasn't actually sure if Harry had spiked his drink- he'd been a little frosty with me this morning. As we got farther and farther away from the Hogsmade incident, he'd became almost suspicious of me, bringing up Malfoy at times with Ron across the table and then frequently looking my way, as if he expected me to burst suddenly and tell all of the things he thought I was keeping from him. It hurt because Harry was dead on his game. He didn't deserve to be lied to, none of my friends did, but I couldn't tell them the truth anyway.
I spent most of the game brooding; Hermione watching Ron with large eyes- we barely paid attention to each other. Gryffindor won at the last second when Harry caught the Snitch somehow when the Slytherin seeker blasted right past it. "I've made up my mind." Hermione almost had to shout in my ear, the crowd around us was roaring in appreciation. "I want to talk to Harry about spiking Ron's drink. Will you come with me?" She asked hopefully. I couldn't help but break a smile; Hermione's thoughts, heart and actions never coincided very well together.
"Of course, but, remember- I'm neutral in this." I said, and she shot me a look.
"I don't know how you can not have an opinion about this." She said, marching along the stands. Since everyone was headed back to the school, getting down to the changing rooms was relatively easy. Old members of the Slytherin Quidditch team glared at me as we passed- they still hated my guts, and vice versa. Hermione waited nervously outside as members of the Quidditch Team walked by- neither of them Harry or Ron, until there was a long stretch when no one else came out. "I guess we'll have to go in," I said, opening the door, letting Hermione go first. She hesitantly slipped in. I joined her, looking around. I had never been in the changing rooms- they smelled like sweaty socks. Ron had his jumper halfway over his head, and Harry was putting on his glasses, his hair damp.
"Harry, I want to talk to you. You shouldn't have done it, you heard Slughorn. It's illegal." Hermione said, sounding scared that she was actually accusing Harry.
"What are you going to do, turn us in?" Ron demanded. I shot him a look, coming over to sit on the bench.
"Ron, that's why everything went right! That's why Slytherin players were missing and you saved everything!" Hermione said, sounding near hysterical. I raised a hand in front of Ron to keep him from stalking forward and getting in Hermione's face.
"I didn't put it in." Harry said, grinning broadly, and pulled the vial out of his jumper pocket. The top was still tightly sealed with wax. "I just made you think that I did so that you'd have the confidence. It was all you, Ron." Harry said, still grinning like an idiot. Both Hermione and Ron blinked. Then Ron turned red in the face.
"That's why everything went right, Ron!" He mimicked, turning to face Hermione, hands clenched. I stood up, putting a light hand on Ron's shoulder, which he ignored. "What, you didn't think that I could do it, did you?" He snatched his broomstick from his locker, slammed the door, and snatched my hand by the wrist, talking loudly about how fun the party was going to be. Apparently he didn't notice how he grabbed my left wrist. I felt my face instantly twist, but before I could pull against Ron and free myself, we were out of the locker room.
"Hey, Ron, Ron-" I pulled out of his grip but kept walking with him. He didn't even notice, just kept stalking angrily away. "Ron, you know that Hermione didn't mean it that way. You were just as shocked as she was when you heard that you hadn't been given lucky potion." I reminded him gently. He just huffed and kept walking.
"We were brilliant. I was brilliant. Yeah," I heard him mumble, almost to himself.
"You listen to me, Ronald Weasley. If you apologize to Hermione, she'll apologize to you. I guarantee it. It makes a guy look stronger." I tacked on, desperate for him to go for it. Hermione really cared about Ron, and this would tear them apart for probably half the year.
"Why should I apologize?" Ron asked, and he almost cowered under the look I gave him. "Fine, whatever," he mumbled. Not entirely convinced, especially because my wrist was still sore, I purposely walked closer to him all the way up to the Common Room, to make him more aware of what I wanted him to do. But once we entered the Common Room and the roar of the appreciative Gryffindor's hit him, Ron ditched me quickly for a crowd of admirers. With a sigh, I curled up in an armchair by the fire with a butterbeer, inconspicuously pulling down the knit band and pressing my mark to the heat. I could tell when Harry arrived, the crowd cheered again as he entered, and half the room converged around the portrait hole; I couldn't even see him. I gradually sipped my butterbeer, wondering where Hermione was and getting more and more disgusted with Ron. From my spot in the Common Room I could see him clearly, getting more and more engaged with Lavender Brown. They started violently snogging and I turned away, unable to watch, feeling my heart break already for Hermione. Then Harry stumbled out of the crowd next to me-his hair wild from the pressing crowd and looking rather bemused and almost irritated.
"Sarah!" He said, sounding almost relieved. He sat down in front of me, conjuring a chair.
"Looking for Ron?" I asked almost bitterly, then jerked my thumb in his direction. Harry looked over and his eyes doubled by about two sizes. I grimaced, looking away from Ron to see the portrait hole closing, some bushy brown hair whipping out of sight. "Shit," I muttered, getting up and setting my almost empty bottle of butterbeer on the floor by my chair. "I'll be back, don't end up like Ron," I said hastily, then ducked through the crowds and made it out of the Common Room. The hallway was empty, but when I walked farther along, I could hear Hermione cast a spell softly in an empty classroom. I slipped inside. She looked up, then looked down, her eyes slightly red. She was standing with her shoulders hunched, as if there was a cold wind. "Pennipotenti." I cast, seeing the tiny birds flying around her. Her birds were a bright yellow color. Mine blossomed out of thin air and were an exotic purple. They mingled with hers.
"I-I thought we would-" Hermione started, then burst into tears. I enfolded her in a hug and let her cry. She was only crying for about thirty seconds when the door opened. Laughing, Ron and Lavender came in, hands entwined, clearly looking for a private place to snog.
"Oops!" Lavender said cheerfully, not at all bothered by the fact that I was comforting someone who was crying. She breezed out, pulling the door shut. However, Ron stayed, watching us with wide eyes. I shot him a death glare, silently saying, I told you so! Hermione jerked off my shoulder, frantically swiping at her eyes, apologizing to me when she saw Ron. She took one look at my angry face and then looked at the birds, clearly suggesting that we attack him. I gave a quick nod and raised my wand.
"Oppugno!" We said together, Hermione's voice broken, mine furious. Our birds, who had been twittering sweetly and flying in circles turned and formed an arrowhead formation, flying at Ron. They started attacking every bit of him they could reach. "Come on, Hermione," I said firmly, putting an arm around her and escorting her out, past Ron, who was beating at the birds with strangled yells of surprise and pain.
I thought for sure this was the end of their friendship, and mine too with Ron. He had scratches and cuts all over his arms, hands and face from the birds, but that didn't stop Lavender Brown from practically sucking his face off. I didn't leave Hermione's side for a minute, and I boosted her self esteem by telling her some very untrue and rather rude things about Lavender Brown, which seemed to lighten her spirits. But whenever I built Hermione back up, Ron knocked her back down. In Transfiguration, when we were working on transfiguring the color of our eyebrows, he imitated her in such a cruel way that Harry had to seize my wrist to keep me from hexing him. Harry's conduct had actually surprised me. He was carefully balancing between Ron and Hermione and I. I had all my classes with Hermione, whereas he didn't have as many. But at night, while Ron was getting his snog on, he'd come to the library with us. He was still suspicious of me, but since I hadn't been after Malfoy in awhile, he didn't have any new reasons to suspect. Unfortunately, groups of girls seemed to be literally stalking Harry everywhere he went, which made finding a private place difficult. Christmas got closer and closer. Slughorn was apparently having a Christmas party, and since both Harry and Hermione were invited, they needed to find dates. That made Hermione incredibly bitter, looking for the person who would tick Ron off the most, and it made Harry really awkward- he still had no idea what to do with girls, even though I knew that he fancied Ginny.
My Occlumency lessons were still hell. I was learning to block my mind and then block Snape, but he usually saw at least two memories every lesson. Hermione and I were holding each other together- every day after Wednesday for the rest of the week I was an absolute mess, and Hermione was hurt almost all week long. One night, after my Occlumency lesson, I went down to the library to meet up with Harry and Hermione, taking turns rubbing my forehead to soothe my headache and the mark just out of habit. Both ached and smarted terribly. I slipped into the library and found them easily- it was late, and they were the only ones in there. "Hey," I said tiredly, resting on the arm of Hermione's chair.
"I'm taking McLaggen to the Christmas Party." Hermione said. She used this tactic all the time to take my mind off of reviewing my memories for Snape- she thought up the wildest and craziest things. Usually we'd get a good laugh out of it- I think her last one was that Madam Pince and Filch were having a secret love affair.
"Hilarious," I said with a weak smile, still rubbing my forehead.
"I'm serious." She said, and my hand dropped. She flushed a little seeing my expression, and Harry grimaced at his book- apparently he already knew.
"What?" I demanded, getting off the arm of her chair so that I could face her. "Are you mad?"
"It'll anger Ron the most, that's honestly all I care about right now. Don't look at me like that." Hermione snapped, gathering her books.
"Hermione, we've been down this road before, remember? Getting revenge didn't exactly work for us. Please don't- it'll just make Ron worse." I pleaded with her, but she just shrugged, her signal for me to drop it, and swept out of the library. "Oh, for Merlin's sake," I sighed, falling into Hermione's vacated chair and letting my head fall back, closing my eyes. My brow stayed furrowed, and seconds later, my hand snuck back up to rub my left temple as it throbbed.
"Will you go with me?" I heard Harry ask after a moment of silence. I cracked an eye open. Harry was watching me, looking slightly nervous. "I mean as friends, we'd go as friends, but- I need to say I'm going with someone so girls will back off." He said, sounding wearily irritated, and I laughed softly, closing the eye.
"Of course I'll go. Hermione will need someone to hide behind anyway." I agreed, standing up and almost running smack into Peeves, who'd been skulking around behind us.
"Oooh! Potty asked Wimky to the party! Potty lurves Wimky!" He cackled, and sped out of the library, saying it at almost the top of his lungs.
"It's good to keep things like this private," Harry said sarcastically, packing up his stuff.
"I'll curse him if you want," I said offhandedly, and he chuckled weakly, holding the door of the library for me. Of course, word got out in about half a day, and soon, I was getting resentful glares in the hallways, and gossip was practically rampant in the hallways. All I knew was that Christmas couldn't come any faster…