Chapter 13

"And then what happened?"

"I already told you Ginny, nothing!"

"So the both of you just sat there in the dark?"

"Pretty much. We weren't there for much longer after that."

"Humph!" Ginny replied indignantly. "If you were going to ditch me, you could've at least given me a story worth hearing!"

Hermione was wandering the halls simply doing her Head Girl duties. When she saw Draco round the corner of the hall; walking very fast paced and in her direction. She looked directly into his eyes and could have sworn to see a smile form in them, but that quickly vanished as she saw a scowl come over his expressionless face. Only seconds later, Crabbe and Goyle rounded the corner as well. Hermione felt a wave of disappointment crash over her. How stupid of me to think that he was actually approaching me and wanted to talk to me. Just because he talked to me last week doesn't mean anything.

But Hermione's thoughts were soon interrupted by Draco's strong scent. Hermione had to keep herself from melting at his presence. As Draco swept by, he nudged her shoulder and she was forced to remember that he had apparently wanted nothing to do with her.

"Watch, where you're going Mudblood!" snapped Draco. And Crabbe and Goyle laughed.

Hermione held her composure though, she didn't want to show them, more precisely Draco, how hurt she felt.

Hermione was on her way to the Great Hall, shuffling her feet. Ever since earlier that afternoon, she felt overwhelmed with sorrow. All her whole-hearted efforts were in vain. Draco only needed comforting from someone, anyone; he didn't want to spend time with me. I was simply at right place at the right time. Hermione yanked off the locket out of spite and threw it on the floor.

Hermione felt tears sting the back of her eyes. Oh I can't possibly cry now. Every second that passed, she could feel her strength give way to the tears. She changed her direction and made her way to the girl's bathroom instead.

"Hermione!" called out Harry, "Where you going?"

Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time now. Hermione breathed in deeply. Don't cry Hermione, don't cry. No need to make a spectacle.

"Hermione?" Harry called out again, only this time much closer.

She now faced Harry with a large smile plastered on her face, "Hey Harry."

"Aren't you coming to dinner?"

"Of course, I was just going to go to the bathroom a second," she paused as she saw Harry stoop down to the floor, "but it can wait."

"Isn't this your locket?"

She threw her hands up to where her locket usually hung and searched her neck as frantically as she could, and replied to Harry innocently, "Oh my! Yes it is! I didn't even notice it was gone. Thank goodness you found it!"

Harry handed over the locket, happy to have helped his friend, and she stored it away in her pocket. And Hermione hooked her arm around Harry as she said, "Let's go eat!" And they continued walking towards the Great Hall.

Dinner at the Great Hall had just finished and Hermione was anxious to get back to her dormitory. She wanted to spend some time alone. She had no desire to try so hard to pretend to be happy and amused at everything her friends had to say, she was too consumed in her gloom to care about anything else.

Everyone was walking towards the Great Hall entrance and Hermione only felt relief. Ron was walking beside her, smiling to himself. She wondered why, but didn't care enough to ask. Ron threw his arm over Hermione's shoulders and Hermione quivered under his touch. What is he doing? What is this all about?

"So, Harry told me he found your locket before dinner?"

"Er... yeah. I guess it must've fallen off," Hermione managed to stammer.

"It's a good thing we have Harry as a friend eh? If it wasn't for him, who knows what would've happened to it."

"Yeah…" sighed Hermione.

"So…"

"Yeah, so, so what is your arm doing around me?" was the only thing Hermione managed to say. She was shocked to hear what she had said; she didn't mean to say it out loud.

Ron's face flushed as he slithered his arm from her shoulders.

"Ron!"

Ron gulped. He stood two steps down from Hermione, paralyzed to the spot, his eyes glazed over like that of a doll's, expressionless.

"I didn't mean it that way! I was only trying to make conversation except I just so happen to wonder that out loud."

No response from Ron.

"Ron, for Merlin's sake! It just caught me off guard!"

At that moment, Ron came back to life and stared at Hermione, not with a look of anger but of disappointment. He rushed off past her and as he did, he brushed up against her. Was that on purpose? she wondered.

When Ron reached the top of the steps, he looked down to Hermione and said, "Hmm… I wonder. Wonder, wonder, wonder! I wonder what you really must think inside that head of yours. I wonder…" he paused and lowered his voice, "what you really must think of me."

And with that said, he continued on his way back to the Gryffindor common room, leaving Hermione behind on the steps, confused.

"Well, I won't be dealing with any of that tonight," she said to herself out loud as she made her way back down the stairs in the direction of her favorite place.

Hermione was cuddled in a corner of the library: she was almost done rereading her favorite book for the eleventh time, when she reached her hand into her pocket to search for the locket. She grabbed several things in her pocket and laid it out across the table. Her locket was there along with several other items, a quill, several hair pins, a folded piece of parchment and a chocolate frog Harry had given her earlier that day. Hermione strung the locket around her neck and smiled and she closed the clasp. Ron was right, good thing Harry found it.

Hermione began putting everything back into her pocket when the parchment caught her attention. I don't remember this.

She held it in her hand for just a second before she began unfolding it to read its contents. A baffled look rested upon Hermione's face, what in the world?

Hermione-

Meet me in the Astronomy Tower at midnight.

She glanced at the clock it was ten minutes to midnight, "Merlin!" she exclaimed and ran out of the library.