AN Yeah, this is like the shortest chapter ever, I suck I know/

Chapter 14 'All by myself'

Hermione Granger lay in bed looking up at the ceiling, unable to fall asleep. Her boyfriend was snoring a couple of feet away, and for the first time in many months the sound was bothering her. She was thinking about the day she had spent with Ginny and Fleur and how much fun they had had together. She was very much looking forward to having Ginny as a sister-in-law one day, and she really wished that Fleur would settle down in England permanently. The two girls were the only friends she had ever known in the magical world and seeing them once or twice a summer was an excruciating experience, which reminded her without fail of how lonely and unpopular she was at Hogwarts. Ginny did not hang around with her brothers while at school, and thus by default has always avoided Hermione, who spent literally all her time with Ronald. Being out and about with them made her feel like she was actually normal. Like she actually had friends that she could go to brunch with. Like she had confidantes with whom to share silly girly stories. But more than anything else it was a painful experience. All it did was remind her of what she couldn't have. Hermione swallowed a sob and blinked away the tears just as Ron turned over to his side, momentarily startling her. The depressing thoughts and self-pitying imagery had fooled her mind into forgetting where she was. She was with her boyfriend. At his parents' house. The very people who appreciated and adored her and were soon going to become her in-laws.

The young witch rubbed her running nose and looked at Ronald Weasley like she has never looked at him before. Did she love him? Did she want to be with him and marry him and bear his children? Did she really want all that? Could she do better? Was she only with him because there was nobody else and there never has been?

She did not get any time to contemplate on those important questions however, because at that precise moment a deafening crash came from downstairs and the entire house seemed to have been woken up. Including the young man laying beside her.

An excruciating feeling of sickness in the bottom of her stomach awaked Narcissa Malfoy at five fifteen that morning. She grimaced and twisted over in pain, tangling the sheets tighter around herself. Emitting a drawn-out moan, she cursed everything that came to mind, thinking that she must have gotten food poisoning.

Shooting straight up in her enormous bed, she stifled a groan in the midst of another wave of sickness, while her hand involuntarily flew up to cover her mouth. Jumping up, she tripped over the bed sheets and fell to the floor with a loud crash. That unfortunate act of clumsiness added sharply to the pain she was already feeling. Stubbing a few of her toes she sprinted up, ignoring the throbbing headache that was now joining the rest of the rapidly growing pain, she ran to the nearest toilet and promptly threw up.

Swiftly relaxing her abdominal muscles, Narcissa immediately slid down to lie in a heap on the floor while still clutching the counter with her stiff, snow-white knuckles.

Horror stricken, she immediately understood. And in that moment, the impeccable and proud prefect woman lost control, and letting herself go she curled up in a ball and bawled.

An attractive young couple was strolling leisurely through the tiny streets of Diagon Alley. The two of them were holding hands and chatting pleasantly with one another; the guy constantly throwing lovesick, adoring looks at his girl. Harry immediately recognized the stout, red-headed boy as Bill Weasley, but felt no need to say hello. All he did was glance appreciatively at the blonde girl that was with him, who also looked vaguely familiar, and kept walking past.

Then all of a sudden, he stopped cold in his tracks. Caleb walked right into him, having not expected his friend to slow down so soon.

"Harry!"- he yelled, "Why'd you do that?"

But Harry had just remembered something that made his stomach do the biggest flip in the history of stomach flips. He looked aghast, positively lost for words; pathetic and pitiful even.

As Harry's eyes darted back and forth between the sky, the buildings and the gravel on which he was standing, Caleb watched him apprehensively, not daring to inquire what was wrong.

"OH MY GOD. What have I done!"

"What? What did you do?"- Caleb answered tentatively, without removing his gaze. "Harry?" – he went on, when his friend did not respond.

"I am the biggest prat in Britain, Caleb, that's what. I can't believe that I am even capable of this! What am I going to do?!?"

"Ok, mate, you're losing me. What's happened? What are you going on about?"

Harry looked at him, and hit himself on the forehead, making his scar prickle angrily in return. "Ow!" – he yelped. Turning back to Caleb, he said – "Jen."

The dawning realization spread quickly across Caleb Ralis's face, and his own eyes grew wide to match Harry's.

Jen. Harry's girlfriend. He had completely and utterly forgotten about her existence and hadn't even thought about her since the beginning of the summer.

"Oh, Harry… Whatever are you going to do?" Caleb asked.

But Harry didn't answer; instead he took off at a run to the Owlery located half a block up. He needed to send off a letter as soon as possible.

Narcissa looked into the mirror and fixed her hair compulsively for the tenth time that night. She had spent the evening sitting alone in her boudoir and staring at her ghost-like reflection. She looked half dead - pale, thin, sunken with miserable shadows underneath her oval-shaped blue eyes. She was exhausted from crying – there were no more tears left in her, she had used them all up. Her body ached with pain and her mind throbbed with self-pity. Once again she knew what she had to do, which didn't mean that she knew how to do it. She spent the night in disbelief that something like this could happen to her. Again.

She was not going to tell Anton, even if he did have a right to know. Instead, she would tell Lucius.