"Why are you all so quiet?" Ron asked throwing his hands up.
They had been sat by the lake for over an hour in silence before Ron gave up waiting for one of the others to say something. Harry shrugged and focused on the toe of his shoes while Hermione barely acknowledged anything had been said. Ron wished he knew what was going through his friend's heads.
Ron leant back against the tree as Hermione stood u with a faraway stare.
"I have… things to do." She turned and walked towards the castle.
Ron rubbed his temples, "Do you know what's been going on with her recently?"
Harry shook his head, "I asked her but she said it was nothing. I don't know. If she doesn't want to talk to us, she won't and we can't force her."
"Ginny has been quiet as well maybe that has something to do with it." Ron said and Harry shrugged watching something across the lake.
XXX
"I don't know what to do." Lana said sitting forward and putting her head in her hands.
"I know. He hasn't left his room for the past week and he refuses to eat." Blaise said rubbing the back of his neck.
"I thought it would take a few days for them to cool down and then they'd sort it out. I can't take this much longer."
"Lana we're all worried. That's why we need to be careful around him for a few more days until they patch things up."
"I'm worried about him. They need to talk soon." Lana said biting her lip.
"Hermione isn't doing any better." Blaise said.
"Hermione has been really quiet. If things are bad for Draco then things will be equally as bad for her." Lana said.
"Things are probably worse for her. She has no one to talk to and her friends have no clue what's wrong." Lana closed her eyes and sighed.
"In all honesty I don't have that much of an idea of what happened, he didn't tell me what really happened."
"What are we going to do?" Blaise asked leaning back and closing his eyes.
"I don't know." Lana said as the portrait opened and Fred walked in.
"So Ron just bumped into me and asked what's happened between Hermione and Ginny." Fred said as he sat next to Lana and draped his arm over her shoulders.
"But nothing has happened between Ginny and Hermione." Lana said as Fred kissed her temple.
"We know that but Ron doesn't. They are still trying to make sense of my Hermione hasn't been happy recently."
"Oh yeah."
"So how's Draco?" Fred asked and Blaise sighed.
"He isn't coping with the break up. We're really worried about him."
"From what Ron said they are really worried about Hermione." Fred said as he rubbed his jaw.
"Right," Blaise said standing up, "I'm going to go down to the kitchens and get him some food."
Lana nodded and Blaise walked out of the common room.
"Fred I'm scared." Lana whispered as the portrait clicked shut behind him.
"They'll be okay."
"How can you be so sure? I'm not." Lana said sitting forward.
"Lana, things will get better. Not necessarily tomorrow or the day after but things will get better. And then they will realise that what ever it was their fight was about wasn't as serious as they originally thought." Fred said taking her hand.
"I don't know… you might be right. I can't help but worry."
"Anyway lets go get some lunch." Fred said standing up and holding out his hand.
Lana smiled and took his hand.
XXX
"Thank you for the food Blinky." Lana thanked the elf and stepped out into the hall with the tray of food for her brother.
Lana walked through the corridors, her mind on her brother and his deteriorating health. It had been three weeks since they had argued and her brother hadn't left his room or eaten more than a few mouthfuls of the food they had left in his room. Lana could feel he needed to see Hermione but getting him to admit that would be the hardest task.
She walked up the stairs and knocked on his door, not expecting him to reply.
"Hey, I brought you something to eat." She said as she placed the tray on his bedside cabinet.
Draco made no movement to acknowledge her presence in the room. Lana sighed and sat on the edge of the bed.
"Look drake if you don't like the food you've been given then you can always go and get it yourself." Lana looked at him, willing him to speak.
He didn't.
"Can you just talk to me?" Lana said lying next to him.
As the silence because deafening, Lana sighed and rolled onto her side.
"Alright I'll start. So mother wrote the other day and is already planning the Christmas party we have every year and wanted to know if Fred would be coming. I still haven't told her about him yet; I wanted to tell mother and father face-to-face and… well you know what they are like.
"Anyway mother wants me to get back to her about Hermione coming as well and I've already written our reply but I don't know if I should send it. Fred said I should wait until the two of you make up but I don't see that happening any time soon so I'm going to write to mother and tell her Hermione won't be joining us. Unless you don't want me to." She looked over at her brother and sighed as he rolled and turned his back to her.
"Look, Draco I get you're upset and it feels as if things are going downhill but just think how I feel. My secondary pain is no where near yours but it still hurts. Just admit you miss her and things can go back to how they were. But they only will if you get over yourself and talk to her." Lana said before walking out if the room attempting to blink back tears.
XXX
"Lana what's wrong?" Fred asked as she sat next to him on the sofa.
"Nothing it's just getting stressful with Draco." Fred dropped his arm around her shoulders and shrugged as the portrait opened and Hermione ad Ron walked in.
"Ron just wait here I'll be two minutes." Hermione said before racing up the stairs.
"What's going on here?" Ron demanded to know as he spotted Fred's arm around Lana.
Ron's cheeks were slowly reddening to match his hair colour, a sign the well-known Weasley temper was about to make an appearance
"I think you're best explaining this one. I should go and talk to Hermione. Will you be okay here?" Fred nodded and Lana stood up and walked up the stairs after Hermione.
"So it all started when the first Hogsmeade weekend when you visited the store…"
XXX
"So this is how you're going to carry on the year?" Lana asked leaning against the doorframe of Hermione's room.
"What?" Hermione said rummaging around the drawers of the chest searching for something.
"So for the rest of the year, or until Draco and I pass, you're going to avoid the common room, skive off all of your duties and run away from the promises you made. You said you'd try to work with him. You said you care about him but you don't give a shit really do you?" Lana said pushing away from the door.
"Lana it's not like that and you know it. Look I tried and things didn't work out. I'm sorry but I've done all I can."
"See that's the thing; there's so much you could have done and you've done nothing. Just talk to him."
"I don't think that's a good idea." Hermione said shaking her head.
"It is." Hermione shook her head and sat on the edge of her bed.
"Look, the two of you are miserable so if you talk you can patch things up."
"Look things didn't work between us so there's nothing we can do now." Hermione ran her hands over the covers and sighed.
"Fight for it then."
"Lana it's not that simple. There's nothing left to fight for."
"Of course there's something to fight for there always is."
"I'm sorry but there's not this time." Hermione sighed and walked out.
As Hermione walked down the stairs she figured Ron had calmed down since the shouting that could be heard from her room had ceased.
"'Mione. Let's go." Hermione nodded and once outside the common room Ron asked his voice laced with venom, "Did you know Lana and my brother were going out? And that the two Malfoy's are Veela? Lav will love that piece of information"
"Ronald you cannot go and tell Lavender, the biggest gossip in the school, Lana's secret. if she wanted everyone to know they would have told everyone."
"Why do you even care?"
Hermione shrugged and they walked down to the lake in silence.
"Hermione why have you been so… down recently?" Ron asked as he lowered himself to the floor next to the lake.
"What do you mean?" Hermione asked snapping out of her daze.
"Well you've seemed really upset recently." Ron said rubbing the back of his neck.
"Oh I… um had an argument with Ginny. But I'd rather not talk about it."
"Oh okay. I understand that." Ron scowled down at the floor as he let the newest piece of information sink in.
He couldn't wait to tell his mother. That would be something fun to see.
A/N: So… I promise things will get better soon. So I'm trying to decide weather or not to carry this on with a sequel or to have the entire story under one story. So let me know what you prefer and I will take that into consideration.
Please review and let me know what you think of the latest chapter. See you next week.
