Hermione had absolutely no desire to see or speak to Ron, Harry, or Ginny even six days after Ron had used a spell on her. Ron wasn't trying to speak to her either and Ginny, much to Hermione's surprise, had stated that she wanted nothing to do with the fight and wouldn't speak to either of them until it was over. Harry was the only one actually trying to talk to her and while she knew he felt bad, she wanted nothing to do with him. Avoiding Harry was incredibly simple. All she had to do was approach Malfoy and he would stay away. They'd worked together silently in Potions twice already and the stunned look on Malfoy's face as she'd approached him was definitely worth Ron's cold glares and Harry's confused stares. Hermione had no idea why Malfoy hadn't simply told her no, but it worked for her. Yes she was using him, in a way, but she was far too angry with her friends to really care.

Sick was another thing she was. Hermione, for the first time since knowing she was a witch, was sick. It had started that same awful night that left her unwilling to speak to her friends; she'd sneezed a few times and thought nothing of it. Until it hadn't stopped. She was taking some muggle medicine that she'd brought with her to help with the headaches not sleeping caused, but that was going to be gone soon and she didn't have her parents to send her more. She'd brewed a couple of potions that had worked for a while but not well. Hermione knew that Madam Pomfrey would be able to give her something better, something that Hermione didn't have the patience to brew, but that would mean explaining what was wrong and she didn't want to do that. She'd probably accidentally tell her that she got next to no sleep. Ron hadn't seemed to notice that she was sick or if he had he didn't show it, but Harry had. He'd tried asking about her sniffling and flushed cheeks, though she'd successfully kept silent and glared at him until he walked away with his shoulders hunched.

Other than her annoying cold-it was simply lasting longer, she knew it was nothing serious-Malfoy was being quieter. He'd seemed to accept her Can't we at least be civil? because he'd gone back to only saying 'hello' or 'good night' instead of, well, he'd never really said much to her before, but at least it was limited now. Sometimes she was almost sure that he wanted to say something to her, and probably nothing good, but he never did. The only people that Hermione really spoke to now were the concerned students who wanted her to pass on a message to McGonagall or the other delegates-that meeting was tonight. She would see if anything she'd been told would actually be remembered. At first she'd been pleased, because she didn't have to have uncomfortable conversations, but it was becoming a curse. All she could do was think about her parents, what she would do with Ron, and how it was getting harder each day not to pass out from exhaustion. It was going to happen if nothing got better and Hermione knew it was becoming a serious problem, but she was too stubborn to explain the situation to anyone else. No one would be able to understand that she was stuck in the pit of her own personal hell; her friends had never been in her position so she knew they would never understand.

Hermione sneezed for what had to be the twentieth time since her Charms lesson had started. She absolutely hated being sick and she was beginning to feel tired again. Her decision to skip lunch came rather quickly after that; a cold shower would do her good, as it would wake her up a little more and might get her to stop feeling so clammy. Now was the time when Hermione really wanted to write to her mother and ask for suggestions on what to do, or really just be able to talk about the mess her head had become, but that wasn't going to happen until they were found. And they had to be found, as they hadn't just decided to disappear from the face of the earth.

Charms ended with Professor Flitwick's small chuckle and Hermione sighed heavily; she was definitely going to need to take more medicine for her head. She was almost certain the damn thing would crack open, it was hurting so bad. With her bag slung over her shoulder, she was definitely ready to head back to the common room. The day wasn't even half over yet and all she wanted was to climb into bed. Hermione walked quickly out of the classroom and began to hurry to the common room. She was halfway there when there was a tug on her arm. Hermione groaned and turned around, her eyes narrowing slightly even though that made her head hurt more. "What do you want, Harry?" she asked, wishing she could just run to find Malfoy so she didn't have to talk to Harry.

"I want to talk-Don't look around for Malfoy like that, I saw him walking to the great hall earlier," Harry said, frowning before a hurt look came over his face. "You don't really have much of a choice; I'm not letting you avoid me anymore,"

"I'm not avoiding you," Hermione lied weakly; she knew that Harry would be able to see through her if he tried, but as of late he hadn't been doing much of that.

"If you weren't then you wouldn't go running off the Malfoy every time I try to talk to you. What's with that anyway? Are you two like..." he trailed off, his frown deepening. "You're not friends with him or anything, are you? Because I don't really know how I feel about that," It took every ounce of her self control not to start screaming right then. What did he mean I don't know how I feel about that? If he thought he was going to control who she spent time with, he would be sadly mistaken. "And I know Ron wouldn't be very comfortable with it either,"

"I don't care about what Ron would or wouldn't be comfortable with,"

"Well, I just know that I wouldn't be too happy if Ginny started hanging around guys that we both hate, so-"

"Thing is, I don't hate Malfoy. He's, well, I don't have to explain that. Maybe you would have noticed that had you been paying any attention,"

Harry looked slightly disturbed by her words but he shook his head as if that would make the thoughts go away. "Okay, whatever. I didn't come here to talk about Malfoy-"

"Great, because I don't really want to talk about him either," He smiled slightly at her words and released her arm, and Hermione frowned deeply. "So if that's all-"

"Hermione, come on. I just want to talk. Can you please just listen to me?"

Hermione looked at her small watch and frowned; he had to hurry if she wanted to have enough time for her cold shower. She didn't want to talk about anything with him, but he was her best friend. Unfortunately she was loyal to him too, even if he seemed to care more about Ron. "You have until we get back to my common room. There's something I have to do and I don't want to waste a bunch of time,"

It looked like he was about to protest, but Harry shrugged instead. "I guess I better talk fast then,"

"You might want to,"

Hermione started walking, going a little slower than normal because she knew Harry wasn't always best with expressing things. He'd be lucky if he got out half of what he wanted to say before they got to her common room. "So the thing is, Hermione... Well I just..." Hermione smiled slightly; apparently she still knew him even if he didn't know much about her anymore. "Okay this feels weird, you know?"

"Yes," Hermione said, nodding slightly. "You know we don't have to do this now-"

"No, we do. That's just you trying to get out of it," he said. Hermione didn't bother to try and lie to him; he would know. "I wanted to apologize, for what happened the other day. Ron's sorry too-"

"If Ron was sorry he would say it himself,"

"He's too proud to do it, just like you,"

Hermione stopped immediately and raised an eyebrow. "Please explain to me what, exactly, I have to apologize for?"

Harry's face paled slightly and he frowned at her. "Hermione, I was just saying that, well, maybe... Okay, don't bite my head off?"

"I make no promises," she said angrily, folding her arms across her chest.

"It's just that you stood up for Malfoy, not Ron, and that really hurt his feelings-"

"Oh that hurt his feelings?" Hermione asked coldly, her eyes narrowing as the pounding in her head worsened. "Why don't you ask him how getting thrown across the great hall feels and then let me know what he says?"

"Well Ron didn't mean to do that-"

"He didn't-How could you say that to me? How on earth could you say that to me, Harry?"

"Hermione-"

"Ron knew exactly what he was doing when he pulled his wand, so don't you dare tell me-"

"Well someone's got to defend him! He wouldn't really try to-"

"He did! How are you even able to say that he wouldn't when he did?"

"Hermione, I know Ron-"

"And I thought I did,"

"You do, I promise. He felt bad, well, at least he said he did when I asked him..."

"I don't care if Ron felt bad. Try imagining how I feel, Harry! Maybe then you'd understand why I'm avoiding you both,"

"But you don't need me to worry about you; Ron's not been doing well after the battle and losing Fred-"

Hermione scoffed; even though she knew that Ron was still greatly affected by Fred's death, she had problems too. "Ron's not been doing well?" she asked, a sarcastic tone to her voice that she was sure would have made Malfoy smirk. But she couldn't think about Malfoy in that moment; he would distract her from her anger and she didn't want that to happen. Hermione coughed harshly before looking at Harry again. "Not that you've noticed, but I've been having a hell of a time dealing with the battle too, Harry. Not everyone has it as easy as you,"

"What are you talking about? You're fine, I know you are. You're Hermione-"

"I'm well aware of who I am," she said angrily, frowning even more as she sneezed again. "And contrary to popular belief, I am not fine,"

"But I-I mean I assumed-" Hermione began walking away, feeling tears stinging the backs of her eyes. Of course it was all just a misunderstanding; Harry did care he just thought that she was fine. And while it bothered her that he picked up on none of the obvious signs that she wasn't, all she could focus on was the fact that he cared. That mixed in with being tired and sick brought her close to tears though she hated crying so she wiped her eyes angrily. "Hermione wait-"

"Leave me alone, Harry,"

"But I'm sorry-"

"I understand that but that doesn't mean I'm not angry,"

"But I-"

"Harry I swear if you don't leave me alone-"

"Can't you just listen to me?" he said, his voice raising.

"Oh I'm sure you'd rather go listen to Ron!"

"Hermione!"

"What?" she snapped. Harry opened his mouth to speak but that was the moment that they reached the common room. "Oh, looks like we're out of time," she said sarcastically, feigning sadness and frowning at him. "As if-"

"Hermione, I'm sorry-please, can't we just get past this?"

She didn't answer, she simply slammed the common room door in his face and closed her eyes, rubbing her temples and frowning. Her head was feeling horrible after raising her voice and arguing with Harry. She was beginning to feel nauseous as well, so not going to lunch was definitely going to be a good thing. She was half sure that she would get sicker if she did and that wasn't something she wanted.

Hermione's shower lasted a long time, as she kept hoping that the cold water would wake her up more, but it didn't do that. And she wasn't able to stop thinking about arguing with Harry long enough to remember that she wanted to take more medicine for her head. She didn't realize until she was halfway to her Arithmancy class that her head was beginnng to hurt again and she groaned quietly, but at least she was going to a class where the person next to her wouldn't try to talk to her. That was only if Malfoy would sit by her again, though he'd never tried to sit by anyone else.

He was already in his seat when she got to class, her hair still slightly damp but it didn't bother her much. She sneezed again as she sat down and Malfoy glanced at her. He frowned but shook his head and Hermione was tempted to ask what he was thinking, but she kept quiet. Speaking would do her no good now.