A/N: SO how
many noticed I updated part 4? Cause I'm
an idiot and made a HUGE mistake. Draco
was kissing Persephone…Draco was kissing Persephone…Draco was kissing…ok, has
it sunk in yet? CAUSE DRACO IS
DEAD. I know! Am I the biggest idiot or what? Ugh- I'm ashamed at myself. So
just imagine a world now, were Draco has died and Goyle has 'replaced' him in
Slytherin. So it was GOYLE kissing
Persephone. Got it? Good.
The common room, set in absolute silence, was void
of any students.
"Well isn't this nice? No one to hustle off to bed." Her words were premature, as Harry
and Ron jumped over the back of the couch, landing on the cushions. "Guuuuys, I'm tired," Hermione whined.
"Then go to bed." Ron brushed her off.
"I can't just leave you two here alone."
"And why is that?" snapped Harry, smiling.
"You'll end up burning down the school somehow, or
maybe relocating it to Scotland. I'm
not sure, but you'll do something fantastically awful."
"And why are you so sure of that?" asked Ron, his
arms across his chest.
"It's you and Harry, that's why. And if you weren't this way, where would any
excitement be in my life?"
"You couldn't live without us," stated Harry, smiling
broadly.
"Of course I couldn't," said Hermione bending as if
to give them a hug, but in fact she grabbed at the collars of their robes, "So
go to bed, or I'll kill you and learn to deal with living without you."
"Harsh words Hermione," said Ron, rubbing his neck
as he made his way to the staircase. "Viscous. I LOVE it when you're
like that."
"Don't you wish you could have a piece of this,"
she said, holding her hands in the air, "Well, why don't you go dream about it
and let some of us get some beauty sleep! Goodnight!"
"Night Hermione," the boys chorused, and headed to
bed themselves.
*
"Is this going to be the same thing every FRICKING
year?"
"Seems that way, doesn't it?"
"It is way to early in the morning for you to be
knowing everything."
"Then why do you ask? And why are you so grumpy?"
"I'm grumpy because we have Double Potions with the
Slytherins AGAIN. And, we have it
now. Right after breakfast. I dunno if I'm going to be able to keep my
breakfast down if Goyle and Persephone start to go at it in the middle of
class."
Harry blushed.
"Ron," Hermione grunted, "You are so insensitive."
"And you, Hermione Granger," said Harry,
undisturbed, "are not very good at whispering." He was pelted with a pancake. "Don't hit me because I point out something you're not good at." And another. "Well, it's true!" And
another. "Cut it out!" And another. "Stop!" There was no
following pancake. "Aha!"
"You're lucky I wasn't very hungry."
"Not hungry? That was four pancakes and you already ate some!"
"Well some of them were Ron's, he had about a
dozen." Run shrugged his shoulders and
smiled sheepishly.
"Hey, I'm a growing boy! What can I say?"
"You'll be growing here if you continue to eat like
that," said Hermione, patting Ron's firm stomach.
"Hey, everyone needs a little change
sometimes. You flatten your hair and
shrink your teeth, I fatten up." Hermione tried to look stern but smiled at the look on Ron's face.
"You are such a dork."
"You know you love me."
"Why have I been cursed with this goon head?" asked
Hermione, pleading with the enchanted ceiling.
"Speaking of cursed," interrupted Harry, "It's time
for Potions." After much grumbling,
whining, complaining, and a few tears, (Ron's), the three headed for the dungeons.
They entered the Potions classroom all feeling
depressed. They moved towards three
seats in the back, farthest away from Snape, who was not in the classroom
yet. Slowly, all the Gryffindors and
Slytherins entered the room, taking seats, equally divided on either side of
the room. Persephone was the last to
enter looking winded.
"Persi, you're supposed to be with the fifth
years." Ron told her.
"I know, but I begged that Dumblemore guy and he's
letting me try these classes."
"Oh," said Ron, although he wasn't interested.
The class continued to sit patiently, but even
after class was due to start, Snape had not arrived. After twenty minutes, the Gryffindors had begun to gather their
things.
"Where do you think you're going, Scarhead?" sneered
Goyle, who seemed to take Malfoy's role in the Slytherin house.
"I'm not about to wait around for Snape to get his
butt over here, I'm leaving."
"Really, Mr. Potter? Why don't you also take away 5 points from Gryffindor?"
Harry whirled around and was standing face to face
with Severus Snape.
"I suggest you find your seat, Potter, unless you'd
like to start the year off with a detention." Harry, angrier than a charging bull, did find his seat as Snape began
roll call with Malfoy laughing silently. Snape ran through the names, but he paused right after Hermione. "Persephone?" he whispered, looking up, his
eyes searching the faces of his class. "Persephone Gregory? Not the Persephone, is it."
"Severus? No way!" Persephone jumped up
and ran to the front of the room. Pausing for a minute in front of Snape, she lunged at him and wrapped
her arms around his neck. The entire
class sat uncomfortably and confused. Ron looked furious that his cousin was hugging the most loathed teacher
at Hogwarts.
"Uh, class," said Snape, still looking shocked,
"Read chapter one completely, I'll be right back. Persephone, come out into the hall with me." The moment the door had clicked shut, the
class broke out into confused whispers. The most confused of all were Ron, Hermione, and Harry.
"Why does my cousin seem to be enjoying the company
of every person I've ever hated? I
swear, next she'll be necking with Percy. What do you suppose she and Snape are doing out there anyway?"
"All right Ron, you are no longer allowed to make
analogies when you are upset. You just
end up making the rest of us sick."
"Harry! You
should be upset too! She's practically
you're girlfriend. C'mon, doesn't it
bother you in the slightest."
"Bloody hell," Harry muttered under his breath,
"Ron! She's not my girlfriend! We just like to hang out, that's all!"
"Then where did she get that hickey she was so
desperately trying to show off?"
"Hermione, stay out of it!"
"Forget it," Ron said, turned in his seat and
opened his Potions book. "Let's just
read chapter one." All three opened
their books, but none actually read it. They were all too angry, or upset, or worried. It was not normal for Snape to act this way to any student, not
even his own Slytherins. The class sat
in complete silence, another abnormality, until Snape opened the door
again.
"Well class," he said as Persephone hurried to her
seat, "Let's get started." And the
class continued on as if there had never been a strange meeting between
Persephone and Snape. They were
learning of Sleeplessness Potions, and Neville managed to put himself to
sleep. Points were taken away, Neville
looked near tears, and Snape yelled a lot, criticizing anyone he could. All in all, it was an average Double Potions
class with the Slytherins and the Gryffindors.
Their first break of the day, Hermione, Harry, and
Ron opted to spend the time in their own common room. "I could use a nap," muttered Ron, with his hands over his eyes.
"Do you remember us like that?" asked Hermione,
looking at a group of first years that were giggling excitedly over the
adventure that is Hogwarts.
"Were we really that annoying?" Harry's comment received a smack from
Hermione.
"They might hear you, and besides, it's cute. We were like that."
"I wasn't. I personally thought the whole thing was a bore."
"Posh!" yelled Hermione, "I'm sure you loved every minute of it." Then she realized that Ron and Harry were
both asleep. "Well isn't this
nice…Ugh!" Hermione felt the couch jump
under her.
"Oh, hi Persephone. Enjoy classes?" At the
sound of Persephone's name, Harry sat up, opened his eyes and tried to flatten
his hair.
"Oh, um, hey Persi, what's going on?"
"Haaaaary, I'm really bored. Why don't you come with me?" She stood and grabbed Harry's hand. Hermione watched on in disgust as Persephone
pulled Harry towards the girls' dormitory. The group of first years giggled incessantly as Persephone kissed Harry
fiercely, then whisked him away, up the stairs.
"Oh will you shut up!" snapped Hermione, her good
mood ruined. The first years scurried
away, all hurt by Hermione. "Stupid
first years, stupid Persephone, stupid HARRY!"
"Huh?" said Ron, suddenly wakened.
"Don't worry about ANYTHING Ron. It's all under control. I've scared away the first years and Harry's
taken care of the Persephone problem."
"Good," said Ron, settling back into his seat,
looking as if he was going to fall asleep again, "How'd he do that?"
"Just decided to snog with her," stated Hermione,
matter-of-factly.
"WHAT! What
the bloody hell?"
"Maybe you shouldn't nap so much!"
"Maybe you should SHUT UP!" yelled Ron, smacking
Hermione in the face. He soon realized
that he hadn't hit her with the pillow he'd intended, but rather, in his fury,
had picked up a book and hit her. And
now tears were running down her cheeks as a bruise began to glow beside her
eye. "Oh, Hermione. I'm so horribly sorry. I swear I didn't mean to. I swear it. I thought it was a pillow." Hermione was trying hard to control her tears. "Hermione…" Ron whined. "Please don't cry." He leaned
towards her face and kissed the side of her eye where he'd hit. And he kissed her eyelid, and her nose, and
before he knew it, he had tilted her chin towards him, and was kissing her
passionately on the mouth.
And surprisingly enough, Hermione was kissing him
BACK. They soon sat up, both visibly
surprised and out of breath. Ron looked
at Hermione, shock written clearly across his face. She looked back at him, and soon, they were both laughing
hysterically. And I mean, rolling on
the floor, crying, pain in their stomach laughing. It was that intense. You
would think that it was the funniest thing that had ever happened to either of
them.
"What the hell was that?" asked Hermione, in
between spits of giggles.
"I…have…no…idea…" Ron gasped.
"Reading too many of Ginny's Centaur Beat
magazines? Thought it'd be romantic?"
"Yeah…romantic, 'Hit your gal in the side of the
face then kiss her.'" They both stopped
laughing then. "Yeah…" said Ron,
obviously trying to fill the silence. But the silence was the loudest kind of silence. Ron and Hermione's eyes were doing all the
talking. Confused and unknowing, they
were trying to figure out what the other was thinking.
"Ron, I…"
"I know."
"Do you?"
"I do." They lunged at each other, kissing softly at first, then full of need
and passion.
"I can't."
"I know."
"I'm sorry."
"I know that too."
"I really am. For me and you."
"I know."
"You sure?"
"Yeah, I'm sure." And then they pulled apart, sitting uncomfortably, Hermione fiddling
with her hair, Ron straightening his robes. Harry suddenly stumbled down the stairs, tripping over the last step as
he entered the common room.
"Hey guys? What did I miss?"
"Just going for a quickie, eh Harry?" And then Hermione burst into tears and ran
up towards her dormitory.
"What's the matter with her?" asked Harry as he
watched her, confused.
"I dunno."
"Uh oh…"
"What's 'uh oh'? There's no 'uh oh'."
"There's definitely an 'uh oh'. It's all over your face."
"What!?! She had lipstick…Oops." Ron
realized his mistake.
"So?" asked Harry, grinning devilishly, "Lipstick,
eh? And who was the lipstick wearing
brood?"
"There was no brood, only…only, Hermione. Harry, I kissed Hermione."
"Phah!" Harry laughed, "Yeah, and I was just
snogging with Snape. Hey!
Alliteration…Wait, you're not kidding are you?"
"No," said Ron, with his head in his hands, "I
wasn't."
"But Ron, I mean, that's great, but think of all
that's happened between Hermione and your family."
"I KNOW THAT! That's why we stopped. And
that's why she's crying. Cause I'm an
idiot! Damn it! Why am I so stupid?"
"You're not stupid, just, rash. Talk to her and think about what you wanna
do. Don't just go on impulse. That can lead to very complicated
messes. Trust me."
A/N2: Ok,
here's my second big surprise. THE
END. Yes, Of Darkness is over. I've lost all enthusiasm for it, which makes
the writing take longer, and a lot worse, which is no fair to you guys. I dunno if I'll be writing too often any
more. It'll be awhile, that's for
sure. So thank you all, and
goodnight.