-Chapter Five-
Draco Malfoy's Detention
Hermione woke up in the Hospital Wing at 7 o'clock in the morning, but someone was already waiting for her-Harry.
'Whoa! Harry, you scared me,' Hermione said.
'Good-morning to you, too,' Harry smiled. 'Listen, can I-well...tell you something?'
'Of course you can, what is it?' she asked.
'I love you, Hermione....' Harry whispered, and he went scarlet red in the face.
'I love you, too, but as a friend, Harry, nothing more,' Hermione said. 'I'm sure you understand.'
'Bloody hell, now I feel like an idiot for saying that,' he said, going even more red in the face, making him look like a tomato.
'Listen, Harry; I have a boyfriend already,' Hermione said slowly. 'If I weren't already involved in a relationship, I'd feel the same way about you, all right?'
'OK...I feel slightly less dumb now,' Harry said. He bent down and gave her a small kiss on the lips. 'I'll see you in Potions.'
'Yeah, OK. Bye!' Hermione said. He, Harry, had just kissed Hermione Granger!
'What was I thinking?' Harry thought. A voice in his head replied, 'That's the thing-you weren't.'
*
'Welcome back to Potions. I expect you all have finished your Setting potions?' Snape said coldly, staring at a few of the Gryffindor's in particular. The thing about Professor Severus Snape, was that he was head of Slytherin house-Draco Malfoy was his favourite student, and he loved picking on anyone he could in Gryffindor-Neville Longbottom, mostly.
'Well, well, Miss Granger....Do you have your Setting Potion finished?' Snape sneered with a dark smile.
'Yes, Professor, I have,' said Hermione in a too-bad-for-you tone.
'Excellent,' Snape said coldly, though he didn't mean it. 'Today we will be working on Stealth Potions. I will partner you up.'
'Oh great,' Ron whispered to Harry.
'Weasley, Goyle,' Snape said. 'Granger, Malfoy.' Harry shot an I'm-so-sorry frown at Hermione, but she took it well. 'Potter, Parkinson. And Longbottom, Crabbe.'
'EEP!' squealed Neville as he walked timidly over to Crabbe's table. Meanwhile, Hermione sat down beside Malfoy, and whispered, 'I'm glad we're partners,' into his ear.
'All right! That's ENOUGH!' Snape roared at all the moans and groans. 'First, what you all need to do is get your ingredients sorted. Lacewings, flies, and spider-legs are a must if you want your stealth potion to reach peak strength.' Snape quickly wrote down the amount of each ingedient that would be needed for this potion. 'You may begin.'
'What does that say? 2 Lacewings?' Hermione asked, squinting at Snape's tiny writing on the board.
'Of course not, it says 3,' Malfoy stated. 'Then you add three drops of Newt Saliva.' He dropped 3 into the potion.
'And is it 6 flies or 5?' Hermione asked again, looking at the board. 'Gosh! I can't make out a word he wrote!'
'It's 5,' said a cold voice behind Hermione. 'I suggest you get your eyes checked, Miss Granger. You're having difficulty.'
Draco and Hermione quickly dumped the rest of the needed ingredients into the potion.
'Now, if you have done the potion correctly, you should start to feel your stamina increase, and your muscles become stronger,' Snape said with a twisted smile. 'You may begin drinking your potions-oh, of course, except for you, Longbottom. I'm pretty sure you've come up with a potion that turns you into a donkey.' Snape confiscated the the potion on Neville's desk quickly.
Hermione took a bit of the potion. It tasted like rotten carrots, and mouldy bread. She she felt her insides shake, and her skin turned bright green and slimy.
'Congratulations, Granger!' Snape smirked violently. 'You've just turned yourself into a slug! 50 Points from Gryffin-'
'Don't even try!' Draco yelled in a vicious tone. 'She couldn't make out your handwriting, and neither could I! If it's anyone to blame, it's me, you slimy excuse for a good professor!'
People all around stared at Malfoy as if he were totally insane! This was Snape he was talking to! Snape turned his glittering black eyes to Malfoy, and smiled.
'Thank you for that announcement, Draco Malfoy,' he sneered. '50 Points from Slytherin, and a week's detention with Filch the caretaker.'
*
Harry, Ron and Hermione were on their way to Care of Magical Creatures (after lunch in the Great Hall, that is) with the Slytherins. Malfoy and Hermione hung at the back of the line to talk.
'How come you did that, Draco?' Hermione whispered. 'I could have taken 50 points from Gryffindor and a detention. You shouldn't have done that for me.'
'Hermione, I had to do something! It's not like you made a slug potion on purpose,' Draco replied.
'All righ', all righ',' came the familiar voice of Hagrid. 'Terday we're goin' ter experimen' with Centaurs.'
'Oooh,' said a few Slytherins.
'Now, Centaurs are usu'ly good natured animals, see. But yeh got ter be careful. They can ge' scared out o' there wits if yeh approach 'em outta nowhere,' Hagrid said. 'I've tied a few out back. Follow me, now.'
Hagrid led them out back of his cabin, where about three or four Centaurs were tethered to trees.
'OK, who wants ter go firs'?' Hagrid beamed. 'Yeh can feed 'em some o' that jabbergrass, if yeh wan'.'
Harry rose his hand. 'I'll go.'
'Tha's a good boy, Harry,' Hagrid smiled gently. 'Pick up some o' the jabbergrss, righ' over there. In order fer a Centaur ter trus' yeh, yeh got ter stroke 'em gen'ly. Slow, jus' behind their necks.'
Harry picked up some jabbergrass from one hand, and with the other, he slowly stroked the back of the Centaur's neck. He whinnied, kind of like a horse, and accepted the food from Harry's other hand.
'Hey, Mudblood,' said Pansy. 'Are the remainders of your slug potion still wearing off, or is that the way you look all the time?' A few Slytherin girls laughed hysterically. Hermione held her head high, trying not to cry. 'What's the matter, Mudblood? Too embarrassed to cry in front of your boyfriend?'
Hermione burst into tears, and hurried down the hall, back up the stone steps to Hogwarts, and raced inside to her head dormitory.
She heard lots of knocking on the door, but she decided to ignore it.
'Hermione!' Draco called through the door. 'Let me in! It's me!'
'Go away!' Hermione shouted. 'I don't want you to see me crying!'
'Please, Hermione!' Draco yelled. 'Hermione.....I know that you don't REALLY want me to go away, now, do you?'
'No....it's not what I want...' Draco heard lots of sniffling going on inside her room.
'Well then, let me in, and we can talk this over,' he said calmly.
'Fine...Alohamora,' she whispered, and the door flew open. 'What do you need to say? It better not be a lecture...'
'Hermione, don't listen to a word Pansy says,' Draco began, 'secondly, I'm going to Dumbledore if she does another move. That should keep her in line. And thirdly, we need to talk about you and Harry. He's been acting weird.'
'I'd rather not talk about the situation with Harry, if you don't mind...' Hermione said.
'Oh, come on, Herm, what's wrong?' he asked soothingly.
'Nothing, really, there's nothing wrong at all...' she replied. But Draco was wiser than that. The sun was shining brightly through the window, and it reflected off her face, which had tear stains all over the side of her cheeks.
'Fine then, I'll leave. It doesn't look like you want me here,' he said, and started for the door.
'Wait! No...I want you here.....I'm just afraid you'll get really mad at Harry if I tell you what happened,' she stuttered. Her voice was quite shaky.
'I won't get mad at him.'
'Look, this morning, Harry came to visit me in the Hospital Wing before breakfast...' Hermione said slowly, 'and he told me he loved me. I told him I loved him only as a friend, that I had a boyfriend already. But then he kissed me....I really meant a lot to him...more than I thought.'
'So that's it...' Draco said. 'That explains why he hasn't been talking to you today.'
'That's right,' Hermione answered. 'Now I'm afraid that he'll never speak to me again, you know?'
'Hermione, if he's a friend at all, he'll understand completely,' Draco reassured her. 'You know, Harry and Ron are very worried about you,' he added abruptly.
'How do you know that?' Hermione inquired puzzledly. 'Besides, they don't need to be worried about me, I'm fine...'
'Harry told me,' he said, 'that you had been acting odd. I'm surprised that he even told me that, as I know how much he despises me, and I him...'
'What's he mean? I'm not acting odd...' Hermione whispered.
'He says that you haven't been talking to him as much, for one thing,' Draco responded. 'And another thing, he says you haven't been going to the library non-stop, like you usually do.'
'That's because I know something that he doesn't, and I'm afraid to find out more about it....it's horrible...' Draco looked at her with a pained expression on his face.
'You know that you can tell me whatever's on your mind,' he said. 'No matter how awful it is.'
'I'm sorry, Draco, but I'm not ready to say anything about it. It's just too horrible...'
*
Harry and Ron were heading up the many flights of stairs, up to Divination. It was 4 o'clock in the afternoon, so this would be there last lesson of the day.
'Wee! If it isn't Potty-Wee-Potter!' cackled an unforgettable voice.
'Bug off, Peeves,' Harry said miserably. Peeves was the school Poltergeist. He got into trouble a lot, and often liked to make up names for Harry. 'I'm not in the mood today.'
Peeves was very frustrated at this, so he gave a loud 'hmph!' and took off in the other direction.
Harry and Ron had finally made it up all of the stairs, panting in exhaustion. Stair-climbing wasn't exactly their favourite thing to do.
They climbed the trapdoor into Professor Trelawny's classroom. As usual, it was very dimly lit. In fact, the only light was coming from the fire, which was heavily perfumed, and always made Harry tired.
'Hello, and welcome to Divination,' said the familiar misty voice of Professor Trelawny. 'Sit down, please, I have an announcement to make. At the end of this year, I will be leaving you all...' Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil gasped at this. The Professor, though it seemed very odd, looked scared. 'From here on until January, we will be reading the unpredictable flames of fire. From January to June, we shall be studying the different outcomes of the stars, meaning that they will form to make a certain shape, and we'll make predictions from there. Is that clear, everyone?'
'Yes,' they all groaned.
'OK, then, partner up, and sit down at a table,' Professor Trelawny said. Of course, Harry and Ron partnered up, and Neville was trembling-was it because he didn't like fire, or was he scared about something?
'Neville, want to sit with us?' Harry asked. Neville violently shook his head, and managed to say a quick, 'I'll sit alone.' 'Something's up with him...' Harry said defiantly.
'Definitely,' Ron agreed. Professor Trelawny began speaking just then.
'What you will need to do is come over to the fire, take a glass bowl from over there,' she indicated towards a cabinet, 'and say 'Flarocious'. This will enable you to get some flames into the bowl without burning yourself.'
One by one, they went up in pairs to collect some flames from the fire, and sat back down at their tables. Harry tried to concentrate hard, as he looked into the boiling flames.
'Well, what do you see?' Ron asked quizzically. 'Anything interesting?'
'Yeah, a bunch of red and orange fire,' Harry said sarcastically.
'No, seriously, what do you see?' Ron repeated.
'Nothing!' Harry said shortly. 'Although, this thing here sort of looks like a...lightning bolt, maybe...'
'A lightning bolt? Most interesting, dear,' said Professor Trelawny. 'Perhaps it is a sign that you will soon be fighting You-Know-Who....Let me have a close look at it.' Professor Trelawny gazed into the crackling flames, and immediately gasped. Harry, who had received many bad insights before from this old nut, just rolled his eyes. 'My dear boy...Your good friend knows something that you don't, and she won't share it with you....Oh, it's terrible! I wonder what if she'll say it to you?'
'Please, Hermione isn't hiding anything from me,' Harry hissed. 'That's rubbish.'
'Is it? Is it really? I daresay, I think I know a little more about fire-reading than you do, Mr Potter,' Professor Trelawny said in a high-pitched tone, quite unlike her own.
Harry was very glad when he and Ron were finally free from that death chamber that was a so called "classroom." It wasn't long until they bumped into Draco Malfoy.
'Watch where your going, Harry, or you're going to have a bad fall,' Draco said, and then walked away.
'Did he just call you by your first name?' Ron gasped. 'What's gotten into that slimeball? I tell you, something's up. I bet his Father, Lucius Malfoy, is the one who stole that thing from Gringotts!'
'Dunno,' Harry said hastily, 'could be. We should probably go see Hermione. She was awfully said after what Pansy Parkinson had said to her.'
Harry and Ron hurried up to Gryffindor Tower, and slipped through the portrait of the Fat Lady, and into the common room.
Hermione was in a corner, reading a book (though it didn't surprise Harry nor Ron the slightest, as this is what Hermione usually did to cheer herself up.)
'Er-Hermione?' Harry asked. 'You OK?'
'Of course I am,' she said quickly. 'Why wouldn't I be? I'm fine, please, don't worry about me.'
Harry sort of shot a look at Ron, that told him that he should leave them alone for a moment. 'Oh! Would you look at that,' Ron said. 'I have some homework to do! I guess I'll go to the library. I'll see you guys later.' Ron quickly left Harry and Hermione alone.
'Listen, Hermione-'
'Malfoy (it was getting harder and harder to call him by that) told me that you were worried about me,' Hermione said flatly. 'And I just want to tell you that you need not worry over me. I'm fine, I swear.'
'Are you sure?' Harry questioned. 'You've just been acting a bit weird lately. Professor Trelawny is convinced that you're hiding something from me.' Harry laughed quickly. 'Is that dumb or what? I mean, why would you hide something from me?'
Hermione went pale, and quickly looked back down at her book again.
'God...you are hiding something from me,' he said, disbelievingly. 'You don't trust me, do you?'
'Of course I do, Harry,' Hermione said, looking up from her book. 'I'm just startled....well.....you know, I was shocked this morning when you told me you loved me. It's changed the way I feel about you....that kiss was wrong. It shouldn't have happened.' Harry looked like he was going to cry.
'I should have known my feelings were wasted on you!' Harry yelled, as tears streamed down his face. He started running up the stairs to the boys dormitory.
'Harry, no! Wait!' Hermione bellowed.
'Why? So you'll rip out my heart even more?' Harry gave a sarcastic laugh. 'And to think that I actually thought you'd feel the same way...How dumb was I to think that, hm? Answer me!'
Hermione was so shocked at this sudden anger that was rising out of Harry. 'I told you this morning! If I weren't already involved with someone else, I'd probably be with you!'
'Oh, really? I bet you don't even have a boyfriend, and that you just don't want to be seen with the four-eyed geek with a mark across his ugly face!' Harry bellowed, and ran inside the boys dormitory, locking the door.
'Harry!' Hermione yelled through the locked door. 'Harry, please! I didn't mean what I said!' But all she heard in reply were sobs and the sound of Harry blowing his nose into a kleenex. 'Harry, if you let me in, I'll explain everything.' Harry, although extremely upset, couldn't deny the one he loved a fair dealing. He hid his face by doing up his hood, and opened the door.
'Fine, come in...' he whispered. He pointed to a bed where she could sit.
'OK, Harry, here's the scoop,' said Hermione. 'I really do have a boyfriend, but I promised him that I wouldn't tell anyone. Before I realized my feelings for him, I was pretty convinced that I was in love with you.' Harry's sobs retreated.
'You...you mean that?' Harry said quietly.
'Yes, Harry, of course I do. I would never, ever lie to you.' She put an arm around him. 'You can take off your hood, you know.' So Harry lowered the hood, and looked at her. Hermione pulled him into a hug. 'I hate to see you upset over me, you know.'
Harry's mouth formed into a small smile. 'I don't really want to be upset over you. Listen, I didn't mean what I said down there either. It's just that I'm caught up in my own feelings...At first, I loved you, but then I was convinced that I was too young to really be in love. But now that I'm fifteen, I believe the feeling I have inside my heart really is love, afterall.'
'You know, Harry, there are a lot of times when I wish I had you as a boyfriend,' Hermione smiled gently. 'I'm just committed to the person I love, I know I love him, but if he and I ever broke up, you can be sure that you'd be the first to know.' At the words that had just come out of her mouth, Harry couldn't stop himself. He threw his arms around her, and kissed her on the lips. Hermione, not wanting to hurt Harry's feelings by pushing away, reluctantly sat back, and did the same to him. But after a few minutes, she pulled away, panting, and blushing madly.
'You can't be in love with Harry, because you're already in love with Draco!' she thought over and over. Harry sat there, virtually speechless; he'd open his mouth to say something, but then think better of it. Finally, he found words.
'Hermione,' he whispered, 'that kiss was amazing. It felt so right.'
'But deep inside, you know it wasn't right, don't you?' Hermione whispered soulfully.
'Yes, I know...but how can the only thing I've ever been sure of, be wrong?' Harry asked. There was definite pain in those green eyes that moment. And then...tears; glistening, silver tears, going down his cheeks.
'Oh, Harry,' Hermione whimpered, 'please don't cry.' She, herself, began to cry at the sight of him. 'I gotta go...I'm so sorry.' She quickly ran out the door, her face buried in her hands, as she ran into someone so forcefully, that she got knocked back against a wall.
'Hermione?' It was Draco; she had been lucky enough to run into Draco Malfoy. 'Let's get to our head dormitory.' Draco held Hermione close to him, as they walked through each corridor in silence.
They reached the head dormitory, and shut and locked the door behind them. Soft cries, and streaming tears were still coming from Hermione.
'Herm, this is the second time that you've been in tears today,' Draco said calmly. 'What's wrong this time?'
'It's...it's love,' Hermione said in between sobs. 'I love you so much, but then Harry kisses me tonight, and I'm suddenly not so sure.' Draco went pale in the face, as though he'd seen a ghost.
'OK, well...' he said slowly, 'you have to think about this thoroughly, and come up with an answer, a-a-all right?'
'All right,' Hermione whispered miserably. 'I love you very much; if I were trapped in a dungeon somewhere, you'd be the one to rescue me. Then there's Harry, who I've been best friends with for ages; if ever I needed a brother to talk to, he'd be the one.' Hermione went over things in her mind. 'I have my answer.' Draco quickly sat down beside her.
'And?' he asked nervously.
'And you're my true love; I was confused for awhile, but now I know that Harry's just like a brother, and not a boyfriends,' Hermione said. 'Draco Salazar Malfoy, I love you.' Draco's heart lightened considerably at this.
'I love you, too,' he replied, and they wrapped their arms tightly around each other, and fell asleep.
Draco Malfoy's Detention
Hermione woke up in the Hospital Wing at 7 o'clock in the morning, but someone was already waiting for her-Harry.
'Whoa! Harry, you scared me,' Hermione said.
'Good-morning to you, too,' Harry smiled. 'Listen, can I-well...tell you something?'
'Of course you can, what is it?' she asked.
'I love you, Hermione....' Harry whispered, and he went scarlet red in the face.
'I love you, too, but as a friend, Harry, nothing more,' Hermione said. 'I'm sure you understand.'
'Bloody hell, now I feel like an idiot for saying that,' he said, going even more red in the face, making him look like a tomato.
'Listen, Harry; I have a boyfriend already,' Hermione said slowly. 'If I weren't already involved in a relationship, I'd feel the same way about you, all right?'
'OK...I feel slightly less dumb now,' Harry said. He bent down and gave her a small kiss on the lips. 'I'll see you in Potions.'
'Yeah, OK. Bye!' Hermione said. He, Harry, had just kissed Hermione Granger!
'What was I thinking?' Harry thought. A voice in his head replied, 'That's the thing-you weren't.'
*
'Welcome back to Potions. I expect you all have finished your Setting potions?' Snape said coldly, staring at a few of the Gryffindor's in particular. The thing about Professor Severus Snape, was that he was head of Slytherin house-Draco Malfoy was his favourite student, and he loved picking on anyone he could in Gryffindor-Neville Longbottom, mostly.
'Well, well, Miss Granger....Do you have your Setting Potion finished?' Snape sneered with a dark smile.
'Yes, Professor, I have,' said Hermione in a too-bad-for-you tone.
'Excellent,' Snape said coldly, though he didn't mean it. 'Today we will be working on Stealth Potions. I will partner you up.'
'Oh great,' Ron whispered to Harry.
'Weasley, Goyle,' Snape said. 'Granger, Malfoy.' Harry shot an I'm-so-sorry frown at Hermione, but she took it well. 'Potter, Parkinson. And Longbottom, Crabbe.'
'EEP!' squealed Neville as he walked timidly over to Crabbe's table. Meanwhile, Hermione sat down beside Malfoy, and whispered, 'I'm glad we're partners,' into his ear.
'All right! That's ENOUGH!' Snape roared at all the moans and groans. 'First, what you all need to do is get your ingredients sorted. Lacewings, flies, and spider-legs are a must if you want your stealth potion to reach peak strength.' Snape quickly wrote down the amount of each ingedient that would be needed for this potion. 'You may begin.'
'What does that say? 2 Lacewings?' Hermione asked, squinting at Snape's tiny writing on the board.
'Of course not, it says 3,' Malfoy stated. 'Then you add three drops of Newt Saliva.' He dropped 3 into the potion.
'And is it 6 flies or 5?' Hermione asked again, looking at the board. 'Gosh! I can't make out a word he wrote!'
'It's 5,' said a cold voice behind Hermione. 'I suggest you get your eyes checked, Miss Granger. You're having difficulty.'
Draco and Hermione quickly dumped the rest of the needed ingredients into the potion.
'Now, if you have done the potion correctly, you should start to feel your stamina increase, and your muscles become stronger,' Snape said with a twisted smile. 'You may begin drinking your potions-oh, of course, except for you, Longbottom. I'm pretty sure you've come up with a potion that turns you into a donkey.' Snape confiscated the the potion on Neville's desk quickly.
Hermione took a bit of the potion. It tasted like rotten carrots, and mouldy bread. She she felt her insides shake, and her skin turned bright green and slimy.
'Congratulations, Granger!' Snape smirked violently. 'You've just turned yourself into a slug! 50 Points from Gryffin-'
'Don't even try!' Draco yelled in a vicious tone. 'She couldn't make out your handwriting, and neither could I! If it's anyone to blame, it's me, you slimy excuse for a good professor!'
People all around stared at Malfoy as if he were totally insane! This was Snape he was talking to! Snape turned his glittering black eyes to Malfoy, and smiled.
'Thank you for that announcement, Draco Malfoy,' he sneered. '50 Points from Slytherin, and a week's detention with Filch the caretaker.'
*
Harry, Ron and Hermione were on their way to Care of Magical Creatures (after lunch in the Great Hall, that is) with the Slytherins. Malfoy and Hermione hung at the back of the line to talk.
'How come you did that, Draco?' Hermione whispered. 'I could have taken 50 points from Gryffindor and a detention. You shouldn't have done that for me.'
'Hermione, I had to do something! It's not like you made a slug potion on purpose,' Draco replied.
'All righ', all righ',' came the familiar voice of Hagrid. 'Terday we're goin' ter experimen' with Centaurs.'
'Oooh,' said a few Slytherins.
'Now, Centaurs are usu'ly good natured animals, see. But yeh got ter be careful. They can ge' scared out o' there wits if yeh approach 'em outta nowhere,' Hagrid said. 'I've tied a few out back. Follow me, now.'
Hagrid led them out back of his cabin, where about three or four Centaurs were tethered to trees.
'OK, who wants ter go firs'?' Hagrid beamed. 'Yeh can feed 'em some o' that jabbergrass, if yeh wan'.'
Harry rose his hand. 'I'll go.'
'Tha's a good boy, Harry,' Hagrid smiled gently. 'Pick up some o' the jabbergrss, righ' over there. In order fer a Centaur ter trus' yeh, yeh got ter stroke 'em gen'ly. Slow, jus' behind their necks.'
Harry picked up some jabbergrass from one hand, and with the other, he slowly stroked the back of the Centaur's neck. He whinnied, kind of like a horse, and accepted the food from Harry's other hand.
'Hey, Mudblood,' said Pansy. 'Are the remainders of your slug potion still wearing off, or is that the way you look all the time?' A few Slytherin girls laughed hysterically. Hermione held her head high, trying not to cry. 'What's the matter, Mudblood? Too embarrassed to cry in front of your boyfriend?'
Hermione burst into tears, and hurried down the hall, back up the stone steps to Hogwarts, and raced inside to her head dormitory.
She heard lots of knocking on the door, but she decided to ignore it.
'Hermione!' Draco called through the door. 'Let me in! It's me!'
'Go away!' Hermione shouted. 'I don't want you to see me crying!'
'Please, Hermione!' Draco yelled. 'Hermione.....I know that you don't REALLY want me to go away, now, do you?'
'No....it's not what I want...' Draco heard lots of sniffling going on inside her room.
'Well then, let me in, and we can talk this over,' he said calmly.
'Fine...Alohamora,' she whispered, and the door flew open. 'What do you need to say? It better not be a lecture...'
'Hermione, don't listen to a word Pansy says,' Draco began, 'secondly, I'm going to Dumbledore if she does another move. That should keep her in line. And thirdly, we need to talk about you and Harry. He's been acting weird.'
'I'd rather not talk about the situation with Harry, if you don't mind...' Hermione said.
'Oh, come on, Herm, what's wrong?' he asked soothingly.
'Nothing, really, there's nothing wrong at all...' she replied. But Draco was wiser than that. The sun was shining brightly through the window, and it reflected off her face, which had tear stains all over the side of her cheeks.
'Fine then, I'll leave. It doesn't look like you want me here,' he said, and started for the door.
'Wait! No...I want you here.....I'm just afraid you'll get really mad at Harry if I tell you what happened,' she stuttered. Her voice was quite shaky.
'I won't get mad at him.'
'Look, this morning, Harry came to visit me in the Hospital Wing before breakfast...' Hermione said slowly, 'and he told me he loved me. I told him I loved him only as a friend, that I had a boyfriend already. But then he kissed me....I really meant a lot to him...more than I thought.'
'So that's it...' Draco said. 'That explains why he hasn't been talking to you today.'
'That's right,' Hermione answered. 'Now I'm afraid that he'll never speak to me again, you know?'
'Hermione, if he's a friend at all, he'll understand completely,' Draco reassured her. 'You know, Harry and Ron are very worried about you,' he added abruptly.
'How do you know that?' Hermione inquired puzzledly. 'Besides, they don't need to be worried about me, I'm fine...'
'Harry told me,' he said, 'that you had been acting odd. I'm surprised that he even told me that, as I know how much he despises me, and I him...'
'What's he mean? I'm not acting odd...' Hermione whispered.
'He says that you haven't been talking to him as much, for one thing,' Draco responded. 'And another thing, he says you haven't been going to the library non-stop, like you usually do.'
'That's because I know something that he doesn't, and I'm afraid to find out more about it....it's horrible...' Draco looked at her with a pained expression on his face.
'You know that you can tell me whatever's on your mind,' he said. 'No matter how awful it is.'
'I'm sorry, Draco, but I'm not ready to say anything about it. It's just too horrible...'
*
Harry and Ron were heading up the many flights of stairs, up to Divination. It was 4 o'clock in the afternoon, so this would be there last lesson of the day.
'Wee! If it isn't Potty-Wee-Potter!' cackled an unforgettable voice.
'Bug off, Peeves,' Harry said miserably. Peeves was the school Poltergeist. He got into trouble a lot, and often liked to make up names for Harry. 'I'm not in the mood today.'
Peeves was very frustrated at this, so he gave a loud 'hmph!' and took off in the other direction.
Harry and Ron had finally made it up all of the stairs, panting in exhaustion. Stair-climbing wasn't exactly their favourite thing to do.
They climbed the trapdoor into Professor Trelawny's classroom. As usual, it was very dimly lit. In fact, the only light was coming from the fire, which was heavily perfumed, and always made Harry tired.
'Hello, and welcome to Divination,' said the familiar misty voice of Professor Trelawny. 'Sit down, please, I have an announcement to make. At the end of this year, I will be leaving you all...' Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil gasped at this. The Professor, though it seemed very odd, looked scared. 'From here on until January, we will be reading the unpredictable flames of fire. From January to June, we shall be studying the different outcomes of the stars, meaning that they will form to make a certain shape, and we'll make predictions from there. Is that clear, everyone?'
'Yes,' they all groaned.
'OK, then, partner up, and sit down at a table,' Professor Trelawny said. Of course, Harry and Ron partnered up, and Neville was trembling-was it because he didn't like fire, or was he scared about something?
'Neville, want to sit with us?' Harry asked. Neville violently shook his head, and managed to say a quick, 'I'll sit alone.' 'Something's up with him...' Harry said defiantly.
'Definitely,' Ron agreed. Professor Trelawny began speaking just then.
'What you will need to do is come over to the fire, take a glass bowl from over there,' she indicated towards a cabinet, 'and say 'Flarocious'. This will enable you to get some flames into the bowl without burning yourself.'
One by one, they went up in pairs to collect some flames from the fire, and sat back down at their tables. Harry tried to concentrate hard, as he looked into the boiling flames.
'Well, what do you see?' Ron asked quizzically. 'Anything interesting?'
'Yeah, a bunch of red and orange fire,' Harry said sarcastically.
'No, seriously, what do you see?' Ron repeated.
'Nothing!' Harry said shortly. 'Although, this thing here sort of looks like a...lightning bolt, maybe...'
'A lightning bolt? Most interesting, dear,' said Professor Trelawny. 'Perhaps it is a sign that you will soon be fighting You-Know-Who....Let me have a close look at it.' Professor Trelawny gazed into the crackling flames, and immediately gasped. Harry, who had received many bad insights before from this old nut, just rolled his eyes. 'My dear boy...Your good friend knows something that you don't, and she won't share it with you....Oh, it's terrible! I wonder what if she'll say it to you?'
'Please, Hermione isn't hiding anything from me,' Harry hissed. 'That's rubbish.'
'Is it? Is it really? I daresay, I think I know a little more about fire-reading than you do, Mr Potter,' Professor Trelawny said in a high-pitched tone, quite unlike her own.
Harry was very glad when he and Ron were finally free from that death chamber that was a so called "classroom." It wasn't long until they bumped into Draco Malfoy.
'Watch where your going, Harry, or you're going to have a bad fall,' Draco said, and then walked away.
'Did he just call you by your first name?' Ron gasped. 'What's gotten into that slimeball? I tell you, something's up. I bet his Father, Lucius Malfoy, is the one who stole that thing from Gringotts!'
'Dunno,' Harry said hastily, 'could be. We should probably go see Hermione. She was awfully said after what Pansy Parkinson had said to her.'
Harry and Ron hurried up to Gryffindor Tower, and slipped through the portrait of the Fat Lady, and into the common room.
Hermione was in a corner, reading a book (though it didn't surprise Harry nor Ron the slightest, as this is what Hermione usually did to cheer herself up.)
'Er-Hermione?' Harry asked. 'You OK?'
'Of course I am,' she said quickly. 'Why wouldn't I be? I'm fine, please, don't worry about me.'
Harry sort of shot a look at Ron, that told him that he should leave them alone for a moment. 'Oh! Would you look at that,' Ron said. 'I have some homework to do! I guess I'll go to the library. I'll see you guys later.' Ron quickly left Harry and Hermione alone.
'Listen, Hermione-'
'Malfoy (it was getting harder and harder to call him by that) told me that you were worried about me,' Hermione said flatly. 'And I just want to tell you that you need not worry over me. I'm fine, I swear.'
'Are you sure?' Harry questioned. 'You've just been acting a bit weird lately. Professor Trelawny is convinced that you're hiding something from me.' Harry laughed quickly. 'Is that dumb or what? I mean, why would you hide something from me?'
Hermione went pale, and quickly looked back down at her book again.
'God...you are hiding something from me,' he said, disbelievingly. 'You don't trust me, do you?'
'Of course I do, Harry,' Hermione said, looking up from her book. 'I'm just startled....well.....you know, I was shocked this morning when you told me you loved me. It's changed the way I feel about you....that kiss was wrong. It shouldn't have happened.' Harry looked like he was going to cry.
'I should have known my feelings were wasted on you!' Harry yelled, as tears streamed down his face. He started running up the stairs to the boys dormitory.
'Harry, no! Wait!' Hermione bellowed.
'Why? So you'll rip out my heart even more?' Harry gave a sarcastic laugh. 'And to think that I actually thought you'd feel the same way...How dumb was I to think that, hm? Answer me!'
Hermione was so shocked at this sudden anger that was rising out of Harry. 'I told you this morning! If I weren't already involved with someone else, I'd probably be with you!'
'Oh, really? I bet you don't even have a boyfriend, and that you just don't want to be seen with the four-eyed geek with a mark across his ugly face!' Harry bellowed, and ran inside the boys dormitory, locking the door.
'Harry!' Hermione yelled through the locked door. 'Harry, please! I didn't mean what I said!' But all she heard in reply were sobs and the sound of Harry blowing his nose into a kleenex. 'Harry, if you let me in, I'll explain everything.' Harry, although extremely upset, couldn't deny the one he loved a fair dealing. He hid his face by doing up his hood, and opened the door.
'Fine, come in...' he whispered. He pointed to a bed where she could sit.
'OK, Harry, here's the scoop,' said Hermione. 'I really do have a boyfriend, but I promised him that I wouldn't tell anyone. Before I realized my feelings for him, I was pretty convinced that I was in love with you.' Harry's sobs retreated.
'You...you mean that?' Harry said quietly.
'Yes, Harry, of course I do. I would never, ever lie to you.' She put an arm around him. 'You can take off your hood, you know.' So Harry lowered the hood, and looked at her. Hermione pulled him into a hug. 'I hate to see you upset over me, you know.'
Harry's mouth formed into a small smile. 'I don't really want to be upset over you. Listen, I didn't mean what I said down there either. It's just that I'm caught up in my own feelings...At first, I loved you, but then I was convinced that I was too young to really be in love. But now that I'm fifteen, I believe the feeling I have inside my heart really is love, afterall.'
'You know, Harry, there are a lot of times when I wish I had you as a boyfriend,' Hermione smiled gently. 'I'm just committed to the person I love, I know I love him, but if he and I ever broke up, you can be sure that you'd be the first to know.' At the words that had just come out of her mouth, Harry couldn't stop himself. He threw his arms around her, and kissed her on the lips. Hermione, not wanting to hurt Harry's feelings by pushing away, reluctantly sat back, and did the same to him. But after a few minutes, she pulled away, panting, and blushing madly.
'You can't be in love with Harry, because you're already in love with Draco!' she thought over and over. Harry sat there, virtually speechless; he'd open his mouth to say something, but then think better of it. Finally, he found words.
'Hermione,' he whispered, 'that kiss was amazing. It felt so right.'
'But deep inside, you know it wasn't right, don't you?' Hermione whispered soulfully.
'Yes, I know...but how can the only thing I've ever been sure of, be wrong?' Harry asked. There was definite pain in those green eyes that moment. And then...tears; glistening, silver tears, going down his cheeks.
'Oh, Harry,' Hermione whimpered, 'please don't cry.' She, herself, began to cry at the sight of him. 'I gotta go...I'm so sorry.' She quickly ran out the door, her face buried in her hands, as she ran into someone so forcefully, that she got knocked back against a wall.
'Hermione?' It was Draco; she had been lucky enough to run into Draco Malfoy. 'Let's get to our head dormitory.' Draco held Hermione close to him, as they walked through each corridor in silence.
They reached the head dormitory, and shut and locked the door behind them. Soft cries, and streaming tears were still coming from Hermione.
'Herm, this is the second time that you've been in tears today,' Draco said calmly. 'What's wrong this time?'
'It's...it's love,' Hermione said in between sobs. 'I love you so much, but then Harry kisses me tonight, and I'm suddenly not so sure.' Draco went pale in the face, as though he'd seen a ghost.
'OK, well...' he said slowly, 'you have to think about this thoroughly, and come up with an answer, a-a-all right?'
'All right,' Hermione whispered miserably. 'I love you very much; if I were trapped in a dungeon somewhere, you'd be the one to rescue me. Then there's Harry, who I've been best friends with for ages; if ever I needed a brother to talk to, he'd be the one.' Hermione went over things in her mind. 'I have my answer.' Draco quickly sat down beside her.
'And?' he asked nervously.
'And you're my true love; I was confused for awhile, but now I know that Harry's just like a brother, and not a boyfriends,' Hermione said. 'Draco Salazar Malfoy, I love you.' Draco's heart lightened considerably at this.
'I love you, too,' he replied, and they wrapped their arms tightly around each other, and fell asleep.