Drastic Measures, Chapter 3
by M. Sloane
A/N: Chapter 3! I belted it out, much quicker than I'd expect. Enjoy. Might be subject to change, for reasons. But I'll tell you if that happens. Oh yes, and I should have said this earlier: a big thanks to Rhi Marzano, who helped me overcome problems with bold and italics not showing up. I think they add a lot to the story, and I'm really glad I was able to make them work!
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Upon seeing Draco, Ron stopped dead in his tracks. What is that thing doing here? he wondered. He stepped off to the side, behind a few bushes but close enough to hear what was being said.
"Fancy meeting you here, Granger," Draco said, standing a few feet away from her.
Hermione looked up at him with an icy glare. "I don't fancy meeting you here, Malfoy. Leave me alone."
"But what are you doing outside at a time like this? It's Friday evening, shouldn't you be doing your homework?" Malfoy jeered, his eyes laughing.
"Malfoy, leave me alone," she repeated.
Ignoring her request, he snatched Hermione's book. "What's this?" he asked, "just something you're reading?"
Hermione just gave him an angry look, grabbing for the book. Malfoy moved it out of her reach.
"Why so anxious to have it back? What is it that's so important?" he turned his attention to the book, and his face cracked into an evil grin. "A diary, eh? I can read about poor little Miss Granger's secrets and there's nothing she can do about it."
"Give it back, Malfoy."
"Or what?" he asked. "What are you going to do for it, Granger?"
Hermione promptly punched him.
Malfoy wiped at his mouth and looked at his hand. He was bleeding. "This is pure blood, Granger."
"And I suppose your blood has everything to do with anything."
"It's better blood than you've ever been around," he told her, "Potter's mum was a mudblood, just like you, and Weasley's tainted; an example of good blood gone bad,"
"I think it's your family that's got that bad blood, Malfoy," Hermione told him.
Malfoy hit Hermione across the face with the back of his hand. "Don't you dare insult my family, Granger. A mudblood like you wouldn't know the difference."
Ron was livid. He forgot the fact that Malfoy had said that his blood had gone bad. Draco Malfoy had just hit Hermione Granger. No one - especially Draco Malfoy - could touch her like that, as far as Ron was concerned. So he did something then that that was pretty drastic. If a teacher saw… who knew what might happen. He punched Draco Malfoy.
Perhaps punched is the wrong term to use, and could be substituted with attacked or jumped on, because Draco Malfoy didn't know what hit him. There was a sound of running feet, the orangey-red blur of Ron's hair, and suddenly, wham! The force of impact made Malfoy drop the diary, and he fought back with both hands.
"Ronald Weasley, stop that this instant!"
He stopped giving Malfoy a beating at Hermione's call. As he did so, Malfoy, well beaten, stumbled away in the direction from which he had come. Ron focused on Hermione.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
"Of course I'm alright!" she told him, "But are you?"
"I'll live."
There was an awkward silence for a minute.
"Here's your book," Ron told Hermione, reaching for the fallen book. It was open. He saw quite a bit of his name on the page, and looked to see what for. Hermione hurriedly took it, but not before he saw Justin also written in her perfect handwriting. What's that bloke doing in her diary? he wondered.
"Is that really your diary?" he asked.
"You were listening?"
Ron looked down at his feet. "I couldn't help but overhear..."
"Ron!"
"Malfoy said it for the world to hear," he pointed out.
"Only if you were within a few feet!" she returned.
Ron couldn't think of anything to say, so he didn't say anything. Instead he looked at the lake, its surface was sparkling. The sun was beginning to set, and it was beautiful. Ron couldn't help but think that it might have been a terribly romantic moment, the sunset, the girl…
But then again, Hermione wasn't very happy with him, reminding him of one problem:
The girl wasn't as head-over-heels as he was. In fact, she wasn't at all.
"What are you doing here, Ron?" she demanded.
Ron sighed, reminded of her lack of feelings towards him. "I came to apologize."
"Apologize?" she asked, looking positively bewildered.
"For upsetting you?" he offered. "In the common room? A bit ago? I asked to borrow your quill?"
"I know what happened, Ron," she told him.
He raised an eyebrow in question.
"I'm just surprised you're apologizing, that's all."
"Now, don't get started with that again!" he said, exasperated.
"Get started with what?" she asked.
Ron sat down on the bench. "First I'm a procrastinator, now I never apologize…"
"Well it's true!" she retorted.
"Can't you just see around that for a moment and be happy that I'm actually doing my homework or apologizing?" he asked, standing up again, the color rising in his face.
Hermione looked away.
"Why do you do that, anyway?" Ron demanded, trying to look straight at her, though Hermione was having nothing of it.
She mumbled something inaudible.
"What was that?" Ron asked.
"I said," she said, rather loudly, Ron noted, "that it was unintentional." With that, she turned and walked back into the castle.
He sat back down on the bench and sighed. So much for apologizing, and making things right. He was still unhappy, and he and Hermione were still fighting.
"Dammit, Ron!" he told himself, putting his head in his hands, "Why the hell do you have to go upsetting her?" He looked over in the quickly falling darkness, and noticed something on the bench beside him.
It was Hermione's diary.
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A/N: isn't Draco evil in this chapter? I didn't really like portraying him like that, but, well, its how it went. I'll be writing a fic about him sometime… soon. J