Chapter Three:

He watched her eyes, her beautiful chocolate eyes die in front of him. She let go of him, tears in her eyes as she turned and ran away from him. He watched her flee into the distance, getting smaller and smaller. Just as she was out of sight, his own eyes began to swell with tears.

"Goodbye Hermione, I'm sorry I had to do that to you, " he whispered into the wind. He turned and walked away into the night.

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"Has anybody seen Hermione?" Ron asked after quidditch practice. Harry was in the shower, and Ron didn't see Hermione buried under her piles of books.

"Ummm, she left during breakfast, and hasn't returned since, "Colin, a fellow Gryffindor house-mate had answered.

"It's 5:45pm now! She's gonna miss dinner! Where can she go for over 8 hours?!" Ron exclaimed. Colin shrugged and headed to the Great Hall for dinner. During dinner, Harry and Ron discussed quidditch plays when suddenly the closed doors of the Great Hall opened. Ron turned his head quickly only to see Draco Malfoy enter. Ron sighed and continued his conversation with Harry.

"Malfoy! Hey! Long time no see!" The Slytherin table greeted him. He took his seat between Crabbe and Goyle. As his friends updated him on the latest gossip, Draco found himself looking over to the Gryffindor table to where Hermione would sit. He ate, but his soul wasn't there, he looked like a machine, his eyes fixed on Hermione's seat.

"Malfoy? Are you even listening?" Goyle asked.

"Sorry guys, I'm just kinda tired, " Draco answered, then got up and left.

"Harry?" Ron said out of the blue.

"Yeah?" Harry answered.

"Have you seen Hermione at all today?"

"No, not since last night. Why?" Harry curiously asked.

"Just wondering. Colin said she left at breakfast and hasn't been seen since. It's dinner now Harry," Ron said as he took a bite out of his pumpkin sandwich.

"Ron, I think Hermione's right. If she wants us to stay out of her buisness, let's respect that. After all, she's still our friend, " Harry wisely answered.

"Ok, but I'm still gonna worry until I see her safe, " Ron said.

"I know you will Ron. Come on let's head back to the Common Room."

When they reached the Fat Lady, they each spoke the password, "Winkla Federon", then plumped onto the couch to relax.

"Ron! Harry! You're back!" Ginny's melodic voice said.

"What is it Ginny, can't you see that me n' Harry are relaxing?"

"Hermione got back about a half an hour ago, and she's locked herself in her room crying, " Ginny informed them. Ron's eyes went large and he looked at Harry, "You reckon she's still mad?" Harry nodded and motioned for Ron to follow him to their room. Once there, Harry said, "Ron we gotta do something." They quickly decided to use Harry's invisibility cloak to sneak into the girls dorm. They headed to the most likely door; the only one that was shut. Ron looked at Harry, and Harry nodded. Ron knocked on the door, hearing the quiet sobs inside.

"Please go away, " a tiny voice answered. Ron wasn't about to turn back now, so he opened the door himself with a quick spell, dragged Harry in and took off the cloak. There they found Hermione laying face-down on her bed crying into her pillows. She hadn't heard Ron and Harry enter.

"Hermione?" Ron whispered. She got up quickly to see the faces of Ron and Harry.

"What are you two doing here?! This is the GIRLS dorm!" She was able to say in between sobs.

"Hemrione, me and Harry are really sorry about yesterday. I- we never meant to hurt you or be nosy. It's just-," he paused slightly, then found the words to say, "It's just that we were really worried about you. " He looked down at his feet, as if he was ashamed of himself. Harry decided to help out, " Ron's right Hermione, we are truly sorry, we were very worried about you."

Hermione slowly smiled and went over to Ron and hugged him, then huggd Harry, "I'm sorry too, I never meant to say what I did Ron, Harry. I'm glad this is over."

"So everything's okay now?" Ron asked.

'No, no it's not Ron. I'm glad I got you and Harry back, but it's still not okay, ' she thought, but she put on a smile and nodded, "Yes it is Ron. Now, you two really need to go before someone catches you!" She giggled. Ron and Harry smiled then gathered the cloak and both said, "Goodnight then Hermione."

"Goodnight Harry...Goodnight Ron."

Just as Ron closed the door, he peaked in and said, "Sleep well Hermione. I'm glad we're friends again."

"Me too, " she answered. When he left she sat by the window stroking Crookshanks, gazing at the stars.

The next morning, Hermione headed to breakfast with Ron and Harry. They took their regular seats as Hermione thought, 'Just like the good ol' days!' She listened to Ron and Harry talk about the past quidditch practices and laughed when Harry told the Ron nearly fell of his broom.

From his seat at the Slytherin table, Draco watched Hermione talke and laugh with Harry and Ron.

' Looks like she patched things up with Potter and Wealey. She looks so happy,' he thought. He watched her eyes sparkle as she laughed at Ron, who was standing up waving his hands in the air, like a madman.

Hermione sat in the bleachers looking forward to that dayss quidditch game between Gryffindor and Slytherin. She sat in front where she got a clear vien of where Harry and Draco squared off.

"Come on HARRY!" She screamed, trying to distract Draco.

"Way to go RON! Get that Snitch HARRY!!:

Draco watched her scream out their names, her brown eyes looked black with revenge. He shook his head trying to concentrate on the the game, but all he could think of was the look on Hermione's face the other night outside the Three Broomstickes. Harry soon saw the Snitch and quickly caught it without so much as a shrug from Malfoy.

' I wonder what's eating him up?' Harry thought as his team celebrated. In the common room, the Gryffindors celebrated with a party.

"See Hermione?" Ron said, "You missed all of this during that 'time to yourself' thing. You missed out on the excitement! See, with me and Harry, you're always happy!"

Something clicked in Hermione's head and she realized something.

"Oh Ron thank you!" She gave Ron a hug and a quick kiss on the cheek, "thanks for clearing up something with me!" She ran to her bedroom as Harry came up behind Ron who stood stunned, touching his cheek.

"Ron?" Harry asked.

"Yeah?" Ron said quietly still dazed at what had happened.

"You really like her don't you?"

"Who?" Ron asked pretending not to know what Harry was talking about.

"You know who Ron...Hermione."

Ron sighed and turned to Harry, " Is it that obvious?" Harry smiled and nodded. Ron smiled back and said, "Come on 'Captain', let's grab more to eat!"

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