Chapter 16
Bad News
Lyra
Pansy is really upset about this Draco thing. But she shouldn't be. She is better then Draco and deserves someone much better. Pansy and I were in the common room early Saturday morning, when all of a sudden Dawn burst in the room carrying books for Pansy. She looked excited, like she just found out something amazing and could not wait to tell someone.
"Guess what." she said upon entering the room. Now I really suspect that she found out something amazing and can't wait to tell someone.
"What?" Pansy and I said, simultaneously.
"I have the newest gossip," she began, "Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger are a couple! I saw them myself at the library, laughing and holding hands. It was so sweet."
Pansy and I sat there for a moment in complete silence. We both already knew this, however the fact that we already knew this did not stop Pansy from running out of the room in tears. I ran after her. It would take a lot of convincing to get her to come back down.
Chapter 16
Wondering
Ron
Hermione is really starting to bug me. Honestly, she is to smart for her own good. Harry and I actually got up EARLY to talk to her, but she figured it out and went running of to the library to study. The odd thing is I don't even need to know who she is tutoring. But it is killing me not knowing.
Harry, Ginny, Julia, and I were all down at Three Broomsticks. And I should have been having a good time. But a vision of Hermione kept popping into my head. I felt like she should be there with us, and from Harry's lack of talking I could tell he was feeling the same way.
If we ever wanted to have fun again we would have to apologize to her. If we are really lucky she might forgive us.
I'm having another vision again. I can see Hermione walking through the door, except this time she is with DRACO MALFOY! I seriously rubbed my eyes to make sure that it was a vision. But when my hands moved away, there she was, and so was he.
I glanced over at Harry; he looked like You-Know-Who had just walked through the door. Julia and Ginny were giving us odd looks. Hermione looked at us, her eyes met with mine, moved to Harry, then to Malfoy. After that I don't know where her eyes went, because she had turned around and headed for the counter. She ordered a to go order of cheese sticks and 2 butterbeers. After that she left Three Broomsticks and Malfoy followed her like a little puppy dog.
"What was that?" said Ginny. It was hard to get anything past her. She can always tell when something fishy is going on. I think she gets that from Mom.
"That would have been Malfoy and Hermione. Geez, Ginny, I thought that you were more perceptive then that." Wow, did she give me a patronizing stare.
"Why the hell is she still hanging with him? I thought that was just something to get back at us, you know. But seriously, this has gone on long enough."
"We'll talk to her today. We have too. But I really don't want to end this date so soon and it will be hard to find her in the crowd. We'll just wait 'till dinner," I suggested.
"Sounds good to me," Harry agreed.
"Us, too," Ginny and Julia said in unison. We all laughed.
A/N This chapter has no point it is really just here.
Chapter 17
Hermione
Totally Expected
Yesterday, I was expecting to have a horrible time in Hogsmeade, however today I was having the time of my life. Draco and I were having a picnic at the foot of the mountain where Sirius was once hiding; now he lives with Dumbledore, pretending to be his pet. Draco and I found a flat boulder and began to eat the cheese sticks and once more we had a very enjoyable lunch. We laughed and talked of funny things and serious things.
After lunch I had a great time walking around the village with Draco. We went to Zonkos and Honeydukes. He bought me a bag of Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans and we went outside, sat on a bench, and ate them together. I noticed Ron, Ginny, Harry, and Julia leaving Three Broomsticks. Julia and Ginny glanced quickly at me and turned away, but Ron and Harry looked at me for a long time. Harry turned away after that, but Ron looked at Draco and gave him a look of death before turning away.
When Draco and I had finished the beans I realized how late it was.
"Draco, we've got to get to the Green Houses, I want to cover Poison Rose and Carnation, and all of there uses, not to mention review our last lesson today and it will take a while. "It is already 5:00, we'll miss supper if we are going to finish before 8:00."
"Okay. Look lets go work for an hour, eat super, and then finish."
So we walked up to the castle hand in hand. When we were just outside the Hogwarts gates I looked up at Draco and he was looking back at me. I looked strait into his eyes. I think it was the first time that I ever really looked in Draco's eyes. They were soft, friendly, and the color of the sea. I used to think they were cold and icy. I can't believe I ever thought he was evil. I am so happy I found out the truth before I graduated. I wasted almost seven years hating him. I did not know the real Draco then. I do now.
We stood there a long time, facing each other and holding hands, staring into each other's eyes. Before I knew it he had leaned forward and kissed me. Not a brief friendship kiss on the lips but a long soft kiss. He broke the kiss gently and smiled at me I smiled back. We stood there for a moment holding each other closely.
"Maybe we should not have a lesson today?" he asked sounding traumatized.
"Yeah."
"Yeah."
"Yeah." We both turned at the same time and started walking in opposite directions. Five seconds passed. That's when I realized that I was walking toward back towards Hogsmeade. Quickly, I turned around and righted my self to go back to my dorm. I walked quietly about ten feet behind Draco until he turned down a different corridor that led to the Slytherin House. Glancing around, I saw no one, so I broke out in a run. I ran all the way to my room, and collapsed on my bed, sobbing. I lay there for a while, until I heard a knock on my door. Ginny walked in.
"Hey! I thought I heard you in here," she said in that vibrant voice that she had been using ever since she and Harry got together. She seriously sounded like Elle Woods from "Legally Blonde" after drinking ten cups of coffee and twenty candy bars.
In response, I rolled over.
"What's wrong with you? You seemed pretty happy earlier today. You know, when you were with Draco. What happened?"
"You wouldn't understand," I muttered, just loud enough for her to hear. She never seemed so young before. She was acting like she knew exactly what happened. She didn't.
"You and Draco. I hear that's the knew hot couple of the month. Don't blame me for reading the Dawn Newsletter." I groaned in to my pillow. Great! Why can't Dawn Ragle get her own life instead of butting into other people's? To make thing's worse, she writes everything down, copies them, and puts them in every common room by using partners from each house. If I ever find out who that is from Gryffindor, I will strangle them.
"So? Is it true?"
"I don't know."
"What!"
"I said I..."
"I heard you! What I meant was, how can you not know?"
"It's confusing. We just kissed about fifteen minutes ago."
"What!"
"I said we...."
"Hermione, I'm not deaf. What possessed you to KISS DRACO MALFOY!"
"He's actually really nice. You just have to get to know him."
"What happened after you kissed?"
"Well..."
"Come on! Spill!" She took a seat on my bed and I sat up. Then she took out her wand and conjured up two cups of hot chocolate. It felt almost like old times, when we were best friends.
"We walked away."
"What! NO! Don't repeat your self! What I mean is, why did you just walk away?"
"I don't know!" I sobbed. "I expected more. He wanted to go back to his dorm, so I let him."
"He'll talk to you soon. I know he will. Remember the first time you kissed Ron. He ignored you for a day and then practically became your shadow. In the mean time, if there is a relationship happening, you might want to tell Harry and Ron."
"You're probably right, Ginny. "
"I'm always right!"
"Thank you."
"Any time." Ginny turned and left the room. I got up and walked to the mirror. Grimacing, I decided to wait a minute before going down stairs on account of my really red eyes.
Chapter 18
Volcano #2 (metaphorically speaking yet again)
Harry
I was the only one left in the Common Room. Ron just went to bed; he was the only other person up. No. I was wrong someone is coming down the stairs to the Girls Dormitory. It was Hermione! She was probably hoping that she could be alone to study or something. That's to bad, because I will apologize for Ron and I, right now. The whole thing had gone to far, now she is even pretending to date Malfoy, just to make us jealous!
Hermione finished walking down the stairs. I expected her to see me, turn around, and go back up, but to my surprise she saw me and walked toward me she looked as if she wanted to talk to me. However I spoke first.
"Hermione, Ron and I are really sorry we have been ignoring you. We didn't mean too, but we have been trying lately to talk to you and you keep running away."
"I'm not here to talk to you about that."
"Then what do you want to talk about."
"Draco."
"Who? Oh Malfoy. Why'd you call him Draco."
"Because that's his name. I've been calling him that since Tuesday."
"I wanted to talk to you about Malfoy, too. You see, it's really been getting to Ron and I that you have been pretending to like him around us. If it was to make us jealous, then it worked."
"It wasn't."
"Then why?"
"I think that...um..." She kept giving me glances, like she wanted me to interrupt her, so I did.
"Shouldn't Ron be here for this?"
"No! He would freak out."
"And I won't?"
"Well, you won't freak out as much as Ron, no offence to him, but you are much more mature. Look just let me talk. Oh, God. Okay." She took a deep breath. "DracoandIkissedtoday."
"What?"
"Well, we were just standing there and I looked into his eyes and he looked into mine and before I knew what happened we were..."
"No, no! I didn't mean to explain! I didn't understand you properly, I thought you said you dissed Draco. Which is kinda normal cause you..."
"Oh! I said Draco and I kissed today."
"What!?"
"I said Draco and I..."
"No, now I want the explanation."
"Well, after our date in Hogsmeade Draco and I were walking back to Hogwarts and we just kind of kissed. I don -"
"BLOODY HELL!" It's seemed that Ron had been listening on the stairs. "HE IS GONNA PAY! I SWEAR ON GODRIC GRYFFINDOOR'S GRAVE, HE WILL PAY!"
"Ron, you can not tell me who to date! It is not your decision, it's mine, so BUGGER OFF!"
"Harry, are you just gonna sit here and let her snog with Malfoy?"
"I am not that happy that my best friend is kissing my arch enemy but, she is right, it's not our decision."
"That's right Ron stay out of my business!"
"Are you two blind? He is just being nice to Hermione so he can get inside information about Harry!"
"You said the exact same thing when I went to the Yule Ball with Viktor. Draco has changed. Or maybe he has always been really nice and funny and we just never took the time to notice. But I have noticed now and you two might do well if you did the same! I don't even know why I came to you. I thought you would be happy for me! Well actually, I didn't, but I excepted you to at least try. Now if you to don't mind, I'm going to bed."
Wow. That was unexpected. It was like a volcano.
"Ron?"
"Yeah?"
"Remember before when Hermione yelled at us about ignoring her and we decided we had never seen her so angry before?"
"Yeah."
"We've got a new record."
Chapter 19
Plans
Hermione
Storming upstairs, I thought about what Ron had said. In our fourth year, he had been jealous about me seeing someone else because he liked me then. But did he now? Did he still feel that way about me? He couldn't. He has Julia now.
As I opened the door to my dorm, I saw that Parvati and Lavender were awake.
"Well you didn't really expect us to sleep through all that yelling down stairs, did you?" Parvati said after a look at my astonished face.
"Hmm, I think that Draco is cuter then Ron. You should go with him," Lavender advised.
"I think you should mind your own business Lavender. And you know me, I'm always right."
"Isn't that what Ginny always says?" asked Parvati. Lavender looked to hurt to talk. So sad.
"I'm just as smart as Ginny, if not more so, and so I deserve that line as much as she does." Parvati stuck her nose up in the air, turned around and got into bed. I did the same. That was the best night's sleep I've had in a while.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The next morning, while I sat at the breakfast table, alone, an owl came and landed on my shoulder. The owl had been magically colored white. Not a snowy white owl like Hedwig, but completely white, it's eyes, beak, legs, all of it. The letter it had tied to it's leg read:
Dear Hermione
I've been thinking a lot about what happened. Meet me at the Womping Willow at nine o'clock tonight. I'll be waiting.
Love, Draco
Good, something to look forward to. I can't wait.
Chapter 20
Ron
Anger
Potions class. The usual torture. But today was worse, probably because I spent most of it starring at Malfoy, thinking, "He's touched Hermione!" GRR! I could just kill him. And to make matters worse, now he is mocking me with his completely and totally ignoring me.
But, lucky for me, potions has just ended. Now, I can go beat the shit out of Malfoy. Of, course, I waited until we were out in the dungeon, to start.
"MALFOY!"
"What do you want, Weasley?"
"I want to see you in a bloody heap on the floor dying, but what else is new. Oh, yeah, you using Hermione to get to Harry."
"I have no interest in Potter, just Hermione."
"You snot nose little bugger!"
"You smelly git!"
"You snot nosed little bugger!"
"You just said that, you daft prick!"
As I dove at Malfoy, I felt someone's hands holding me back by my robes. Of course, my feet had already left the floor, so I fell flat on my face.
"Geroff, Harry! I'm gonna punch that little prat 'til he begs for mercy!"
"You're not in much of a position to threaten at the moment, you poor pathetic excuse for a wizard," Malfoy said looking down his nose at me. Harry had let go of me. I dove again; of course this is when Snape decided that we were being to loud outside.
"FIFTY POINTS FROM GRYFFENDOOR, WEASLEY!" After most of the people left, Malfoy walked up to me.
"We'll finish this later, Weasley. Womping Willow, nine o'clock. Be there, but don't worry you won't be there for long."
I got close to his face; our eyes were only inches apart. "Is that a threat?"
He starred at me for a few seconds, his eyes burning into mine. "No," he said, flatly. Malfoy turned and walked majestically down the corridor.