How The Stars Fall
Chapter 9: Hangover
2-18-03
Campiongal
=======*=======
Hermione shivered. She sat up, only to find herself in Draco's bed. The moon shone through the still open window, illumination all the silver objects, rippling gray waves of light in the room. Now she new why he liked it this way. It looked like the moon over the ocean, only in black and white. She felt incredebly relieved to find, other than herself, the room very empty. She snuggled back don into the deep folds f he soft blankets, and softly began to cry, thankful no one could hear her.
'What did I ever do to Ron? I only tried being there for him, make him better person! Why can't it be the same for Draco? Why can't everyone just get along?' Hermione knew this was folish, ou cn't always like everyone, even if you had all the patience in the world, it would never be enough, and she knew Ron would never be able to befriend, or even tolerate Draco. Those were just the facts, it was just how life was. But that didn't mean she couldn't be friends with Draco.
Last night, Draco had tucked her into his own bed, adding extra covers so she could stay warm. Then he and Harry had sat to talk... who knew about what. But that was al she could remember. Then Ron's words came flooding back, and pain filled her heart. And then, she drifted back into unconciousness.
=====8=====
Draco had sta with Hermione wrapped in his own arms for quite some time, before he could bare to move her. She looked so fragile, like a large piece of glass, that was about to be shattered It didn't seem possible. How could a man, even in his uncontrollable rage, take something like this out on the people he cared about the most. And then he thought of Lucius. His own father was an vengeful and hate-filled man. He had seen him take it out on his mother. On his (now deceased) sister, and, on rare occasion him. But his father had never loved any of them. Hell, his father may have never loved at all. His mother loved him and Kricha, but rarely showed it. But this, this was very different. Ron had loved Hermione. And he still took this out on her. Her and Harry. Two of the people he loved, and yet it wasn't enough o stop the rage. Because of him. This was his fault. If he had never made a snide remark towards weasley... things might have been better. He might have been better.
Harry couldn't speak. He knew Ron was angry, and had always been some- what a jealous person... but... could it really be that he would take it out on him and Hermione? Ron had always loved them. Something was off. To off. This couldn't be only coincidence. Something bigger was at work here. Something much, much bigger. Something that was making Ron think too hard about what was happening. Something that was making Ron feel like an idiot, Making him take all his feeling, and turning those feelings into vengance, and taking out that vengance, on the people it would affect the hardest.
They always say you hurt those who are closest to you. But this, was different.
====8====
Draco laid Hermione down onto his bed. She was so beautiful. Her bouncy curls framing her soft face, the way her nightie and robe hugged her just right. Draco had to ask Harry in assisting him, for taking off her robe. He wanted her to be comfortable, but he thought the brotherly like guy should be te one to do that, not the 'guy-who-just-broke-up-the-family' sort of thing. He then covered her with the silk sheet and comforter set, and added more of the comforters for warms. H had many of them, as they were fairly thing. An even f it was summer, he knew that she would get very cold after the events of the evening, and because of what she was wearing. He (draco) then took his bath-robe and tied it around himself, and waited.
Harry, on the other hand, was heartbroken. He helped Draco in the putting-to-bed of Hermione. Then watched as Draco put himself together.
"Draco. I want you to know, that was not the Ron that Hermione and I know."
"I... I figured. I didn't think you guys would have always hung out with him, if he was always acting that way... and I want you to know I'm sorry... I shouldn't have asked Hermione to come fly with me tonight... I hadn't even intended on it in the first place... it just... sort of happened and I... it's all my fault... that now..." Draco was filled with hurt and shame. He knew, if only Hermione hadn't come with him. If only she had stayed behind. Everything would be as it had been. But now they could never go back.
"Draco... everyone, including myself, I know, it making themselves feel like it's their fault. And it's not. Not if it happened why I think it did. Ron, even in his rage, couldn't have gotten so angry and... vicious, as he was, without any help. I know him that much at least. I also know that we aren't ging to find out anything unless we talk. And the first person we should talk to, is Ginny." Harry had been thinking of all this for quite some time now. It seemed to him, that the closer they got to Ron, the more they would know about what was making him act this way.
"Hmmm..." Draco thought about this. It was true. If every one kept guilt tripping themselves into thinking they could change the past, they would al become bitter and resentful, "Your very right about that... so how do we reach Ginny? If her brother tells her everything... she won't ever speak to us... or at least never to me... and she shouldn't anyway... after all I've done to her... I don't deserve it..." Draco hunched over at this, his head hung.
"Well, she may not listen, but she will want to see us, to yell and scream, and do the whole PMS girl thing... and besides... I need some things... lets not discuss this here anymore. We might wake up Hermione... lets head up to the owlery."
========8=======
"Hogsmeade?" Draco asked "Your sure she would actually want to meet us there?"
"Yes! We will just tell her that we would like to speak with her, and that we shall see her there... if this morning... it's now the eleventh.. We could see her on Friday... the 16th?"
"Hmmm?" Draco was a little distracted, someone had posted a very flattering picture of a voluptuous woman on the wall. "Friday? Oh... hmm, yes that would work... as long as we can sneak out of here..."
"That I can handle. The whole sneaking thing... I have a.. I suppose we should trust each-other now and... I have an invisibility cloak... and a map of the school... that shows us everywhere we need to go... so I think we can handle that aspect of it... it's just getting Hermione to go, and Ginny to meet us there..." Harry saw the picture Draco was staring out and fwapped him over the head. "That was for Hermione."
"What do you mean by that!?"
"Oh, I think you know what I mean!"
"Excuse me?"
"You heard me!"
"What the?" Draco was looking at Harry so perplexed that he was sure the face expression would not be a repeat kinda thing.
"Oh, come on, I'm not that stupid!" Harry let the owl flutter out the window, carrying the message to Ginny, saying to meet them Friday, in front of The Three Broomsticks, around three.
"I don't, and there is on more complication...."
"You do, and what complication?" Harry began to walk out of the Owlery.
"I don't, and the fact that Pansy is meeting a group of friends Friday in Hogsmeade, and we might need to avoid confrontation." Draco smirked.
"You do know, and we can handle it, I hope..." harry strolled out, but not without one more comment, "and, if it helps any, I think she likes you too!" Then, he ran back to his room.
=======8======
Draco had wandered most of the early morning. He couldn't go back to sleep, not without talking to Hermione first, and, besides, she was in his bed, and he wouldn't go to hers. He went and saw Doby, his ex-house elf, and said hello to their children Cillius and Rayneth, twin girls. They seemed quite well, but it was hard to tell, they would never show it, even if they were.
Draco then went to the Infirmary, but didn't step inside. Harry was sitting by Lissa's bed, stroking her hair, and talking to her, even though she probably couldn't hear him... But Draco understood what Harry was feeling... and knew he would be doing the same. He, then, decided to go check on Hermione.
"Hermione?" draco knocked, and with no answer, he cautiously slipped into he room. The sun was just waking up, and the dullness crept back into his room. He stepped over and lighted many of the candles, bewitched in his room. He needed to talk t Hermione, and tell her what was going on, but mostly, he just wanted to sit with her now. Harry was right. Maybe he did like Hermione. If only a little. But he also knew she could never return the feelings, until, at least, things were right with Ron again. Draco strolled over to his sterio, and popped in linkin park, reanimation, and pushed it to number 15, My December. His favorite song on the whole cd. He began to sing along...
"This is my December... This is my time of the year. This is my December..."
"You sing very beautifully..." Hermione's soft voice came from somewhere in the bed.
Draco had been so into the song that he hardly noticed her waking. He shut of the sterio, and was immediately at her side. He sat on the edge of the bed, and looked into his hands as he spoke. "We, er, Harry, and I, that is, we wrote to Ginny. We are going to try and meet her in Hogsmeade Friday... but also, we don't think that Ron meant anything by what he said... we think that maybe it was just... well, Harry thinks something may be possessing Ron, and I tink he could be right... and... that's it..." Draco looked over. Hermione was so beautiful The morning light was just streaming into the room, Draco hadn't covered up the windows, and now the sun bounced off her hair, making it look like locks of gold, surrounding a plate of porcelain, decorated with crimson lips, sparkling eyes, and he cheekbones of a goddess.
"Did you? Well... I would rather like to talk to Ginny.. I suppose you two were thinking she could clue us in? Very good idea!" Hermione looked up to Draco. He wasn't to shabby looking himself. His long blonde hair fell around his face, it's shine brining it to life. His grey-blue eyes were set as if he could cry, out of happiness and sadness, both at once. His muscles also were a fine feature, plainly viewed through his tight wife-beater. The boxer-briefs were simply an added bonus.
====8==== Harry had left the owlery early enough to take the time to visit Lissa, without the entire student body knowing aboout it. Of course, there were only a few other people around. There were the four Slytherin's; Draco, Pansy, Crabe, and Goyle, all almost in their sixth year. Then, there was Lissa and her younger sister Rinna, both of Ravenclaw, about to be in their fourth and fifth years. And then there were Eleanor and Owen of Hufflepuff. Both approaching their third year.
Harry knew that Rinna was always hanging out with Owen and Eleanor, mostly practicing Herbology for next year up in one of the other towers, and he knew where lissa was, e knew where Draco, Hermione and himself were, but that didn't explain where Crabe, Goyle, and Pansy had been the last few days. He had assumed that maybe they were with Snape in the dungeon most the time, but that didn't explain where they were the rest of the time. He supposed he could worry about t later.
Now was time for him. Him to spend with Lissa. He didn't know about when she was awake. They barely knew each other, and it would be hard explaining why he had been in here and volunteering so often, especially when he never had before. It would be hard to tell this Beauty that she was what he defined perfection.
====8====
Draco and Harry spent the next couple days preparing. If they found out something was controlling Ron, they would need some serious spell- casting to help them out. Hermione would research, then Harry and Ron would take turns practicing and setting up the targets in the Library. It was getting to be rather hard work, but it was worth it. Harry found himself getting stronger, and that was a benefit, plus, he found he had some strategies in common with Draco, it wouldn't be hard to fight alongside each other if he ever came to it, and he found, that now in actually talking to Draco, it was easier to put their school-boy fights behind him.
Draco felt the same way. It was as if he was re-learning everything he was ever taught, but he was being taught the exact opposite. Instead of learning the Unforgivable curses as a first, he was learning to disarm, and to read thoughts, and to do things that would give him a great advantage, but were tame and harmless. It was strange, but he rather liked it. I made him feel like he had finally done something he could be proud of. Something to really get cocky about.
Hermione got to see it all, which was good enough for her. Being able to watch as two people she had come to know were finally knowing each other was quite fun. But pain still lingered. What if nothing was possessing Ron. What if it was just how Ron was now, and what if they couldn't change or help that, what it he really didn't want to speak with her ever again... if she didn't have Ron back, she knew nothing would ever be the same. A piece of her heart would always be missing, a part she didn't think she would be able to live without. Bu she had to try. So she continued to research, to plan, to organize, and to help the boys prepare. Besides, watching two of the schools favorite Quidditch players, breaking a sweat half-naked, conjuring until their minds could take it no more, she saw nothing wrong with this picture.
=====8=====
Pansy Parkinson leaned over the railway and glared down at the trio, watching and waiting for them to go do... well, whatever they were going to do. It was obvious that they were preparing for something, and when it happened, she would be there. Nothing in this world was going to let some prissy Gryffindor girl capture her Slytherin hunk.
"Crabe, Goyle!" Pansy swung around to look at them. "We need to be watching. If anything happens, I want to know. When I leave on my girls trip tomorrow, I'll only be gone a few hours at Hogsmeade, and I've bee planning it for weeks, so nothing should go wrong. Jut take notes on whatever happens. I have to capture this moment, get rid of Potter, eliminate Granger, and bring Drco back to the DE's. Apparently he hasn't been calling Daddy, and that is a problem. He is suppossed to be on a mission after all!" Pansy swooped around again to see Draco blasting a piece of wood, 'Draco, you will come back to me, if you want to, or not. I'll make sure your tough for old Voldie, I'll make sure your good for Daddy, and I'll be sure, that your kept only for me.'
=====8=====
Hee hee hee! Well, I will write hopefully another chapter today! Or if not, There will be at least another one tomorrow! Sorry about the delay, but yesterday the dorm interne was down, and today I was very, very sick! Well, adios!
=======*=======
Hermione shivered. She sat up, only to find herself in Draco's bed. The moon shone through the still open window, illumination all the silver objects, rippling gray waves of light in the room. Now she new why he liked it this way. It looked like the moon over the ocean, only in black and white. She felt incredebly relieved to find, other than herself, the room very empty. She snuggled back don into the deep folds f he soft blankets, and softly began to cry, thankful no one could hear her.
'What did I ever do to Ron? I only tried being there for him, make him better person! Why can't it be the same for Draco? Why can't everyone just get along?' Hermione knew this was folish, ou cn't always like everyone, even if you had all the patience in the world, it would never be enough, and she knew Ron would never be able to befriend, or even tolerate Draco. Those were just the facts, it was just how life was. But that didn't mean she couldn't be friends with Draco.
Last night, Draco had tucked her into his own bed, adding extra covers so she could stay warm. Then he and Harry had sat to talk... who knew about what. But that was al she could remember. Then Ron's words came flooding back, and pain filled her heart. And then, she drifted back into unconciousness.
=====8=====
Draco had sta with Hermione wrapped in his own arms for quite some time, before he could bare to move her. She looked so fragile, like a large piece of glass, that was about to be shattered It didn't seem possible. How could a man, even in his uncontrollable rage, take something like this out on the people he cared about the most. And then he thought of Lucius. His own father was an vengeful and hate-filled man. He had seen him take it out on his mother. On his (now deceased) sister, and, on rare occasion him. But his father had never loved any of them. Hell, his father may have never loved at all. His mother loved him and Kricha, but rarely showed it. But this, this was very different. Ron had loved Hermione. And he still took this out on her. Her and Harry. Two of the people he loved, and yet it wasn't enough o stop the rage. Because of him. This was his fault. If he had never made a snide remark towards weasley... things might have been better. He might have been better.
Harry couldn't speak. He knew Ron was angry, and had always been some- what a jealous person... but... could it really be that he would take it out on him and Hermione? Ron had always loved them. Something was off. To off. This couldn't be only coincidence. Something bigger was at work here. Something much, much bigger. Something that was making Ron think too hard about what was happening. Something that was making Ron feel like an idiot, Making him take all his feeling, and turning those feelings into vengance, and taking out that vengance, on the people it would affect the hardest.
They always say you hurt those who are closest to you. But this, was different.
====8====
Draco laid Hermione down onto his bed. She was so beautiful. Her bouncy curls framing her soft face, the way her nightie and robe hugged her just right. Draco had to ask Harry in assisting him, for taking off her robe. He wanted her to be comfortable, but he thought the brotherly like guy should be te one to do that, not the 'guy-who-just-broke-up-the-family' sort of thing. He then covered her with the silk sheet and comforter set, and added more of the comforters for warms. H had many of them, as they were fairly thing. An even f it was summer, he knew that she would get very cold after the events of the evening, and because of what she was wearing. He (draco) then took his bath-robe and tied it around himself, and waited.
Harry, on the other hand, was heartbroken. He helped Draco in the putting-to-bed of Hermione. Then watched as Draco put himself together.
"Draco. I want you to know, that was not the Ron that Hermione and I know."
"I... I figured. I didn't think you guys would have always hung out with him, if he was always acting that way... and I want you to know I'm sorry... I shouldn't have asked Hermione to come fly with me tonight... I hadn't even intended on it in the first place... it just... sort of happened and I... it's all my fault... that now..." Draco was filled with hurt and shame. He knew, if only Hermione hadn't come with him. If only she had stayed behind. Everything would be as it had been. But now they could never go back.
"Draco... everyone, including myself, I know, it making themselves feel like it's their fault. And it's not. Not if it happened why I think it did. Ron, even in his rage, couldn't have gotten so angry and... vicious, as he was, without any help. I know him that much at least. I also know that we aren't ging to find out anything unless we talk. And the first person we should talk to, is Ginny." Harry had been thinking of all this for quite some time now. It seemed to him, that the closer they got to Ron, the more they would know about what was making him act this way.
"Hmmm..." Draco thought about this. It was true. If every one kept guilt tripping themselves into thinking they could change the past, they would al become bitter and resentful, "Your very right about that... so how do we reach Ginny? If her brother tells her everything... she won't ever speak to us... or at least never to me... and she shouldn't anyway... after all I've done to her... I don't deserve it..." Draco hunched over at this, his head hung.
"Well, she may not listen, but she will want to see us, to yell and scream, and do the whole PMS girl thing... and besides... I need some things... lets not discuss this here anymore. We might wake up Hermione... lets head up to the owlery."
========8=======
"Hogsmeade?" Draco asked "Your sure she would actually want to meet us there?"
"Yes! We will just tell her that we would like to speak with her, and that we shall see her there... if this morning... it's now the eleventh.. We could see her on Friday... the 16th?"
"Hmmm?" Draco was a little distracted, someone had posted a very flattering picture of a voluptuous woman on the wall. "Friday? Oh... hmm, yes that would work... as long as we can sneak out of here..."
"That I can handle. The whole sneaking thing... I have a.. I suppose we should trust each-other now and... I have an invisibility cloak... and a map of the school... that shows us everywhere we need to go... so I think we can handle that aspect of it... it's just getting Hermione to go, and Ginny to meet us there..." Harry saw the picture Draco was staring out and fwapped him over the head. "That was for Hermione."
"What do you mean by that!?"
"Oh, I think you know what I mean!"
"Excuse me?"
"You heard me!"
"What the?" Draco was looking at Harry so perplexed that he was sure the face expression would not be a repeat kinda thing.
"Oh, come on, I'm not that stupid!" Harry let the owl flutter out the window, carrying the message to Ginny, saying to meet them Friday, in front of The Three Broomsticks, around three.
"I don't, and there is on more complication...."
"You do, and what complication?" Harry began to walk out of the Owlery.
"I don't, and the fact that Pansy is meeting a group of friends Friday in Hogsmeade, and we might need to avoid confrontation." Draco smirked.
"You do know, and we can handle it, I hope..." harry strolled out, but not without one more comment, "and, if it helps any, I think she likes you too!" Then, he ran back to his room.
=======8======
Draco had wandered most of the early morning. He couldn't go back to sleep, not without talking to Hermione first, and, besides, she was in his bed, and he wouldn't go to hers. He went and saw Doby, his ex-house elf, and said hello to their children Cillius and Rayneth, twin girls. They seemed quite well, but it was hard to tell, they would never show it, even if they were.
Draco then went to the Infirmary, but didn't step inside. Harry was sitting by Lissa's bed, stroking her hair, and talking to her, even though she probably couldn't hear him... But Draco understood what Harry was feeling... and knew he would be doing the same. He, then, decided to go check on Hermione.
"Hermione?" draco knocked, and with no answer, he cautiously slipped into he room. The sun was just waking up, and the dullness crept back into his room. He stepped over and lighted many of the candles, bewitched in his room. He needed to talk t Hermione, and tell her what was going on, but mostly, he just wanted to sit with her now. Harry was right. Maybe he did like Hermione. If only a little. But he also knew she could never return the feelings, until, at least, things were right with Ron again. Draco strolled over to his sterio, and popped in linkin park, reanimation, and pushed it to number 15, My December. His favorite song on the whole cd. He began to sing along...
"This is my December... This is my time of the year. This is my December..."
"You sing very beautifully..." Hermione's soft voice came from somewhere in the bed.
Draco had been so into the song that he hardly noticed her waking. He shut of the sterio, and was immediately at her side. He sat on the edge of the bed, and looked into his hands as he spoke. "We, er, Harry, and I, that is, we wrote to Ginny. We are going to try and meet her in Hogsmeade Friday... but also, we don't think that Ron meant anything by what he said... we think that maybe it was just... well, Harry thinks something may be possessing Ron, and I tink he could be right... and... that's it..." Draco looked over. Hermione was so beautiful The morning light was just streaming into the room, Draco hadn't covered up the windows, and now the sun bounced off her hair, making it look like locks of gold, surrounding a plate of porcelain, decorated with crimson lips, sparkling eyes, and he cheekbones of a goddess.
"Did you? Well... I would rather like to talk to Ginny.. I suppose you two were thinking she could clue us in? Very good idea!" Hermione looked up to Draco. He wasn't to shabby looking himself. His long blonde hair fell around his face, it's shine brining it to life. His grey-blue eyes were set as if he could cry, out of happiness and sadness, both at once. His muscles also were a fine feature, plainly viewed through his tight wife-beater. The boxer-briefs were simply an added bonus.
====8==== Harry had left the owlery early enough to take the time to visit Lissa, without the entire student body knowing aboout it. Of course, there were only a few other people around. There were the four Slytherin's; Draco, Pansy, Crabe, and Goyle, all almost in their sixth year. Then, there was Lissa and her younger sister Rinna, both of Ravenclaw, about to be in their fourth and fifth years. And then there were Eleanor and Owen of Hufflepuff. Both approaching their third year.
Harry knew that Rinna was always hanging out with Owen and Eleanor, mostly practicing Herbology for next year up in one of the other towers, and he knew where lissa was, e knew where Draco, Hermione and himself were, but that didn't explain where Crabe, Goyle, and Pansy had been the last few days. He had assumed that maybe they were with Snape in the dungeon most the time, but that didn't explain where they were the rest of the time. He supposed he could worry about t later.
Now was time for him. Him to spend with Lissa. He didn't know about when she was awake. They barely knew each other, and it would be hard explaining why he had been in here and volunteering so often, especially when he never had before. It would be hard to tell this Beauty that she was what he defined perfection.
====8====
Draco and Harry spent the next couple days preparing. If they found out something was controlling Ron, they would need some serious spell- casting to help them out. Hermione would research, then Harry and Ron would take turns practicing and setting up the targets in the Library. It was getting to be rather hard work, but it was worth it. Harry found himself getting stronger, and that was a benefit, plus, he found he had some strategies in common with Draco, it wouldn't be hard to fight alongside each other if he ever came to it, and he found, that now in actually talking to Draco, it was easier to put their school-boy fights behind him.
Draco felt the same way. It was as if he was re-learning everything he was ever taught, but he was being taught the exact opposite. Instead of learning the Unforgivable curses as a first, he was learning to disarm, and to read thoughts, and to do things that would give him a great advantage, but were tame and harmless. It was strange, but he rather liked it. I made him feel like he had finally done something he could be proud of. Something to really get cocky about.
Hermione got to see it all, which was good enough for her. Being able to watch as two people she had come to know were finally knowing each other was quite fun. But pain still lingered. What if nothing was possessing Ron. What if it was just how Ron was now, and what if they couldn't change or help that, what it he really didn't want to speak with her ever again... if she didn't have Ron back, she knew nothing would ever be the same. A piece of her heart would always be missing, a part she didn't think she would be able to live without. Bu she had to try. So she continued to research, to plan, to organize, and to help the boys prepare. Besides, watching two of the schools favorite Quidditch players, breaking a sweat half-naked, conjuring until their minds could take it no more, she saw nothing wrong with this picture.
=====8=====
Pansy Parkinson leaned over the railway and glared down at the trio, watching and waiting for them to go do... well, whatever they were going to do. It was obvious that they were preparing for something, and when it happened, she would be there. Nothing in this world was going to let some prissy Gryffindor girl capture her Slytherin hunk.
"Crabe, Goyle!" Pansy swung around to look at them. "We need to be watching. If anything happens, I want to know. When I leave on my girls trip tomorrow, I'll only be gone a few hours at Hogsmeade, and I've bee planning it for weeks, so nothing should go wrong. Jut take notes on whatever happens. I have to capture this moment, get rid of Potter, eliminate Granger, and bring Drco back to the DE's. Apparently he hasn't been calling Daddy, and that is a problem. He is suppossed to be on a mission after all!" Pansy swooped around again to see Draco blasting a piece of wood, 'Draco, you will come back to me, if you want to, or not. I'll make sure your tough for old Voldie, I'll make sure your good for Daddy, and I'll be sure, that your kept only for me.'
=====8=====
Hee hee hee! Well, I will write hopefully another chapter today! Or if not, There will be at least another one tomorrow! Sorry about the delay, but yesterday the dorm interne was down, and today I was very, very sick! Well, adios!