Author's Note: All recognizable characters, events, and places mentioned are all not mine, but J.K. Rowling's.

Chapter Seven

Lucid in the Morning

Hermione woke up feeling refreshed and also repulsed. She wiped at her lips angrily with the sleeve of her pajama top and then thought about what she had done. Draco had gotten to her. Draco was not speaking lucidly, he was probably lying to her just because he had no conscience. All Draco had to guide him was his own live-in-the-now attitude and his snide comments and the spell that tied him to Hermione. But worst of all was that she kissed him, and now she could barely stand that idea.

She raced from the bed and into the bathroom where she vomited and sat with her back pressed against the wall, her eyes closed and her stomach fluttering nervously. Hermione wanted to crawl into a hole and die.

The school hated her and the one person that talked to her was Draco, and he was a liar and she would not trust him any farther than she could throw him.

" What did you get yourself into?" She whispered to the freshly scrubbed face in the mirror. Her eyes were bloodshot and her face was pale, as if she had not slept at all. The truth was that she had cried a great majority of the night, until her pillow was sticky from tears when she woke up in the morning.

" Why couldn't you just accept he didn't like you? Why'd you have to mess with fate?" Hermione grumbled, dipping her hands under the spray of cold water. She cupped her hands and then brought the water to her mouth. She gargled out the taste of her vomit and then brushed her teeth placidly.

Hermione decided she'd stay in the Gryffindor common room, sick for the day.

*

Ron sat down in the Gryffindor common room's lazy chair, clutching his stomach and groaning at the pain he felt inside. He had eaten half of Hogsmeade the day before. Too bad that Harry had stayed behind to practice Quidditch! Without Harry, Ron had no restraints at all. He had eaten until he worried he'd bust at the seams.

Just as he readied to fall asleep, in an attempt to divert his mind from the pain, Hermione walked into the room. An awkward silence followed. Then, Hermione's eyes filled with tears and she said, " Ron, you'll listen to me, won't you? Can't I talk to you, at least?"

" It's you that's been blowing off me and Harry all this time," Ron replied angrily, " Where've you been? You won't believe the rumors that you caused. Bad timing, really – you ran out of the room just as some twit cast a love spell on Colin and Ginny."

" You mean you guys don't blame me?" Hermione felt layers of worry melt away.

" I don't blame you," Ron replied, " Harry's been sort of down and troubled about it all, but I know my Hermione."

Hermione bit her lower lip to keep from crying, " Ron… Ron, I'm so sorry!" She was crying now, something she didn't want to do in front of Ron, especially now that she wanted to get her story out, " I do like Harry. Really! I wanted to go to the dance with him, I was just terrified he'd say no. And then this whole mess began."

" A misunderstanding, really," Ron said, " You wouldn't happen to have any Chocolate Frogs on you?"

" Are you joking? You look like you're sick enough as it is," Hermione laughed easily now, feeling the weight lifting from her shoulders. She had Ron to help her now!

" Hey, the misery in my stomach would love some company," Ron replied with a grin, " Tell me what happened, Hermione. I'm delirious from all the chocolate, so don't mind if I space out."

Hermione grinned, " I don't care, I just want someone to understand!"

Ron nodded and Hermione began, not holding back a thing. She even divulged the shameful things that Draco had put her through. She didn't stop, she was going full-steam, her eyes wide as she began to gesticulate, and when she got to Draco, she made the most vile face as she explained the kiss.

" You really like Harry, then?" Ron asked, looking around the room uncomfortably, shifting the weight from one buttock to the other. Hermione looked alarmed but Ron replied, easily, " Feels like army tanks of gas racing through my intestines, you know."

Hermione blushed.

" I'm not cutting cheese or anything!" Ron cracked up, " Though with that face you're making, I'd say I might have let something go."

Hermione laughed and told him, " I'm just thinking about Draco."

" Look, Hermione, I have to tell you something too," Ron said, " I sort of set Harry and Ginny up. Harry doesn't even like Ginny too much, he was going to ask you in the first place. I got Ginny all excited that Harry will go with her, though, and then I couldn't just back out on her. I told her Harry will say yes and Ginny asked him."

She sighed loudly, " That was it? Harry had no feelings for Ginny at all, then?"

" None that I know of," Ron replied, " Unless your spell backfired and it turned into some sort of threesome bit. Colin and Harry and Ginny…"

" No!" Hermione exclaimed, " No way!"

" So now that we cleared all that up, how are we going to get Draco to lay off?" Ron asked.

" I don't know," Hermione admitted.

" And we have to find Harry and get him to believe our story, too," Ron said, " And just because I'm on your side doesn't mean Harry will budge too easily. He's got himself convinced that you put Draco under a spell, and that Ginny and Colin are under spells. What would stop you from putting me under a spell too?"

" This will be hard," Hermione sighed, " But I messed things up in the first place, so I should fix them."

" You break it, you buy it?" Ron offered.

" Yes, sort of like that," Hermione mumbled, standing up, " What we need now is to find Harry."

" Sometime before Draco gets to him. That git doesn't know where his boundaries are," Ron replied.

" Exactly," Hermione nodded.

Author's Note:

Short chapter; I post this because it has not much to do with the context of chapter six or chapter eight; it would be a mistake to add this little bit to any of them. So it's a stand-alone short chapter. All books have those, I think. I'll post chapter eight a bit delayed, spring break is ending and I haven't done any of my homework!