Scared Of Loving You

Part 6 - Bad Luck

Nine loud bells rang throughout the room. Groaning, Hermione Granger rubbed her sore, red eyes and sat up on her wrinkled bed. Running her fingers through her tangled locks, she feebly reached under the bed, found a tissue which was relatively clean and blew her runny nose. Her breathing was ragged and in gasps and she felt incredibly awful. Stumbling towards the bathroom, she locked the door before washing her teary face with teeth-bitingly cold water, hoping no one saw her. Feeling more refreshed and awake than before, Hermione dared to look at her reflection in the mirror. A puffy-eyed, messy-haired, pale face stared back at her helplessly.

"I look like a hag on a bad hair day," she grumbled to herself.

Not caring about the extra Arthimancy work she had planned to finish, Hermione gloomily headed back to her room to avoid meeting anyone she knew. Especially Harry Potter and Ron Weasley. She glared at the thought of her two best friends laughing their heads off that morning and entered her room. Glancing up at the wall clock, she noticed it was ten past nine.

"Ten past nine, already?" she thought to herself miserably. "Oh, isn't that wonderful. I've been crying all day... Imagine all the work I have to catch up with now. I daren't ask Harry or Ron what I missed out on! I bet they're still laughing... I wonder where they are now? Wait a minute... Why do I feel like I've forgotten something? Didn't I have to do something with them? Was it...... DETENTION! I COMPLETELY FORGOT!"

With a shriek, Hermione leapt out of the room and down the staircase, running at top speed past the bewildered Gryffindors in the common room. She accidentally shoved a first year out of the way as she sped down the corridor, ignoring the yells of the people she bumped into. Hermione Granger was late! She had never been late to anything in her entire life and now she was late to detention with Filch, who would personally make sure she made up for her lack of punctuality. Hurtling around another corner, she stopped at the sight of Filch's dingy office. Hermione took a deep breath, tried to fix her hair and reached for the doorknob, preparing an excuse to tell Filch who would probably not believe her anyway. Just as she was about to turn the handle, the door swung open and revealed the ugly, grouchy face of Argus Filch, caretaker of Hogwarts. Two yellow eyes stared up at her by his side and meowed at her haughtily.

Hermione, knowing she looked terrible and was going to be severely punished anyway, put on a forced smile and said cheerfully, "Sorry, I'm late!"

***

"...you will scrub the toilets in the girl's bathroom and then, I'll have a final task for you," concluded Filch with a nasty sneer.

Ron and Harry gazed open-mouthed from Filch to Hermione and back again. After the incident in the morning, they had immediately begun to feel guilty for what they had done and had decided to apologise to her before their detention started. However, Hermione didn't arrive early, like she normally would and the two best friends soon got extremely worried. Hermione Granger was never late to anything! About to run off and find her, they were stopped by Filch who had, unfortunately, come early to his office with his cat, Mrs Norris, faithfully by his side. Filch would never let them go, not even if they had been mortally wounded and needed a doctor desperately. When Hermione had arrived fifteen minutes later, looking like a wreck, both their insides began to squirm with guilt as she was sternly told off by Filch. Both felt that if Hermione hadn't got mad at them in the morning, this would have never happened. It shocked the two friends the most, however, because normally she would come early anyway with her head held high, even if she was ignoring them. Something about Hermione's state convinced them that something was definitely not right.

"We must've really upset her," Harry said to Ron in an undertone.

"Yeah, she looks terrible!" Ron whispered back worriedly.

"Maybe if I got her together with Harry she would forgive me?" thought Ron desperately, "But then again, she's too stubborn to admit she actually likes him more than... a friend..."

Ron looked at Harry who was staring at the ground gloomily. Harry didn't know why, but he felt responsible for Hermione's punishment and really didn't want to see her become even more upset. Hermione, who normally kept her head high in these situations, now hung her head in shame. An odd thump beat in Harry's heart and he couldn't understand what it was, but he felt a sudden urge to race up to her and hold her and tell her how sorry he was for what she had been through. Shaking his head at his bewildering thoughts, he glanced to his left, at Ron, who was looking right at him. Harry blushed, realising Ron knew he was staring at Hermione differently and then tried to dismiss his previous thoughts, by distracting himself with a smudge of dirt on his robes.

"You two," growled Filch, "grab these mops and buckets and follow me to the dungeon. I'll come back for your punishment later, Miss Granger."

Filch gave her a nasty glare before storming outside followed submissively by Ron. Harry grabbed a mop and a bucket and looked back at Hermione once more, who was fiddling with the end of her robes. Suddenly, Hermione's head came up and her sad, glittering eyes met Harry's emerald eyes instantaneously, almost as if it was in slow motion. She stared wide-eyed at Harry for almost a whole minute until he quickly realised what he was doing and turned his head away, before dashing out of the room to follow Ron. Hermione fell heavily into a nearby chair, breathing deeply to calm her fast-beating heart.

"What was that?" she whispered to herself.

***

Hermione hastily wiped her sweaty forehead with the back of her hand before dipping the sponge she was holding back into the soapy bucket. Back in Filch's office, she had finished all the tasks except one, so she had collapsed into an armchair, wondering what wonderful task he would leave for last. He had gone to a storeroom to get some equipment for her and when he came back inside, his face twisted into a nasty, yellow-toothed grin. Shoving a rusty bucket and sponge into her unwilling hands, Filch traded it for her wand and then lead her to a room on the third floor, which she had never seen before. The room's walls were composed solely of mirrors, however, the mirrored walls were now completely covered in a green gooey substance.

"Unfortunately, Peeves, found the Mirror Room and decided that he should redecorate," Filch sneered, "I expect this room to be clean by midnight, without any magic of course. Don't try leaving either. I doubt you'll ever find it again,"

"With... without... m... magic!?" Hermione had stuttered in disbelief, before Filch and Mrs Norris had crossed her path, left the room and slammed the door behind them.

Which left her now to manually clean up the disgusting slimy goo Peeves had scourged all over the mirrors. The only equipment Filch had left her with was a sponge, a bucket filled to the brim with soapy water and a rickety wooden ladder to wipe the slime splattered near the ceiling. Hermione wiped the mirrors furiously and soon her reflection, which was fighting back tears of frustration, became clearer and clearer. She gritted her teeth as she accidentally slopped dirty water on her school robes and tried desperately to think of anything but Harry, Ron and least of all, Draco Malfoy.

"I hate Draco Malfoy," said Hermione angrily, glaring at her reflection in the mirror.

She clambered up the old ladder to wipe the green goo off the top of the mirrored wall and cried out in fury when she realised she had left her sponge on the ground. Climbing down miserably, she walked underneath the ladder and grabbed the soapy sponge. Hermione got back to the top of the ladder and froze.

"You just walked under a ladder. That means you're going to get bad luck," a little voice said inside her head.

"Oh, shut up. That's just superstitious rubbish!" Hermione exclaimed aloud.

"That's a sign of madness you know, Granger. Talking to yourself," Draco Malfoy stated coldly from below.

With a piercing shriek, that echoed throughout the Mirror Room, Hermione dropped her sponge in shock and lost her balance on the unsteady ladder, toppling off the rungs. Her arms dangled madly in the air for something to grab and when a strong force held onto her, she clutched on the solid object for dear life. Suddenly, she found that she was not falling, however, she still was not standing. Her eyes, which had squeezed shut in fright, very reluctantly opened and a pair of cold, grey eyes stared piercingly back at her. Draco Malfoy, who had sworn that he never touched "Mudbloods", had safely caught Hermione in his arms due to his fast Quidditch reflexes. The sight would have looked romantic: a girl with slightly tousled hair who was clutching tightly to a striking fair-haired young man and the tiny bubbles falling lightly around the two. However, the circumstances proved otherwise.

"LET ME GO, MALFOY!" Hermione cried angrily, shoving him roughly.

"Fine," he replied coolly, letting his arms drop her onto the ground with a thud.

If being caught by Malfoy was not enough, the ladder Hermione had fallen off was swaying dangerously from side to side and the sudden impact of her landing finally caused it to sway too far and crash right into the tall mirrored wall that she had so meticulously cleaned. Hermione immediately ducked to avoid the thousands of shards shattering onto the floor and glancing from the corner of her eye, she noticed, with great annoyance, that Malfoy had simply taken a step backwards to avoid the skittering glass. Once the deafening noise of the mirror breaking had ceased, an awkward silence lapsed in the room. There was a tiny clinking sound as the broken pieces of the mirror slid of Hermione as she stood up. Surveying the damage, she realised that the entire wall she had just spent the past hour cleaning, was completely ruined. She looked up from her shaking hands to see an unruffled Draco standing a short distance away and suddenly, she felt a burning desire to hit him as hard as she could. Trying to break the pressing silence, he cleared his throat and asked in a voice that she had never heard before:

"Alright, Granger?" he asked rather gruffly, as if to muffle any concern.

Hermione glared at him, showing all the hatred she could muster. He returned the look with a cold smirk, as if he had expected her to react as she did. With pure hatred for Malfoy running through her veins, she took a step toward him, feeling her blood boil as glass fragments crumbled beneath her shoe.

"ALRIGHT!? Do you think honestly think I'd be ALRIGHT, after this!? First, you HUMILIATE me in front of the entire school by telling them some stupid made up lies. THEN you come in here, scaring me half to death and breaking the mirror I had JUST CLEANED! Trying to give me another dose of BAD LUCK, aren't you MALFOY!"

At this point, Hermione's temper, which did not usually flare so easily, had caused her to walk right up to Malfoy and scream in his face. She was on the verge of tears, but she fought them back as hard as she could, not wanting Malfoy to receive any pleasure in seeing her cry. Malfoy watched this display in amusement, his slate-grey eyes staring straight into her chocolate-brown ones and a smirk twisted on his pale face. Without warning, he plunged his hand into his robes and pulled out his wand. Hermione gasped and took a step backwards, realising that she was helpless and wandless. He lifted his wand in the air and spoke:

"Reparo!"

The glass shards, that had scratched Hermione's face and hands, hovered into the air around the two, flying around to find its neighbouring piece. Every single part of the mirror, which had laid scattered on the ground, brought itself together to form the mirror-wall once more. Hermione gaped at Draco, not certain about whether she should be angry or grateful. Ignoring her surprise, Malfoy examined the walls with disgust, before cleaning them with a Quick Clean spell.

"Malfoy... You just..." Hermione began in a startled tone.

"Just finished off your job for you," he finished simply, "Firstly, Granger, you can't lie when you take Veritaserum. I thought you of all people would know that. And I only came in here by accident, though I didn't expect such a warm welcome,"

He ended with his voice dripping in sarcasm, but Hermione didn't notice as she was concentrating on something else.

"You were telling the truth?" she asked sharply, watching closely for a give-away sign to show he was lying.

As soon as she asked him, he did not answer, though his eyes hardened and his face changed into an unreadable expression. Slipping back into his usual cold character, he tucked his wand back into his robes, turned around and sauntered toward the doorway.

"Don't want your boyfriend, Potter, to catch me near you," he jeered over his shoulder.

Something inside Hermione stopped her from screaming out curses and made her ask what she had secretly been dying to know.

"Why did you help me?" asked Hermione softly.

Draco hesitated for a moment, before turning around to face her, his eyes abruptly flashing with cold fury.

"I'll tell you why, Granger. Do you really want to know? It's..."

He stopped, face suddenly expressionless once more. It was almost as if he felt he needed to control his emotions.

"Why?" she whispered, feeling confused, hurt, angry, curious and wary at the same time.

"You know already," he replied in an unfeeling tone.

With those last three words, he rushed out of the room in a very un-Dracolike manner.

***

It was after dinnertime and only a few students milled around the Great Hall. Hermione, who was trying to avoid seeing anyone at all, sat alone at the Gryffindor table, hoping no one would spot her. Covered by an enormous book called 'The Complete Encyclopedia of the Goblin Rebellions', she tried to read about Hagard the Horrible, but found she could not stop thinking about what had happened in the Mirror Room. Malfoy had been acting very strangely since the incident in the Great Hall. After their confrontation, he completely avoided her, which was fine with Hermione as he was the last person she wanted to see during this time. In classtime, however, she had caught him looking rather intensely at her, causing her to feel an overwhelming wave of mixed emotions that she still could not comprehend. Although, Draco Malfoy was not the only person who had been watching her more lately. Still anxious about how she was, Harry and Ron tried to catch her eye during lessons, but she simply acted as if they didn't exist. Hermione thought she may have been imagining, but sometimes when she turned around in class or in the hallway Harry looked away, as if he had been staring, at her.

"Hermione? Is that you?" a voice asked from nowhere.

Hermione jumped and glanced over her book to see who was talking to her. Cho Chang's pretty face looked at her in concern, though her eyes seemed puffy and her nose was a bit red.

"Uh... Hi Cho... Are you okay?" Hermione asked.

"Okay?" answered Cho with a dry laugh, "I should be asking you that actually. How've you been?"

Hermione, feeling as though it were relatively safe to move her book away and expose herself, pushed her book to the side, knocking the salt shaker and its contents onto the table.

"Oh..." Cho said in an awed tone, "You knocked salt over!"

"Yeah, I did," answered Hermione, feeling flustered, "I've been so clumsy lately."

She scooped up the salt shaker and placed it upright on the table. Noticing other people in the Great Hall had looked over to see what had happened, she saw that a few of them had the same peculiar expression as Cho at that moment.

"That's bad luck," Cho blurted out, looking a bit shocked at her bluntness.

"Bad luck?" Hermione replied dumbly.

"To reverse it, you have to throw a pinch of salt over your left shoulder. Quick, do it now, Hermione!" said Cho urgently.

"Don't be silly, Cho. You know that's all just superstitious nonsense!" she replied haughtily, magicking the salt away.

"Just trying to help," sniffed Cho in a hurt tone, before flicking her hair and walking out of the Hall.

"What can be even worse than what's already happened..." mumbled Hermione, getting up to avoid the giggling students gawking at her from the other tables and deciding to go and return her library book.

Hermione walked swiftly towards the library and in her hurry to not be seen, she walked straight into someone, the impact knocking her backwards onto the floor and sending her book sliding away. The person immediately bent down to help her up and without thinking, she accepted their hand and stood up. Still holding the person's hand to steady herself, Hermione looked up and realised who she was facing: Harry.

"Harry," she breathed, still holding onto his hand without knowing.

"I... erm..." he replied, blushing.

He looked down at their entwined hands and she automatically let her hand drop to her side. Not trusting herself to say another word, she grabbed her book from the ground and took off at top speed towards the library door. She glimpsed two flashing grey eyes watching her in the hallway as she ran past, realising Malfoy must have seen everything. Hermione leant against the library entrance, tears stinging in her eyes, as without Harry or Ron, especially Harry, she had never felt more alone in her entire life. But they had hurt her that morning in the Great Hall and as much as she wanted things to be back to normal again, she knew that she would have to forgive them first. Taking this into consideration, Hermione took a deep breath and entered the library, definitely not in a forgiving mood.

"Hermione..." a voice whispered behind her.

End of Part 6 - Bad Luck

A/N: first of all... soorrrryyyy!!! it's been so long since i've last written coz i've had some trouble thinking of what to write next... so... after.. months?! i finished this chap. and i hope you guys like it =) dunt forget to review!