Kiss The Rain
…a Harry Potter fanfiction by dreamkin…
…song property of Billie Myers, characters property of J.K. Rowling…
Kiss The Rain
The rain lashing on Harry's face felt refreshing rather than harsh, almost purging; certainly a distraction from his thoughts. He flew across the grounds until he reached the Quidditch pitch, where the six golden hoops were little more than tall dark shapes in either direction. Almost without thinking he steered the Firebolt around a couple of laps, then began performing various moves in the downpour, narrowly missing the ground on several occasions. His face was set into an unreadable expression, and he showed no signs of exertion as he dived and swirled around the pitch.
~
Everyone looked up when the portrait slammed back against the outside wall of Griffindor common room. Everyone looked down again hurriedly when Ron stalked through the hole, glaring at anyone too slow to avoid meeting his eyes. He moved to stand behind the largest sofa before the fireplace, then sat down once three fourth year girls had jumped off it and scuttled away to their dormitory. After staring into the dancing flames for ten minutes, Ron was interrupted from his thoughts for what seemed to be the umpteenth time that night when his sister joined him.
'Ginny, not now okay? I'm not in the mood.'
'You don't know what I was going to say!'
'Whatever it was, I don't want to know.'
However she was not so easily deflected, to Ron's great annoyance.
'Tough. I'm going to say it away, and you can bloody well listen to me.'
He raised his eyebrows at her, then leaned back into the cushions and closed his eyes.
'Fire away then.'
'Right.'
Ginny's mouth formed around what was either a smile or a grimace, and she pulled her legs up and crossed them under herself.
'First off, I want you to know you can talk to me if you want to. I know it's not macho or cool to talk to your sister about your problems, but no-one else needs to know. I'm here if you want me.'
Ron didn't respond. Undeterred, Ginny continued,
'…And I know you do have problems, and I guess you haven't sorted them out or spoke to anyone about them, and I think you should. If not to me, I think you should talk to…to Hermione.'
Ron looked at her, his eyebrows furrowed and his mouth pulled into a hard line.
'Don't start, Gin. Leave your nose out of that, it's none of your business.'
'Well, what about talking to Har-'
'Neither is that.'
'For crying out loud, Ron! The three of you haven't spoken for - what? A week? More? How can you stand it?'
'It's none of your business.'
Ginny slumped back against the arm of the sofa and put her head in her hands. Her long hair fell forward, hiding the angry red burn that marked her far-left cheek close to her ear. Her fingers muffled the words as she spoke them, but Ron could still make them out due to his proximity.
'It wasn't just you three, you know.'
With a grunt, he stood up and muttered, 'I'm going to bed.' Then, raising his voice, he declared to the rest of the students
'Everyone is to be in their dorms by eleven. I'll check, and if I find anyone, right, anyone where they aren't allowed, it will be detention and I'll be speaking to the professors about docking points. Alright?'
This was met with solemn silence. Ron accioed his bag from the corner of the room and went up the staircase. If he had looked behind him, he would have seen that his sister had not moved.
~
When Hermione arrived she no longer knew what to say. In the back of her mind the thought that the figure could be Harry had been lurking, but she had pushed it aside and convinced herself it was another student. On being proved wrong she was at a loss. She stood in the entrance to the changing rooms, sheltered from the driving rain, and watched the dark haired boy as he raced past her. After five minutes of this she realised she would have to stop him; just because he was Harry didn't mean he was immune to disease. Steeling herself for the unwelcome response she fully expected, she re-cast the water-repellent charm she had used once outside the castle, stepped out onto the pitch and shouted up to him. He ignored her, or else couldn't hear her over the howling wind. Placing her wand to her throat and whispering 'Sonorus' she called his name again.
'HARRY!'
The call reached Harry's numb ears and seemed to break his concentration; he blinked and had to pull his broom sharply to the left to avoid hitting one of the goalposts. Circling in mid-air he squinted downwards, and saw Hermione standing far below on the turf, water bouncing off the air two inches from her skin. For a long moment he considered ignoring her and resuming flying, but something prevented him from taking off again. Guilt, perhaps. He flew down and landed a few feet away, blinking at her from behind rain-splattered glasses and shivering involuntarily from his saturated robes. She didn't appear to have anything else to say, so it was in rather an exasperated voice he asked 'What?'
She looked down and said rather quietly,
'You ought to come inside - if you stay in those wet robes for long you'll get pneumonia.'
Harry looked at her, startled.
'You came out here just to tell me that?'
She still wouldn't meet his eyes. "I, um…'
Harry suddenly became unpleasantly aware of the rain trickling down his back and wished he had thought to charm himself too. Hermione was now looking at him with wide, frightened eyes; he could only see her huge pupils dilated so that the iris had all but disappeared. The weight of the last week weighed heavily on his mind, and he realised that he didn't hate her anymore. Maybe he never had.
'We…we need to talk, Herm. About…we need to sort things out.'
Her expression changed rapidly - from surprise, to relief, to apprehension. 'We? Ron too?'
'No. Not Ron - not yet. Just you and me.' This seemed to calm her down, and she chanced a small smile.
'Now?'
'Yeah. Let's go to Hagrid's - bit of privacy.'
He squelched past her and led the way, and they didn't speak until they were both inside the hut twenty minutes later.
~
Ron flung himself down onto his four-poster and stared at the deep red hangings above him. His anger and frustration with the elves had lessened and now he was filled once more with burning hate, underscored by a deep feeling of hurt and betrayal. His stomach squirmed, and he was not at all sure that it was only his hunger that was causing it to do so.
He had managed to avoid Hermione for almost the entire week, and now he had been forced into contact with her twice in the same night. He couldn't shake the image of her frightened face on the stairs from his mind. What did she expect him to say to her? It's okay honey, I still love you, don't worry? Huh, she wished. And Ginny…Ginny had no right to get herself involved in this. Ron ran a hand through his hair, causing it to stand up in stiff peaks from his skull. His hurt was still strong, still raw, smothered though it was beneath everything else he was feeling. She couldn't ever expect things to be the same, not now, not after…
Ron turned over and buried his head in the pillow. He could hear muted sounds coming from the common room beneath him. Lucky gits, he thought, they have it easy compared to us, if only they knew how easy…
…to be continued…
