A/N: Long chapter! Long, action packed chapter! Yay! I'm so excited for myself. It's a third longer then they usually are, (yes I keep track) so I hope you enjoy.
Disclaimer: I'm not J. K. Rowling. I don't think I can spell it out any clearer. I could make up a song, but I'll leave that for the next disclaimer.
Harry
Lucius Malfoy stood in font of the entrance to the bathroom, his long blonde hair strangely made him seem more intimidating.
"I forgot to mention to you that we preformed a quick spell that stops you from conducting magic that evolves the outside of this room. I also instructed my fellow Death Eaters to put an un-enchantment charm on the other wall. Can't have you all cheating now, can you."
"Bitch," Draco muttered, much to my amusement.
"And I thought the Malfoy motto was: 'There's no such thing as cheating, only playing your strengths,'" I added, .
"Indeed it was," Malfoy commented (Draco, not Lucius). "But killing each others children was never a plus statement. I guess things have changed."
"That they have, Draco. That they have. I'll be back in thirty six hours!" With that, Lucius Malfoy pulled out a fancy looking pen and portkeyed away.
"Well, there goes my plan," Malfoy said.
"Goddamn it!" Ron swore. We all turned to look at him. "Just a random comment on this whole situation."
"I have to agree with him there," Malfoy said.
"Well, your random comments aren't helping the situation at all, so why don't you just keep them to your self!" Hermione snapped. Not just verbally, but I cold tell that she had mentally snapped. Through the events of the past couple of days, her hair hadn't been very well cared for. It was bushy and tangled at her shoulders. Her eyes were blood shot from the stress and her nails were bitten into stubs.
"What do you suppose we do?" Ron asked.
"I don't know!" Hermione sat on the ground, covering her already red eyes with her hands.
"I do," I said, for it was true. I knew exactly what we needed to do. We needed to squash the hope of Ron and Malfoy so they would stop being so expectant. Maybe then, they would forget pleasing Hermione and think for themselves. Most of all, we needed to take the pressure of Hermione shoulders so she could concentrate.
"Do you, Potter? Well, by all means, why don't you impart your knowledge upon our inferior brains," Malfoy sneered.
"Hermione," I started, lowering myself into a crouching position so I could look directly into her eyes. "You need to choose."
"What?" she said softly, bringing her eyes to meet mine.
"Choose," I told her simply.
"Just like that, you expect her to choose?" Malfoy asked me. I could hear hatred in his voice.
"Well, it is obvious who she's going to pick,'" I told him. I stood up, so not to give Malfoy the impression of towering over me. "I mean, she has loved me for years."
Malfoy's cold ice-blue eyes grew colder. "You really believe that?"
Suddenly, I felt panicked. I needed an answer from her now. "Pick, Hermione."
She remained silent.
"Hermione," I started, but she still ignored my pleading. "Damn it, Hermione! You need to choose!"
Her silence got the better of me then. I reached down and grabbed her shoulders. I shook her as I yelled, "Answer me, goddamn it!"
A solitary sob escaped her throat. A lonely tear slid down her cheek. "Let go," she whispered as she looked into my eyes.
"Harry!" I heard Ron shout, but I continued to probe her for an answer.
"Just give me a fucking answer!"
Then a freckled fist hit me square in the jaw.
Ron
For the first time in my life, I hit my best friend. I had hoped to bring him to his senses. After all, we both saw Hermione and Draco kissing a few minutes ago. There was no reason for him to still think that she loved him. So I hit him, thinking I could knock some sense into him.
Unfortunately, all I did was knock the sense out of him.
Harry fell back from Hermione, stunned. But not for long. His hand went to his jaw, for a minuet, as he seemed to think over what had happened. Harry stood up and looked me in the eye.
"You hate me too, now. Is that it?"
"Don't touch her like that again," I told him firmly, my menacing glare never leaving his face.
"Just let her choose, idiot! You're just upset that you know she's not going to choose you."
"Watch your mouth, Potter!" I screamed at him. How could he say that to me? How could he be acting like this?
"You all know who she's going to pick! Deal with it! She needs to take the hope away from you guys! You need to concentrate on a plan and stop thinking that she might choose you!" Harry screamed, spinning to glare at Malfoy as well.
"How do you know that she won't choose me?" Malfoy sneered, drawled, or smirked. However you want to put it.
"BECAUSE SHE HATES YOU!"
"Harry." Hermione's voice sounded like a small bell in the middle of a war. Malfoy moved closer to her, in case her words drew Harry's attention back to her. He grabbed her hand and pulled her up, attempting to take her out of the room.
Harry ignored this and turned back to me. "And she thinks of you as a friend. Think about it, Ron. Did you ever believe you could compete with me?"
Malfoy froze. Hermione froze. It seemed to me that time had frozen. I remembered all the times I had been pushed to the side when Harry had walked into a room.
Harry didn't freeze, he just sneered.
I pulled my arm back and pushed it forewords with all my might. I put my whole body into that punch. When my fist made contact with his face, his head swung to the side.
He turned back to look at me. "You hit me all the time now, huh? Is that our new relationship?" Harry's fist collided with my cheek.
I didn't even think about what I did next, I just tackled him. Hermione and Malfoy didn't matter anymore. All that mattered was that my best friend felt that he was better then me.
I'm not sure exactly what happened in the next two minutes. I am sure that I landed four good punches and that Harry delivered five painful kicks as well as three hurtful punches. It seems that suddenly, Hermione was there, pulling Harry off of me.
Maybe he thought it was Malfoy or maybe he was just confused. Whatever the reason, Harry turned and swung his fist behind him, seeking for any contact whatsoever.
He hit her hard in the forehead, sending her soaring backwards into a wall.
HermioneI awoke in the bathroom, my body lying on the cold tile. There was something cushioning my head, but I wasn't sure what it was.
I tried to sit up, but the second my head left the floor, I felt so dizzy that I lay it back down.
"Hermione," I heard from someone nearby.
"Draco?" I said, my voice sounding horribly dry.
"Yeah. Ron's in here, too."
"How are you doing, Hermione?" I felt pressure on my hand and quickly realized that someone was holding my hand. I turned my head to see the familiar freckly face of Ron.
"I don't know. What happened?"
"Potter and his nancy-boy-self hit you," Draco commented. I could tell that he was sitting on the other side of me. "It knocked you out. Guess he has muscles hidden somewhere under those toothpick arms. We brought you out there, leaving Potter to 'think about what he's done.'" Draco ended on a sarcastic note.
"Ron, how are you?" I asked, my voice sounding better, stronger.
"Was I losing that badly? I'm fine. Don't look as bad as Malfoy did after I got him before. My week for punches, it seems."
I laughed, slowly rising. The dizziness had subsided. "I need to talk to Harry."
"Why?" Draco nearly shouted.
"Get me outside, please," I said in a stronger voice.
"But, he… Hermione, you've been knocked out for a while." Draco started off angrily, but calmed himself.
"Oh, god." The realization dawned on me.
"Lucius Malfoy should be here any minute," Ron clarified.
"Then we need to get out there." How are we going to fix this? I asked myself. Malfoy will be ready for something. He could anticipate any action from Draco. He probably expects Harry or I will rebel, as well. Then it hit me. "Ron," I muttered. "I need to talk to Ron, Draco."
Draco looked at me, then at Ron. He mumbled something incoherent and stepped outside of the bathroom, closing the door behind him.
"What is it?" Ron asked.
"We need a plan. And to do it, I'm going to need your cooperation."
DracoPotter looked up from the noise the door made when I shut it. He was practically huddled in a corner, his body crumpled on the ground. I had never seen him look like that before. The hate in his eyes seemed more like a prisoner is afraid of a warden.
In the years before, he had always treated me as if I was below him, and I did the same. Now, with his eyes blood shot and moist with tears, I felt something I had never felt for him before. Pity.
"Malfoy," he croaked. "What do you want?"
"They kicked me out," I explained.
"She wanted to apologize, no doubt. 'Don't worry, Ron. It'll all be okay,'" he mimicked bitterly.
"Is there any proof that it's not?" I raised an eyebrow.
Potter jumped to his feet, and strode over to look me in the eye, with a quickness that surprised me. "We are all going to die! Do you really think that who Hermione picks is going to matter? You know your father! He's just toying with us before we're all killed!"
I blanched at him. "I hadn't thought of that," I found myself saying.
"I had," said the familiar voice of my father from behind me. I turned to look at him. "But you know I can't do that, Draco."
The bathroom door swung open and Weasley strode out, Hermione grasping his arm to keep her standing up straight.
"Good. You're here. Shall we get on with it then?" my father said to Hermione with such an evil look on his face, that I couldn't help but want to hit him.
"Do what you want," she said, her voice cold and strong.
"That I will. Whom do you choose, mudblood? The hero, the bad boy, or the sweet, caring friend?" There was such mockery in his words, as if we were all big jokes.
Hermione looked at me, staring me in the eyes when her soft lips parted and she spoke one word. "Ron."
(A/N: Muahaha! You did not see that coming! Don't even lie! This could be the end of the chapter, you know. But it's not. Keep reading!)
My jaw dropped. I could hear Potter making some choking noises from behind me. Weasley just stood there, his face betraying no emotion.
Then my eyes went back to Hermione as I met her gaze once more. I still don't understand it, but there was something that told me that everything would be okay.
"Really? How sweet. I am touched." My father, of course, was not touched, but he liked using sarcasm to much to let this moment pass. "Right, one with the plan!"
I saw him turn and point his wand at Potter. I saw him open his mouth and begin to speak the final words.
I did not, on the other hand, see what Weasley was doing. All I noticed was some muttering in the back of the room, and a shiny object being launched across the room. It hit my father in the back of his head, and he fell over, the words stuck on his lips.
A/N: That is the end. We're almost done! Only one more chapter. I haven't heard anything about a sequel, so I guess no one likes me. Sniff. Yeah, whatever. I have more important things to write. If five people request a sequel, however, I'll be more then happy to write one. Whatever.
