2. Somebody feels guilty

3. "I really don't think so."

4. A dormitory

5. A pair of shoes

Author: Jade Maxwell

Title: Guilt

Rating: G

Word Count: 196

Pairing: Marietta/Hermione

Challenge: Include This - 26th August

I know she will never like me. Especially after I betrayed the "Trio's" precious D.A group. And trust me, I hate the fact that I did that now, but I was protecting Cho at the time. Who can trust someone like Harry Potter?

And yet, I admire Hermione for all her courage and smarts. So, one day while she was walking barefoot in the Library I took her shoes from her desk. I don't know what compelled me, but I just had to have them. They were a dull brown, scuffed beyond belief, but they were hers. And I wanted them.

Now I feel terribly guilty because she had to walk back to her dorm with no shoes. And it was the middle of winter. Yet, I didn't run after her to give them back. Instead I hurried to my dorm room. Clutching the shoes to my chest.

Cho asked me why I had a scuffy pair of ugly brown shoes. I told her that they were mine. She raised a delicate black eyebrow.

"I really don't think so." I shrugged the comment off and rushed to my bedroom.

I never gave her the shoes back.