The end of a beautiful relationship
Hermione awoke the next morning lying on her bed, fully clothed in the robes she had been wearing the previous evening. She tried to get up, hearing every joint in her body crack. She moved her neck. Ouch. Hermione realised she had been lying in quite an awkward position, and for some reason hadn't put the quilt over herself.
She walked over to the mirror and sighed at her dishevelled hair. Why hadn't she got changed last night? And why hadn't she got into bed properly?
"Oh you're up!" a voice called from the doorway. Hermione spun round to see who had spoken.
"Oh, hey Lavender." She said sleepily.
"Your boyfriend's been up hours, ranting and raving about you!" she laughed at the bemused face Hermione displayed and walked on.
Hermione collapsed on her bed. Of course - Neville. She vaguely remembered talking to Harry, Ron and Ginny last night. Oh God what had she done? She'd have to break it off. Whether or not she liked Draco at all was for her to decide in due course. It wasn't fair to involve Neville in all of this. She wasn't even sure why she had. Probably one of her rare but frightening spontaneous plans. Pity she couldn't remember what exactly the plan was…
*~*~*~*~*
"So what you're saying," Neville's small voice asked. "Is that you don't really want to go out with me anymore."
"Yeah, in a nut shell." Hermione answered sympathetically. Obviously she hadn't told him the real reason why she'd gone out with him – she'd just blamed it on hormones. Those little buggers came in handy sometimes.
"You sure?" He asked hopefully.
"Positive."
"Well you wanted to go out with me at the time."
"Yeah at the time. But like I said, it was a spontaneous thing."
"No it wasn't."
"Yes it was."
"No it wasn't." he huffed, crossing his arms and twisting his into a strange kind of frown. Hermione could see where this was going.
"Yes it was." She said through clenched teeth. Arrogant bastard, who'd he think he was? Where the hell was a giant hippo to squash him when you needed one?
"No it was-"
"Yes it bloody well was!" she screamed, standing up in a fury.
To her surprise, Neville didn't so much as hint at a slight whimper. Instead he composed himself and stood to face her.
"Well Ms. Granger." He said calmly. "I suppose this is the end of our beautiful relationship." Hermione rolled her eyes. That boy was such a drama queen.
"Good day to you Hermione." With that he turned and walked out of the room.
"Yeah see you." She sighed, turning away.
"Em, Hermione?" she heard the same voice except more quietly this time.
"Yes Neville?" she drawled unenthusiastically.
"I forgot my books." He muttered quietly.
Hermione sighed (yet again) and nodded permission to enter her room again.
"Ok, I'm going now." He said.
"Ok."
"Good day to you Ms. Grange-"
"Yeah, yeah you said it before."
"Right."
Hermione followed him to the door and closed it behind him, sliding down it. Well that went well.
*~*~*~*~*
"Aw Poor Neville." Draco's ear perked up when he heard the Gryffindor boy's name mentioned. He glanced at the speaker. He was one of the Gryffindors in his year – Dean, he thought.
"Imagine getting dumped just one day in to his relationship. That poor guy."
"Yeah, but I guess Hermione had her reasons." Draco recognised the Irish voice as Seamus's. He spun round excitedly.
"Hermione dumped Neville?" he asked, smiling.
"Hey what gave you the right to eavesdrop?" Dean yelled.
"Just answer me!"
"Yeah she did, not that it's any of your concern!"
Draco smiled. Now why had she done that? Apart from it being Neville Longbottom, there was probably another reason too. And hopefully, that other reason went by the name of Draco Malfoy.
*~*~*~*~*
"You broke up?" two voices exclaimed as Hermione came down the stairs to the common room. She recognised the voices as Harry and Ron.
"Uh, yeah. How did you two find out so soon?" she asked, startled.
"Everyone's talking about it." Ron shrugged.
"Great." She murmured. "Is he ok?"
"Who?" Harry asked, looking out the window at the Ravenclaw Quidditch practice.
"Neville." She replied, confused.
"Oh yeah, he's fine." He said nonchalantly.
"Ron, be honest, is he ok?" she asked her friend for reassurance.
Silence.
"Ron?" she turned around to see him flirting outrageously with one of Ginny's friends.
"RON!" she yelled.
"What?" he asked, embarrassed. The girl smiled and walked away.
"How would you like it if Harry flirted with Ginny like that?" she asked, hands on hips.
"Harry? Flirting with my sister?" he bent closer. "Like that?"
"Yeah. You wouldn't like it much would you?" she said, crossing her arms. She was re-thinking starting up a conversation about her and Neville's relationship.
Ron's face turned a deep purple.
"Potter! Outside - now!" he yelled.
Harry turned round, baffled.
"Wha-what I do?" he asked as Ron grabbed him by the collar and led him outside.
"Oh for God's sake." She sighed as she flopped down on a sofa. She looked around from where she was sitting for a book to read. She saw an armchair in front of her, and the person in it obviously didn't want to be seen. However, the tell-tale elbow sticking out kind of gave it away.
"Neville?" she asked tentatively. The elbow disappeared.
"Neville, I know it's you." She said. The chair was pushed round to face her.
"How'd you know it was me?"
"Call it a hunch."
"Oh." They were silent for a few minutes, avoiding each others eyes.
"Neville?"
"Yeah?" his head shot up quickly. Hermione kicked herself for being so mean earlier. Well, not literally, because that would have looked just a bit stupid, but you know what I mean.
"Are you ok?" she asked, putting a hand on his arm.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Hermione nodded and they were silent for a while.
"To tell you the truth…" he started.
"Yeah?" she asked, wanting to avoid another awkward silence.
"I don't really want a girlfriend. It's a bit, strange."
"Well, that's great."
"Really? You don't mind?"
"Mind? Hell no!" Hermione thought about her choice of words. "I mean, you know, I'll get over it."
Relief swept over Neville's face.
"Phew. I was worried you'd be upset." He smiled. She returned the smile, in fear of what she might say.
"By the way," he asked. "Do you mind if we say that I dumped you?"
Hermione didn't want to hurt the poor guy, but that was going a bit too far.
"How about we say we came to a mutual agreement?"
"Fair enough. But, um, could you write that down for me?"
"Sure." She smiled and reached for some parchment.
"Oh, and would you mind putting down the Portrait password while you're at it?"
A little note from me: Ugh – I hated that ending! Too cheesy! Aw and no cliff-hanger! Ah well, I'll try for one next time! This was kind of a light hearted one I guess! Gretchen - was I too mean? I changed this story around so that you'd get what you wanted! But I didn't really want to hurt him either, he's cool :-) Supergal88 - I'll try to work in you're request soon! Not too much Draco in this chapter! Apologies to all the Draco/Tom fans – don't worry, he's coming back! LostAngel – that was the only credible way I could work it in! I liked your idea a lot though, please keep them coming! Louise – funny you should mention that…I think it's in chapter 12 you get your wish, but I might change it I don't know yet! Basically, thank you all reviewers and please keep up your great work! If anyone gets a chance, please check out my other fics – they're only one chapter long! And my original but that's about 8 chapters long so I understand if you don't have time. Byeeee!
Mystical xx