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Letters

Draco sat alone in the Slytherin common room, staring into the fire. A sad expression gracing his pale face.

Yesterday evening he had written a letter to Hermione. And it took every ounce of strength he held within him to send it afterwards.

Had he made a mistake? Should he have handled it differently? No, there was no other way. Hermione's friends would have never forgiven her as long as she was still dating Draco.

Draco had to end it, even if it meant breaking her heart. So he had sent his owl to her, tears making his grey eyes seem abnormally bright.

His thoughts abruptly returned into the present as his two cronies, Crabbe and Goyle seated themselves next to him on the couch.

"Hey Draco, where have you been? We haven't seen you lately." Goyle grunted.

"Leave me alone, pea-brain!" Draco growled in return.

"Uhh, bad mood? Anyway, your father sent you a letter. It just arrived," Crabbe said with his deep voice.

Draco felt coldness creep up his neck.

His father.

Draco couldn't remember the last time he thought of him. He had promised to come home during their Christmas break, but since he had been with Hermione, he'd had no desire to return home to this huge, cold home.

With unsteady legs he got up and walked to his dorm. On his bed lay the letter from his father, the Malfoy family crest sealing the letter. Slowly he opened the letter his fingers shaking.

My son,

A few days ago I got a letter from an old friend of mine. He asked for you, saying that he can't wait to finally meet you during your Christmas holidays. I'm very proud of you, my son.

Your father,

Lucius Malfoy.

Draco's fingers held the letter tightly. For anyone else, the letter would have seemed to be a very normal letter, written from a father to his son. Draco, however, went rigid with fear. He understood the true meaning of those words.

His father never spoke freely in his letters, in case they would land in the wrong hands.

'An old friend' Lucius had said … Lord Voldemort.

Since the Dark Lord's return at the end of Draco's forth year, Lucius had waited in anticipation for a message from him. Obviously, he had gotten it. And now Draco was supposed to meet him. Fear coursed through Draco, what if they wanted him to become a Death Eater?

No, Draco thought. I'll never join them! I refuse to become a Death Eater. I won't be like my father.

Angry he ripped the letter into peaces, and threw them into a garbage can before he left the room.

********************

Hermione and Ron still avoided each other as best as they could. Ron, who couldn't continue lying to Lavender without having a bad conscience, had broke up with her. They had agreed to remain friends. Although she was disappointed, Lavender accepted his decision.

Harry meanwhile was desperately trying to get his two best friends to talk to each other again. However, since he didn't know what had transpired between Ron and Hermione he wasn't exactly sure how to help them solve their problem. And neither Ron nor Hermione seemed to want to tell him.

Hermione soon got used to Ron's behavior. He wasn't even looking at her these days. That's why she was utterly surprised to find a brief note inside her bag after Arithmancy.

Come to Moaning Myrtles bathroom tonight at 9 o'clock. I have to talk to you.

Ron

Astonished she stared at the irregular handwriting. Was he serious?

The only way to find out is t meet him tonight, she thought and hurried to her next lesson.

She inwardly groaned, it just had to be Potions, didn't it?

"As I can see, the Gryffindors are unable to brew a decent potion… again. Contrary to the excellent work of the Slytherins."

If looks could kill, Snape already would have dropped dead a few hundred times this lesson. He was being particularly vindictive today.

Ron sat seething in his chair, face red from anger. Harry was desperately trying to calm his partner down.

Snape, who was able to hear even the slightest whisper, turned to them with an evil look in his eyes.

"Mr. Potter. I know that your hero complex has you begging for attention. But, do forgive me for treating you like everyone else, in asking you to refrain from doing so in my lessens. 10 points from Gryffindor for disturbing my class. Now be quiet and get on with your work!"

Harry sunk back into his chair, his face glowing red in his anger.

"'Treating you like everyone else'? Well, that's a good one," Hermione said before she could stop herself. Snape turned to her, staring at her in disbelief.

"What was that, Ms. Granger?" He leaned over her with a dark expression on his face, his long nose almost touching hers.

"You always prefer the Slytherins! So you shouldn't speak of equality." Hermione defended herself with a loud voice. She knew this was a bad decision, but someone had to speak the truth.

Snape's eyes glittered dangerously as he began to smile.

"Well, Ms. Granger. I couldn't care less for you opinion. And I regret that I'm forced to take 50 points from Gryffindor for disturbing my lesson again. I'm sure your classmates will thank you for that later."

With that he looked over to Draco, waiting for his usual comment (everyone had gotten used to this by now). But he remained silent and kept on brewing his potion.

"You can't do this!" Hermione shouted furiously at Snape.

"Oh yes, I can. And if you don't be quiet immediately, it will be 100 points!"

Hurried, Harry clapped his hand over Hermione's mouth to stop her.

"There won't be any more disturbances, professor", he promised.

Thank God, the lessen was over in five minutes.

It was ten to nine.

Hermione sat in the common room and waited nervously. Again her eyes scanned the brief note she'd received that day. Then she decided to go, if she wanted to be in time, because the bathroom of Moaning Myrtle was located on the second floor. She quickly stuffed the note into her bag and went through the portrait hole. Hermione creped through the corridors as silently as she could. When she finally arrived at the door with an out of order sign, she hesitated.

Am I making a mistake? Is he only going to shout at me again?

But then she shrugged those thoughts off and opened the door, for the sake of their old friendship.

Ron was leaning with his back against one of the walls, arms crossed over his chest, observing her out of the corners of his eyes.

When she closed the door behind her, he turned around to face her fully.

"Hey," she said hesitantly. Ron let his arms drop.

"Hey," he said hesitantly back to her. For a moment neither one of them spoke a word, only looked at each other. Then, after what seemed to be an eternity, Ron cleared his throat.

"Well, what is it that you wanted from me, Hermione?"

Astonished, she just stared at him.

"I thought it was you who wanted to talk with me?" Hermione asked in confusion.

Ron furred his eyebrows.

"But you wrote me the note, telling me that you wanted to talk to me," he responded.

As if to prove what she was saying was real, she got the note out of her pocket and gave it to him. He took it with a surprised look and scanned it fast. Then he looked up and raised his eyebrows questioningly.

"Well, isn't that convenient. I got the same note." With that he got a similar note out of his pocket and gave it to her.

'Come to Moaning Myrtles bathroom tonight at 9 o'clock. I have to talk to you.

Hermione'

"I did not write that, Ron." Sighing she looked into his eyes.

"But who…?"

Both stared at each other. They got the solution in the same moment.

"Harry."

They both grinned at this.

"Well, since we're here anyway, we might as well talk," Ron suggested. Hermione nodded her head and then slowly sat down, and leaned against the wall opposite from Ron. This would clearly take some time.

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Beta's Notes:

Don't any of you reviewers give this wonderful author a hard time. She tries really hard for all of you. I'm just a lazy bum, and a horrible procrastinator, and when she sends me the chapters it takes me a while to sit my ass down and beta the thing. But that wasn't the case this time (for once); shit has been going on in my life, and not all too pleasant shit. My aunt just died to days ago, and it was really hard for me to sit down and write this, but since I'm going away for a while I thought I'd give her something to post (I gotta post myself). And then my computer crapped out on me like, oh I don't know, how many times was it Friedl, three, four times. *sigh* So don't give her a hard time, if you must rant about it, send me an email, my address in on my bio page. Well talk to you guys later. Dragonsprincess

Author's Note:

3 times *g*. And thanks for all of your reviews!