You Don't Love Me
Chapter Eight
A/N: Alright, I know this isn't going to go up within this week because ff.net got mad at me and won't let me post for a while, but this is going to be really long! (I hope)
Oh shootI have a problem. I'm not sure if this is going to end up as a Hermione/Draco story or a Hermione/Ron story. Will you guys read it either way?
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. Come to think of it, neither do I own Hermione Granger, Draco Malfoy, Ron Weasley, Ginny Weasley, or anyone in this story, for that matter. Well, that should take care of the disclaimer. Anything else? Oh yeah, the story, right, here goes.
After taking a shower and getting dressed, Hermione went down into the common room. She wasn't that hungry and she had no intention of seeing Ron or Draco for as long as humanly possible, which didn't prove to be long, seeing as how they had Care of Magical Creatures and Potions today.
She watched everyone leave, and when Ginny came down to go she told her she wasn't hungry and had to work on something before Potions. Ginny looked reproachful to leave her alone, but Hermione made sure she left.
In an empty common room she laid back on the coach and sighed, trying to get her facts straight. She could no longer distinguish what had happened in the dream from what hadn't happened. 'I think Ron broke up with Lavender, but that can't be right because last night was the Ball, or was it the night before?' After a while of thinking, and not getting anywhere, she decided just to go by whatever happened.
The bell rang for first period and she picked up her book bag and swung it over her shoulder.
As she walked through the portrait and started emerging down the first set of stairs she realized how much later than everyone else she would be and started running.
Three minutes later she was running down the dungeon stairs and tripped over her own feet, tumbling the rest of the way down the stairs, her ink smashing and soaking all of her many books with blue ink.
"Great! Perfect!" she said, getting up and bending over to pick all of her books and quills up. She went to pick up Magical Drafts and Potions and found another hand on top of it. She looked up at it's owner and found herself staring into Draco's cool, silver pools.
"Let me get that for you," he said, not taking her eyes off of hers.
They both stood up, not blinking, and stared into each other's eyes. Hermione stood, transfixed, and not sure what was real at all. 'Am I dreaming or not?' she asked herself slowly.
"Thank you," she murmured, taking the book from him. After a second more Draco nodded and tore his eyes away from hers, going back into the dungeon. Hermione stared after him, still wondering if that had happened or not, when she was jolted back to reality by the late bell.
Picking up the last sodden book, she entered the dungeon, barely hearing Snape drawl, "Ten points from Gryffindor for being late, Miss Granger." She sat down next to Ron, and he looked at her strangely.
"Hermione?" he whispered.
She looked over at him. "What?" she asked, clearly not knowing.
"Aren't you mad at me?" he asked, a bit of what looked like hope shining in his eyes.
Hermione stopped. 'Am I? I thought they broke up and we were friends. Oh shoot! I guess I was wrong. What do I do now?'
"Well, I am still a bit upset, but you're my best friend, and I can't stay mad at you forever, even though I still think it was totally wrong what you did. But I love you Ron. As a friend, that is, and I don't think we were meant to be together anyway," 'Yeah right,' she thought, "so I can hardly blame you for going out with Lavender," she said quickly.
Ron looked immensely relieved. "Oh Hemione, thank you so much for not being mad at me! I know I was wrong, really, really, wrong, but I regretted it even more after I spoke to you last night. I didn't know what I was going to do! I thought, well, she's not gonna talk to me anymore.' And I knew that if that happened I wouldn't be able to live with myself, because, well, because I love you too. As a friend of course. Thank you so much Hermione!" At this he hugged her and Harry, sitting next to him, eyed them strangely.
Luckily Snape missed this, and chose this time to call out, " Good morning class, I'm assuming you all have done your homework and read chapter eighteen in Magical Drafts and Potions. Please get out your outlines and turn them in to me."
Hermione laughed. 'This is going to be fun,' she thought, getting out her outline for a second time in her life which, thank the lord, was ink-free, aside from the writing, that is. 'My first ever fun Potions class.'
"Hermione, he didn't want 3 feet of parchment!" Harry whispered loudly across from Ron.
Hermione laughed again, repeating what she had said in her dream. "But I couldn't understand what he DID want, so I just gave him what I thought he might like!"
Harry rolled his eyes. "Whatever" he sighed, taking out his 8 inch parchment.
An hour later, while Harry and Hermione were working on their Cheer-up Potion, a yell erupted from the other side of the room, making Hermione and Harry look up in surprise.
"Longbottom! How many times must I tell you, the powdered newt goes in AFTER the shredded fig!" Draco yelled at Neville. Snape had paired them up for punishment for loosing Slytherin so many points so early in the year.
"Oops," Neville sighed as the cauldron in front of him started emitting green sparks and sizzling.
Snape ran over to where the two were stationed. "He put in the powdered newt first. 10 points from Gryffindor, Longbottom." He smirked, and walked off to criticize another group; Harry and Hermione.
"Potter, your potion should be red, not pink! You didn't put enough ant legs in!" he said over Harry's shoulder, and walked over to Crabbe and Goyle's cauldron, which held a salmon pink liquid.
"Good work, gentlemen, good work," he said in his suave voice, then went up to the front of the class.
"Jerk," she heard Harry whisper next to her and she smiled, and dumped in ant legs, the first they had put in, and the potion turned a sizzling red.
"So there," she said smugly.
"Alright, clear away for a while when you are done, they must boil for a day until they are ready to drink. I want you all in here at break, understand?"
Everyone nodded and murmured yes. Harry and Hermione walked to the back of the class with their bags and sat on the floor leaning on the back wall.
"So," Harry said, looking at Hermione expectantly.
Hermione eyed him. "So what?" she asked.
Harry said. "Hermione, I know you wouldn't have forgiven Ron that easily. What made you do it?"
Hermione thought, trying to decide whether or not to tell him the truth. "Well, if you must know, it was because of a dream I had last night."
"Oh," Harry said, looking confused. "Ok"
Hermione giggled.
"And what's with Malfoy?" he asked, a bit loudly. "He keeps looking over at us! He must regret what he did now that he got in so much trouble for it! What a bugger"
Hermione ran her fingers through her bushy hair. "Harry, I think I need to tell you something," she said slowly, making sure that Ron and Parvati were still working on their potion.
Harry came up closer to hear her.
"Malfoy didn't hit me," she said slowly.
Harry's eyes widened. "Don't tell me Ron did! I'll kill him!" he exclaimed, starting to raise to his feet.
"No, no!" Hermione stuttered, pulling him back down. "It was Lavender."
Harry looked confused. "What?" he asked. "Lavender hit you?"
Hermione nodded. "Sheshe got mad at me cause I was listening in on their conversation, hers and Ron's, that is, and she called me a Mudblood and hit me."
Harry looked shocked now. "Oh wow, Hermione, what are we gonna do?" he asked, realizing what she was going through.
Hermione shrugged. "I don't knowIn my dream I told Snape, but then Lavender broke up with Ron for it. I don't know if that's what I want or not. I mean, I know that that's what I want, but I don't want Ron to be upset with me again," she said, "I told him I wouldn't tell anyone."
Harry was about to answer when Ron and Parvati came over, and the subject changed.
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A/N: Alright, at this point I am going to see if ff.net is going to let me post or not, so if it ends here, that's why, and if it keeps going, that's also why. I think this is going to turn Ron/Hermione, but if you all want me to keep the Draco/Hermione, just tell me, OK? If it does turn to Ron, then don't worry, Draco will end up with a happy ending, if that's what you're worried about. I have an idea for a much better Draco/Hermione story that I'll start after this, so just tell me: Ron or Draco?