You Don't Love Me
Chapter 9
A/N: Uh::ducks reviewers:: Ack! ::gets bombarded with reviews:: OK, OK! I'll do it! EVERYONE says it HAS to be D/H, so I am going to keep it D/H*sob* Which unfortunately means rewriting this whole chapter all over again, which is why it took so long to put up, OK? Thanks for reading, and, and, I'm SORRY! Don't hurt me for suggesting such a thing!
Disclaimer: Yeah, I own everything. (Kidding!)
"So, as I was saying, Quidditch blah blah blah blah blah" Ron said.
"Blah blah blah blah," agreed Harry.
Hermione and Parvati rolled their eyes.
Parvati smiled. "Come over here with me, Hermione," she said, eyeing the boys to make sure they were deep in their own world of Quidditch.
Hermione looked at her suspiciously, but Parvati just smiled and walked a couple feet away from the boys. Most of the class was done, but Draco and Neville, Lavender and Dean, and a couple other scattered pairs were still working. Hermione sighed and walked over to where Parvati was standing.
Parvati looked nervously at Lavender before starting. "Alright, Hermione, I know. Lavender told me everything."
Hermione gave her a questioning look. She sighed and continued in a whisper. "About Draco, I mean. I know you were cheating on Ron the whole time. I–"
"What?!" Hermione asked incredulously. "What are you talking about?! I never cheated on Ron! Especially not with Malfoy!" She said this a bit too loudly, and Harry looked over at them a moment, then went back to his conversation.
Parvati looked like she had no intention of believing her. "Come on, Hermione, don't be sick. I think that's totally wrong of you to cheat on Ron like that."
Hermione was in a huff. "Alright, number one! I did NOT cheat on Ron. Number two: If I had, I would have had a darn good reason to, since he was cheating on ME the whole time. And Number three: Even if I had, why would you care?"
Parvati still looked suspicious. "Hermione, why are you lying to me?" she asked.
Hermione drew in a deep, calming breath. "Parvati, I am not lying to you. I did not cheat on Ron. I–wait a sec, who was it that told you this?"
Parvati looked scared. "Um, Lavender," she said quietly in an I-really-shouldn't-be-telling-you-this voice.
Hermione buried her head in her hands. "Why is she out to get me?" she mumbled to herself, trying against everything not to scream out or attack Lavender like she wanted to.
"What?" Parvati asked, "What do you mean? Why would Lavender be out to get you?"
Hermione glared at her from between her fingers. "You should know. She's YOUR best friend."
Parvati pondered on this a second. Then, with an understanding and suspicious look on her face, she asked, "Hermione, who did you say Ron had been cheating on you with?"
Hermione dropped her hands, and her jaw. For a moment she thought that Lavender hadn't even told her anything, and that she had been as innocent as Hermione had been the whole time. 'No' her brain shot back, 'She's lying. Don't let her manipulate you.' "Parvati, what on earth are you talking about?"
Parvati looked embarrassed. "Hermione, you said Ron was cheating on you with someone, didn't you? Well, tell me whom? That's all I wanted to know" She looked down at her feet, with a blush creeping over her face.
With a cry of frustration, Hermione whispered loudly (A/N: There it is again!), "You should know! She's YOUR best FRIEND!" And then she walked over to Harry and Ron.
"Blah blah blah," said Harry matter-of-factly.
Hermione sighed and looked back over at Parvati. She was looking at the ground, a mixture of worry, sorrow, and fear on her face. At this, Hermione's eyes widened. 'Wait a sec,' she thought, 'What if she was telling the truth?'
She then looked over to where Draco was still working with Neville. Draco was extremely gorgeous, not to mention very clever (after Neville stopped helping their potion worked much better), but would she really even consider going with him. She smiled to herself. She already knew the answer: A plain and simple NO.
***
Yawning, Hermione got up off the chair she was stationed at doing her homework. It was around ten thirty, and they were in the Gryffindor common room. Ron and Harry were playing Exploding Snap, and nearly everyone else was doing their homework. This was on account of the lousy new DADA teacher, who gave them more homework than even Professor Snape himself.
"He's insane," Ron mumbled for possibly the twentieth time that night. "Like we're going to be able to finish a two million word essay in only a week!"
Hermione blushed, and quickly hid her finished parchment from view. "Ron, watch out, you're going to–"
BANG!
"Too late," Hermione laughed, looking at Harry, who's eyebrows had been singed. She smiled happily at them. "I love Exploding Snap."
Ron rolled his eyes. "Whatever," he sighed, pushing the charred remains of his card deck to the side of the table. "I guess we should get started on that essay then, eh?" He looked up at Hermione expectantly.
When she flushed, and looked away, Ron said, "No way have you finished it already! You've only been working on it a couple of hours!"
"I think I'm going to go up to bed now," Hermione said quickly, grabbing all of her stuff off of the table she had been working on. "Night Ron, night Harry!"
They both stared after her, speechless.
She ran up to her dorm and deposited all of her junk on top of her night table before plopping down on her bed. She laid back against the feather pillow and sighed again. 'Why me?' she thought. 'Lavender's spreading rumors about me, Draco's in trouble because of me, Ron cheated on me, now what?' She closed her eyes, not wanting to know the answer.
The sweet melody that is sleep soon came over her, and as she was drifting off to sleep, one of her roommates decided to burst in, making her lose any idea of sleep that she had.
"Hermione!" the girl squealed, running from the doorway to her bed, slamming the door behind her. "Get up! We have to talk!"
Hermione yawned and looked up at the girl, trying to find out who it was. "Oh, hello Parvati. What do you want?"
Parvati looked down at her, trying to find the right words. "Um, Hermione, I just wanted you to know that I had NO IDEA that Lavender and Ron had been going out that whole time, Lavender never told me ANYTHING, I swear. I just don't want you to be mad at me, because I thought we were friends, you know? Lavender, you, and me. But I guess I was wrong about Lavender. She just told Ron about, about you and Draco. No, I know you didn't do it!" she said, as Hermione was about to protest. "But Ron thinks you did. I'm sorry, Hermione. I just–I didn't know that Lavender was such a bitch!" At this the girl broke in to sobs.
Hermione stared, open-mouthed at her. She didn't know what to say. She believed her, of course, but she didn't want to. Lavender was such a jerk, though, it wasn't fair to anyone to fall into her net of lies. She sighed. "I believe you, Parvati," she said slowly.
Parvati looked up at her. "Thank you so much, Hermione, I don't know what I would have done if you didn't!" she said, wiping the tears out of her eyes. "I am so ashamed to say that Lavender was my best friend! I thought we were all friends, but Lavender was lying to us both the whole time! I just, I don't know what to do"
Hermione smiled at her. "I do," she said simply. "Do you want to hang out with Harry, Ron, and I?"
Parvati smiled, tears of happiness in her eyes. "Would I ever, but I don't think Ron's going to be hanging around you anymore. Not if he believes Lavender's lie, which I'm sure he did, judging by the look on his face when I left. I–"
She stopped suddenly, as crashing footfalls could be heard climbing the girl's staircase. A moment later, the dormitory door burst open again, and this time Ginny was standing there, looking quite pissed off indeed. "Explain," she said simply.
Hermione narrowed her eyes questioningly.
Ginny looked frustrated. "Alright, Hermione, don't play stupid with me! I know you cheated on my brother! I can't believe you got so upset at him when you were doing the same thing! And with Malfoy! I don't believe you, Hermione, you're a disgrace!" She looked like she was close to tears, yet she kept a firm face.
Hermione, tears running down her face, screamed back, "I DID NOT CHEAT ON RON! I LOVE HIM! I WOULD NEVER, EVER DO THAT TO HIM! NEVER! DON'T BELIEVE THE CRAP LAVENDER'S TELLING EVERYONE! I DID NOT CHEAT ON HIM!"
Ginny looked scared, but then realization struck her. "Malfoy didn't hit you, did he?" she asked suddenly.
Hermione shook her head.
"Thenthen it was Lavender, wasn't it?"
Hermione nodded again, making both Parvati and Ginny gasp. "She hit me, and blamed it on Malfoy. Ron came to me last night and told me not to tell anyone. I love him, and I don't want to see him hurt, so I told him I would keep the secret but, but this is way too much. I don't love Lavender, and I don't think Ron deserves her either. I'm fed up with this. I think I'll tell Professor McGonagall tomorrow."
"You better!" Ginny and Parvati shot at the same time, then looked at each other and laughed.
"Ginny, Lavender lied to Parvati, too. She didn't even know Ron and Lavender were going out. Parvati wants to hang out with us from now on. Is that alright?"
Ginny looked more than happy about this. "Of course it's all right!" she said, hugging Parvati. "Let's make an 'I Hate Lavender Brown' club!"
They all laughed, and soon Ginny left, and Parvati went over to her bed and sat down. "I'm glad you're here for me, Parvati," Hermione said.
"Me too," Parvati said, and turned off the light.
*******
A/N: All right! There's chapter nine! Please review! I love y'all!