2 days earlier
Hermione exited the hospital wing in anger, Ron had refused to let her talk to Harry. What right did he think he had? Whatever, there was nothing she could do about that now. There were more important matters at hand. Tonight she would steal the ingredients, but first she had some business to attend to. She walked quickly to the Gryffindor common room, hissed the password and rushed in.
"Seamus Finnigan!" Hermione called in her most authoritative voice. Her eyes scanned the common room until she saw Seamus' face peek out from an armchair by the fire.
"What is it Hermione?" he asked, distracted by a particularly challenging game of wizards' chess with Dean.
"Oh you know what it is Seamus Finnigan!" Hermione's voice was loud with a berating tone," It pertains to a little act committed on last Wednesday, you didn't actually think you'd get away with it did you?"
Seamus turned from his game with a wide-eyed, startled look on his face," How in the hell do you know about that?"
"None of your business, but if you want to keep it a secret I suggest you do exactly what I say, now get over here!" Hermione kept an imposing mask on but inside she was laughing. She had no idea where Seamus was last Wednesday, or what he did. It was just a lucky guess. And it got him awfully rattled, maybe she didn't want to know.
Seamus stumbled over his chair to get to Hermione," Alright, quiet, quiet, gods Hermione, what's with you lately? First Harry, now-"
"Shutup. Unless you want everyone to know what I know, and I mean everyone, you are going to go up to Harry's room right now, find his invisibility cloak and bring it down to me." Hermione held Seamus' eyes, daring him to refuse.
"H...Harry has an invisibility cloak?" Seamus asked hesitantly.
"Yes you twat, it'll be in his trunk now go get it." Hermione pointed a finger to the boys' dormitory for emphasis. Seamus jumped to the task without further question. Hermione fought bursting into laughter once he left since Dean was looking quizzically at her from across the room. It felt good to want to laugh, though.
Seamus returned within minutes, his face pale and ashen, he handed the cloak to Hermione without word and stood still awaiting more orders. Hermione, again, had to fight outbursts of laughter. She could have fun with this. No, no, now was not the time.
"That's all, but watch it." Hermione dismissed Seamus who rushed back to Dean. He wouldn't tell a soul, she was sure. She didn't have time to worry about it anyway, she needed to get started before Snape locked his potions cupboards for the night.
The portrait hole opened and in walked Ron, he caught sight of Hermione right away and scowled at her. She quickly moved the cloak behind her back and turned to face him. He didn't say a word but looked extremely suspicious, his eyes accusing her of crimes she hadn't committed and ones she had. She looked back sadly, her own eyes apologetic and disappointed. She didn't have time, not right now. She inched towards the portrait hole which Ron was stalking away from, keeping her back away from him. When she reached the portrait hole she backed out, all the while Ron glared at her. She sighed deeply when the portrait swung closed and the common room was out of sight. She pulled out the cloak from behind her back and draped it over herself.
The hallways were fairly empty most of the way down to the dungeons, a few students straggling here and there, but mostly all was quiet. It was about that time when everyone goes back to their own respective common rooms and finishes up the night's homework or plays games.
When Hermione reached the potions classroom she made sure that nothing of her was showing from under the cloak and peeked into the doorway. Snape sat scowling at his desk, his quill out and marking up students' papers. "Terrible, horrid, abhorrent, atrocious, repulsive," he muttered while checking off the papers. Hermione fought the urge to go up and knock over his inkwell. Instead she tiptoed carefully towards the potions cupboards.
She reached the cupboards with ease and carefully reached out for the wooden doors. Snape's chair screeched as he pushed it backwards and stood, Hermione gasped slightly and lowered her arm quickly.
"Ugh, these children and their stupidity!" Snape complained as he stalked straight towards Hermione. She scrambled backwards and almost tripped over a chair but caught herself before making a single noise. Snape stopped in front of the cupboards where she had just been standing and whipped open the doors. His hand disappeared for a moment and came back out with a fresh jar of ink. Hermione sighed in relief as he went back to sit at his desk once more. She quietly glided back over to the cupboards and thanked the heavens she didn't have to find a quiet way to open them now. She peered into the dark shelves, her eyes searching for the four important ingredients she needed.
Hermione reached in for the dragon spitfire once she found it and secreted an entire bottle in her robes, her hand appearing near the floor for just a moment. She stood still for a second. Did Snape see that? Does he know she's here? She looked over to his desk where he sat bent over papers still. Hermione sighed as quietly as she could, then her eyes returned to the cupboards. Eckern tear drops, right there. She grabbed another bottle and secreted it in her robes as well. Unicorn eyelashes...unicorn eyelashes....there's got to be unicorn eyelashes, they used them in class not too long ago. Oh no, Hermione's eyes widened, that means they'd be in the front cupboards. Damn, damn, damn. She grimaced as she realized she would have to obtain the unicorn eyelashes from the front of the room right near Snape's desk. She could put it off for now though, first she had to find the phoenix blood. Her eyes searched shelf after shelf...twice, three times. Damn it all to hell! No phoenix blood. Gods she hoped she would find that in the front of the classroom as well. Otherwise...
The two bottles inside Hermione's cloaks clinked as she began moving toward the other cupboards. Be quiet damn you, she commanded them as she placed her hand on top of the pocket they were in, stilling them. She looked up and met Professor Snape's eyes which were looking straight at her. She almost let out a little "eep", but did fine with only a small gasp. Snape's eyes did not waver, his mouth opened slightly, then he shook his head and looked back down at the papers. Hermione's heart felt about ready to explode, this was just way too stressful. She continued to tiptoe right towards Snape, risking her enrollment at the school, her acceptance to the wizarding world, and her perfect record. Gods why was she doing this? Oh yeah, to protect her best friend. Hermione sighed inwardly, disgusted with herself for even questioning her motives. She reached the front cupboards to the left right behind Snape's desk in complete silence.
She reached out to the cupboard handles, her mind racing to think of a spell to silence the squeaky hinges. Oh, of course, how ridiculous of me not to remember, thought Hermione.
"Silencio" she whispered, the point of her wand showing from under the cloak. She quickly pulled it back under after a spark flew from the end to the hinges of the cupboards. She grabbed the handles and opened the doors slowly, they stayed quiet, to her satisfaction. Her eyes scanned the smaller shelves quickly. Aha, unicorn eyelashes, once again she simply took a whole bottle. Now, please, please let there be phoenix blood, her eyes searched the shelves over and over. No! Damn it, no! How could there be absolutely no phoenix blood? Was Snape a potions master or not? Damn it! Hermione's eyes wandered and landed on a bottle that interested her, phoenix tears. Wait, wasn't there something she had read? Yes, yes, phoenix tears, Hermione's heart flew, it could be used as a substitute for phoenix blood. The only thing was, it was a much purer form than the blood so she would have to use less. That's fine, that'll do, she grabbed the bottle and shoved it in her pocket with the rest. They clicked together noisily. Shit, Hermione looked over at Snape in time to see his head whip up and look over at the open cupboards that he did not open.
"Potter!" Snape growled and his chair squeaked as he stood in order to stalk over to where Hermione stood," I knew I sensed something, take that cloak off immediately Potter, don't think I don't know you have that ratty old thing. It belonged to your father, it was bound to find its way to you somehow. Now show yourself!"
Hermione was panicking, her heart beating so fast it felt about ready to collapse. She tried to keep her rapid breaths quiet as she backed away from Snape, slapping her hand over the clinking bottles in her pocket to silence them. Once she had backed far enough up she turned on her heel and ran with all she had, her feet smacking the stone floor.
"Potter!" Snape yelled after her, following her to the door of the potions room but stopping there. She kept running, she didn't even slow down until she had reached the doors of the Great Hall, then she slowed to a fast paced walk. She walked past the Great Hall and up the staircase and down the hallway to where the Fat Lady snoozed in her portrait.
"Frog's Breath" Hermione hissed.
The Fat Lady yawned," Yes, yes..." the portrait swung open and Hermione, the cloak still on, ran up to her room and collapsed on her bed. She would mix the potion tomorrow night and find a way to administer it to Harry the night after, around dinner time when there was hardly anyone up in the hospital.
2 days later
The Gryffindor common room began to empty as students wandered down to the Great Hall for dinner. Hermione sat in front of the fire, turning a green bottle over and over in her hand, inside was the potion. The red had turned out a few shades darker than she had expected, but she figured it was due to the substitution, which she hoped would work just fine.
It was about time for her to go up to the hospital so she padded up to her dorm and pulled the invisibility cloak out from under her pillow. She wrapped it around herself right away, deciding to just walk the entire way hidden. It was nice to be invisible, it didn't give people the chance to glare at her, which a lot of Gryffindors had spent their time doing when she was around lately. She hated how judgmental people were, they didn't understand everything so how could they form opinions about her? People had always been judging her, she was just the brainiac to most, but now she was the traitorous brainiac. Not much of an improvement, more of a demotion.
Hermione left her room lost in thoughts and walked through the empty Gryffindor common room. She pushed the portrait aside and stumbled out into the hallway, she quickly looked down to make sure she couldn't be seen at all. It would be quite strange to see a bit of rippling black cloak just floating down a hallway, unnerving. She walked up to the hospital wing and entered to the blazing light of the setting sun. Her eyes squinted and she put up an arm to block the light before realizing, hey, she's invisible. She rolled her eyes and looked around for Harry's bed which was hidden away behind white curtains.
From the snoring Hermione guessed Ron was still here, sitting beside Harry's bed like a good little watchdog to protect him from the big bad Hermione. She sighed and her lips pursed in anger and annoyance. She walked to the opposite side of Harry's bed where Ron's chair sat next to a side table, back to the curtains. Now how to get Harry to drink the potion? Thankfully there was a glass of water on the side table. Hermione looked over at Harry who was still in the coma-like sleep he had been in two days ago when she had last tried to visit him. She sighed in sadness, she had never meant to betray her friends. Why was everyone against her? Nevermind that for now, Hermione snapped back to why she was there and grabbed the glass of water, unplugging the potion and pouring it in. The red liquid immediately blended in with the water and turned clear, Hermione set the glass down on the table.
Harry's blankets stirred, Hermione looked up as his eyes fluttered open. He's alright! Hermione smiled for her friend and quietly chuckled as he smacked Ron in the arm for snoring. She decided to stay there to make sure Harry drank the potion, she listened as Ron and Harry bickered about Ron's snoring problem then narrowed her eyes as Harry asked why he was there. She looked at the sunlight and realized she needed to get the potion to Malfoy as well and the best time to do that would be during dinner. She brought her wand out and pointed it at Harry," Siccus Os" she whispered.
Harry's mouth suddenly felt dry, like cotton had sucked up all the moisture within it. "And could you hand me that glass of water on the side table there?" he asked Ron.
Hermione watched as Harry gulped down the water, then grimaced as Ron brought up the duel and her part in it. Ron tipped back on the hindlegs of his chair and Hermione was extremely tempted to kick it out from under him as he made her betrayal sound worse and worse. He was supposed to be her friend! She had not betrayed them! Then she reached her breaking point.
"Yep, and she hasn't come back to visit you for two days. I know just where she's been too, she's probably whooping it up with Malfoy in some hidden away room in the dungeons." Hermione kicked hard at the teetering hindlegs of Ron's chair and smiled maliciously as the whole chair collapsed and he crashed on top of it. How dare he even suggest a thing? Seriously, Malfoy? Ech!
Harry asked if Ron was alright and Hermione smiled, satisfied, as she watched Ron clutch at his side. Harry looked mildly concerned for a moment, then sad as he stared at the sheets of his bed.
"Ron, I really don't think Hermione would...I mean..." Harry started, trailing off. Hermione's heart leaped. Yes Harry, yes! I didn't mean to hurt you! I care about you Harry! I would never betray you like Ron says! Harry continued staring at his sheets silently.
"Harry, hey Harry, are you all there mate?" Ron tapped Harry's arm. Harry jumped, startled and looked away from the sheets.
"Yeah, I'm here, I'm here. Just kind of disappointed." Harry looked down again. No, Hermione thought. Harry, don't be disappointed. If I could only talk to you, sort things out. Harry please don't give up on our friendship.
"Here, have a sip of water, you don't look so well." Ron handed Harry the glass of water again and Hermione watched with vague appreciation as he gulped it down. Then Harry turned on his side, tired again, and asked Ron to leave. As Ron parted the curtains Harry mumbled that he would be out in time for breakfast tomorrow. Then he shut his eyes and his breathing became deep and peaceful.
Hermione stepped up to Harry's bed and looked down at his slumbering form. She fought the tears that begged to come and reached out a hand to Harry's hair. An inch away she stopped and sighed," Harry, you're my best friend, I would never betray you." She pulled her hand back and walked away quickly, parting the white curtains and gliding out of the hospital wing. She pulled the cloak from around her and dropped it off in her room on the way to the Great Hall. Time to dose Malfoy.
As she entered the Great Hall all of Gryffindor table looked away from her; down at their plates, towards their friends, or simply staring at a wall. Hermione's anger boiled. Idiots, the lot of them. She stalked over to Slytherin table, Malfoy's head rose to meet her eyes. He sneered.
"Mudbloods aren't welcome over here Granger." He called out over the heads of his friends.
"I just thought you'd want a toast Malfoy," Hermione bent down and grabbed two goblets with flourish from in front of Crabbe and Goyle, secretly emptying the potion from inside her sleeve to the one in her right hand.
She handed the right handed one to Malfoy," Here's to destroying my life." She downed all the wine in one gulp and dropped the empty goblet onto the table in front of Malfoy who laughed.
"I'll drink to that mudblood," he sneered, downing his cup as well. Hermione grimaced and stalked away. She walked right by the Gryffindor table without stopping and out of the Great Hall, off to her dorm. She would go down to the kitchens later and find something to eat.
Hermione exited the hospital wing in anger, Ron had refused to let her talk to Harry. What right did he think he had? Whatever, there was nothing she could do about that now. There were more important matters at hand. Tonight she would steal the ingredients, but first she had some business to attend to. She walked quickly to the Gryffindor common room, hissed the password and rushed in.
"Seamus Finnigan!" Hermione called in her most authoritative voice. Her eyes scanned the common room until she saw Seamus' face peek out from an armchair by the fire.
"What is it Hermione?" he asked, distracted by a particularly challenging game of wizards' chess with Dean.
"Oh you know what it is Seamus Finnigan!" Hermione's voice was loud with a berating tone," It pertains to a little act committed on last Wednesday, you didn't actually think you'd get away with it did you?"
Seamus turned from his game with a wide-eyed, startled look on his face," How in the hell do you know about that?"
"None of your business, but if you want to keep it a secret I suggest you do exactly what I say, now get over here!" Hermione kept an imposing mask on but inside she was laughing. She had no idea where Seamus was last Wednesday, or what he did. It was just a lucky guess. And it got him awfully rattled, maybe she didn't want to know.
Seamus stumbled over his chair to get to Hermione," Alright, quiet, quiet, gods Hermione, what's with you lately? First Harry, now-"
"Shutup. Unless you want everyone to know what I know, and I mean everyone, you are going to go up to Harry's room right now, find his invisibility cloak and bring it down to me." Hermione held Seamus' eyes, daring him to refuse.
"H...Harry has an invisibility cloak?" Seamus asked hesitantly.
"Yes you twat, it'll be in his trunk now go get it." Hermione pointed a finger to the boys' dormitory for emphasis. Seamus jumped to the task without further question. Hermione fought bursting into laughter once he left since Dean was looking quizzically at her from across the room. It felt good to want to laugh, though.
Seamus returned within minutes, his face pale and ashen, he handed the cloak to Hermione without word and stood still awaiting more orders. Hermione, again, had to fight outbursts of laughter. She could have fun with this. No, no, now was not the time.
"That's all, but watch it." Hermione dismissed Seamus who rushed back to Dean. He wouldn't tell a soul, she was sure. She didn't have time to worry about it anyway, she needed to get started before Snape locked his potions cupboards for the night.
The portrait hole opened and in walked Ron, he caught sight of Hermione right away and scowled at her. She quickly moved the cloak behind her back and turned to face him. He didn't say a word but looked extremely suspicious, his eyes accusing her of crimes she hadn't committed and ones she had. She looked back sadly, her own eyes apologetic and disappointed. She didn't have time, not right now. She inched towards the portrait hole which Ron was stalking away from, keeping her back away from him. When she reached the portrait hole she backed out, all the while Ron glared at her. She sighed deeply when the portrait swung closed and the common room was out of sight. She pulled out the cloak from behind her back and draped it over herself.
The hallways were fairly empty most of the way down to the dungeons, a few students straggling here and there, but mostly all was quiet. It was about that time when everyone goes back to their own respective common rooms and finishes up the night's homework or plays games.
When Hermione reached the potions classroom she made sure that nothing of her was showing from under the cloak and peeked into the doorway. Snape sat scowling at his desk, his quill out and marking up students' papers. "Terrible, horrid, abhorrent, atrocious, repulsive," he muttered while checking off the papers. Hermione fought the urge to go up and knock over his inkwell. Instead she tiptoed carefully towards the potions cupboards.
She reached the cupboards with ease and carefully reached out for the wooden doors. Snape's chair screeched as he pushed it backwards and stood, Hermione gasped slightly and lowered her arm quickly.
"Ugh, these children and their stupidity!" Snape complained as he stalked straight towards Hermione. She scrambled backwards and almost tripped over a chair but caught herself before making a single noise. Snape stopped in front of the cupboards where she had just been standing and whipped open the doors. His hand disappeared for a moment and came back out with a fresh jar of ink. Hermione sighed in relief as he went back to sit at his desk once more. She quietly glided back over to the cupboards and thanked the heavens she didn't have to find a quiet way to open them now. She peered into the dark shelves, her eyes searching for the four important ingredients she needed.
Hermione reached in for the dragon spitfire once she found it and secreted an entire bottle in her robes, her hand appearing near the floor for just a moment. She stood still for a second. Did Snape see that? Does he know she's here? She looked over to his desk where he sat bent over papers still. Hermione sighed as quietly as she could, then her eyes returned to the cupboards. Eckern tear drops, right there. She grabbed another bottle and secreted it in her robes as well. Unicorn eyelashes...unicorn eyelashes....there's got to be unicorn eyelashes, they used them in class not too long ago. Oh no, Hermione's eyes widened, that means they'd be in the front cupboards. Damn, damn, damn. She grimaced as she realized she would have to obtain the unicorn eyelashes from the front of the room right near Snape's desk. She could put it off for now though, first she had to find the phoenix blood. Her eyes searched shelf after shelf...twice, three times. Damn it all to hell! No phoenix blood. Gods she hoped she would find that in the front of the classroom as well. Otherwise...
The two bottles inside Hermione's cloaks clinked as she began moving toward the other cupboards. Be quiet damn you, she commanded them as she placed her hand on top of the pocket they were in, stilling them. She looked up and met Professor Snape's eyes which were looking straight at her. She almost let out a little "eep", but did fine with only a small gasp. Snape's eyes did not waver, his mouth opened slightly, then he shook his head and looked back down at the papers. Hermione's heart felt about ready to explode, this was just way too stressful. She continued to tiptoe right towards Snape, risking her enrollment at the school, her acceptance to the wizarding world, and her perfect record. Gods why was she doing this? Oh yeah, to protect her best friend. Hermione sighed inwardly, disgusted with herself for even questioning her motives. She reached the front cupboards to the left right behind Snape's desk in complete silence.
She reached out to the cupboard handles, her mind racing to think of a spell to silence the squeaky hinges. Oh, of course, how ridiculous of me not to remember, thought Hermione.
"Silencio" she whispered, the point of her wand showing from under the cloak. She quickly pulled it back under after a spark flew from the end to the hinges of the cupboards. She grabbed the handles and opened the doors slowly, they stayed quiet, to her satisfaction. Her eyes scanned the smaller shelves quickly. Aha, unicorn eyelashes, once again she simply took a whole bottle. Now, please, please let there be phoenix blood, her eyes searched the shelves over and over. No! Damn it, no! How could there be absolutely no phoenix blood? Was Snape a potions master or not? Damn it! Hermione's eyes wandered and landed on a bottle that interested her, phoenix tears. Wait, wasn't there something she had read? Yes, yes, phoenix tears, Hermione's heart flew, it could be used as a substitute for phoenix blood. The only thing was, it was a much purer form than the blood so she would have to use less. That's fine, that'll do, she grabbed the bottle and shoved it in her pocket with the rest. They clicked together noisily. Shit, Hermione looked over at Snape in time to see his head whip up and look over at the open cupboards that he did not open.
"Potter!" Snape growled and his chair squeaked as he stood in order to stalk over to where Hermione stood," I knew I sensed something, take that cloak off immediately Potter, don't think I don't know you have that ratty old thing. It belonged to your father, it was bound to find its way to you somehow. Now show yourself!"
Hermione was panicking, her heart beating so fast it felt about ready to collapse. She tried to keep her rapid breaths quiet as she backed away from Snape, slapping her hand over the clinking bottles in her pocket to silence them. Once she had backed far enough up she turned on her heel and ran with all she had, her feet smacking the stone floor.
"Potter!" Snape yelled after her, following her to the door of the potions room but stopping there. She kept running, she didn't even slow down until she had reached the doors of the Great Hall, then she slowed to a fast paced walk. She walked past the Great Hall and up the staircase and down the hallway to where the Fat Lady snoozed in her portrait.
"Frog's Breath" Hermione hissed.
The Fat Lady yawned," Yes, yes..." the portrait swung open and Hermione, the cloak still on, ran up to her room and collapsed on her bed. She would mix the potion tomorrow night and find a way to administer it to Harry the night after, around dinner time when there was hardly anyone up in the hospital.
2 days later
The Gryffindor common room began to empty as students wandered down to the Great Hall for dinner. Hermione sat in front of the fire, turning a green bottle over and over in her hand, inside was the potion. The red had turned out a few shades darker than she had expected, but she figured it was due to the substitution, which she hoped would work just fine.
It was about time for her to go up to the hospital so she padded up to her dorm and pulled the invisibility cloak out from under her pillow. She wrapped it around herself right away, deciding to just walk the entire way hidden. It was nice to be invisible, it didn't give people the chance to glare at her, which a lot of Gryffindors had spent their time doing when she was around lately. She hated how judgmental people were, they didn't understand everything so how could they form opinions about her? People had always been judging her, she was just the brainiac to most, but now she was the traitorous brainiac. Not much of an improvement, more of a demotion.
Hermione left her room lost in thoughts and walked through the empty Gryffindor common room. She pushed the portrait aside and stumbled out into the hallway, she quickly looked down to make sure she couldn't be seen at all. It would be quite strange to see a bit of rippling black cloak just floating down a hallway, unnerving. She walked up to the hospital wing and entered to the blazing light of the setting sun. Her eyes squinted and she put up an arm to block the light before realizing, hey, she's invisible. She rolled her eyes and looked around for Harry's bed which was hidden away behind white curtains.
From the snoring Hermione guessed Ron was still here, sitting beside Harry's bed like a good little watchdog to protect him from the big bad Hermione. She sighed and her lips pursed in anger and annoyance. She walked to the opposite side of Harry's bed where Ron's chair sat next to a side table, back to the curtains. Now how to get Harry to drink the potion? Thankfully there was a glass of water on the side table. Hermione looked over at Harry who was still in the coma-like sleep he had been in two days ago when she had last tried to visit him. She sighed in sadness, she had never meant to betray her friends. Why was everyone against her? Nevermind that for now, Hermione snapped back to why she was there and grabbed the glass of water, unplugging the potion and pouring it in. The red liquid immediately blended in with the water and turned clear, Hermione set the glass down on the table.
Harry's blankets stirred, Hermione looked up as his eyes fluttered open. He's alright! Hermione smiled for her friend and quietly chuckled as he smacked Ron in the arm for snoring. She decided to stay there to make sure Harry drank the potion, she listened as Ron and Harry bickered about Ron's snoring problem then narrowed her eyes as Harry asked why he was there. She looked at the sunlight and realized she needed to get the potion to Malfoy as well and the best time to do that would be during dinner. She brought her wand out and pointed it at Harry," Siccus Os" she whispered.
Harry's mouth suddenly felt dry, like cotton had sucked up all the moisture within it. "And could you hand me that glass of water on the side table there?" he asked Ron.
Hermione watched as Harry gulped down the water, then grimaced as Ron brought up the duel and her part in it. Ron tipped back on the hindlegs of his chair and Hermione was extremely tempted to kick it out from under him as he made her betrayal sound worse and worse. He was supposed to be her friend! She had not betrayed them! Then she reached her breaking point.
"Yep, and she hasn't come back to visit you for two days. I know just where she's been too, she's probably whooping it up with Malfoy in some hidden away room in the dungeons." Hermione kicked hard at the teetering hindlegs of Ron's chair and smiled maliciously as the whole chair collapsed and he crashed on top of it. How dare he even suggest a thing? Seriously, Malfoy? Ech!
Harry asked if Ron was alright and Hermione smiled, satisfied, as she watched Ron clutch at his side. Harry looked mildly concerned for a moment, then sad as he stared at the sheets of his bed.
"Ron, I really don't think Hermione would...I mean..." Harry started, trailing off. Hermione's heart leaped. Yes Harry, yes! I didn't mean to hurt you! I care about you Harry! I would never betray you like Ron says! Harry continued staring at his sheets silently.
"Harry, hey Harry, are you all there mate?" Ron tapped Harry's arm. Harry jumped, startled and looked away from the sheets.
"Yeah, I'm here, I'm here. Just kind of disappointed." Harry looked down again. No, Hermione thought. Harry, don't be disappointed. If I could only talk to you, sort things out. Harry please don't give up on our friendship.
"Here, have a sip of water, you don't look so well." Ron handed Harry the glass of water again and Hermione watched with vague appreciation as he gulped it down. Then Harry turned on his side, tired again, and asked Ron to leave. As Ron parted the curtains Harry mumbled that he would be out in time for breakfast tomorrow. Then he shut his eyes and his breathing became deep and peaceful.
Hermione stepped up to Harry's bed and looked down at his slumbering form. She fought the tears that begged to come and reached out a hand to Harry's hair. An inch away she stopped and sighed," Harry, you're my best friend, I would never betray you." She pulled her hand back and walked away quickly, parting the white curtains and gliding out of the hospital wing. She pulled the cloak from around her and dropped it off in her room on the way to the Great Hall. Time to dose Malfoy.
As she entered the Great Hall all of Gryffindor table looked away from her; down at their plates, towards their friends, or simply staring at a wall. Hermione's anger boiled. Idiots, the lot of them. She stalked over to Slytherin table, Malfoy's head rose to meet her eyes. He sneered.
"Mudbloods aren't welcome over here Granger." He called out over the heads of his friends.
"I just thought you'd want a toast Malfoy," Hermione bent down and grabbed two goblets with flourish from in front of Crabbe and Goyle, secretly emptying the potion from inside her sleeve to the one in her right hand.
She handed the right handed one to Malfoy," Here's to destroying my life." She downed all the wine in one gulp and dropped the empty goblet onto the table in front of Malfoy who laughed.
"I'll drink to that mudblood," he sneered, downing his cup as well. Hermione grimaced and stalked away. She walked right by the Gryffindor table without stopping and out of the Great Hall, off to her dorm. She would go down to the kitchens later and find something to eat.