The Effect Of the Rose

Ch.14

-Previously on Ch.13-

All is fair in Love and War

-The one you fear-

-Now on Ch.14-

Trembling hands have grabbed this piece of parchment and carried it over to drawer, a far, far, drawer, away from anyone sight, away from prying eyes.

Hermione edging closer and closer to the drawer wondered who's they might be and if it was the right thing she was doing.

'What if it is him?' she thought with fear running through her veins.

'What will happen if he knows I'm avoiding him' 'Don't be silly...it's probably not even him' 'Just some first year doing one of their pranks'

She opened the drawer, put the parchment in and quickly shut it, as if afraid to see what's inside.

But Hermione knew all too well what was hidden inside that drawer. Her most dangerous possession of all along with the most deadliest. For her it was kind of hard to decide which was worse, the blade or the rose.

She sat there deciding what to do next, walk over to her bed and pretend like nothing happened, go on her balcony and write something down in her diary, or should she go to bed and cry herself to sleep.

She can of course pretend nothing happened but it has and what's the point in writing in that silly book of hers anymore, it doesn't help, it doesn't solve, it's a neutral friend. And last of all crying herself to sleep wasn't always her choice of fun but it has been her choice which she rather chose quiet often.

Gently and slowly she crossed her legs together and opened the drawer that has just been shut seconds ago. Her eyes jumped to the long velvet stick figure that laid there neighboring the black rose. Instantaneously her fragile fingers traced the petals of the rose. As If unable to touch it, she holds back and thinks twice about actually picking it up.

Seconds later, her warm hand wraps itself around the surface of the black rose. Gently, as if it is frail, she picks it up. To think, one would get rid of something so deadly to her. But she couldn't find it in her heart to get rid of something so beautiful and so enticing. It immediately attracts her attention as well as her incidence.

'Why did I think such an exotic thing can be so deadly?' she asked herself and innocent question.

She brings it closer to her nose and smells the tantalizing warmth of this deadly rose. Closing her eyes, she's fallen into ecstasy, into this rapturous bliss. The smell, the touch, the feeling of this toxic object has made her fanatical.

Fighting the urge to stay there longer she pulls it away from her and brings it down to her lap. She finds her senses and releases this deadly object that has hypnotized her just seconds away. She could have gone completely insane, she could have mentally lost her mind if it wasn't for her strong ness building up inside her, running through her veins, combating the powerful urge to stay there, in that world of independence.

'Now I remember' she thought.

She looks around, searching for the rose only to find it near the bathroom door where she threw it. She picked it up and carried it over to it's previous location, the far drawer. Opening the drawer her eyes glanced at the velvet object that was now accompanied by a piece of parchment. She laid the rose right across the parchment and the blade as if to guard it and keep it away, for her own good.

Swiftly closing the drawer she got up to her feet and walked over to her bed.

'How will I explain myself to Dumbledore for missing so many classes?' she thought to herself.

'I really should concentrate on my work, after all I do want to get out of my house and get a good job and live all by myself, don't I?' she asked herself.

'Yep...all by myself...I'll be living all alone' 'Wont that be a nice change for a while' She thought sadly.

Right as she was thinking this she heard a tap on the window. Looking out she saw Karnog, Ginny's owl, with a letter attached to it.

'That remind me, I should go and visit D'Artagnan' she thought at the sight of him.

"Well, what do you have for me, Karnog?" she asked softly.

She opened the letter and it read...

Come down here, we hardly ever talk anymore. What's wrong? I want to know.

-Ginny-

She smiled a bit and petted the owl as if telling it to go, and right at that moment Karnog spun around and disappeared into the foggy night.

Hermione closed her window and started to get dressed. She wore her fitted yet loose jeans and a regular shirt followed by a sweater just to keep her nice and warm.

As she walked over to her dresser she started to notice dark circles appearing under her eyes.

'It's only a matter of time until they actually go away and never appear again' she thought to herself.

She took two pills of Advanced Concealment and gulped it down with water. By gently applying a light layer of make-up she concealed herself pretty good. The make-up gave her a natural looking glow, the one that stood out as healthy rather than what she really was.

Bringing her hair in a messy bun she looked around the room remembering what she forgot to take.

She quietly walked out of her room and started to go down the stairs. She was somewhere in the middle of the Common Room when she had noticed Draco staring at her through his book that he was supposedly reading.

Without showing any emotion, Draco looked back down in his book and turned the page. Hermione was glad for his reaction only because she couldn't deal with her memories anymore. She thought that maybe he was giving her some space to breath, whatever it was, it suited her for now.

She reached the Gryffindor Common Room stated the password and walked in on Harry and Ron having a match at chess.

Harry instantly looked up followed by Ron who's King has just beaten Harry's Queen.

Without them seeing her, she quickly ran up to the Girls Dormitories only to be met with an upset Ginny.

"What's wrong?" Hermione asked.

"You were suppose to be here a minute ago" she said no longer able to keep a straight face and bust out laughing. Hermione joined in and relaxed immediately.

"Ahh...I miss this" She said without knowing it.

"Miss what Mione?" Ginny asked.

"What...Oh—just this warmth and comfortableness. It's very soothing, I guess" she said.

After what seemed like ages. They both finally admitted that they were tired and said their 'good nights' to one another.

As Hermione was coming out she heard her name being called out so she instantly looked back to find Seamus standing there with his tousled hair, white sleep shirt and some slacks, looking at her with no expression on his face.

"Yeah...what's up?" she asked quietly only because everyone's gone off to bed and she didn't want to raise her voice.

"Well, it's just that—Hermione, why don't you ever come to us anymore. I remember in previous years when you were prefect you still had time for all of us, even me for that matter." He said, she immediately felt bad for not being with them like she used to.

"I –uh" she started.

"I don't know anything about you anymore. I don't even know if you've got yourself a nice looking lad, nothing. We haven't been up to date on anything." He said quietly.

As soon as he mention the part about her finding herself a nice 'lad' she instantly thought about Draco and what's he doing right this moment as she's speaking to her best friend.

"But Hermione...the thing is...I want to be"

"You see, if I didn't care, I wouldn't have even bothered. But I do" he said soothingly.

"Seamus...I'm so sorry. I had no idea that me not being in contact with you has meant so much." She replied back at him.

"I've just had so much to deal with lately that I don't want to even bore you." She said trying to find an excuse for getting out of this situation.

"What problems?" He asked right away.

"Well...there not as complicated as I make it sound, but they are problems" she said, still searching for an excuse. She really didn't want to make another mistake and tell another person about what's really been going on. She thought it was bad enough that Draco had already known, not to mention others already suspects.

"Hermione...it's nothing I wont be able to handle" he said.

"Wait..." he said all of the sudden.

"Are you ---pregnant?" he said with a screwed up face, wanting to hear her shout a loud 'NO'.

All of the sudden the tension has completely dropped and Hermione burst out laughing.

"You—really—think—I'm—pregnant?" she said in between laughs.

"Well I don't know, I mean we've been talking about everything and suddenly we just stopped so I thought maybe you had some 'lady' problems." He said with a slight smile.

"Oh Seamus it's definitely not that" she said with a smile on her face.

"That's what I wanted to see all along, that beautiful smile that you hide every so often" he said sweetly.

"Why are you being so overly sweet?"

"I-uhh—I don't know...why haven't you come down here and actually talked to us?" he switched the question on her. All along stepping backwards and running a hand through his now medium length hair.

"All right...I'll make a deal with you...I'll come down here only if you start to come out and actually talk to me. Because lately it seems as though you're the one who's actually

igno--"

"All right then, no problem." He interrupted her.

Hermione raised her eye brows a bit, surprised by his quick answer.

"All right then, Good Night, Seamus" she said and quickly walked out of the Gryffindor.

'Now there's a strange boy' she thought to herself.

She walked up to the Head Boy/Girl Common Room and stated the password.

Walking in, she didn't expect it to become so cold and dark. For some apparent reason, in the Gryffindor Common Room, it was always warm and light, rather than the opposite.

She went over to the main entrance and said a quick spell to raise the Temperature and make it just a bit lighter.

'There, that's better' she thought.

As she almost reached the bottom of the steps she glanced over to where Draco was sitting only to find his seat empty.

A sad and cold feeling ran through her and she couldn't explain why. She walked over there and sat exactly where he sat before. This was his Slytherin armchair. Her, Gryffindor armchair stood right across from it. She traced the arms of the chair knowing that his strong but pale arms have rested here just moments ago. The seat was rather warm comparing to everything else, almost inviting, so she knew he must have left just minutes ago.

She looked around and found an interesting book laying around on the near by table.

'This was the book he was reading' she thought to herself.

She took it in her hands and as she brought it closer to read something the smell of the book came rushing at her with high speed. It was the spicy smell of his cologne. It was really worth smelling, for her at least.

She brought it close to her face and closed her eyes as the smell entered her lungs and captured it there. Realized what she had just done she quickly put the book down and stood up from the seat, muttering something like 'crazy' and 'complete psycho' to herself.

Walking up and out of her Common Room she entered her room and never came out again for the night.

Hermione was completely unaware that someone was watching her every move. At that exact moment, a dark figure emerged from the shadows and came into the light. His muscular hands crushing the metal rail, nerviness has taken over him.

"She smelled it" was all that he said to himself.

And without a second later, he vanished into the dark.

END OF CHAPTER 14