A quick A/N: You'll only figure out the mystery of the rape when our dear ol' Draco does! Unless of course you're very good a deduction.

Closer

Chapter 6:

Harry pushed around the food on his plate. He couldn't piece together what had happened to cause Hermione to go off like that on them. All of them! It had been Malfoy causing problems, not him or Ron. They were on her side, right?

"Harry, Ron, would either of you care to explain what's wrong? All this silence is only making things worse!" Ginny said distraught. She had a point. The air was so thick with tension it seemed like it was actually hard to breathe.

"I don't know, you saw the same thing I did." Harry spoke quietly, then put down his fork and looked towards Ron who was still glowering. "She seemed real upset with you, did you say something?"

Ron was about to speak when Ginny interjected, "Oh Ronald! That's just like you isn't it? You had to go and say something insensitive didn't you?" She shook her head. "Boys...."

That was all Ron was having and he shot up from his seat. "I didn't say or do anything to her!" He yelled. A voice in the back of his mind taunted, 'Of course not... it's what you didn't do, isn't it?'

"Calm down mate!" Harry was also up out of his seat trying to get Ron to sit back down with them. "Gin didn't mean it like that. What happened earlier was no one's fault but Malfoy's."

Ron sat back down reluctantly, still brooding. 'Yea,' he thought, 'I wish.'

"Sorry Ron." Ginny said as she looked on her brothers face, "I'll try to talk some sense into Hermione later. How could she just say we weren't all friends anymore?"

But even with everyone's consolations Ron kept beating himself up in his mind. He had broken a promise the three best friends had made a few years back, and there was no turning back. Knowing Hermione, she wouldn't forgive him even if her life depended on it.

To add to an already wonderful morning, Gryffindor and Slytherin 6th years had potions as their first class of the day. Conditions from the Great Hall didn't improve any either. The animosity between the two houses was as high as ever. Add to that one Gryffindor against all of her class mates (be it of the same house or not) and you have a perpetual hell.

Snape came into his classroom just as the students had all settled into their seats. He looked around with distaste at his class. He didn't take note of the tensions because it was always present amongst this group. He did however pick up on something rather interesting.

Know-it all-Granger was sitting all the way to the back of the class alone, sporting an uncharacteristic scowl. Potter and Weasly sat together in silence towards the front of the class, both of them sullen.

"Well, I'm glad to see that some things have changed..." Some students looked up at him curiously. He almost smiled as a new idea came to mind. "I think, for the remainder of this year, you shall all have assigned partners."

Hermione grimaced, as did most of the other impertinent students.

"No one move until I am finished. We're starting with, Potter." Harry looked up at him. "You and," he looked about a moment. "Crabbe." He looked about for his next victims. "Weasly and Longbottom. Granger and Parkinson. Malfoy and Finnegin. Goyle and Brown....."

This continued on for a while until he had set up the entire class in pairs. When he finished talking the class collectively got up and moved about until they were sitting with partners that (for the most part) that the hated. The tension from before grew considerably. Snape smiled. The more uncomfortable his students, the better.

The day carried on, and it only declined with each hour that passed. By the time classes were over, our young wizards were loaded with homework and it was only the first day of school. With things beginning this way, they didn't have much hope for the rest of their year.

In the Gryffindor common room people had started on their homework or were just hanging out and trying to relax some after a rather stressful first day.

Ginny looked about. Hermione was nowhere to be found. 'Maybe she's gone up to the library already...' The red-head set off to find her.

Ron watched as his little sister left the common room. He hoped he could convince Hermione to at least talk to them. She had been extremely hostile all day. She treated all her house-mates as badly as she treated Malfoy. Hopefully, it wasn't a permanent condition.

He needed a chance to explain to her what had happened that day. 'Who am I kidding? Even if she did hear me out, she'd never believe any of it.'

All for now. More coming soon.

Love,

AngelicEmpress