PART SEVENTEEN

Gone

I was actually starting to suspect that something was up with Hermione and Malfoy. The incident at the Three Broomsticks wasn't something I could just ignore, especially when Malfoy told me to 'take care' of Hermione, like he was entrusting her safety to me. But then Malfoy went and dissed Hermione right in front of everyone at the Great Hall. The rumors about the two of them because of the Three Broomsticks scandal stopped dead after that, and everything went back to normal, because they felt that Malfoy was back to his slimy self again. I, however, couldn't just leave that thought behind, especially not when Hermione began sulking and being less her usual self. I was wondering why she was taking this too hard—Malfoy has always, and I mean always, been finding ways to make us miserable for the past six years. Perhaps there was something that changed between them, and I actually blamed myself for being too preoccupied with my own problems that I barely had time to look out for my friends. I swore after that day that I would pay more attention to my friends and less attention to the problems I was experiencing, but then something happened that made me break that vow again, because that something made me hate Malfoy so much that I actually wanted to kill him—that event came during the third Quidditch match of the school year.

***

The heavy January snow that was still falling down the Hogwarts grounds matched Hermione's mood perfectly. After the way Malfoy had treated her, she started getting depressed almost every day, especially whenever she was within a five-mile radius of Malfoy, whether it be in class or anywhere else. Harry, who was now trying to spend as much time with Ron and Hermione (owing to the fact that Cho suggested he do so), found her behavior rather odd. He kept asking her what was wrong, and although she wouldn't tell him anything, he knew that it somehow had something to do with Malfoy, but he just couldn't quite place it yet. Ron nowadays usually spent more time with Hermione because she felt they've sort-of bonded even more on Christmas Day when he showed up and Harry didn't. Hermione felt more comfortable with him than she had before, and she was slowly starting to see parts of Ron she hadn't seen before—parts of him whenever he wasn't joking or fooling around or being a pain in the neck. Now Ron, too, sensed something was wrong, and he became harsher towards Malfoy ever since, glaring at him whenever he walked past. Ginny, on the other hand, was keeping really silent about it all; for even though she, too, wondered what had gotten into Malfoy, she couldn't judge him or hate him yet, because she herself witnessed how he professed his true love to Hermione that day before he left for the Manor.

"C'mon, Hermione…he did tell you that he will always love you no matter what happens, right?" Ginny comforted one night in the Head Girl's room as Hermione cried herself on Ginny's shoulder. "And you promised him that you'll remember that. So fulfill your promise, okay? I'm sure there has to be a reason behind all this…"

Hermione didn't forget the promise at all; in fact, it was the only thing that she was trying to hold on to. She knew Malfoy loved her, but she was finding it harder and harder to believe that with each passing day. Malfoy was back to his old obnoxious self, perhaps even worse. He wouldn't let a moment pass by without being mean to Hermione, or doing possibly everything to make it clear that he hated her with all his guts. Hermione was growing weak, and she couldn't find it in her heart to encourage herself, tell herself that he still loved her, and that he always would…because Malfoy never really did think of her again since the New Year started—her locket said so. That was why she became bitter, even more so because she knew that Pansy was back at Malfoy's side again. It almost seemed like the past months of passion and love and romance were all just a dream, a horrible dream that Hermione regretted having. She almost wished she never fell in love with Malfoy in the first place—it would surely save her all the pain she was feeling now.

"Cheer up, will you, Hermione? I swear I'm going to find a way to make Malfoy pay," Ron said crossly, waving his clenched fist as he sat down beside Hermione in the Gryffindor stands a week after the start of term. "I'm going to—to—" He looked at Harry beside him, who was cocking his eyebrow in a weird way at him. "I'm going to find a Skrewt and—and feed him to it!"

Ginny, who was sitting beside Hermione, burst out laughing. "Ron, do you honestly reckon that you can find one of those supposedly illegal Skrewts again after all these years? You can barely look for Scabbers whenever he would get lost in your room before, much less find a Skrewt. Plus, I doubt you can even get near Malfoy, not with all the new Dark Magic he's rumored to have learned over the years."

"What is it with girls and Malfoy, anyway??? He's got nothing to be proud of except his father's most probably smuggled money! He isn't even good-looking!" Ron exclaimed indignantly, and Seamus, sitting beside Harry, laughed even louder.

"Face it, Ron. You're just jealous that Malfoy knows a lot more hexes than you do," Dean commented, and Ginny turned to look at him beside her adoringly, as if he'd just saved the world and said the greatest words she'd ever heard.

Hermione sighed in amusement, slightly smiling now because of her friends' clowning around. "Enough about Dra—er—Malfoy now, okay? Let's just focus on Quidditch; the game's about to start." She pointed at the wide field, where the players from Ravenclaw and Slytherin were now lining up on either side of Madam Hooch with their broomsticks.

"Everyone play a fair game now, understood?" Madam Hooch said to all the players, especially eyeing Malfoy warningly. Hermione could see, as she stared at his face, that Malfoy was actually looking a tad bit nervous—even though she knew he'd always been practicing for the past months, this was Slytherin's first match for the seventh year, and so Malfoy probably did feel a few jitters, even if the opponent was Ravenclaw and not Gryffindor, their arch nemesis.

But still, after the players all agreed and Madam Hooch's glare at Malfoy was shifted to the Quaffle in her hand, Hermione noticed the nervous look on him begin to fade away, and it was replaced by a mischievous, even manic sparkle in his eyes. She knew that was not good.

Everyone around her cheered as Madam Hooch blew her whistle and all fourteen players zoomed high into the air, the Chasers now aiming for the Quaffle, the Beaters eyeing the Bludgers, and the two Seekers scanning the whole field high above the ground for the Golden Snitch. Hermione glanced around her—Ron, Dean, Seamus and Ginny were all shouting and cheering, even more so as Ravenclaw Caroline Aileron swept the Quaffle past Keeper Shawn Peregrine and scored ten to zero. She noticed, too, that Harry was keeping silent, staring intently at Cho and her movements, as she competed with Malfoy in trying to spot the Snitch first.

Hermione shook her head so as not to let the fact that Harry cared too much for Cho get to her, and focused instead on Malfoy, who was frowning because Ravenclaw had scored right then again, with twenty to zero. He immediately zoomed across the field towards one of his Beaters Eric Polansky and started telling him something in a sort-of scolding way, and Hermione could almost read the words "hit", "Bludger", "idiot", and "off the team" from his lips. His Beater instantly flew towards a zigzagging Bludger and batted it forcefully towards the Quaffle-possessing Ravenclaw Chaser Ethan Dolores, who got hit right in the face. The Ravenclaw stands booed with all their might as Chaser Madeline Brown took hold of the Quaffle and scored past the distracted Ravenclaw Keeper: the score was now twenty to ten.

Hermione almost cheered as Malfoy gave his team a thumbs-up sign, but then wanted to slap her head. Why was she siding with Slytherin? She sighed and watched as Malfoy whizzed around the field again, Cho angrily—because of Ethan Dolores' injury—following his trail. Malfoy then stopped in mid-air and spun his broom around to face Cho, then as Cho neared him, Hermione saw Malfoy tell Cho something that Hermione couldn't quite make out, but it made Cho's eyes widen in anger. Malfoy laughed and sped away again, Cho even hotter on his trail. Hermione didn't know what Malfoy had told Cho, but it sure seemed to have infuriated her, because even though her broomstick couldn't quite catch up to Malfoy's Light Year Twenty Ten, she was chasing him around the field in rage, and Malfoy was smirking in amusement. If Hermione didn't know better, she'd think that Malfoy was up to something.

And he was. Because after a few more minutes of cat-and-mouse—as announcer Terry Boot of Ravenclaw had described it—Malfoy immediately stopped smirking and suddenly rocketed down the field past all the Chasers and Beaters in sheer determination. The Slytherin stands began to cheer in anticipation while the Ravenclaw stands shouted words of encouragement to a very intent-to-beat-Malfoy-to-the-Snitch Cho.

But the thing was, Hermione couldn't see the Snitch anywhere.

"No," Harry whispered to himself, and Hermione watched as he stood up abruptly in sudden alarm. "Cho, no!" He cried out loud, leaning against the rails in desperate attempt to make Cho hear him.

But she couldn't. Because she started going even faster towards Malfoy, who was now nearing the ground. Hermione scanned the fields and tried to drown out all the growing cheers of excitement around her and Harry's continuous shouts without avail so that she could concentrate on finding the Snitch. And then she found it—it was hovering right above the Slytherin stands. Her eyes widened as Malfoy and Cho sped down the ground, and then she opened her mouth and screamed along with everyone else.

It all happened so fast. Cho had been chasing Malfoy down the ground with the speed of lightning, and in a second, all the girls were gasping, all the boys were yelling out angry swear words, all the Ravenclaws were protesting in horror, all the Slytherins were cheering in admiration, Terry Boot was creating a rampage.

And Cho was lying in a tangled, dislocated heap, her broomstick on the ground miles away from her, her blood oozing out from her arms and legs, her cries of intolerable pain ringing out all over the field to the horror of everyone who was not in Slytherin.

Malfoy had performed the Victor Krum Quidditch original—the Wronski Feint.

"NO!!! WHAT AN INCREDIBLY DECEPTIVE STUNT TO PULL!!! THAT FILTHY, CHEATING LOWLIFE EXCUSE OF A WIZARD SHOULDN'T BE ALLOWED TO EXECUTE ANY OF THOSE MOVES!!!" Terry Boot commented out loud in angry disapproval through his "Sonorus"-influenced commentary. "MADAM HOOCH SHOULD DEFINITELY FOUL OUT SEEKER DRACO MALFOY AT ONCE!!!"

All eyes were fixed on Malfoy, who went whooshing up again in incredible speed, just in time to catch the Snitch above the Slytherin stands—he'd known it was there all along. His team immediately gathered around him in boastful pride at their Seeker and all the Slytherins started cheering in triumph. Slytherin had won by a hundred and sixty points.

"CHO!!!" Harry screamed beside Ron and Hermione, and she turned her head back at him just in time to see him shove his hand into his pocket and pull out his wand. Hermione's eyes widened—she knew exactly what Harry was planning to do.

In a split second, she, along with Ron, had grabbed Harry's hands and were both trying to contain him, but it was no easy task as Harry was jerking away and flailing his arms for release in a mixture of infuriated worry. "Damn it!!! Let go of me!!!" he cried out, not seeming to realize who were holding him back. "LET ME GO!!!"

"Harry, calm down!!!" cried Ginny, who had also tried pulling Harry back into his seat with Dean and Seamus' help. "Harry!!! Please—"

"I'll kill him!!!" Harry was screaming, twisting his arms in his struggle to break free with all his might. "I swear I'LL KILL HIM!!!" In one strong tug he had managed to get loose from Hermione's grip, and had jerked his elbow in the direction of Ron's face, who stumbled in pain back into his seat. Harry pushed everyone out of his way in his rage, his eyes burning with resentment as he gripped his wand tightly and made his way down the stands to the grounds where Malfoy was now standing with his teammates.

I'll punch that damn grin right out of his bloody face! Harry thought as he reached the ground and neared the center of the field. I'll strangle him, choke him, squeeze the life out of him, and make him pay so bad he'll—

But all of a sudden Harry's mutilating thoughts were cut off. Terry Boot stopped dead in his continuous Slytherin-bashing, the crowd suddenly fell silent, the teachers running out towards the field froze, and Madam Hooch stopped arguing with the Ravenclaw team that what Malfoy had done was unfortunately legal.

Because Cho, tremendously injured and badly distorted in the center of the wide grounds, stopped moaning and actually tried to sit up. Harry, and even Malfoy, suddenly froze as they saw Cho's tear-stricken face turn to look at Harry in agony and silent plea. She opened her mouth with all the remaining effort she could muster, and Harry felt like the world would crumble down right then as he read her trembling lips.

"H-Harry…"

She was calling out to him. She was crying out for him, and he could see the plea in her eyes, as if they were telling him, "Don't do this; don't do this." Harry's eyes welled up in angry tears at Malfoy, and in loving ones at Cho. He gritted his teeth and ran towards her, kneeling down beside her in complete disregard of his earlier intentions to stomp the living hell out of Malfoy. Harry took one look up-close at Cho's heavily injured body and almost couldn't help but burst into tears. He laid his hand behind her head and took her hand in the other, swallowing heavily as he looked down at her face glistening with tears.

"Hey," he whispered lovingly at her, and she smiled sadly as she struggled to speak. "Harry…I'll be okay…it's just—just a few scratches—I was so stupid—to have fallen for that trick—"

Cho cried out again as another wave of pain surged through her, and Harry gripped her hand even tighter. His eyes immediately flicked up to give Malfoy the lividest stare ever. "Damn you…" he whispered to him in a voice of deathly calm.

It was at that moment that Hermione, still leaning over in the stands with the horrible scene unfolding right before her, knew that the Draco Malfoy standing out there in the field was no longer the man she once loved.

Her Draco was gone.

***

I had never hated anyone so much in my entire life. Cho didn't get into a coma, but she had to stay in the hospital wing to recover for more than a whole month, unable to speak well, to sit up, to move much, and to attend any of her classes. She was stuck in bed all the time, and even though I always spent every possible hour sitting beside her bed, trying to comfort her, and spending the night there as well, it still wasn't enough for me. Malfoy…damn Malfoy…he was given detention, he was scolded like hell, and he was forbidden to use the stupid stunt again in his entire Hogwarts life, but that, too, wasn't enough for me. Every turn I took, and every time I saw him, he still had that damn smirk on his face, and with that, I wanted to shout it out to the world that it all wasn't fair. Cho was lying half-dead in a hospital bed, for goodness' sake! And what did Malfoy get? A stupid detention that wouldn't even teach him a lesson if it hit him right in the face. I wanted so bad to make him suffer…I wanted so bad to bring Cho to justice…I wanted so bad to make Malfoy pay. But all that hatred blinded me to the truth, a truth that would have prevented all the horrible things that would happen much later on in the year to occur, if only I had seen it.