Hermione ran blindly. She had to escape, and there was only one way to do that. She thought of how Harry would react. She thought of her teachers, and her parents. And she thought of the astronomy tower, with the Hogwarts Lake sitting placidly right beneath it. No one would even find her body.
Hermione reached the top, panting, even though it was a cold night. She leaned over the edge of the parapet. It certainly was a long fall. She felt slightly dizzy as she realized just how far she would fall into the murky water. Slowly, she placed a hand on the stone. Then the other. She slipped her shoes off and placed her perfectly manicured toes on the rough stone. Her arms started to shake as she leaned her head over to look again. She gulped, unable to swallow, as she slowly stepped over the edge and placed her feet on the stone on the outside of the structure.
"Don't do it, Granger." Draco Malfoy stepped out from the shadows.
Harry was seething. Everyone in the common room had seen their exchange. He paced back and forth, waiting for Ron. Well that'll give them a good bit of news, he thought savagely. Harry was relieved to finally see his best friend enter the room.
"Harry, what's wrong?" Ron always knew when Harry was upset.
"Herminoe," Harry gritted through his teeth. "She's being such a prat."
"Oh. I know the feeling mate," Ron looked at his friend with sympathy. Privately, he thought Hermione and he were a better match than the current one, but he would never say that to Harry. He did, however, attempt to mention the fact that Harry was unwise to carry on a relationship while trying to deal with his own life.
"Yunno, Harry, I know you're upset about a lot right now. Is it worth getting upset about Hermione too?"
"Look Ron. I know you think I'm disturbed and all that, but really. You saw what happened at dinner. You can't honestly tell me that people aren't watching me all the time and judging me!" Harry kicked a chair, seething with anger.
"Merlin Harry! Just take it down, okay?" Ron hated it when Harry was in one of his moods. It was usually due to Hermione, and it was usually Ron's job to snap him back out of it. "I think you're the only one being a prat! And if you don't cut it out, you're going to lose her like I did." That wouldn't be too bad actually, Ron thought.
"Well what would YOU do in my situation? You seem to know so much about keeping Hermione as a girlfriend, right?" Harry glared at Ron, instantly feeling regret when he saw the hurt look on Ron's face.
"Look Ron, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it." Harry held out his hand. Ron looked at it for a second, then shook it.
"'S'okay mate. Why don't you get her something nice to show her you care? Girls like that sort of thing, yunno, jewelry and whatnot. Besides, you've certainly got enough galleons." Ron grinned.
"Thanks Ron. I'll get you a nice gold necklace while I'm at it to match your golden heart." Harry grinned as Ron punched him.
"I have to go, mate. I blew off detention with Snape and Malfoy, and he's probably seething." Ron smiled as Harry laughed.
"Don't blame you, Ron."
"Later." Ron left a considerably happier Harry. But when he got to Snape's room, the door was locked and, peering through the window, Ron saw that the room was dark. He decided to run up to the Astronomy Tower to see if Hagrid was in his hut; it was easier to look for smoke in Hagrid's chimney than traipsing all the way across the lawn in such cold weather.
"Stay back! Don't come any closer Malfoy!" Hermione glared at Malfoy. Why did he have to show up?
Draco rolled his eyes, and stuck out his hand.
"Take my hand, mudblood. I'll pull you back in. We can't have Hogwarts second smartest student jumping off the Astronomy Tower, now can we?" Malfoy smirked, and managed to look almost sexy, for an asshole.
"No! Stay where you are. I mean it. I'll let go." Hermione swallowed.
"No you won't," Malfoy stated with his trademark cocky arrogance, smirk still in place.
"What do you mean no I won't? Don't presume to tell me what I will and will not do. You don't know me, Malfoy." Hermione glared at the intruder.
Malfoy sighed with the air of one who was bored with every situation, even those involving life or death. "You would have done it already," he stated matter-of-factly. "Now come on, take my hand."
"You're distracting me. Go away." Hermione was on no account going to let Malfoy become a hero.
"You see, Granger, that's the problem. I can't go away, I'm involved now. If you jump, I have to either explain why you fell from the top of the Astronomy Tower of your own accord while I was standing two feet away from you, or I have to jump after you. And frankly, I'd rather not do either." Malfoy shoved his other hand in his pocket while he waited for the full effect of his speech to hit her.
"Don't be absurd, you idiot. You'd be killed." Hermione's face was streaked with tears. Malfoy wondered what was going on with her. He simply could not reveal that he cared, however.
"I'm a good swimmer." Malfoy smirked, outright lying. He hated the water.
"The fall alone would kill you." Hermione was not in the mood to argue with Malfoy at a time like this.
"It would hurt. I'm not saying it wouldn't. To be honest I'm a lot more concerned about the water being so cold." Malfoy had a point. The temperature was around 33 degrees, colder on top of the tower with the wind chill. He watched Hermione look down. He saw a muscle in her throat twitch as the reality of what she was doing sunk in.
"How cold?" Hermione spoke softly.
"Freezing. Maybe a couple degrees over." Malfoy sounded authoritative. "Ever been to the Fjords of Norway?"
Hermione looked genuinely perplexed. "No."
"Well they have some of the coldest winters around, and I went there over holiday last year. I was ice-fishing, you know, where you chip a hole in the—"
"I know what ice-fishing is, you prat!" Hermione snarled, sick of his condescending attitude.
"Sorry, Granger. Just... you look like kind of an indoor girl. Anyway, I went through some thin ice and I'm tellin' ya, water that cold... like that right down there... it hits you like a thousand knives all over your body. You can't breath, you can't think... least not about anything but the pain." Draco kicked off his shoes, dropped his cloak to the ground, and placed his sketchbook neatly on top of the pile, shivering slightly. "Which is why I'm not looking forward to jumping in after you. But like I said, I don't see a choice. I guess I'm kinda hoping you'll come back over the rail and get me off the hook here."
"You're crazy, Malfoy." Hermione whispered loudly, not sure whom she was speaking to anymore.
"That's what everybody says. But with all due respect, Granger, I'm not the one hanging off the Astronomy Tower." Malfoy looked pointedly at Hermione. "Come on. You don't want to do this. Give me your hand."
Hermione stared hard at Malfoy. Suddenly she realized just how stupid and absurd she was being, and said "alright." She reached out towards the pale, long-fingered hand extended towards her and grasped it firmly. Just after she grabbed Malfoy's hand, however, Hermione was overtaken by the force of gravity, and plunged toward the ground, letting out a piercing shriek. Malfoy, while gripping her hand, was jerked toward the edge. Hermione managed to grab a rough outcropping with her free hand.
"Help! Help!" Hermione screamed for her life.
"I've got you, Granger. I won't let go." Malfoy stared into her big brown eyes and realized that he had the power to save her life. The gravity of the situation hit him, bringing on a large adrenaline rush as he heaved Hermione up with all his might. Suddenly, she was yanked back over, Malfoy falling on top of her in a tangled heap. Just then, Ron Weasley stepped onto the pavilion, his eyes widening as they took in the situation before his eyes.
"What's all this?!" Ron yelled.
As Harry stormed back from the owlery, he hoped the letter he had written to Remus hadn't been too absurdly hormonal and exaggerated. He frowned as he remembered that Remus was still dealing with Sirius's death, the aftermath of the war, organization of the order, and eliminating Voldemort's followers, and that he probably would not want to be burdened with the misgivings of a 17-year-old teenage boy. In any case, the letter read:
Hi Remus-
Thought I'd drop you a note to see how you're doing. I hope things are working out okay for the Order-your last letter was delivered by an owl I've never seen before, so I hope you're not doing anything too dangerous.
School is going fine, although I am a bit worried about my personal life at the moment. Hermione and I had a rather large row in front of most of the Gryffindors. She's been acting so strange lately, and yesterday she went completely mental on me when I told her she had to start censoring what she said in the presence of others. Ron suggested buying her a nice trinket of some sort to make up for it, but I have no idea where to go for that sort of thing. Perhaps you do?
Keep yourself safe, and don't work too hard.
Love, Harry
By now it was almost ten o'clock, but Harry did not feel remotely tired. He suddenly remembered that he had to finish his astronomy homework, and went back to his dormitory to retrieve it. Harry checked to see if Ron had his for copying, but was sufficiently irritated when he could not find Ron or Ron's star chart. Harry sighed; there was no way he could feasibly hax the basic constellation of Orion. He would now have to go to the astronomy tower, step over the snogging couples, and copy every last blasted star.
Snape was displeased. Once again, Professor Trelawnley had managed to thwart his latest plans for detention hell. He was especially irked because he had conveniently scheduled Malfoy and Weasley for the same night. And to top it all off, there were about 10 extra large cauldrons that needed to be scoured by two people at the same time due to the complexity involved in wielding 200 pounds of cast-iron, for which Snape now had to recruit four first years to get sufficient manpower.
"Stupid woman…Crystal ball leaks…that's the second time this week," Snape muttered to himself. It was a well-known inside joke among the Hogwarts staff that Professor Trelawnley harbored a not-so-secret soft spot for Snape. She always managed to be having some sort of magical substance or liquid problem that always merited a cry for help from Snape. Last time, upon investigating the leaking crystal balls, (which would have been a very dangerous situation, had it been real) Snape discovered that the only thing leaking in Trelawnley's room was a bottle of firewhiskey.
Snape climbed the silver ladder leading to Trelawnley's room rather clumsily and emerged to find himself completely shrouded in fog.
"Cassandra?" Snape scanned the room for the source of the problem, and found it—Trelawnley was standing on a small table, waving a large orange scarf at the fog, which only served to aggravate the problem.
"For Merlin's sake Cassandra stop waving the damn scarf!" Bellowed Snape. He pulled himself to a standing position and ran over to Trelawnley, grabbing the scarf from her.
"Movement in the open air only increases the quantity of noxious gases you bat. Now get down this instant and we'll clean it up more effectively."
Unfortunately, just as Snape said that, Professor Trelawnley fainted from the gas, conveniently falling onto Snape. Strong in mind as he was, Snape lacked the physical stamina to catch a fully grown woman with 10 pounds of added weight in jewelry, and fell to the floor as his head took the brunt of the fall. Snape pushed Trelawnley off him and massaged his greasy scalp as he tried to clear the stars from his eyes. He began to say the incantations for divination fog clearing, praying that Trelawnley would not wake up. When Snape was finished, he tapped his wand to Trelawnley's head to wake her up.
"Wha…Oh Severus. I knew you'd come to the rescue. Those crystal balls can be so hard to manage sometimes, but I'm sure you know just how to do it." Trelawnley batted her bat-like eyes at Snape in an effort to attract him, but ended up looking like a praying mantis in the middle of a mating dance.
"Indeed." Snape tried to appear as flat as possible, which only served to intensify Trelawnley's pining.
"I can predict your future, Severus, if you're not terribly busy. Perhaps there is love just waiting around the corner for you." Trelawnley moved a little closer to Snape and, much as everyone loved to hate him, he deserved pity, for at that moment he had the misfortune to smell Trelawnley's perfume.
"I'm terribly sorry, Cassandra, but I must continue my," Snape paused, his brain searching frantically for an escape, "patrol of the Astronomy tower. I promised Dumbledore I'd investigate some, er, suspicious sightings in the forbidden forest." Snape breathed a sigh of relief. Another brilliant performance.
"Well allow me to accompany you. I could use some fresh air," Trelawnley said in a low voice.
"No, by all means don't trouble yourself. Besides, you should probably see if you can predict any, ah, astray happenings. You do have seer blood, after all," Snape prayed silently.
"If you insist." Trelawnley huffed and stalked away behind a curtain. The corners of Snape's mouth turned upward slightly. Feeling obliged to do what he said he would, Snape started for the Astronomy Tower. Just before he arrived, however, he heard a male scream "what's all this?" Snape quickened his pace, robes billowing out behind him. This merited an investigation.
Harry arrived at the top of the Astronomy Tower and was not prepared for the scene he encountered. His eyes followed the tip of Ron's wand straight into the wide eyes of Draco Malfoy, who was disentangling himself from Hermione.
"Stand back, Malfoy. Don't move your sorry arse one bit or you'll catch hell." Ron launched himself at Malfoy, but was intercepted by Harry's grabbing the back of his shirt. "Ron, NO! Go get help, now! Find a teacher or something." Harry pushed Ron away with one hand and bound Malfoy's hands together with his other. Ron agreed and ran to the door, ripping it open. Just as Ron opened the door, however, Professor Snape, who did not look as if it was a red-letter day, greeted him with the usual.
"Well, well well. What have we here? Explain yourselves." Snape crossed his arms. Harry shoved Malfoy with considerable strength up against the wall and screamed in his face.
"What made you think you could put your hands on my girlfriend, Malfoy?! Look at me, you filth! What did you think you were doing?!" Malfoy looked very pale, on account of his head being hit against the wall so forcefully.
"Harry, stop! It was an accident." Hermione slowly approached Harry.
"An accident?" Harry was dumbfounded.
"It was... stupid really. I was leaning over and I slipped," Hermione said, her voice gaining in volume. She chanced a glance at Malfoy, who showed no sign of calling her falsehood. Seeing that, Hermione continued.
"I was leaning way over, to see the... ah... giant squid. And I slipped and I would have gone over the wall... and Malfoy here saved me and he almost went over himself," Hermione finished triumphantly.
"You wanted to see the giant squid?" Harry repeated stupidly.
"Women and curiosity do not mix," Ron mumbled.
"Was that the way of it, then?" Snape looked ready to hex the first person to disagree with him.
"Uh yes, sir. That was pretty much it," Draco complied weakly. He glanced at Hermione and could have sworn he saw her grin.
"Well, Mr. Malfoy is a hero then! Good for you, Draco, well done. Ten points to Slytherin." Snape was flushed with pride. Another opportunity to proclaim Slytherin's greatness. "Now get yourselves back to your dormitories. Now!" Snape crossed his arms and watched the group to make sure they left.
"So all's well and back to our butterbeer, then?" Ron pleaded. Harry ignored him as he rubbed Hermione's arms.
"Let's get you in. You're freezing," Harry said.
"I think you're forgetting a little something for me, Potter," Malfoy drawled, in full form.
"Eat shit, wanker." Harry threw a galleon at Malfoy.
"Is that the going rate for saving the girl you love?" Hermione looked earnestly at Harry.
"Hermione is displeased. Mmmm…what to do?" Harry looked at Malfoy. He would not let the students get a hold of this story. "I know," Harry smiled. "Perhaps you could join us for a game of Wizard's Truth or Dare tomorrow, to regale our group with your, er, heroic, tale."
Malfoy looked at Hermione and nonchalantly said "sure, count me in, scarface."
"Good. Settled then." Harry put his arm around Hermione and walked her to the door. He leaned close to Ron as they walked out and said, "this should be amusing," almost inaudibly.
"I heard that, Mr. Potter," Snape said dangerously to Harry. "If I find that anything is amiss, I will personally see to it that you fulfill the duties of my personal assistant for the remainder of the year." Harry glared at Snape and banged the door shut behind him.
"You'll want to tie those, Mr. Malfoy," Snape said. Draco looked at his feet. "Interesting that the young lady slipped so mighty all of a sudden and you still had time to take off your jacket and shoes. Mmmm?" Snape looked appraisingly at Draco. Draco grabbed his sketchbook and ran.