Disclaimer: I don'town Harry Potter and Harry's friends. They're the property of J. K. and her peeps. Word.

A/N: Just a quick word, the real author's note is at the bottom. Just to clear things up, the reason it seems like I'm moving the characters' emotions (i.e. shallowing certain people) alittle quickly is because I originally made this for a challenge I was hosting. The stories had to be 5000 words and then had to have one of two things in it. Anyways, not enough people were partcipating and those who were weren't writing so it ended. By then I had 4,000 words done and I was like, "let me post it somewhere at least."And here it is unchanged. Hope that explanation helps/didn't take too long to read through.


"Please, Malfoy, don't do this to me. Hasn't this gone on long enough? If you stop ignoring me, Malfoy, everyone else'll stop. C'mon, they're treating me like a muggle," begged Goyle in the middle of Slytherin common room after dinner had ended.

Malfoy just continued to talk to Crabbe as if Golye wasn't making a pathetic fool out of himself by publicly begging Malfoy to forgive him. What Goyle did in Potions was the talk of Hogwarts. The Hufflepuffs thought he'd gone soft. The Ravenclaws started trying to get friendly with him. The Gryffindors didn't trust him and thought Malfoy put him up to it. Goyle actually couldn't careless about the other houses. Slytherins treated him as a plague rat. He was a traitor to them and Goyle couldn't take their scorn. They weren't afraid of him and they didn't like him. That was how Slytherins made other houses feel. That's howhe had made countless others feel. Goyle let out a pained groan. There was that compassion again. He really was going soft. Why was this happening to him? Maybe Madame Pomfrey could help?

"Look, Malfoy, I'm going out of the room," said Goyle, but Malfoy continued to ignore him and talk scathingly to Crabbe about the audacity of 2nd year Ravenclaws who still didn't know their place.

Goyle left the Slytherin common room quickly, clutching at his chest. He sped out of the dungeons, thinking about all the hurt he'd caused people. The pain in his heart began to extend to his stomach and he broke out into a run towards the hospital wing. He was almost there when he crashed into a giant fuzz ball on a short stick sending himself and the fuzz ball to the floor.

"Oh, Merlin! I'm dying! Tell me mum I'm sorry for eating all of father's birthday cake by myself," moaned Goyle with his eyes closed, hand on his heart, "Tell father I'm sorry I embarrassed him in front of Mr. Malfoy last month; I always say stupid things. Tell Nana I'm sorry about Scruffy; I didn't know iodine could kill. Tell-"

"Goyle, stop it! Stop it! What's wrong? Why are you dying?" yelled the fuzz ball

Goyle opened his eyes to find that the fuzz ball was not a fuzz ball but Hermione Granger. Goyle's stomach lurched and his chest ached, forcing him to start up again, "Merlin no! I'm dying, I'm dying! It's all my fault! Oh, mum, where are you? I'm-" Goyle stopped. His voice would no longer come out, he was too much in shock. Even if he wasn't in shock, he wouldn't be able to speak. There was sometyhing covering his mouth; Hermione's lips.

-Fifteen Minutes Earlier-

"Are you okay, Hermione? You're not even touching your Arithmancy homework," asked Harry as he took his place across from her in the armchair in front of the roaring fire in the cozy Gryffindor common room.

Hermione was taken out of her trance as soon as Harry said the word "homework."

"Yes now?" asked Hermione while taking in her surroundings. Harry, Ron, and Ron's younger sister Ginny were staring at her. She hadn't even noticed when Ginny entered the common room but there she was, sitting on the carpeted floor with Crookshanks sleeping in her lap and a concerned expression that mirrored her brother's on her face.

"What is wrong with you, Hermione?" asked Ginny, "You look so lost."

Hermione sighed, "Oh, don't worry. I'm fine, really. It's just...I keep thinking about Goyle. I can't get him out of my head. There's something wrong with him. I'm about to see him so-"

"What?" interrupted Ron suddenly.

"You're about to see him after what happened? Are you-"

"Bonkers?" exclaimed Ron, finishing Harry's though.

"Wait a minute. What happened?" asked Ginny

"It's not important, Ginny," remarked Hermione, "And you two...I understand that the two of you don't want me to go, but I must. I made a promise not only to Goyle, but to Dumbledore as well. I told him I'd help Goyle. I can't let Dumbledore down. Plus, I have to know why Goyle would speak up like that."

"Speak up like what?" asked Ginny testily, not liking to be ignored and just about the only person in the school who hadn't heard about Goyle's outburst in Potions.

"To get us off our guard," answered Ron, "He's probably trying to earn our trust. Yeah, that's it. He'll try and become mates with us and invite us over to his mum's house on holiday and then hand Harry over to Voldemort. And we wouldn't suspect it because here we are thinking he's too dumb to pull off something like that, which he is, but-"

"Ron, stop it," said Hermione in exasperation, "Maybe...maybe he felt guilty..."

"Guilty? Why would he be guilty?" asked Ginny

"He should feel guilty after what he did. The guilt should be killing him. But Hermione, this is serious. Ron could be right. Maybe Malfoy's putting him up to it. Hermione, we don't really know what's going on and we definitely can't trust any of those greasy Slytherin gits," said Harry seriously.

"WHAT THE BLOODY HELL HAPPENED?"

The entire common room went dead silent. All eyes were on Ginny who had become beat red in the face.

"Um...what happened?" asked Ginny again in a smaller, barely audible voice.

After Hermione explained the entire ordeal with the closet and the outburst, Ginny went silent.

"See, it wasn't really that bad," said Hermione.

"Not that bad? That rat would have killed you!" exclaimed Ginny.

"I don't think he would have killed me. I don't think he had the nerve or even thought of hurting me and that, actually, is another thing that's been bothering me," answered Hermione.

"Merlin's beard, Hermione, what? You wanted him to kill you?" said Ron

"You know what? Forget it. I can't talk to any of you and I'm going to be late," said Hermione while gathering her books together.

"Wait, Hermione, don't go. We'll try to understand. You just can't go meeting Goyle after all this," said Harry.

"I'm going. I have to," said Hermione with finality, "Goodbye."

"She's mad. He's going to try to kill her again," said Ron after Hermione left.

"Ron, give it a rest," said Ginny suddenly, "This is ridiculous. We're worrying over nothing. Hermione isn't stupid, she knows what she's doing. Yes, Voldemort is back and dangerous, etc, etc, but if Goyle was a tool in Voldemort's plan of world muggle and half blood purging I doubt Dumbledore would let Hermione tutor him. So let's just give it a rest, stop being jumpy, and play Wizard Chess or something equally time consuming until Hermione's return."

Ron opened his mouth to speak but Harry shock his head.

"Whatever," said Ron as he went back to his essay on Thrinkles, the latest creatures bred by Hagrid.

Hermione walked slowly toward the library to meet Goyle, her mind flooded with questions. Goyle almost looked scared when he put Hermione in the closet. Why? He defended her in Potions. Why? He didn't beat her up like how he beats up everything and everyone else who crosses him. Why? Hermione sighed. Somehow she knew that Goyle wouldn't have attacked her and she couldn't understand why, but what really was getting to her had nothing to do with Goyle. Hermione was weak. Without her wand, she was completely defenseless. Yeah, she could kick someone in the nuts and maybe throw a few punches, but if she's being corned by a dark wizard, she doubted that scratching them would do much good. It hurt her and saddened her, but she had no one to talk to. No one would sit and listen long enough to let her fully explain what happened. Goyle was not the bad guy here and she knew that. Something seemed different about him, but no one but Hermione seemed to care.

Hermione was so deep in her thoughts that she didn't even notice the brick wall coming straight toward her. They collided with a painful bang that seemed to shatter the wall to pieces and send Hermione skidding five feet across the cold floor. It wasn't until after Hermione had gotten up and taken out her wand that she realized that the brick wall was sobbing and it wasn't until she was standing over it that she noticed that the brick wall was Goyle.

"Merlin's beard, Goyle, what's wrong?" yelled Hermione, but to no avail. Goyle just continued rolling on the floor, clutching his chest, and going on about how he was dying and how he was sorry for things.

"Goyle, stop it Stop it! Tell me what's wrong. Why are you dying?" continued Hermione

Still no answer, just more rolling and screaming.

"What am I going to do? If he's really hurt I shouldn't move him. I have to calm him down. I don't know if someone's jinxed him or poisoned him so a random spell may only make things worse. So, what can I...Oh dear...well, it worked for Stanley Eustace when we were six. I'd better not regret this," thought Hermione right before she leaned over Goyle and kissed him on the lips.


A/N: Okay, I admit, the first bit, Goyle's part was a tiny bit sketchy and I'm not proud of it, but I think I did a little redeeming by the end. I hope I did. I'm trying for this not to suck, but this is my least favorite part so far. Hopefully the next part will be more worthy. It will/should be the last part, so everything will be all tied up and make some sort of sense. So there. Review. Tell me how sucky this part was so I can go on with my life.