Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, I do not own the places. I don't own anything J.K Rowling thought up, all I own is the plot.
Chapter five: Fighting
The candle had already melted half-way when she finally looked up from her chart. The different and complicated instructions had taken two hours for her to finish.
"Right…are you done?"
Neville nodded.
"Okay. Good. Now this one here…is the sticking charm shape. It's an easy one, just a sharp little jab, really. Go on, try it."
He nodded.
She walked to one of the bookshelves. "You know when to do it, right?"
He nodded again.
"Okay, here I come."
She walked back to where he was sitting and waited for him to shout the spell.
"Locomotor Impedus!"
She took another step and noticed how her foot was having slight difficulty coming back up. It felt like walking over a floor where someone had spilt a jar of honey. But it wasn't strong enough to stop her from moving.
"That was good. But it can be done better. You know, I needs to make sure I can't move at all."
He sighed. "I know."
"But you're making progress! You've achieved a lot already. Let's call it a day for now."
She packed her wand in her book bag and waited till Neville was done.
"Same time tomorrow evening?" He asked.
But she shook her head. "Sorry, but not tomorrow. I promised Harry I'd stay and do something with him…to help me relax, you know."
"Oh…okay. Right."
They walked through the corridors, trying not to wake the paintings.
"Hermione?"
"Hmm?"
"You and Harry…you two are really close…aren't you?"
She chuckled. "Neville, he's my boyfriend. We love each other, of course we're close. But you know we always have been, Ron, Harry and me. We're just really…close."
Neville looked at the walls. "I'm jealous of that. I don't have friends like that. I don't. Of course I have friends…Dean, Seamus and you guys. But I'm not really close to anyone. I don't have someone I can always rely on, to tell everything. No one really knows me."
Hermione bit her lip. She had always felt that her friends were there for her, not counting a few occasions where she and Ron had argued. For her, it was normal to have close friends. And she hadn't realised that it wasn't the same for everyone.
She laid her hand on Neville's shoulder. "I- I'm sorry."
"No, don't be. It's not your fault. It's just that I've always had problems with making friends. I'm not really good at that."
The rest of their walk continued in silence. Hermione didn't really know what to say. She felt bad for Neville, but what could she do about it?
-
She was sitting on a bench of the Quidditch Pitch, watching the red dots in the sky. Harry and Ron were up there, practicing. She yawned. Yesterday's tutoring session had been a really late one and she'd had some trouble sleeping afterwards.
She had spent almost the entire night wondering and thinking about what Neville had said. And to be honest, she felt a bit guilty too.
She yawned again.
It had been a miracle that she had survived that day at school. She wrapped her scarf tighter around her and stared up again, trying to recognise who was who.
Finally they all came down. Hermione stifled her third yawn and smiled.
"Hey Harry."
She kissed him as he got off his broom.
"Hey sweetheart."
They ignored the snickering around them.
"Ron, hurry up!"
"Yeah, yeah. I'm coming." He had his broom under his arm and ruffled up his hair. "Right. I'm done."
The three of them went back up to the castle. Hermione entangled her hand with Harry's and smiled. When they walked up the steps, the door opened and they stood face to face with Draco Malfoy.
He smirked. "You know Granger, I didn't think you had it in you."
They looked at him.
"What are you talking about?" she said.
"And you Potter...I thought you were a bit smarter than that."
"Malfoy, if you're not going to enlighten us about what you're on about, then piss off." Ron said tiredly.
Malfoy shook his head. "Are you really that stupid? You don't mind that your girlfriend is meeting someone late at night? Longbottom of all people?"
Hermione started to laugh. "Listen, not that it's any of your business, but I don't meet Neville for the thing you're implying. I told you last night. If you forgot that already, then you're the stupid one here. And anyway, you should keep your ugly pale nose out of other people's business."
Ron snorted as Malfoy gave her a foul look. But she just shrugged.
"I told you before Malfoy. There is nothing you can do to me that is really that bad."
He looked as if he wanted to say something back, but thought the better of it and pushed past them.
"You handled him pretty well back there, Hermione. Nice job." Ron said approvingly. "Didn't she, Harry?"
Harry looked up. "Wha-…oh…yeah…"
"Harry, is something wrong?" Hermione asked concerned. "You don't sound very happy."
"It's nothing. Really. Let's just go up and do something together. Like we said. How about a game of chess? Gobbstones? Or let's just talk."
Hermione stifled another yawn.
"What time is it?" she asked.
"About half past nine."
She looked at Harry. "I'm really, really sorry Harry, but I'm so tired. I can hardly keep my eyes open. Do you mind terribly if I went straight to bed?"
Harry hesitated for a second. "…No. Go ahead. You need your sleep."
"Thanks. You're really sweet." She pecked his lips and went up the stairs to the girls dormitory.
Harry slumped down on the couch.
"Harry, are you okay?" Ron said as he sat down opposite him.
Harry let out a heavy sigh. "It's nothing…"
"Harry…I know something's bothering you. Just tell me."
"It's just…she spends the entire day working for school, she doesn't sleep at night because she's worried about Neville's social life and in the evenings she's either going to bed too early or spending all her time with him."
"You've got nothing to worry about. She's not the kind of girl to go behind your back. And, no offence, but Neville? No competition there, mate."
Harry sighed. "It's not that I don't trust her. Merlin knows I do. I just miss her."
-
"Hey Harry." Said Ron as he sat down for lunch. "Did you sleep okay last night? I heard you tossing and turning the entire time."
"I'm fine. I slept alright. Just took me a while." Harry said as he searched the Hall with his eyes. "Did you see Hermione this morning?"
Ron shook his head. "Nope. Didn't see her at breakfast. Maybe she ate earlier. You know what she's like. And she doesn't have Divination anymore, so it's no wonder you didn't see her in class. You know, I think she got the better deal. I know Firenze means well, but he's even foggier than Trelawney was!"
Harry shrugged. "He's alright. At least he doesn't go round every lesson telling me what horrible death I'll die this year."
He searched the hall again. He flinched as he heard Malfoy call his name.
"Hey Potter! Lost your girlfriend already? You'd better ask Longbottom then! He spends more time with her than you do!"
Ron looked at Harry.
"Calm down." He whispered as he saw Harry's hands clench to fists.
"Listen Malfoy! Go bother someone who cares!" Ron shouted.
"Oh calm down Weasel-boy. I thought I was doing that already!"
Harry stood up and took hold of Ron's collar. "Come on, let's go. It's potions next. Maybe you'll get a shot at him there."
"I will kill that slimy git one day. I will." He said as he was dragged of to the dungeons. They calmed down when they saw Hermione waiting at the Potions door.
"Hey guys." She said merrily.
She kissed Harry's cheek, but he didn't respond.
"What's the matter?"
"Where were you at lunch?" Harry asked her bluntly.
"I- I was in the library. Helping Neville finish up his potions homework."
"Great. Malfoy was right then."
"Harry, don't." Ron said warningly. "She's just helping out a friend."
Hermione looked hurt. "Did I do something wrong?"
Harry shook his head with a sigh. "…No. I was being a jerk. Sorry."
He kissed her and she smiled again.
"Watch it. Here comes Malfoy." Ron whispered as silent as he could.
"Ah, found her then? Did Longbottom tell you where she was?"
Hermione dropped her book bag to the ground and stepped up close to Malfoy. "If you don't stop this, I will break your nose. Merlin knows I can." She hissed as she waved her fist menacingly.
Malfoy backed away and bumped into Snape.
"Mister Malfoy. Please refrain from obstructing me on my way to a classroom or I will have to take points."
Hermione turned around and smiled. When she was sure Snape wasn't looking she gave Harry and Ron a high-five. Gryffindor shot, Gryffindor scored.
-
"Did you rest a bit last night?" Neville asked as he watched her from behind a candle.
She nodded. "Yeah. I went to bed really early and I feel loads better now."
"That's good."
She nodded and continued drawing wriggly lines on some parchment. Neville looked at the ceiling in silence. He felt she was looking at him and looked back. She smiled.
Neville seemed different now. Much more confident about his abilities. As if he had finally realised he could do loads more than he thought.
"Hermione? Can I borrow your Charms book please? I need to check something."
She pulled the book from her bag and gave it to him. He took it and started to read. She looked at her finished drawing. It was the sealing charm movement, well, it was supposed to be the sealing charm movement. But it was a little odd.
"Neville, can I have that book back for a second? I need to see a chart…"
He nodded and handed it back to her. A small scrap of parchment fell out onto her drawing. She picked it up. It was a flyer about the Halloween ball.
"How'd that get in there…" she muttered.
Neville looked up. "What?"
"I found this flyer about the ball in my book…" she answered.
"Oh…"
It was silent for a moment.
"You must be going with Harry, aren't you?"
"Yeah…why?"
He coughed nervously. "Well, you see…I'm not really good at asking a girl to be my date…and I was kind of hoping…"
-
"What!" Harry yelled. "You've got to be bloody kidding me!"
"Harry, please calm down." Hermione pleaded.
"No, I'm not going to bloody well calm down!"
"But please just listen to me. He's just a really shy boy! He told me he wasn't very good at asking girls to be his date and-"
"Well he just proved the opposite, didn't he!" Harry roared.
Hermione's lip trembled. She hadn't thought he'd take it this badly.
"But you're really popular. You can have any girl you want."
"Listen to me Hermione. I want you! You're my girlfriend! Isn't that enough reason for you to go with me?"
"But you can go with Parvati….Seamus turned her down because he was already going with a Ravenclaw…so you can go with her…right?"
Harry let himself fall down on the couch. "I can not believe you, Hermione. You've got this all sorted out, haven't you?"
"I just don't want him to go alone, he hasn't got friends as close as you and Ron are to me. He doesn't have the nerve to ask a girl and I feel sorry for tuning him down in fourth. I just can't-"
"Fine! You know what? Just go with Neville! I'm sure he'll get you back home safely. And be sure to give him a goodnight kiss, because that's only fair!" Harry shouted at the top of his lungs.
"…Harry…"
But he had already stormed out the common room and she was staring at a closed door. Behind her eyes the tears started to burn.
Emma Barrows: More telling off Malfoy! Huzzah! The annoying little bugger. But he gets what he wants, doesn't he. He wants to break Harry and Hermione up and he seems to succeed…I am severely starting to dislike him again, even after he was in my good book for a while because of some fics I read and because he was a good guy in A Light in Darker Days. But in this fic…he's just plain old annoying Malfoy because I wanted to stay true to J. K. Rowling's view of characters as much as possible…Anyway, hope you liked the chapter :)
Another chapter done, on to the next! The Halloween Ball is coming up and Hermione and Harry aren't really on good footing now, are they…someone will have to apologise, but maybe that's not enough if something else happens. I'm already feeling sad for both of them.
Anyway, please leave me a message by reviewing. I really, really want to know what other people think of this fic, because I am rather proud of it. I don't want to sound snobbish or anything, but I'm just proud of what it turned out to be and I want other people to tell me if that is justified or not so I can improve my writing. Thank you very much for reading and I hope to see you at the next chapter!
raven55