Disclaimer: The Harry Potter characters and settings aren't mine, but the plot is and so are any characters that weren't featured in the books.

Title: At the Beat of a Hammer
Chapter Five

Hermione walked into the Great Hall when Ron was on his third piece of pumpkin pie, meaning she was more late then usual.

Harry saw her first and scooted over in order to make room for her on the bench. "Hello 'Mione. What took you so long?"

"Oh, well I was working on that essay for Binns and totally lost track of time. Sorry." Hermione shrugged and bit her lip. It might have looked like the gesture was apologetic, but it was actually one of uneasiness because she was lying. The reason that she was late was because after she ran out of Dumbledore's office she spent an hour crying and then another hour trying to hide all of the traces of the tears. Now she looked fresh, due to a Pepperup Potion and some makeup, but she was far from okay. Hermione was tense but otherwise appeared normal, whatever normal was.

"That's all you need to say." Harry shook his head, smiling at his friend's obsession with homework.

"Oh, hello Hermione." Ron said seriously, trying to mask the fact that he was too busy with the pie to notice her sitting down.

"Hey Ron. You've got pie on your nose, just there." She gestured to his nose and turned back to Harry. "So, is there anything specific we're doing at Hogsmeade today?"

"Well, I have a date with Lavender so you and Harry are by yourself. Ginny is on a date with Dean, so she won't meet us for Butterbeer as usual. Harry almost couldn't come himself, he had a date with Parvatti, but then she got sick."

"Shut up, Ron." Harry kicked his best friend in the shins under the table.

"Sorry. You talk to her then." Ron shrugged and turned his attention toward his plate and his fourth helping of pie.

"I'm sorry 'Mione. We were going to tell you, but then we didn't have to because Parvatti got sick." Harry was trying to make up for Ron's mistake, if you could call it that.

"It's alright, at least I don't have to go all alone in the end." Hermione smiled at him, but it hurt her inside to know that her friends were just going to ditch her. However, she didn't dwell on it long since the girl Harry was going to go out with was sick she got to spend time with her friend. It wasn't right to be happy at someone else's sickness, but Hermione couldn't help it just this one time.

"Well, you wouldn't have went if you were alone. You'd probably have just went back to the library to do your homework." Ron put his two cents into the conversation in between spoon-fulls of his pumpkin goodness.

"Thank you, Ronald." Hermione was usually more patient with Ron then this, but events of earlier that morning were still in her head.

"Here Hermione, I saved you some pie." Harry moved the plate with the slice of pumpkin pie over to her. "Sorry that it's only one piece, but that's all I could salvage." He smiled and ran his hand through his unruly jet black hair.

"Thanks, Harry." Hermione smiled before plunging a spoon into the pie and stuffing it into her mouth. Nothing like sweets to help a girl through tough times.

Thinking of that made her glance over to the Slytherin table. She expected anything, anything but what was happening right now. Malfoy was all over Pansy Parkinson. It was disgusting to watch. Hermione glared at him before letting her eyes slip downward to glare at the table, she was afraid that if she continued to look at him that she would start crying again. Her future husband had the slut straddling him, with his hands disappearing mysteriously under her skirt, while she giggled and fed him his food. He seemed to be enjoying himself. It made her sick. Why didn't anyone stop them?

Apparently Harry saw her glaring in the direction. "Did he do anything to you, 'Mione? Because I can crush him to a pulp if he had." She looked up in time to see her best friend's emerald green eyes flash with threat and anger.

"No, Harry, he didn't do anything to me. It's what he's doing now that's bugging me." She withheld the real reason for her statement, but the boys weren't supposed to know. "Too much PDA."

"PDA?" Ron repeated her statement but made it a question before he turned around to look at the green and silver table.

"Public Display of Affection." Hermione answered absentmindedly, each word dripping with venom.

"I think I lost my appetite." Ron said quite loudly, making the entire Gryffindor table turn and stare at him with awed expressions. Ron Weasley losing his appetite? That was something they thought they'd never see.

"Alright, well let's go up to the common room and get everything we need for the day?" Harry interrupted. "Shall we?"

The three of them rose from their seats and made their way out of the room.

All the while, Draco was glaring the retreating figure of his Mudblood fiancée and the two other members of the Golden Trio. When they were out of the Great Hall, his attention turned back to the girl who was entertaining him. He only had two months of this left before he had to get married, and he was going to endjoy himself wholeheartedly.

AN : Yes, I know it's quite a short chapter, I was originally going to make their Hogsmeade trip part of this but I decided to just go ahead and post this. Thank you : Gothhottie, HGDM lova, and Sophiaelenchild for reviewing chapter four.

Brokken