Author's Note: This story is also inspired by Nobody Knows, another piece of Harry Potter fanfiction that may or may not have been removed. Also, I own no trademarks related to Harry Potter or Shakespeare.
One week after Voldemort had been vanquished, you'd think everything was starting to straighten out again, right? Unfortunately, no.
One
morning, Harry's gang had gathered—interestingly, sans Harry and
Hermione.
"Hermione
lost her temper again!" Ginny was saying. "This time, she let it out
on Harry for no apparent reason! I passed by them in the hall this
morning to find them reminiscing over Sirius. Then Hermione exploded
all of a sudden and said something that I couldn't make out, but it sure sounded dreadful! You should have
seen it—Hermione walking away with her nose in the air while Harry was looking devastated!"
"No way!" Dean said.
"What in the world is wrong with her?"
"Don't ask me."
Ginny said in a frustrated tone with her hands on her hips. "I
thought we had talked to Hermione enough about toning down the
stuck-up Head Girl stuff, especially when it's not about correcting
someone!"
"I know!" Lavender
said just as angrily. "I'm going to really let Hermione
let her how much she's been fouling up. I mean it!"
"Me too!" Parvarti
said. Both of them moved towards the marble staircase.
"No!" Ron said,
flinging an arm out to stop them.
Everyone was
startled. Of all the people they expected to be stopping people from
blasting Hermione, they would never have imagined Ronald Weasley being
one, even after it had become common knowledge among them that Ron and Hermione had fancied each other.
"What are you doing,
Ron?" Lavender asked irritably, voicing our thoughts. Parvarti and
Ginny also looked incensed. "I thought you'd be leading us up
those steps instead of holding us back!" Dean and Seamus looked
stunned and unable to decide whether to side with Ron or the girls.
"You're not going
to go up there and blast her face to face, are you?" Ron asked
timidly. It took a considerable amount of self-control to prevent
myself from whipping out my wand and threatening to jinx him.
"Why are you
asking?" Lavender said, her voice still menacing.
"I just don't
think this is the right time for it!" Ron said, almost in a
pleading tone.
"No, we aren't."
Lavender said with an evil grin. "Something worse."
And before we guys
could say anything else, they were jogging up the marble stairs.
"I don't like the
look of it." Ron said, looking at the others.
"Me neither." Dean
said. "The only people I remember having that sort of evil grin
were Fred and George."
Ron started to move
towards the stairs as well.
"Oy, Ron, where
are you going?" Ron asked, concerned.
"Just to Defense
Against The Dark Arts." Ron said, earnestly.
When he got to the
classroom, he found Harry there, looking seriously depressed. Upon spotting him, he
was suddenly filled with a sudden urge to ask him about what he had heard that
he couldn't resist. I have to know the truth, he thought.
"Hey, Harry." he
said.
"Hi, Ron." Harry
answered.
"You okay?" Ron
asked.
"Not what anyone
would call 'okay'." Harry replied.
"What's going on?"
Ron said, choosing his words carefully. "I heard about more trouble with Hermione this morning. Is that true?"
Harry looked up at him
with a palpable expression of sadness and anger written on his
features.
"Yeah." He
answered. "We were talking about...I don't remember what we talked about because it hurts so much. But I was being perfectly polite, and all of a sudden we were having a fight that I didn't start!" He finished in a downright hurt voice.
"Come off it!" Ron said,
trying to keep his voice down lest Hermione discover them.
"Yes! And then once I let her breathe, she wouldn't stop! If this was a verbal fight, then I was someone getting kicked while I was down! I honestly think
being Head Girl is fouling her up, because she never admits she's
wrong to anyone except the teachers now!"
"Come off it!" Ron said
again, even louder.
"Oh,
yes, she did!" Harry fired back. "Hang on, quiet…"
He had suddenly
recovered himself enough to alert me to something and quiet Ron down.
It was Hermione coming towards them.
Over the past few
years, her hair had become more well-done
and her face had become better-looking as well. Now, though, because
all she did was look a long dagger at a downcast Harry as if to rub
it in, Ron had scarcely seen a more despicable sight. He found himself
having to struggle to maintain an even expression.
"I can't believe
this." He said disgustedly. He had to almost force himself to lower his voice and said, "Don't let
her bring you down, okay?"
Anger at Hermione got
the better of him almost right then and there, and he had to bite his
lip once or twice to let off steam. The last thing he thought before he
went into the room after the other people in the class had joined them was I hope Lavender,
Parvarti, and Ginny can hammer some sense into Hermione.
