Chapter 7: Fighting With Passion

The next morning came quickly, and the house was once again croweded, as Fred and George were still over from the day before. They were all scheduled to leave for Diagon Ally at 10:00 by Floo. The plan was to go about there own business for a few hours and meet at 1:00 in the Leaky Cauldron for lunch. Then go to the book store to get their things, and go back home by 3:30 for a meeting with Dumbledore at 4.

Such a structured day on summer holiday could only be set by the queen of structure herself, Hermione. And, as it was now 9:45 and Ginny was not awake yet, Hermione was having a fit through out the house.

"GINNY GET UP!" she yelled up the stairs. "WHERE GONNA BE LATE!" she screamed! And then she started running around the house like a mad woman, making sure everyone that was coming, was ready.

At 9:58 Ginny came down the stairs fully dressed but still half asleep. She walked over to the kitchen table and grabbed an apple, ignoring Hermione's glare.

As everyone flood, one by one to Diagon Ally, no one else (except for Ginny) seemed to notice that Harry and Hermione were the last two left. As Harry went to grab the floo powder Hermione grabbed his arm to stop him.

"I wanted to tell you something." She said looking at his bright green eyes.

"Oh, what's that?" he asked, looking nervous.

"Ginny, she knows that you kissed me. I'm sorry that I didn't talk to you about talking to her first, but I swear it was like she already new." She was rambling.

"Hermione, its fine, and I already know she knows. It's alright. Just as long as she doesn't say anything about it." he said with a shy smile and kissed her on the cheek. Then he went on his way into Diagon Ally, followed by Hermione seconds later who was blushing like mad.

Their morning went by rather uneventfully. Nothing to spectacular had happened. Harry was not alone with Hermione once. Thankfully that minimized there chances of being caught together by Ron.

As they all made their way back for lunch at the Leaky Cauldron Harry was lagging behind. He had stopped to look in a window at the new Quidditch supplies. When he turned around he noticed his friends had not waited for him. He took a step and was about to say wait up, when he saw a mound of books clobber him in the head. "Oomph!" He fell as the books landed on top of him.

"Oh my, I am so sorry, are you alright?" He heard a girl's voice ask, though he still had pain in his head from the books hitting him, so his eyes were scrunched closed and could not see her.

"Yeah I'm fine, just a bit dazed." He said finally opening his eyes as he looked up, while still holding his head.

She was tall, about Harry's height, maybe even a smidge taller that him. Very thin, but not too thin where you could see her bones stick out. She had long really dark brown hair, straight as an arrow, and perfectly maintained. When she tucked a piece behind her ear Harry noticed her eyes.

They were a deep deep brown color, almost black even, but they mesmerized him. He looked even closer, they had little flecks of red and light brown in them. It was strange like the flecks of red and brown were almost pulsating. He felt like he was in a trance.

"Are you sure you're alright, if you're not, I could take you to that hospital around here, ummmm St. Magoo's." she said looking worried, but feeling a little uncomfortable at the way he was starring at her.

"St. Mungo's, and Uh, yeah I'm alright, fine yeah." He laughed shaking his head so he could clear his head. That was just too strange, something about those eyes seemed so familiar.

He stood up, and started helping her pick up all the books she had dropped on him. "You don't have to help, I'm the one who hit you with them." She laughed.

"You're not from around here are you?" he asked.

"Is it that obvious?" she laughed again. "No I'm from…. Out of town, we just moved here, my mother and I. I'll be starting at Hogwarts this year."

"Really, what year, what house?" he asked even more.

"I'm 16, so I guess in your school that means year 6? And I don't have a house yet, the head master said I would be in a private sorting before the first years came in. You know you're asking me all of these questions, and I know nothing about you. What's your name?" she smiled. Even her smile was familiar.

"Oh, I'm sorry, there I go being rude. I'm Harry Potter, and you are?" He asked reaching his hand out to shake hers. She just looked at his hand for a moment, then back up at him. There was a moment where a look of unease came across her face, not one he could identify clearly, but it was defiantly something. Then she reached her hand out and shook his.

"Mackenzie, Mackenzie Rosaland." She said back.

They chatted for a few more minutes when Harry remembered that he was supposed to meet with his friends. "I'm headed to the Leaky Cauldron for lunch with my friends. You are more then welcome to come if you would like?" He asked more to be polite, than anything else.

"Actually I have plans myself. I am meeting with the Headmaster for lunch. He is going to be going over my schedule of classes with me before we get back to school. So I know what to expect from my Professors and all that. Thank you though, for the invite." She said smiling.

"Well it was nice to meet you Mackenzie, thanks for clobbering me with your books!" he laughed, and she blushed.

"It was nice to meet you too Harry." She smiled again, and walked away from him holding up her large pile of books.

Back at the Leaky Cauldron Harry walked in to the room where is group was sitting. As soon as they caught sight of him the gossip hushed to a silence. "Hey guys, what's going on?" Harry asked them confused.

There were many side glances to each person that was sitting at the table. Like someone was silently urging the next person to speak. "Guys?" he implored getting annoyed.

Still no-one spoke.

"Oh alright, You are all such babies." Hermione said.

"Harry, there has been another attack. Moody was injured, not to badly, but it seems that whoever it was has covered there tracks really well. As they have no clues who it was. Moody is at St. Mungo's, he will be out in a few hours but… Dumbledore said he won't be making it to your meeting tonight he wants to speak with Moody. He will contact you soon to discuss whatever it was that needed to be discussed as well as the attack earlier."

"Oh" was all he said, and sat down next to Ron.

"You alright mate?" Ron asked him.

"Yeah, I'm fine, why wouldn't I be?" he said with a fake cheesy grin on his face. Ron, Hermione, and Ginny all recognized the fakeness, but chose to leave it be for now. Everyone else, on the other hand, seemed to believe he was fine.

The rest of the afternoon went on as planned. Harry forgot to mention meeting Mackenzie to Ron and Hermione, and soon enough she was just an afterthought to an otherwise uneventful day.

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Going back to the Burrow for dinner was hard for Harry and Hermione. Being in the same small house together was driving them mad. When Harry walked in on Hermione brushing her hair in the bathroom he nearly jammed the door shut behind him and jumped on her. The only thing that stopped him was that Ron was standing in the hallway, waiting for his turn in there. This was going to be difficult.

After dinner and a few games of chess, there was not much else to be done for the day. It was still pretty early (9:30 p.m.), but Harry had decided to barricade himself in his room at the Burrow for the rest of the evening. He walked into the room and muttered a locking spell along with a silencing spell, then used his wand to throw his dresser up against the door so he wouldn't be tempted to leave. 'The more obstacles between me and the door, the better.' He thought.

He was avoiding her again. This 'thing', whatever it may be, just could not keep happening like this. They were getting sloppy. Ron had almost caught them. He needed to figure out his feelings for Hermione first, before anyone else found them out.

An hour had past and Harry was asleep in bed, dreaming.

He was running down a hallway at school, and turned into a familiar bathroom chasing a rat… THE RAT! Peter Pettigrew! He followed this rat into the bathroom feeling his scar prickle, but he could not find him anywhere. He looked in every stall, in every corner, nothing.

Then it occurred to him where this bathroom this was.

Looking over to the sink he remembered. "Of course! Myrtle's bathroom."

He marched over to the sink and in Parseltongue said "Open up." The water tap glowed, spun, and then sank out of sight to some unknown place. Harry felt fear as he saw the pipe that he had not seen in 4 years. The prickle in his scar turned to pain.

In his mind he told himself not to jump down it. This could only lead to disaster, but for some reason he new he had to. He jumped and slid down the endless pipe. When he finally stopped he found himself in the bottom of a tunnel, but he got up knowing what he had to do.

As he followed the familiar path through the dark musty tunnel, he changed his direction going to the left, going a different way then the last time he was in this chamber. It lead him to a round room, rock walls, and the only way out was the way he came in which suddenly, had just slammed itself closed behind him.

"This is just great, I'm trapped." He thought to himself. Just as he started to look around the room, he noticed the rat sliding under a crack in the rock wall. "PETER!" He shouted angrily, as he approached the crack in the wall. He noticed as he got closer, it wasn't a crack at all. This was a secret door made of rock.

Using his wand he muttered the spell to unlock the door, but it did not work.

He then tried "Open up" in parseltongue and it did not work.

Becoming frustrated he stomped over to the rock door and punched his clenched fist into the rock. As he pulled his bloodied fist back from the door it creaked and moved. Only a little though.

Confused at first he looked at his fist, then at the door, then at his fist again. His head shot up. "That's it… I understand now". He began knocking on the rock door with his good fist. It opened up a little more each time his fist made contact. He stopped when it opened enough to let his body slide through.

When he walked through the door he found himself going down another tunnel.

He was running now, suddenly feeling an urgency to get where he was going much faster as his scar seared in pain. He reached the end as the tunnel opened up into a large room and he saw a body on the ground in the middle. Running over to it he flipped the body over.

"OH MY GOD! HERMIONE, WAKE UP! WAKE UP SWEETHEART!" he shouted. His voice broke as he whispered "please wake up." He cried, burying his head into her bloody shoulder as she lay there unmoving.

"I knew you would come" hissed a voice behind him, causing a violent shudder to go though his body. He turned around to face his enemy while his scar burned his tear stained eyes. Standing in front of him was the hooded figure he feared for so long. Terror ran through his body as he glanced back down at his true loves unmoving body.

Then all he felt was hate.

"I knew you would come for her. Your love for her makes you week. Love makes all fools who feel it week." Voldemort hissed through his hood, while his blood red eyes glowed.

"She died protecting your prophesy. Of course even hours of torture couldn't get her to talk. Loyal to a fault she was. Rather annoying actually." He laughed sadistically.

Harry felt the hate building inside him like a bomb waiting to go off. Nothing had ever made him feel this much hate before, not even when Sirius had died.

"Now that you're here Potter, let's play." He heard Voldemort hiss and saw a jet of red light fly at him.

Harry sat straight up in his bed, his scar still prickling on his sweaty forehead. Running his hand through his drenched hair he felt the hate still coursing through his body. He tried getting the picture of her dead body out of his mind. "I won't let this happen to her. EVER!" he thought.

He was determined to find a way to get around something like this happening. Hermione doesn't deserve to be put into the middle of this war. He won't allow it. "I can't love her. It's the only way." He said out loud.

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Another hour passed it was now 11:30, Harry was fidgeting angrily on his bed.

"I should have peed before I locked my self in here…. idiot" he thought out loud to himself still feeling hate in his body. He got up and muttered the spell to move the dresser blocking the locked door. He unlocked the door and went into the bathroom. After relieving himself he made his way back to his dark room.

Redoing the locking charm on the door, (but not the silencing charm since everyone was probably asleep), and then uttering the spell to put the dresser back in front of the door he heard a small giggle coming from behind him.

"Harry what are you doing?" He froze at the sound of Hermione's small giggling voice.

"Lumos" he muttered so he could see her. She looked amazing, like an angel. Her hair was pulled away from her glowing face, and she was in a white tank top and short, white pajama bottoms.

But he couldn't think like that anymore, he couldn't let her get hurt because of him. Guilt began to set in as he remembered her lifeless body in his dream. He new what he had to do.

"I… uhhhh… don't worry about it. What are you doing in here?" he questioned, he was losing his nerve.

He avoided her eyes, but looked at the spot next to where she was now standing. It was the place where they had first kissed, only a week ago. Pushing that image out of his head he finally looked up at her beautiful face.

Her smile was gone now, she looked serious. "Well, I came in here because I needed to talk to you about something." She was looking him dead in the eyes. Moments of silence passed by, fortunately they were used to this by now.

"What is going on? With us I mean?" she had done it, she asked the one question that had been on her mind for weeks now, since before she even visited him. Now all she could do was wait. Wait for an answer of some kind. Something to let her know he felt what she felt every time they kissed, that he wanted to be with her like she wanted to be with him. Little did she know she would be waiting in vane.

"Nothing." He said quietly, his voice filled with no emotion. He new this would be hard. His heart was in so much pain it was hard to breathe. He looked away from her, then back again.

Hermione's face went from serious/nervous, to extreme hurt and pain, to confusion all in a matter of seconds. "I'm sorry Harry I think I just hallucinated. Can you repeat that?" she asked.

"I said nothing. Nothing is going on between us." Another moment of silence passed.

She cracked a smile and laughed hesitantly, "Ha ha, Harry, but I'm not kidding around, I want to know what you really think about this, I NEED to know."

"Hermione I'm not joking, there is nothing between us." Still no emotion in his voice, but he looked away from her.

"What are you talking about?" she said with her voice wavering. She began to walk towards where he was standing by the door. He still avoided her face.

"Harry look at me." She said her voice sounding confused and hurt. He still didn't look at her. "I SAID LOOK AT ME!" she shouted now sounding angry. She was standing only a foot away from him now.

He looked up at her face. She had a single tear coming out of her left eye. "What do you mean there is nothing between us?" she asked her voice cracking. "I mean what about the mirror? You said you saw me….You kissed me…. Twice, and now you say that…. there….. there is nothing between us?" she was speaking slowly, to say this without breaking into sobs.

Harry just stood there and watched her struggle so hard not to cry. Little did she know, he was struggling with the same problem.

"Say something." She said to his face. He didn't speak, he looked away. He couldn't, this was so hard.

"SAY SOMETHING YOU COWARD!" she shouted, stomping her foot, her tears falling freely now. She didn't deserve to be treated like this, they didn't deserve this. He new if he told her the truth she would ignore his dream, and say they could fight it together. He did the only thing he could think to do…… LIE.

"I'm sorry Hermione, I…. I just wanted to see what it would be like to kiss you. That's all." His voice was still monotone. He looked at the expression on her face, yup, he had really said it out loud. There was no turning back now.

"What?" she said in disbelief. "I don't believe that for one second Harry, don't lie to me," sniffling, she searched his face for answers but got none. "What about the mirror then?" she said sounding more determined.

"I'm sorry, I lied about that too. I never saw you." He couldn't believe how hard this was. Her tears were exploding down her face. He just wanted to hold her and make the pain they were both feeling stop, but he couldn't.

"How could you do that to me?" she took a gulp of air and wiped her eyes. "TO ME? YOUR BEST FRIEND?" She stopped for a moment to breathe, 'at least she could breathe', Harry thought. "I thought you cared about me?" she asked, her voice cracking, tears coming down again.

"I do, just not like you want me to." He said feeling horrible, and his guilt now shown in his voice.

"THAT'S A LOAD OF SHIT HARRY, AND YOU KNOW IT!" she shouted. She turned from him, and walked over to his bed. She needed to sit. 'This doesn't seem right' she thought. "WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?" she shouted again still crying.

"Hermione, I wanted to see what it would be like to kiss you, now I have, and I'm done, we're done. We can go back to being friends again. Like we were before, and we can pretend this never happened." He said walking to where she sat, and grabbed the picture of the trio off his small bedside dresser.

"We can go back to being these people." He said looking at the picture of them laughing so happily.

She jumped up off the bed practically knocking him over, and she grabbed the picture out of his hands.

"THIS? THIS IS WHAT YOU WANT TO BE? THIS IS CRAP!" she was screaming through her tears.

Before he new it, she hurled the picture as hard as she could at the wall by the door. The frame shattered into pieces, as did his heart. She stood there breathing heavily for a few seconds, regaining her composure. Harry just starred at the spot on the wall where the frame hit.

"Ya know what Harry. That's FINE, that's just fucking FINE. You wanna be my FRIEND again, then that's FINE!" she said the words 'friend' and 'fine' so snidely that Harry flinched. "You're being such a coward, you won't even look at me!" she said, her voice cracking again.

This set Harry off. He was being terrible to her, but a coward? He was doing this to protect her. To keep her from being hurt, or…… killed.

"YA KNOW WHAT HERMIONE? THE REASON WHY I FEEL NOTHING FOR YOU, IT'S BECAUSE YOU'RE AN INSUFFERABLE KNOW-IT-ALL! YOU THINK YOU'RE ALWAYS RIGHT, WELL YOU'RE WRONG!" His anger and hate left over from his dream all came flooding back in that one second. "YOUR WRONG ABOUT ME, AND YOUR WRONG ABOUT US!" The strength of his anger made his hairs stand on end, like static electricity. Hermione felt her hairs stand on end as well. Then the shock of what he said about her set in. His anger softened, and he only felt regret. "Oh, Hermione, no I…", but she cut him off.

"Your not who I thought you were" she said with her tears streaming down her shocked face.

She walked over to his door, and with the wave of her pissed off hand she magically threw the dresser out of the way and it slammed up against the opposite wall, missing Harry by mere centimeters. She unlocked the door with her wand and started to pull it open a crack, but turned and looked at him first.

"See you around, FRIEND!" The tone in her voice sounded just like Malfoy's, that tone hurt more than the shouting and stomping put together. She turned back around and walked through the door, slamming it so hard behind her that it rattled the house.

"Hermione what happened?" Ron asked, standing in his bedroom doorway. It was apparent that their shouting had woken him up, as well as Ginny, who was now rushing to her side. Hermione just looked up at his worried face and broke down into a fit of sobs, as Ginny and Ron helped her back up the stairs and into her and Ginny's room.

They settled her into her bed, and she heard Ginny ask Ron to get a box of tissues and a warm wash cloth from the bathroom and a glass of water from the kitchen.

Confused and worried about his friend's mental state, he obeyed his sister's orders without question. As soon as he left the room Hermione looked up at Ginny.

"So you heard all that?" she asked through tears.

"It was kind of hard not to…" Ginny said feeling a little embarrassed for listening in.

"Ginny he was so horrible to me, the things he said, I just don't understand…" she began to cry harder.

"Hermione, I don't understand either, I know he feels something for you, he told me so Yesterday. I'm not sure what this is about." Ginny said. 'But I'm sure as hell going to find out' she thought.

"I'm going to go see what's taking Ron so long, I will be right back."

Ginny walked out of the bedroom and shut the door. Ron was walking towards her. "How is she?" he asked with his worried hands full with a glass of water, a box of tissues, and a dripping wash cloth.

"She's upset, crying, and feels like crap Ron, how do you think she is?" Ginny said sarcastically.

"But Gin, why is she so upset, why were they fighting like that? I feel so confused. Like I'm missing something." Ginny just gave him a small smile, "You didn't hear what they were shouting about?"

"No, I was asleep, I woke up to Harry shouting but I couldn't hear what he was saying, then I got up and opened my door to hear better, that's when she opened his door and broke down." He said still looking confused… the poor git. "Why you heard them Gin? What were they fighting about?" he asked hoping that he would get some answers.

"Ron, I'm not to sure myself. I only caught the same amount you did." She lied, it wasn't her place to tell him everything she heard them say. "You should go in their and keep an eye on Hermione, make sure she doesn't need anything else. I'm going to talk to Harry." She announced and started to walk away.

"Ginny shouldn't you be in there with her, and I should go talk to Harry?" he asked with a little laugh.

"No Ron, something tells me if you ask Harry the questions that you want answers to right now, you might come out with a bloody nose." She said with a little laugh, though she was completely serious.

Confused yet again, Ron just agreed and walked into Hermione's room with a deep breath.

Ginny made her way down the stairs and silently into Harry's room. She was getting her answers one way or another. Even if she had to beat them out of him, which at this point, was a good option.

"Harry, what happened?" She asked as she shut the door behind her. He was laying on his bed, looking up at the ceiling so intently, like it was telling him a story.

"Ginny get out… Now isn't the right time to talk." He said flatly, though she could hear the hurt in his voice.

"Harry James Potter, you will tell me why my best friend is an emotional train wreck right now, or so help me Merlin I will send you back to Privet Drive faster than you can say Bat Bogey Hex!" she meant business, and he could tell. That was two threats in one!

Harry sat up and looked at her. "You may want to sit down for this." He said glumly. As soon as she sat, she looked at him to continue, and he did. He told her the whole story, the dream, the way he really felt, and everything that was said when they fought, even though she heard almost the whole fight.

"Wow" was all Ginny could say. She let her thoughts catch up to her. "You really are a prat, you know?" she told him. He looked at her in disbelief. "HUH?"

"Just because you broke her heart doesn't mean she will stop loving you!" Ginny said shaking her head.

Harry sat there in shock, thinking about what she had just said.

"Well at least when you two fight, you fight with passion!" she said laughing, looking at the broken pieces of glass on the floor and the dent on the wall from where the frame hit. Then Ginny got up and walked out the door, leaving Harry to his thoughts.

"What did I just do?"

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A/N- Okay I'll duck and cover, while you guys throw stuff at me. I know this chapter is really... Angsty... but it was either really angsty or really fluffy, and I just was not in the proper mood to write fluffy stuff. Please leave me a review... even if you hate it.