A/N: Here's the next one. There is a little part in here that is not my idea, but JKR's (I think it's obvious enough to recognize) so just for the record, it was not my idea. Thank yall for reading and pretty please review!
Chapter Six: YSA
Hermione barely remembered going up to Gryffindor tower and getting into bed. Her whole memory was fuzzy during that period of time and she couldn't figure out why.
When she woke up the next morning Parvati was standing over her.
"What?" Hermione tiredly ask, slowly standing up.
"You were saying odd things in your sleep last night," she quietly said, looking around at the others who were all asleep.
Hermione's heart beat quicker; she had another dream last night, "What did I say?"
"Something about that git Malfoy," she said.
Hermione was suddenly breathless, "Oh?" she asked, "Yeah; just had a really weird dream, that's all," she said, peeling the covers off of herself and throwing her legs over the side of the bed.
"What was it about?" Parvati asked, looking very expectant.
Hermione sighed and looked away, wondering if she should make up some cock-and-bull story to make her happy.
It's not use if she heard things I said last night, she reasoned to herself, who knows what she heard?
She sighed again and looked back at Parvati, "I had a dream that Malfoy somehow got Vol…sorry…You-Know-Who and the Death eaters into the castle and killed Dumbledore; then they all ran off with Snape."
Parvati gasped, "Oh that's horrible Hermione!" she exclaimed
And you don't even know the half of it, Hermione thought.
"Well," Parvati said, bringing a scroll out from behind her back, "A note came for you earlier. I took the liberty of getting it for you so the owl could get something to eat. Here you are," she said, handing it to Hermione.
Hermione curiously opened it, revealing a spiky scrawl that she could barely read. Once she could decipher it, it said, "Hermione, I thought I'd let you know my true feelings for once. I've been watching you for years but I haven't said anything about it. I often enjoy your company, even if it is for short bits of time, and I can't keep it to myself any longer. I don't want to meet quite yet, I want you to get to know me through owl mail first so you're not surprised when we ido/i meet. You're Secret Admirer."
She read it through three times before smiling and rolling it back up.
"Well?" Parvati asked as Ginny came through the door way.
"Well what?" she asked, sitting between them on Hermione's bed.
"Hermione got some mail today," Parvati explained.
"Oh? I imagine it's just your parents checking up on you," Ginny said.
Hermione blushed, "Ginny, tell your brother nice try but no cigar."
Ginny's eyes widened in surprise, "What?" she asked, grabbing the note from her hand. She laughed, "It's not from Ron," she said, reading it once, then handing it back.
Hermione felt herself frown, "How dyou know?" she asked.
"Well, for one, he doesn't have handwriting as nice as that and second of all, no offense, but he fancies some fifth-year. I think her name is Sasha or something."
Hermione cocked an eyebrow, " 'Sasha'?" she asked.
Ginny nodded, "I saw him making eyes at her in the hall the other day. Sorry."
"Oh," Hermione said, faking relief, "That's good to know."
"Either way both Ron and Harry are waiting for you down in the common room. They said something about needing help with Divination homework."
Hermione rolled her eyes and grabbed some muggle cloths out of her dresser, "I told them that I'm not going to help them with that ridiculous subject anymore."
Lavender, who'd just woken up, glared at her, "It's not 'ridiculous', Hermione. Just because some of us possess the inner-eye more than others doesn't make the subject stupid."
:Hermione sighed and rolled her eyes again, biting her tongue. Without another word she dressed and headed down to the common room, her secret admirer note in hand.
"Brilliant, Ronald, just brilliant. You changed the way you write and you seem to have a sensitive soul somewhere in there," she said, grinning as she sat in between the two boys.
"What?" he asked, looking up from his piece of blotted-up parchment.
"I really appreciate the effort you put into this…" she continued as he grabbed the note out of her hand and read it.
His eyes went left to right so quickly that they almost blurred and his expression became disgusted, "Hermione," he said, thrusting it at her, "If I had feelings for you like that, I'd tell you straight out and to your face, I wouldn't keep you guessing."
Hermione felt as though some one had thrown an anvil into her stomach.
"You ok, Hermione?" Harry asked.
Hermione only nodded, standing up and walking through the portrait hole. If it wasn't Ron, she was sure it wasn't Harry, then who could it be?
"What's wrong, Granger? Someone put polyjuice in your cereal?" someone yelled across the Great Hall as she made her way to the Gryffindor table.
She spun around to face the voice, finding Draco Malfoy headed over to her, "I suppose you think it's amusing to do something like that to me, don't you?" she raged, storming up to him, "You think it's entertaining to mess with my mind and my emotions, don't you?" she asked a bit louder, pointing a finger in his face, "Well it's going to come around and bite you in the ass, Malfoy," she said before she could stop herself. She was momentarily let off her guard, surprised that she had said something like that, much less in front of the whole school.
During that short moment she wasn't on her guard, he grabbed her upper-arm and started to drag her out of the Hall.
"What in the name of Merlin is going on?" came McGonagall's voice from behind them.
:Hermione wrenched her arm out of Malfoy's grip as tears welled up in her eyes. She willed herself not to cry, "It's nothing," she muttered, walking past McGonagall and taking her place next to Ginny.
"Wow," said Ginny, "It's about time someone said that to him, I'm just sorry it wasn't me."
Hermione spent a silent moment trying her best not to cry, but she finally threw her arms upon the table and buried her head in them, letting all the tears that were threatening her loose.
"Hermione?" Ginny asked, "Are you alright?"
Hermione shook her head.
"Did Malfoy really send that note to you as a stupid joke?" she asked.
Hermione shrugged
"Come on, wipe those tears away, let's go talk," she continued.
Hermione used the sleeve of her jacket to wipe her face off as she followed Ginny outside. They walked in silence for a short period of time before Ginny signaled for Hermione to sit next to her by the lake.
"Is it because Ron really didn't send that note?" she asked, "I know you fancy him, Hermione."
Hermione brought her knees up to her chest and rested her chin on top, "I guess," she quietly said, trying to figure that out for herself. Yes, she liked Ron and she would appreciate the opportunity to go out with him, but was she really jealous that he fancied someone named "Sasha" and that he really hadn't sent that note?
"I don't think Malfoy did it, Hermione," Ginny continued, clearly uncomfortable with the silence. Silence was all Hermione wanted at the moment.
"Why not?" she asked.
"Because if he really did send that as a joke, he would've put his name on it and he would've said something really rude in it. If he did send it, though, it's not a joke. And I think you and Malfoy have as much a chance at hooking up as I do at eating that squid alive."
She smiled, "Who do you think sent it, then?" she asked, looking at Ginny, who wasn't smiling anymore.
"My personal opinion is that it was Harry. That's the only logical explanation, but I don't want to believe it."
Hermione's smile widened, "You fancy Harry still?" she asked.
"Of course I do, but it's not a big deal to me if he never asks me out. It's not like I want to marry him or something."
At that moment an owl fluttered down next to Hermione, who looked at Ginny and found she was looking back at her; a puzzled expression on her face. They both went for it at the same time, startling the owl, Ginny holding it while Hermione tried to untie the note from the panicked bird.
Ginny let go of the owl as Hermione unrolled the piece of parchment finding the same spiky scrawl, "Dear Hermione, I didn't mean to make this seem like a joke. I really do admire you and I hope, despite our differences and our attitudes toward each other in the past, that one day you and I can be a couple. Even if it's for a short amount of time. It's an experience I'd die for if I had to. Please write back to me, it would mean a world and a half if you did. Just send a note back with the owl that delivered this one. YSA."
"YSA?" Ginny asked.
"Your Secret Admirer," Hermione answered, standing up, "Dyou happen to have a quill on you?" she asked.
"No," Ginny answered, "But I have one of dad's stupid muggle pens."
Hermione felt her eyes widen, "Oh, perfect," she said, grabbing it from Ginny and sitting back down, using her leg as something to write on.
"Dear YSA," she began, "I don't know who you are, but I have a hunch. If you don't stop bothering me, I'm going to go to Dumbledore. But answer me one question, are you inside or outside of Hogwarts? Malfoy, if it's you and if you aren't playing some cruel, sick joke on me, then get lost because there is no way in this world that we could be a couple or I could, or would willingly, call you my 'boyfriend'."
"Sounds good to me," said Ginny, reading it over Hermione's shoulder.
"Where'd that owl go?" Hermione asked, looking around.
"I let go of it, sorry."
"It's alright, we can find it in the owlry."
Ten minutes later the two girls were in the owlry, looking for the owl that had delivered the note to her.
"There," said Ginny, pointing to the very top of the owlry.
Hermione coaxed it down and tied the note back onto its leg, "Send this back to the person that sent me that letter," she told it, then watched it fly out of the window, over the Hogwarts grounds, through Hogsmead and out of sight behind the mountains.
