Hey there readers, ta for reviews
SO SO SO SO SO SORRY I haven't updated for MONTHS! I hope to be doing my story pretty frequently, so keep a lookout and keep reviewing because the plot shall thicken! So here's chapter 12…
Ron's Watchful Eye
Every morning at breakfast, the ceiling of the Great Hall would be getting brighter and brighter as a beautiful spring time approached. Suddenly everything seemed brighter, the corridors, the pupils, the lessons…
Hermione reflected on how picturesque the castle looked that morning as she and the boys walked down to their potions lesson. As they approached the dungeons, Hermione sighed. The stone walls were dark and mossy; the floor was damp and made their footsteps echo. Some things never change, no matter what season it was.
When they got to their dungeon, the door was bolted shut.
"We must be early, I guess." Said Harry, glancing at his watch and then leaning nonchalantly against the dungeon wall.
"Yeah, I guess so. Cold down here, isn't it?" Hermione stated, and Ron automatically put his arms around her waist. Although this was a kind gesture, Hermione felt sick. She was very grateful that Harry was there, so that Ron couldn't try anything else. As they stood there, awkwardly, she knew she'd have to tell him soon that she couldn't be with him, but how to do it?
Then, the dungeon door swung open on its own accord, so the three traipsed in, but they were by no means early. The whole of their Potions class were already assembled in the classroom.
"Ah, well if it isn't our celebrity and our pathetic excuse for puppy love. So, Potter, Weasley and Granger, you've finally decided to join us? I'm honoured enough to take 30 points from Gryffindor for you. Sit." Snape spat sarcastically, smirking with glee at the prospect of taking points from the house he despised more than anything (except Harry, of course).
"But Professor, we thought the door was locked!" Ron argued, trying to look brave in front of Hermione.
"Tell me Weasley, when, in the 6 ½ years you've been attending my lessons, has my door ever been locked before a lesson?" Snape retorted icily "5 more points from Gryffindor for your stupidity."
Ron burned scarlet, but Hermione and Harry managed to secure him onto his seat before he did anything rash. Ron smiled gratefully at Hermione, but Hermione wasn't looking at him. Ron followed her gaze to Malfoy who was sitting on the other side of the dungeon, idly swinging on the back legs of his chair between Crabbe and Goyle, looking unusually pale. Ron was immediately confused, and startled! Why was Hermione looking at Malfoy of all people?
Hermione snapped out of her gaze when she saw Ron had noticed who she was looking at and pretended to be focusing on the ingredients for Visionary Potions that Snape was writing on the board. Ron glanced at her and then Draco suspiciously, a plan slowly forming in his mind as he felt a spark of anger go off inside of him.
Draco pretended to be swinging on his chair without a care in the world; he just casually smirked around the room and twisted his quill between his fingers. But inside, he was frightened; a frantic plan was forming in his mind. Snape's words simply lapped over him, he was too busy focusing on the questions in his head – how will I cheat without people finding out? He wondered to himself. He gingerly rubbed his eyes under which deep grey circles had formed - a mark of how little sleep he had gotten recently.
Throughout the rest of the day, Ron watched Hermione and Draco like a hawk, and therefore often picked up on furtive glances they shot one another. He noticed that Draco had become slightly on edge recently, his hands shook slightly and there was a hint of panic in his stony, tired eyes.
Hermione had noticed this too and was convinced it was because of the NEWTs. She was irritated that he incessantly refused her help, like she wasn't good enough for him or something, although she didn't have much time to ponder on Draco. Her mind was otherwise engaged on thoughts of how to appropriately break up with Ron.
Ron, however, had no intention of letting Hermione slip away.
She was pondering this in her bedroom when suddenly there was a sharp tap on the window pane. Immediately curious, Hermione pulled back the drapes to find a rather small owl hovering outside, it's leg weighed down with what looked like a large bundle of letters in pink envelopes.
"Pig!" She exclaimed, reaching out and letting the tiny creature climb onto her arm. Crookshanks eyed the little owl hungrily.
"What's Ron doing sending me letters when he could just come visit?" She asked aloud, not really requiring a response.
She opened the first envelope, and a strong pink tinted haze of perfume drifted out, making her sneeze violently. Irritated, she opened the heart shaped note inside, it said:
I sent you perfume, because it's sweet like you
Ron
Xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hermione sighed exasperatedly, and opened all the other little love notes, and they all contained similar messages.
"Granger, what IS that smell?" Draco exclaimed, leaning idly against her doorframe, holding his nose.
"Ron."
"Weasley? I always thought he smelt sort of musty." Said Draco, wrinkling up his nose disgustedly and waving a hand in front of his face to clear the air of the looming flowery scent.
"No, he sent it to me in a letter." Hermione replied, still reading through all the sickly sweet notes, sighing.
"So, you're still with that corny idiot? I don't understand you at all." He said, shaking his head, his eyes gleaming.
"It's really none of your business." Hermione retorted.
"Well, I make it my business. You're obviously not happy with him." Draco replied sneakily.
"What makes you say that?" Asked Hermione distractedly, dumping a couple of the letters into the trash can, and a few of them squealed in protest.
Draco raised an eyebrow as he watched her shred a particularly annoying singing note and throw the pieces in the bin. "You're eradicating all his love notes, Granger. Not exactly my idea of true love you've got going there."
"What do you know about love?" Hermione snapped, immediately stopping destroying the notes.
"A lot more than you think." Draco replied, not really knowing why he said it - it just seemed to slip out of his mouth. He went slightly pink, and Hermione looked at him in amused surprise, but he left abruptly before she could make a sneering retort.
In the Gryffindor Common Room, Ron and Harry were playing chess together, and for once, Ron was loosing terribly. As his queen got wrestled to the ground by one of Harry's pawns, Harry knew there must be something wrong.
"Ron, is everything OK?" Harry asked.
"Yeah, everything's fine." Ron replied vaguely, picking up his queen, who was cursing at him violently, and took her off the board.
"Hermione?"
"Yeah."
"I thought everything was fine with you two now, what happened?" Harry inquired again.
"Have you noticed anything strange about Malfoy recently?" Ron asked, suddenly changing the subject.
"We've been through this." Harry replied calmly sending his bishop to square C4.
"I know but…well I have. He's always looking so pale and anxious...he doesn't strut like he used to… And I think we should look into it." Said Ron, trying to sound casual.
"Look into it…how?" Asked Harry, raising an eyebrow, knowing that Hermione was surely behind this all, but slightly curious at the same time.
"Follow him around a bit." Replied Ron, trying to sound casual, but his voice was unusually high.
"Oh, no. No, no, no, no. No. Look, Ron, we can't just stalk him around, he's bound to notice. This is just an accident waiting to happen." Protested Harry, watching his pawn pummel one of Ron's knights angrily with little curled stone fists – Ron obviously wasn't concentrating.
"Since when do we ever get caught? Come on, please do this for me?" Ron pleaded. His expression was so pathetic, that Harry had to agree.
Draco crept up to the Head Quarters after Quidditch Practice, his mind blank except for the task he had to complete, not even stopping for a shower. As he crept past Hermione's bedroom he could hear her steady breathing. Good he thought she won't hear me leave.
Pulling on some black robes and coving his silver-blond head with the hood, he crept soundlessly out of the Head Quarters. As he slid downstairs silently, he checked around every corner with a little mirror in case he ran into Peeves, Mrs. Norris or any number of other pupils. He could feel his heavy heart beat rapidly in his chest as he crept stealthily towards his destination. The castle was unnaturally dark, and got darker still as Draco's feet took him down…down…down.
Meanwhile, Harry and Ron were discussing Fred and George and their new shop opening in Hogsmeade in their dormitory while the others slept.
"Reckon we'll be able to go to Hogsmeade and check it out soon?" Said Harry hopefully "The way our lessons are going, I'm thinking a few Puking Pastilles would go down nicely."
"Yeah, I agree, and I need to stock up on Dungbombs. Word is that George managed to create a whole range of new and more disgusting scents – bet Filch will be so happy about that, eh?" Exclaimed Ron enthusiastically, then suddenly he had an idea and dropped his voice straight away. "Reckon they've made anything we could use to tail Malfoy?"
"I dunno…might have, we could look into it." Replied Harry, wholly sick of discussing Malfoy's comings and goings…wait, that was it! "Ron! The Map!"
"Oh yeah! The Marauders Map!" Cried Ron, excitedly, desperate to find out whether Malfoy was in Hermione's dormitory, making Dean stir in his bed mumbling something about West Ham in a slurred sleepy voice.
"Keep your voice down, Ron!" Hissed Harry as he rummaged around in his trunk for the scrap of parchment they had relied on for so many years. After reciting the password (I solemnly swear that I am up to no good) they searched the map for Malfoy's ink dot. Ron's heart leapt when he saw that it wasn't in Hermione's room with her, and was pleased to see that she was fast asleep, safe in her bedroom.
"Well, he's obviously somewhere he shouldn't be – look, he's not in the Head Quarters. Could be patrolling the corridors I suppose, but Hermione isn't with him." Said Harry, a frown forming on his face- did Malfoy often make night time excursions?
"Look!" Yelped Ron excitedly, pointing at the dungeons below the Slytherin Common Room where they had their lessons.
Sure enough, there was Malfoy's dot, frantically charging down into the dungeons. Without one word, Harry and Ron leapt out of bed and within minutes they were under the invisibility cloak heading down…down…down.