Oh boy, you guys are in for a treat. Thank you so much for the prompt responses. !
Hermione awoke with a sudden start, just as the blond haired assailant in her dreams had fastened his vile grip on her throat.
Sitting up, she stared groggily at the sun glowing draperies of her four-poster, before smacking a hand to her forehead and smashing herself back down on the pillows.
Then, the word popped into her head that made her sit up, and rip the curtains back.
Ginny.
Rolling out of bed, and snatching up the undergarments left by dear Lavender, she strolled into the bathroom and had a scrubbed shower. She arrived back in the room, sloppily put together, all buttons done up, and toweling her hair. She said the spell, now aware that she was alarmingly dependant on it, and threw assorted books in her bag.
With a grim look on her face, she threw open her door, and balanced on one foot with bag, sweater and robes in her one arm, a spare quill clamped in her mouth, using her other arm to shove her right shoe on her foot. She then let the heavy oak swing shut behind her as she practically fell down the stairs.
Stumbling into the common room, she dumped her stuff on the couch beside Ron, and cleaned up her uniform, ignoring buttons being all done up.
Ginny had taught her that. Urgh.
"Uhh…Morning, princess?"
Blowing hair out of her eyes, she glanced at him with a brief "Morning, Ronald."
"Hermione, did you eat yesterday?" Harry asked, closing his potions book and rolling up hastily what looked like last nights homework.
"I think so." She answered indifferently, checking her magical watch and stuffing the spare quill in one of the pockets on the side of her bag.
Harry looked like he would shout.
"I mean…I did! You know me, Harry. I'm a total pig!" she laughed breathlessly, stuffing her sweater in the bag, and latching it up, before swinging her robes onto her shoulders.
He crossed his arms.
"Where might you be going?"
"Breakfast." She said winningly, with a false smile of extreme sun. He cocked an eyebrow. She hated when he did that. It meant he wasn't buying her "I-need-to-escape' lies.
"Honestly." He said. Hermione glanced at the portrait hole, and he moved into her view, so all she could see was pissed off hero in her vision. He stared her down from behind his horn-rimmed glasses.
"I swear! I'm going to go eat with Ginny!" she said desperately, shouldering her bag.
Ron cleared his throat.
"That might be a bad idea. She's in a foul mood, storming in here this morning, ranted at me and then threatened to kill some one, and slammed the fat lady on her way out." He said, sounding slightly afraid of his sister's temper.
Hermione shrugged, and side-stepped Harry.
"I promise I'll eat…I ate…a…croissant…Yesterday? Yes, yesterday." She said nervously.
Harry followed her with his eyes on the way out.
"Why are both she and Ginny acting like cat's walking on nails?" he asked Ron, who shrugged from the couch behind him.
"Gin's always been like that. She's dead clumsy when she's afraid. You shoulda seen her when she went with Fred and George to experiment on Mum's chickens! She broke the whole china cabinet and everything in it!" he said, laughing at the memory.
"Let's follow her Ron." Harry decided, scooping stuff into his bag.
Ron got up clumsily, and left his bag at the foot of the stairs.
"Why?"
"Because I don't like how she's hiding."
"She's hiding?" Ron asked, wrinkling his brow and following Harry.
"Ginny Weasley." Hermione growled, slamming her bag down on the table and sitting on the bench behind it, glaring at the redhead over the top as she moved it beside her.
Ginny merely looked at her pointedly.
"Yes?"
"You stole the Slytherin's drugs. IT'S DRUGS! FROM SLYTHERIN!" she hissed, leaning close and ignoring the people three feet away and talking. Ginny stared at her, colour swiftly draining from her cheeks.
"I don't know what you're rambling about. Go back to bed, you might have caught something." She answered reluctantly, bowing her head and shoveling eggs into her mouth.
Hermione snatched her plate away, stood up and put it between two Ravenclaws on the table behind them. She then returned to a stony faced female.
"Why? I just want to know WHY." She whispered desperately over the table.
"I can't tell you why!" Ginny cried back, colour now returning in the shade of crying red.
"Yes you can!" Hermione said desperately, pulling an apple free of the fruit bowl and biting into it.
Ginny sat, burying her face in her hands and stared at the tabletop whilst Hermione chewed. She finally sighed.
"No, you're wrong. I can't." she whispered, shaking her head sadly. Hermione swallowed and put the apple down, leaning in close, steeping her fingers.
"You can get help! By yourself!" she said kindly. Ginny snorted.
"Now I get it. You think I'm some sort of a thuggie…"
"Druggie." Hermione corrected automatically.
"Whatever! Well, listen here Hermione, I'm not! Okay? I don't do that stuff! I don't even know what THEY do with it, let alone doing it myself! If I want some sort of a hallucination thing, I'd get my brothers to cook something up! They're messed enough to do it! I just need that stuff so I can complete a potion! A potion I need, and if anybody found out, ANYBODY, I could get killed. No one wants to save me, because I built the coffin, I nailed the nails, I've dug the grave. I'm in the process of hiring the guy to bury me, and I'm preparing to climb in! You can't jump in here and be the golden girl! IF you were to help me, then you'd wind up having to hurt people, betray people, be secretive, and totally undergo a thorough mutilation of everything you are as human! You'd have to change, you'd have to bow, you'd have to cry silently, and only when no one's around. You can't know what I'm doing, because I've already told you enough to kill myself. So, I'm shutting up." She ranted, a single tear escaping and running down her face. She swiped Hermione's apple, and sat back, looking determinedly sane as she watched Hermione absorb this whispered scream.
Hermione was silent.
"Gin." She said quietly.
"What?" came the choked reply.
"I will help you. No matter what. I'll help you because you're too important to lose. I don't care. I'll follow you wherever you go and I mean it. I'm not joking. Harry and Ron will be kept in the dark. But, you can't do this alone." Hermione pledged, looking solemn and determined.
Ginny stared, mouth slightly open, and another tear running.
She finally nodded, holding back a sob of gratefulness.
"You promise?"
"I give you my word. I swear."
"No you don't."
Hermione stared at her.
"What?"
"You don't swear."
Hermione caught the joke, and laughed.
"I'll meet you in the library tonight. Deal?"
Hermione's mind flew to Malfoy. Bad idea. He'd be lurking, looking for answers and his homicidal mania was enough to pick both her and Ginny off.
"No. Meet in the room of requirement. I'll tell you everything I know that you've overlooked. 7 o'clock. Bye. I've got class." She said lowly, walking away with her bag.
Harry and Ron watched the brown haired girl walk away, and slip out of the doors. Ron was opened mouthed, revealing his porridge to everyone. Harry was frowning.
"Shee got 'Inny 'ad! 'Ook at dat! Dey were so engwossed in wat dey were tal'kin' 'bout!" he said thickly.
Harry bit his lip, as Ron chewed and swallowed.
"I think they're doing something not allowed together, Harry. Ginny would be able to persuade Hermione to do something like that, and I totally think Hermione's fed up with herself after the fainting thing that she won't talk about. She'd do something drastic. And she and Gin are real close. What do you think…? You don't think she's helping Ginny get a boyfriend do you?" he said, clueing two's and growing red with rage.
Harry shook his head.
"Hermione doesn't do that. She points and prods, she doesn't accompany, unless it's us. It's something more than that." He said carefully, now noticing something.
"Well. Whatever it is, she's in trouble, isn't she? Harry? What's wrong?" Ron asked, stopping loading toast onto his plate at the murderous look on Harry's face.
"Yeah, she's in trouble. She didn't eat anything!" he snarled.
Ron had to smirk as Harry speared his sausages ruthlessly.
"Ms. Granger? I'd like you to work with Mr. Malfoy, please." Professor Vector said, waving a great arm at the male, who twisted his face in an ugly snarl.
Hermione went white.
"P-Please, Professor Vector, can I work with…Hannah? Please?"
"No, I'm afraid I've already worked you two together." He answered, pointing to Malfoy again. Hannah cast her a sympathetic glance as she robotically loaded her books into her arms.
She shuffled over to Malfoy, and perched on the far end of the bench.
"What's wrong Mudblood? Afraid of me? Scared of my scared FACE?" he said, showing her the bruise where she'd hit him again last night. She looked away, and purposely opened her book, copying notes down on their assignment.
"Did I scare you last night, Muddy?"
She couldn't control it.
"You nearly KILLED me!" she hissed, not making a difference in copying notes. He smirked.
"Shame. I meant to. You stole our stuff."
She looked at him.
"I did NOT!"
"You know who did!"
"That's completely irrelevant! It's a totally different concept being the thief and knowing the thief!" she gaped, abandoning her composure and facing him with an angry face.
"You're still a thief, and you shall be treated as one." He said, noting the time, dating his notes and closing his book.
"What's that? Am I now sentenced to the Guillotine? Death by shunning? Slyther-ghasts? Death by hate notes? 'Cause I know who stole your drugs? Who stole your MUGGLE drugs?" she snarled, unintentionally doing the same as him while the rest of the class packed one minute to the bell.
He sneered.
"You can't pull that card, muggle." He said. She tossed her hair as she stuffed her notebook away.
"Go to hell Malfoy. I know who did it, and you're not getting them back. Guess I'm doing you favor huh? Daddy wouldn't want to find out about your little habit." She said acidly, holding her bag to her chest.
He glared menacingly. Opened his mouth to argue back…
"Problem, partners?" a cheery professor Vector interrupted.
"No, sir." Hermione answered automatically, before turning on her heel and leaving the classroom without a backwards glance.
Different forms of anguish from multiple people. She knew them, knew the reasons, but she didn't know what was causing it. She would find out. If it destroyed her.
Yeah, the meth slip was unintentional. I didn't mean to confuse y'all, thanks for the reminder.Yes, due to a lot of questions, this IS a Hermione/Malfoy ship, but it's very unsteady and rocks a lot. It'll get better later on, but they had to climb onto the pedestal before they can stand in the spotlight.
Thanks a ton.
-Suzanne
