This will be a short story, got inspired in class by day-dreaming. Wewt!
Behind Closed Eyes
Hermione had always been a good actress. Almost as if she was a professional. She was never recognized when she chose to fake a few feelings, that was how she wanted it. She was smart, but just once she wanted to pretend to be someone else, and someone exciting. She wanted to let loose. Be someone new and different. And she knew she could do it.
So simply changing a few things, she walked down the steps to the Grand Hall, standing straight up without any books in her arms, her hair straightened, and different clothes on. Basically, she looked 'hot.' Naturally, this attracted attention—a 'bookworm' becoming 'hot'. But there was one individual she wanted to be noticed by. And he noticed her. He had stared for a few moments, and she had stared back. Then he turned away, his face slowly gaining shades of red. Almost no one noticed this 'moment' pass between them, but the few who did started to speculate. One of the few who noticed this 'moment', however, did not like what she was seeing.
This person knew that Hermione had the power to steal Ronny-poo away from her. This individual knew that she was no match for the amazing intelligence of the girl who used to have bushy hair, the girl who was trying so hard to smile and be pretty, the girl who was smiling and being pretty for the man that wasn't hers.
If there was a competition, Hermione would surely win it. There was only one way to keep her Won-Won, and this scheming lady knew exactly the perfect way to go about it.
-----------------
Hermione was walking up the stairs to the girls' dormitory, trying hard to smile and stand up straight and worry about her hair.
"Hello Lav, hello Vati." She said, using nicknames she had made up out of the blue.
"H-ello Hermione..." Lavender said stiffly. Parvati smiled and waved cheerfully.
"Now, why don't we have a makeover?" Hermione asked, smiling serenly. "Or we could compare makeup, or we could work out together or something."
Hermione's voice was becoming increasingly strained. She was reaching her breaking point.
"Or we could talk about boys," Lavender flinched, but Hermione didn't notice as she was too busy trying to think of more ridiculous things to do that she normally wouldn't. "We could paint each other's nails, or try on fake eyelashes, or… or—oh, I give up! How can you live with yourselves, doing all of this ridiculous stuff? It's completely annoying! It won't help us at all later in life, I think I've broken my back in these stupid heels, and my face has so much makeup on it I could probably run my nails down it and end up with an inch of powder! I can't do this anymore! I need a book! I need my robes! I need HOMEWORK!" She exploded, ran to her trunk to grab her robes, and then dashed to the bathroom to change.
Lavender stood still. Hermione was going to turn back into her ugly, bookworm self. She relaxed a few moments while she thought that Ron wouldn't be sighing over Hermione's perfectly straight hair. Humming happily, she began roaming through the trunk for her own makeup and a straightening iron, determined to show Ron that Hermione wasn't the only pretty one in the school. As she passed the girls' bathroom, however, she heard Hermione muttering incantations under her breath to wipe the makeup off of her skin and put her hair back to normal, and she was filled with jealousy. Hermione had one thing Lavender would never have, and that was an unmatched intelligence. When Hermione came out of the bathroom sighing with relief, Lavender turned to face her.
"Hermione, Ron asked you up to the Astronomy Tower."
"What in the world would he need me for up there? It's too bright to correct his star chart."
"I'm not sure, but he said it was important." Lavender lied through her teeth. Hermione sighed.
"Alright, I'll head up there in a moment."
"Alright." Lavender said and quickly left the dormitory and headed for the Astronomy tower. The highest tower in the whole of Hogwarts, there would be plenty of time for Lavender to get out of the tower before anyone realized what had taken place.
On her way to the tower she ran into Ron. She flirted her butt off, batting her eyelashes and twirling her hair, but he seemed uninterested and muttered something about Quidditch. He stalked off towards a tapestry that, to her great surprise, concealed a hidden tunnel. He took this shortcut to the common room, and Lavender felt reassured that he wouldn't run into Hermione on his way back.
Hermione had finally made it to the top of the incredibly tall Astronomy tower. Although she normally tried not to show it, she was panting slightly as she opened the door onto the balcony, irritated with Ron for making her climb all the way up the Astronomy tower for homework he probably could have done himself. Preoccupied with her thoughts, she didn't notice until too late that hands were coming for her. They covered her eyes and her mouth and held her arms in place. As she struggled, trying to make sense of it all and get free, she felt herself being moved. After a few moments the movements stopped, and there was no sound but the rushing wind and the muffled sounds of Hermione's voice and her hands on the fabric of robes.
"One, two, three."
She was falling.
Hermione could open her eyes, and she screamed as she saw the sky where the ground should be and the grounds rushing towards her. She felt the wind rushing through her hair and her robes, her eyes watered and stung so that she was blinded, and her stomach was misplaced and had taken up occupancy with her throat. She glanced up—or was it down—at the bright green of the Hogwart's grounds rushing towards her. She stopped screaming as the tears in her eyes spilled over. There wasn't anything she could do to save herself.
-----
Ron was disgruntled and confused. He shuffled through his trunk until he found his still second-rate broomstick and slung it over his shoulder. Quickly he glanced outside to double check that the Quidditch pitch was free. Something caught his eye. It was a figure in black, with a bushy brown mound at the tip. In fact… it looked kind of human…
Ron realized with a jolt of shock and adrenaline that the figure was Hermione, and without another thought jumped out of the window with an almighty crash and onto his broomstick, ignoring the cuts he received from the glass. She was only about halfway to the ground; he might still be able to save her.
----------
Hermione could save herself. She would make it. She had her wand! She felt around in her robe pockets— empty. She remembered where it was: in her dormitory, still in the pants of the ridiculous outfit she had forced herself to wear. She glanced at the ground once more—she was halfway down. She closed her eyes and accepted her death.
Her life quickly passed before her closed eyes as her eyes continued overflowing and the wind blew mercilessly at her tired body. There was a jolt of pain at her back. Filled with dread, she opened her eyes and found she was looking at her dead body on the ground, crumpled and misshapen, blood beginning to pool around her. She stared her body, the tears still flowing from its closed eyes, its face turning pale and its hair becoming drenched with scarlet. She couldn't just die like that, no, she had never wanted to, never thought she would end her life being thrown from a balcony, it made no sense, no, no, no...
"NO!" Her eyes flew open, and she was falling was again. Was she to relive her death over and over? Or had she merely foreseen her death? Or was this a second chance? She had run out of time anyways, nearly to the ground. She closed her eyes.
Once again there was a jolt of pain at her back. It spread slowly up and down her body, towards her shoulder and through to her knees. She grimaced, at least thankful that the wind had slowed. But surely if she were dead, she wouldn't be able to feel the wind? Hesitating, she opened her eyes.
Ron was holding her in his arms, paler than the snow had been in January, and looking alarmed as though he had just gone out for a quick fly and she had fallen from the sky into his arms. She glanced down and saw that they were just feet from the ground. She looked up at the Astronomy tower, the highest point of Hogwarts, and wondered why the fall and gone in slow motion. Pain stabbed at her neck. Ron wordlessly lifted her up and onto his broomstick, and as he flew back to the castle, Hermione blanked out.
-------------
She woke in the hospital wing a few days later and was immediately forced by Madam Pomfrey to drink a strange potion. Ron bolted awake, having been asleep in a chair at the foot of her bed. Madam Pomfrey bustled out of the room to get some actual food for Hermione to eat.
"Are you okay?" He asked quietly.
She nodded. It hurt to speak, and she was ashamed to look at him.
"They caught who threw you off the tower. Filch heard them bumbling down the stairs and, after hearing about what happened to you, turned them in. It was Parvati and Lavender."
Hermione nodded slowly, feeling betrayed, but still glad to know who had done it. They sat in silence for a few moments before Ron began to speak, sounding as if he had thought out what he was going to say before he said it.
"Hermione… when you came down into the Great Hall that day, looking so differently… I was… disgusted." Hermione shot her head up and then groaned, for she was still sore. Ron continued as if she hadn't done anything. "You didn't look like yourself, or like the Hermione I know… and… the Hermione… I…" he paused for a moment to take a breath, then started over. "I realized that day that I didn't like you because you looked like every other girl—not that you did, mind—but because you had a brain. And you were—are--- caring, and bossy, and clever and helpful, and determined, almost to the point of being ridiculous. But I realized then that you meant more to me than a regular best friend would. And I don't mean Harry," He said, for Hermione had raised a mocking eyebrow. "And then, when you… when that... happened, I realized that… Iloveyou."
Hermione's mouth dropped open, and she realized with shock he was crying.
"I don't want anything that stupid to happen to you again." He finished, turning shades darker than she had ever seen him turn. Hermione blushed as well, and wondered just what was taking Madam Pomfrey so long to get some food. She was feeling faint.
"I… feel the exact same way, Ron," was all she could say, her voice hoarse and the words coming out like some kind of a growl. Nonetheless, Ron grinned as if he had for the first time felt the sun's warmth.
As Ron leaned in for a kiss, Madam Pomfrey came back and snapped, "You are not to kiss the patients!" Although Hermione noticed that Madam Pomfrey looked decidedly red around the neck. Ron stood up, muttered something about "ihabathangamagoadonao" and bolted from the room.
"Do you feel better Hermione?" Madam Pomfrey asked, setting a plate with hot soup, bread, and vegetables on Hermione's lap.
"Not really," Hermione said simply, although the fact that she was beaming betrayed her statement.
"Don't be ridiculous, we both know you're jumping through hoops in your stomach," Madam Pomfrey replied irritably, and returned to her office with just a hint of a smile on her face.
Wow, this story was just bad. There was Mary Sue and rushed ending and SO MANY GRAMMATICAL ERRORS! I fixed the grammar and tweaked it a bit but the cheesy ending is still there, I'm afraid you'll have to suffer through it. At least I find it readable now. At least I know my writing has improved!
EraTomo