Before she could let out a scream, a hand cramped over Hermione's mouth. The person engulfed Hermione in their arms and held her against them.
But she grew distracted from her thoughts. The scent of the person holding her was familiar. Someone she had encountered before.
And then, it clicked in her mind when the hand released her.
"Ron you arse!" she rushed out in anger though she was relieved.
Her ginger-haired best friend broke out in cackles and held his stomach for support after Hermione slapped at his arm.
"That was not funny!" she exclaimed. Her hands brushed her messy hair out of her face before shoving at Ron again who found her panic amusing.
He didn't look like he would stop laughing at her anytime soon, so Hermione turned on her heel and angrily made her way back to the common room.
"Oh come on, Hermione. It was a joke!" Ron called out before going after her.
You could hear Ron's apologies from the end of the corridor and Hermione's lectures following right after. And when it was clear. The two Slytherins stepped from the shadows and into the spot Ron and Hermione had just occupied, seconds ago.
"Ow! You're hurting me, Draco!" Pansy rubbed her upper arm whilst glaring at the pug-faced girl.
He was silent. Fuming practically. Pansy had almost screwed up his task. And the worst part, to Hermione Granger.
He inhaled sharply and brought his fingers to the temple of his forehead. "Why were you following Granger?"
Pansy adjusted her short ponytail before bringing her robe closer to her chest for comfort. She was avoiding his question. Draco knew he should've just left her arse and dealt with it in the morning, but it was his adrenaline from escaping the mudblood that got him going.
His fingers caressed Pansy's chin and he influenced the girl to look at him.
"I'm not going to ask again." his voice was serious. Deadly.
"She hurt you." Pansy whimpered.
God. Draco could smell the desperation off her lips. His grip on her chin grew tighter and Pansy whimpered again.
"I didn't fucking ask for your protection." His face inched closer to hers. "You disgust me."
Draco flung her away from his hands and stalked in the other direction. Leaving the distraught girl stranded in the darkness of the corridor.
The raven haired girl wanted nothing more than to chase after her brooding knight. But he was no knight, especially when he was angry. Pansy knew better than to upset Draco further. Oh but to be held against him, so effortlessly tight and painful.
But there she stood. Watching Draco. And as he vanished at the end of the seventh-floor corridor. She screamed out of anger.
"I said I was sorry, Mione."
Hermione ignored Ron's tenth apology by shoving away the breakfast plate he had made for her.
"Was it that bad?" Ginny asked.
She put her book down and looked at the girl in front of her. "I was practically running for my life last night. So you can imagine my anger when I realized the so-called criminal I was chasing was your bone-headed brother." she slammed the book and frowned.
"Criminal?" Harry choked.
Ginny was silent and only glanced at Ron before returning to her breakfast.
"I'm sorry Hermione. I only saw you waving your wand around in the dark looking all concerned and lost. And I was coming from my last rounds of night patrols and thought…" she was already glaring at him causing Ron to stumble on his words, "we could both use the scare." he responded with his hand at the back of his neck.
Hermione's hairs flared from the ends of her curls. She was still furious. Ron was too intimidated to hold eye contact.
He sighed at the last resort. "To be fair, I thought you were a wandering student."
Her mouth was left open in shock. "You just confessed that you knew it was me!"
"No! Before that." Ron cut in. "On my way out from the corridor, I saw a shadow leap from one of the classrooms. And it was a girl's!"
Hermione shook her head and bit her lip in astonishment. Harry and Ginny looked at each other with awkward eyes before muttering something to Ron. She caught this from the corner of her eye.
"Come on, Mione. Your disregard for me might influence my chance of being on the quidditch team." And immediately Harry and Ginny cursed a quiet protest at him.
She scoffed. "Are you seriously trying to guilt trip me?"
"Well- No- I uh," Ron attempted to muster up something to say but he was out of words. The brunette frowned and turned her attention back to her book.
"Potter. Weasley. Weasley." Hermione looked up in time to see Cormac McLaggen passing by her friends and unfortunately, stopping in front of her. And directly behind Ron. "Granger."
He flashed the corniest smile at her and in return, Hermione offered a makeshift smile that didn't reveal her cringe so bluntly.
"Are you coming to Gryffindor Quidditch tryouts?"
Hermione diverted her attention back to her book and raised her brows in irritation. "We'll see."
"Good. Because I'm hoping you'll be rooting for me."
She looked up on time to see Cormac practically leaning over Ron's shoulder to get a good look at her. Her disgust for the boy almost made her gag.
And Ron was quite irritated. Either by Cormac's lack of awareness of personal space or by his cheesy flirting with his best friend.
Hermione was hoping it was the second option.
The cocky boy patted Ron's shoulder and smiled. "Best of luck today, Weasley."
In the absence of Cormac, the quartet shuddered at his recent words. "You're not seriously going to tryouts for McLaggen are you?"
"Of course not, Ron! I may be mad at you but like it or not I'm going to tryouts for you! Not Cormac!" she exclaimed.
Ron dropped his fork on his plate and the table went silent. Even their nearby friends heard Hermione's outbursts and awkwardly scratched the back of their heads.
"Wow. That made me feel a lot better." Ron grinned at an embarrassed Hermione. His hand covered hers from across the table. "I might actually have a chance at Gryffindor Keeper with you there."
Hermione grew red and pale at the same time. She was speechless even after Ron removed his hand from hers and diverged into a conversation with Harry.
Finally, after some time, she blinked herself back into reality. Ginny had that look on her face. One that was telling Hermione to close her mouth before a fly swoops in.
"I'm going to get some work done in the library before going down to the field." she told her friends.
Whilst everyone replied with a nod or a wave, Ginny had the biggest smirk on her face. Hermione scowled her playfully before making her way to the library. The biggest grin danced along her face.
Hermione knew what she had done was risky. But seeing the victorious look on Ron's face after successfully blocking all of Ginny's brutal shots, made it all worth it.
She saw the hurdle of Gryffindor students disperse. Some were angry, some were sad, and some were glorious. The brunette took it as her cue to head over to her friends. Thankfully, Cormac had stormed off the field after his defeat, saving Hermione from an encounter with him. But unfortunately for her, she wasn't the only one rushing down to congratulate Ronald.
Her friends noticed she was coming down and smiled at her not long before an annoyed expression took over Ginny's face.
"Ron!" a voice yelped from behind her.
She turned around and saw Lavender Brown rushing faster toward Ron. And the blonde girl was quite aware of Hermione's presence.
Lavender had shockingly thrown herself onto the red-haired boy. Ginny glared at Lavender whilst Harry and Ron exchanged prideful faces. Which did not amuse Hermione.
She soon pulled away but held her grip on Ron's neck. "Oh! You did so well, Ron! I knew you would make the team!" Lavender swooned.
Hermione scoffed and shook her head in disbelief when Ron, admiringly so, thanked Lavender.
"Well, let's hope he's well enough before our first match with Hufflepuff." Ginny slyly said. "Come on, Ron. Let's get you to the changing rooms."
Ginny had already begun exiting the field. And before Ron could say anything back to his younger sister, she dragged him by the sleeve and the two siblings were fleeing the field. Lavender, pathetically, tried to follow them.
"Lovely, isn't she?"
Hermione turned to Harry with a frown on her face.
"The most pleasant." Hermione retorted back.
Harry chuckled and the two of them began making their way off the field. Hermione kept her head down as she walked, too busy looking at the grass as Harry made small talk regarding Quidditch this year.
"Don't tell me the bookworm made the team, Potter."
She snapped her head up and saw the face that automatically made her limbs go numb.
"You've got a lot of nerve talking about her like that, Malfoy." Harry fired back.
Snickers were coming from the rest of the Slytherin Quidditch team who stood behind Draco. The blonde boy tilted his head at Harry and then diverted his attention to Hermione.
He had the nastiest smirk on his face. "Granger's the one who landed herself in detention."
Hermione turned red out of embarrassment and kept her head down to avoid the silver eyes roaming her. She felt Harry protectively move closer to her.
"She just couldn't keep her hands off me."
That was it. Harry took his wand out and aimed it at the unbothered boy. Hermione immediately took hold of Harry's arm.
"Hermione let go." he gritted through his teeth.
"No, Harry!" she whispered amongst the laughing Slytherins. She looked at Draco; his smirk only challenged Harry to hex him. "This is what he wants. To get you in trouble. To get us in trouble!"
"I don't care! He can't disrespect you like that." Harry yelled at her.
"Come on, Potter!" Blaise Zabini called out. He was beside Draco and sharing the amusement. "Or do you need weasel-bee here for extra support?"
The Slytherin Quidditch team was only adding to the fuel with their hideous snorts and snickering.
Hermione panicked. The hex was about to leave Harry's lips when she rapidly snatched the wand from his hand. There were 'oohs' escaping from the boys across them.
"If you hex Malfoy, it will give McGonagall another reason to suspend my badge as a Prefect!" she explained.
"Hermione-"
"No, Harry! He's not worth it, I'm telling you." the brunette lowered her hopeless eyes at Harry.
He looked at Draco, who still had his taunting smirk on his face. And even though it took Harry all that was in him to not lynch the blonde boy, he sighed, angrily snatched the wand from her hands and brush past the Slytherin team, without Hermione.
The Slytherins were still poking taunts at Harry even after he was out of their sight, Hermione could only stand there, defeated yet relieved. Her eyes found Draco's. Soon his smirk faded along with the snickers from his teammates.
"All right boys. Get in your positions," he ordered.
And without hesitation, the four other Slytherins walked past her and onto the field. Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott lingered a little longer when Draco hadn't moved, his attention clearly on Hermione. And when they realized, the pair only smirked at him before raising their eyebrows at the girl, as if it were a warning.
Blaise chuckled to Theo whilst they moved past her.
"I hope you enjoyed that." Hermione crossed her arms against her chest and frowned.
Draco let out a humorless chuckle before looking at his feet and moving towards the girl.
His eye only met hers again.
And very closely he whispered into her ear. "You have no idea."
His breath sent shivers down her spine once she felt it caress her ear. She tried ignoring the feeling by swallowing her gasp and shifting her head to the side so she wouldn't have to face him.
"Get used to losing. You and your bloody friends."
Hermione felt Draco lightly shove at her shoulder when he left her presence.
"God I wish I were there." Ginny breathed out.
Hermione shook her head as she paced in front of her bed. Ginny was plopped on the end of it and was listening to her best friend's encounter with Malfoy earlier on the field.
"Is Harry still angry with me?" she asked.
Ginny flashed a sympathetic smile at her. "Well. I don't think he's particularly angry at you." The brunette whined out of stress and her hands held her head. "You should've let him give a good beating to Malfoy."
"With the entirety of the Slytherin Quidditch team there? And our expulsion on the line? I think not." Hermione took a breath in.
"Are you hearing yourself? McGonagall may have the tolerance of a broomstick but she would never expel us." Ginny reasoned.
With a scrunch still worrying her face, Hermione stopped her pace and looked at the red-head girl.
She plopped right next to Ginny. She felt extremely brain-fried after hours of thinking about how to deal with Malfoy.
"What's happening to you? I thought we already chatted about this." Ginny asked. "Malfoy isn't just getting to your head. He-"
"Draco!"
Ginny's face perked up and her mouth was slightly parted. She was taken back by Hermione's raised voice.
"Draco. He's different. What don't you understand, Ginny?" Hermione stood up to only pace around the room again.
And for a minute or so there was an awkward silence. Ginny stared at her distressed best friend with a concerning expression. Hermione didn't notice.
She felt too overwhelmed to notice anything. And even parted her mouth for more air to come in like she was drowning.
Eventually, Ginny sighed and took Hermione by her hands, and sat her back down on her bed.
"Listen to me," Ginny spoke carefully. "You're Hermione Granger. The brightest witch of her age. You're annoyingly clever. Extremely sharp to the point where it's terrifying. You've got more courage there in your heart than any other person I know of."
Hermione couldn't help but lift a small smile from her lips. Ginny's words were making her feel a lot better.
"So you're not going to let a slimy boy like Malfoy," Ginny emphasized, "Get in your way. No matter the circumstances. You're above him, Hermione. And you'll always be."
The brunette wrapped her arms around the girl. No, Ginny's words didn't automatically fix what was broken inside of Hermione. But her reassurance uplifted her spirits. Her words were kindle to a dying fire.
"Thank you." She whimpered.
Ginny pulled away, wiping some stray tears from Hermione's eyes. "And I don't want to hear any more of this 'Harry is not himself' or 'Malfoy scared me' crap. Okay?" Before she could get a word in, Ginny continued. "Out of all the boys you could talk about, I would prefer hearing about my brother than those two knuckleheads."
Hermione chuckled and brought her hand to wipe her eyes out. But Ginny still had a doubtful look on her face. She sighed, her lips tugging at the corners of her mouth when she smiled.
"All right. Fine."
Hermione took a deep breath before walking upstairs. She despised heights so the trip to the astronomy tower was far from pleasant.
She was immediately unbothered by it as soon as her eyes landed on her target.
"Harry?"
He didn't respond. Hermione took it as a sign to move closer to him.
Harry leaned against the balcony with his head staring at the night sky. When she got closer, he didn't even acknowledge her presence.
"I'm guessing you're still angry with me." she awkwardly said.
"I'm not." Harry replied. Hermione looked at the boy next to her who had a blank expression on his face.
She nodded and waited for him to continue, but he didn't. The only noise around them was the courtyard trees swinging from the wind below them.
"So what then?" she asked after a few minutes of helplessly staring at the castle grounds.
"You tell me." he responded without looking at her. His focus was still on the sky.
"I'm sorry?"
Harry snapped his neck and adjusted his posture so that he was facing her. "You tell me I'm not acting right because I'm not getting myself into trouble, yet on the quidditch pitch with Malfoy, you tell me to stop. Because you don't want me getting into trouble." he gritted through his teeth.
Hermione took a step back and looked at him with wide eyes. "So this is about Malfoy then? You're angry because you didn't get to hex him? Is that right?"
"No Hermione! This is about you!" Harry roughly ran his hand through his hair before pushing himself off the railing and walking away from Hermione.
"Me? What are you seriously on about Harr-"
"Harry don't do this. Harry don't do that. Oh but Harry why aren't you acting like yourself? Harry you should be more happy. Harry, he's not worth it." he angrily mimicked. "This whole fucking summer. And even now!"
"I'm trying to help you!" Hermione defended. She uncrossed her arms from her chest. "Can't you see that? That's all I've been trying to do because we're friends!"
"No! Because you have to control everything!"
She felt a lump in her throat and tilted her face at him. "Control?" she scoffed.
"Yes!" Harry cried out. "You want to control me because I'm not reacting to things in a certain way. The way you want me to."
"Because you're not yourself-"
"To who?" he yelled.
She shook her head at him as he took a step toward her.
"To Ron? Ginny? Dumbledore? I am fine, Hermione! It's only you." his chest was heaving up and down with the volume of his voice.
Hermione was shocked. Harry had never yelled at her like this before. Never.
He scoffed. "You seem to be the only one convinced that there's something wrong with me."
"Harry-" she walked closer.
"Don't." He backed away instantly.
Ouch. He was repelled by her. And looked her up and down spitefully.
"You'll never be satisfied until you've solved me like a damn puzzle." he shook his head at the brunette witch. Her eyes were wounded with tears.
She pressed her lips into a thin line and swallowed that lump in her throat when a tear ran from her eyes. Her silence was the only acceptable answer to Harry.
"I know you care for me but please," he sighed and painfully muttered his last words. "Just stop."
It wasn't long before Harry rushed out of the tower in distress. And once he was out of sight, Hermione brought her hands to wipe the tears cascading down her face.
She turned to the railing of the tower again and sobbed. It wasn't the harshness behind Harry's words that affected her, it was the truth. Had she really been that judgemental for her best friend to push her away? If it weren't for her genuine concern for Harry she might've agreed. But the betrayal of his insults was causing her unbearable pain.
His words were too busy twisting in her head over and over again that she failed to realize she wasn't alone anymore.
"I can't tell the prettier sight. The alignment of the stars tonight, or my favorite mudblood crying."
She was growing rather tired of that voice.
The brunette angrily swiped at her tears and turned around to his infamous smirk.
"There it is." he grinned. "Whose work is it then? Weasley's?"
"Do you ever just shut your mouth?" she barked.
Draco's eyes widened and his smirk was parted by a gasp. "Merlin. I must give praise to the ginger rat when I see him."
"Do you know what your problem is, Malfoy?" she stalked towards the boy that wandered between the tower's shadow and moonlight.
"Do enlighten me, Granger." he challenged with a devilish smirk.
"You certainly talk the insults and the threats. But I've failed to witness the actions that accompany them." she sneered at him.
Draco tilted his head watching the lioness prowl nearer.
"They're empty. All of them." her much smaller frame was directly in front of his, "And you coward yourself behind those words. It's sincerely pathetic."
The smirk on his face transcended into a death stare. But Hermione was too heated herself to care.
"I'm beginning to pity you." she spat, "the way I pity your mother."
Draco went blank. And in return Hermione scoffed. She licked her lips with satisfaction at the boy's silence.
She was almost past Malfoy but he grabbed her arm bringing her back to him. In one swift motion, her body was pressing up against his.
"I warned you, Granger."