Chapter 7: Turmoil

She could not believe what she was seeing.

Harry had just slipped something into Ron's pumpkin juice. Harry pushed the cup toward the pale, nervous boy. "There you go, Ron. Drink up." Hermione bit her lip. She wasn't exactly on speaking terms with Ron at the moment, but she couldn't just let him drink what was in that glass. Ron brought the cup to his lips and she decided to break her silence. "Don't drink that, Ron!" He furrowed his brow. "Why not?" she gulped, but then turned to Harry "You just put something in that drink." "Excuse me?" he replied. "You heard me! I saw you! You just tipped something into Ron's drink. You've got the bottle in your hand right now!" Harry guiltily stowed the little bottle in his pocket "I don't know what you're talking about," she glared at him and turned her attention back to Ron. "Ron, I warn you, don't drink it!" Hermione said somewhat alarmed. Just then he picked up the glass, drained it in one gulp. He shot her a glare "Don't boss me around, Hermione." he shot at her.

She stared in disbelief as he sauntered away. Harry stood up to follow him, but Hermione grabbed his arm, "I cannot believe you did that! You should be expelled for doing that!" She hissed. "Well look who's talking! Confounded anyone lately?" Harry whispered back. She felt her face heat up and stormed up from the table. She had it with these two! Sure she had confounded Mclaggen, but Slughorn had told them at the beginning of the year using Felix Felicis during competitions was illegal. Harry had broken school rules before but this was a new low. She fumed as she walked up the stairs to the Gryffindor section of the Quidditch stands. The match was about to start and she pushed down her anger as her team walked out onto the pitch. But as the match continued and she watched Ron save shot after shot, she felt the irritation rise within her. Soon Harry caught the snitch and the match was over. As proud as she was of her boys for winning, her heart felt heavy.

Hermione watched as the rest of the team exited the changing room and made her way towards her friends, twisting her scarf in her hands. While she didn't want to ruin such a happy moment, this was a whole new level of cheating that she would not put up with. She took a deep breath and spoke "You shouldn't have done it. You heard Slughorn, it's illegal." She looked pleadingly at Harry. Ron stepped in between them, "What are you going to do? Turn us in?" He sneered. Before she could respond Harry spoke up, "What are you two talking about?" His back was turned to them. "You know perfectly well what we're talking about!" Hermione snapped. "You spiked Ron's juice with Felix Felicis!" "No I didn't. " said Harry, turning to face them, a grin plastered on his face. She became even more irritated at this and shot back "Yes you did, Harry, I saw you!"

"I never put it in!" He pulled out the completely sealed, little golden bottle she had seen in his hand that morning. Her heart dropped. He continued "I wanted Ron to think I'd done it, so I faked it when I knew you were looking." He smiled proudly at Ron. "You saved everything because you felt lucky. You did it all yourself." There was a stunned silence for a minute until Ron spoke "There really wasn't anything in my pumpkin juice? But the weather's good… and Vaisey couldn't play...I honestly haven't been given lucky potion? " Harry shook his head, grinning even wider. Ron stared at him for a moment, then turned to Hermione his face livid, he began to imitate her "You added Felix Felicis to Ron's juice this morning, that's why he saved everything! See! I can save goals without help, Hermione!" She felt a pang of guilt. "I never said you couldn't… Ron, you thought you'd been given it too!" She cried out. It was too late, he pushed passed her and left the changing room.

The tears began welling in her eyes, she was filled with a mixture of pain, guilt, and anger. She could barely register Harry awkwardly asking if she wanted to go to the after party. Refusing him, she rushed off towards the castle. She flung herself into the first empty classroom she could find and broke into a full on sob. How was she to know what Harry did? Didn't he also believe he had gotten Felix Felicis? Why couldn't she have even one civil conversation with Ron anymore? The look of hurt and anger he wore when he yelled at her kept appearing in her mind, each time bringing on a new wave of tears. Why did everything have to be so difficult with him?

Once Hermione eventually caught her breath and wiped away her tears, she went up to the common room. She immediately caught sight of Ron and Lavender wrapped in a disgusting display of affection and felt sick to her stomach. She noticed Harry walking towards her purposefully with a look of sympathy on his face. No. She could not deal with anyone, let alone Harry, at the moment. Before he could get to her, she quickly made her way into her dormitory where she got into her bed and softly cried until she fell asleep.

She woke up early the next day. It was a Saturday, so nobody else would be awake this hour and she could study in the common room in peace. She worked on her Transfiguration essay for some time, went down to the Great Hall, grabbed some breakfast and went back to the common room.

Unfortunately for her she was not the only one awake anymore. Sitting next to her study materials was Harry, deeply engrossed in the Mauraders Map. She wasn't particularly happy with him at the moment. She couldn't help but blame him for manipulating her and getting her yelled at by Ron. However, she silently took her place next to him. Deciding that she wouldn't speak to him unless completely necessary. If he wanted to waste his morning trying to find Malfoy, that was on him.

She continued to work on her essay until she noticed Harry had put away the map and was looking through his Potions book yet again. She tried to ignore him as he scanned the margins of the pages and mumbled what sounded like spells under his breath.

Finally her irritation got the best of her and she snapped at him "I cannot believe you are still using that book. How many times have I warned you that it could be dangerous!" Harry looked surprised at the sudden outburst. "What are you talking about, Hermione? I was just reading through his Potions instructions. It wasn't like I was trying out any of his spells or anything." "It doesn't matter if you aren't using any of those spells now. You've been using them! I don't understand why you've decided to completely trust him without any reservations? Those spells could be dark magic!"

Harry rolled his eyes. "Hermione, all of his spells have been harmless. We've been over this! Does this have anything to do with how I've been doing in Potions recently?" her eyes narrowed "Oh you mean how you've been cheating during every class? No, actually, I'm concerned about you and that book. It's a bad influence on you." Harry glared at her. "Concerned are you? Sounds an awful lot like nagging to me." He muttered burying his head back into the book.

Hermione felt her face heating up. was no way she'd sit here and be ignored. She was so sick of him, how he acted like everything he did was always right and she was just his silly little sidekick. No! She grabbed her wand and pointed it at the book. Expelliarmus she thought, casting the nonverbal spell and watched the book fly out of the boy's hands. "Hermione! What the hell? " he shouted as he stood up and retrieved the book. "We weren't finished with our conversation, Harry. Just because you don't like what I'm saying doesn't mean you can just ignore me!" she crossed her arms and pursed her lips. Harry slammed the book on the table and moved towards her, eyes flashing. "You know what, Hermione?" he towered over her. "Just because you're jealous that you're second best in potions now… Just because you're jealous Ron's dating someone else! Doesn't mean you can act like a self-righteous know-it-all b-!" He cut himself off.

Hermione stared at him as though he had slapped her in the face.

He dragged his hands down his face and groaned" I didn't-" "No! Obviously Harry, you did!" She jumped up from her chair, glaring up at him. "You wouldn't have even thought to say it, if you didn't think it was true! So go ahead! A self-righteous know-it-all what, Harry?" She heard her voice crack but she wasn't going to just let him off the hook. "I'm not..." He looked exhausted. "I was just annoyed I-" "You were just annoyed! So you think that is a good enough reason to call me what you did?" Harry just stared down at her with the same apologetic look he'd given her a thousand times. It made her blood boil. "Say something, damn it!" She yelled and beat her fist against his chest, an action that even surprised herself. Harry took a step back and tiredly shook his head. "Hermione, I can't... I just can't deal with this right now." with that he grabbed his things and pushed past her out of the common room.

For a moment she just stood there, stunned. Then, like a wave, it all came crashing down on her. The anger, the hurt, the regret, the loneliness, it was all so overwhelming. She couldn't stop the tears from running down her face. The only thought in her mind was that she needed to get out of there. Haphazardly, she packed her bag and flew out of the common room. She was barrelling through the halls. All she wanted to do was hide. Her body was on auto-pilot as she moved down the corridors that led to her alcove. Just a few more turns and she could close herself off from the world.

It was then she ran head first into someone. She had knocked over Luna Lovegood. "Oh God Luna, I'm so sorry!" she said in between tears as she helped the girl up to her feet. "It's nothing at all… Oh dear...Hermione... What happened? Are you alright?" Luna said quickly pulling out a pink polka-dotted handkerchief and passing it to Hermione. She didn't know what it was about the sweet blonde girl that made her open up but in between sobs she told her a sloppy, abridged version of everything that happened over the last two days. Luna pulled her into a hug and started to pat her back." Oh Hermione. I'm so sorry. I'm quite familiar with how cruel people can be. It can be overwhelming when it seems like everyone is against you. It just makes you wish you could just leave and-" Just then a certain piece of parchment Hermione had come across in the alcove flashed into her mind. She pulled away from the hug. "Luna! I'm so sorry I have to go! I just remembered something. Thank you!" She gasped hurriedly, wiping her tears. With a wave goodbye she sped down the corridor, leaving a somewhat confused, but smiling, Luna in her wake.

Hermione almost sprinted down the hall when she passed the Charms classroom. She whipped down the hallway, pet the third cow from the left and climbed into the alcove. She immediately went to the desk and rifled through the mess of papers. Where was it? It had to be there, she knew it was. She had seen it there on her first day and hadn't thought much about it.

She found the slightly crumpled sheet of parchment and clutched it to her chest. On it was written the instructions on how to find a passage that led from Hogwarts to the cellar of Honeydukes. She left her things on the couch and made her way out of the alcove. What she was thinking of doing was insane but she couldn't care anymore. She remembered Harry had vaguely told her about this back in their third year. Her heart lurched at the thought of him.

Soon Hermione reached the statue of the one-eyed Witch and said Dissendium. She watched as the hump on the statues back opened up into a tunnel. She rushed down the tunnel. She knew she wasn't thinking straight, but what Luna said resonated with her. "it just makes you wish you could leave..." and that's exactly what she was doing. She got to the abandoned cellar of the sweetshop. She could hear the ambient sounds of the owners upstairs. Scanning the room, she quickly found what she was looking for. Quietly, she made her way over to the fireplace and grabbed a handful of floo powder from a bag laying open on the mantel. She stepped into the fireplace and said in a brittle voice, "Diagon Alley!" she appeared in one of the many lined up fireplaces.

She stepped out into the cold air and continued on her way. The closer she got to her destination, the more it dawned on her what a ridiculous idea this was. What was she doing? She could turn around now and no one would ever know. In spite of these thoughts her feet barely touched the ground she was moving so fast, her mind wasn't in charge anymore.

Then she was there, standing in front of Weasley Wizard Wheezes, her hand on the door. She took a deep breath, pushed open the door, and stepped into the completely empty lobby, her heart pounding in her ears. "Oi, we're closed for the day come back tomorrow!" A familiar voice boomed from the back room making her breath catch in her chest. His footsteps grew louder and louder as he made his way to deal with the infiltrator. She was completely rooted to the spot, her hands trembling. "Didn't you hear me, we're closed. Come back- Hermione?"

There he was.

Messy flaming red hair, a set of flamboyant magenta robes thrown haphazardly over his shoulder, and to top it off a look of utter disbelief on his freckled face. She immediately felt a wave of intense warmth wash over her, her eyes began to sting. She opened her mouth to respond but choked out a sob and started crying right there in the colorful lobby, standing face to face with Fred Weasley.