A few days off schedule, but here it is...enjoy! And a belated Happy New Year!

Burned Alive

By the time it was lunch, the news of Harry and Hermione's split was common knowledge. The two of them were finding it hard to continue to pull this off; in other words, the whole thing blew.

"Hey Hermione!" Ron called from the Gryffindor table.

But Harry was sitting right next to him, and Terry was waving at her from the Ravenclaw table. She steeled herself and made her way to the Ravenclaw table, not even glancing at Harry who stared after her.

Luna smacked Ron on the arm and said, "Stop it, Ronald. You're not helping,"

"Well I bloody hell am not helping them continue hating each other. It's a bit silly, isn't it?"

"Shut up, Ron. I'm still here," Harry cut in, ripping his toast into bits and pieces for no discernible reason.

"I can't believe I'm the only person in this school not buying this insanity."

Harry glared at him, "Eat your sandwich, Ronald."

"Only she gets to call me that." He retorted, pointing at his girlfriend.

Luna smiled vaguely, "People like to believe silly things especially when it opens a window of opportunity."

"What bloody window is that?"

"Why Ronald, didn't you know that the school dating market could use some fresh meat?"

Harry suddenly pushed back his chair and stood up, ready to leave.

"See you later. Have some homework I need to catch up on." He said and left the Great Hall, not looking back once.

Ron directed his fork at Luna saying, "Don't think Harry appreciated being called fresh meat, Luna."

Harry walked briskly through the corridors, crunching the small piece of parchment in his hand. Once he was near his next class, he cast an Incendio on the parchment; watching as it burned to nothing within a few seconds. He had been communicating with Hermione through the parchment – to give her the heads up on Ron's ultimatum and just to talk with her somehow. But he couldn't get that one part out of his head. What Hermione wrote.

Please don't think it means anything, Harry. Terry caught me out of the blue. He just asked me to accompany him Hogsmeade weekend. It's nothing, trust me.

The Head Boy just asks the Head Girl on a date.

How convenient.

He couldn't believe that Boot didn't have the decency to wait at least a day to ask. People don't just break up, no matter how made up it is, and move on barely a couple hours later. Terry Boot was a git. The only reason he had become Head Boy was because Harry was too busy with other responsibilities to add performing Head duties on the list. So yeah, he basically hated his undeserving guts.

He felt an arm grab him and pull him away into another corridor.

"Hey, wait. I have my cloak."

"Harry, you're not mad at me?" Hermione whispered as he draped the cloak over her and himself.

"No, of course not," He said.

"Then why didn't you reply after I told you about Terry?"

He shrugged, "I had to leave right then. Sorry."

Hermione gave him a disbelieving look, "Yeah, right. You shouldn't have left, there's something else you need to know."

"Oh no. I think I've been enlightened enough today. And I think I'll breathe a little easier if we tell Ron what's going on."

"With Voldemort still on the loose, Ron's temper should be the least of your problems."

"But it's still a problem. And anyway, he doesn't seem to be buying my act."

"Forget that. Seriously Harry, I need to tell you something. Or more like ask you--"

Students were already crowding near the classroom. It was too risky to continue talking.

"You can ask me later. People may get suspicious if we both come to class late."

"Fine, might as well tell you when we have more privacy. You go ahead."

Harry grinned at her before he went out from underneath the invisibility cloak, and joined the rest of the students. Hermione came out a few minutes later.

She took her seat in the front row, not noticing the ghost that no one else could see until halfway into class.

Hermione surprised herself by not gasping out loud after looking the ghost's way in the front right corner of the room. It was the boy from her daydream, although he looked a little older, and there were tears in his eyes. Fiery flames licked his lower body and he was whispering something; she could only just make out what he was saying.

"…they burned me alive…no one cared, no one…" was all she could make out before a sweeping force of energy took the ghostly apparition of the boy away.

"Told you to stay put…not here to babysit…" She then heard a fleeting voice say. It was a deeper voice than the boy's, and it was strange, she thought, how familiar it sounded. Something about it...

But the next thing she knew the world went black and she was waking up in the hospital wing.

That night:

"You know what they're doing, don't you?" Ron said casually, watching as Draco worked on a potion.

The two of them were in the Potions classroom, which Draco was able to secure from Professor Snape by virtue of being teacher's pet. Ron still couldn't believe that Draco, of all people, was being subservient to his sister, a blood traitor Weasley no less. And yet, here was Draco Malfoy making a love potion for Ginny so that she could have the twisted happiness that she, at this point, really didn't deserve. Ron wondered where she had gone wrong…did Tom Riddle screw some things up in her head?

"Deluding themselves into thinking they have a good plan. Ginny's going to want the love potion as back up, obviously. This potion isn't going to simply disappear because Potter's suddenly gone stag."

"I still don't get why I can't just tell them about you. Hermione could probably help."

"Oh, right. Because she did come up with such great plan thinking everyone would buy it. She may be smart at times, but good plans does not a Gryffindor make."

"Fine. Just make sure Ginny doesn't use the love potion. And try to get over her. Seriously, you do not want me as a brother-in-law, and Neville will probably kill you."

"Duly noted. And that crap I told Longbottom? Can't believe you fell for that too," Draco said, smirking.

"You're such a git, Malfoy. Go to hell."

"Been there, not too bad. A little hot though," He smirked.

"You suck. I'm going," Ron said, slamming the door behind him.

Draco took a ladle and dipped it into the cauldron full of potion.

Taking a sip, he said quietly to himself, "Just about there."

He sighed when he heard the door creak open.

"Draco?"

"Snape is going to return in half an hour or so. We have time."

"Wonderful."

She came toward him slowly. She had her skirt up short again, and that low v-neck sweater that he liked.

"You still want him?" He asked as he started kissing her feverishly while she was unbuttoning his shirt.

"Of course. You always ask that."

"But why? When you have other options…not to mention your boyfriend,"

"Stop talking. You have no right to judge. What do you care about my boyfriend? I know the rumors about you. Pansy and Daphne? Yeah. It's out there. Now shut up, we only have like 15 minutes."

TBC