hey everyone sorry for not updating these past couple of months. School sucks... I havent had any time to myself in awhile, and to add to it the laptop that I used alot just crashed for good, so now I'm having to use my macintosh (which im still trying to figure out). hope you like it, just got finished.

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"Ms. Granger…"

"Ms. Granger…"

"MS. GRANGER!"

"Huh?" she answered groggily, stirring from a boring, speech-induced nap.

"Name three common antidotes to doxy venom, and best be wary, your grade is hanging on your answer. " Snape barked, eyeing her maliciously.

Mentally fumbling for the correct answer, she spit out the first logical things that came to mind, "Essence of Moondew, ground bowtruckle, and…the yolk of a doxy egg?"

Spinning around, Snape marched to the front of the classroom, grabbed a chunk of chalk off of one of the tables, and drew a gigantic F upon the board.

Turning around, he asked, pointing to the board, "Can anyone tell me the grade that Ms. Granger has just received?"

Malfoy, throwing his hand into the air, shouted, "That's a fail!"

"Good Mr. Malfoy. Twenty points to Slytherin. Now, as I was saying, fluxweed is one of the most common…"

For the remainder of the class, Hermione stared blankly at the wall, with the empty stares of her classmates surrounding her, and the only thing to comfort her being the fact that the class was over halfway done.

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"Hermione, what the hell was that?" Harry spat.

Potions had just ended, and after trying to avoid an argument with one of Ron's best friends for weeks, she was trapped in the corner of a corridor, with no hope of escape from the oncoming onslaught.

"I fell asleep. Everyone does once in a while…"

"Don't feed me that! Too busy running around with Cedric?"

"Cedric's just…"

"What? He's just a what? Have you forgotten who your friends are?"

"What friends?" she bellowed.

"What friends? The friends who have had your back since the first day here," roared Harry. Looking around, he remembered the hallway filled with students that they were in, and not wanting to create a scene, leaned in closer and said in a forced whisper, "The same friends who you didn't even bother coming to when something was bothering you."

Feeling flustered, she tried to explain, "How was I suppose to come to you? Krum had buttered me up, and then kicked me out to the dogs! He made me out to be a… scarlet woman to all of his friends, and if I had come to you, in the wee hours of the morning, what would you have done? Hmm? Gave me the 'I told you so' speech, then beaten him senseless? That doesn't solve anything! At least Cedric knew that."

Harry's face clouded over at this statement. Looking down at his feet, he mumbled, "Maybe your right…"

"Also, you know as well as I do that… wait, what?"

"Maybe your right. Maybe we would have beaten him to a pulp," he said, chuckling. "But come on, it's because we care about you too much. We don't want to see you hurt…especially like that."

"Yea… and I'm thankful for that, but what he did is done. Nothing can change it."

The awkwardness began settling in at this point, and adjusting the strap on his bag, Harry confessed, "I'm still sorry for what happened. Ron is too."

"What?" Hermione asked, shooting her head up.

"Wait a minute, you think he suddenly hates you just because the two of you had that little fight in the common room?"

"I put him in the hospital for three weeks." she said bluntly.

"Okay… maybe it wasn't little, but still… you think he hates you for it?" Harry asked, slight bewilderment showing on his face.

"Well, yea… if I was put in the hospital by one of my best friends, I would be pretty mad."

"He was a bit mad at first, but now he's just… I dunno, worried I guess. He cares about you."

Looking at her watch, Hermione noticed that her next class had started ten minutes ago.

Alarmed, she squealed, "NO! I'm late!"

Running down the hall as fast as her tiny legs would carry her, she heard Harry behind her yell, "Go see Ron!" before she started up the staircase.

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Hesitantly, Hermione crept up to the double doors leading into the hospital wing.

"You can do this Hermione. Breathe. It can't be any worse than what happened before."

Carefully, she nudged the door open, and peaked inside. There appeared to be only two beds occupied, both next to the door, so with one last breath, she walked inside.

She couldn't make out who was in the bed to her right, but the bright, red hair on her left made it obvious who was there.

"Ron?" she called out to the figure.

The figure shifted, and in a barely audible voice, she heard, "Hermione? Is that you?"

"Yes. Umm… how are you?" she asked awkwardly, looking for a chair to sit in.

"Fine… now. They… umm… fixed those bones you broke."

After hearing this, Hermione couldn't contain herself, and in a rush, spilled her guts, "I'm so sorry Ron! After hearing everything Krum had said, I just couldn't handle anymore, then when you jumped on me too, I lost it. I didn't mean to hurt you, well I did then, but I just wish I could take it back, all of it. You're one of my best friends…"

"Hermione, I deserved it." Ron said, interrupting Hermione's ranting.

"No you didn't! You were only trying to help in your own way, and… I just couldn't handle it."

"Look, we can keep at this all night, or we can just admit we were both being thick, and go on with our lives."

Bewildered, she asked, "Do they have you drugged… or did you actually sound mature just now?"

"I'm just sick of this fighting," Ron said, laughing. "So… friends again?"

Nodding, she rushed in and hugged him, only for him to wince in pain.

"AH! Sorry! Still hurts?"

"A little… well, probably not as bad as that bloke over there," he said, pointing over to the bed across from him.

"What happened?" Hermione questioned, slowly walking over to the bed.

"Dunno… They just brought him in today. I heard McGonagall say he was found on the third floor beaten to a pulp."

Examining the bed, Hermione could barely see the person breathing: their breaths being short and ragged. Pulling back the sheet from the person's face, Hermione reeled back in pure shock, her words almost inaudibly being spoken.

"No… this can't be happening…"

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Hope everyone liked it... not so sure about it myself. reviews would be great! tell me what you think