"There you are!" exclaimed Ron, rushing up to help Harry with the food. "I was getting really hungry"
"Yeah, me too, said Harry, his voice subdued.
Harry had quickly pushed aside any hopeful thoughts that maybe she'd fallen on top of him during her detention... slipped and crashed into him during the detention that was supposed to have ended much earlier...
Ron sighed, his hand only half way to his mouth with a bottle of butterbeer. "What's the matter, Harry?"
"I'm just really tired."
"Right, and I'm double D. Come on Harry, you look really upset."
"Nothing, I'm- I'm going to bed."
Harry set down the platter of food and moved towards the door.
"You should go to bed too," he called behind him as he left, his voice cracking.
Ron watched the door slam shut.
What the devil is up with him?
Harry's steps were mechanical as he pulled the hood of the invisibility cloak over his head and made his way back to Gryffindor tower. As he passed the infirmary, he heard whispering, but gave it little thought as he felt his legs got heavier with every step.
---
First thing the next morning, he stormed up to the owlery. Harry was confused and upset; anguished that one of his best friends was sleeping with the man he hated, that his father had hated before him. He needed to talk to someone. He needed to owl Sirius, Sirius would understand.
Harry grabbed a quill and a bit of parchment, scribbling violently, he poured out his thoughts, oblivious to the angry thumbprints threatening to tear the paper it held down.
Sirius,
I need some advice. I caught Hermione last night on the Marauder's map and I think she was shagging Snape. She hasn't mentioned any of this to me or Ron, she's gone completely behind our backs and betrayed us, lying every night since we got back that she has detention. I would never have thought Hermione would go so low to sleep around, but I suppose the alternative is that she really cares for that greasy git... and I don't know what's worse. I'm really at a loss, I don't know what to say to her, or whether to say anything at all.. Sirius, how would you handle this? I don't know how I can face either Hermione or that bastard, after what I saw. Please answer quickly.
- Harry
---
Hermione walked slowly into the Great Hall the next morning, treading carefully. She was painfully aware of the usual set of eyes trailing her across the room, and she sought deliberately to appear calm and confident as she made her way to the Gryffindor table.
Draco's gaze was pinned to her form, and as Blaise witnessed the non-verbal exchange, hen found himself quietly observing her too, as she strode across the Great Hall. His fiery gaze took in her every movement, the careful steps she tried not to make too obvious.
So this is who Draco has chosen? He thought. Very interesting.
Draco noticed where Blaise's gaze was aimed and discretely took a cold glance in the direction of his friend. Blaise smirked at his friend and raised his eyebrows as if to ask, "Who, me?"
Draco felt like someone had plunged his body in ice water.
"Hey Hermione, want some toast?" Ron asked, a bit too cheerfully for the morning. "Buck up Neville, let her pull up some bench."
"Thanks," said Hermione, sliding onto the seat beside Harry as Neville and Ron slid over to give her room.
"Look, Hermione..." said Harry quietly, "I was out getting some stuff from the kitchen last night."
She looked up from her plate of scrambled eggs. Harry seemed torn, his voice threatening to crack with unspoken anger.
"I had the map with me."
"Oh?" she asked, barely blinking.
"I know where you were," Harry blurted out, "and who you were with." He clenched and unclenched his jaw. "I just wanted you to know that you could have said something, you could have -"
But he was cut of by Hermione's raised voice. "If you think for one second that I am obligated to tell you every intimate detail of my life, then you can – !"
"You should have told me! You should have us!" people around them were beginning to stare.
" – then you can shove it up your ass, because you have no right to – "
"YOU MADE IT MY BUSINESS!" yelled Harry. "The moment you even thought –"
"Guys!" yelled Ron, his face pasted with a look of complete shock. Hermione shoved away her plate of food and ran out of the hall. Harry sat back down stiffly and wouldn't look at Ron in the eye.
"I sincerely don't know what is wrong with you two, and I almost hope I never find out," said Ron, roughly.
From across the hall, three pairs of eyes had watched the heated exchange with interest.
The gray ones, with anger.
The black ones, with suspicion.
And the last pair, burning and coal-like... with amused curiosity.
---
Sirius was frozen with shock, gripping Harry's letter so hard it was ripping where his thumbs pressed into the fiber.
He looked back down at the letter.
Why is she doing this? To make me jealous? No. She wouldn't even speak to me before she left. . . and she's obviously enjoying Snape's company.
The man put his hands over his eyes and rubbed at them furiously.
But why? How could she?
He let out a groan of anguish. Then she must have decided exactly what she wanted . . . and gone through with it. That's the only explaination.
Sirius swallowed the bitterness that threatened to rise in his throat, but it wouldn't stay down. Vomiting violently behind an evil-looking potted plant in a corner of the study, he grabbed his quill, arm shaking, and wrote Harry a reply.
Harry -
It's her business. She's old enough to decide what she wants.
---
The classroom was only half full as Hermione slid into her seat, her lab partner as yet absent. She had been late to Potions once, she wasn't about to make the same mistake again... more because she didn't want to test Snape's inclinations towards her, less because she feared more detentions.
Although I bet he'd like that, she thought smugly.
Blaise perched himself on the chair beside her as she arranged in front of her the rest of the ingredients for the concentration potion they'd begun.
The room filled up with students and they continued work on the magenta sludge in their cauldrons, although Blaise's was more of a teal blue.
She drowned out the sound of Snape's voice criticizing another student with her tumultuous thoughts.
What a perfect coincidence, that Harry had the map with him in that short span of time, last night. I bet he keeps it with him all the time, just to spy on me and everyone else in this castle . . . What would he find, I wonder. There has to be something more interesting going on in this castle than just my student-Professor affair!
Half-delirious with lack of sleep, Hermione had a sudden image of Harry and Professor McGonagall doing what she and Professor Snape (she just couldn't bring herself to call him Severus) had been doing the other eveing. She snickered into her cauldron, drawing her classmate's eyes.
Snape raised his eyebrows.
"Do you have a joke to share with us Miss. Granger?" he asked tiredly.
"No Professor," said Hermione, blushing.
Blaise watched her curiously as she turned pink, vigorously stirring the mixture in her cauldron as she waited for her embarrassment to wear off.
What in Merlin's Middle Ages does Draco want with her? He sneered silently. Because if I'm right, then she won't have a very nice time of it, no, not at all . . .