Sorry this took so long. Let me know what you think.
Chapter 14
'Shut the door Malfoy!' McGonagal barked at the blond wizard.
He sighed as best as he could through his broken jaw and shoved the door closed. It banged shut loudly.
'Right! Which one of you is going to tell me exactly what happened in the Hall?'
The three students stared resolutely at the floor and said nothing.
McGonagal sighed in an irritated fashion.
'Well it is obvious the three of you aren't going to speak, so I will have to insist on private interviews. Miss Granger, Mister Weasley, please wait outside while I talk to Mister Malfoy.'
Hermione and Ron nodded and left the room.
Ron closed the door behind them and sighed loudly. He leant against the wall next to the Professors' door and slid down it until he was sat on the floor. After a few seconds of just looking at him, Hermione moved to sit next to him. He looked up when she joined her on the floor.
He felt strange; he thought it might be because he couldn't distinguish his emotions from Hermione's. There was anger, frustration and something else he couldn't quite put his finger on.
'I know you're angry with me,' he said. 'I can feel it.'
'What?' Hermione said, looking at Ron. 'I'm not angry with you, I'm angry with myself. If I hadn't let Malfoy get to me then you wouldn't've felt you needed to do what you did. Thanks by the way.'
He sighed in relief. 'You're welcome. What did he say that got you that upset?'
Hermione thought for a minute and all the things that Malfoy had said, namely spelling out her worst nightmare, came flooding back to her.
'Merlin, he really got to you didn't he?' Ron said, as he experienced everything Hermione was feeling.
He rested is head against the wall behind him.
'It was…look, I have a feeling McGonagal will ask me to tell her the same thing, so, do you mind if I only say this once? You won't have to wait long.'
'No, that's okay. I don't mind. But…'
'But what?'
'Well…sometimes people don't say things even though they should because they don't want to upset their friends or…whatever. Don't let Malfoy get away with hurting you like that because you don't want me to be upset…not that I know what it is he said, but I just…have a hunch it's about me. Even if you think it'll upset me, tell McGonagal. You can't let him get away with what he did.'
'Er…okay…'
'Plus on a purely selfish level,' he said with a small smile on his face, 'the worse you make his actions out to be, the more justified I'll feel about having broken his jaw!'
Hermione smiled with him. 'Do you want me to act like it was worse so McGonagal thinks in a similar way?'
'If you could that would be great!'
Ron chuckled and so did Hermione. Ron felt the squirming in his stomach reduce slightly.
'What do you reckon your punishment will be?' Hermione asked.
'You mean our punishment?'
'Oh Merlin! I can't believe you're gonna get me in detention for the first time in my Hogwarts history!'
'First time? Need I remind you of the dragon smuggling incident?'
'Yes well…that was different!'
'Uh huh! Of course it was!'
'It was! I was naïve and you two were very bad influences on me! Plus we…we were helping a friend out. As much as I hated the thought of getting into trouble we couldn't leave the situation how it was. And anyway, Hagrid would have got into more trouble for raising a dragon than we would for being caught out of bed at midnight.'
'You care a lot about people, don't you?'
Ron was slightly astonished about what had just come out of his mouth. Why was he talking to Hermione about feelings? He tried to answer his question in a way that would make him feel better but all he could come up with was, because it felt like the most natural thing in the world.
'Yeah…of course I do…my friends anyway…'
'You do stuff like that though, without even thinking about the consequences for yourself. As long as everyone else is okay then you'll do what it takes for that to happen.'
Now he was scaring himself, he was downright praising Hermione to her face, something he never did, well, not much anyway, but it didn't feel wrong. He was confused, very confused.
'Well…if you think about it, it can be quite a selfish thing to do.'
'How in the name of Merlin do you come to that conclusion?'
'Well if you think about it, if you're sat in a room where there are a few people but someone is sat in the middle of them upset or whatever, then the rest of them can hardly ignore it. Everyone gets tense either because they can't help or aren't being allowed to help so in the end the upset spreads to everyone. So the more you try and keep people happy, the more good it'll do to everyone else.'
'So, you keep people happy, so other people will be happy too.'
Hermione thought for a second.
'Yeah I suppose.'
'That's anything but selfish Hermione, and it's what I was talking about before. Please don't let Malfoy get away with treating you like that just to not upset me. I'll get over it, whatever he said. I tend to ignore what comes out of his mouth anyway. Although until he gets it fixed that should be hugely reduced!'
Hermione smiled.
'I have a feeling McGonagal will have done something about that. How do you think he's answering her questions?'
'Oh, right. Hermione,' he rubbed his eyes with his palms, 'why haven't you shouted at me for hitting Malfoy. You're always the first to try and stop me getting violent and normally it works.'
'Well, in hindsight it probably wasn't the best thing to do, but at the time I was just grateful that you stopped him…saying…what he was saying. It wasn't nice to listen to.'
Ron was about to open his mouth when footsteps echoed in the room behind them. As they got nearer to the door Ron stood up and pulled Hermione to her feet.
The door opened and Malfoy stepped out, looking furious.
'Wait here Malfoy,' McGonagal barked. 'You two, IN!'
Ron followed Hermione into the office.
'Sit!' McGonagal instructed. The pair of students daren't disobey.
'Now, first things first. Are you injured Weasley? I witnessed Malfoy's attack on you, is your back alright?'
Ron was taken aback by the disappearance of the harsh tone in McGonagal's words.
'Oh, er…yeah it's okay. It was just a stinging hex I think, the pain disappeared pretty quickly.'
'Good, Right then, back to the matter in hand.'
Both Hermione and Ron quickly looked at the floor.
'From what Malfoy has told me he was talking to you, Miss Granger, when you, Weasley attacked him for no reason.'
Ron went to talk but was stopped by the harsh look McGonagal gave him.
'As it happens I don't believe that you would hit Malfoy without what you believed was a good reason, so I am giving you the chance to explain your actions.'
Ron cleared his throat and glanced quickly at McGonagal before looking back down at the floor.
'Well I…er…I knew Malfoy was making Hermione really upset-'
'How, exactly did you know that, Weasley? From what I have been told you were at the other end of the hall talking to two younger Gryffindors. Unless of course you were shouting and screaming the situation for the whole hall to hear. Was that the case Miss Granger?'
Hermione shook her head. 'No Professor.'
'So, how exactly did you know that Miss Granger was being made upset by whatever Malfoy was doing or saying, Weasley?'
Hermione looked at Ron and gave him a small smile of encouragement.
'Er well…we er…we can feel each other's feelings. Not all the time, but if one of us is feeling something really strongly, then the other can feel it too. That's how I knew that Hermione was upset, and it wasn't just a little bit, it was a lot. I know it wasn't the best thing to do, punching him, but I had to get him away from her and to stop him making her feel like that.'
He sighed and took a nervous glance at Hermione, and then McGonagal. He was shocked to see McGonagal looking stunned. Her mouth was open and she was staring at him.
'Do you mean to tell me that you two have an emotional connection?'
Ron looked at Hermione, not sure whether that was what they actually had.
'I think that's the best way of describing it Professor,' Hermione answered. We discovered it last night. I went to the library today to look up the condition but I didn't find anything about it, so I looked in the Legilimancy and Occlumency books to see if there were any techniques that we could adapt to this emotional connection, but I couldn't. I suppose Professor Slughorn is the best person to talk to, he said he'd seen this type of thing before.'
'Yes,' McGonagal said quietly. 'I think that is probably the best thing to do Miss. Granger. I shall talk to him later on. But at the minute I need to know what Malfoy was saying to you. If Weasley is correct in his interpretations of your feelings then I need to know what happened. If he was bullying you in any way then I need to know.'
Hermione took a deep breath and chanced a quick glance at Ron. He caught her eye and tried his hardest to tell her to tell McGonagal everything, no matter how much it might hurt him, in that one look.
'Well I was sat doing some work when he came and sat down next to me.'
She thought as quickly as she could of a way to phrase what Malfoy had said so she didn't have to mention Ron's name at all. It was tricky to say the least. After a while she realised there wasn't a way of doing it.
'He started talking about Ron and was being nasty about him, but I don't think Ron'll disagree with me saying that's nothing unusual. Any chance he gets to insult Ron or Harry he grabs with both hands.'
Ron shrugged and nodded in agreement.
'But after that he started talking about me, and how…and how if I ended up…seeing…a Pureblood wizard, then it didn't matter how intelligent I was or how much he said me being a Mud-…Muggle Born didn't bother him or his family, I wouldn't be able to marry them, or whatever, because ultimately the family wouldn't want the bloodline ruined. Then of course he added his usual line of 'Filthy Little Mudblood.'
All of this had come out at an increasing speed and Hermione desperately tried to go through it again in her mind to see if she had let slip about it being the Weasley's Malfoy had been talking about. She didn't get through much of what she remembered before McGonagal spoke.
'Thank you Miss. Granger, rest assured Malfoy will be punished for his discriminative views. The fact still remains, however, that violence is not something we tolerate here at Hogwarts, as you well know Weasley. I therefore have no choice but to punish you too. Unfortunately in your current situation that also means Miss. Granger will also have to suffer the consequences, but there is nothing I can do about that. I shall send word of your punishment to you tomorrow morning. You may go.'
Hermione and Ron nodded to show they had understood the Professor and then turned to walk out of her office.
'Oh, Professor?'
'Yes Miss. Granger.'
'I just thought I'd tell you, Malfoy knows about Ron and me and how we can't leave each other's presence. I was just wondering if you could do anything about him…well not spreading it about. If it's not too much trouble.'
'Thank you for informing me Miss. Granger, I will do what I can.'
'Thank you Professor.'
Ron and Hermione opened the door and walked out. They turned left and started walking along the corridor, ignoring Malfoy who was sat on the right hand side of the door.
'Think you're a big man don't you Weasley, the Mudblood was in distress and you couldn't wait to play the Knight in shining armour, could you? I said it to Granger earlier and I'll say it to you now; you're pathetic, the both of you, you're meant for each other and you're all each other deserve!'
'MALFOY!' McGonagal shouted from inside her office.
Ron grinned as Malfoy scowled and seemed to shrink a few inches in height after his scolding.
'Be a good little wizard Malfoy and trot along, you don't want to get into any more trouble now, do you?'
Ron turned and to Hermione's surprise, took her hand and pulled her along after him.
'Don't you just love seeing Malfoy in trouble.'
Hermione had yet to get over the fact that Ron had just taken her hand and intertwined his fingers between hers.
As much as she was shocked, she couldn't help but feel tingles run up her arm from where his hand touched hers. She tried desperately to suppress the happiness she could feel growing, that was something she really didn't need Ron knowing.
'Er…yes, yes it's great. Er…Ron…'
Hermione could feel her sensible side coming back into gear, as much as she wanted it to ignore the current situation.
'What?' Ron asked, still grinning, and still oblivious to the fact that he was holding Hermione's hand.
'Well, as much as this is nice,' she went ever so slightly red after she had said that, 'I don't think we need people to taking this the wrong way.'
She gestured to their interlinked hand with her left hand.
'What? Oh!' Ron stared at their hands but didn't let go.
After a few seconds he seemed to come out of his shock and let go of Hermione's hand.
'Sorry, I didn't mean…sorry.'
He went a very deep shade of red and stared at the floor. He started walking again at a slightly quicker pace than before. Before he got too far Hermione grabbed his arm and stopped him.
'No, I didn't mean it wasn't nice; I just didn't want it to cause trouble between you and Lavender that's all. You know how fast gossip and rumours spread around here. The last thing both of us need is more stress on top of everything else.'
Ron scuffed the floor with his shoe.
'Yeah, okay.'
Hermione smiled, trying to reassure Ron he hadn't offended her in any way. After a few seconds she let go of his arm and started to walk down the corridor.
'It was me and my family wasn't it? Who Malfoy was talking about…the whole…Pureblood thing. He was saying that if anything ever happened…well…you know…that they wouldn't accept you, wasn't he?'
Hermione stopped still and turned slowly on the spot. She felt a bit sick; she didn't want Ron to find out about that, but he'd worked it out, of course he had.
She sighed.
'Yes, yes it was.'
Ron brought his gaze up to Hermione's and their eyes locked.
'You didn't believe him did you?' he asked with panic in his voice. 'You know I'd-we'd never think that! They think of you like another daughter for Merlin's sake! If I asked you to marry me there'd be no question of acceptance!'
He stopped as he realised what he had just said.
'I mean…not that…if I…'
'It's okay Ron, I know what you meant, and I know…that…too. It's just one of those things that you only give thought to once, and only when you're upset or doubting yourself, and I'll admit…it had crossed my mind, but I know it would never be an issue.'
'Good, because it wouldn't. Ever.'
They stood in an uncomfortable silence for a few seconds.
'Come on,' Hermione said after half a minute. 'Let's see if there's some of your favourite dinner left. I think you deserve it.'
Ron smiled. 'Yeah, I think we both do.'
