New Ways to Cope- Chapter Three

New Ways to Cope- Chapter Three

After forcing herself to eat quickly Hermione made her way to the Library to study. Ron and Harry sat behind however, filling their empty bellies. "How do you think she is?" asked Ron.

"Probably not well considering the morning classes," replied Harry.

"I feel really bad, about her mum and all"

"Yeah I know…I wonder what happened"

"We'll find out when she's ready"

"I suppose"

Settled down in her favorite spot near the back of the library Hermione was intently reading a book when an unwelcome figure approached. "So Mudblood, did you enjoy potions? I rather did, it was a nice welcome back treat to see you fail so miserably."

"You know Malfoy, I think over in the section on your right they have a book that shows you how to hide deformities. Though I'm not sure if they mention solutions for serious cases such as your face," Hermione replied angrily. He had hit a soft spot. "You know what? Maybe if your mum had really loved you she wouldn't have drunk herself to death." Hermione looked with very wide eyes to the one person she hated most in the world. Draco Malfoy. She stood up slowly and walked out of the library, shaking.

She couldn't hold back her sobs any longer. She ran into a bathroom down the corridor and cried. Surprisingly enough she still had tears. Hermione next did the only thing she could think of to release the tension in her body. She started to hit the walls surrounding the stall. When that wasn't enough she dug her nails once again in her scalp. Anything to help release the pain she was feeling. She opened her eyes long enough to look around for something sharp. She had read in a book once about a boy that would cut himself all over his body to deal with pain. Hermione was not thinking rationally so this idea sounded like a wonderful thing to try. She didn't see anything so she opened her shoulder bag. Inside of her potions kit there was a scalpel.

Hermione didn't think twice before cutting at her forearm. Nothing happened though so she reasoned she didn't do it hard enough. She went over the cut several times, satisfied when blood flowed. She took out her wand and sterilized the knife again before replacing it in her kit once more.

Hermione figured no one would mention it because students cut the tops of their arms on accident all the time. It was only one time too, so it wasn't like she had cuts all over her arm. She walked over to the sink and washed her arm and then applied pressure on it. She didn't heal the wound with her wand because she thought it might want to look at it. It symbolized this darker part of her life and it was now part of her story. She also wanted to keep it so that she could point out to people that she hurt herself "by accident when she upset Crookshanks". She figured that if she pointed it out and had a story prepared then it wouldn't really give them a chance to come to their own conclusions, especially if she ever did this again.

Hermione walked out the lavatory and nearly ran smack into Ron and Harry. "Oh! Hermione, we were just going to go find you in the library." She smiled at her friends and claimed that she had just needed to use the bathroom. They nodded and made small talk before Hermione left them to go to Ancient Runes.

Harry and Ron groaned in the library when they realized how much they actually had to write for potions. "Why did you have to go and piss Snape off Ron?" Ron looked at his books angrily without responding. He only on his first paragraph and was hating every second of it.

After another half hour Harry broke the ice. "Ron?" Ron looked up from his essay into his best friends eyes. "I need to talk to you, but before I do you have to promise me that you won't angry." "Okay… I promise I won't get angry," Ron replied quite curious. "IwanttoaskGinnytobemygirlfriendagain," Harry mumbled quickly. "Well mate, I didn't have a problem with it last year so why would I now? It's better that it's you rather than Dean again," Ron said with a slight shudder of remembrance. He was now picturing the time when he and Harry caught them snogging in the deserted corridor after quiddich practice nearly a year ago. Harry openly sighed in relief and then continued to work on his essay as if nothing had ever happened. Ron picked up his quill and began to write his fourth paragraph that was nearly exactly what the book said with a few switched sentences and a few word swaps.

He was just wrapping up his essay when a bird-like woman swooped down upon him and Harry. "Yes, hello boys. I can see that you are busily working but I am concerned for Ms. Granger. I know that she is friends with you," She then muttered something about how she couldn't really see why, "but she walked out of here after talking to Mr. Malfoy and she didn't look well." Harry paused for a moment to enter in the information before saying, "Well, we talked to her after she came out of the bathroom around noon or so and she seemed happy enough, Malfoy was probably just bothering her and she didn't want to get into trouble by hexing him." Madame Pince looked thoughtfully and then turned around and left without so much as a simple thank you.

Harry looked at Ron and asked him what he thought Malfoy was up to. "I think as soon as we finish these papers we should go and ask him. Do you know what he has right now?" Harry racked his brain but came up short and told Ron that they would just need to wait until they saw Hermione again. They could talk to her about it.

"Do you think anyone would notice if Snape went mysteriously missing?" Ron asked with a groan. His essay was not turning out to be all that he had hoped and he figured offing Snape was a good solution to get out of doing anymore of them. "Yeah… to bad though… I guess we can only hope he dies soon of something. Like his heart being too small too support himself anymore. That would be amusing…" Harry trailed off and stared with a dreamy expression plastered upon his face.

"Ha ha! I finished. I even think that after Hermione grades it I might scrape a passing grade!" Ron was elated, it was only one and he finished all his potions homework. Now all he had to do was practice a spell for McGonagall's class and study up on its theory for the oral exam the next day. Harry muttered as he finished his last sentence and when he ended his paper with its last period he threw down his inky quill onto the table and sighed. Of course this resulted in a very stern look from Madam Pince considering Harry got ink on one of her prized tables. Harry shuddered to think what she would do had it been a book. He quickly got out his wand and cleaned up the mess before turning to Ron and asking if he wanted to go back the common room to see what was going on.

Hermione was taking intense notes on the lecture so she could study later that night. She was so involved in her work that she didn't notice when a swan-shaped note landed smoothly on her desk. After a few minutes she looked up at the professor to see what was behind him on the chalkboard and she caught the white paper out of the corner of her eye. She carefully opened it and read the note.

Mudblood,

We have to meet tonight to talk about head stuff. Find me in the Library right after dinner. Don't be late because I won't wait for you.

Draco Malfoy

Hermione sighed deeply. 'So much for studying' she thought darkly. She was already so completely sick of Malfoys' antics and it was only the second day. She tried to clear her mind and refocus on the lesson.

After dinner Hermione bid Ron and Harry goodbye and explained where she would be. "Do you want us to come with you?" Harry asked earnestly. She shook her head and told them that if he tried anything then she would just hex him into oblivion.

She walked down the fairly empty corridor and thought of what the meeting was about.

She walked into the silent library and immediately saw golden haired boy. "Let's get this over with Malfoy," Hermione said as she approached the back table. He smirked at her before saying, "So Dumbledore wants us to decide when the Hogsmeade weekends will be. After that he wants us to decide the prefects and our patrolling hours." Hermione sighed; she did not want to be here with this jerk. "Let's get to it then. I will work on the patrolling hours you can work on Hogsmeade. When your done tell me and we can finalize it. Does that sound good?" Hermione said this quickly hoping he would agree if he did they wouldn't have to talk very much. "Nothing ever sounds good if it is coming out of your mouth. I vote that I do the hours and you do the weekends, just make sure you don't screw it up." Hermione rolled her eyes and then dug out a piece of parchment and her quill and began to work.

A good half hour had passed and Hermione was nearly finished. She had papers strewn across the table, such as quiddich schedules and exam dates. She needed to make sure that nothing clashed. A cough interrupted her work. Hermione's faced contorted and suddenly she looked very annoyed. She looked up at the boy who disrupted her and snapped, "What?"

"Aren't you finished? I was done forever ago!"

"If you would leave me alone I would finish faster." She returned to her work and after a few moments set her quill down. She was done.

"Let's compare dates," Hermione stated simply. They showed each other their papers. Malfoy looked at her dates and scoffed. "What?" Hermione asked testily.

"We need to schedule one on October third."

"Why?"

Malfoy looked offended and he spoke with an irritable voice, "It's my birthday, must you be so ignorant?"

Hermiones' eyebrows shot up so that they were hidden beneath her brown bangs. "Did you seriously expect me to know that?" She looked down at her reference materials and then smirked and stated, "No can do Malfoy, there is a meeting that you and I have to go to with Dumbledore."

Malfoy cursed under his breath and then sat back in his chair. Hermione rolled her eyes. She looked back down at the documents before her. She stared at her patrolling hours. They only had to patrol on Thursdays and Saturdays and they had the twelve thirty to one a.m. shift. She could handle that.

Malfoy was still sitting back in his chair but instead of throwing a tantrum over the Hogsmeade dates he was watching her.

"So wonder how I know about your mum?"

Hermione froze. He had to bring that up again. "Why don't you enlighten me," She replied watching her tone, she didn't want to sound as if it really affected her. "Well I overheard you and the rest of your filthy friends talking earlier so I had Pansy find out. She summoned all of the muggle papers from your town over the summer and found your mums' obituary and that told me everything. It was really rather easy, especially since I didn't have to do anything except pretend that I honestly liked Pansy for about five seconds."

Hermione stared at the table. She didn't want to look at Malfoy.

"So yeah, impressed? I thought it was rather ingenious."

"Do you know what I would find really impressive of you Malfoy? I think it would be really amazing if you could go charm a hole in the ground and sit in it until you died, that would be really super," She started to gather up her stuff.

Malfoy leaned back in his chair, sighed, then simply said, "So do Potty and Weasel know? I bet they don't. It would be so like you to not tell anyone at all and just pretend nothing happened. You aren't that strong though, it will never last."

Hermione finished packing up, took one look at Malfoy, and left the room. She hated him with every fiber of her being. She could be strong enough if she wanted to. She was walking with her head down and started to turn a corner when she bumped into someone. "Ms. Granger, ten points from Gryffindor for not watching your step." 'Lovely, Professor Snape' Hermione thought bitterly before looking up into his ugly pale face. "Excuse me Professor," She stepped passed him and continued on her way. "Honey, I want you to know that it was all your fault. If you hadn't be so completely selfish then I wouldn't have drank." Hermiones' head shot up so fast she was surprised she hadn't gotten whiplash. She heard her mother's voice but she didn't see her mother. Hermione hit her head a few times to make sure the voice was gone. 'What did it mean' Hermione panicked. It wasn't possible for her to hear a dead person, but she was. She couldn't handle this. She ran into an old broom closet on the other side of the corridor. She ripped up her sleeve and once again pulled out her potion's scalpel. She sterilized it and then made two clean cuts into her wrist, they weren't deep but they bled well. She muttered a spell onto the wounds and cleaned them. She then used the underside of her vest to apply pressure to it to get them to stop bleeding.

After a few minutes they ceased to flow so Hermione left the closet and walked quickly back to the Gryffindor tower, with her head up.