Suspicion
Chappie 4!
I sat bolt upright. The dream had been so vivid, almost as if he had been stood in my room with me; I shook my head vigorously in an attempt to gain consciousness quicker, and glanced at my clock: 2:55. Great, I thought miserably. Now I had little chance of getting back to sleep, my body was beginning to wake up and my head was in a tizzy due to Ron Weasley being stuck in it! Damn him! I was full of annoyance. But, as I layed my head back onto my soft, warm pillows in the hope that sleep might reclaim me, I felt a twinge of regret that I hadn't been able to stay with him, contained within my dream...
Sirius obviously thought that my head was causing me real bother after I exited the hospital in a clear state of frustration yesterday, which was why he was feeling the need to carry out parental duties which would only be seen fit for an eight year-old.
"Here you are sweet," he said tenderly, placing a tray of cereal onto my bedside table with a glass of orange juice the following morning.
"Thanks dad."
"How're you feeling?" he asked, his face full of concern, "You sure y'eh feeling well enough to go to school today?"
"Yes dad I'm fine," I said quickly, taking my breakfast and shovvelling it into my mouth.
"Are y'eh sure y'eh sure? Only you've got a pair of rather distinctive bags under those eyes, not up at all in the night were y'eh?"
"Thanks for pointing that out dad," I said ignoring his last question and climbing out of bed in the direction of my mirror.
"Argh, they really are quite distinct aren't they?"
Sirius chuckled.
I looked at him in the background of my mirror: "Thankyou for your concern dad, but I am going to go to school today," I saw his face fall slightly when I finished my sentence. I felt a bit guilty, he was only trying to help, but school was school, and there was absolutely no way I was going to miss it if I were still in a perfectly fit state to go. So, after dragging a brush through my exceedingly bushy hair, I grabbed my bag of toiletries and disappeared into the bathroom.
I was lucky enough to even be able to drive my truck to school this morning, after Sirius had practically ordered me to get in the back of his police car! But, fortunately, he had a call from the station about a robbery which was taking place on the other side of town, and with that he jumped into his car and was off in a cloud of exhaust smoke, and a honk of farewell on his horn, completely forgetting about his insistent attitude on driving me to school.
I was dreading the atmosphere when I arrived in the parking lot; and it was probably worse than I imagined when I got out of my truck and heard Seamus leading a fan march across the lot towards me.
"Look at you eh," he said gleefully when he, Parvati, Padma, Neville, Lavender Brown and Ernie Macmillan were all crowded round me, "you're alive!"
"Yes I'm absolutely fine," I assured them all.
"Oh we were so worried about you Hermione!" said Parvati, "was everything alright at the hospital? You haven't got some kind of severe brain damage have you?"
"No Parvati, my head's still perfectly intact."
"Thanks to Ron Weasley," chirped Ernie Macmillan, "I didn't even see him stood anywhere near you, and then all of a sudden he was pulling you out of the way!"
"Yeah that is really wierd," said Padma, looking at me as though I might have some idea of how Ron had gotten to me so quickly,
"I was as shocked as you are," I told her honestly. She looked a bit disappointed.
Throughout the day I continued to get acknowledged for my miraculous escape from death. It was really starting to annoy me. By the time lunch came round I was starting to get so sick of my friends' over the top behaviour, that I disappeared to the library in the hope of some peace and quiet.
The library promised just that. So immersed I became in browsing through the stacks upon stacks of books, that I didn't notice Seamus stood next to me until he patted me gently on the shoulder.
"Oh Seamus! Sorry I didn't see you there."
"No probs Hermione, I was just wondering if I could ask you something actually."
I looked at him blankly, then as he began asking me whatever it was he wanted, I caught sight of Ron Weasley stood at the other end of the aisle. His face was as handsome as ever, and his expression was amused as he pretended to browse through a selection of books; but really his attention was focused on me and Seamus. I couldn't help but admire the way his mouth curved upward to form the most heartstopping smile I had ever seen. He was completely and utterly perfect! Wait! What was I saying? He's a completely arrogant arsehole who is currently enjoying spending his time eavesdropping on other people's conversations!
"So...what do you think?" Seamus' voice dragged me back to reality.
"About what?"
Seamus looked hurt, "Do you want to go to the summer ball with me?"
"Oh," I said, panic began to set in, "Um, I'm not going to be in town that weekend Seamus." I said quickly.
"How come?" he demanded.
"I'm going to stay with my mother in Oxford for a few days."
"Can't you go some other time?"
"It's the only time she can see me," I lied swiftly.
"Oh," he sighed. He sounded really disappointed.
"Sorry," I said; I did feel bad about lying to him, but there was no way I was going to the summer ball, I couldn't dance to save my life!
"Maybe you should ask Parvati," I said, hit by sudden inspiration and the memory of a past conversation, "I'm sure she'd be only too happy to go with you."
"Yeah, I suppose," replied Seamus glumly. Conveniently, the bell signalling the end of lunch started to ring, and Seamus and I hurried wordlessly towards Biology.
He was there. As I sat down, I suddenly realised I hadn't noticed his exit from the library; he was nowhere to be seen when Seamus and I had left it.
Ron did not talk to me throughout the whole of Biology, and I certainly did not want to satisfy his deliberate deafness by making an effort to speak to him about his eavesdropping on us in the library, so between us at least, the lesson proceeded in total silence.
Sirius was home early when I walked in through the front door; I noticed this was strangely out of character for him
"Hey Hermione." he called cheerfully.
"Hello dad," I followed the sound of his voice into the lounge, where he was sat in front of the television, immersed in a baseball match, "how come you're home so soon?"
"Oh, there was nothing interesting going on at the station, so most of us have copped off early," he smiled at me with an almost too innocent look in his eyes; I think I knew the real reason why he was home sooner than usual. This was confirmed by what he said to me next.
"How's y'eh head doing? Not had any dizzyness today have y'eh?"
"Nope," I replied bluntly. I poured myself a glass of water, gulped it down, and then proceeded upstairs with the intention of starting on my homework, but Sirius called out to me.
"Oh Hermione, I hear you've got a field trip for Biology tomorrow, are you going?"
"Shoot!" I had completely forgotten about that, "Um yes I guess I will be going on that. How did you know about it?"
"Bumped into old Mrs Finnagan on the way home," said Sirius gruffly, "nice woman, her lad's a pleasant boy too, he's a keeper y'eh know sweet!"
"Thankyou dad," I sighed, "but Seamus is nothing to me other than a good friend."
"If you say so," replied Sirius, wagging his eyebrows at me suggestively. I scoffed at him and then headed upstairs to delve myself into the more comfortable world of books and research.
Arriving at school the next morning, I was greeted by the presence of two small minibuses; no doubt there to convey my Biology group to the local greenhouses, where Mr Snape had mentioned something about making a steaming mug of soil a few days ago.
Few others were about, so I headed over to my Biology classroom. The field trip was due to take up nearly all of the school day, so I sat myself down comfortably at my desk, and did some studying on the lessons I was missing that day. I didn't take note of anyone else coming into the room, until Seamus waved his hand in front of my face.
"You're always out of it whenever you're doing some form of studying," he commented, glancing at the piece of Trigonometry I was currently working on.
"Sorry," I said quietly, "I'm afraid I do become rather anti-social."
I placed my books back into my bag, and looked around the room; the majority of the class were now present, but I happened to be aware of the fact that Ron Weasley had not yet arrived. A sense of disappointment flared through me, and for once, I did not try to deny it.
"Right!" shouted Mr Snape, who had strolled cheerfully into the classroom, and was now ready to escort everyone outside. I noticed that we weren't the only Biology group going on this field trip, hence the two minibuses. I walked with Seamus as we were all filed into lines according to whichever bus we were taking, and that was when I saw him.
He was stood with one of his elder brothers and his younger sister in the queue for the opposite bus to the one I would be riding in. I took in his impressive, lanky build, and couldn't help but sigh at how attractive it was to me. His eyes swept the buzzy, chattering group until they caught sight of me, at which point his features twisted into an expression of complete and utter annoyance to which I retaliated with a look of hatred, but inside my feelings were completely softened; he looked rather sweet when he was frustrated.
"Green is good guys, make sure you get that into your heads! Plants are some of the most amazing elements to have been placed on this earth! Just look at how fascinating they are!"
Mr Snape and a gaggle of enthusiastic science nerds gathered round an enormous spider plant, as he proceeded to tell them of its mesmerizing qualities. I had to admit, plants did hold some of the most amazing biological facts I have ever read, but to be honest, I was becoming slightly bored with strolling around this gigantic greenhouse in such a repetetive pattern; everytime we passed the same plants, Mr Snape would call the entire group to a halt and then inform us of the exact same facts he himself had told us around about half an hour earlier. It was so tedious! After a certain amount of time, only a few members of the group remained glued to Snape's every word; the rest of us had drifted off to see what else this greenhouse might have to offer...
"What's the weather like in Oxford during the summer time?" asked a gruff voice a few metres behind me.
"Hmm, why would you be so curious about that?" I replied sarcastically, not looking round.
"I heard you were going to stay with your mum for a while, but you don't wanna go if there's not gonna be nice weather. You won't have much to do at all."
"Whatever the weather, I'd still go anyway."
"Would you?" said Ron teasingly, "But I thought most girls would prefer to holiday in bright, sunny conditions,"
"Well I'm obviously not one of those girls," I said wearily.
"Clearly," he grinned.
I turned to face him.
"Why are talking to me about the weather? I' would have thought you of all people would find that topic immensly boring!"
"No actually," said Ron, smiling, "the weather can be one of the best topics to talk about when you're stuck for something to say."
"And you, Ron Weasley, are actually stuck for something to say?"
"When it comes to you, yeah," he shrugged, "I have to try and pick topics which won't cause us to start bickering at each other, and that's a diffficult task."
I threw a dirty look at him, and then continued walking down an aisle full of cherry trees. Ron followed me.
"Is there something you want?" I asked suspiciously, "only you've been quite content with not talking to me for the past couple of days, what's suddenly brought this on?"
"I don't know," said Ron honestly, "Guess I just like winding you up."
I put my hand on his shoulder and gave it a hard shove, pushing him away from me. Then, I carried on heading down the aisle, but again Ron followed me.
"Look," he said apologetically, "I'm sorry I'm being rude to you all the time, I just- I think it's the best way."
I stopped in my tracks, wonder and suprise building within me: Ron Weasley had just apologised to me, was I hearing things right?
"Best way for what?" I asked curiously.
"It just is," he said sternly.
"Are you going to tell me how you stopped the van?" I asked him aprubtly.
"Yeah," he said, "I had an adrenaline rush, it's very common, in fact you can google it."
I looked at him impatiently; I didn't have time for stupid witty answers. I began to stalk off, but not before I managed to slip up on the wet ground, causing my arms to flail as I headed for the hard surface. I waited for the impact, but none came. Instead I found myself feeling rather safe and comfortable in a pair of strong arms that had lunged forward to catch me.
"If you're gonna storm away from someone, at least watch where you walk! It might have a better effect!" laughed Ron.
"Git!" I mumbled, unwilllingly pulling myself from the safety of his arms.
"Charming," he replied, looking rather offended, "if it weren't for me, you'd be lying flat in a puddle!" his face fought to contain composure, and failed. I shot one annoyed look at him, and then headed back out towards the buses.
"Hey Hermione look!" shouted Ernie Macmillan running over to me with something in his hand, "it's a worm, it's a worm!" he waggled it in front of my face, causing me to squirm away amid peals of laughter from him and his friends. Ugh! I hated worms. I continued to internally shudder.
"Hermione!"
I stopped just by the buses, and turned to see Ron walking towards me.
"What now?" I asked idignantly.
"Hermione look, we-we shouldn't be friends." he said finally.
"You know I think you already made that decision on the day we first met!" I replied coldly.
Ron stared at me, a mixture of emotions flickered across his face.
"You know, if you'd thought about it," I continued," you could have just let that stupid van crush me, then you would've been able to save yourself all this regret!"
"Regret?" said Ron, shocked, "Regret for what?"
"For not pulling me out of the way!" I said a little hysterically.
"What, you think I regret saving your life!"
"I know you do!"
"You don't know anything!" he hissed meanfully, glaring into my eyes. I glared back; totally entranced by him.
"Hi," said a soft voice, causing me and Ron to turn our heads. It was his sister Ginny, it appeared the rest of the group was now heading back to the buses, as she looked at me and asked hopefully: "Are you going to be riding with us?"
"No our bus is full," said Ron bluntly, he turned away from me and climbed into the bus, Ginny smiled at me and clambered in after him, followed by their elder brother, who winked cheerfully at me.
What were this family hiding?
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