AN: Sometimes I change the color of the font while writing; so i'll be writing in green, blue, pink, or, believe it or not, yellow! It's very exciting. Just thought I'd share.

Disclaimer: I own coffee, but I don't own Harry Potter.

Chapter 13 - Ill

"What are you looking at?" Ginny hissed at the by-passers, as she dragged a very ill Ron along with her.

"Wait" he grumbled and stopped abruptly with a hand on his stomach. A few seconds of blank staring before he nodded. "False alarm."

Quickly Ginny started dragging him along towards the infirmary again.

Once there Madam Pomfrey quickly grabbed hold of him and shooed Ginny away. "What happened here, young boy?"

Ron tried to respond but ended up hurling all over the floor.

Ginny sighed and spoke up. "This dumb-ass brother of mine thought he could cheat on the brightest witch of our age without getting cursed." she took a few hurried steps towards Ron with narrow eyes. "I knew you'd mess it up!"

Madam Pomfrey pursed her lips at her and protectively pulled Ron towards one of the beds. "Can you tell me what spell it was?" she asked Ginny without looking back at her.

"There was lots of spells, I don't know which one actually hit him!" Ginny sighed. "But, if he could keep it in his pants, this wouldn't have happened!" She was glaring at him with full force, the red hair sparking like a roaring fire.

"Very well then." Madam Pomfrey turned towards Ginny now. "I need to take care of my patient now, miss. Please leave. He needs peace and quiet." She turned back around to focus on Ron again.

"And he needs a bucket!" Ginny shouted while storming out the big doors.

"That is not a terrible idea." Madam Pomfrey mumbled and hurriedly rushed to one of the cabinets.

Why, why, why, did this have to happen to her? Out of all the people, wasn't she one of the few that could be spared this type of cruelty?

Flashes of the conversation shot through her head, like a thunderstorm casting its lightning to the earth's surface.

Ron's wide, round eyes pleaded along with his words. "Please, you have to believe me 'Mione!"

Hermione swallowed hard. There was no excuse for what he had done, and yet here he was, begging for what she couldn't offer him. Forgiveness.

"I was love-potioned! I swear!"

She didn't know what to believe. All she wanted to do was get out of there. She didn't want to hear his pathetic words, or failing attempt at mending it all together.

Hermione was pacing in the head common room, not sure of what to do with herself. Her body and mind were riled up, not wanting to let go of the adrenaline flowing through her veins. There was no stop to her vivid mind; reliving the moment as it was all she could depend on.

"Please, I swear! I was going to find you, when I saw this chocolate on my bed. I thought, just one bite can't hurt, and the next thing I know I'm in Lavender!"

"Let me stop you right there." Hermione could feel her heart's sadness being replaced with anger. "Have you learnt nothing from your past experiences?"

"W-what do you mean?" Ron stumbled on his words.

"It's not the first time you have been love-potioned, Ronald. And, the exact same way, for that matter." she found it utterly hard to believe, and wanted him to know she could see through his lies. "You don't have to lie to me, Ron. I know you."

"If you know me, then believe me! Please, 'Mione!" he was moving towards her in desperation now.

Hermione could feel her vision clouding, not being able to make out the contours of the objects around her. Her breathing was fast and shallow. She felt mad. Crazy.

"Please Mione! You have to take me back!" Ron begged, desperation oozing though his mouth.

"I don't have to do anything!" Hermione nearly shouted as she backed away from him. "F-for a short second…" She was having trouble formulating her sentences, as anger overcame her. "I thought I could fix things, as usual. For a short little while I actually though I was the bad guy in this! But I realize now, there was nothing to fix. What we had, Ronald, was not a relationship!" Hermione's eyes were wide and crazed. The logic in her words surprised even her.

"Don't do this!"

"You did this, Ron."

"It was a mistake! You can't forgive a simple mistake?"

"Sleeping with your ex is not a 'simple mistake'!"

"But I regret it! I apologized!"

"Let me get this straight; because you apologized I'm supposed to take you back?"

"Yes! That's what you do!"

Hermione could feel her whole insides boiling. The burning heat was overwhelming. "I don't have to listen to this!"

"Why? Think you're too good for me?"

"If you sleep with other people, then yes!"

Hyperventilating, holding on by mere thread, she grasped the couch in front of her. She felt dizzy, disoriented, but oh-so angry! The roaring fire in front of the couch agreed with her rising mood. It was lashing out onto the wall above the fireplace, licking the tapestry.

"I am not going to take you back, so just stop, please!"

"You will regret this! I bloody swear!"

"No, Ronald, I won't. Not at all actually. This time I am so sure of what I'm doing I almost feel like laughing!" a quick smile crept over her angry face. She felt determined, yet crazy.

"You will come back to me again. Only this time I'm not going to be waiting!"

"You didn't wait to begin with!"

"That's right, I didn't! I lied! I wasn't potioned. I slept with Lavender, there I said it!"

"I already knew that, you idiot." she sighed at him.

"And I don't regret it!" he almost shouted at her, throwing his hands up in the air. "At least she is worth having sex with!"

Hermione stopped breathing.

"I mean, how was I supposed to feel attracted to you when you dress… like that?" he waved towards her body.

Caught up in his own rambling thoughts he didn't notice how Hermione's eyes darkened, losing its humane spark.

"Common, 'Mione, would it hurt to at least, I duno, brush your hair once in a while?"

"Do Not. Call Me. 'Mione." she hissed, a fire in her eyes, rising her wand at him.

A pair of firm hands grabbed on to her shoulders.

"Don't touch me!" she shouted and shot an expelliarmus at whoever was beside her. The hands flew off of her body, leaving her breathing heavily, alone with her breezy anger cracking like the fire next to her. She blinked, as her vision started to come to.

A grunt came from the floor before her. Wide eyes found pale gray as she noticed the man on the ground.

"Bloody hell, Granger…" he blared at her, trying to get back up on his feet a bit further away. He was bleeding from his lip, and she watched him lick the blood off.

Hermione was too shocked to speak. Had she really been that caught up in her own thoughts she hadn't noticed him?

"Here I was trying to calm you down, and you hex me. Thats just… dandy. Not only do you catch walls on fire, or hit people" he shivered at the memory. "but you're violent with that wand too." Draco kept on ranting, not yet looking at her. He felt angry and frustrated. "I have to go. I have practice." He turned and walked back towards the entrance. "Try not to put our room on fire, Granger." he muttered as he sleeked through the doorframe.

Hermione dared to take a breath finally. She sat down on the plush couch at stared into the fire. Malfoy was right; the wall in front of her was blackened with fire spew. She sighed heavily, feeling too tired to care. With a flick of her wand, and a quick mumble the wall returned to it's usual self.

As if the day could get any better Draco felt a droplet of rain on his cheek.

"Hey, listen up," he shouted to the rest of the team "I don't wanna hear any complaints about the rain. It's just bloody water."

There was quite a loud negative response from the rest of the slytherins.

"Do you want to beat Gryffindor or not?" he yelled at them, while rain started to fall from the sky above them.

The slytherins dispersed and returned to practice. Draco watched them and gave them constructive criticism when he saw someone in need of improvement.

The rain got heavier and he cursed under his breath when he realized he had forgotten his broom warmer. He mumbled a heating charm and felt his hands warming up a bit. In the heat of the moment, back in the common room he had forgotten he had actually come there to pick up some equipment. Luckily he had a few spares and older versions of most things in the Slytherin changing room.

When the sun had set and it was too dim to make out any movement he shouted for his teammates with his wand towards his throat. "Okay, that's a wrap!" They all started to fly towards the ground. "Put all the balls in the box, as usual. I'll take it back this time, you all just go clear up. This weather is ridiculous." On key the rest patted his back and left to go change, leaving him on the field.

Draco closed the box with quidditch equipment and levitated it in front of himself, while moving towards the sidelines. He was rubbing his neck, tilting his head sideways to reach the tense muscles. The rain poured down on his tense body, drenching his clothes in water.

Finally inside Draco could shrug off the mud that had tainted his legs, covering his shoes. "Great. Just great." he mumbled under his breath, inspecting the damage. This would stain, even when using a cleaning spell.

A faint high pitched crack sounded through the empty corridor, setting Draco on edge. Without moving an inch he scanned the room. He was the only one there. He must have imagined it. Could have been one of the broken walls as well, he concluded. Even though they had managed to clean some up by now, they were no way near finished. All these small problem areas were far down the list of things to fix. Obviously.

Once he reached the equipment locker, he felt a sigh of relief. Now he just had to lock up and return the key to the one in charge of the equipment keys for the week. He sighed loudly, knowing it would be some annoying teenager in one of the other houses. Their team had been in charge of it last week, so it must be Rawenclaw's turn, he deducted.

Without bothering to clean himself up, nor the floor where pools of debris and mud had gathered, he quickly made his way towards the Rawenclaw common room.

Hermione felt like she was a shell of some sort, holding only air. The air inside her, was still and calm, yet so eager to start a turmoil. She tried to keep her mind like this; empty. She didn't want to feel, because there were too many emotions rumbling inside, waiting to take over. Instead she focused on her breathing. In, out. Pause. In, out. Pause.

She flinched when an image of Ron's red butt cheeks flashed before her.

"No." she winced.

A flash of Lavender's face along with Ron's grunting, shot in front of her eyes.

"Please, stop." She begged. Placing her head deep in her moist hands. Why was her mind torturing her like this? She needed to get back to her logical, analytical self.

Hermione didn't miss him. Hermione didn't even want him. She just wanted someone. Who doesn't want to feel loved. Or liked. Or appreciated. For obvious reasons Ron was not the right person to give her this, but being the only person who had expressed a desire to give this lately, she grasped on to it desperately.

Who would be a better candidate than the one who had been there through it all. Who had seen the same horrors as she had. He was like her brother. He could understand her, to some degree. She would always care about him, and thought he would always do the same for her. They might not have loved each other in a romantic way, but they still cared enough to try.

The more she thought about it the weirder it got. He was her brother. It was no wonder they couldn't take it further than sibling rivalry.

Nevertheless, being betrayed by the one person she thought would care stung hard. Another flash of pulled down pants and ruffled skirts made Hermione force her eyes shut.

She shouldn't have acted out the way she did. Not at all. She shouldn't even have agreed to get back together with him to begin with! She just felt so guilty. And also… she just wanted things to be good. Is that so wrong? For things to be…. what people call normal. She hadn't had that since she was 10! She wanted someone to love her; that Ron wasn't the right person for the job was obvious. Nonetheless it was still something.

They inspired hope in the rest of the wizarding world, for so many years. People expected them to be happy, together. But Hermione just felt broken. She felt as if she had failed everyone. She wasn't happy, and she had done exactly what Ginny had said; Given up. After the war had ended they hadn't had anything holding them together. They were not in any immediate danger, nor was death lurking around the corner. They didn't have to face the fact they would most likely lose their best friend. They didn't have to save the world and didn't have to rely on only each other.

There was no need to dwell on the past anymore. At least now she could say she had tried everything before "giving up".

How could she even have wanted him back? She just wanted his attention. That's not how its supposed to be. That's not fair to him. She might not know much of love, but that's not how it's supposed to be like. The lack of passion had drove him to another girl, and she realized she couldn't blame him for that. He had always had stupid and impulsive ways of dealing with things. It didn't make what he had done right, or any less painful. But at least now she could accept it.

She sighed to herself, leaning back against the sofa. Even though she could be reasonable and logical, she couldn't help but feel lonely.

Closing her eyes, carefully this time, her mind drifted to her parents. She imagined them in their home, eating dinner together, making conversation, maybe even laughing. A single tear escaped her closed eyes.

AN:

Hey guys! This update came much faster than the last one, don't you agree? It would have been published a month ago, actually, but my beta is very busy at the moment. I thought I would post it now anyways, you will just have to bear with the mistakes for this time =)

I hope this chapter cleared up some things, concerning why she was so willing to take him back.
And let me remind you, this is a Dramione fanfic. Yeah.

Please do let me know what you think! I love love love reviews, both good and bad. Theres nothing wrong with expressing yourselves! As long as you're not too mean you can tell me anything!

Love