Pansy

I smirked at the rumors that spread throughout the school. I myself saw Hermione eying some girls more closely than I had thought she would. Maybe she really swung that way? It certainly seemed like it. It was something that made things a lot easier for me. Still, I had no intention of revealing myself just yet. Instead, I sat myself down at my desk and started to write another letter.

Dear Hermione,

I see you are still searching. Do you need a little bit of help? Maybe this can be a hint for you.

I pulled out a hair and lay it down inside the letter. It should be just enough to have her narrowing her circle of would-be "secret admirers" down a bit, but still it would hardly be any good for more than that though, so she would have to stay curious and waiting. Enough for me to reel her in bit by bit, but nothing else.

Hope this helps a little.

Love

Your secret admirer

Smirking, I made the usual parchment bird, and watched satisfied as it flew away. She would stay confused, which was good, as I knew it was annoying her more than anything that she could not figure out who her "secret admirer" was for the live of it. And I freely admitted I enjoyed it. Even if I would not be able to complete my plan, I would have had my share of messing with Hermione. Why her? Why not Potter or Weasley? Simply because it was so much more fun to fuck up her ingenious mind. She was way too curious for her own good. Not knowing drove her wild, and I enjoyed every second it got got to use that against her. I smirked. There was no way I was going to lose against Hermione on this matter.

H/P

The next few days went by without any interesting events at all. I noticed Hermione was spending a lot of time in her dorm outside classes (I could tell as she never appeared inside the library and was not on the grounds either) but I figured she would simply be studying for her exams and maybe correcting the lists I simply knew she had made on who her "secret admirer" was. It was actually quite annoying as our meetings for potions project we were still working on were cut short by this. Not that I had wanted them to be longer. Not that I had had the need to remind myself of that. But I had. Just why? It was not like I thought of her as a friend, annoying know-it-all mudblood that she was. As I had no idea as to why, I simply brushed it off. There was no need to ponder about things I did not have an answer to.

H/P

I should have known that the quiet before the storm was never a good sign. The storm appeared in the person of Miss Hermione Granger the next day. We met up for our potions project just as we had done quite often the previous weeks. She sat down at the desk calm and serene as always, but I could tell it was something she really was only on the outside, not on the inside. Inside, I saw her seething with rage. Not good. I just hoped her anger was not directed at me. No such luck.

"So, what's the thing with the letters?", she asked calmly, way too calmly. I gulped. "To believe you could actually be friendly towards me", she said, a little bit bitter, I believed to hear, but it was quickly drowned out by the growing anger in her voice. "What a fool I was, thinking you were my friend! Instead you were just pulling off another one of your pranks. You know, I've had it with you, and if I ever see you again and there's none of the teachers around, I guarantee for nothing."

With that said, she left the room, still fuming. I assumed she had had a hard time not hitting or hexing me. I should have been happy, really. I had gotten away without a scratch, I had managed to confuse and annoy her and break her and Weasley apart (though I had the feeling that break up would have been inevitable anyways), but still all I felt was hollow.

Hermione

I had been so excited to find out who my so called "secret admirer" was. She obviously had not thought about the fact that a single hair was enough to polyjuice myself into the person it previously belonged to. It was my chance to turn tables on her and confront her on this. I had not even thought about anything but a friendly chat on the matter. I was, after all, quite flattered that someone took such an interest in me. However, all of this disappeared when I took a look in the mirror after my transformation was complete. It simply made too much sense. I had not thought about anyone pulling a prank off on me by sending those letters before, but now it simply made too much sense. How she had acted towards Ron, all the while being nice to me while still being relatively the same around others. All of this started around the time the first of the letters arrived. Of course, it could have been the result of a suddenly appearing infatuation, but I really doubted that. This was Pansy Parkinson, after all. Pansy sodding Parkinson, who I had actually grown to like the past weeks. Whom I thought of as a friend. And losing this friend like this, knowing there never was a true friendship at all, it hurt. All I could do was to avoid breaking down in the next corner crying.

I went back to my dorm like a zombie. I somehow managed to convince Harry and Ron I was simply tired as I passed them on the way, but how I really do not know. When I entered my dorm, I fell down on my bed first thing and cried. I had no idea why it hurt so much. The last time I had been this hurt had been when Ron left me and Harry alone on our search for the horcruxes. I had been beyond devastated that he simply left, after all the years of friendship we had shared. However, I had gotten to (seriously) know Pansy only over the past few weeks, and we had hardly done anything but working on our potions project while chatting together. Why did this hurt so much? Why? Why?

Just as my thoughts were about to drive me completely insane, I finally succumbed to sleep, still dressed in the school uniform I had worn during the day, the questions on my mind still unanswered.