Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter
A/N: I don't have a beta so please let me know if you spot any mistakes. Like and review!
Chapter 2
The morning broke bright and early, which I was awake for. Being on the run for so long, I still haven't fully recovered. I have fitful sleeps most nights and the nights I don't, I wake up around 4am. At least it would help me for my study schedule, which I will need to create this afternoon.
Settling into a couch by the fire, I wasn't alone for long.
"Couldn't sleep either, huh?" Harry asked wiping his eyes and sitting beside me.
"Its almost weird being back here." I replied.
"Yeah."
We sat in silence.
"I still see it all. It replays like a tape in my mind." Harry spoke softly. None of us had spoken about our time on the run.
"Me too." We could feel each other's pain. We just knew. We didn't have to explain ourselves to each other.
Slowly, but surely the sun rose. I left Harry, still sitting in contemplative silence to go and get prepared for the first day of classes. It would be an adjustment, seeing as we hadn't been in classes for over a year.
The great hall was full by the time we had got there. Neville waved us down.
"Morning guys, here are our timetables." He smiled brightly handing us the parchment.
"Morning Neville, thanks." I said. Ginny, Harry and Ron mumbled something similar.
"Ugh, double transfiguration. McGonagall is going to have my head. I doubt I can transfigure anything." Ron said, dejected.
"Cheer up Ron, at least we can ace DADA." Harry said, patting his friend on the back.
He seemed to cheer up slightly at that and dug into his food.
"What classes are you guys taking?" Neville asked, also digging into his food. That boy had a growth spurt over the summer.
"I'm taking charms, DADA, transfiguration, potions, herbology, arithmancy and ancient runes." I chipped in, taking a bite of my toast.
"What? No extra elective this year?" Ron laughed. "Harry and I are taking transfiguration, potions, charms, DADA, astronomy, muggle studies and care of magical creatures."
"Muggle studies?" Neville and I said at the same time. How didn't I know this?
"Well, the muggles do have some things pretty well sussed out. We thought it would be best to learn in case we had to hide ever again." Harry said, running his hand across the back of his neck.
The bell rang, signalling to go to our first classes of the day. We hung back a bit to avoid the bottle neck at the doors.
"Well, I'm taking charms, transfiguration, DADA, potions, care of magical creatures and double herbology." Neville said, smiling. He picked up his bag off the bench as we starting to walk out into the entrance hall.
"What do you mean double herbology?" Ginny asked.
"Professor Sprout agreed to teach me a double load of herbology, seeing as I want a career in it, maybe even be a Professor one day!" He could barely contain his excitement. "What about you Gin?"
"Charms, transfiguration, potions, DADA, herbology, astronomy and divination." She ticked each one off on her fingers.
"Why on earth are you still studying divination?" I all but sputtered. That class was a farce.
"I happen to like it, thankyou very much!" She grinned back.
"Come on guys, we are going to be late." Ron shouted down the corridor.
The days in the week passed quickly, but almost slowly as well. It had been harder to get back into a routine than I had expected and I suspect it had been the same for everyone else. Flopping myself into an arm chair by my study materials, I looked around our common room. Everyone had slowly started to claim their own section of the room, marking their territory with books, parchment, ink wells and quills. It was a mess. In all of my classes, we had been given homework with constant reminders of our N.E. . I had seen almost all of us up late, studying over texts by the firelight, scribbling notes, Winky bringing us pots of tea to keep us going.
The Saturday morning light filtered in through the windows as I turned to my desk, pulling my study schedule to me. I still hadn't gotten around to creating it with the homework we had be given. As I was ruling up the seven days in the week, I felt someone sit down beside me.
"Morning 'Mione." Ginny yawned.
"Morning. How are you feeling? You looked wrecked last night. What was it that you were writing?"
"A letter to mum." She rolled her eyes. "She made me promise that I would write her once a week. Funnily enough she didn't make Ron make any promises." She grumbled. She pushed herself up and over to the little kitchenette that had been added by the house elves so we didn't keep calling for tea and coffee. Putting on the kettle for tea, she continued.
"I think I will have to go see Madam Pomphrey for a pepper up potion. We have Quidditch tryouts today and I am absolutely drained."
"Gin, you can't possibly be thinking about playing Quidditch this year with N.E. ?" I was baffled as to how she would be able to manage it. The workload we had been given just this week was enough to give even me a headache and it was only going to get more intense as the weeks moved on.
"Of course I can. I need the exercise and fresh air, and break from studying. Besides, I have easier classes than you, I'll manage." She gave me a cheeky grin.
Harry, Ron, Dean and Seamus stepped into the common room. With muttered good mornings, I went back to filling in my study schedule. 10 minutes later, I was broken out of my reverie.
"Ron! What have you done?" I turned to look at group, at Ginny's exclamation.
The boys were sat, as if petrified, around a table with cups of coffee in front of them. Ron's was missing. I found it upside down on the floor. Putting pieces together, and seeing the brown liquid drenched papers on the table, I rushed to find something to start mopping up the mess.
"It was an accident, I swear." He said just looking at the mess.
"Merlin Ron! These are Malfoy's!" She hissed. I looked up at him, my eyes wide. He was going to be pissed.
"Why on earth would you sit at a table with Malfoy's stuff on it?" I whispered, furiously trying to clean the mess.
"I didn't know it was his. I just sat at a table!"
"Ron, for future reference, sit at the table with you own stuff on it!" I don't think I will ever be able to get through that thick head of his.
We enjoyed a few weeks, in the aftermath of Voldemort's death, happy that we had finally realised and acted upon our feelings for one another. However, I quickly found that it was no longer what I wanted. I wanted someone with ambition, someone that is proud of themselves and what they have achieved, someone who knows how to give care and respect to others. Ron is still too immature to be the man that I need. The ending of our brief relationship wasn't pretty but he seems to be okay now, and I hope that he came to the same realisation, that I wasn't right for him either.
"Ron, you have to go tell him. I don't think a scourify will work, it will take his notes off of the parchment as well as the coffee." I looked at the papers, trying to remember any spells that would remove the last thing on a piece of parchment.
"No way am I telling him. He will curse me!" He stood up, looking at me in alarm. "C'mon Hermione, you always know just the thing to fix it."
"No Ronald. You have to learn at some point. Own up to your mistakes!" I could feel the heat rising to my cheeks, as the resentment I didn't know I had rose up, masked by anger.
"What is that supposed to mean?" He asked, his voice also rising.
"You never learn! You make mistakes constantly and I am always there to clean them up. I'm sick of it and I'm not going to do it anymore. I am not your mum, I am not your maid, I am supposed to be your friend and friends don't treat each other like this." I could feel the familiar sting in my eyes before tears, blinking rapidly to get rid of them. The room around me was silent, the others standing awkwardly about, not knowing what to do.
"Merlin Hermione, all you had to do was say! But no, instead you fly off the handle screaming bloody murder. You always get way too emotional. Right, Harry?" His face red, he turned to look at him. Harry looked distinctly uncomfortable.
"No, Ron! This is between you and Hermione, you aren't going to bring anyone else into this." Ginny said, stepping towards Harry. I gave her a grateful smile.
"Okay, new rule. No shouting matches before 9am." A voice grumbled from the stairs.
Looking over, Malfoy stood in nothing but black slacks and t-shirt.
"Sod off Malfoy." Ron grumbled, moving slightly to make sure his body was between Malfoy and the table. Malfoy sneered back.
"Malfoy, Ron has something he needs to tell you." I looked him in the eyes, probably the first time ever. I would have remembered the calm steel blue and the way that they were very pretty in the absence of the cruelty that so often graced his features in the past.
"Hermione!" Ron shouted, bringing me back to the moment at hand. Malfoy turned to him, narrowing his eyes in suspicion.
"What did you do to my things Weasel?" He spoke slowly, as if Ron wouldn't be able to understand him.
"Maybe you shouldn't leave your things out and nothing would happen to them." Ron countered, standing a little taller. It turns out Ron is taller than Malfoy, the latter didn't look perturbed though.
"Maybe you should take a little more care with other people's belongings." Malfoy's face darkened.
"Hang on, its not as bad as it sounds. A little coffee was poured on your notes, you can even still read them." Harry interjected, moving to stand to the side of both the boys.
"That's not the point, Potter," Malfoy started, his eyes not leaving Ron's. "I could care less what the Weasel did, I could probably fix anything he could do. The point is that he is always so careless. With everything. You all may be blind to it but I'm not." He looked tired, like he didn't want to be having this fight, but his pride wouldn't let him stand down.
"What did you mean by that?" I was hung on his words.
"Really Granger? I thought at least you would have been perceptive enough to see that the Weasel has no care for anyone but himself." Malfoy broke his eye contact with Ron to look at me, his arms crossing, and a little of his usual arrogance making its appearance. I noticed how sullen his face looked, dark circles under his eyes. Even the dark side suffered loss.
"You can't judge someone you barely know. He may seem self-absorbed and careless in his actions sometimes, but really, he cares deeply about anyone he considers family or friend." I was locked in a stare down with Malfoy. I had never felt this uncomfortable in a verbal repartee with him.
"Is this just your relationship with him talking or did that end?" His eyes suddenly held a little more life in them, the smallest smirk gracing his face. It was almost as if he missed arguing with me.
"That's none of your business." I held my ground.
"Ah, so who ended it? I bet it was you. Decided you could do better?" His eyebrow rose.
"Oh shove off, Malfoy. I thought we were above petty arguments about our personal lives? Or have you lost too many brain cells to keep up with me?" I tried to keep my voice light but he was starting to get under my nerves in the way only he can.
I was vaguely aware of the common room door closing.
"Ooh, touch a nerve did I, Granger? Your love life is more entertaining than anything else I could choose to comment on."
"What's going on down here?" Blaise sleepily asked from the stairs.
"Granger was just about to tell me why she broke it off with the Weasel. Blaise's eyebrows rose with Malfoy's comment.
"I'd be interested in knowing that." Blaise turned his eyes towards me.
"Hermione doesn't have to say anything. Now Malfoy, do what you have to with my brother but don't let it be too harsh." Ginny interjected.
"Gin?" Harry looked baffled.
"Well, with his reputation, its not like he is gonna kill him or anything but Ron did ruin his notes." She shrugged.
Malfoy huffed and turned to go get himself a cup of coffee. With a flick of his wand his notes were returned to normal.
"What? What spell did you use?" I had never seen that before.
"Redige novissimis. Look it up, Granger." With his coffee in hand, he gathered up his notes and went to sit at a table with Blaise.
Bewildered, I looked towards Harry, Ron and Ginny.
"Where's Ron?" I hadn't seen him leave.
'When Malfoy brought up your relationship, he stormed out. He still isn't over you, Herm." Harry said softly.
"He is going to have to at some point. I'm not in love with him any more and I will only love him as much as a brother." Harry and Ginny smiled sadly at me.
Luna suddenly danced down the stairs.
"Don't forget everyone! Our kind notes are due by tomorrow." She sang pinning a piece of parchment to the notice board.