"I loved you with a fire red
Now it's turning blue
And you say,
Sorry like an angel
Heaven let me think was you
But I'm afraid
It's too late to apologize"
-Apologize
Chapter 20: Taking It Too Far
Disclaimer: The plot is mine, nothing else.
"Tonight, you will all be scrubbing out the trophy room," Mr. Filch informed the fourteen students from Professor Snape's advanced Potions class. He then proceeded to hand each of them a black toothbrush along with several bottles of polish.
"You've got to be joking," Pansy complained.
"Toothbrushes?" Dean asked disbelievingly, "Really?"
"Yeah, wait until Malfoy's father hears about this," Seamus commented, purposefully mocking the blonde who stood several paces away.
Dean snickered at his friend's snide remark, while the rest stood in silence, upset that they would be spending their Friday night in such an awful way.
Slightly surprised that Draco didn't snap back at Seamus, Harry and Hermione took the lead and walked into the small room in order to get their punishment over with as soon as possible.
"Get to work," Filch told the group after relaying out very thorough instructions on how to behave and what they should be doing. After eyeing each and every peeved student, he made his way out, locking the small door behind him. Not until ten at night would the man be returning…and it was only just seven thirty.
"This shouldn't take too long," Hermione said to Harry and Neville who were currently standing beside her. "You figure there's fourteen of us and approximately-"
"Thousands of medals and trophies," Blaise cut her off, looking completely frustrated. "Thanks a lot Granger."
Before any of them could protest, Pansy walked over to her boyfriend and saved them the trouble, "It wasn't her fault," she reminded him, "I told you this earlier, do you not remember?"
"Yes, but Draco said-"
"Nevermind what he said," Pansy gently smacked his arm, "And are you honestly going to take his word over mine?" she batted her eyelashes at him, making Harry, Hermione, and especially Neville incredibly uncomfortable.
Blaise sighed and gave in, "Alright, I believe you," he smiled down at his girlfriend before placing a chaste kiss upon her lips.
"I'm just going to head over to," Neville quickly surveyed the room, "Somewhere that's not here," he sputtered before taking off, red-faced.
Hermione shook her head, slightly amused. "We best be getting to work," she told the couple after they broke apart. "Harry and I will take this shelf over here," she directed to the vacant place to her left. "You two can join Draco over there," Hermione then pointed over to where Malfoy was standing alone, already cleaning one of the medals.
"Fine," Pansy said in exasperation, not wanting to be anywhere near the blonde she was still angered with. "Come on, Blaise," she took the other Slytherin's hand and led him away.
"Is this going to become an everyday thing?" Harry asked, more so to himself.
"You mean having them talk to us?" Hermione inquired as the two friends walked over towards the shelf.
"Sure," he replied, knowing that their former enemies were actually doing more than merely socializing with them lately. They had been somewhat friendly and almost tolerable as well.
"I'm sort of getting used to it, honestly," Hermione informed him as she dipped her toothbrush into the container filled with polish.
"How could you be?"
She tried not to laugh for Harry had come off sounding utterly betrayed over something so trivial, "I don't know," she shrugged, "I've just been thinking about this entire situation over the past week and I suppose I finally came to terms with it." Hermione then reached for one of the smaller, golden trophies, "You should, too," she told Harry, "There's no harm in it."
"Yet," her friend mumbled, mimicking her previous actions in grabbing one of the awards. "I just don't understand why you're so eager to trust them."
"I'm not," she said a bit harshly. Harry really had no right to accuse her like that. Being annoyed with her tolerating the Slytherins was one thing, but practically criticizing her intelligence was another. "I don't trust them and probably never will," Hermione went on. "Besides, these sorts of choices are mine to make. I don't need you reprimanding me for them."
Harry sighed, "I'm only trying to look out for you," he said in a calmer tone.
"Yes, well," she went back to cleaning, "Try not to be so rude about it."
"Mione-" he went to apologize.
"Just get back to work Harry," she advised without so much as looking up from her brush. Hermione knew from the start that this whole new turn of events would be difficult for the raven-haired teen, but never had she expected him to be so prejudice towards the other house. That was something Ron had been known for, and quite frankly, those colors just did not suit Harry in the slightest.
Feeling that it would be best to do as the prefect said, he began scrubbing away, mentally beating himself up for being so insensitive.
…
Over at the other side of the room, Draco and Blaise could be found each dipping their black toothbrushes into a vat of polish while their partner, Pansy, was doing the same, yet with a green one.
"How did you get a green toothbrush, Pans?" Blaise asked, noticing that she was the only one who possessed that color. "I didn't see Filch carrying any style other than black."
Parkinson smirked and turned to face the two boys, "That's because he wasn't, love," she answered Blaise. Resuming back to the scrubbing process, she explained, "This is Draco's."
"What?" the blonde shouted at her, causing the other members of the room to look in his direction. "Why in the bloody hell would you do that?" Malfoy continued yelling, disgusted with what his friend had done.
However, everyone else couldn't help but to laugh at the scene. Even the previously mad bushy-haired brunette chuckled.
"I told you Monday," she reminded him, "I didn't appreciate being ignored, Draco," Pansy appeared un-phased by her friend's stern tone. She actually had a bit of an accomplished look upon her face.
"Merlin, when are you going to let that go?" he asked, ignoring the stares that surrounded him.
"That depends," Pansy twirled the toothbrush in her hand, "Have you learned you lesson?"
Blaise smirked at his girlfriend's nerve, doing nothing to break up the fight.
Preventing himself from undergoing further embarrassment, Draco simply said, "If I say yes, will you buy me a new toothbrush?"
"Of course, darling," she said sweetly.
"Fine then-" he suddenly got to thinking, "Wait…how did you know to bring that along?" Draco asked. Nobody had known what their punishment was going to consist of until Filch had escorted them to the door.
"Who's our head of house, again?" Pansy asked, rhetorically.
"Right," he muttered, putting the pieces together. The girl had probably run to Snape after he dished out the detentions, demanding to know what they'd be forced to do.
"So…?" she prodded.
"Yes, alright?" Draco finally answered, "Will you just drop it already?"
"Ask and you shall receive," Pansy said sarcastically. "Here," she tossed the toothbrush at him and pulled the black one out of her robe pocket.
"Keep it," he spat, throwing it on the ground.
"Looks like Malfoy just got his arse handed to him," Millicent said loudly, causing the room to burst out into fits of laughter once more.
The blonde could only narrow his eyes at her as Blaise pulled him back to work.
…
"That was torture," Harry complained as he, along with the rest of the students, exited the room they had all come to hate.
"Mmm," Hermione lazily agreed, still having not spoken a word to her friend since their small spat.
"Please don't be mad with me, Mione," Harry begged. It was bad enough that the girl had ignored him for the past two and a half hours. He really thought she would have moved on by now.
"I'm not angry with you, Harry," she sighed, "It's just-"
"I swear, no amount of gardening has ever left my fingers this sore," interrupted Neville, clearly not noticing that the other two had been talking as he walked up behind them. "How about you?" he asked his friends.
"I'll live," Hermione smiled while rubbing her aching hands.
"Only two more detentions left now," Dean said, walking up alongside Neville with Seamus as they all made their way up to the tower.
"Yeah, only," said Seamus, rolling his eyes.
"You really shouldn't be whining about all of this," said Katie, who wasn't far behind with the rest of the Gryffindors who had also been there. "You're the one who shouted, 'food fight'."
"And it wasn't even food," Dean laughed.
"Hey, if Crabbe hadn't hit me with that stupid bean, none of this would've happened," Seamus defended, halfheartedly.
Lavender shook her head, "You and you're pride," she smiled at him.
Finnegan merely grinned back, a small blush rising on his face.
"Could we talk?" asked Hermione, turning around to face the girl with a pink bow-tie strapped around her head. She decided it was finally time for the two of them to discuss things.
"Sure," she replied, reluctantly. Lavender didn't exactly have to best relationship with her classmate. "I'll be back soon," she told her best friend, Parvati, before staying behind.
Hermione didn't so much as say goodbye to Harry as she remained in the common room with the other girl. She merely watched as her friend walked over and sat in front of the fireplace instead of heading back up to his dorm.
The brunette just shook her head and cast a silencing charm around her and Lavender. "How have you been?" she asked once the spell had set.
"Alright, I suppose," Lavender answered, knowing what she was really getting at. It was evident that she had deep feelings towards a certain red-head that was no longer around.
"I'm sorry-"
"Don't be," she prevented Hermione from going on a pity trip. "You had nothing to do with what happened."
"Well, I wouldn't say 'nothing'…" the opposite Gryffindor stated. She had been there that horrible night, afterall.
"You know what I mean," Lavender gave her a weak smile. "It wasn't your fault."
Hermione looked over to where Harry sat. He wasn't paying them any mind as he stared off into the dancing flames ahead of him.
"Are you okay?" the shorter girl tried to regain Hermione's attention, feeling slightly concerned.
She looked back at Lavender, and after giving the question some thought, easily replied, "For the most part," Hermione glanced at her friend again, "We're getting through it."
Much to the prefect's surprise, the pink-loving girl placed a hand upon her shoulder, "I'm here if you ever need to talk," she said. "You know where to find me."
Hermione actually felt a small amount of respect towards the girl for a brief moment and smiled warmly at her, "I do," she nodded, "You're in the bed next to mine every night."
Both girls laughed.
"The same applies for you," Hermione informed Lavender once they sobered up a bit.
"Thanks," the typically peppy girl then yawned. "I'm going upstairs now," she said, tiredly. "Are you coming?"
Hermione gave Harry one last look before deciding. She knew her friend wanted to talk with her, for he wouldn't have remained in the common room otherwise.
"Yes," she told Lavender who soon after led the way into their room.
Following, the brunette felt extremely guilty. She just wasn't in the mood to be around Harry at the moment. Possibly, if Neville hadn't cut in earlier on what she was about to say, things would be different. Not that it mattered at this point.
'Who knows,' Hermione thought as she crawled into bed, 'Maybe a little space from Harry tonight will give him the chance to clear his mind.'
…
Fifteen minutes passed by until Harry noticed he was alone. 'Surely Hermione knew I waited here for her,' he thought to himself. Earlier, he watched her cast a silencing charm instead of insisting he leave the room and had taken that as a silent agreement that she would talk with him after she finished up with Lavender.
'I guess not,' Harry told himself as he stood to go into the boy's dormitory.
…
Hermione's assumption proved to be entirely off as Harry found himself lying awake most of the night, his mind reeling with the many thoughts that were troubling him…her being the main focus of it all. Clearing his mind was the last thing about to take place, unfortunately.
A/N:Hi everyone!
Please give me your thoughts on Chapter 20, alright?
I'd like to know how you think the story is going to far.
Also, a big thank you to pawsrule, TsukiyoTenshi, and NorthernLights25, for reviewing since my last update on Friday, I really appreciate it :)
Next: Hermione seeks advice while Harry's darkest secret is discovered by the last person he wanted to find it.
Until then…