Chapter 7: Confiding in Friends

Pansy Parkinson was angry. Her best hope of getting her parents back together now laid in pieces, much like the pieces of broken glass that now littered the bathroom floor. She was so angry that she drew her wand and pointed it at Hermione.

"STUPEFY" she shouted, a jet of red sparks flew out of her wand.

Hermione quickly ducked out-of-the-way and retaliated by sending her own stunning spell directly at Pansy.

But Pansy wasn't going to be jinx today, Oh no; today she was going to teach a mudbood about respect. She quickly disarmed Hermione with Expelliarmus.

Hermione's wand flew out of her hand and on to the other side of the bathroom. she ran as fast as she could to collect it, but it was no use, another stunning spell from Pansy's wand sent her straight into the air. She landed on her back with a sting of pain. She couldn't get back up right away.

Pansy took advantage of this, and slowly walked over to Hermione's now limp and weakened body, she looked down on her victim and pointed her wand like a Rancher ready to put a sick and injured animal out of it's misery.

Pansy had always looked down on mudbloods and now she literally was looking down at one. She had Hermione completely at her mercy….

But then something unexpected happened. Pansy put away her wand, and there was a moment between the two girls.

For a moment Hermione thought that pansy was going to help her up. But she was wrong…

Pansy grabbed Hermione by the hair, and with such strength dragged her across the floor to the other end of the bathroom.

Tears of pain leaked from Hermione's eyes as she was being dragged, she lifted up her arms and dug her finger nails into Pansy's arm in an effort to try to break free of Pansy's grasp. But it was no use, Pansy merely worked through the pain and continued to drag her victim.

When Pansy did finally let go however she waited for Hermione to regain her strength and pick herself up.

Hermione who was confused by Pansy's actions, dusted herself off and stared right back at Pansy, who was now leaning on the sinks, with a smirk on her face.

"WHAT THE HELL?" shouted Hermione, "Why did you drag me by my hair?"

Pansy took a step forward; there was unmistakable fury in her eyes "Because." She breathed "I want the pleasure of beating you with my own fists" She then punched Hermione square in the jaw.

Hermione's cheek throbbed with pain, she covered her hand over it, and a surge of anger overwhelmed her. She wasn't about to let Pansy Parkinson get away with this. She decided to fight back.

Hermione made a fist with her right hand and punched Pansy back.

This led to a catfight that became very violent.

Pansy, now so enraged by Hermione fighting back, through a kick at Hermione's chest.

Hermione felt like she had been hit by a very large and heavy book and she backed away slightly, she wondered where Pansy had learnt to fight so well. It was like she was a professional cage fighter.

Pansy, who was still enraged, moved in on Hermione to deliver another deadly punch.

But luckily Hermione quickly ducked out-of-the-way and was able to catch Pansy off-balance. She then grappled Pansy by the waist and brought her crashing down to the ground.

Now Hermione had Pansy at her mercy.

But it was short-lived.

Pansy quickly rapped her legs round Hermione's waist, and with surprising strength and speed flipped Hermione on to her back.

Rage was pumping through Pansy's veins, and she delivered punch after punch until Hermione blacked out.

Hermione woke up not knowing how long she had been oblivious. She figured it must have been a fair few hours because it was now night-time.

Pansy was also nowhere to be seen and Hermione figured she must have long since gone.

She got up off the floor with a splitting headache and made her way to the bathroom mirrors.

The reflection staring back at her was unrecognizable.

She had been so badly beaten. There was cuts and bruises along her face, her left eye was so swollen that she could barely see out of it, her lips were all puffy and inflamed, and she was pretty sure her nose was broken too.

Hermione couldn't believe what she was seeing. Her face was no longer her face. Pansy had gone too far this time.

She washed away the blood on her face in the sink, and then search the bathroom looking for her wand.

Once she had found it she made her way back to Gryffindor tower. Luckily she didn't bump into anyone on the way there, so she didn't have to explain why she looked disfigured.

When she entered the Gryffindor common room however she found that both Harry and Ron had been waiting for her in the arm-chairs closest to the fire-place. Neither of them had seen her all day and had started to worry. But now Hermione was here.

Ron got up from his arm-chair first and was about to embrace her in a hug. "Hermione, where have you…" he stopped in mid-sentence and gasped in horror when he saw her face "Hermione who did this to you?"

"It doesn't matter" said Hermione taking a seat.

"What do you mean it doesn't matter, this looks really bad" said Ron kneeling down to Her side, so he could inspect the damage to her face.

"Ron's, right" said Harry now taking a look "I think we should get you to the hospital wing."

"NO" interjected Hermione "No-one can know about this."

"Why?" asked Harry earnestly.

"Because…"Hermione hesitated. She wasn't keen on telling her boyfriend and her best-friend that Pansy Parkinson had beaten her up. She was even less keen on telling them about what she had been up too for the past four months. But she knew if she didn't come forward, they would go to the hospital wing. And Madam Pomfrey would go to Dumbledore. And Dumbledore would find out what she had been up too for the past four-months. And that was something Hermione would rather evade.

She took a breath and began to explain. "Because it was Pansy Parkinson who did this"

"Parkinson! That bitch I'll kill her" said Ron in anger as he stood up.

Harry who kept a cool head asked "Then why don't you tell Dumbledore? We could probably get her expelled for this"

"Because if I go to Dumbledore. He'll want to get Pansy's side of the story first, before expelling her" said Hermione.

"Why is that a bad thing?" asked Harry.

"Because… Pansy might tell him about the love potion" said Hermione.

"What love potion?" Asked Harry confused.

"The forever-lasting love potion that I've been working on since September" sighed Hermione.

"Wait" said Ron "you made a love potion that last forever, but why?"

"Well... you remember those letters I told you about after the Halloween ball?"

"Yes" said Ron trying to hide his emotions. The fact that Hermione had been writing to Victor Krum and had been planning to sleep with him after finishing Hogwarts was still something of a difficult pill to swallow.

But he realized that was before he and Hermione had started dating, and then he should let it go. But it was still a hard thing to do.

"Well when I left my mum's house this summer, Pansy went in to my room and somehow found my letters from Victor"

Ron sneered at Victor's name.

"She said that she would show everyone these letters if I didn't help her get her parent's back together"

"Then why not just make a regular love potion? Why go to all this trouble to invent one that lasts forever "asked Harry.

"She said that she wanted one that lasts forever. I told her that there was no such thing, but she insisted that I invent one" replied Hermione.

"And that's why she attacked you? Because you couldn't invent one" asked Harry.

"No. because I invented it and then destroyed it" said Hermione.

Both Harry and Ron we shocked by this.

"Why would you destroy it?" said Ron in disbelief, "if the Parkinson's got back together that would mean that Mr Parkinson would no longer be dating your mother"

"I know" said Hermione gloomily. "and that's why I agreed to make the damn potion. But then something happened. I realized that Mr Parkinson is not a bad man and that he makes my mother happy. And that I should learn to be happy for her"

Both Harry and Ron said nothing. This was a lot to take in, so they needed a moment to absorb it.

A few moments later Harry fetched a bowl of yellow liquid, which Hermione recognized as solution of strained and pickled Murtlap. He placed it on the table close to Hermione and began to clean her face with a towel that he dipped in the liquid. Almost immediately hermione's face began to feel better, she could feel the swelling going down and she could open her left eye again.

Ron unfortunately looked a little uncomfortable having his best friend touch his girlfriend's face. But Hermione knew that Harry was only doing this because she had done something similar for him during their fifth year.

After a while Harry stop and asked "how are you feeling?"

"Much better now. Thank you Harry" replied Hermione. "You can go to bed now if you want"

Harry, who did in fact look tired, smiled and said "okay I'll see you guys tomorrow" and with that he left Hermione and Ron alone in the room.

Ron didn't say anything after Harry left, but merely kissed Hermione full on the lips, even though her lips where still puffy and inflamed. For Hermione the kiss hurt like hell, but the pain was worth it.