A/N: Hello! Sorry for the really late update. Anyway, here's the latest update for this fanfiction! I hope you enjoy it. And do leave reviews. They motivate me to write! And I promise that I'll do my best not to take another 8 months to write the next chapter! Enjoy!

The name of Hermione's black-haired friend got caught up in her throat, morphing into a gasp as the door allowed her to catch a glimpse of red hair instead of the black ones that she had been expecting. When her brain registered what was happening, it was much too late for her to push the door and slam it into the ginger's freckly face. So there she was... standing by the open door... gaping at the unwanted visitor.

She tried to form a witty retort to embarrass the deceitful person that stood in front of her doorway. But her brain failed her as it wouldn't function properly, not even enough to create a coherent sentence, which left her stuttering in front of her ex-boyfriend, Ronald Weasley, embarrassing her own self instead. "Ron?" She managed to blurt out.

"You were-" He started with a low and rough voice. He cleared his throat and tried to speak once more. "You were expecting Harry." It wasn't a question. Not knowing what to reply, she kept her mouth shut. Her grip on the doorknob tightened by the minute, the temptation of slamming the door calling out to her. "Why?"

"Why not?" Hermione snapped. It was none of his business... Not anymore. "He's my best friend."

Ron snorted, rolling his eyes. "I thought he was mine too." Hermione's eyes flicked down to Ron's clenched fist as he spoke with such hatred and bitterness. "And look at what he did to me."

Hermione's chest constricted as she eyed the barely visible black circles around his eyes and the few cuts and bruises that were hardly noticeable if you didn't pay much attention to it. She knew that if it weren't for magic, he would have looked much worse. How could Harry do this to him?

"You better be careful around that git."

Hermione's eyes snapped towards his blue eyes, her eyebrows meeting together in sudden rage. "That's rich coming from a guy like you." She snapped. "You were my best friend!" She bit her lip before adding, "...and boyfriend." She let the word hang. "Now, look at what you did to me." She snapped as she brought her palm up and sent it flying towards the ginger's cheek. "Now, leave!" She shouted as she grabbed for the door knob and tried to slam the door as hard as she could.

"Ow!" The redhead yelped as Hermione failed to close the door. Hermione's eyes fell to the ground to see a black shoe sticking out, preventing the door to close. Frustrated, Hermione kicked Ron's foot off and pushed the door.

"Leave me alone!" She screamed, running for the couch she had been previously sitting on. She grabbed a pillow and buried her head in it, muffling her scream. She heard her name being called out from upstairs, her heart beat grew faster against her chest as she lifted her head from the pillow, knowing that it was her parents. She must have alerted them awake with her scream. What a pathetic mistake that was. Oh, what was she going to do? She couldn't let them see her like this. And besides, she didn't want to explain to them. She didn't want to explain to anyone. She wanted to be alone.

A loud and harsh knock came from the other side of the door. Brilliant. Ron was still there. And obviously not in the best of moods judging by the way he practically banged the door. She couldn't let her parents see him as well. Oh, the things her parents would do to him. She couldn't let that happen. What Harry did was already more than enough, even though it was completely unnecessary. Hermione stood, making her way to the door with hurried footsteps as she threw the pillow aside.

She closed her eyes and with a shaky breath, she opened the door and yelled. "Leave! Just leave!" She ordered. "Run or apparate away, I don't care. Just leave if you don't want anymore bruises on your freckly face!" She screamed at him as she could hear her parents shuffling to get out of their room. It won't take them long now. And Ron didn't seem to plan on leaving just yet. Oh, how she hated this stupid and stubborn ginger!

"I won't leave until we properly speak-"

Hermione groaned, obviously irritated at him. "Ronald Weasley!" She screamed as she flailed her arms all around her. "Stop being so bloody cliche and just leave!"

"Promise me that we'll-"

An audible crack cut off the rest of Hermione's ex-boyfriend's sentence. A small figure appeared out of nowhere, holding a bottle of... was that a bottle of firewhiskey? "Kreacher?"

The house elf brought his head up to look at Hermione. "Master asks Kreacher to bring firewhiskey to Miss Granger." A wave of fury washed over Hermione as she bit her lip. No, she couldn't afford to lose control. Her parents were now descending the stairs and they didn't have much time.

Hermione grabbed the bottle off of the elf's small hands and ordered. "Fine!" She snapped. "But get Ron out of here." She ordered before adding. "And don't. Bring. Him. To. Harry. Understood?" The little elf nodded as he grabbed the ginger's arm.

Ron looked outraged. "I am not going anywhere!" But it was too late as Kreacher started to concentrate.

"And tell Harry that he's a git!" She screamed just before another audible crack filled the room. Hermione let out a breath to calm herself and find peace even just for a few seconds. But her muscles tensed not long after as her name was uttered once more with her mother's voice.

No. She couldn't do this. She just... She just couldn't. Her chest ached as her heart beat rapidly, her panic starting to overwhelm her. Tears started to form as her mind raced. She couldn't apparate. No, that would be too risky. She couldn't think clearly, making apparating the worst decision she could ever make in the current situation.

So, she ran.

"Get your hand off of me!" Ron screamed as soon as another crack sounded. "And leave me alone!" He ordered as he fumed. How dare this elf take him away from Hermione?

"Yes, sir Weasley." Kreacher bowed with a small smile on his face.

He groaned in frustration as he looked around. "Wait-" He said as his eyes grew. "Where am I?" But he didn't get to voice out his question in time; Kreacher had already left with a loud pop. "Kreacher!" He screamed. "Where did you take me?" He looked at his feet. Sand. He looked away. Sand. He looked at his back. Sand. At his right. Sand. At his left. Sand.

The bloody elf took him to a desert! And most probably in the middle of it, too. "I'm going to kill you, Kreacher!" He screamed even though he was well aware that the elf wouldn't be able to hear him.

Oh, how worse could his life get? He got into a stupid affair. Hermione found out and broke up with him. His best friend beat the hell out of him. And now Kreacher had left him in this bloody desert! Who knew in which desert he was? He could be in the other side of the world! Of course, transportation would be easy as he could simply apparate away. But his mind found it hard to concentrate. As stupid as other people thought of him, he was not that stupid to apparate while unfocused. After all, he had already experienced getting splinched before.

He let out a breath. He needed to focus and concentrate. He needed to relax his mind or else he wouldn't be able to leave. And he better do it fast, it was scorching out here.

A/N: 1300 words! Hope that's not too short? I'm sorry if it bothers you that my writing style changed. It has been at least half a year. I am bound to improve in that amount of time. And to those who read my other fanfic, The Lies of Our Past, I decided that I would not be updating that for a while until I have finished this one. Hopefully it would make things easier for me to write. I'm sorry to those who do read it though. Anyway, hope you enjoyed this! And tell me what you think through a review!