The Mess
It'd been all of three hours. In that three hours, everybody had been walking around on their own, including our trio. We just needed some alone space, some privacy to gather our thoughts about this 'curse'. If what Snape said was true, and there was no cure, we'd be stuck like this for seven days. Seven days is a week, it's 168 hours, it's 10080 minutes and it's a lot of honest arguments between friends and couples.
Screw up of the century.
Unfortunately, the lone space wasn't going to be happening in the evening. Because the weekend was a Hogsmeade weekend, everyone was staying up late to finish any coursework or homework due in the next week. Which meant that all of us were downstairs in the Gryffindor common room revising and flicking through books together.
Ron and I were sat at the smaller desk in the back with Hermione and Lavender, flicking through very large textbooks. Ron managed to write a few sentences down on his parchment before throwing his quill down.
"I'm nakard," he stated, yawning very loudly and stretching his arms out.
I saw Hermione's eyebrow raise before she replied, "Not in the literal sense I hope."
Ron looked utterly confused before Lavender chirped in pleasantly. "It means 'sexually tired out', love."
"Not half," Ron replied, yawning again. "I'm surprised you're not Hermione."
Hermione shook her head lightly and sighed. "Because me and Harry have been going at it like hormonally imbalanced bunnies? Or because I'm having an illustrious affair with Justin behind Harry's back?"
Ron looked shocked at once, his jaw dropped to floor and his eyes were as wide as saucers. "Did…what…did you
hear that, Harry?"
"Yep," I replied with a smile, adding to Ron's already addled brain.
"And you're okay with that?" he asked again.
I laughed, as did Hermione and Lavender.
"Don't be daft, Ron," Hermione chided with her quill, stabbing him in the nose with the feather end. "If I were really seeing Justin, I'd have the decency to end it as soon as possible and then see a doctor about my mental health."
"Sorry," Ron mumbled. "It's hard to tell who's telling the truth or just being
sarcastic."
Yawning again, Ron leaned his head down on the table.
"Ron," Lavender turned to Ron. "Can I have a look at your Divination coursework?"
"Why?" Ron asked lifting his head from the table. "You're better at it than me."
Her eyes widened like mine had before I admitted something… "Because I want to start a bloody conversation with you that doesn't involve sex." And that, my friends, was a brilliant sarcastic cover-up of the truth by Lavender Brown.
Ron rolled his eyes and took his Divination book from his bag. He opened it and took out a few scrolls of parchment, handing them to Lavender. She read each sheet and made noises of disapproval after each one. Finally she turned back to Ron.
"Ron! How can you expect to pass with this? This is rubbish!" She exclaimed looking over the scrolls of scribbled out words and tiny drawings of spiders in the corners.
"Well that's a compliment coming from trash," Ron mumbled aloud, but not quite as quiet as he'd
expected.
Hermione grabbed onto my arm as Ron spoke and clutched it for dear life. We watched Lavender stand up, fire blazing in her eyes and slap Ron across the cheek with all the strength she had in her.
"I can't believe you, Ron," she said, sounding as if she was about to cry.
Without another word, she threw the parchments at Ron and stormed up to the girl's bedroom. Ron's head hit the table again as he groaned. Looking around, there weren't many girls actually left in the common room anymore.
There weren't many boys either. Come to think of it, Ron and I were the only ones sitting with a girl apart from Dean who was sitting with Parvati…wait…nope, she just slapped him and walked out as well.
"Good grief," Hermione said as she watched Parvati stalk out of the common room and up the girl's
stairs. "I feel so unappreciated."
She was smiling with amusement when Ron lifted his head and looked at her quizzically.
"You haven't given me an excuse to slap either of you," she continued with the smile. "I feel
slightly unappreciated. Am I that nice and pleasant?"
Ron grunted, "You wish."
"And I've just got nothing bad to say," I smiled, leaning back in my chair and resting my arm on the back of Hermione's protectively.
Although, it was a split second before she regarded me with an unbelieving look. "Okay, either you know a counter-curse to Veracity, or that comment was extremely sarcastic."
I shook my head and shrugged. "Nope, can't think of a thing."
"Oh come on!" she demanded, throwing her quill down and turning to face me properly. "There's got to be something you don't like about me. My hair, my eyes, my nose…anything!"
"Your hair's gorgeous, your eyes are perfect and your nose is cute," I replied. "What do you expect me to say?"
"That you despise the way I am and never want to see me ever again!" she shouted.
It took a second for her to realise what she'd said and slap her hand over her mouth. She shook her head as if in denial of what she'd just said aloud.
Ron looked extremely shocked, sitting back in his seat and his eyes wide again.
I just felt hurt.
"Is that…um…really what you expected…me to say?" I asked, my legs ready to break into a sprint at any second. I just needed to get out…just to go.
"Mmmph," she replied, her hand still clamped securely over her mouth. From the way her eyes squinted shut after that, I could tell that she'd said yes.
I stood up, knocking the chair back a little. "I…err…need to get some air."
@@@@@@
"This stupid, bloody stupid, stupid potion," I repeated to myself over and over again as I looked over the
Quidditch pitch. Sat in the Gryffindor seats, I could see all around the green.
A sigh, "Shame there's no antidote, isn't it?"
Ron gave me half-smile as he sat down next to me, handing me a bottle of butterbeer and uncorking his own, letting
the head fizz over the top before slurping it. "Well, I think we should do the only manly thing I can think
of."
"What's that?" I questioned taking a swig of the drink.
"I think we should owl Sirius and ask him about it," Ron replied. "The Marauder's had to have
come up with something clever to get them out of a truth potion."
"No," I laughed. "We should use old fashioned avoidance."
"Ha ha," Ron laughed sarcastically. "Locking ourselves in a broom closet for a week won't really work."
"I'll owl him tomorrow then," I concluded, yawning.
"Seriously, you shouldn't just run out like that," Ron said. "Hermione…well, she kinda bolted it up to her room after that. I tried to go up to check on her, but Ginny was already in there. No dice."
I sighed. "Is that really what she thought I'd say? Am I really that stuck up about her?"
"You do kinda have a goofy disposition when she's around," Ron replied, throwing his cork up into the air and catching it again.
"Disposition," I smiled. "A big word for you, mate."
"Thank you," he said admiring the word he'd just used. "I try, I try."
After a minute I thought about Lavender. "Aren't you bothered about Lavender?"
"We're always arguing," Ron replied. "We're just not right for each other. We never stop
arguing, she's a none stop critic…we're just not compatible. Plus, Trelawney says that we're 'A match
made in Heaven', so you know we're not gonna last 'till the end."
I laughed. "Why do I feel like I'm diagonally parked in a parallel universe?"
"In all honesty," Ron said, furrowing his brow. "I have no clue whatsoever."
@@@@@@
Up in the Gryffindor Head Girl dorm, Hermione was pacing around on the floor, so much so that Ginny was sure a dint was forming. A long Hermione's Feet shaped dint.
"You're gonna make yourself feel sick," Ginny said, sitting back against the headboard. "Or give
your legs a good workout."
Hermione shot Ginny a glare, a glare which basically said, "I'll hex you six ways from Sunday if you interrupt my train of thought again with something stupid."
"Okay, sorry," Ginny muttered. She had to do something to help Hermione. Ron had come up before but Hermione had insisted that both Harry and she needed some space without each other, just to clear their heads a little.
"You've pulled through worse with him," Ginny stated, sitting on the edge of the bed and toying with one of Hermione's many open books balanced on her trunk.
Hermione stopped in her footsteps and hugged herself, wrapping her arms around herself protectively. "When Ginny? We've never had something like this happen. The worst argument we had started off about you and Draco…and now…"
She buried her face in her hands. "What am I going to do, Ginny?"
"In all honesty Herm," Ginny shook her head. "I don't have the foggiest. But then again, it's
not like you and Harry are going to break up after something like this. Harry isn't the type to dump you because of
some stupid argument about basically nothing."
"But it wasn't about basically nothing!" Hermione replied. "I told him, to his face, honestly,
that I thought he was stupid for going out with me. That I thought he hated me."
"And do you think that?" Ginny asked.
Hermione breathed. She managed to get a normal breathing speed again and thought. "I don't know what I
think. I'm all…jumbled up right now."
Ginny sighed and lay back on the bed. "Just talk to him, Hermione. What's the worst that could happen?"
Hermione scoffed, "That's exactly what Voldemort said to Professor Quirell. Just trust me, Ginny, some things are better off unsaid."
Ginny stood up and walked to the door, opening it slightly. "And some things are better off said."
@@@@@@
Hermione sighed when she walked into the bathroom. She looked at herself in the mirror and surveyed the internal and external damage her tears had caused. Water streaks had run down her cheeks and her eyes were bloodshot.
"It's not obvious you've been crying," she told herself as she splashed cold water onto her face.
She grabbed hold of the burgundy towel lying on the towel rack and dried her face. Taking in another sigh, she left the bathroom and closed the door behind her.
Not knowing where she was going entirely, Hermione walked into the Gryffindor common room only to find Harry sitting quietly in front of the fireplace. He was staring into the flames and breathing heavily on the odd occasion.
Hermione took a few steps forward and sat down on the sofa near to harry. Since he hadn't detected her presence, she unclasped her hair at the back of her neck and let it fall down over her robes. She watched Harry shift a little and cross his legs beneath him, still looking into the fire.
Taking a deep breath and a chance, she thought. "I'm sorry."
Harry did an almost jump and turned to face her, his face wasn't bearing his usual smile. "You hurt me, you know."
Hermione nodded. What could she say? No, she didn't? She didn't mean it? She could never mean something like that? No. She couldn't lie to him. She's said the truth; it's been the truth all along. "I'm sorry."
Harry stood up and moved to sit next to Hermione, resting his hands on his knees but still looking into the fire.
"I guess I can't call you a liar, can I?"
She laughed, even though she didn't mean too. "No, I guess you can't."
He moved a little more, putting his arm around the back of the sofa and moving into her a bit, hugging her closer to him with his actions. "And I guess I can't stay mad at you forever."
"I guess not," Hermione smiled, knowing where this was going.
She smiled as he kissed her, slowly, sensually and sweetly, like it was the first and the last time they'd ever kiss. Harry pulled away slowly, keeping his lips near to hers.
"So, why don't you and I, smile, kiss…" Harry kissed her again. "And forget about it for tonight. It's done; it's all over. And we have tonight."
"Hmm," Hermione tried to say as Harry kissed her again. "We have tonight."