Disclaimer: No I don't own Harry Potter or it's characters -I said it. You Happy?- They all belong to J.K. Rowling. Buuuuut I have all of the story rights and if you make use of them you better have a good lawyer and bla bla bla...
The usual.
Summary: It's sixth year at Hogwarts, and things change when Harry begins to dream unexpected
things that make him see Hermione in a new light. Sometimes, all you ever wanted is what you had had in front of you
all along. Ron is angry, Harry is confused and Hermione is unaware of what's happening. And they are falling. Just
that they don't know it yet. Plots, betrayals and discoveries that will push them to the edge of a Crystal
Trap.
Chapter one: Listening to Fear.
Sometimes we let affection go unspoken.
Sometimes we let our love go unexpressed.
Sometimes we can't find words to tell our feelings.
Especially towards those we love the best.
Up until then things didn't go so bad.
Harry kept tapping his quill down the parchment idly, doesn't paying attention to his homework. He was trying really hard not to look to his left.There a few seats away, were sitting his two best friends. When they had entered the library they had found it almost fill so they had to sit separated ways. Just as Hermione was about to said something Harry quickly volunteered to sit by himself.
He looked out the bared windows of the library to check the big Hogwarts clock. It had been four days, seven hours and fourteen minutes since operation Avoid Hermione Granger had been put into action.
So far, he thought, it had gone quite well. Sure, there had been some suspicious looks and amazed gasps when he had seen Hermione aproaching their table at lunch, had spat the pumpkin juice right back out all over the table and had said in a hight voice "I have something to do!" just before bolting. But the plan was going smoothly. Operation: Avoid Hermione Granger consisted basically in avoiding any direct confrontation with the subject, in this case, Hermione. He didn't bother much the weird looks and the gossips about his bizarre behaviour. After all, he was use to draw attention. Nothing he couldn't take.
Now, he only had to keep avoiding her the last two years untill he left school, then he would have to move to a faraway country like Zimbabwe or something and grieve and wonder over what could have happened if...? the rest of his miserable life. Then his master plan would be fulfilled.
Well, he had never been very good at plans.
Suddenly a snort made him snap out of his thoughts, someone was sitting in the just seconds before empty seat in front of him. He glared at the last person he wanted to see.
"How's everything doing? Preted that I care." Draco Malfoy drawled smugly.
This was the first time Malfoy aproached Harry since their argument at the end of fifth year. When he had imprisoned his father and Malfoy had sworn revenge. He had remained silent from the start of this course, too silent. He had remained into a background. Watching. Waiting for his chance... until now. He knew he was up to something. And felt quite trapped. Like an insect in a cage. But Harry showed nothing. He lowered his head to his parchment and pretended writing something.
"Buzz off. And do me a favor- don't come near me again. Ever."
"Aren't we touchy? I've come to let you know something Potter. I know it." Suddenly Harry felt unconfortable.
"What? You got the results back from your IQ test? You failed?" Malfoy shrugged it off.
"You just should see yourself. You stare at her as if she were some kind miracle. Really pathetic." Draco looked in amusement as Harry stopped writing, still looking at the parchment. He was still. He smiled to himself. "What's wrong Potter? Have I hit a nerve? It's so damn obvious. I'm just sur-"
"Shut up, Malfoy! You don't know what are you talking about." He whispered.
"Do I? Maybe, maybe not." He shrugged. "But, what would Weasley think of this? I think he wouldn't be very glad about it. Or maybe he would. You two are so friends. That way, you would share everything!" Harry clenched his teeth as Malfoy laughted hard clenching his stomach with one hand and hitting the table with the other. As if he had just been told an incredibly amusing joke. Eventually he came to a halt. He wiped the tears from his eyes with his fist as shaking his face. "And What would Hermione say? That's a difficult one..." Malfoy pretended thinking hard taking his chin between his fingers. Then he hit one fist against his palm. "I know it! Let's ask them! Her-!"
"You finish that sentence and you wish you had never born Malfoy. I swear." He cut him off quickly. "What the hell do you want?"
"I told you Potter. Let you know. Let you know that I'm going to do your life a living hell. You won't know how, when or where but you'll know it's coming."
"Why are you telling me now?"
"It'll be double fun." He smirked craftily. "You will be miserable. That will give me great joy."
That Afternoon...
"Hey, Harry!" Hermione ran to catch up with him. It was cold, and her cheeks and nose were pink. He
couldn't help but think she was absolutely adorable. He felt his own cheeks growing pink at the thought. Now she
was walking beside him. "How's everything doing, Harry?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean lately you habe been wandering around de castle as your dog had died after being run over by a car. And I haven't seen you much..."
"I don't have a dog."
"An imaginary dog. Don't take everything literally." She rolled her eyes. He smiled heartily and realized how much he had been missing this. How much he had missed her. Hermione had been his best friend for six years now and he had kept her away from him just for some hormones. He felt very ashamed of himself. How could he even thought in avoiding her for the rest of his life?
"I'm fine. What's killing me is this heroine-dependency." He said.
Hermione pulled a resigned face.
They stayed walking like that in silence just enjoying each other company for a few minutes. Their friendship always had been that way. They didn't need words to undertand each other. And yet, that day, walking through Hogwarts' hallways, he had felt something different. Something had changed. But he couldn't put a word to it. Then Hermione broke the silence.
"Malfoy was talking with you in the library." It wasn't a question but a statement. So she saw them at the library at the morning.
"Uhm-uh." He murmured nonchalantly.
"What's going on between you and Malfoy? I mean... why are you being all buddy-buddy with him?" She
looked confused.
"I'm not being buddy-buddy with anyone, alright. He approached me." He gave her a quick sidelong glance
before looking back forward.
"He did? Why?" She frowned. She was too curius to let it go. He shrugged.
"I don't know. Maybe he thinks I'm pretty." She stopped, giggled and nudged him playfully.
"You are impossible Harry." But she was smiling. He had stopped and was smiling too. In spite of the cold, a warm feeling went through his spinal column to his toes.
"And pretty." He pointed out. She giggled more. From his point of view, there was a lovely Hermione smiling at him in a background of wide stone windows through which the snow was slowly falling. It seemed a perfect Christmas card. He wanted to freeze the moment in his mind and keep the memory in his heart forever.
Their laugh stopped but their smiles remained perennial on their faces. They knew they had to resume their walking but neither of them move an inch, neither of them could. Their smiles faded away. His eyes fixed on her bottomless chocolate ones. And at that instand he was certain that she was the most beautiful creature of this universe and any other.
Harry lifted his right hand slowly to remove a strand of her wavy hair and put it behind her ear. His hand remained there just a second more that it should.
"Thank you." She whispered under her breath without breaking eye contact in any moment. And then in the intensity of the moment he knew it wasn't only him. It was so strong that she had to feel it too. He just knew it.
"Hermione...I..." His voice was husky. "...We..." Hermione didn't flinch. She seemed to be looking for something in his eyes. "...We better go back." He finished.
"Ah,..." Hermione opened her lips to said something but only escaped a muffled noise. She was confused and just for a second he thought he saw sadness drew on her face. But he could have imagine it.
"It's getting late." Harry added.
"Oh," Hermione blinked as if waking up of a dream. "Yeah," She nodded. "Yeah...It's...It's late."
"Well, then..."
She nodded but didn't smile. "Bye, Harry."
"Bye." He said waving his hand a little uncomfortably. Then with a feeling of powerlessness he turned on his heels and headed towards the boy's dormitory.
Hermione looked Harry heading to his dormitory and slowly turned to the opposite way to her own dormitory. She started walking when Harry's urgent voice called her.
"Hermione!" She turned around and saw Harry with a determined look on his face.
"What?" She asked quickly.
Harry opened his mouth but thought better and closed it, then said. "Good night, Hermione."
"Good night, Harry." She smiled wanly.
Later, Harry would wish to be able to turn back in time and say what he should have said that day of winter, in the stone hallways of Hogwarts. But it wouldn't be possible for there are so many chances like starts in the sky, but we can only take a few of them because we, in our blindness, don't see them. And that afternoon, The boy who lived let a chance he could see slip.
Hermione woke up the next morning having slept just a couple of hours. She had kept thinking about what happened in the hallway, or better, what didn't happen. She was genuinely confused about it all. Where had that come from? Hermione as usual looked for a logic explanation. But as not so usually found no one. And it irritated her. Sure she had know their frienship had taken a big step at the begining of this year when Harry had been grieving over Sirius' death. Ron had helped too. But she had been the only one that really had understood and never had give up upon him.
______________________
Four months before...
______________________
It was a warm day of summertime. Hermione walked slowly steeping on the grass still damp with morning dew. The clouds
in the sky were perfect like the ones at the windows screen and the breeze rocked the tree's branches. She walked
passing the gravestones of many witches and wizards as reading their names. John Williams, Jeremy Hopkins, Brittany
Dunn... She Knew no one. All of them had once lived, had once fighted for what they believed in, had once loved
and be loved by someone. One day, she would be there too. With them.
She sighed and stopped just a few steps away from the person squatted before Sirius' granite gravestone. Even though she only could see his back She knew he knew she was there. He always was able to check for her presence whenever she was near.
"What are you doing here?" He asked in a neutral voice without moving.
She shugged the question off, walked towards the graveyard, bent down over it and left a bunch of gardenias. "Hi Sirius," greeted.
There was a lapse of a few minutes in which both of them were silent. Then Hermione resumed talking.
"My mother has a scar in her shoulder." Harry didn't say anything. He didn't know what she meant so he let her go on. She took a deep breath, shut her eyes and proceeded.
"Once, when a was a little girl before coming to Hogwarts I disobeyed my mother while we were visiting my grandparents' farm. There was a lovely white horse that I really wanted to touch. My mom told me not to go near him, but I was too curious to my own good. When she wasn't watching I approached the horse convinced that something so beautiful couldn't do any harm. When my mother realized I had jumped over the fence, she came after me. When I was about to touch him the horse suddenly reared up. But I couldn't move. I was paralysed with fear. My mother protected me with her own body."
She had an unfathomable look on her face and she seemed to be somewhere faraway. She wrapped her arms around her legs in a protective manner.
"That night, my father was very angry and yelled out at me. I cried until there weren't any tears left, but not for my father yelling at me but for my mother. The next day, I were to apologize to her. I asked her If it hurt much. She smiled at me and cupped my cheek with her hand. Do you Know what her aswer was? She said: "Not as much as it hurts to you." Since then, I have had a certain thing with rules."
Hermione had a distant smile that didn't reach her eyes. Harry had known Hermione for five years and very few times she said anything of her family. After this confession, Harry thought he understood her friend a bit better.
"What happened to Sirius was a tragedy. But in spite of all the power you have, You'll never be able to change it." Hermione cupped Harry's cheek with her hand.
Harry looked deep into her eyes feeling that she shared the pain of his lost. He tried to gulp back tears, but his voice sounded broken.
"How can I forget those feelings?"
"You can't. But that's what makes you human." She smiled encouragingly with tears in her eyes. "I know you can't erease the past. But you can't hide from it either, Harry. He wouldn't want that."
"I know." He said smiling back at her. "Thank you. For being here. For have been whenever I have needed it." Now he had a solemn expression.
"Yeah, What would you do without me?" She joked.
He didn't laughed at her joke. "No, seriously. I know I haven't been such a good friend since last year. I-"
"Don't," She cut him off. "Don't apologize. There's no need. I understand."
"But-"
"No."
"I just wanted-"
"Not a word."
"If you could let me-"
"Ah-ah,"
Harry sighed. "You are the more stubborn witch I have ever met. Don't you ever give up?"
"That's one of my better virtues." She declared triumphant, with pride in her voice.
And to that, Harry couldn't help but agreed.
______________________
| End of flashback... |
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She dismissed her thoughts and decided to go to the library to have some read done. It was still too soon to breakfast anyway. She went down stairs and entered the library. There was no one. She had been reading about ten minutes when see noticed a disturbing presence. Someone had enetered the room and was watching her. She looked up to see Malfoy standing in front of her. She resumed her reading as if he were trasparent. He took the seat in front of her.
She sighed loudly irritated by his presence. Why did he have to take the seat just in front of her? The library was completely empty. She continued reading for a few minutes, feeling she was being watched. Eventually she couldn't bear it anymore and lifted her look.
Malfoy was brazenly obseving her, and what was most disturbing; he didn't have any book, parchment or nothing to that matter on the table. She opened her lips to ask What are you looking at? But she bit her lower lip. This was his game. And she wasn't to go along with it. She was way too intelligent for that. She wouldn't give him the pleasure.
She collected her belongings quickly and left the room in a rush. He following her with his eyes. When she disappeared behind the door Malfoy smiled inwardly as looking at the book she had forgotten over the table. The cover read as follows: Hogwarts, a history.
This was gonna be so much fun.
Hermione walked in to the canteen and went directly to her usual spot between her two best friends, who were already eating. She dropped her rucksack carelessly over the table and began to help herself with some pancakes quite abruptly. Harry and Ron looked at each other confused.
"Are you Ok?" asked Harry a little afraid of upseting her.
"I'm perfectly fine Harry. Why wouldn't I be fine?" She continued helping herself pancakes on her plate.
Ron frowned. "Are you eating all that?"
Hermione suddenly seemed to notice the mountain of pancakes. But she answered nonetheless "Yes, I'm starving."
She took the fork and when she was about to eat noticed Malfoy smirking at her. She winced and dropped the fork on the table. "I have lost my appetite."
"What-?" Harry started asking but she had taken her rucksack and was already gone. He goggled as she rushed out of the room. Then turned to Ron.
"What was that?" But Ron had already started devouring Hermione's plate.
Hermione had just exited the dining room. When she realized her rucksack was lighter than usual. She stooped dead in her tracks. And looked frantically for the book missing.
"Are you looking for something Granger?" Drawled a voice behind her. She turned around and saw Malfoy holding Hogwarts, a history.
Oh great. She thought annoyed. What have I done to deserve this? I must have been really bad in another life.
"Give it back to me, Malfoy." She glared.
"Which is the magic word?" He said in a sing-song voice.
"Now."
"What a temper!"
"Give it back to her Malfoy." Harry voice snapped from behind. He was a few steps away from them.
"Oh, the hero has come. Sound the trumpets." Malfoy turned amused. "And what are you gonna do if I don't?"
Harry glared. "I'm-"
"Harry stop it! I can handle it alone." Hermione sighed tiredly. "Malfoy could you give me back my book? Please?"
Malfoy smiled smugly, gave her back the book and bowed dramatically. "As you wish." He took her hand in both of his and kissed it, his eyes fixed in hers. She was to shoked to react. Harry put himself between Hermione and Malfoy protectively. He seemed ready to kill him. Malfoy just threw him a defiant look that said: Stop me if you can Potter. and walked off just like that.
The day went on as usual until last hour. They had history of magic, and in sixth year they shared the class with slytherin. As always most of the class were sleeping.
"...The Greek fire was magically altered to be immune to water by a witch called Hermione Murphy. Anyone knows who was Hermione?"
Hermione was about to lift her hand when the teacher spoke. "Malfoy?" She turned around and saw Malfoy had his hand lifted. He winked at her and she turned back quickly wishing no one had seen it.
"In mythology, she was daughter of Helena of Troy, abandoned with nine years when Helena fled with Paris and started the war of Troy. In Greek the word herm means 'pillar'. Hermione means "Pillar Queen", she is the woman round who everything revolves. That woman who, by herself, has to be the axis."
Hermione didn't know why but she was blushing red tomato. Next to her Harry seemed ready to spontaneously combust. The class ended and Hermione went out as quickly as possible Harry following near behind.
"Didn't you like my speech? I did it to impress you." avoice drawled from behind Hermione and Harry turned around.
Hermione just wanted to cry out frustated. "Look I don't know what you are up to and I really don't want to know it. So just stop following me around Ok?"
"I can't," He declared "I decided, you're my girlfriend."
For a moment everything went silent everyone froze. Just then Harry yelled "That's it!" and knocked Malfoy over.
Chapter one. End.
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Mathematics are inexorable.