The Crystal Trap

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.

Prologue: Retrospective Awakening.

To show the fly the way out the bottle? Break the bottle.

The world of dreams is a funny and changeable one. It can show you your heart deepest desire or your worst fear. It hides the greatest of secrets and truths. And it's there for you to hold, every night. What you are, what you desire, what you fear; everything within your reach.

You must only stretch you arm out and catch it.

If you really want to know, that is.

He couldn't with all his might distinguish who she was, but he knew he would die for her without thinking twice.

"Life is so ephemeral..." His lips curled into an evil smirk. He slided a rough hand trough the girl's delicate throat. One of his sharp nails cutting her porcelain skin. His movement drew a fine red line of blood from which flowed a single drop. The drop slipped down her neck to the valley of her breasts and disappeared underneath the white silk dress. His cat-like eyes never leaving the young man in front of him. "... so fragile."

"Don't-!" He shouted urgently moving forward instinctively, but he stopped dead in his tracks. His mind regaining it's control over his body, determined not to lose his composure.

This was it. He knew this was the final battle. Good against evil. Light against darkness. Order and chaos. A matter of life or death. No such thing as draw ever possible. He had knew long ago this day would come eventually. And he had thought he was ready. But he wasn´t.

If at least she wasn't here.

Like in fairy tales. The damsel in distress had been kidnapped and the knight in shinning armor had come to her rescue. Only this wasn't a fairy tale, this was a living hell.

Every muscle within his body taut and ready fighting the urge to protect her. He knew this was no moment for heroisms. The consequences were far too dangerous to be ignored. His pulse was racing by the second and his hair was sticking to his neck and forehead damp with sweat. The possibility of losing it all too real.

"Let her go!" He demanded at the top of his lungs. "She has nothing to do with this! It's me who you want! You have me right here!" Harry threw his wand away violently. "Here you have me! Let her go!"

Voldemort removed his hand from her throat and grabbed tightly her small chin. His other hand pulling her head back by the hair. Even thought he couldn't see her face he knew she had closed her eyes tightly in pain and fear. She left out a muffled cry. He heard her erratic and laboured breathing. Her chest going up and down quickly gasping for air.

"Are you telling me what to do?" Drawled the Dark Lord's hoarse voice. "I think you are not in position to give me orders, are you?"

"Alright," He nodded tentatively, trying to avoid his wrath. "Just... Just take me in her place. Think about it; It's me who you wanted from the beginning." He pleaded in a trembling voice. He pulled himself together trying to make sense. This had to work. "Take me instead of her."

"Harry don't...!" Her cry was cut off as Voldemort tightened his hold on her with new strength. "Uh," two tears of pain and helpless slipped down her cheeks.

"How moving!" Declared Voldemort sardonically. "Really moving indeed..." he trailed off thoughtful. "Tell me Potter, Do you love her?" he inquired. "After all, you have proposed exchanging your own life for hers. You'd do anything for her. She must be very important to you."

Harry didn't know if he liked the sudden turn of events. He looked at her alarmed and he felt her eyes upon him. At that very instant he knew the answer without doubt. "I love her." he stared meaningfully at her. "I love her more than I love anything in this world."

"Ju, just the same as your stupid father." the dark wizard seemed satisfied. Just by the look on the boy's face he could tell she was everything to him. "Just as stupid." he repeated slowly. There was a short pause. "Beg to me." snapped abruptly. "Beg me, for the life of the woman you love."

It didn't seem like an empty threat to him.

Harry didn't waver as he knelt before the man who had killed his parents and indirectly his godfather, who had tried to kill him on many occasions, who was threatening the woman he loved's life. He didn't care about revenge or pride as long as she was safe. Finally his forehead touched the tiled floor "Please, I beg you; let her go. Please, please, free her." His voice cracked with emotion.

"Um," He pretended to ponder over the situation. "You have convinced me Potter. You really have. So, I'm gonna set her free." Suddenly Voldemort let her go and pushed her toward Harry.

Harry looked up and felt as if someone had hit the air out of him. He saw in slow motion as Voldemort raised one hand and aimed his wand at her."No!!" He screamed and broke into a run to reach her in time. But he didn't seem to run enough fast.

God... Please. No.

"I'm gonna free her, straight away." Sentenced Lord Voldemort. A flash of green lightning went out Voldemort's wand and knocked her down from behind.

He saw her falling down slowly as a lifeless doll.

He saw her inert body hit the floor.

He fell upon his knees beside her and felt himself like dying at that very moment. She wasn't breathing. With trembling hands he reached out to her shoulder and turned her face up. Her body stirred to one side languidly. He saw her white dead face.

He screamed.

"Hermione!!" He yelled sitting up with suddenness on his bed. He looked around his surroundings. The room was dark and the sheets were wrinkled under him. He picked up his rimless specs from the small mahogany nightstand and put them on. Beside him, Ron was snoring loudly in a deep sleep and everyone else seemed immersed in a placid slumber. He recognized the place: the boy's dormitory at Hogwarts. No one had heard him.

He was soaked with sweat, panting and his heart pounded against his chest madly. He was dazed and confused. He stared at his own hands, where he had taken hold his best friend's dead body, for a while. The boy stood still for a moment trying to clear his thoughts. Then it hit him; it had been just a nightmare. This was reality.

It had been a dream. Only a dream.

Hermione was safe.

A wave of relief crept over him like an electric shock. Suddenly realization came over him, the girl in his dream had been Hermione, all along. He frowned thoughtfully. What did that mean? But he put the dismissed the thought hastily. Probably nothing. He thought to himself, after all it was only a dream. He was just worried for his best friend. He pulled the covers up round his head trying to sleep again, but the uneasiness and anxiety wouldn't disappear.

He hadn't developed the power to keep the visions away yet. Could that have been some sort of premonition? The future? It could even be happening at this moment. He felt sick. What was he thinking? It was official. He was going paranoid.

He resolved to light a candle and do some homework to make time. Homework? Wonderful, now he was sounding just like Hermione. He thought with a disbelieving smile. Hermione. Yet again. What was wrong with him lately? He sighed and turned around to look at his trunk where his invisibility cloak was, but turned back again shaking his head.

Not. even. think. about. it. Potter.

It was nonsense. There was no reason to do it. Better to get started with the homework. He lit a wax candle up with an impromptu incendio charm. Immediately, a dim circle of light lit the blackness of the bedroom up. He took his quill and ink pot out of the cherry wood desk, dipped the quill into the ink methodically and brought it closer to the sheet of parchment to start writing down. Just that he didn't.

Besides, Harry thought. What was he to say if she ever wake up? He could just imagine it. Hello, perhaps you are wondering why I'm observing you in the middle of night. Don't worry, I'm not a psychotic or nothing. I just happened to dream about you all of a sweat in a white silk dress and me declaring you my undying love for you. Oh! but don't worry we didn't do that I woke up before. Yeah, that would quite cover it.

He started to write down in his parchment, but ten minutes later he had rewritten the first sentence over forty times. Harry left the quill unceremoniously on his mahogany desk with a big sigh finally giving up. He blew the candle out, took the invisibility cloak hastily and sneak out of the dormitory as silently as he could.

Just a little peek.

This is crazy. Thought as turning the doorknob.

He has used the same old plan. He had used the invisibility cloak to wander freely around the castle without being seen. Simple but effective. It was a classic. He had lost count of the times the three of them had used it. But this time it was different. No matter how he tried, he wasn't able to get rid of the sense of guilt. A discomforting feeling was nagging at the back of his mind. And it was really getting to him. He had repetitively used it without any remorse. But this time it was something different.

He knew he was stepping on it. Whatever 'it' was. He was walking over a fine line, but didn't dare to look down. This was no normal. An ordinary friend didn't spy on his friends at night. But then, when had things been normal in his life?

Taking a deep breath Harry walked trough the dark ebony double doors of the girl's dormitory. He was violating the intimacy of her room.

No turning back now.

The first thing he noticed was the order which reigned over the room. While the boy's dormitory was a jumble of clothes and tons of books resembling a small-scale chaos; the girl's was the accurate definition of what a dormitory should be.

Some chairs were evenly distributed along the spacious room. And two velvet armchairs were in front the fireplace. All in all, it formed a fairly cozy and homely environment.

There were two bunks of quilted red covers in which slept four witches totally unaware of the male in their room. Four identical desks were placed against the opposite wall. But just by taking a look at them he could say which one belonged to Hermione.

On it's top a pile of books and a stack of written parchment sheets were neat and tidy ordered. An only heavy book, dripping bookmarks, laid opened. He closed the book and his lips drew a nostalgic smile as his fingers caressed the golden letters printed on it's cover; Hogwarts an History.
Something caught his eye; a portrait of a younger Ron, Hermione and himself beamed and waved happily. He remembered clearly when that photo had been taken, it was at the end of first year. So many things had changed since then. Harry sighed loudly and turned around slowly.

The moonlight filtered through the ajar bay windows, lighting the room with a ghostly splendor. Harry walked across the room to Hermione's bed.

Harry drew back the curtain with one hand and felt like dying. Right there and right then. He gasped for air. She was beautiful. Has she been that beautiful always? Could he have been that blind all along?

He took the invisibility cloak off cautiously as to no wake her up, sat down on a chair beside her bed -fortunately Hermione got the bottom bunk- and lent over her to watch her close up.

Hermione didn't have an exuberant or lascivious beauty but she was naturally pretty. She had a radiant smile and big brown eyes which more often than not showed compassion and worry for him. She understood him beyond words.

There was something, Harry thought, revealing and amazing about watching someone while sleeping, or maybe it was just Hermione. He reached out and removed a few unruly locks from her peaceful angelic face. She always was fighting to tame it but he secretly adored it. Instead of drawing his hand back to its place when he'd finished, he kept it caressing gently her soft skin.

He realized he had difficulty breathing.

He stared at her face, her eyelids were closed, and he wished she would wake up just to see her pretty cinnamon eyes. There were a few freckles in the bridge of her nose. And her forbidden lips were luring and attractive. What the hell was wrong with him? There was just a reasonable explanation. He was going mad. He was going complete and utterly mad.

"Tell me Potter, Do you love her?" Voldemort words still echoed in his mind. Was she important to him? Absolutely; Did he need her? More than air; Did he love her? Of course; How?... That was a question he wasn't ready to answer; at least not yet. "I love her," He had heard himself in the dream. And then what?, What if he had fallen in love with her best friend? What would happen?

The truth was he was dead frightened. He lacked courage. He laughed mentally at himself. He could face Voldemort without flinching and yet he couldn't build-up the courage to explore his own feelings.

He was pathetic.

The only thing he knew for sure was that he would before letting anything happen to her.

Harry lent over her even more until hovering mere inches apart. He examined with his deep green eyes the geography of her skin. "Tell me, Hermione..." His voice hardly a whisper, leaning so close to her that he could feel their breath mixing "What would happen...?" Harry closed his eyes shortening the distance between their lips.

Something brushed against his leg, Harry stood up violently and banged his head against the upper bunk. "Ouch,!" he cried out loud instinctively. He quickly cupped his mouth with his hands realizing his mistake. He didn't dare to breath. There's no need to panic. Harry thought in an attempt to calm himself down. But Hermione stirred lazily as muttering something intelligible under her breath. OK, there's need to panic. And then he did what any rational person would do in that situation.

He gave a pretty spectacular jump to the floor.

But he was Harry Potter, The-Boy-Who-Lived, not Neo and it wasn't a pleasant fall at all.

In fact, it was quite painful. Painful indeed.

Crookshanks - that probably had been what had scared the living lights out of him in first place- went through him and jumped on her owner's bed with feline agility. "Fuck!" He said under his breath as he felt the floor searching in the darkness for his invisibility cloak. Why had the invisibility cloak to be so damn... invisible?

Hermione opened her eyes and sat up on her bed. She turned her head left and right looking for the source of noise. Finally after scanning the dormitory, her eyes fell upon the being on her bed.

"Crookshanks?" She asked sceptically.

The deserted castle echoed to the sound of his footsteps. He flew downstairs to his destination.

After running at top speed through the dark hallway, getting past he magnificent columns in quick succession. Harry got into the boy's toilet -safe territory- he turned the tap on and splashed his face with cold water. His chest still going up and down widely, his lungs filling up with more than welcomed oxygen. He lent over the sink, his hands on both sides. stared at his own reflection in the mirror.

What have I almost done?

But no one answered him.

Prologue. End.





-Electrical Storm, performed by U2- A classic.

-Falls on me, performed by Fuel.- Try 'Shimmer' too, you won't regret it.

-Brand New Day, performed by Forty Foot Echo.- A beautiful ballad, one of my favorites.

-Someday, performed by Nickelback.- From his latest album. 'Too bad' from his previous album is not too bad too. Je je =)

-Echo, performed by Trap.- I just love the beginning of this song.


Some recommendations; just thought maybe you would like to know. If you are interested let my know it and I'll keep up with it.

A/N: I'll make this simple;

Reviews= Happy Vicky= Faster chapters

Mathematics are inexorable.

HELP!! SOS! SOMEONE HELP ME!! AND... well you get the point. As you will have realize my mother language isn't English, actually I'm Spanish. And I need desperately someone who can read and correct the mistakes. I'll be eternally grateful to that person and of course, will give her/him the corresponding credit in every chapter.

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... |
______________________

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.