~*~Best Friends- Ch. 4: Right Where You Want Me~*~
It was about three days later when I realized I couldn't avoid Harry forever. I hadn't talked to him since after Viktor visited, afraid what he might say about what happened in the Common Room. That one little kiss had confirmed what I didn't want to believe: I was in love with my best friend. There was nothing I could do about it, nothing I could say, nothing I could think, the facts still remained. It killed me, it really did, to know that I could never have him the way I wanted, even if he felt the same. I couldn't, I had lived with him like a brother for seven years- or was it less?
Less. I had began developing non-sisterly feelings for him since, third year, I believe. Yes. It was as we were rescuing Sirius that I realized it. But now...this was out of control! Just push the feelings away, Hermione, I said to myself as I walked out of Charms.
It was as I looked up from my feet that I saw something that made me loosen my grip. Harry had just walked around the corner, and was walking my way. He waved, and I felt my books starting to slip from my hands.
Before I knew it, Harry was by my side, taking some of the articles weighing down my hands. "Thanks," I laughed weakly. I stopped momentarily and straightened out my books, tightening my arms around them to keep them from falling again. He looked at me, his brow furrowed.
"Are you alright? You sound weak," he said to me. As he asked this, he took some more of my books, obviously thinking I was ill or something. Though it felt great not carrying around so much, I shook my head and took a book back from him.
"I'm fine," I reassured him, still shaking my head. "Just tired, is all. I've been up late-"
"Studying for N.E.W.T.S., I know," Harry finished my sentence, taking the book I had stolen from him back. "I saw you pouring over a book at three o'clock in the morning when I went in the Common Room to send Hedwig off," he explained at my questioning glance. "You really should get some sleep," he advised me as we walked.
"I know," I sighed. "But you're one to talk," I shot back, looking at him. "And just who is this mysterious person you're sending letters to at three in the morning?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
"None of your business," he laughed. Seeing my mocking glare, he came clean, "It's Remus, I've been owling him back and forth for about a month," he said, not looking at me. I could tell he wasn't lying, but he was hiding something.
"Uh-huh," I said, my brows still raised. "Bumbletrut," I said, looking at the Fat Lady as we approached the Common Room. "And may I be so bold as to ask what you've been writing about?" I inquired as Harry stepped aside, allowing me to go in first. He was such a gentleman. I set my stuff on a table, getting out a quill and some parchment.
After setting the rest of my belongings down, Harry ran up to his dorm and came back with his broom. "Up for the Quidditch pitch?" he asked.
I shook my head. "Nah, I'm going to send a letter to Mum and Dad," I told him, showing the quill and parchment. "Plus, it looks like you're going to get rained on. Maybe another time?" I asked. Wow, I had actually had a normal conversation with Harry. No weirdness at all. Wow.
He nodded. "Sure. If your done before it gets dark or rains, feel free to come on out," Harry invited, walking out the Common Room. I sighed as the scent of his cologne tickled my nose. After regaining my train of thought, and remembering what I was going to do, I headed out the portrait hole, leaving the quill and parchment behind.
A good four minutes later, I was sitting on a window ledge in the Astronomy Tower, looking out over the lake. I let out a deep sigh. He was over me. I should be happy, shouldn't I? I never have to worry about a romance with him ever again.
I closed my eyes and massaged my temples. Aw, Granger, you need to get your life together, I thought to myself. There are plenty of other guys besides Harry, choose one of them!
I lost track of time sitting there, just thinking of life, my future, and of course, Harry. I actually found myself softly singing a bit of a Muggle song called Listen to Your Heart. "I know there's something in the wake of your smile..." I sang in a whisper, looking over the grounds. Harry, I assumed, was at the Quidditch pitch already, as I hadn't seen him walking across the grounds as I had everyone else.
Right after I thought this, the gray clouds let out all the rain they were holding in, making students run through the doors to safety. I smiled a bit, laughing to myself. I could picture Harry on his broom, practicing in the pouring rain. And I had to admit...he looked good.
I sat there, sticking my hand out of the window, feeling the rain splatter on my fingertips. I let out a deep sigh, wishing I could let the rain wash all my troubles away.
As the rain beat against the stone of the building, I felt myself fighting to stay awake. My eyes, feeling like sandbags, began to fall, no matter how hard I tried to keep them open.
The lack of sleep was catching up with me.
And in the worst place too. If I were to dose off, I would surely fall over the edge of the tower, and plunge to my untimely death. The sad thing was, even as I thought of this, I couldn't force my eyes up. Just as I was drifting into a sea of blackness, I heard the door swing open with a loud thud. My eyes shot open.
Draco Malfoy had come just in time to perhaps save my life.
That is...before he tried to take it himself.
"Look here, the Mudblood Granger sitting all alone," he sneered. He looked at my position, precariously perched on the edge of the tower. "Finally realized it's past time to do yourself in?"
"Sod off Malfoy," I responded, stifling a yawn. I hugged my arms, turning my attention towards the rain-covered grounds to my right. I took a deep breath, trying to get myself fully awake before shifting to more of a sitting position.
"Tut tut tut," Malfoy said from the door; I could hear the smirk in his voice. "You don't have you're boy-toys with you this time, Granger, so I'd be careful if I were you, which luckily, I'm not."
I rolled my eyes, a tad bit angry. "First of all, they're not my 'boy-toys' as you call them, and secondly, why should I be careful? The worst you can do is hex me, and trust me," I said, my voice softening as I thought about my current battle, "I've been through worst pain."
"Then I'm sure you won't mind this," he snarled, pointing his wand at me. In a quick action of reflex, I reached for my wand, only to find that it wasn't there. Wonderful.
Within the blink of an eye, I was on the floor, withering in pain. I heard an oddly distorted scream, and was horrified when I realized it was coming from me. The pain was horrible. It felt as though my skin was being punctured by thousands of prickling white-hot knives. So this is what the Cruciatus Curse felt like. I suddenly had an all new respect for Harry, that is, if it was possible to respect him more. After what seemed like eternity, I felt the pain somewhat lift, my screams subdue, and my breathing became ragged.
I felt weak. I had to support my weight on the cold stone wall as I unsteadily stood up. I glared at the blonde across the room, who was smirking the entire time he had me at his mercy. I opened my mouth to speak, but couldn't form words; I was too weak. I shook my head in disgust.
"Is the Mudbwood to tiwed to tawk?" He spoke to me in baby voices. "Let me help," he said maliciously, flicking his wand in my direction.
I felt a sudden jerk in my spinal cord, and next thing I knew, I was being pulled back, over the edge of the stone tower. I could feel the cold pellets of rain hitting my face, forcing me to close my eyes.
I reached my arms out, hoping, praying that I would grab hold of something to keep me from falling forty feet to my demise. And I was in luck.
My arms felt like they were going to be pulled out of their sockets. As I started to plummet to the ground, I had caught the sill of where I had been sitting minutes prior to my encounter with Draco. As much as I willed myself not to, I found that I was looking at the ground, which seemed a million and one foot further down than it actually was. Not wanting to frighten myself more than I already was, I looked up towards my hands. I saw a sneering Draco Malfoy looking down his nose at me.
I knew what he was going to do.
I looked around wildly. Where was a Professor when you needed one? Before I could worry about the lack of professors, I felt my stomach drop out of my arse.
My worse fear had been confirmed, and Malfoy was now plying my right hand off of the stone, and throwing it over the edge. Luckily, I threw it back up there and grasped the cold foundation before I lost my balance, but I didn't know how long my luck would last.
To top the situation off, it was now raining harder than ever, and the rain pacts were weighing me down, as if they wanted me to be gone and out of this life. Everything seemed to be against me today; my luck, the rain, my emotions, and, of course, Malfoy.
I would've screamed, but I couldn't. I opened my mouth but no sound came out. I was scared out of my wits. My hands slowly started to slip, my right one faster, I wouldn't be able to last much longer.
Just then, I heard something like a gunshot, it was the door opening and slamming against the wall. Malfoy, who had been smirking malevolently down at my struggling figure, was too slow. By the time he had turned around, he fell to the ground, stunned.
"Hermione?" I heard someone call my name. Their voice was urgent and worried. "Hermione, where are you?"
Still not being able to speak, I tried to get their attention by hitting the wall. Seeing as I was slipping, I had to regain my grip on the stone. Wasn't that the dumbest decision I ever made?
As I moved my hands, my left one got placed on a rather slippery stone, water all around it. My right one had landed on the sharp edge of a stone, and was currently being cradled at my side.
I was hanging on the building by the tips of four fingers on my left hand. I was in limbo between life and death, and would soon be plummeting to the latter. Well, as Murphy's Law has it, as soon as I thought this, my fingers came sneaking off the damn sill. My stomach clenched; this was it, my final moment. In perhaps thirty seconds, I would be lying on the soaking green grass, my limbs bent at odd angles, my eyes closed, perhaps bleeding a bit.
Who would find me? I prayed it wouldn't be Harry, I didn't want him to suffer more pain than he already had. Who would come to my funeral? Ron, Ginny, Harry, Lavender, Parvati, and who else? Had my life really been centered around those five people? Why had I not made more friends? All these unpleasant thoughts were running through my mind, on top of the fact that I was about to plummet to my death.
I could feel it. I began the Great Descent, I was on my way down.
Or so I thought.
Right as the wind started raising my hair around my face, I felt a strong, determined arm take hold of my wrist. I was staying in one spot, I wasn't falling! I looked up to see the person who had possibly saved me from untimely fate.
Reflected in his glasses, I saw that I had tears on my cheeks and in my eyes. I felt so weak and powerless not being able to pull myself from Death's tight hold on me.
"Hermione, are you alright?" He asked, his eyes pools of concern. "I'm going to try to pull you up, try to walk on the wall or something," he suggested calmly, his voice contradicting his appearance.
I nodded, willing myself not to look at the ground. I felt myself slowly being lifted, my legs slightly dragging against the stone wall. A couple of times I thought I was going to slip, but was kept up by Harry's strong determination.
What seemed like hours later, I was crawling over the sill where I would never sit again. I looked to the ground; Malfoy was still stunned on the floor. If I had not been in such a state of shock, I would've cursed him to oblivion, but I was too shaken to do anything.
"Hermione," Harry spoke softly, lifting my chin up. "Are you alright?" he asked, his voice no longer calm, but panicked.
I nodded. And as though the nod had triggered buckets of water to spill, I broke down. My eyes were like water hoses, and my legs gave out to where Harry dove to catch me. I locked my arms around his neck, burying my head into his shoulder.
He gently stroked my hair, patted my shoulder, and pulled me closer. I was shaking and sobbing uncontrollably, wrapped in his arms. I couldn't believe how close I was to my death.
I was sobbing and shaking, glad that I didn't have to bottle it all up. Harry sat there with me, his arms wrapped protectively around my trembling body, re-stunning Malfoy every once in a while.
After a few moments of silent sobbing, I shuddered, stopping the flow of my tears. Harry looked alarmed. "Let's get you inside," he said quickly, helping me up, his arms still around me.
He shuffled me inside the castle, where the cold air made my soaking figure develop goose bumps. As we walked, Harry would turn around every two minutes or so, no doubt making sure we weren't being followed.
To my surprise, he wasn't headed in the direction of the Gryffindor Common Room. He led me to a deserted corridor, occupied only by a picture of a man trying to teach trolls ballet. What a fruitless task.
"Wait here," he murmured, his arms leaving me for the first time. As he walked down the corridor along the blank wall across from the portrait, I felt a sudden wave of coolness rush over me. I realized that I had been shivering all through the castle, but this was something different. This was an empty coolness. It was because Harry's arms were no longer around me.
He was walking back towards me for the third time, his face screwed up in concentration. A simple wooden door appeared on the wall across from the man and the trolls. Harry ran over to me, taking my hand and leading me towards the door. When I had closed the small gap between myself and the wall, he stood back, opening the door and allowing me to enter first.
"Wow," I said, walking into the room: an exact replica of the Gryffindor Common Room, complete with dancing fire. "Wow," I whispered again. Only this time, it wasn't about the Room of Requirement's capability to transform into a Common Room, but because I hadn't spoken a single word from the time I flew over the Astronomy Tower's sill until now.
Harry closed the door. "I didn't think you'd want to go to the Common Room right now," he explained, standing next to his favourite arm chair. I looked at him from my spot in front of the fire.
"Thanks," I croaked. I looked at the flames licking hungrily at the logs. "How'd you know where to find me?" I asked. The question had been burning a whole in my brain all through the castle.
Harry had a grin on his face. "Well, you see, on my way to the Quidditch Pitch, I made a detour in the Great Hall, and by the time I got out of there, it was already raining. So I went back up to the Common Room, and saw your quill and parchment," He smirked. "I knew you'd be at the Astronomy Tower. That's where you always go to think."
I laughed weakly. "Well, I'm glad you showed up when you did," I said, my voice hoarse, "If you hadn't, well..." I didn't want to finish the sentence, even though we both knew what I meant to say. If you hadn't, I wouldn't be here now.
"No problem," he said. As swift as a gust of wind, he strode over to me and pulled me against him. Being so close made my stomach fill with a fluttering sensation. My skin felt hot at his touch. "Never scare me like that again," he said, his voice breaking a bit. He pulled away and air rushed to fill the suddenly available spot between us. "Promise?" he asked.
I nodded in confirmation. "Promise," A small smirk played on his lips. "What are you grinning at?"
"Nothing, it's just that you have a curl starting to settle," he laughed.
I groaned as I lifted my head to my hair, I just wasn't in the mood to find the rebellious piece of blasted hair that wouldn't stay straight. My brown mane tended to curl whenever it got wet. Harry's hands grabbed my wrists gently, stopping me from correcting my hairdo.
"Come on, don't straighten it, I miss my bushy haired friend. Not that you're hair was bushy," he said, laughing at the dirty glance I gave him. "Please?" he added with a puppy dog pout that I just couldn't say no to.
I sighed. "I suppose I could keep it curly for a few days," I rolled my eyes in mock frustration. "For you I will," I bit my tongue. I did not just say that. "So, how did you know that the Room of Requirement could turn into a Common Room?" I asked, trying to cover up what I said. Had he noticed? I sat down cross legged in front of the fire, palms turned up.
Harry stared into the fire for a moment, as if pondering something. "I didn't know," he said, his voice normal. "I just tried and hoped it would happen," he shrugged, his arms at his sides.
I closed my eyes and dropped my hands to the ground, letting the warmth burn away today's events. I was still cold, but a jet of warmth was sent through my entire body, and I opened my eyes to see what had caused this.
He sat next down next to me, looking around at the dormitory steps, as if thinking we were in the real Common Room and someone might come down any second. I looked at him curiously, but he did not see me. His attention was focused on the couch, as if he was avoiding looking at me. Trying to be inconspicuous, he slowly slid his hand over mine.
I felt the colour rise in my cheeks. My near death experience had opened my eyes to a lot of things, one of them was that life was too short and that you should live life to the fullest. My heart leapt into my throat as my stomach fluttered with imaginary miniature hippogriffs. Averting looking at Harry, I scooted closer to him on the rug, gently laying my head on his shoulder.
I felt Harry stiffen at this motion and for a split second thought I had been to forward and made the wrong move. My heart began beating a mile a minute in my chest as he took his hand off mine and wrapped his arm around my shoulder.
Hmm...Maybe our relationship wouldn't lead to awkwardness, despair, and destruction after all.
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