Chapter 11
It was as though his heart had been ripped out and thrown on the floor; the bloody organ pumping the leftover fluids rapidly and staining the already grimy surface. It was a bit graphic, but that was how Harry felt at the exact moment that Weasley had come up beside her and grabbed a hold of her waist. The first thing running through his mind being Get you paws off, she's mine! But then, he stopped. She wasn't his. Sure, they were becoming increasingly close, but that didn't mean he had a claim on her. But he couldn't help but notice the tug in his gut as soon as he saw her; and the fast rate to which it dropped to his feet when he saw who had come to stand beside her.
He made his chat with her (and, unintentionally Weasley) short and sweet, setting the time for their session tonight and throwing in a few sarcastic comments to rock Weasley off his knocker. It earned a chuckle from Hermione, so in his mind it was worth it. But he still couldn't get that word out of his mind. It was like liquid poison. It felt like it was being etched into his brain with a rusted knife. Again, a bit dramatic, but that was exactly how it felt. Those two syllables were their own killing curse.
Girlfriend. She was Weasley's girlfriend.
He tried his best to calm down. Surely, there must be some explanation for this! Hermione wasn't the kind of girl to jump on the `I've-hated-this-guy-for-as-long-as-I-can-remember-but-now-I-find-him-sexy-as-hell-and-want-to-shag-his-brains-out' bandwagon. He liked to think of her as the kind of girl to jump on the `I-like-you-you-like-me-and-I-still-haven't-forgotten-about-our-kiss' one instead.
Whoa, he thought to himself, where in the hell did that come from? He dismissed it, though, as he saw Hermione get up and leave her seat. It took him a second to comprehend that class had ended. By the time he did, though, the professor had shooed him off and he had to rush off to his next class. Had he really been thinking about the situation for that long?
Divination was next. The class he had been stuck in since third year and tried desperately to get out of. But, Draco had made him keep on signing up for it. To him it was entertainment to see at least three people a week get a prediction of death in their tea-leaves, one of whom was always Harry, even after Moldyshorts was gone. To Harry, however, it was the one time of the day where he could really think about things. It was only a blow-off class, anyhow. And he really needed some thinking time.
He arrived in the fire-warmed classroom and took his normal seat. Draco acknowledged his presence briefly before turning back into a conversation with Pansy Parkinson, the known Slytherin whore who had been trailing him since Merlin-knows-when. Harry took out a few books to feign being actually in-tuned too what they were doing and set his head atop his folded hands and tuned out the entire class. The voices faded and the faces blurred, he was in his own state of mind.
This strategy worked… for the most part.
"Ah, I see young Mister Potter is in the beyond! He has the look of the inner eye about him! See how his eyes are glazed over? That is the inner eye coming forth from his pupils! What do you see Mister Potter?" The excited voice of Professor Trelawney spoke, shaking Harry from his thoughts and causing him to look into her magnified eyes and stutter.
"I… uhh… I'm going to die. Yeah. I'm going to suffer a horrible and painful death by cause of…" He glanced at the quill beside him, "ink poisoning." He quickly looked back up and kept eye contact with her until she erupted into a smile, seemingly satisfied -elated, even- at his answer.
"Yes, just as I suspected. You are marked for death again this year, Mister Potter. Unfortunate… very, very unfortunate, yes. Pity." She walked away, muttering incoherently to herself. She didn't look like his predicted death was unfortunate. Yet again… she did believe his ink poisoning excuse. That caused Harry to shake his head with a silly smile on his face.
Harry felt a playful punch on his shoulder and turned to face Draco openly laughing at him. He couldn't help but laugh with him. It was pretty damn funny. They didn't even stop laughing until they saw the professor return and pretended to be engrossed with the crystal ball that was at the middle of their table. She smiled at them while she passed and continued observing the class.
"Nice save there, Harry." Draco complimented as he adjusted his seat on his pillow.
"Thanks." Harry answered. Now that the moment was gone, it was time for the tenseness to set in. Draco was acting as though they were old friends again, which struck Harry as odd. Not even a day ago, he was preventing him from "going to the library". What was he playing at?
"So, did you hear about Granger and Weasley?"
Harry did his best not to punch him. That was the one topic starter he refused to remain calm about. But he tried. "Yeah"
"I mean it's about fucking time, right?" he asked, smirking.
Harry's brow furrowed in confusion, "What do you mean?"
"Oh, come on. Their sexual tension was enough to drive anyone insane."
"Oh yeah, sure. If you call Weasley groping an unwilling Hermione sexual tension; I'm sure she just wet her panties over that." Harry said sourly. He didn't care that he was coming off as annoyed, he was and there was little Draco could do about it.
"Oh, come on, you're not hung up on that bird, are you?" Draco said with a sneer. "It's just the Gryffindor mudblood, what's so special about her?"
The fire in Harry's stomach was growing rapidly. He wanted to tear Draco's head off. But he wouldn't for sake of his sanity. He didn't want to become homicidal just because of stupid, slimy, Draco Malfoy… his former best friend. But he was also Draco Malfoy, the guy who made Hermione avoid him for reasons that were completely unorthodox to him… and the guy who was supposed to believe that he and Hermione were still not on speaking terms.
The sake of Hermione's safety sedating his anger, he took a deep breath and calmed himself. "No, I just think that they're a bad match is all. I mean, him hitting on her and she completely blowing him off seems pretty legit to me."
Draco snorted and leaned forward on the table, "You really don't know women, do you? She was just playing hard to get is all. And Weasley was just showing his affections, though I can't imagine why."
The urge to bite his head off returned. "Why are we even talking about Gryffindor's anyways?" He asked through clenched teeth, opening his book and feigning to read a passage,
"You're right." Harry let out a relieved breath as he continued to scan the page. "Let's talk about sex." Harry just rolled his eyes as he pretended to listen to his bitching for the rest of the class.
~*~
The day went by rather quickly and soon Harry found himself sitting at the Slytherin house table consuming an overlarge
drumstick. The whole time he was glancing over at the Gryffindor table, torturing himself by staring at the arm around
Hermione's waist. Every time he looked over there, he thought her back would tense up. But he was probably
imagining it, getting his hopes up. Why would she be tense around her… boyfriend?
He dismissed the wandering thoughts when they entered his mind. Her love life was none of his business. He was purely
her friend and shouldn't judge her choices, even if they did affect him in the slightest of ways.
In the middle of one of his "subtle" glances, he heard the hall begin to quiet. His attention was drawn to the front, where Dumbledore was standing at his podium and looking down at the students with a small smile on his face. It was a rare occurrence when Dumbledore would make an announcement in the middle of dinner. They were usually at the beginning, before the food even appeared on the table. The last time that happened was at the Triwizard Tournament. Harry's ears perked up when the hall became silent, anticipation pouring throughout his body.
"First off, I would like to thank you all for the quick response." He said with a smile. "The announcement I would like to make is in result of your truly exuberant behavior in regards to the decrease of violence in our school. So I think it appropriate for you to give yourself a hand." Harry clapped along with the other students, more so because he knew that wasn't the only thing Dumbledore had to announce. He just wanted Dumbledore to get on with it. He wasn't one to be wrong about these things.
After the applause died down, he continued, "Secondly, I would like to reward you for your behavior with a Seedtime Gambol." The whole hall seemed to be confused at his announcement. People began to mutter around him, asking their neighbor about what it meant. Harry sole a glance at Hermione and saw that she looked horrified. She looked as though she would vomit. Was it really that bad of a reward? Dumbledore cleared his throat loudly, silencing the hall once again. The whole hall was hanging on his word. If Harry didn't know better, he would've thought that the sick old bat was enjoying it.
"In other words… a Springtime Ball that is to take place in one week's time. Further information will be posted in your common room tomorrow morning."
He could hear the girls begin to shriek with delight and the guys groan in protest. Save for Neville of Gryffindor, who was fighting hard not to grin with delight. Harry was one of the majorities of males. He did not enjoy dances. Not one bit. He thought they were finished with those poor excuses for a social event with the Yule Ball! He practically stomped his date's feet off! And he knew that he would have to get a date in order to fend off the crowd of girls that usually fawned over him. A name automatically came to his mind and he glanced over to her seat, but flinched as he saw Weasley give her a wet smack on the lips. Of course they would go together, what was he thinking?
He looked down at his watch and choked on his chicken, it was six-fifty. He quickly packed his stuff and left his table, ignoring the eyes that followed him out. He wasn't one to lose track of time, especially since he usually didn't eat much during dinnertime. Damn thoughts running through his damn head had gotten him all screwed up.
He arrived at the library with two minutes to spare and took a seat at "their" table in the secluded corner. He would be lying if he said he hadn't had some suggestive dreams having to do with this closed off area. It was the only part of the library where Madame Pince actually had to make an effort to come and shoo you out of the corner at its closing time. Very private.
It was a full ten minutes before Hermione got there. But when she did, Harry was too engrossed in working on their script that he didn't notice until she sat down next to him. The waft of her lavender perfume made its way to his nostrils and caused his eyes to wander over to where she sat. Her face was already buried in a book, but her hair look more frizzy than usual. He didn't want to make any assumptions, so he just ignored his observation.
"Well hello to you too." He said to her.
Her face lifted up from her book and she smiled feebly at him. "Hi."
From what he saw of her lips, he caught sight of a slight pink, puffy tinge to them. His stomach dropped for the umpteenth time that day. They were a couple, of course they would snog. "So I figure about another two weeks on this project and we'll be good as done. We might want to consider casting a few supporting roles to help it along as well."
"Yeah, sounds good." She said, not lifting her head this time.
If Harry didn't know better… he'd think she was avoiding him. He immediately felt as if ice water was being poured dawn his back. It was as though she were a magnet for trouble. Just last night, they were talking as if they had known each other for years, engaged in a chugging contest! Now she was blowing him off? What the hell was this broad's problem?!
Whoa! He scorned himself, Calm down Sparky. You don't know that she's avoiding you. She's here isn't she? If she were avoiding you, she'd be rushing out of here the first chance she got.
"You know, I really should be heading for bed." Hermione said as she picked up her book bag from its place on the floor. "I'll see you tomorrow at the same time." With that she sped off, leaving Harry in a confused rage. She really was avoiding him! And after that long talk they had, the flirts they exchanged… she was fucking leading him on!
Stop it, STOP IT! His mind screamed at him, you know Hermione far too well to let yourself believe that bollocks! She obviously has something bothering her. And since she was fine last night, it must have happened after you dropped her off.
There was only one way he could get the answers he was seeking. There was only one person who knew Hermione so well and cared for her well-being so much that she would do anything to help her. Ginny Weasley.
Lucky for him, he caught her on his sprint to Gryffindor Tower. She was about to enter the portrait hole when he called out her name and caught her attention. She smiled gently at him and walked over to where he was near the corner of the corridor. He pulled her hand gently and led her into the shadows, knowing full well what the reaction would be if they were seen talking in the hallway.
"What's up, Harry?" She asked quietly.
"Look, I know something else is wrong with Hermione." Through the darkness of the shadows, he saw a pained look on her features, confirming his allegations. "I need to know what it is so I can stop it."
"It's already started, Harry. I don't think there is much we can do."
"It would help if I actually knew what was bothering her." He hinted.
Ginny sighed and looked around the corner, checking for any eavesdroppers that might overhear their exchange. Seeing none, she spoke quietly but firm. "Ron came up to her last night and blackmailed her into going out with him."
Harry sucked in a pained breath, as though he had been punched in the stomach. "I knew there was a reason for their sudden… you know." Ginny nodded in understanding. "What was the blackmail?"
"See that's the thing… I don't know. She refused to tell me. But she did say that it was enough to make her change her views on the situation and give in. Now she did tell me that he threatened also to tell the headmaster about your broomstick ride, to get the both of you expelled."
"How did he know about that?"
"He was waiting for her in her room."
"The bastard" He muttered.
Ginny nodded in sympathy. "To think that it's my own brother putting her in misery makes me sick."
"Well there has to be some way to get to her; to tell her that I don't give a shit if I get expelled or not."
Ginny and Harry then stood in silence, each thinking of ways to do just that. They wracked their brains for any small plot to get them the answers they needed to help Hermione out of her hell hole. It didn't prove an easy feat, unfortunately. They both couldn't think of anything remotely of any significance until Ginny looked up at Harry and saw the pained, concentrated look on his face. That was when it struck her.
"Oh my God, I've got it!"She squealed.
Harry looked up into her overjoyed eyes and smiled. "What's the plan?"
She leaned into him and whispered the plan into his ears. He hung on her every word until she pulled away slowly, studying his face for any sort of reaction. "And you think that'll work?" he asked.
Ginny nodded fiercely. "She won't be able to resist the pheromones."
Harry smirked and gave Ginny the tightest embrace he could muster. He was confident that in a week's time this plan would make Hermione's trouble's melt away. And maybe… just maybe… help him as well.
A/N: Sorry for the long update! I've been lacking creativity lately and hope that you fine people can forgive me! I would like to thank you guys for the ah-mazing reviews They truly bring a smile to my face and I just love hearing your feedback! I'm so glad that this story is getting your attention! Please continue to leave the amazing reviews and hopefully I'll post the next chapter soon!
-Shar
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