A/N: Rated PG-13 for some of the language.
Chapter 5: Narrow Escape
“What in the name of Merlin are you doing, Hermione?” Ron asked her, staring at her as though quite unable to believe his eyes.
“They’re called chopsticks, Ron,” she snapped back. She was in no mood to answer Ron’s questions.
“And why exactly are you using them?” Ron spoke again.
“They’re mostly used for eating Chinese food Ron, but Muggle girls sometimes use them to tie their hair”just like Hermione’s doing.” This time it was Harry who replied.
Hermione was indeed tying her hair in a bun and using chopsticks to fix it. She sighed as she fixed her hair, and went back to reading the book in front of her, her eyes slightly bloodshot. Again, Harry found himself staring at her as though she was the most beautiful thing in the world.
“Why don’t you just use a hair tie?” Ron asked again.
“Ron! Will you drop it please!” yelled Hermione. She looked like she was about to curse Ron, so he just left the matter be.
“Fine, ok, I’ll stop asking. I’ve got to go to the Owlery, anyway.” He got up and left the common room, leaving Harry and Hermione in total silence. Uncomfortable silence for Harry, but he knew better than to speak.
They spent the next while doing their homework, now and then flicking a page, and rubbing their eyes. Having finished her own homework, Hermione strode over to Harry and started helping him. Harry could hardly bear having her so close to him and not touching her. But he learned to control his feelings in time. He could hardly tell her that he didn’t want her help, because the NEWT exams were at the end of the year, and without Hermione he thought he’d fail everything.
Ron came back just as they were closing their books, looking highly satisfied about something. He yawned and stretched.
“Guys, would you mind sitting up with me for a few moments? I still have some homework to do,’ he said flopping down onto the couch.
“Well, it would serve you right if we left you all alone! Where were you, anyway?” Hermione asked him, her voice a little aggravated.
“I told you, I had some work to do. Come on, Hermione, please help me out a little,” Ron pleaded.
Hermione took the chopsticks out of her hair, and her hair tumbled down. Unaware of Harry’s eyes on her, she rolled her head and rubbed her neck. She thought it’d be very nice if she just left Ron to deal with his homework alone, but then took pity on him and sat down to help him, even though she was exhausted. Harry, on the other hand, was way too tired to stay up, not to mention reluctant to stay near Hermione for even another moment. He bid Ron and Hermione goodnight and went upstairs to his own bed.
Hermione stayed up helping Ron with his homework, and hours passed before she looked up from her books, because she had heard a sharp tap on the window. She turned around and found an owl waiting for her. Opening the window, she let the owl inside and took the letter from his beak.
“It’s a school owl. I wonder who it’s from,” she said more to herself than anything.
“Well, who is it from?” Ron asked innocently.
“Anthony. Weird though. He has his own owl, why would he use a school one?”
Ron seemed to flush.
“Anyway,” Hermione said, yawning, “I think that’s all we need for tomorrow. I’m going to bed.” And without another word she climbed the stairs to the girls’ dorms and disappeared out of sight.
Days went by and as they entered October, the weather grew steadily colder. There was now hardly a day where it didn’t rain.
Harry could only marvel at how fast the time had gone by. He was shocked that he had gotten through September at all. Besides the ever-growing mountain of homework, he had had to live with the knowledge that he loved his best friend, and yet he could do nothing about it. He had begun spending less time around Hermione and more time cooped up in his dormitory. He was finding it increasingly difficult to be around her and not tell her the truth. He also felt he couldn’t cope with the fact that Hermione’s face glowed after every date with Anthony. Every time he’d think of them together, jealousy would rip through him and more than once, he had either dropped whatever he was holding, messed up whatever he was doing, or when he was laying in bed he’d find it impossible to go to sleep. Over this last month, however, he had learned to master his feelings so that no one, not even Ron, could tell that there was something going on. More than once, Ron had asked Harry whether he still loved Hermione.
The only time his feelings would show, was when Hermione and Anthony were together. No matter how hard he tried, Harry just couldn’t bring himself to look at the pair of them. On these occasions, he’d quickly make up an excuse and leave the happy couple alone. Of course there were also the times when Harry would just stare at her, his eyes ablaze with passion and love, but he tried to restrain from this as much as possible. Other than that, he kept his emotions well hidden and never talked about his feelings, not even to Ron.
On this particular evening he was walking back to Gryffindor Tower, his heart and mind completely occupied with thoughts of Hermione. He climbed through the portrait hole and, as usual, sat on the couch in front of the fire. The common room was beginning to fill up”it looked as though the whole of Gryffindor house was there. Ron and Hermione, however, were nowhere to be seen. Just as Harry was pondering this, Ron himself came out of the boys’ dorms looking very full of something.
“Harry, something awful has happened,” he exclaimed as soon as he was within earshot of Harry, “Hermione’s not here, she’s not in the common room.”
Harry looked at Ron raising his eyebrows.
“And that would be bad because…” he said, not understanding what Ron was so desperately trying to tell him.
“Harry, don’t you know what date it is today?” Ron asked, looking stupefied.
“Why would it mat”oh no, it’s the 15th! No one’s allowed outside their common rooms. Ron, are you sure she’s not in her dorm? Did you have someone check?”
“Yes. I asked Ginny to see if she’s there, and she’s not,” Ron finished emphatically.
Harry had already jumped to his feet and was making straight for the portrait hole, when Ron caught up with him.
“What are you doing, Harry? Are you going after her?” he asked with a look of suspicion on his face.
“Of course I am!” Harry shouted. “Do you think I’m just going to let her get expelled? How on Earth did she not realise what day it was? She’s supposed to be Head Girl, too!”
The conversation hadn’t stopped Harry’s walking. He was climbing through the portrait hole when he heard Ron shout, “At least take your Invisibility Cloak!”
“There’s no time!” he answered back and he was gone.
Ron was left looking at the back of the Fat Lady’s picture. This was really starting to sound like a bad idea. He didn’t want them to get expelled. All he wanted to do was show Hermione how much Harry cared about her. But he’d counted on Harry taking the Invisibility Cloak with him, or the Marauders’ Map at least. This could be downright dangerous. He sighed and flopped himself onto Harry’s abandoned place. He heard someone click her tongue next to him. Turning around he saw Ginny.
“See what you did?” she shouted. “It’ll serve you right if something happens to them!”
“I just wanted to help them out,” Ron said in a small voice.
“There were other ways, you idiot!” Ginny’s was beside herself. “You should have at least told him where Hermione was!”
Ron just realised he hadn’t done that either. He slapped himself on his forehead.
Meanwhile, Harry was tearing through the corridors, trying to find Hermione. He wasn’t thinking of what would happen if was to run into any of the teachers, all he was thinking about was Hermione getting expelled. That changed as soon as he heard footsteps coming his way. He ducked, just in time, behind the statue of the one-eyed witch. Snape’s billowing robes swept around the corner, quickly followed by Professor McGonagall. Harry stayed where he was long after they’d gone”he needed to think. Where could Hermione be? He could hardly search the whole castle looking for her. He tried to focus and something in his heart more than in his mind, told him he could find Hermione at the top of the Astronomy Tower. He started running again, making his way as fast as he could to the top of the Tower.
Sure enough, when he got there, he saw Hermione sitting with her back to the castle wall, her hands around her knees, thinking.
“Hermione!” Harry whispered urgently. “Hermione, what in the name of Merlin are you doing here?”
“Harry?” she asked weakly. “What are you doing here?”
Grabbing her arm, he pulled her to her feet and started dragging her away.
“Don’t you remember? Dumbledore told us they were going to do a thorough search of the castle today, and anyone out of the common rooms would be expelled.” All the while he talked, Harry dragged her along. He saw Hermione clap a hand to her mouth, and he didn’t need to pull her anymore, because she was doing the running herself.
“Oh my gosh!” she panted. “I can’t believe I forgot. I was just…Anthony sent me a letter telling me to meet him here…he said it was important. And…he never even showed up! This has got to be a trick of some kind!”
Harry was too breathless to talk. They both ran as fast and quietly as they could, hoping against hope that they wouldn’t get caught.
“Shit! It’s Filch!” Hermione heard Harry exclaim, and sure enough out of a corner of their eye they saw the caretaker walking towards them. Hermione glanced nervously in his direction, and her heart seemed to lift. He hadn’t noticed them. Grabbing Hermione’s hand Harry led her in the other direction, again trying hard not to make any noise. It was too much to hope that they would get back to Gryffindor Tower without Filch noticing them. He was after all, only a couple of feet away. Taking a few more steps Harry, inaudibly, opened the door to a broom cupboard nearby and got inside, followed by Hermione, hoping to God Filch wouldn’t need any brooms.
It was a tight fit. There was barely room enough for one person, let alone two. Hermione was squished next to Harry, and there wasn’t enough room to even move. Both of their chests were heaving after all the running they had just done, and their breaths seemed to come in ragged gasps.
Already fear was evaporating fast in Harry’s mind, now that he was so close to the love of his life. He wished he could see her face, but it was so dark in the cupboard he probably wouldn’t have been able to see his own hand. All of a sudden, he felt something on his chest and he would have jumped if he could. Hermione had just laid her head over Harry’s chest, wanting to take comfort in his arms. She was not even aware of doing it, but did not seem bothered by it at all. Harry, on the other hand, was going through hell. He would have liked nothing better than to wrap his hands around the girl leaning on him, but he knew he couldn’t. It was lucky it was dark. Harry was glad Hermione was not able to see his face, because he was sure that she’d be scared if she could. His piercingly-green eyes were burning with secret longing, and he was sure he was probably flushed too. As if to make Harry even more uncomfortable, Hermione now placed her delicate hand upon his chest as well. Harry couldn’t handle it.
Don’t, he thought, please, please don’t do this to me, Hermione.
He inhaled sharply to stop himself from doing anything crazy. He fought the urge to run his fingers through her hair, and instead focused his attention on the footsteps outside. Filch was still roaming around and after awhile Harry heard Dumbledore’s voice performing all sort of spells to see if that corridor was safe.
So they stood, in silence, each minute feeling like eternity to Harry. When they were quite sure that there was no one outside, they exited the cupboard, making their careful”and to Harry, agonizing”way back to Gryffindor Tower.
As soon as they climbed through the portrait hole, they were greeted by a rousing wave of welcome. The news of their disappearance had made its way to every one, and they were all happy that their house mates were now safe. Ron and Ginny ran towards them, Ginny hugging Hermione as soon as she was close enough.
“I don’t know what happened. How could I have forgotten about this? It’s amazing…I mean…well…you know me. I don’t usually forget. Anthony’s got me going crazy…” Hermione finished pulling away from Ginny. She glanced up at Harry, whose heart had just dropped in the region of his stomach.
“I don’t know how to thank you for this Harry,” she said looking at him straight in the eye, “If it hadn’t been for you””
She wound her arms around Harry’s neck and hugged him. Harry could hardly take this. It was too much, after everything he had been through today. His hands found Hermione’s waist and he hugged her back. Hermione let go of him, tears in her eyes. Harry was a little more reluctant to release her, but he had no choice since everyone seemed to be watching them.
“I don’t understand why Anthony would do this to me,” Hermione whispered, now turning to the other two. She seemed so exhausted; it was a miracle she could even whisper. “I’m going to have a talk with him first thing tomorrow. This is all he gave me,” she said, giving Harry a letter that was tucked away in her robes.
And with that she took refugee in the girls’ dorms, Ginny right behind her.
Harry opened the letter and started reading. He looked at Ron, noticed that his ears and neck had turned red and a suspicion formed in his mind as he turned his eyes back to the letter.
Hermione,
Please meet me up at the Astronomy Tower on the 15th of October at 8.30 PM. It’s really important you be there. I have a very special surprise for you.
Much love, Anthony
Harry looked up at Ron again, as he realised that he knew that writing. It was clearly deformed, yes, but all the same…Ron was trying hard to look innocent.
“You…Ron, please, please, tell me that you had nothing to do with this!” Harry exclaimed, his voice shaking with suppressed anger, because he already knew the answer.
Ron avoided meeting Harry’s eyes as he made his way back to the couch. Harry followed him.
“YOU IDIOT! Why would you do something like this?” Harry howled. “Do you have ANY idea what was at risk here? WHY RON?”
“Harry, it was for you! So she would realise that you’d do anything for her!” Ron shouted back.
”Bull!” Harry roared. “LIKE YOU COULDN’T COME UP WITH ANY OTHER IDEA!! But this! THIS was the way to do it, wasn’t it?”
“ALL RIGHT! I get the message already!” Ron shouted again, now almost as angry as Harry. “Look, I’m sorry, I know I was wrong. But, come on! It’s useless telling me that nothing happened! Now, tell me, did this change your mind about anything?”
Harry said nothing. His anger at Ron had not abated yet. He felt so angry, he was left momentarily speechless. What gave Ron the right to mess with his life? If he and Hermione had been expelled…but something that Ron had said, did bring something back to him. That he had changed views on something of importance. He flung himself onto the couch. Ron did the same.
Harry had just become conscious of the fact that he could not hide his feelings for ever. He did not want to anymore. He would have to tell Hermione the truth, there was nothing else for it. Another moment like the one in the closet, and he might do something crazy”like grab her and kiss her, which would certainly freak Hermione out a lot more than the truth. Besides, it was torture having Hermione there only as a friend. Even if he did lose her friendship, he would have to risk it.
“Yes,” he whispered, more to himself than to Ron, “I have changed my mind. I’m going to tell her the truth.”