Hermione tried to be more like herself over the next few days. She found it increasingly difficult as both Ron and Harry were avoiding her like the plague. Ginny wasn’t much help either; she kept asking what was wrong with her and Ron. Hermione spent a lot of her time now up in the room at the top of the house with Malfoy. He still hadn’t woken up, moved or in fact shown any signs of life at all. If it weren’t for the fact that he was breathing Hermione would have sworn he was dead. Nobody else, except perhaps Mrs Weasley, came up to the room at all. Hermione spent hours alone, thinking, and enjoying the silence rarely heard in the Weasley’s house. Crookshanks often came up and lay on Malfoy’s bed to keep her company. He just sat and stared at her and if she spoke he would blink or nod his head as though he was able to understand what she was saying. She was comforted by his presence, though it didn’t help that Ron still hated him and she had a sneaking suspicion that Harry shared the same view. She didn’t see much of them anymore; they were always gone whenever she went downstairs. They left the house early in the morning and came home late at night. It hurt her that they wouldn’t talk to her; for all she knew they could have found and destroyed all the Horcuxes by now. When Harry had come back from ‘visiting’ his aunt and uncles house he had been even more determined about killing Voldemort than ever. Apparently his aunt had told him something about his parents that had brought his hatred for Voldemort to a new level.
One night, a few days after her fight with Ron, Hermione stayed up to await the two boys’ arrival back. Mrs Weasley normally had some food ready for them and so remained awake to feed them and let them in, as the back door was always locked. Tonight, however, they had sent word that they had already eaten so Hermione had insisted on sitting in the kitchen and letting them in. Plus, she was sick and tired of being ignored. She hadn’t been waiting for more than twenty minutes when the sound of footsteps from outside reached her ears and there was a soft knock on the door. Hermione pulled her wand warily from her jeans pocket and walked quietly to the door. Her wand still held at the ready she took a deep breath and whispered;
“Who’s there?”
“Harry and Ron.” The answer floated back, no more than a murmur on the wind. “It’s okay, Hermione, it really is us. Ask us anything you like.” Hermione thought hard, searching for a question that would determine the identity of the voice.
“What was Lavenders nickname for Ron?” she settled on finally, grinning in spite of herself.
“HERMIONE!” she heard Ron shout, as Harry roared laughing. The door-knob rattled as Ron tried to force his way in.
“Answer the question!” Hermione told him firmly, pushing herself against the door to stop Ron breaking it down. There was a lot of muttering and when the answer came it was so quiet Hermione could hardly hear it.
“Won-Won.” Hermione grinned as she imagined the look on Ron’s face.
“A little louder please, I can’t hear you,” she teased.
“WON-WON!” Ron yelled furiously and Hermione collapsed against the wall laughing. “There, I said it. Now will you let us in!” Still clutching her sides, Hermione unlocked the door and sat down in a chair, breathing heavily. Ron and Harry entered the room and sat down opposite her, closing and locking the door behind them. Harry was grinning and kept shooting sideways glances at a fuming Ron.
“Nice question, Hermione,” Harry said smiling at her. Ron shot daggers at her, causing the other two crack up again. Ron didn’t manage to keep a sour face for long; he couldn’t help smiling as he watched them laugh themselves silly, tears of mirth streaming down their cheeks. Finally Harry straightened up and, after wiping his eyes, announced he was going to bed and bade them goodnight. Hermione and Ron sat in a comfortable silence for a few minutes.
“Ron, look, I really am sorry about the other day,” Hermione said eventually. “I didn’t mean to hurt you; I was just…surprised, I guess.” She glanced at Ron to check his expression. She was lucky; it was forgiving.
“Hermione, don’t worry about it,” Ron replied looking her straight in the eye. “Forget it.”
“No,” Hermione said, hurriedly. “I shouldn’t have pulled away - I mean I didn’t want to pull away “ I mean,” she faltered. “I just did.” Ron smiled at her understandingly and the warmth in his smile told Hermione that she was forgiven.
“It’s okay. Let’s just forget about it,” he said. Hermione smiled back, her heart swelling with happiness.
“Okay, let’s.” She yawned suddenly. “I think I’ll go to bed now, goodnight.” She got up from the table and then, screwing up her courage, swooped down and kissed him lightly on the cheek. After that she practically ran up the stairs and it wasn’t until she reached the top that she glanced back at him. When she did, it was to see him sitting there, a dreamy expression on his face, the tips of his fingers touching the spot on his cheek where her lips had touched him. Before she turned away she saw his lips move silently as they formed the word.
“Goodnight.”
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Voices heard very often now. And still nobody’s there. And more purring. Since when did he hear cats purring inside his head? And that voice! He knew it. It was so familiar, but who was it? So many questions. So few answers. His mind was muddled and he was pretty sure his brain had gone on holiday. Or run away. Most likely the latter.
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Hermione got up the next morning, her heart almost bursting with happiness. She had made up with Ron. They were friends again. She had kissed Ron Weasley. Well, sort of. It wasn’t really a kiss but at least her lips had made contact with some part of his face! Merlin, Hermione, she told herself, You’re absolutely hopeless. Not that it deterred her. On the contrary, she leapt out of bed and skipped downstairs, whistling ‘Oh! What a Beautiful Morning’. Harry and Ron were both downstairs when she arrived. She and Ron were smiling at each other so much that Harry began to shoot them suspicious looks. The trio ate breakfast as fast as they could and then escaped up to Malfoy’s room where they could talk in private.
There weren’t many places to sit so they had to improvise. Harry and Hermione sat cross-legged at the end of Malfoy’s bed while Ron took the chair. They all agreed (and indeed it was true) that there wasn’t enough room on the bed for him. Once they were all seated Hermione asked the question she had been dying to know the answer to since “ well, for a while anyway.
“So?” she said, breaking the silence. “Did you find anything out about the Horcuxes? Or R.A.B?” At this, Harry and Ron looked extremely sheepish. Harry fiddled with the bed covers, avoiding Hermione’s eye.
“Well, er, actually, Hermione, we weren’t, well,” Harry seemed to be struggling to find the right words and looked up at Ron for help. “You see, we weren’t actually, er, really looking for the Horcuxes or R.A.B at all.” By this time he had become extremely interested in his fingernails and was gazing at them fixedly. Hermione stared at them incredulously.
“You mean to say that you have been out for every day this week and not been looking for them?” Her voice was a threatening whisper and Harry and Ron nodded, looking nervous. Hermione stayed outwardly as calm as ever.
“So,” she said, her voice still deadly quiet. “What were you doing if you looking for them? Where were you?” Both boys avoided her accusing eyes.
“We were at Fred and George’s shop,” Ron said eventually. Hermione’s mouth opened and closed several times but words escaped her. At this stage the boys were looking very scared, to say the least, and kept glancing around the room anxiously for any means of escape. Finally Hermione managed to speak and there was a forced calmness about her voice that was more terrifying than if she had shouted.
“I’m not going to get mad this time,” she said, still glaring at them. “Because I know you won’t do it again. But if you do,” she added threateningly. “Merlin help you, I’ll do Voldemort a favour and kill you both.” The boys nodded apprehensively but after seeing that she was finished giving out to them looked slightly more relaxed.
“It’s okay, it won’t happen again, promise,” Harry assured her quickly, sounding relieved.
“Fine,” Hermione said, allowing her gaze to become less hostile.
“Oh yeah, we found out a few things about other people at Hogwarts so maybe it was a good thing “” Ron began but Hermione cut across him.
“Don’t even try to convince me it was for any unselfish reason,” she said, crossing her arms. “Because it won’t work. What did you find out anyway? Is everyone okay?”
“Well, Fred and George haven’t heard anything about anyone we know getting hurt. They’ve been speaking to a few people when they come to the shop,” Harry said. “Did you know they bought Zonko’s?” When Hermione shook her head Harry continued. “Yeah they said it’s great. Everyone’s been buying anything that might protect them from the Death Eaters. The Shield cloaks and hats are all sold out. It’s crazy. Oh, and Hermione, guess what,” Harry suddenly laughed. “Luna Lovegood and Neville Longbottom are going out too!”
Hermione smiled. “Wow, I bet they’re an odd couple.” The three of them laughed at this and before long they were pairing off their friends to various other people. Then talk turned to Bill and Fleur’s wedding. The three of them would have stayed upstairs for longer if Mr and Mrs Weasley hadn’t come up to them with Professor McGonagall, Remus Lupin and Healer Manken. Manken was in a bad mood and poked and prodded Malfoy so hard that Hermione wouldn’t have been surprised if Malfoy bore the bruises for the rest of his life. When Manken announced that there was no change in his condition they all went downstairs for dinner. However, Hermione noticed that Manken seemed very puzzled over Malfoy. He wasn’t dead (‘unfortunately,’ Hermione thought), he wasn’t faking and he didn’t have any obvious illness. Nobody else seemed bothered so Hermione pushed the thoughts to the back of her mind and left them there.
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There was silence for so long and then noises. Shuffling, breathing and then talking. Three voices. Voices he knew. Then it clicked. Granger. Potter. Weasley. If his voice had been working he would have yelled. But he couldn’t. All he could do was wait and hope they wouldn’t notice him and go away quickly. His ears adjusted to their voices and he was able to hear their conversation. They were talking about people in his year. Merlin, what was the world coming to? They were on the brink of war and these three were discussing people love lives. And after that they were off again about Bill and Fleur getting married. Who the hell? And then more people came in. Well there was lots of footsteps, talking and heavy breathing. Someone was in a bad mood. But they just talked and left. No fighting. What a disappointment. Life can get so boring. If this is life. It always comes back to that question, doesn’t it? Stupid thoughts. Shut up. Anyway the people left. And then there was silence. Again. Damn this place.