The hall was silent. The conflicted face of Hermione Granger was briefly illuminated, then plunged into darkness again as she walked through a pool of torchlight. She thought back on the events of the past few hours.
~*~
"What were you doing up there with her?" Lavender screamed. Ron's face adopted a look of horror as he realized what this scene must look like to his girlfriend.
"No – it's – it's not like that at all!" Ron stuttered. He looked at Hermione with a pleading look. As much as she wanted to help him, Hermione couldn't suppress the hope that perhaps, if left to its own devices, this situation might just put an end to Ron and Lavender's relationship. So instead, she shrugged and went to leave the common room. As she did so, she caught sight of another argument taking place right by the portrait hole.
"Dean, I'm getting sick of this! When you're not arguing with me about something or other, you're acting like I'm too fragile to open doors myself!" Not wanting to get in the middle of Ginny and Dean's row, she slipped silently past them through the portrait hole.
~*~
Hermione had spent most of her time since then in the library, until curfew time when Madam Pince had irritably shooed her out. She had not, however, gone back to the common room; she hadn't wanted to take the chance that Ron and Lavender's fight was still in sway. Instead, she wandered the halls, feeling the clash of emotions inside her that the study of well-past-N.E.W.T.-level spellbooks had put off. Foremost among those was guilt. As much as she had secretly longed for Ron to break up with Lavender, she hated to be the source of any pain he felt. Only slightly less prominent was, of course, satisfaction. There was no way for her to stay guilty for an unreasonable amount of time when the possibility of her and Ron getting together existed, a bright spot on her horizon.
Her thoughts turned to Ginny's fight with Dean. She wondered whether it had ended and, if so, what the outcome had been. Ginny had told her, during one of their many late-night discussions in front of the common room fire, how their arguments had been getting more and more frequent. She had also confided to Hermione that Dean had been getting more and more possessive; the other day when she had asked a boy in her Potions class about their homework, he had taken her aside and furiously asked who he was. Even after she had explained that he was only an acquaintance, whenever Dean caught sight of him he gave him a warning glare and pulled Ginny closer to his side.
As Hermione walked past the Charms classroom, she was jerked from her reminiscences by the soft sounds of someone sobbing.
Her curiosity aroused, she walked back a few paces until she was again standing next to the door to the Charms classroom. She silently opened the door a crack. The yellow torchlight spilled into the room, falling upon the tear-streaked face of Ginny Weasley. She looked up at the sudden illumination, and immediately stifled her sobs. Almost angrily, she reached up and wiped her cheeks on the sleeve of her robes.
"Ginny?" Hermione's voice was soft, but she flinched nonetheless. Hermione closed the door and walked into the room, stopping as she reached the desk where Ginny sat. "Are you all right?"
"I'm fine," Ginny replied in a muffled voice, turning her head away from Hermione.
"Was it Dean?" Hermione asked quietly. And then, quite suddenly, all the barriers Ginny had put up when Hermione entered the room crumbled, and she was crying more loudly and desperately than before, and when Hermione reached out and put an arm around her, she hadn't even the composure to shrug it off. Instead, she turned toward her and buried her face into her shoulder. It took her another minute or so for her sobs to slow, and when the tears ceased she pulled away from Hermione.
"I can't believe I broke down like that," she said with a slight hiccup. "I can't remember the last time I've cried."
For a brief moment, Hermione considered saying something like "It's okay to cry sometimes," but immediately realized that this course of action was not the way to reach Ginny, who she knew would shut down immediately the moment she said something that hokey.
She instead asked, "What happened?"
Ginny drew a shuddering breath, and said, "It was really stupid. He helped me into the common room, and I told him not to. Then we started arguing, and it just got out of hand. In the end, he hit me." She closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them and resumed the story. "I told him that if he was going to do things like that, we were through. Of course, then he got all apologetic and begged that I forgive him, but I just walked away. That's what he always did before, whenever I confronted him about the way he'd been behaving. He would be defensive, but then he'd say he was sorry and swear never to do it again. He always did, though."
"Oh, Ginny. I'm so sorry." Hermione made sure her voice was not too sympathetic, for she knew that Ginny wouldn't respond positively if it was. At the moment, though, Ginny seemed beyond saving face.
"I'm kind of glad it's over now, actually. I told you, he's been treating me horribly." The laugh that followed this was shaky and absolutely devoid of humor.
Hermione thought carefully about what to say. "Perhaps there are other good things about you ending it with Dean."
Ginny looked up. "What do you mean?"
"I've noticed Harry eyeing you lately."
Hermione heard Ginny's sharp intake of breath beside her. "Really? Are you serious?"
She chuckled. "No, I'm just saying that to get your hopes up, so that you'll feel more miserable when you find out that I'm lying. Yes, of course I'm serious."
Ginny wiped her face, bathed in the moonlight filtering in from the high window, on her sleeve again. When she raised her head, she had a radiant expression on her face at the thought that after all these years, after all the indifference Harry had shown toward her, he might finally return her affection.
"Remember what you told me, back in my third year, that he would love me if I stopped acting nervous around him?"
"It worked, didn't it?" Hermione asked with a smile, which – she was happy to see – Ginny returned. She yawned, and Hermione suggested, "I think we'd better get to bed."
As they got up together, Ginny said quietly, "When I started going out with Dean, I never imagined that he would do any of the things he did. He seemed so quiet and nice."
Hermione patted her on the shoulder. "That's behind you now. Dean won't give you trouble any more." Ginny smiled shakily again, and walked over to the door. She opened it, and light pooled once again on the floor. As first Ginny, then Hermione stepped into the hallway, blinking at the sudden light, Hermione couldn't help but think that perhaps this marked a new, hopefully happier time for both of them.
Beginnings by liquid_silver
Chapter Notes: A/N: I'm not really sure that this is a Dark/Angsty fic, but it's the closest category I could find.
Ginny and Dean both act OOC, but their actions are addressed.