Love and Magick , Blue Moonlight

Blue Moonlight

"Widom is finding truth within all the lies"

It was February, and positively freezing in the Astronomy Tower, but it didn’t look like Professor Trelawney was quite aware of that at the moment.

Harry sighed heavily once more as Professor Trelawney went into yet another one of her famous “callings”, as she preferred them to be spoke of.

She was supposedly entering “a realm of mind in which one could sense everything-the things that have already happened, the things that are happening, and the things that are yet to come.”

Indeed, Harry personally thought that she was going into an uncontrollable spasm. The enchanted fire (which was usually quite pleasant and sleep-inducing, glowing a violent purple) had just gone out. Not that it would be of any use to tell the teacher this.

Harry glanced over at a very bored looking Ron, caught his eye, sighed for the 20^th time that class, then turned back to Professor Trelawney just in time to see her left eye flutter vigorously. Hermione had been smart to ditch Astronomy last year.

Harry's thoughts turned quickly over to Hermione. After 2 hours of abuse called Astrology he much needed a break, and he welcomed the change of mind.

Harry gently thought about how much she meant to him. He remembered the day he asked her to be his. Collecting his thoughts, he played it in his mind like one would watch a movie or TV show.

It was right after they had gotten back from the Three Broomsticks, both of them happy and care-free from 5 bottles of butter beer each. They were walking together by the lake in front of the castle.

It was a beautiful June day and Harry remembered it well. All at one moment, he was aware of the soft grass underneath their bare feet, the light, enchanting scent of an afternoon breeze in late summer, and Hermione, walking so close to him he could smell her.

They had always been flirty with each other, but today was different. Then it hit Harry. That she, Hermione, was the one that he was meant to be with for the rest of his life.

On impulse, he stopped walking, and firmly clasped both of his worn hands around her delicate ones.

Then he said that words that he had repeated over and over in his head so many nights he was forced to spend alone, with no one to hold and no one to hold him;

”Hermione, will you be my girlfriend? Will you be mine?” Her heart spoke when she responded with yes.

It would be their 6 month anniversary in a 5 days, Friday the 25th, and he planned to

“HARRY-WAKE UP,” Ron hissed in his face, disturbing his peaceful train of thought. “Class is over moron, and you’ve slept through the entire thing,” he added, lowering the tone of his voice greatly.

”Oh darn.” Harry thought groggily. “I’ve slept through yet another one of Professor Trelawney’s classes and missed the entire lesson.....oh well.”

It was as if Ron could read his mind, and rolled his eyes while sighing right on cue. His startling read hair seemed to be even brighter then normal today, and Harry wondered if Ron was up to any mischief.

*****
Draco, having just woke up minutes ago, rolled sluggishly out of bed. He had arranged his schedule so that he would not have to wake up with the rest of the school at 7.am. Instead he, being Draco Malfoy, got to sleep in an extra 2 hours each and every morning.

Draco thought of the rest of Hogwarts, waking up at 7a.m., and chuckled merrily to himself.

After prep time in the bathroom (he had to make sure he looked absolutely charming for all the girls who worshipped him profusely) he met with the Gryffindors, and his own house, Slytherin, in the Great Hall.

He met up with Crabbe and Goyle under the green Slytherin banner that hung suspended in mid-air. They had nothing to say, as usual, and Draco turned his attention to the enchanted ceiling. It portrayed dark skies and murky clouds, and you could even smell the sharp scent of air right before a rainstorm.

Draco had always liked the rain. It brought his spirits up, where as most spirits were dragged down by thunderstorms of gloom.

Potions went by quickly for Draco, his favorite subject. He exceeded in that class whether he studied or not, and quite often flat out forgot to even listen to Snape.

After potions, it was time for lunch, and then, since today was Monday, they would have no afternoon classes.

He planned to maybe annoy the other houses a bit, steal down to the kitchens to get some food, and then perhaps anger Granger, and watch her tell him that he was “IMPOSSIBLE “

****
”Harry!” Hermione practically shouted in Ron’s ear, attempting to get Harry’s attention. “Over here!”

Harry grinned as he saw his beloved Hermione, and couldn’t wait to make it across the crowded stairway and into her arms.

In the meantime, Ron was feeling as if he could no longer take the emotional ga-ga going on between his two best friends.

He knew that they would always and forever be best friends, but lately Harry Potter and Hermione Granger had been a little too lovey-mushy for him.

Ron knew why he was feeling this. He had broken up with his girlfriend, Fleur, a couple of months or so ago.

He truly had believed that they had been in love, but she cheated on him with some French guy whose name neither he or Harry could pronounce, and he just had to break it off after that.

Just as Ron shook his head in attempt to free his mind of his evil ex-girlfriend, Harry appeared at his side, and then fell into Hermione’s arms while Ron sighed. HEAVILY.

Draco also caught a bit of the pre-show. Harry and Hermione had a habit of snogging in the hallways nowadays, and Draco found it repulsive.

Every once in a while, Draco caught himself wondering if he was jealous of the two lovebirds.

He disregarded the thought, for he had not been brought up to be jealous, but envious. And he most certainly was not envious of something Harry had.

*****
”How was your day sweetheart?” Harry asked Hermione.

”Fine darling, and yours?” Hermione replied.

”It was O.K.,” Harry implied, still holding Hermione loosely in his arms.

”Well well well, what have we here? Another free snog show, eh? Well, according to Crabbe, if it’s half as good as the one last night in the Astronomy Tower, we’re all in for a bit of a treat,” said a rather cold and drawl voice from behind them.

”Sod off, Malfoy,” Harry replied furiously while Hermione turned a brilliant shade of pink.

”Ah I’m sorry I guess I shouldn’t have disrupted. Now go on, your disappointing your fans.”

”You are a such a loser Malfoy...it’s unbelievable.”

”Ah, that is where you’re wrong Potter. The definition of a loser is one who has no friends. Which, in turn, makes you the loser.”

”Do you ENJOY being hated by every decent person at Hogwarts? Is that your sick twisted idea of FUN? You know what? You’re not worth it-so we’ll be going now!” Harry announced, still enraged at Malfoy.

And with that, Harry, Ron, and Hermione, who had reduced the blushing greatly but was still a little pink in the cheeks, turned and walked out.

Malfory thought for a second, and realized that the whole making-Harry-mad-thing had absolutely no purpose whatsoever, and that Hermione was right-he WAS just decreasing his own popularity.

He started plotting mental strategies to increase Harry’s level of anger next time.

***
Draco valued himself on being able to control his emotions. No matter what happened, he always just let the world pass him by, and he took it to himself to catch up only when he wanted to.

The world could be ending, and Draco wouldn’t notice, let alone care.

He preoccupied himself for the remainder of the day reading a book in the library. This was not often something he did, unlike Hermione, but he had found an interesting book of hexes that he just might be able to squeeze some use out of.

****
Ginny was taking a walk by the lake alone while everyone busied themselves with homework. Being a year younger then Harry and friends, she did not have nearly as much homework as they did these days, she wouldn’t take O.W.L.s for at least another year.

Sauntering slowly along and enjoying the feeling of the wet spongy green grass under her bare feet, Ginny was in pure heaven just walking with nature.

Unlike some, Ginny liked walking alone-it gave her time to reflect on what her life was and all her goals that went along with it.

Ginny remembered seeing Harry and Hermione walking along the lake many-a-day hand in hand, and it made her long for someone to cradle her hand in their grasp.

”That guy has still yet to come.” Ginny silently admitted to herself “And why do I still like Harry? He’s with Hermione......and I know that I’m truly happy for them.”

****
Hermione finally broke away form the library and homework around 7pm. It was time for dinner and she, Harry, Ron, and Ginny (returning from her walk) trudged up to eat. Seated in the Great Hall, they busied themselves with food and chatter.

The topic of night seemed to be Malfoy.

”How can he possibly stand being such a git?” Harry asked, apparently aggravated by the day’s events. “The whole school hates him and plus Crabbe and Goyle are so stupid they don’t even know what they’re friends with-“

Draco happened to be passing by the Gryffindor table at that exact moment, and heard the remark about him. He was just on his way to sit with Crabbe and Goyle, who, at the moment, were having spit contests. He made a disgusted face in his “friends” direction. “Potter’s right-they are stupid,” he thought.

Enraged as he was at Harry’s comment, he did not say anything. Usually he would have gotten right up in Harry’s face and made some awful comment about how he couldn’t do anything right or even worse, his parents.

But today was different. Draco was feeling self pity. Instead of wanting to fight Harry, Draco simply wanted to crawl back into his satin-sheeted bed and enter dreamworld once again.

He walked past the Gryffindor table and sat between his two retarded “buddies.” No conversation was made throughout the meal. This was normal.

On the other side of the room, the Gryffindors were buzzing about the O.W.L.s they had to take that year. OWLs stood for Ordinary Wizarding Levels, and they were something each student dreads in turn. You start your tests the 5th year and absolutely no one was looking forward to them.

”Why do we have to take the stupid tests anyway?” Seamus practically roared “Snape gives us enough tests as it is!”

”Not to mention Professor Flitwick...... HIS exams coming up in 3 or 4 weeks,” Neville added quietly, but loud enough for most to hear.

Hermione thought for a moment and said, “Well they may not be fun (everyone in ear shot groaned)-ahem- ARE NOT any fun, but at least they’ll be over before the spring holiday, won’t they?”

Still grumbling everyone nodded. All of the sudden all the dishes vanished and dinner was over. Ron and Harry announced that they were going into the common room and plan Quidditch moves and strategies for the rest of the night. Hermione raised one eyebrow in sarcasm.

”Well, um, have fun,” she added as they walked away “I have a bit of homework to finish and I’ll be up after that.”

Hermione had lied when she said that she had homework and she was surprised that the boys didn’t catch it-they had all finished their homework together hours ago.

Hermione was in fact going to her favorite room of the whole school. One that, supposedly, no one knew about except for her.

She headed into the West Tower, and into the gorgeous circular room. It was about as big as the girls dormitory, or about three times the size of a normal bedroom.

The beauty of the room all lied in it’s walls-it was a circular room, with blue and green stained windows on one side. Tonight, the moonlight fell just so the glass cast a spell on the room, making it eerily enchanting and almost like a misty sapphire forest after an emerald fog.

*****
Draco snapped “Hexes, Curses, and Other Really Bad Things” shut. He was sick of reading and now had the Avio curse down pat. If anyone tried to mess with him, he could most definitely attack them with a flock of small twittering birds. The horror.

Standing up and stretching, Draco decided he was going to go to his favorite spot in the Hogwarts castle. He knew that he would have complete privacy there, and that he would have time to think without being interrupted.

Draco headed up into the West Tower. He paused with his hand resting on the door knob. He knew that he wasn’t supposed to be in the West Wing, let alone the West Tower. He disregarded that thought-he knew that no one else could be up here.

Draco pushed open the door VERY slowly and VERY quietly (just in case!!). He almost gasped with astonishment when he saw Hermione sitting there with her eyes closed, underneath the stained glass.

He thought for sure that she had heard him-so he stayed perfectly silent. Yet, she didn’t even flutter her eyelashes in response to his entrance. He knew that he was lucky she had not heard him.

For a moment he watched her, and saw her in a new way, a way that he had never thought possible. He knew no longer the old, bookworm, grade obsessed Hermione. He now saw an innocent, fun-loving and caring Hermione that he believed could give him the world if she was at his side.

It was in that moment, with blue moonlight shining upon her face, that Draco Malfoy fell in love with Hermione Granger.