Heart in Agony

Chapter 7

Hermione woke up at quarter past seven on Tuesday morning. When she realised that she was in Draco's arms she couldn't help but smile. He was holding on to her protectively and he looked so peaceful, as if there wasn't a thought on his mind. The first time she had woken up in that bed she had been alone. Draco had left her a note telling her to be careful not to get caught as she left and that he's had to go and that he'd had to leave.

This time she could lie there for a while with her head resting on his chest, completely at ease with the world. Everything felt so right when she was with him. As she looked at him she realised just how breathtaking he was. His body was perfect, his quidditch had served him well! She could have stared at him all day but she knew that she needed to leave. Everybody would be getting up soon and she didn't want to have to explain to a group of Slytherins why she was in their common room, or why she was there so early!

She got up and changed quickly. Before she left she went back over to where Draco was lying, leant over him and gently kissed his lips. He stirred slightly and a small smile crossed his lips, but he was still asleep. Hermione turned and walked to the door, glancing back at Draco only once, then hurried out through the common room which was luckily empty.

The same could unfortunately not be said for the Gryffindor common room. By the time she had made her way up from the dungeons and clambered through the portrait-hole it was quarter to eight and almost all of her house was awake and gathering in the common room before going to breakfast.

As she entered a few heads turned towards her, two of which were Harry and Ron. She wasn't sure if the look on their faces was constipation or a mixture of worry and anger and she couldn't help laughing when they started running towards her making wild hand gestures! She had to try and stifle her laughter when she realised that it was mostly anger which was being directed towards her and laughing would definitely not help.

"Where the hell have you been Hermione?"

"Yeah, Parvati said you didn't ever go back to your room last night."

"And it's almost eight o'clock in the morning. You've been out the whole night. We thought you had been kidnapped!"

Hermione desperately tried to think of a good excuse. She could always say that she'd been having her period and needed some space which didn't make any sense but talking about periods terrified boys and they would stop questioning her. However that wouldn't satisfy Ginny (or any other girl) if she asked so it was best to use the same story with everyone. The best course of action appeared to be denying the whole thing!

"I was in my room last night. I just didn't get back till everyone had fallen asleep/"

"Well, what were you doing till so late at night and where did you go so early this morning?"

"It's none of your business!"

"HERMIONE!"

"Fine, if you must know...I was with...Seamus. And this morning I was taking a stroll."

"Seamus? Finnigan? But...how long has that been going on? And what did you do together till that late?"

Hermione could have kicked herself. Why did she have to go and bring Seamus into it? They would surely ask him. Also, she didn't want them thinking that she was involved with him. But it was too late, she'd already put her foot in it. She would have to try and get herself out of this one and she would have to think fast! She was getting extremely worried when an idea came to her.

"Yes, but he wants to keep it a secret. We both do. Basically he invited me there last night, we kissed for a while but...there wasn't a spark. I swore I wouldn't mention it to anyone...so...don't say anything to him. Please."

"What were you so upset about yesterday when I found you in the library then?"

"Well, thanks for keeping that a secret Ron! It was nothing, I was confused about...one of my classes. I thought I got a B!"

"Haha, you're so weird about school Hermione! I've had tons of B's , and C's and well we won't go into that! Anyway, now that's sorted, anyone for breakfast?"

And with that they set off, Harry and Ron satisfied with the answers they had been given and Hermione glad that they had believed her. She felt slightly bad for lying to her friends but her thoughts didn't linger on such things for long as she was soon in the Great Hall, thinking only of the breakfast now in front of her!

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Hermione sat on her bed, alone in the room. She was exhausted by all of the lies she'd had to think of that day to satisfy her friends. It hadn't been so bad with Ron and Harry, they had mostly just wanted to be sure that Seamus hadn't hurt Hermione but Ginny was another story. She had insisted on asking endless questions about Seamus and kept giggling every time he came within ten feet of them. Hermione had managed to sneak away at dinner and was dreading seeing Ginny again.

It was now nine o'clock and all she wanted to do was hide. She knew Ginny would probably be looking for her at that very moment just waiting to ask even more questions that had been building up in her mind. She considered trying to fall asleep but realised that not only would everyone make fun of her for going to sleep at 9 but Ginny would just wake her up anyway. So, there she was in her room, trying to think of ways to postpone the inevitable.

But to her relief, when the door opened, it wasn't Ginny who came in. It was Ron. She didn't notice the door opening, it was a strange clicking sound afterwards that caught her attention. She assumed it was just the door closing. Ron had a n unreadable expression on his face and she was worried about what he had come to talk to her about. Did he know the truth? She waved unenthusiastically at him and made a silly face. He smiled vaguely, walked over to her bed and sat down beside her. At first they just sat there in silence and Hermione was beginning to wonder why he had come at all. Then a thought struck her.

"Wait a minute how did you get up her? Isn't there a jinx on the stairs? You know, so that the boys can't come up!"

"Oh yeah, somebody worked out a disabling charm ages ago. I think it was Neville as weird as that sounds!"

Hermione just nodded to his response. It made sense that the boys would try as hard as they could to find a way of beating any rule which threatened their chances of scoring with any girls! But as the uncomfortable silence returned Hermione realised that she was going to have to get Ron to talk or they would just sit there in silence, forever!

"So, Ronald Weasley. Why did you come to see me?"

"You'll laugh at me if I tell you."

"I'll laugh at you anyway so you might as well just tell me! Don't look so hurt, just spit it out!"

"I like you..."

"Ron."

"No, let me finish. We're right for each other. Friends for ages and all that. Look, hearing you say you were kissing Seamus, it made me s jealous and I decided I couldn't take it any more. I mean, I just always thought you'd be there when I finally told you how I felt. Honey, let's just give it a shot."

Hearing him call her honey made her want to throw up. She felt awful though. She didn't like Ron in that way at all and she had been trying to avoid this conversation for years. She had always managed to get of tricky situations before, but now she was stuck. She would finally have to confront this problem and hope that turning Ron down wouldn't affect their friendship too much.

"I'm sorry Ron. I really like you, just not like that. Please don't get mad at me."

"Get mad. Why would I get mad Hermione? Because you're turning me down for no reason maybe? It's not like you could do much better. Even Seamus wanted to keep his little fling with you a secret!"

"What so insulting me is meant to make me change my mind? And since when has not liking somebody not been a good reason for turning them down?"

"Shut up you selfish cow!"

"Get out Ron."

He stood up and slapped her across the face. She was too shocked to say anything. She just stared at him while rubbing her now pink cheek with her right hand. Ron looked furious and there was a strange glint in his eye. Hermione was about to speak when Ron darted forward and forced his lips on hers. She tried to push him off but his grip on her shoulders was too strong.

She was trying to scream but his mouth muffled all sound trying to escape from hers. As he climbed on top of her trembling body he stopped kissing her long enough that she was able to scream. He immediately silenced her by putting one hand over her mouth and the other he used to start ripping at her clothes.

Tears were streaming down her cheeks and she was still kicking and struggling as much as she could when somebody knocked on the door.

"Is everything O.K. in there? I heard somebody scream. And why is this door locked?"

It was Lavender. Ron looked down at Hermione then to the door. He was clearly trying to work out what to do. Hermione had never been so terrified in all of her life. She prayed to God that Lavender would somehow cause Ron to leave. As Ron looked down at her one final time she noticed that something in his eyes had changed. The anger was gone but she was horrified to see that it had not been replaced with shame or any form of remorse. Instead, now all that she could see in his eyes was her reflection. There was no emotion in them at all.

"I'm just leaving Lavender. I'll open the door for you. It was Hermione who screamed, you know how girls get in these situations, over-excited!"

Hermione couldn't believe that he was laughing. He had just tried to rape her and he was laughing. He leaned over her and whispered, "If you ever tell anyone about this I swear I'll come after you."

She was too petrified to say anything as he removed his hand from her mouth, got up and left. Lavender walked into the room looking confused and when she saw Hermione lying on the bed, shaking, she ran over.

"Oh my God Hermione! What happened, your clothes are all ripped!"

As even more tears ran down her face Hermione realised that telling Lavender would do more harm than good. Ron had been serious when he said he would come after her and Lavender couldn't exactly protect her. Hermione knew just who to go to who would make her feel safe and who would comfort her.

"I...I have to go. Don't worry I'll be back soon. And...my clothes..."

But she couldn't think of anything to say so she ran from the room. She had to find him. The only one who could be trusted now.