To Say Goodbye

~'*To Say Goodbye*'~

Chapter 2

Hermione was slightly out of breath when she reached Gryffindor Tower. She was still a little surprised over her experience with Draco, but at the same time a little relieved that he wasn't bitter towards her, instead he was kind and supportive.

She stopped in front of the Fat Lady and straightened her robes. She knew the moment she opened that painting, chaos was going to break loose. She put on a confident face even though she wasn't feeling very confident and gave the password.

She walked slowly into the common room, and sure enough, Harry was sitting in front of the blazing orange fire, but he was alone. Hermione attempted to sneak past him, but failed when Crookshanks' obnoxious meow filled the room as he waddled up to her, his fat bubbling about. Harry immediately snapped his head in Hermione's direction, his face was emotionless.

"Out a little late weren't we?" he asked, his voice flat. He placed several folded up pieces of paper onto the coffee table in front of him, Hermione immediately recognized them as the notes Ron and her had sent back and forth all summer long.

"I was a little upset and wanted some time to myself," she responded, she felt very small standing there alone with Harry. It was almost like he was one of her parents and she was getting in trouble for not behaving, "I didn't think it would be such a big deal."

Hermione started to walk off when Harry grabbed a hold of her arm. She snapped her head back and glared at him, he seemed desperate, "Will you do me a favor," he asked her gently. Hermione glared harder, but this time there was a hint of curiosity in her eyes. Harry took this as a yes and continued "will you at least talk to him?"

Hermione ripped her arm out of Harry's grasp and started towards the dormitory stairs. Harry stood motionless in the center of the room, disappointment filled his face even though it was hard to tell because of the dim shadow over his face from the fire

"I don't want to talk to him, ever," she responded quietly, her back still to him.

Harry shifted uncomfortably and put his hands in his pockets, he wasn't used to these types of fights between his two best friends. "Could you at least try?" he urged, "He's really up-"

"Upset?" Hermione finished for him, her eyes were glassy as she turned to face Harry. "Do you know how it feels to like someone so much that you devote what seems like a lifetime to them, only to find out that they didn't really like you...that they were "leading you on?" Hermione choked, sounding very bitter at the end.

Harry looked to the ground; it really was, in a sense, Ron's fault that he got himself into this mess. Hermione had turned back around and had already started up the stairs by the time Harry had decided to say something, but held it back in fear of how she might respond.

Instead, Harry turned around and went to sit in his favorite chair in front of the fire. He sat silently with his chin resting on his hands as he waited for Hermione to shut the girls' dormitory door. Once he heard the sharp clap of a closing door high above the stairs he slouched back into his chair and growled to himself.

"You can come out now, Ron," Harry called out since he wasn't sure where exactly Ron was.

A tall redheaded boy appeared by the fire from underneath Harry's invisibility cloak. Ron threw the cloak at Harry, who caught it, covered his head the cloak and growled.

"That's just wrong," Ron said in a disgusted tone, he was now standing above Harry.

"Yeah, I know, but you know Hermione she'll get over it," Harry mumbled under the cloak.

"No, I'm not talking about that," Ron told him "You look really creepy sitting there without a head."

"Thanks," Harry replied sarcastically, without removing the cloak.

"And you're also missing an arm," Ron continued. "Your ear is mysteriously floating as well."

Harry ripped the cloak off of his head and shot Ron a look of pure annoyance. "Well, someone's not having a good night," Ron chuckled as he sat down on the arm of the maroon chair.

"Oh don't thank me, I love doing your dirty work," Harry griped, making Ron laugh harder.

"I honestly don't see what her problem is," Ron told Harry after a couple minutes of silence in a carefree tone, showing just how "upset" he really was. "It wasn't like I did anything wrong!"

Harry stood up from the chair and looked at the clock above the fireplace, then started towards the dormitory stairs, with Ron right behind him. "Well Ron, you did screw her over." he told him honestly.

"Thanks, Harry," Ron spat.

"Any time, Ron...Any time."

~'*~'*~'*~'*~'*~'*~'*~'*~'*~'*~'*~'*

The moment Hermione left, Draco felt somewhat lost. He wasn't sure whether he had done that right thing or not, telling Hermione the truth about his father's future plans. He sank slowly onto the rock next to him and he looked up at the stars, silently naming all of the constellations in his head.

He was content, yet something deep within his gut was building up fear. Draco had had these feelings before and knew they shouldn't be ignored, so he ducked behind the rock and listened.

He could hear several twigs breaking in the woods next to him. He could hear leaves rustling and several stomps of shoes. He braced himself to run, but he couldn't find the courage, instead he pushed his back up against the rock and tried to think of another plan.

Meanwhile, whatever it was that was in the woods had come out, and was standing right next to rock Draco was hiding behind.

"Are you sure this is a safe place to be?" Draco heard a soft girl's voice ask. "There's so much light here, what if someone sees us?"

Draco peered around the side of the rock. There were seven people all dressed in black. Draco had to squint to see if he could recognize any of them, but they all had hoods on, they were Death Eaters.

"We'll be just fine as long as we stop talking and just do this," Draco heard a deep man's voice snap harshly at the girl.

"Where's the necklace?" asked an older sounding woman, whose voice Draco instantly recognized as Mertonia Bristow, one of his fathers friends.

A large man pulled a necklace out from his robes. The necklace glowed eerily in the moonlight and seemed to hold an evil aura to it as well. Mertonia took the necklace and whistled softly.

Out from the pitch black forest soared a wondrous eagle owl with bright orange eyes. He landed on the rock just above Draco's head as he cringed when he noted its enormous piercing beak and striking curled claws. It was an odd colored owl as well, a metallic black, and when the moonlight hit its feathers, showed colors that danced like flames in all directions.

Mertonia rolled the necklace up in parchment and tied it to the bird's leg. "Fly off, my dear," she said to the owl, her voice full of vice. With a flick of her hand the bird flew off towards the castle.

"Good," the man growled. "Let's get out of here."

Draco heard the footsteps disappear into the forest, but he didn't dare move for several minutes afterward. He caught his breath and stood slowly from behind the rock. He glanced cautiously around before he broke into a sprint towards the castle, with millions of thoughts racing through his head.

Draco didn't stop running until he got to the Slytherin boys dormitory. He wasn't surprised to notice that he was the only boy who wasn't asleep. He curled up in his bed, and drifted off into a horrible sleep, barely noticing that the common room was rather quiet, he would wonder about it later.

~'*~'*~'*~'*~'*~'*~'*~'*~'*~'*~'*~'*

Hermione threw her dormitory door shut in pure anguish. She couldn't believe Harry could even suggest a thing such as "talking" to Ron. What an idiot, she thought as she crossed the room, not bothering to be quiet even though the other girls were asleep.

Once she made it to her bed she ripped her bed curtains open and noticed something very unusual sitting there. An enormous eagle owl was perched on her bedpost glaring at her with bright orange eyes. On its leg was a rolled up piece of parchment.

Hermione glanced cautiously around the room before deciding to take the note. She quickly pulled it off of the malevolent owl's leg and sat down onto her bed and watched the owl fly out the window and disappear into the glittering night sky.

Just holding the piece of parchment made her feel a little creepy. She unrolled it and caught the silver necklace that was rolled up neatly inside. She in awe as she ran her fingers across its silver chain and charm. The charm had a small loop with two curls that came off at each end of it. Then, leading off from the loop was one massive curl. It was a beautiful necklace in so many ways; she instantly fell in love with it.

She wondered who had sent it to her. It was a wonderful gift, but she thought it was awfully strange that someone would randomly send it to her. She then remembered the note, she searched her entire bed for it but it was nowhere to be found. She sighed inwardly and put the necklace on her bed side table.

~'*~'*~'*~'*~'*~'*~'*~'*~'*~'*~'*~'*

The next morning Draco rolled lazily out of bed and somehow, without even thinking about it, got dressed, then left for breakfast. As he made his way down to the Slytherin Common room he ran into Crabbe and Goyle. They had been waiting for him in front of the fireplace like they did every morning. Draco shook his head as he recalled the countless times he had told them to go on with out him.

"You guys," he started with a sigh, "I thought I told you a billion times that you don't have to wait for me, I'm sure you can make it to the great hall on your own."

The two boys look confused. "We know, Draco," Goyle said dully. "We just wanted to know where you were last night."

Draco had tried to forget his experience with the Death Eaters, and they weren't helping. "I don't know what you're talking about," he lied as he pushed past them and left the common room.

"Well, you just sort of left in a hurry yesterday night and you didn't come back for a long long time," Crabbe told Draco as he and Goyle followed closely behind Draco's maniac walking.

"I went to the Library, ok?" Draco lied yet again wishing that they would just leave him alone.

"Ooh," said Goyle.

"But, Draco?" Crabbe asked.

"What, Crabbe?" Draco asked somewhat irritably.

"Doesn't the Library close at ten?"

Draco stopped mid step and turned to face his two friends. "It doesn't really matter where I went last night, ok? Haven't you figured out yet that if I really wanted to tell you where I was I would?" he yelled at his dumbfounded friends, then turned around and continued towards the great hall.

"But, Draco?" Crabbe asked again as they neared the great hall. Draco shot him a deadly glare, but Crabbe being who he was didn't notice, "What were you doing in the library so late at night, and for so long?"

Draco found himself very annoyed at the moment and ignored Crabbe's question. He sped up to almost a run just so he could get away from his two followers, which didn't do much good because they started to run, just to keep up with him and looked like two bouncing jelly filled balloons with antlers and ear muffs.

Draco made his way over to the Slytherin table and sat down with a "hmpff". The moment he sat down, his eyes wondered over to the Gryffindor table. Hermione sat on the opposite end of the table from both Harry and Ron. Even though he knew that it shouldn't make him smile, it did.

Hermione looked miserable, and felt miserable as she sat picking at her eggs and sausage. She would occasionally glance down to the end of the table, hoping to catch Harry's or maybe even Ron's eye, but not so she could show them how miserable she felt, but so she could glare at them and make them feel even worse.

She suddenly got the feeling that someone was looking at her, she looked down at Harry and Ron, but it wasn't them. Her eyes trailed slowly across the great hall until came to rest on a pair of silver speckled eyes.

Draco immediately looked away, he was sure he had gone red. His stomach did flip flops and he started to fill his plate with food. He looked up again, and this time Hermione looked away.

She became flustered and pushed her food away, she couldn't believe how nervous she felt, and because of Draco Malfoy. She quickly stood from the table and marched out of the Great Hall, not only because she wanted to get out of there as soon as possible but she also wanted to see if Draco would follow her. And he did.

Draco followed her all the way to the library, but once he entered he completely lost sight of her. He looked all around, behind bookshelves and in every nook and cranny, yet she remained hidden.

He sat down in defeat and put his hands in his pockets only to find something that shown a new light on the situation, Hermione's list of books. He scanned the list carefully while he tried to remember where he might find the books she was looking for.

He stood from his chair to search for the first book, figuring that wherever her books were she would be there too, and when Ron entered the library, obviously searching for Hermione as well he thought, oh no he won't, as he nearly started running towards the Charms section.

As Draco rounded the corner, he spotted Hermione searching through the books. He made his way towards her, just as Ron flew shamelessly around a case of books, forcing Draco to literally throw himself into a different aisle. He made his way to the end of the aisle and carefully parted the books just right so he could see Hermione and Ron.

Hermione looked up, hoping to see Draco, but ended up being face to face with the last person she wanted to see. "Ron," she began with an angry tone, "what do you want?"

Ron seemed somewhat taken aback as he stepped a few paces back. "Chill Hermione, I only wanted to say I was sorry," he replied with his hands up.

Hermione ripped a book out of the bookcase and started to flip through its pages. "Well, you said it, now leave," she told him without looking at him and tried to pretend that he wasn't there.

"You know, Hermione," Ron said, his face now turning a deep red, "I don't get you at all! I said I was sorry for something I didn't even know I was doing, and you completely threw it in my face!"

Madame Pince was passing by and glared at Ron, warning him with her eyes. Ron had never yelled at Hermione with such anger before, and she was somewhat in disbelief. Draco, on the other hand, didn't like Ron yelling at her one bit and was about ready to scare him with a couple hundred books magically falling onto his head.

Hermione had turned around so as to not face Ron. She was scared she was going to cry. "Please Ron, just leave," she pleaded quietly with him.

Ron didn't answer Hermione instead he went bounding past her, right down Draco's aisle, which led him into a head on collision with his worst enemy.

Draco fell to the floor and took Ron with him; Ron jumped to his feet and scowled immensely at Draco who was in the middle of trying to pull himself up from the floor.

Ron's face went from crimson, to a deep maroon purple color, his knuckles turned white and his fists a chalky red. Hermione turned to corner the see what was going on right as Ron threw his fist into Draco's face, knocking him a couple more feet back into the book case.

"Ron!" Hermione screamed as she ran towards Draco. "Stop!"

Ron was too quick for her, in two quick steps he made his way to a frozen Draco. Ron lifted his fist again and started to swing it when Hermione screamed, "Perfectous Totalus!" stopping his fist only an inch away from Draco's face.

Draco scrambled to his feet and rushed to Hermione's side. Hermione barely even glanced at Draco; her eyes were full of tears and it appeared she was right on the verge of crying. She muttered a counter curse and Ron stood shaken and turned towards Hermione and Draco.

"You're crazy, Weasel," Draco yelled. "A total maniac!"

Ron took two menacing steps towards Draco and spat, "I'd watch what I was saying if I were you, Malfoy!"

"Will you two please stop this right now!?" Hermione hissed at the two feuding boys as Madame Pince began to walk towards them. Ron stared at Hermione in utter shock and took several steps back as if she were a disgusting bug.

"So that's it, right? You and Malfoy..." Ron shook with fury as he stumbled backwards towards the library entrance.

"No, Ron!" Hermione shouted after his retreating form as he made his way past the furious Madame Pince. "There's nothing going on, nothing at all!" Ron wasn't listening, "This is Malfoy we're talking about!"

Draco felt like someone had punched him in the stomach. He felt like he was going to be sick, and could feel the little bit of color in his face vanishing. Once Ron had left the library, Hermione threw her hands to her side in anguish and growled loudly, then turned to face Draco, but Madam Pince interrupted her," The two of you will need to leave now! Never in my life have I seen such fighting in this library! Go now!" Madam Pince told them and walked furiously back to her seat.

"So that's it," he repeated quietly when she had gone, he couldn't find the strength to speak it any louder and his voice quavered slightly "right?"

Draco quickly brushed past Hermione and before she had a chance to stop him, he was out of the library and far out of reach. Hermione crawled to her chair and collapsed into it and muttered "boys" before gathering her things and leaving the library as well.

~'*~'*~'*~'*~'*~'*~'*~'*~'*~'*~'*~'*

Ron had never been so upset in his life, the moment he made it back to the common room he ran up to the boys dormitory and threw the door open, he was only faintly aware of the loud thud on the floor next to the neighboring bed.

"Ron?" he heard Harry's voice call out, as he closed the dormitory door sharply.

"Yes," came Ron's bitter reply from the bed over. He heard Harry close his bed curtains and make his way over to Ron, ripping his bed curtains open.

Ron took one look at Harry and started laughing. "Would you like a brush, mate?" he laughed. Harry tilted his head in confusion; "It looks like you got in a fight with a psychotic bunny snapper!"

Harry glared and put his hand on top of his head. "Well you look like you got in a fight with Malfoy!" he responded a little harsher then intended, Ron's smile instantly turned sour.

Harry's eyes widened; "You didn't!" he yelled and jumped onto the bed next to Ron.

"Yes..." he told Harry with a slight hesitation. "And he deserved it."

Harry laughed. "Why do you say that?"

"'Cause he was at the wrong place at the very wrong time."

Harry thought about this for a while. "Oh, so he just so happened to be there when you were trying to talk to Hermione, I see..."

Ron nodded and sat up. "And she's still mad at me!"

"Well, who won?" Harry asked slightly confused, he figured Hermione would be happy he won.

"I did!" Ron shouted. "But you know what SHE did?!" Harry shook his head. "She stood up for him! She put a spell on me to make me stop and everything!"

Harry figured she only helped Malfoy because she wanted to be nice, and wanted to make Ron mad. "Oh no! She put a spell on you to stop you from beating the bunnies out of Malfoy! What a tragedy!" Harry said sarcastically, receiving an amused glare from Ron.

"Well anyway..." Ron sighed acidly. "So what were you doing while I was gone?"

Harry fidgeted uncomfortably. "Oh you know," he started slowly, "homework."

Ron grinned. "Right..." he replied as Harry pushed himself off the bed, and with a wink added, "with my sister?" Harry blushed.