Demons, Death Eaters and Malfoys

Chapter 3

Ron's Outrageous Discovery.

Hermione was deep in thought, eating her toast and eggs when Dennis Creevey hurried up to her, looking quite frightened.

"Er- e-e-excuse m-me, H-H-Hermione?" he stuttered. Hermione looked up, surprised.

"Yes?" she replied.

"I w-was asked t-to g-g-give you this n-n-note," he said, looking around him nervously, holding a small, folded piece of paper. She eyed it warily for a moment before taking it from him and opening it.

Meet me at the entrance to the third corridor right after potions.

D.

"Dennis," said Hermione, looking up. "Who gave-" but Dennis was already scurrying off back to his seat. Hermione looked around to the Slytherin table. There sat Draco, with a sly smile, looking straight at her.

Hermione couldn't wait till the end of potions.

§§§

Draco fiddled with his robes and checked his watch for the zillionth time.

'Is she even going to come?' He thought nervously. 'Why the hell am I so nervous? It's just another girl to fuck, another notch on my bedpost,' he thought.

'Because you actually like this one,' a little voice nagged at him.

'I do not!' he thought back. 'I swear on my father's grave I don't!'

'Well,' said the nagging voice. 'You should know that your father's grave isn't worth very much these days!'

'Shut up!' he thought back. He peered out from behind the wall, and sure enough, there she was slowly creeping down the hall and looking around nervously.

'God she's beautiful!' he thought.

'See, you wouldn't have thought that if you didn't actually like' smirked the voice.

He ignored it, and checked to make sure that his invisibility cloak was covering all of him before quietly stepping out from behind the wall. He stepped around Hermione, tapping her on the shoulder. She gasped and spun around, her eyes big and afraid. Draco pushed her into a wall and started kissing her roughly, letting the invisibility cloak fall to the ground. She kissed him back, her hands roaming his body; running over his neck and back. She held him tight and gasped for breath as his lips moved to her neck. But then, out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Mrs. Norris, Filch's cat, creeping around near them, meowing softly.

"Malfoy," she gasped, "Stop! It's Mrs. Norris! We have to go!"

"Screw Mrs. Norris," mumbled Draco, and continued kissing. Hermione gathered some strength and pushed him away.

"Malfoy!" she whispered urgently, "we need to go! Now! I don't want another incident like last night!"

"Fine," he said, irritated. A sudden grin came up on his face as Hermione grabbed his hand and dragged him down the hall.

"We could always go to the transfiguration classroom," he suggested playfully, and checked his watch. "There aren't any classes in there at the moment and McGonagall's busy with Dumbledore!"

Hermione laughed. "Fine with me," she said, a sudden mood change appearing along with a suggestive grin.

§§§

"Where'd she disappear to now?" exclaimed Ron, frustrated. Harry shrugged.

"That's it," he said finally, standing up. "I'm going to look for her. You coming?"

Harry hesitated for a moment, and then nodded. "You know what? I'oming. Her business is her business, but she's worrying me," said Harry.

They started off down the hall, but just before they got to the end, Harry stopped.

"What?" asked Ron, also stopping.

"I was just thinking," said Harry, "did you see which way she went once potions finished?"

"Didn't she head upstairs?"

"I don't know. Maybe we should just split up and search the whole school."

"That sounds good. I start from the bottom and you go from the top?" Ron suggested. Harry nodded.

"And we'll meet halfway, in the lobby on the fourth floor. If we haven't found her by then, we'll go outside," Harry said. Ron nodded, and they were off.

§§§

"Alohamora," Hermione whispered, but the lock wouldn't budge. McGonagall was smart, she knew better.

"Well that worked well!" said Draco, with just a little too much sarcasm.

"Thinking that you have absolutely no magical capabilities until you are eleven can really affect the way that you see and do things!" Hermione softly eaimed, pulling a bobby pin out of her robes-pocket. She held it up for him to see. "Watch and learn," she said smugly. "The art of Muggle lock-picking!" and with that, Hermione worked her 'magic'.

§§§

Harry was walking along rather hurriedly through the sixth floor corridor, when he rounded a corner and walked into something large and solid. WHACK!!

"What the-" he started, and then stopped. He stared at what was standing before him. He'd never before seen the likes of it, though immediately he knew what it was, after all of those Defence Against the Dark Arts and Care of Magical Creatures lessons during his years at Hogwarts. He stared up at it. It was huge, and it was ugly. And Harry was scared.

There was only one way to kill these terrible beasts, and that was for it to be stabbed in between the eyes with a pure gold dagger by a Deatheater.

It growled, and he slowly backed away from it, praying that it wouldn't go after him. It growled again, deeper this time, more menacing, and took a step forward. Harry prayed he wasn't showing his fear, or else he knew that he would be as good as gone. He kept backing away until he hit the wall. He swallowed noisily. Then suddenly, Harry whipped out his wand.

"Petrificus Totalus!" he yelled, and with a beam of light, the creature was down. He knew it wouldn't be long before it was back up on its feet, so forgetting about Hermione, Harry raced to tell Dumbledore that a demon was roaming the school.

§§§

Ron walked the first floor anxiously, nervous about finding Hermione although he wasn't sure why.

'I'm going to tell her,' he vowed. 'If she fancies me as well, then I have nothing to lose,' he thought. He sped up, with only one classroom left to go. 'The transfiguration classroom,' he thought to himself. 'She probably isn't in there, but it wouldn't hurt to look...' He twisted the doorhandle and pushed. As he peered into the classroom, to his surprise he saw Hermione pressed up against the wall.

And she wasn't alone.

§§§

Hermione and Draco jumped at the sound of the opening door, but with so little time there was nowhere to hide. As Hermione's eyes adjusted to the sudden blast of light, she suddenly realised who was standing at the door.

"Ron!" she exclaimed, ducking under Draco's arms.

"Holy Fuck," Ron whispered, stunned.

"Got a problem, Weasley?" Malfoy sneered. Hermione turned around to give Draco an icy look. "Can't handle the fact that Granger and I were enjoying a little snog?"

"Shut up!" hissed Hermione. Draco's only reply was a smirk. The truth was that he was scared. The fact that he actually was snogging a Mudblood, and Hermione in particular, was bad enough- but for Weasley to find out?

She turned back the other way to face Ron, but found nothing but an empty doorway. "Shit," she muttered under her breath. She raced out the door and saw Ron walking speedily in the other direction down the hall. She ran to catch up with him.

"Ron! Wait!" she called. He kept walking, his pace speeding up with every step. Hermione slowed down as Ron disappeared around the corner. "Ron," she choked, tears welling up in her eyes and a lump forming in her throat. 'Great,' she thought, 'how the hell am I supposed to get out of this one?'

"Someone's having a hard time dealing with this!" smirked Draco, sauntering up from behind. Hermione spun around, her eyes flashing.

"You bastard!" she cried, smacking his chest.

"What's your problem?" he cried.

"Well, unlike you, I happen to have friends! And I would like to keep them!" Hermione exclaimed.

"Oh really?" he retorted. "Sure as hell doesn't look like it from where I'm standing!"

"This is all your fault!" she exploded.

"Well you didn't exactly object when I suggested using the empty classroom!" he yelled defensively.

"You should know that I'm not thinking straight!"

"That's pretty obvious," Draco muttered under his breath. "Look, I don't have time for this," he said. "I thought it would be fun, but it just isn't worth the hassle." Hermione could hardly believe her ears, and tears sprang into her eyes.

"Is that all I am to you?" she said, dumbfounded, "just a 'bit of fun'?"

He opened his mouth and then closed it, debating on what to say next.

"Just forget it!" she snapped, and she spun around, heading down the hall. Draco shook his head.

'Fuck,' he thought, as he headed off in the opposite direction.

§§§

'I can't believe it,' thought Ron, clearly in a daze, walking blindly in any direction. 'Hermione and Malfoy...Malfoy and Hermione...Oh, God! Who would've thought?'

He looked around to see where he was and found himself in the lobby on the fourth floor.

"Ron! Ron!" A terrified looking Harry raced up to Ron and stopped just short of him, puffing and panting. "Did...did...you find...Her...Hermione?" Harry wheezed.

"I uh..." replied Ron, reluctant to tell Harry what he'd just seen. He shook his head. "Uh, no, I uh, didn't..."

"We have to find her! There's a fucking demon in the school!"

"WHAT!"

"I was heading upstairs to check the common room, and I ran into a demon! I told McGonagall-"

"Will all students please move to the Great Hall," said McGonagall's voice over the loudspeaker. "I repeat, will all students please move to the Great Hall!" Harry waved his hand in the air.

"There you go," he said.

"Well, we don't have to find her now," replied Ron dully. Harry raised his eyebrows.

"Are you okay, Ron?"

"Fan-bloody-tastic," Ron muttered under his breath. Harry looked on at him suspiciously. Ron forced a smile. "Yeah," he replied.

§§§

'I can't believe that he said that!' thought Hermione. 'What a jerk! I can't believe that I fell for it! Just a bit of fun...Hah! I'll show him!' She looked up at the castle with bitter tears in her eyes. 'Just you wait, Malfoy,' she thought bitterly. 'I'll show you!'

§§§

'I can't believe she said that!' thought Draco. 'My fault! And as if she's so innocent! Unbelievable! And Weasley walking in like that! He'll probably tell Saint Potter, and then I'm gone for sure! I'll never live it down!' he thought angrily as he looked into the blazing fire of his common room. 'Just you wait, Granger,' he thought angrily. 'I'll show you!'

§§§

'Oh, God, where is he?' Hermione thought desperately. As she frantically searched the great mass in the Great Hall, she spotted him at their usual spot at the Gryffindor table. She rushed over to him.

"Ron!" she said, sitting down next to him. He ignored her and turned around to start a conversation with Dean Thomas, who was sitting beside him. Tears of frustration welled up in Hermione'ses.

"Uh, I think Hermione wanted to speak to you," replied Dean politely, looking over to her. She smiled gratefully. Ron had no choice. He reluctantly turned to face her.

"What?" he said sullenly, almost resentfully, and all the while not wanting to look at her.

"Can we go somewhere to talk?" she asked pleadingly, searching his eyes for some sign of compassion. He showed none.

"Fine," he replied, after a torturous moment of deliberation. Hermione sighed with relief and stood, patiently waiting. Ron picked himself up and dragged himself after Hermione, who headed out of the doors to the Great Hall, and stood on the side of the Grand Staircase. Ron's heartbeat sped up rapidly.

'God, she's sexy,' he thought, before giving himself a mental note to punch himself later on. 'But it's too bad she had to choose a cad like Malfoy!' said the bitter afterthought.

"Ron, I wanted to speak to you about what you, er- spotted up in the classroom today," she said.

"There's nothing to talk about," Ron said, turning to re-enter the Great Hall.

"Ron, I-" he swivelled around, a wildly angry look in his eye.

"Look, what do you want me to say?" he yelled furiously. "That I'm happy for the two of you?! That I don't care that one of my best friends is fucking around with an absolute cad?! That I wish the two of you all the best; including health, wealth, and many children?! For God's sake, Hermione! What the fuck are you on?" By this time, Hermione was sobbing uncontrollably.

"I'm sorry, okay?" she cried. "I'm not with him anymore! But I still love him and I can't fucking help it, although I wish with all of my heart that I could!" she cried, still sobbing. "I love him and I've loved him for the longest time, since the beginning of fifth year, even though the fuckwit was just fucking using me for a bit of fucking fun!" Hermione was now screaming. "So fuck you if you can't accept it! A real friend would!" she cried, before spinning on her heel and running in any direction she could, just to get away from Ron and his hurt, dumbstruck look. His unbelievable look of love.

§§§