Confessing the Truth

Mandrake. Manticore. Merfolk. Hermione sighed and glanced at the next entry in "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them." Murtlap. There it was! She absentmindedly reached for her parchment and quill so she could add to her Potions essay, "Discuss the properties of murtlap growths and explain how they are used in restorative droughts. Her lack of concentration caused her to knock the parchment form her table. She sighed again. Hermione would have normally retrieved it with a simple summoning spell, but when you were in the library, you followed Madam Pince´s "no magic" rule.

She stood up and glanced around. The parchment seemed to have disappeared. Hermione could have sworn she saw it fall right under the table.

Agitated, she sat back down and laid her head in her arms. Hermione had been so frustrated lately. And she knew why, too. Draco Malfoy.

Draco had been nothing short of evil to her and her friends for as long as they had known each other. But lately, he had been absolutely vile, and especially towards her. She couldn´t understand why, either-maybe because she had received the highest score on her O.W.L.S. or perhaps it had something to do with his father, Lucius, and his hatred of Muggle-borns.

Hermione decided not to dwell on it either way. She again rose from her table to continue her search for the missing parchment.

"Maybe it rolled under one of the book cases," she muttered to herself. Turning the corner, she almost ran into someone who had been standing there.

"Looking for this?" Draco asked with a sneer, holding up Hermione´s parchment.

"Give me that!" Hermione snapped, lunging towards her homework. But Draco held it above his head, and Hermione wouldn't give him the satisfaction of watching her jump up and down, to try to grab it.

"I just might turn this into Snape myself," Draco´s smirk widened, "with my name on it."

"You wouldn´t do that," replied Hermione, glaring at him,"because you would be admitting that my work is good."

Draco´s face fell, but he quickly regained his composure. "I don´t need your help, because I already know that Snape will give me a grade better than yours."

"Our grades are the same, Draco," Hermione replied coldly.

Draco scowled. "Here," he muttered, thrusting the parchment towards her.

But as she returned to her table, he followed her. Hermione sat, still clutching the parchment as Draco pulled another chair towards the table and sat uncomfortably close to her, staring at her face with an odd expression on his.

"What, Draco? Do you need me to do your Transfiguration homework, too?" Hermione asked cooly, not looking at him. But as she reached for her quill, he continued to look at her, and she forced herself to meet his eyes.

"What?" she asked again. He offered no reply, but moved his chair closer to her. Draco reached towards Hermione, brushing his palm against her cheek and then cupping her face in his hands.

An avalanche of emotions rushed through Hermione. She wanted to back away, to turn and run out of the library, yet, at the same time, she wanted to wait for the inevitable to happen.

He leaned even closer, their noses almost touching, his piercing blue eyes staring into her brown ones. He pressed his lips to hers, and in the next moment, she responded, kissing him back. As Hermione´s hands found Draco´s face, her parchment once again rolled across the floor.

********

Ron, his own copy of "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" tucked under his arm, walked quietly through the library. He had been attempting to write his own Potions essay in the Common Room, but eventually he had admitted that he needed help, so he went off looking for Hermione.

He turned the corner around a bookcase towards Hermione´s usual table. He opened his mouth to speak to her, but what he saw emptied his mind of all words. For a moment, Ron watched the two people at the table, and then turned, still speechless, around and made his way back to the Common Room, his mind numb.

Hermione returned to the Common Room, looking composed, but still slightly flushed. Harry was relaxing on the couch, relaxing and flipping through "Flying With the Cannons." He ahd already heard Ron´s tirade about Hermione´s escapade in the library, and had decided not to take sides. While he had admitted that he found Draco´s behavior odd, he didn´t see it as any business of his. But apparently, Ron did.

He pounced on her the moment she came through the portrait hole. "What do you think you´re doing?!," he hollered at her, making some first years jump. Ron continued, his face the color of his hair. "Is this some kind of joke?"

"Ron...I...what-what are you talking about?" Hermione stuttered, looking confused.

"You-you and Draco," Ron hissed.

Hermione´s hand flew to her mouth. "I-I can explain," she ended lamely.

"How could you do this to me-us?"

"Why does it matter to you, Ron?" asked Hermione, crossing her arms.

"Because, because," stammered Ron, fishing for an excuse, "because he´s a Slytherin!"

"Why should that have anything to do with it?"

"He obviously, you know, kissed you because he, I don´t know, wants something."

"You think," Hermione started coldly, "the only reason he kissed me was because he "wanted something?" Have you taken into consideration that he might actually like me? Or have you only thought about your own feelings?" She marched off in the direction of the dormitories.

Harry, who had been surveying this cooly from his couch, turned to Ron. "So are you going to tell her?"

"Tell her WHAT?" Ron snapped.

"Oh, come on Ron, I´m not thick. I know just as well as you that you like Hermione."

"Ron turned scarlet. "I do not," he replied weakly.

********

In the weeks succeeding the "Library Incident," whispers followed Hermione throughout the corridors wherever she went.

"Do you think it´s true? Did she really do it?" passing Gryffindors would mutter to each other. Hufflepuffs would stare at her obviously, and the Ravenclaws showed her the same quiet malcontempt. Only the Slytherins would verbally abuse her, calling her "slut" and "traitor" as she hurried past, head down.

Hermione no longer found silence and comfort within the walls of Hogwarts. She drew stares in the Common Room, her library table had long since been unoccupied, and even her dormitory was inhabited by twittering gossips.

For a while, she and Draco had tried to continue a relationship, meeting unobtrusively on the grounds on in an unused classroom. But the spite of what seemed like the entire school had pulled them apart, and they were not able to endure the endless taunting.

And now, it was over. Even though the news that the relationship had been terminated spread quickly, Hermione was treated no differently. She found she was only able to confide in Ginny Weasley, who was perhaps the only person in the school who had forgiven her.

One night, after the Common Room had been emptied and the fire had burned into ashes, they sat by the dying light, Hermione quiet, and Ginny, wanting to talk, but not wanting to push Hermione away.

After a long, uncomfortable silence, Hermione turned to Ginny. Tears were streaming down her face. "Ginny," she began, her voice hardly more than a whisper, "I can´t do this anymore." Ginny faced Hermione, encouraging her to say more.

"I mean, when it happened," she continued, "it happened so quickly. I guess I wasn´t ready. And now-now everybody hates me. What did I do that was so wrong?"

"Nothing," Ginny replied, her voice firm. "It´s the fault of the narrow-minded people who can´t except something being done differently."

"But if it´s not my fault, then why am I the one suffering for it? Nobody will even be seen with me. Not even Ron and Harry. Ginny, they´re still my best friends, and I miss them so much. But it´s like I´m dead. Maybe I should be, it wouldn´t be any different than it is now."

"Hermione, don´t even joke about that," Ginny said sharply. "Ron and Harry just don´t understand what you´re going through. They´ll come back, they just need some time."

Hermione stood and stared into the fireplace, the glowing embers eerily lighting her face.

I wasn't joking, Ginny."