Time for a Change: Avoiding You

Time for a Change
Chapter Ten
By: Lori Finnegan
2006

 

Draco pushed open the doors to the side of the castle and walked out across the grass. He could feel the cold air through his thin shirt, but he didn’t even care. It almost felt numbing. Almost, but not quite.

 

He was mad at Pansy for having such different opinions from him, but at the same time, his heart ached for her. It was a horrible feeling of being so torn in two, that he felt like he could barely stand.

 

But he kept on going. He walked all the way down the hill and made his way to the lake. He stepped right up to the edge, looking expressionless over the cold, black waters, his face reflecting back at him through the ripples, and he picked up a rock. After staring for a moment at his white face, he threw it at his reflection, watching as the colors scattered off to the sides, and then centered back in the middle, showing his face once more.

 

_______________________________________________________________________

 

 

After an excruciatingly quiet breakfast with Harry, Ron had excused himself and decided to try and get away from everything for at least a little while. He decided his best shot at a new perspective was to get a little fresh air, so he headed outside and started to walk around the castle.

 

As he approached the Quidditch fields, he noticed someone standing in the very center of the field. The figure wore a black sweater and black pants, and his hair looked white in the sun.

 

Of course it was Draco Malfoy. After the state Ron had seen him in earlier, Ron was surprised that Draco was even standing straight on his own. He at the edge of the field for several moments and watched as Draco did the same. Ron didn’t think he had noticed him.

 

“Hey, Malfoy!” he called out, and watched as Draco turned around to face him. Ron could see his piercing silver eyes even from a distance. Ron didn’t actually think that Draco would react. He thought that Draco would glare at him, and then turn around and walk the other way, as if Ron didn’t mean a thing to him.

 

However, Malfoy started to walk towards him, and quickly. He was walking so quickly, that Ron stiffened and wondered if maybe he should start running in the other direction. But Ron stood his ground. So when Draco stood before him, Ron was looking at him in the eyes.

 

“What,” Draco demanded. “Did you come looking for me?”

 

“No,” Ron exclaimed as if it were the most ridiculous claim in the world. “Why would I go looking for you? I was just taking a walk, if that’s any of your business.”

 

“Then why didn’t you walk by?” Draco wanted to know. “Why did you call out?”

 

Ron shrugged. “I don’t know. You just seemed a little odd before. I was wondering if you were going to fall over or something. That’s all.”

 

“You really have the nerve,” Draco said, his eyes narrowing at Ron. “First I catch you ogling Pansy, and then you follow me out here to mock me?”

 

“Ogling!?” Ron exclaimed. “When did I ever ogle her?”

 

“Just yesterday!” Draco yelled back at him. “So do me a favor, and leave us the hell alone.” He shoved past Ron and kept walking.

 

Ron spun around and watched as he disappeared around the end of the castle. When Hermione had switched places with Pansy, it turned out that he and Harry weren’t the only ones who had their lives turned up on end.

 

Hey, at least he didn’t get cursed.

 

_______________________________________________________________________

 

Draco walked as fast as he could away from Ron without resorting to running. Malfoys, after all, did not run. Everything was so completely messed up, that his head felt as though it were spinning. And not only had he gotten in a fight with Pansy, but he still couldn’t believe he had actually kissed her. He didn’t know how in hell he was going to reconcile after that scene.

 

Feeling defeated, he walked back to the warmth of the castle, and entered the main doors. He didn’t know where he was going to go, or what he was going to do next, so he just let his feet lead him.

 

In a few minutes, Draco stood in front of a door in the dungeon hallways. He recognized it because it was where he and Pansy used to go to get away from all of the other Slytherins from time to time. If he were to hide out in their secret room, he could pretend that none of it had ever happened. He could pretend that he hadn’t revealed his feelings to Pansy, and that Weasley didn’t think he was the laughingstock of Hogwarts.

 

So he went inside, and down the secret hallway with his lit wand. And when he reached the room, he closed the door and turned lit the two lamps.

 

The second he had sat down on the couch, he noticed several sheets of paper on top of the small table against the wall. Curious, he stood up again and walked over to the table to check it out. He reached for the papers and looked them over carefully.

 

The first sheet was filled with handwriting that he just barely recognized as Pansy’s, the much neater form of it, of course. It was a list of ingredients and instructions on how to make a potion called rectus reversal. Now he was even more curious as he looked at the second sheet, which was a photocopy from a text book that talked about the particular potion.

 

Draco wondered why Pansy wanted to switch bodies with another person… it was a little odd, he thought, that she would be brewing secret potions and not mention a word of it to him. In the past, they had always plotted things together.

 

Shrugging, he placed the papers back on the table and sat down on the couch once again, making a mental not to ask Pansy about her secret potion later.

 

________________________________________________________________________

 

Hermione had spent most of the day in her room, avoiding not only Draco, but Blaise and the other Slytherins as well. She just didn’t know what to say to them anymore. Everything was such a big lie, and she felt horrible for continuing it.

 

It wasn’t until six o’clock that evening that her stomach began to growl, and she realized that she had forgotten about lunch. Instead of eating, she had, of course, buried herself in her homework and had tried to forget about all of the events of the past week. But now she was so hungry, that she couldn’t ignore her stomach any longer. She would have to sneak out of the Slytherin dormitories and past the Common Room in order to even have a chance to sneak into the Great Hall for her dinner.

 

Taking a chance, she pushed her books and parchment aside and opened her bedroom door. She looked both ways to make sure that no one was hovering around her door, and then made a break for it. She walked with her head held high, and didn’t bother to look at anyone she passed. She could hear Blaise call for Pansy once, but she pretended she didn’t hear and kept right on walking.

 

School was beginning to be unbearable. Not only did she miss her friends so much she wanted to spend the rest of the day crying, but she was also getting really sick of the Slytherins. So maybe Draco had his good points, and maybe he wasn’t all evil like she had original thought he was, but he was still Draco Malfoy, and no matter how many times he proved to her that he wasn’t a horrible person, she would still miss Harry and Ron about ten times more than she wanted to continue spending the time with him.

 

She quickly walked to the Great Hall, trying to stop the tears that were brewing in her eyes, but it didn’t seem to be working, and she felt a warm tear running down one of her cheeks. She stopped in the hallway to wipe it away with the sleeve of her sweater.

 

“Are you okay?” said a familiar deep voice, but she didn’t turn around to look.

 

“I’m fine,” she spat out, hoping he didn’t notice the crack in her voice. “What do you want?”

 

“You just seem upset, that’s all,” Ron said, peeking around her shoulder. “You’re not hurt, are you?”

 

Hermione shook her head, turning away from him slightly. She was afraid he might see through to her real self. “Can you please leave me alone?”

 

But Ron didn’t leave. He just stood there, staring at her, as if he had no intention on leaving anytime soon. “Not if you’re going to be crying,” he said. “What kind of a gentleman would I be?”

 

Hermione finally turned to look at him. “The kind who respects the wishes of a girl?” she suggested.

 

But he smiled at her. And it was the classic Ron smile, and suddenly, Hermione didn’t feel like crying anymore. But the fact that she was starting to feel like Hermione instead of Pansy startled her, and she realized just how close she was to giving in to those feelings. Just as she was about to smile at him, she repressed it and pushed past him, shoving his shoulder in the process.

 

“I have to go,” she said as she continued on her way to the Great Hall. And when she was sure he couldn’t hear her anymore, she said softly, “I’m sorry, Ron.”

 

_______________________________________________________________________

 

When Draco returned to the Common Room after his long stay in the secret room, Blaise had informed him that Pansy had headed out about a half an hour ago, most likely to dinner, he suspected. So Draco sat down in one on of the chairs by the fireplace, waiting for her. She had to come back at some point that evening, and when she did, Draco was planning on asking her about this secret potion she had been working on.

 

As he waited, Blaise sat opposite him on another chair, staring intently into the fire. “Hey, Draco,” he said, after it had been silent between the two for several moments. “I know that something is going on between you and Pansy… I mean, it has been there in a way for a while, but something is strange lately.”

 

Draco looked over at him and then back into the fire. “You’re telling me,” he muttered. “Even I don’t know what’s going on anymore… but I get the feeling that she’s hiding something from me.” He thought about telling Blaise about the strange papers he had found in their secret room, but if he did that, he would not only reveal the secret room, but might also inadvertently be telling on Pansy. For all he knew, the potion could be quite illegal.

 

“You know,” Blaise said, his eyes still focused on Draco. “I get that same feeling. It’s like… when I talk with her, she almost seems like she’s withdrawn. She’s not the same Pansy that I remember.”

 

Draco didn’t move his eyes away from the fire. “Not the same Pansy…” he echoed Blaise’s statement slowly. All of it seemed very strange. Not only was Pansy completely different, but he had stumbled upon some potion about reversing bodies. Could Pansy be in some sort of trouble? Or maybe…

 

The door to the Common Room opened up and Pansy stood there, alone. She took one look at Draco and Blaise, who were looking back at her and froze.

 

Draco stood up and beckoned her over. “Can I talk to you, Pans?” he asked. “Will you come sit down?”

 

Pansy nodded and slowly walked over to where Draco and Blaise sat. She sat down across from Blaise in a loveseat and waited for Draco to sit as well. “Is everything okay?” she wanted to know.

 

Draco didn’t know what to say. No, not everything was okay, but he didn’t know how to say that to her. “Sure,” he finally decided to say, and then looked over at Blaise. “Can you leave us alone for a bit,” he requested.

 

Blaise shrugged and then reluctantly left them alone. Draco was sure that he Blaise would have wanted to stay for all the juicy details.

 

Once he was gone, Draco turned to Pansy. “Look,” he said. “I’m sorry about earlier today. I was acting like a complete jerk, and everything that happened was entirely my fault.” He took a deep breath. It took a lot for a Malfoy to admit fault to anything much less everything.

 

Pansy blinked at him. “Draco… don’t apologize to me for being honest,” she said.

 

“I’m not,” he insisted. “I truly do want to change. You were right. You were right about everything.”

 

She looked away from him.

 

“But that’s not really what I want to talk to you about,” Draco said, leaning forward in his seat. “Today, I was upset… and I just wanted to get away. So I went into that secret room that we used to use all the time when we were younger.”

 

Pansy looked at him, alarmed. “You did?” she asked, her voice barely working.

 

“Yes,” Draco confirmed, watching her closely. “And I happened upon something that I didn’t expect… and it was in your handwriting.” He looked over at Pansy, but she didn’t say a word. “Something about a potion called rectus reversal. Is something going on that I don’t know about?”

 

Pansy looked away from him, and then looked back quickly. “It was a little of a secret,” she said, her voice unsteady. “After getting that low grade in potions, I asked Snape for an opportunity for extra credit so that I could catch up.”

 

Draco frowned at her. He knew for a fact that Snape never gave out extra credit. He seemed to enjoy it when his students were failing… even Slytherins at times. “Snape gave you an extra credit assignment?” he asked, wondering if she’d give more details or just confess it was a lie.

 

“I know what you’re thinking,” Pansy said, crossing one leg over the other and folding her arms over her chest. “I know that Snape doesn’t give out extra credit… but he hinted to me that if I wrote a paper on a special potion and attached it to my next assignment, he would consider it.”

 

“Oh,” Draco said, still suspicious. “Then why are you hiding it in the secret room if it’s a legit assignment?”

 

“Snape told me to keep it under wraps,” she explained. “He didn’t want the other students to think that they could do the same thing to higher their grade. You know that he sometimes favors the Slytherins over other students.”

 

Draco nodded. “Yeah…” he said. “Okay, I just wanted to make sure you weren’t in some sort of trouble. When I was reading about it, it sounded like a pretty serious potion… and not one that a sixth year student would attempt. Maybe you should ask for Snape’s help.”

 

“No,” Pansy said quickly. “The challenge of the assignment is to do it on my own. Otherwise, I’m sure he won’t give me an extra point.”

 

“Oh,” Draco said again. “Well, okay. Let me know if you need any help, though, okay?”

 

Pansy nodded. “Thanks,” she said. “And you should go to dinner. They’re about to close for the night.”

 

“Yeah,” Draco sighed. He didn’t remember eating much at all so far.

________________________________________________________________________

 

Hermione decided to leave the Slytherin Common Room all together. Draco’s discovery of her notes frightened her. In fact, she was very surprised that he hadn’t figured out her secret entirely. Then again, Pansy was his best friend, and he trusted her… so maybe that was why it didn’t immediately down on him.

 

She went up to the Astronomy tower and leaned over the balcony, even though it was freezing outside that night. The stars were shining brightly in the clear, dark blue sky, and she found herself mesmerized by the sparkling lights

 

“What are you doing here?”

 

Hermione turned around to see Pansy standing there. In the moonlight, Hermione could see that Pansy’s face was stained with tears. “I needed some fresh air,” she explained. “Are you okay?”

 

Pansy wiped her eyes. “I’m fine,” she insisted. “It’s just that I’m a little upset over the state of things. I’m sure you can understand.”

 

“Yeah,” Hermione nodded. “I understand. I know it’s been really difficult this past week, and things aren’t getting any better. Not only did I notice that Ron is acting really weird, but Draco got into that secret room and found my notes on the potion.

 

Pansy sobered up quickly. “He what!?” she exclaimed, her breath coming out in a large puff in the cold air. “And what happened?!”

 

Hermione sighed and looked back over the railing. “I made up some stupid lie about how Snape gave me an extra credit assignment and I was secretly working on it in that room. I think he might have bought it… but I’m not one hundred percent sure.”

 

Pansy gaped at her. “He believed that? I mean… Snape doesn’t give out extra credit!”

 

“I know!” Hermione turned to say. “And he said that, but I told him that it wasn’t an official assignment, that he had just hinted that he might give me a few extra points if I did write an extra paper.”

 

“Oh,” Pansy said, her shoulders slumping. “Well… if he bought it, I guess. And who cares, anyway? In a few days, this will all be over.”

 

“Yeah,” Hermione replied. “I’m getting a little stressed out over everything. I think I’ve seen enough Slytherins to last me the whole year.”

 

Pansy went up besides her and leaned over the railing. “Maybe we can just stay up here until then, and explain later why we were missing.”

 

“I wish,” Hermione signed. “Unfortunately, there are several people who would be tearing the walls down looking for us.”

 

It was Pansy’s turn to sigh. “Yeah,” she said, leaning a little further over the railing.

 

Hermione looked down at the grass that stretched all the way to the dark lake. “We’ll just have to go back eventually… and grin and bear it.”

 

________________________________________________________________________

 

Harry hadn’t seen Hermione all day. He hadn’t seen her at breakfast or lunch, so when he walked into dinner, he had expected to see her for sure. After all, she wasn’t the type to skip every meal, but she wasn’t there. He was beginning to worry. And the strange thing was, when he asked Ron if he had seen her, Ron had just laughed and walked away from him.

 

Left alone in his room with Neville and Dean Thomas, Harry stared at the door that Ron had exited. Everything had turned on its head, and Harry felt as though he were in some sort of dream world where anything could happen next.

 

“Did you ever figure out what was going on with Hermione?” Neville asked after it was apparent that Ron was not going to be coming back in the next several minutes.

 

“Not really,” Harry shrugged, still looking at the closed door. “And things just keep getting stranger.” He turned to face Neville. “Did you see how he reacted when I asked him that question?”

 

“Yeah,” Neville said, and Dean nodded from his seat at his desk. Neville walked over to Ron’s area and sat on his trunk, facing Harry. “To be honest with you, Harry, I was a little worried about everything that had been going on between the three of you lately, so I asked Ginny to help… I had her speak with Hermione, but when I asked her what had happened, she wouldn’t tell me too much about it.”

 

Harry felt like he was stuck… like there was nothing he could do to fix things at the moment. Everything was so beyond his reach, that he didn’t even have a clue about what he should do to help Ron and Hermione.

 

“It all just… really stinks,” Harry decided. He stood up from his desk and sat down on his bed, falling over and flopping into his pillows. “I think I’m just going to go to sleep… and stay asleep.”

 

Neither Neville nor Dean said a word.

 

________________________________________________________________________

 

Ron couldn’t believe it. He was so glad that he had found out about Hermione’s little secret, as it was so entertaining, but he felt like sharing his amusement with someone. There just wasn’t anyone that he could tell.

 

As he walked down the stairs and into the Gryffindor Common Room, he saw his little sister there with her nose in a book. When he stood in front of her, she lowered it.

 

“What do you want, Ron?” she asked, as if he was the last person in the world that she wanted to see at that moment. “Can’t you see I’m busy?”

 

“Geez, Ginny,” he said, sitting down on the other end of the couch. “You’re reading a book on a Saturday night. I don’t really call that busy.”

 

“Well, maybe you need a new dictionary,” Ginny suggested as she raised her book back up to her face and looked as though she was going to ignore him. “Piss off, Ron.”

 

“Why should I go?” he asked, sounding defensive. “Can’t I talk to my sister every once in a while?”

 

“No,” she said simply. “Now, piss off.”

 

“What’s wrong with you, today? Did you get dumped by your boyfriend or something?”

 

Ginny put down her book and glared at him. “I don’t even have a boyfriend,” she said between clenched teeth.”

 

“Oh,” Ron said, looking away with a small knowing smile. “I guess that’s what’s been bothering you lately. Feeling a little left out in the cold, Ginny?”

 

Ginny rolled her eyes. “Oh, please, Ron, it’s not like you have a girlfriend. So don’t give me that.”

 

“How do you know?” Ron demanded.

 

“What?” Ginny said, sounding and looking completely bored.

 

“I said,” Ron said, leaning forward. “How do you know that I don’t have a girlfriend? It’s not like we’ve talked recently. And even if I did have a girlfriend, you’re not exactly the first person I’d tell.”

 

Ginny put her book back up and looked down at its pages. “Whatever,” she said. “Why don’t you go and brag about your non existent girlfriend to someone who cares.”

 

Ron stood up and glared at his sister. He opened his mouth to say something mean and insulting, but couldn’t think of anything better than what she had just said to him, so he turned on his heels and walked towards the Common Room’s exit. Without even looking back, he stepped through the door and walked out into the hallways.

 

_______________________________________________________________________

 

Pansy, cold from being on the balcony for far too long that night, left Hermione alone and decided to head back to the Gryffindor dormitories so that she could forget about the day and go to bed. She figured that the more she slept, the faster time would go. Perhaps tomorrow, she could pretend to be sick and just lie and bed all day. Then Monday wouldn’t be so long with classes and all… before she knew it, she and Hermione would be drinking the potion and all would be well once again.

 

But before she could get back safe and sound to her room, she ran into Ron in the hallways. He looked flushed and upset, and she wasn’t about to guess why.

 

“Hi, Ron,” she said as she slowed down to acknowledge him politely, as Hermione would. “Are you okay? You look a little… red.”

 

“I’m fine,” he snapped, turning his head away from her.

 

Pansy stopped walking and turned around to face his back. “You don’t seem okay…” she said slowly.

 

“It’s nothing,” Ron said without turning around. “My sister is just being a complete snot right now. I had to get out of the Common Room.”

 

“Oh,” she said. “Maybe she’s going through a rough time.”

 

Ron turned around to face her. “She must be,” he agreed, looking at Pansy carefully. “Hey, what are you doing out in the halls so late? Snape’s night to patrol the halls is tonight, you know.”

 

“I know,” Pansy said, and boy did she ever know. “I just really needed some fresh air so I was hanging out on the balcony. Things have been… really stuffy around here lately.”

 

Ron looked down at his feet. “You’re telling me,” he muttered. “I can’t wait for winter break. Mum and Dad are doing an old fashioned Christmas this year. Charlie is even coming home from Romania.”

 

Pansy had no idea who Charlie was and why he was in Romania, but she nodded politely. “That would be nice,” she said. The truth was, she had never had an old fashioned Christmas in her entire life. Her dad had left the family to go off with some of the other male wizards in his family, and she hadn’t heard from any of them since. Her mother said that he was probably dead, but Pansy wasn’t so sure about that.

 

“Harry’s probably coming, too,” Ron went on, and then paused. “It’s either the Weasley clan or the Dursleys for him.”

 

Pansy didn’t know who the Dursleys were, but she assumed they were the family that Harry had grown up with when his parents were killed. “He’ll probably go stay with you,” she agreed, resorting to look down at her toes. All this talk about Christmas celebrations was starting to depress her.

 

It was silent for a moment, as they both avoided each other’s gaze, and Pansy decided she couldn’t take another moment of it. Listening to Ron’s cheery life with his loving family and how Harry would go spend time with them was making her so completely jealous of them… and for once, she wished she could take along. Draco was a good friend and all, but there was no way he or any of her other friends… not even her own mother, were as warm as Harry and Ron were.

 

“I’m going to go to bed,” she announced, looking up into his eyes for a moment. “Don’t stay out too long. You know how Snape likes to patrol the Gryffindor Towers most of all.”

 

Ron nodded as he held her eyes for just a moment longer than she would have expected. “Don’t worry,” he assured her, turning back around and continuing his walk down the hall, the sounds of his footsteps getting softer and softer as he walked further away.

 

____________________________________________________________________________

 

Harry woke up in the morning after a long night of tossing and turning with one thought on his mind; he needed to find Hermione and make sure she was okay after he hadn’t seen her all yesterday. He tossed his covers off, and threw his curtains open… and the first thing he noticed that Ron was not in his bed. Neville, Dean and Seamus were sleeping soundly in theirs. None of them even turned over as Harry threw on his clothes and rushed out of the door, on a mission.

 

The first place he went was to the girls’ dormitories. He didn’t even care if boys weren’t allowed and that the punishment was fifty house points, he was going to find her if it was the last thing he did.

 

Harry walked up to her dormitory door and knocked. “Hermione!” he called, and waited for some sort of answer. When he heard nothing, he knocked again. “Hermione!” he said, louder this time. “If you’re in there, will you please open the door? It’s Harry!”

 

After a few more moments of waiting, the door flew open and a very sleepy Hermione in pajamas appeared, her hair so bushy, that Harry did a double take. “What is it?” she demanded, her face deadpan.

 

“I was worried,” Harry explained. “I didn’t see you all day yesterday, and I felt so guilty that I didn’t go looking for you last—”

 

“Harry,” Hermione interrupted him. “It’s four in the morning. Couldn’t you have waited a few more hours to come knocking on my door and waking everyone up?”

 

Harry looked down at his watch, and then felt his face pale. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I guess I didn’t realize… I mean, I’m really sorry, Hermione.”

 

She sighed. “It’s okay,” she said. “You had the best of intentions, I guess…”

 

She guessed? “Yeah,” he said. “I did. But I’m still sorry I woke you up. When I woke up this morning and Ron was already out of bed, I figured it was much later.”

 

Hermione paled. “Ron isn’t in bed?”

 

Harry shook his head. “Maybe I should be looking for him instead,” he pondered.

 

“Wait here,” Hermione said, her hand on the door. “I’ll change, and then I’ll help you find him. Okay?”

 

Harry nodded just before she closed the door.

 

____________________________________________________________________________

Pansy threw on one of Hermione’s more stylish outfits, not that there were many to choose from in her drab wardrobe, put a spell on her hair to lessen its bushiness, and then rushed out back out of her dormitory.

 

“Let’s go, Harry!” she said, grabbing his sleeve without slowing down and pulling him up the stairs to the Common Room.

 

They slowed down a little bit after exiting the Common Room and entering the hallways of Hogwarts. “You know,” Harry said just when it seemed that the early morning silence of the castle was a little harsh. “Ron was acting a little strange last night.”

 

“How so?” Pansy asked quietly. She knew that Snape didn’t stop his night to patrol until six AM on his nights.

“When I asked him if he had seen you that day, he just laughed at me and left the room. I didn’t notice him come back last night if he did after that.”

 

Pansy stared ahead at the dim hallways. Perhaps Ron’s behavior was a little odd, but technically, wasn’t Ron odd in general? She couldn’t seem to differentiate between Ron and his oddness. “Why would he laugh?” she asked Harry, trying to gain more insight into the situation. Perhaps something was going on between the two of them that she wasn’t even aware of.

 

“I have no idea,” Harry confessed. “And to be honest, he’s been acting a little weird for the past couple days.”

 

“Yeah,” she agreed, still trying to wrap her mind around everything. Now that Harry had mentioned it, Ron really had been acting more strange than usual. Instead of being his normal aloof self, he almost seemed a little… contrived… which was not something she had come to know him to be in the past week. “I should have a talk with him,” she decided.

 

Harry looked over at her out of the corners of his eyes. “You know something about Ron that I don’t know?”

 

“Besides the fact that he’s a git? I don’t think so,” she smiled at him and gave him a little shove in the shoulder, causing him to smile back as he regained his steps and then bumped shoulders with her.

 

“You’re right,” Harry agreed, his eyes still sparkling as he glanced over at her. “Ron does have a horrible temper… who knows what’s upset him this time?”

 

As they continued to walk down the halls, Pansy just kept thinking. The secrets in Hermione’s group of friends just kept getting deeper and deeper. From what she gathered, Ron wasn’t the type of person to not come back to his bed for the night. Something was definitely going on with him… she just wasn’t sure if it was, how Harry would put it, a typical Ron-type-grudge, or something much bigger.

 

____________________________________________________________________________

Ron had spent the night in the Owlery, resting on the only clean patch of straw he could find. He had tried to convince himself to get up and go back to his dormitory the entire night, but for some reason, his legs just wouldn’t carry him.

 

He missed Hermione… and he missed Harry before Harry became obsessed with her. It was like the whole situation had placed a huge wall up between the three of them. And he couldn’t even talk with Hermione if he had wanted to at the current moment.

 

He felt miserable and a little depressed… like everything was falling down around him and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it.

 

But wait, was it really true that he couldn’t talk to Hermione? What if he approached her? What if he told her that he knew? When he really thought about it, it hurt that she hadn’t told him in the first place. Didn’t she trust him to keep her secret? Perhaps if he gave her another opportunity, she would reconsider.

 

“Ron!” he heard Harry say from behind him, and he turned his head around to see Harry and who he knew to be Pansy standing there in the doorway of the Owlery. “Have you been here all night? Are you bloody crazy, it’s freezing up here!”

 

“Not all night,” Ron lied. “This is just where I ended up.”

 

Pansy sat down beside him on the straw and looked over into his face with an expression that he had seen several times before in the previous week. “You know, Ron,” she said gently. “It’s not normal to spend the night in the Owlery. People will start wondering.”

 

“Oh, bug off,” he said, frowning as he turned his head away from her. “I just needed some fresh air, that’s all. And the last time I checked, it wasn’t a crime.”

 

“Some place you picked for fresh air,” Pansy muttered. They were completely surrounded by smelly owls… and what came with them.

 

“You’re just lucky Snape didn’t find you sitting up here,” Harry said, standing before them.

 

“Yeah, whatever,” Ron shrugged, looking away from the two of them. “I’m fine, so you can go off and get on with your merry little lives.”

 

“What are you talking about?” Harry demanded. “Get up, and come back to the Common Room! You’re probably exhausted, and you’re really lucky it’s Sunday.”

 

“Yeah, yeah,” Ron went on. “I’m coming.”

 

Pansy grabbed the sleeve of his sweater and pulled him up off of the straw. He accidentally caught her smile while he was trying to avoid eye contact with both of them. “Your warm bed is calling you, Ronald,” she said, and he reluctantly followed them back towards the Gryffindor Towers.