The Raven

Disclaimer: I do not own HP or anything in it. That privilege goes to JKR.

The Raven

By: Bree McGregor

A/N :To everyone who reviewed -Thank you Thank you Thank you!!! I’m so glad that you like the story!!!

Chapter 4

Christmas had come and gone. Hermione had chosen to stay at Hogwarts over the holidays, so that the bird would have company. Ron thought she would miss being with her friends, so he expected her to welcome him after the break. He was wrong. Classes had resumed a week ago. Ron was fuming... Hermione was ignoring him again! She was spending too much time with that stupid bird! She needed to spend more time with her friends… well, mainly with HIM!

Last summer, she stayed at the Burrow and all was right with the world. He felt they had started to grow closer, until one day he had gotten the courto fto finally kiss her. It was awkward, but he enjoyed it. She seemed to enjoy the kiss as well but then she started to act funny, ignoring him once they got back to Hogwarts.

He even cornered Ginny once to ask what happened to Hermione, but Ginny turned red and ran. Ever since, Hermione avoided the subject of their relationship. If he pushed her, she would start up with all the things she hated about him, and would threaten to tell George and Fred that he had taken one of their “Naughty by Wizardry” books.

These books were just plain parchment that the twins had charmed together like a book, much like a Muggle notebook. The books had a lot of their original ideas, and experiments that they had put on hold. If the twins ever found out Ron took one of the books, his life would mean nothing, for he would be dead by the time he could even form the first word of self-defense, not that there really was any.

This is why Ron was now angry at her, perhaps angrier than he had ever been before in his life. He was going to get some answers tonight! Standing outside of the Head Girl’s room, he lifted his hand and pounded on the door three times.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Hermione was spending a quiet night in her room for once. She had noticed that Ron was shooting her increasingly darker looks each day. She didn’t want to have a confrontation with him; she felt that it could end their friendship forever.

Just thinking of Ron made her sigh deeply, but she didn’t want to think of him so she went back to her book, “Potions and Problems.” She really didn’t understand why, but reading the book aloud seemed to keep Mr. Mistoffelees entertained. It was like he almost understood her, but then again, he had shown an amazing amount of intellce fce for a bird. So, happily, she continued reading aloud to him.

“... This problem will occur if the Asphodel was improperly handled, meaning it was stored where sunlight or other weather conditions could affect it, or if it has been sitting too long. This potion calls for the freshest Asphodel possible. If the asphodel is corrupt in any way, the effects would cause three explosions simultaneously.”

'Bang! Bang! Bang!'

Mr. Mistoffelees squawked at the loud banging, for he was so caught up in listening to Hermione read the new potions book. It was not as advanced as most of the material the Potions Master read, but it was a good book, just rsed sed by an old colleague of his. He felt it was about time someone wrote a book on the dangers of potion-making and children!

Suppressing a frustrated scream, Hermione put down the book and went to open her door.

She should have expected it — really, she should have — but she didn’t, so she just stood there staring at an enraged Ron. He looked like he was about to yell until he was blue in the face, but instead he took a deep breath and amazingly spoke calmly.

“Hey, can I come in? We have to talk.”

“Can we talk later, Ron? I’m in the middle of something.” She really didn’t want to be alone with him in her bedroom.

Ron turned as red as his hair and stormed past her into her room.

“NO! Hermione, we are going to talk about this NOW!”

“What’s with you, Ron?”

“W-wh-what’s with me!??” he yelled. “Last summer everything was fine, then as soon as we got back to Hogwarts, you will have nothing to do with me! WHY?”

“Things were not ‘fine’ over the summer Ron,” she said softly. Taking a deep breath, she decided to take the plunge and tell him. “All we did was kiss once, Ron, and I’m sorry I didn’t feel anything. I tried to tell you before I left but you kept talking over me; you wouldn’t hear a thing I had to say!” Her anger was getting worked slowly, but it was building in strength. “Just like always, Ron! You don’t want me for me… hell, you didn’t even know I was a girl until you accidentally walked in on me when I was in the shower!”

Ron had the grace to blush but, truth be told, he was blushing more from the memory of her wonderfully naked body, than the remembered embarrassment. His hormones went into overdrive that day, and he started to pursue Hermione with a vengeance. All he could think about was getting her in his bed and getting to touch the soft skin he saw that day; but the stronger he pursued her, the faster she backed away.

Snape watched all this unfold before him. He had learned bits and pieces from Hermione when she talked to herself about her problems. It seemed, other than Miss Weasley, that she didn’t have any very close female friends. He understood why she didn’t want to be alone in her room — such an intimate surrounding — with a boy she had no interest in personally, but Snape knew the boy had an interest in her.

“I’m sorry I didn’t no you you before, ‘Mione, but now that I do you seem to be not interested in me!”

“I had a crush on you for a long time but I never wanted to ruin our friendship, so I kept it to myself. Then when you kissed me, I realized that I didn’t quite like you as much as I once thought I did. I’m sorry Ron, I really am.” She bowed her head, not wanting to look up at him, and she didn’t see when he advanced on her stealthily.

He was an athlete; his body was toned by hours of Quidditch practice, and he even had some grace about him.

Snape saw him approach Hermione and squawked a warning to her. Hermione’s head shot up when she noticed that Ron was so close to her. The look of hatred that Ron had been directing at her was now directed at the raven sitting on her desk.

“I hate that bloody bird!” the boy yelled, advancing on it. “You should have left it to die in the snow!”

“Ron, how can you say that!”

“Easy! That bird should be by all rights dead! So I’m just going to make things right again.”

Ron reached for the bird. The raven tried to dodge his grasp, as he scraped and picked at the boy’s hands with his claws and beak. Ron wasn’t going to let this bird stop him; he couldn’t take his anger out on Hermione, but he could take it out on the bird.

“Ron, stop!” she yelled, trying to get his attention from the bird before he killed it.

“Why Hermione? Did you fall in love with a bird?”

“I love the bird, yes; and to set the record straight, I’m NOT in love with anyone!”

Ron turned back toward her again and grabbed her shoulders tightly.

“Ron, stop! You’re hurting me!”

“No more then you’ve hurt me, Hermione. All the signs were there! You led me on for years and now that I want you, you refuse me! I DON’T THINK SO!”

Hermione looked into his eyes; this was not Ron the boy she grew up with. This was another Ron — someone she didn’t like at all, someone she was frightened of.

His lips were on hers; it felt worse then the first time. He was desperate, demanding; and the kiss spoke of total dominance! Thinking back, she knew why she kept away from him. That kiss he gave her this summer was a hint of what he was doing now. She felt his tongue against her closed mouth and she clamped down her lips, refusing him entrance.

He bit her lip hard, so when she gasped in pain his tongue shot into her mouth, dominating it. Her small hands were trying to hit him and push him away from her, but his grip was too tight. She felt him pulling her toward her bed. She started to panic and kicked at him, doing anything to get him away from her. She knew this wasn’t like Ron! If he would just calm down and get a hold of himself, he would see this was wrong.

Ron pulled away from her, suddenly screaming. The raven was in his hair, pulling it out, clawing at anything he could reach!

Snape had to get him away from Hermione. He would look back at this later and think that it was probably one of the bravest and stupidest things he had ever done.

Ron turned on the raven and hit it with his fist as hard as he would have hit a bludger! The bird went flying across the room until he hit the far wall and slipped down to the floor unconscious.

“NO!!!” Hermione ran to the bird to make sure he was still alive.

“Hermione, it’s just a bloody bird! Will you choose a bird over me?!”

Hermione sighed in relief that the raven was still alive — terribly hurt, but alive. She slowly stood up, took out her wand, and without hesitation hexed Ron. “Petrificus Totalus.”

She picked up the bird, stepped over Ron as if he was nothing but a pile of dirty laundry, and walked out the door.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

On her way to the hospital wing, Hermione ran into Professors McGonagall and Dumbledore. They noticed that her hair was disheveled, her robes were a mess, and her arms gently held an unconscious bird.

“My dear, what happened?” called McGonagall worriedly.

“N-nothing.”

“Really?” said Dumbledore, his blue eyes intense, not sparkling as they had been earlier. He knew… somehow she knew he did. “Well then, let’s get this fellow up to the hospital wing. Looks like you both put up quite a fight.” He kept shooting glances at her as they made their way down the corridor, but said nothing.

Once they reached the hospital wing, Madam Pomfrey was nowhere to be found.

“Minerva, would you be so kind as to find Poppy for us?”

“Yes, Headmaster.” With that, the older witch left them alone as she went to find the missing medi-witch.

“So he overstepped the line, did he?” asked Dumbledore, looking Hermione over sadly.

“Sir?” She busied herself by putting the now slowly awakening bird down on a table.

“Mr. Weasley. I’m quite sure he was the one who confronted you.”

“Why would you say that, sir?”

“Several reasons. Firstly, if your attacker was someone like Mr. Malfoy or Miss Bulstrode, you would not have hesitated to tell us what happened. And secondly, I have known that Mr. Weasley’s emotional state has not been what one would call stable lately.”

“I think all this waiting and wondering about the war is getting to him,” she said softly, looking at the bird, not seeing the sadness in the Headmaster’s eyes.

It was quite a shame, really, that Mr. Weasley would throw away such a good friendship. But then, the Headmaster thought to himself that this could work to his advantage in the long run. With the two friends estranged, Albus could start on another aspect of her future.

Ron and Harry, the Headmaster was sad to say, would stand in the way of what he believed to be Miss Granger’s true destiny.

“I will deal with it discreetly, Miss Granger,” he said softly, as he got up to leave. “Where would I find him?”

“In my quarters, Professor. Under a full body bind.” She looked up at him, her eyes holding uncertainty.

He smiled softly at her. “I think, given the circumstances, hexing him can be overlooked this one time.”

Relief flooded her, and she smiled back just as Professor McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey came into the room.

“Ah, Poppy! Please look over the bird and the girl, if you will not mind,” he said as he ignored her dark look at the mention of the bird. “Come, Minerva; we have something to take care of.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Thanks again June beta extraordinaire!

and thanks to everyone who reviewed! I'm hoping to get more chapters up sooner. my professors do not see Fan Fiction as a priority to there homework assignments LOL