Forbidden Paths

Chapter 6

After Hermione had returned from the library Harry and Ron noticed something wrong with her. She seemed to be distant from them even though she was sitting right next to them.

“Hello, Earth to Hermione,” Harry said waving his hand in front of her face.

“Huh? What?” Hermione said looking startled, “Oh, sorry guys I kind of zoned out for a while.”

“Yeah we noticed,” Ron said sarcastically.

“Shut up, Ron I was just thinking about stuff.”

“What kind of stuff,” Ron asked his eyes widening in interest.

“Girl stuff,” Hermione said shortly and Ron immediately dropped his gaze back to the book that Hagrid had assigned.

She had really been thinking about Draco. But she didn’t dare tell Harry and Ron they would take her straight up to Dumbledore so she could be checked into St. Mungo’s and checked for brain damage. She kept picturing a little boy with a shock of white-blond hair crying in a corner while he watched his father strike his mother repeatedly.

Draco pondered the events of the night before all day when he finally decided to give up and enjoy his Hermione free hours. They had another study session tonight. They had decided to work on potions as well as Arithmancy so they could kill two birds with one stone, so they didn’t have to meet up on the weekend.

He walked into the Great Hall and saw her staring at him. He also saw Weasley and Potter following her gazing and turning their interested looks in to glares. He turned away from them and sat next to his friend Montague the Slytherin Quidditch captain.

^^^^^^^^^

Hermione made her way to the Library after dinner trying her best to digest her steak and kidney pie. But her stomach wasn’t cooperating. It was acting like the last thing it wanted to do was digest something. She felt like she had a Cornish Pixie trapped in her stomach and it was trying it’s best to get out.

She walked into the library and her stomach did a huge flip-flop when she saw Draco lounged on his chair with his arms crossed. She walked over to him and set her Arithmancy books and Potions notes on the table in front of them. She took her seat and he said, “You’re late.”

“Two minutes is not considered late,” she snapped.

“Well, you would have been on time if you were here at 8 and it’s 8:02 so I say that you are late,” Malfoy drawled sarcastically.

“Shut up Draco!” Hermione snarled.

“Make me,” Draco said raising his eyebrow at her tone of voice.

“Fine,” she said and she leaned forward and planted her lips on his.

He tried to pull back but she had put her hand around his neck so he had no choice but to relax and enjoy. She pulled away with a look of success on her face but that look suddenly turned to disgust and she turned away and threw up all over the library floor.

“Hermione are you okay,” Draco said leaping out of the way so he didn’t get splattered with vomit. But it just kept coming. So he conjured a bucket out of thin air. He placed it in front of her held her hair back and rubbed her . Wh. When she finished she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and immediately passed out.
co wco who was very strong for his age swept her up in his arms and took a shortcut up to the Hospital Wing.

~~~~~~~~

Harry and Ron ran into the Hospital and saw Malfoy sitting by Hermione. White-hot rage burned through Harry as he saw him sitting near her.

“What the hell did you do to her you stupid bastard!” Ron bellowed. He seemed to be thinking the exact same thing Harry was thinking.

Malfoy’s head whipped around and he saw Potter and Weasley pointing their wands at him. He quickly retrieved his from Hermione’s bedside table, and pointed it at Potter, “I didn’t do anything to her you raving idiot.”

“Then get out of here! You have no reason to be here!” Harry roared.

Draco turned and removed his cloak that was lying on top of Hermione and grabbed his books and left without another word.

Harry watched him saunter away and he and Ron walked over to Hermione’s bedside and to their surprise she looked completely unharmed except she was asleep. Ron red ovd over and took her head and whispered her name, “Hermione? Are you okay?”

She slowly opened her eyes and looked around and noticed that she was in the Hospital Wing. The first thought that came to her head was, “Where’s Draco?”

Harry and Ron exchanged worried glances. “He was here a second ago but, we made him leave before he cause anymore damage,” Harry said rubbing Hermione’s arm.

“Hermione,” said Ron, “what happened? Why are you in here?”

“Oh, well, I was meeting Drac… I mean Malfoy,” she said quickly when she saw the puzzled looks on their faces, “For tutoring and we had just sat down when… when what I had for dinner caught up with me and I started to puke,” ignoring their grossed out faces she took a deep breath. She had almost said when I kissed him. What was wrong with her? Maybe she really did need to go to St. Mungo’s to get checked over.

“Oh,” said Harry looking a little guilty, “So, Malfoy didn’t do anything to you to land you in here?”

“No, why do you ask?” By the looks on their faces she asked them, “What did you two say to Malfoy?”

“Nothing really just, ‘What did you do to her you stupid bastard?’” Harry repeated with a look between amusement and shame playing across his face

“Harry James Potter!” Harry winced at hearing his whole name shouted at him, “Why did you--?” Hermione

“It wasn’t Harry,” Ron admitted bashfully.

Hermione was fuming. All she could say was, “Leave,” Ron and Harry opened their mouths in protest, “Leave! Now! Go and apologize right now!”

Ron and Harry scoffed at this ridiculous statement but they could tell by her face that she wasn’t kidding. So they opened their mouths to apologize to her but she drew her wand out of her school bag and shook her head. Ron took one look at the wand and grabbed Harry’s arm and they left.

Draco was fuming because of Weasley’s false accusations and the way Potter said that he had no right to be there because he did. It wasn’t St. Potter that had almost gotten thrown up on. He walked back to the dungeons but before he could say the password to enter the Slytherin Common Room Weasley and Potter had come flying down the steps.

They were out of breath and Weasley was clutching his side. “Malfoy… we… need… to… talk,” Potter panted.

“About what?” Malfoy spat.

“We… need…to…apologize,” Ron panted still clutching his side. There was a grimace on his face. Draco didn’t know whether the smirk was because of the stitch it his side or having to apologize.

“I don’t except it,” Draco said simply.

“Don’t be an jackass,” Potter said standing up straight glaring at Malfoy, “We came down here to apologize because our actions were… rash,” he finished painfully.

“So, I understand that you’re apologizing but your only doing it because Granger told you,” Malfoy said glowering at them.

“No we aren’t. She didn’t tell us to come apologize,” said Ron trying to look believable.

“You’re lying. First of all when have you two ever come up to me and tried to have a decent conversation with me? Second of all of course she would make you come apologize because of what happened in the library,” he finished haughtily.

“By what happened in the library you mean her almost puking on you?” Harry asked while Ron choked back a snigger.

“N—I mean yeah! She almost so my my new robes,” Draco saved. Hermione hadn’t told them about the kiss.

“Look stop being a prat and accept our apology so we can get on with the day,” Ron demanded.

“Whatever,” Malfoy drawled and he turned around and walked down the dungeon stairs muttered, “Runespoor,” and walked into the common room