Inescapable

chapter 5

"Hey, Hermione!"

Hermione jumped and clutched a hand to her chest. "Bloody hell, Ron," she snapped. "Don't creep up on me like that."

Ron blinked at her and then pointedly glanced around the bustling corridor, clearly conveying that it was near impossible to creep up on anyone in this chaos. "You alright, 'Mione? What's going on?"

"Nothing. I'm fine," she lied, sighing impatiently. Truth was, she wasn't alright at all, her nerves were completely shot. "What do you want?"

Ron frowned at her clipped tone but chose to ignore it. "I was wondering if I could borrow your notes from Potions?" he asked carefully.

"What notes?"

"You know, the ones from last week?" he prompted.

Hermione scowled. "For god's sake, Ron, don't tell me you still haven't finished your essay? It's due tomorrow!"

Ron guiltily pressed his lips together. "I've been busy with... stuff," he mumbled, scratching the back of his head.

"You mean you've been busy doing God-knows-what with Lavender Brown," she retorted. As seemed to be the theme in recent weeks, she felt an instant headache bloom in her temples at the mere mention of the Gryffindor tart.

Ron groaned, rolling his eyes. "Oh, please, don't start, Hermione," he begged, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I'm not in the mood to argue with you over Lavender. I don't get why you hate her so much. You've shared a dormitory with her for years and never complained once."

Hermione felt like slapping him. "Of course you don't get it! You never do," she didn't even have to tag idiot on at the end, her trenchant tone took care of that.

Ron angrily gritted his teeth together. "That's not fair. Maybe if you tried explaining it to me, then I would know what's going on here. You haven't given me one good reason why you don't like her, all you do is yell at me and get pissed off whenever she's around."

Hermione opened her mouth, a sharp response on the tip of her tongue, but was rudely interrupted by Lavender Brown suddenly appearing out of nowhere and wrapping her arms around Ron's neck.

Speak of the devil, and she shall appear.

"Hi, Won-Won," Lavender simpered. "Have you missed me?"

Hermione was torn between the urge to either gag or scream. They had only been apart for an hour or so, if that. Hermione couldn't fathom how Ron could have even had the time to consider missing her.

Ron chuckled nervously, glancing at Hermione, and attempted to pry Lavender's death grip from his neck. "Sorry, Lav, I'm just in the middle of something -"

Lavender flicked her hair and turned to glare at Hermione.

"It's fine," Hermione managed to say, in as calm a tone as she could muster. "I think we're done here. As they say, there's no use in flogging a dead horse," she couldn't help but add, as she pushed passed them.

"Wait, Hermione!" Ron called, sounding a little desperate. "Can I use your notes or not?"

Un-fucking-believable. "No!" she bellowed, not bothering to turn around.

Hermione instantly stiffened, a shiver creeping up her spine, when she noticed Malfoy leaning casually against the wall outside of Transfiguration, arms crossed, Nott and Zabini flanking him on either side, as he stared at her intensely.

All through Charms, Hermione gazed blankly at her parchment. She could distantly hear Professor Flitwick's lecture on Apparition, but couldn't for the life of her concentrate on what he was actually saying. She probably should listen, she was one of the students who would be able to take the first Apparition Test in a few months' time. Even so, this didn't pique her interests like it should have. Her mind was too consumed with thoughts of Draco Malfoy, among a few other things.