The Astronomy Tower < #wattys2016 >

A Chance Encounter

PART ONE: THE ASTRONOMY TOWER

Saturday, December 2nd 1995

Hermione Granger couldn't get the awful image out of her mind. Ron and Lavender entwined in a passionate embrace. She felt like she was going to be sick . Why would he do this to her, sure they weren't dating but they were supposed to go to Slughorn's Christmas party together?

She guessed that she should have seen it coming from Lavenders end. Her, and her best friend Pavarti have been talking non stop about Ronald Weasley like naïve school girls since to beginning of term. It was sickening, and getting quite annoying. She had been hoping that Ron, and is frantic desire to prove himself, would not realise the crush that Lavender had on him.

Her chest hurt as if somebody had reached in her and squeezed the air from her lungs. Her head spun, and she could barely walk straight. She kept one hand on the railing for support. The words still danced around her head, teasing her helpless heart with every syllable. Why would he do this? How could he do this?  

She jogged down the silent, empty halls of Hogwarts, turning left and right down familiar, stone corridors, running up and down spiraling staircase, occasionally tripping over trick steps that she had forgotten to watch out for in her current state. As she ran hot, sticky, fat tears ran down her rosy cheeks. Her bushy hair flew wildly behind her. It was no secret that she had the biggest, nastiest crush on Ronald Weasely ever since that night in the shrieking shack in their third year, when he had been brave enough to put his own life on the line for Harry's sake. She recalled the loyalty behind his features, and wanting him to feel that way towards her as well.

The thought of that day caused fresh tears to surface, and she ran faster still. Hermione wasn't usually the jealous type, but why Lavender? Sure she was pretty, prettier that Hermione. But she had absolutely no personality, she was a complete air headed bimbo, and even worse, she was known to be a bit of a slag. Certainly, Ron couldn't like her for her awful personality, or the way that her and Pavarti had always excluded her since the very first day that they had set foot on the Hogwarts express.

Maybe it was the Brown girls looks, she has pretty wavy blonde hair, not a curly brown mess, her skin was milky, not tanned, she had big blue eyes, not dark brown, and she had a healthy patch of freckles splatter across her nose, while Hermione's were visible, but not anything special. Was Ron really that shallow? Would he really choose to snog a girl just because she was pretty to look at? Hermione remembered back in fourth year, when Ron had been looking for someone to take to the yule ball.

"Better hurry before all of the good ones are taken" the note had said that Fred passed to him, she recalled the panicked look that Ron had sported after that. She had secretly been holding out for Ron to ask her, but instead she had watched him consider every other girl to go to the ball with instead of herself. So she went with Viktor, he was nice enough, a famous Quidditch player too, that made all of the girls glare at her while she walked down the halls, and maybe Ron would be jealous too? Maybe he would finally see her as a feminine girl, rather than his friend that liked to read a lot. She guessed not, considering what her eyes had just witnessed. The image would be burned into her skull forever. 

She climbed up several more fights of stone stairs until she reached her destination. Hermione flung herself through the heavy wooden door to the Astronomy tower. She stood stationary for a moment, letting her surroundings sink in.  The tears that still escaped her eyes slid down her cheeks, leaving wet trails that carved like knives in the winter chill. She took a deep breathe of the fresh air, and let the sensation of being outside relax her. She opened her eyes, and that's when she saw him.