The Dark Side (Unedited)

Chapter 8

The silence that erupted around the room was quickly suffocating Hermione, as she waited for somebody to speak. Harry looked like he was in shock, Ginny slowly shook her head at her disapprovingly and Ron... Ron looked absolutely disgusted and horrified. Hermione just looked down at the ground, waiting for someone to do something. And then, as quickly as the silence had entered the room when Hermione had finished speaking, it shattered to pieces.

"I'm going to kill you, Malfoy! I swear, even if it is the last thing I do, I will murder you! You psychotic prat! How could you do this to her?" Ron screeched and Hermione flinched away from him as he jumped out of his chair. She had never seen him this angry.

At the same time Ginny had yelled, "Hermione what are you doing? I was surprised when you said you were friends. Just friends! What are you thinking? He is evil, and you know it! He's probably just going to take advantage of you and then break your heart!" Her last words were drowned out however by Ron's roaring voice.

"You knew? You knew they were friends? You didn't even tell your own brother that his best friend was fraternising with the enemy?" Even Harry was giving Ginny a dirty look, as he was her boyfriend after all, he thought she shouldn't keep any secrets from him. Hermione would have felt bad for making them all fight if she wasn't so angry at their behaviour.

"The enemy? There should be no enemy anymore Ronald! The war is over! You need to grow up!" Hermione screeched.

"I know the war is over, but that doesn't mean I'm going to go and befriend the person who has tormented all of us, including YOU in case you'd forgotten!"

"People change, Ronald!"

"Obviously YOU'VE changed! I thought you were smart, Hermione! Don't you see what he's trying to do? He's a cowardly, egotistical, evil little prat! Why can't you see that?"

"And you are just an ignorant git, Ronald!" Hermione huffed, she had hoped that Ron wouldn't act like this, but deep down she had known that this wouldn't blow over easily. She looked at him, and saw anger fuming out of him. His eyes were full of rage, and that actually scared her a little. She wasn't used to him being so angry. They had arguments all the time, but nothing could compare to this. He broke their eye contact, and ran at Draco. Ron tried to punch him in the face, but Draco blocked it. He couldn't block Ron's knee though, and it collided with his stomach. He groaned in agony, and Hermione screamed. "Ron! Get away from him! Don't hurt him, please!" She couldn't stop the tears that rolled out of her eyes as she saw Draco push Ron away and drop to his knees. He clutched his stomach and Hermione wanted to help him, but she was glued to the spot. She looked up at Ron and saw he was going to take another swing, and she screamed.

"PROTEGO!" Harry bellowed. It was the first time he had spoken, and he seemed to shut everyone up. All that could be heard was Hermione's sobs. She ran over to Draco and laid him down. She performed a few healing spells, but she didn't want to do very complex ones as she didn't want to hurt him further. When she was done, she helped him up and looked around. She couldn't see Ron, so he had obviously left in a fit of rage. She couldn't help but worry that he might get caught without the invisibility cloak. She glanced at Harry, and from all the years she had known him, she knew he was in deep thought. Her eyes drifted to Ginny, and was pleased that she didn't look angry.

Ginny ran over to her and gave her a hug, that Hermione returned gratefully. At least one of her best friends didn't hate her. She sobbed at the fact that she had caused tension between Ginny and Harry because she had kept her secret, and Ginny's relationship with Ron was obviously pretty shaky too because of her. "Oh Ginny, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean for any of this to happ-"

"Hermione! It's fine. If he makes you happy," she glanced at Draco and couldn't help but make a face, "then I guess... we will have to accept it. Don't worry about Ron, he will calm down. I'm not promising he will be happy about your relationship, but if he dares to disrespect it he will have to answer to me. Remember Hermione, I will support you no matter what, but just be careful." Hermione nodded and hugged her again, eternally grateful that she had Ginny as her best girl friend. Hermione knew that Ginny would follow through on her threat against Ron. She can be caring and gentle, but she can blow up like a firecracker when she's angry. That's part of the reason Hermione was glad she wasn't angry at her.

"Hey, Gin? Could I speak to Hermione for a second?" Ginny replied with a nod and a small smile at Hermione before walking off. "And... Malfoy? I'd like to speak to you as well." Hermione looked up at Draco and saw him roll his eyes. Though when he saw Hermione raise her eyebrows at him, slightly irritated he walked over without a word. Hermione took his hand and tried to calm him. She didn't want a fight between him and Harry as well. "Listen, Hermione... I want you to be happy and I know I have no say in who you date, but I just want to know if you've thought this through. I know that you and Ron broke up, but he still hasn't dated anyone yet. I'm not really sure that he's over you, and I know him well enough to know that this will really hurt him. Especially because it's Malfoy. He wants to protect you. He's angry because he knows he's lost you. Just give him time to calm down, and then I think it would help if you spoke to him about it. Let's face it, your friendship hasn't been the same since you broke up, and that's because he still hasn't moved on." Hermione could almost hear Draco thinking why he has to be here to here this. "I think that you should try and get your relationship back to how it was before you started dating, so that it doesn't have to be awkward anymore."

"Now, as for you," Harry turned to Draco, "If whatever you have is serious, you take care of her. If you hurt her and I swear-"

"Thanks, Harry. I will talk to Ron. I'm so glad I have you." She pulled him into a hug before he could threaten Draco any further. Harry was right, Ron was partly only angry because he was hurting, but Hermione was still not happy with his behaviour. And judging by the sour look on Draco's face, he obviously wasn't either. Ginny saw that their talk was over, so she wrapped her arm around Harry and said goodbye to Hermione and even waved at Draco. Draco was too shocked to say anything back, but Ginny wasn't expecting him to.

When they left, Hermione leant against the wall and sunk to the ground, her head in her hands. She felt Draco's arm wrap around her shoulders and she leaned her head on his shoulder.

"Well that was..." She couldn't finish her sentence, there wasn't a word good enough to describe the anger on Ron's face.

"Better than I thought it was going to be." Draco finished. Hermione glanced up in surprise, eyebrows raised, waiting for him to continue. "Well, I have seen how feisty the girl Weasley can be, I thought she would have ripped my head off. And Potter, well I expected him to be all arrogant and whatever, but he was actually quite... Alright about it, I suppose. What the Weasel did was expected obviously, he is a red-head for a reason obviously. He has quite a temper, doesn't he?" Hermione was going to retort a smart comment about how Draco's temper was much worse, but she was too tired to argue with him. And he may have said something half-nice about Harry, so maybe he was on the right track. "They don't seem that bad, though. I suppose I have only seen the bad side of them, I mean I never got to know them before we became enemies. Now that I know you, I realise that all the bad things I said about you weren't true. Well, except the nerdy part." She scowled, but she was smiling as well. Draco Malfoy, apologising. Who would have known?

They went back to their dormitory, and like the night before, they fell asleep, embracing each other's company. The only difference however, was that there were silent tears streaming down Hermione's face. She cried because at that moment, she had lost Ron. She had lost a piece of her heart. He was her best friend, after all. She had known him for half of her life, and he felt like a brother. She couldn't get his heartbroken face out of her mind. She hoped that she would be able to make up with him so that it didn't have to be awkward anymore. She didn't regret being with Ron, but she wished she could erase that so that could go back to how they were.