Fragments of the Sea

Wistful Wishes

Hermione kept her composure, but one look into her eyes would reveal the white-hot ball of fury inside her. She was fuming, but she managed to keep her voice even, though it sounded just a bit too monotonous, even to her ears. "I'm fine," she gritted out through clenched teeth. Ron winced and opened his mouth, but he seemed unsure of what to do, and his usual fire was dampened.

Harry frowned and looked at her with pity and disapproval, as though this weren't the answer he wanted. It probably wasn't, but Hermione also doubted that he wanted to hear that he was the problem. She knew he was smart- or could be, at least- but Harry was also one of the most hard-headed people she knew. He'd make assumptions about people, and those would be his opinions forever; first impressions were everything to him, and Perci had been an unexpected variable when he'd first met her.

"So they do have you under a spell." Harry said it like a doctor informing his patient of a life-threatening disease, ominous and having already submitted to the Fates' hands. "No. We. Are. Friends, Harry, get that into your thick skull," Hermione hissed. "Draco...He's either changed, or he was putting up a front for all those years before. And even if he meant every single thing he said for the past 7 years, then you should be able to forgive him anyways. 

"Everyone at this school has fought together, he's saved your life before, and if you really are the 'hero' that the wizarding world thinks you are, then you would find it in yourself to forget all the petty arguments you two have had and see clearly! Grow up, Harry; Zeus knows Draco has." Hermione's breath caught in her chest, but Harry didn't seem to notice her slip up.

"What happened to 'Malfoy', huh, Hermione? What happened to that 'foul, loathsome, evil little cockroach' that you punched in the face third year? It's impossible for someone like him to change- how could you even suggest that Malfoy's saved me, fought by our side or anything similar to it?

"You want me to see clearly? How about looking at the flipping situation yourself? You're being manipulat-" Hermione screeched, and tears spilled over the rims of her eyes, streaming down her flushed cheeks. "Shut up! Shut up, you pompous, insensitive, judgmental bastard! You disgust me." Hermione was almost whispering by the end of her outburst, but the painful silence that followed allowed her words to reverberate with even more force.

Why was the world like this? Why were the Fates so cruel? Everything was the opposite of how it used to be; when Draco was Malfoy and Potter was Harry. How had things gotten so messed up in so little time? Just last June, Hermione had been laughing, untroubled with Harry and Ron, and now all of them were crying and yelling and pushing blame around like they wanted the others dead.

Harry's head was bowed, but his emerald eyes were just barely visible to Hermione, dark with a powerful rage and wild hatred. "I don't care what you think. You're just a dirty, little-" Hermione and Ron both stilled. 'No. He...he wouldn't...he doesn't think like...'

"-mud blood."

Hermione felt the impact of the venomous words hit her like a bullet, piercing her heart and soul in a moment, with just one small noise. But it wasn't small to her, and with the coming of the gutted feeling, Hermione also felt a frozen indifferent mask overtake her. The wound to her heart frosted over, leaving only a frozen shell for the duo in front of her.

"I'm leaving." Hermione didn't have to listen to this, she didn't have to look at these two strangers in front of her, who for some reason brought her so much pain. Maybe it was because of their words. Maybe it was because they looked exactly like her old friends. But she had new friends now, true friends. Poisonous relationships weren't good, and these two were komodos.

Their words were just as venomous as the saliva of the actual lizard. They could cause blood loss, draining the energy from their prey, infecting them in order to weaken their forms, until they finally dropped dead. Snakes could be kind, like Draco, but even though there were torturous ones, she couldn't bear to outright group the three together.