Tainted - {d.m. & h.g.}

four - occlumency | smoke

song: achilles come down - gang of youths

HERMIONE

There's rage brewing in the pit of her stomach.

Wicked laughter escapes her lips as she lazily stomps her way to the Gryffindor dormitory— the sound doesn't even resonate in her eardrums as her own voice because it seems foreign to her usual hilarity. The slap of her shoes on the stone floor leaves the soles of her feet stinging, tingling sensations shoot up her legs as her nerves yell at her for the disturbance she's causing. She focuses on the pain to keep from crumbling to the floor into a heap of tears and broken sobs. She's laughing because she's bloody angry. She's laughing because it feels good to at least feel something— she's laughing to keep from bloody crying.

She pauses in her step when she hears a dripping sound echoing off the ceilings, looks around only to find out its source is from her fingernails digging inter her palm so roughly strings of blood swim through her fingers, dripping into a pool of crimson on the floor.

She whispers profanities to the emptiness, then pulls out her wand from her robes and casts a silent healing charm, watches as the skin stitches itself back together. She finds herself wishing it were that easy to mend a heart— or a mind.

She continues down the corridor, hop-skipping onto a moving staircase's landing just before it swings out of reach; lets it rotate her to the portrait hole. She weakly voices the password and pushes herself into the Gryffindor common room. Her eyes immediately fall to Ginny, Ron, and Neville seated cozy by a crackling fire. Ginny's braided hair sweeps around her face as she reads an open book that's spread flat across her cross-legged lap. Ron and Neville are playing a quiet game of wizarding chess on the rug in front of the velvet couch, and the only noises in the room are the crack of the fire, Ginny dragging her pointed finger across a page of the book as she reads, and the click of glass on glass as Neville and Ron focus on their game. They look so peaceful, she contemplates just turning around and leaving them be, not interrupting their evening— afraid that her foul mood will be contagious.

After a moment's hesitation, she slowly saunters over to the three, plastering a fake look of contentedness on her face.

As the steps of her shoes break the silence of the room, Ginny looks up from her lingered concentration on the book in her lap and meets Hermione's eyes with a smile that unsuccessfully hides the concern in her eyes. Ginny slaps the palm of her hand on the red couch next to herself three times in a means to invite Hermione to replace the empty spot on the cushion. Before she even settles all the way down, Ginny grabs a book from the stack that sits crooked on the end table next to her and shoves it toward Hermione's hands without as much as a muttered word. Hermione, on instinct, opens the book without question and settles herself comfortable into the nook of the couch where the back meets the arm, and opens the book to begin reading. The book is one that discusses Occlumency, titled: Guide to Advanced Occlumency written by Maxwell Barnett.

"Have you tried it before," Ginny questions after a moment, chewing on one of her fingernails, "Occlumency?"

The interruption from silence causes both Ron and Neville to advert their attention to the two girls on the couch, leaving chess pieces to move themselves autonomously across the smooth checkered game board on the floor.

"Uh— yes, actually I have," she says, tracing a finger along the sharp edge of the book's spine.

Ginny lets out a sigh, "Did you succeed in your attempt, or?"

"No," Hermione replies, shaking her head, "I couldn't clear my mind long enough to even fully attempt."

This felt like mud rolling off her tongue— she hates being unsuccessful, it was even worse to admit she was unsuccessful.