Late Nights on the Astronomy Tower (Draco x Hermione)

VI. Liars and Spies

"Morning," he said.

"Morning, Harry. How are you feeling?"

His eyes narrowed a small bit. "Fine," he said with a questioning tone.

"It's just–well–" she looked up and took in a breath, "Ron said you've been having nightmares."

He tilted his head in annoyance. "Why does he care?"

"He's worried about you, and so am I. What are they about? If you would just tell me things like this–"

"I don't want to talk to you about it!" he protested. "Ron doesn't know what he's talking about–he–he's a liar–saying he's worried about me. He hasn't said a word to me in weeks! And you–you can't just fix everything–I don't want to talk about my stupid nightmares with you because–there's nothing you can do no matter how badly you want to–just stop trying to help me!" His volume was increasing and a few heads had turned at the noise. He got up from his seat, taking his book with him and stormed out of the Great Hall.

Hermione sat, now alone, a shocked expression on her face. It had happened so quickly. Like he was already angry at her and whatever she said would set him off. Harry was stressed and tired and he took it out on Hermione like he always did. Tears formed in her eyes but she refused to cry in front of all the people in the Great Hall. It was still early so there weren't too many–but it was enough for her to feel extremely embarrassed. She took a deep breath and caught the eye of someone across the room. Draco again. Her expression turned to fury at the sight of his unfriendly eyes on her. Why was he always there? She mustered up the meanest look possible and directed it at Malfoy before getting up from the table and storming off herself like Harry had.

Her body seemed to lead the way. It knew where it was going before she even thought about it. A few minutes later she stood at the base of the astronomy tower and began climbing the steps. Once at the top, she stopped in her tracks. Professor Sinistra stood before her with a look of confusion.

"Hermione–I have fourth years in last period today–"

"I know–I'm sorry to barge up here," she told her professor apologetically. She had always gone to the astronomy tower at night when the professor was sleeping. She was too much in a daze to remember that she had classes during the day. "I was just–I wanted to look at the view–I–I'm having a bad morning," she stuttered.

"Oh–yes! By all means–I don't have students for another twenty minutes–go ahead." She gestured to the balcony and Hermione smiled appreciatively before walking over to it.

"Is there anything you wanted to talk about?" the professor asked.

Hermione turned her head to look back at her. "No, I would only bore you, Professor. I just need to calm down before class starts and the first place I thought about was the astronomy tower."

"I'm glad you enjoy being up here. Let me know if you need anything–at any time."

Hermione grinned softly. "Thank you, Professor."

With that, the Professor went to sit at her desk to grade essays while Hermione stared out at the grounds and the forest, taking deep breaths and trying to resolve her anger at Harry. He was stressed–and for good reason. She couldn't blame him for that. She just had to be supportive and let him handle things his own way. Draco popped into her mind as well. He was a nagging source of her thoughts these days. She couldn't control the way her brain wandered off in all directions, all centered around Malfoy. What was he thinking about? Why was he looking for her? Why was he staring at her? That was the biggest one.

She pushed all of those thoughts out of her mind–about Harry and Draco. When did her life start revolving around them so much? Instead she thought about the Yule Ball. It was a big dance for the Triwizard Tournament which would take place on Christmas Eve. It was one of the only things she was looking forward to in the foreseeable future. Big fancy dresses, boys asking girls to be their date, dancing. The school would be covered in beautiful Christmas decorations, all enchanted with magic and glistening. She got butterflies just thinking about it all. They never got to do things like that at Hogwarts. Dressing up and just dancing. It all sounded so unbelievably magical.