Chapter 8: The Incident

They were able to lie their way out of Luna when she asked about Harry after she came back from Hogsmeade. They were happily chatting about their classes when she burst into the Head's dorm, panting slightly. She was surprised and relieved at the same time to see Harry with them. They told her that he got better as they were returning to the castle and requested not to go to the Hospital Wing.

For the following days and weeks, they always meet up at the Head's dorm to study. Or not study. They just love spending time with each other and the dorm was like their sanctuary.

Harry trudged upstairs to the Head's dorm alone. Since he wasn't a prefect, he doesn't have any patrol duties and decided to just wait for them inside their 'headquarters' as Ginny would call it.

"Leo serpens," he told the armored man in the portrait leading to the Head's dorm.

The man turned to him and Harry instantly recognized him as Sir Cadogan. He was the one who substituted the Fat Lady on his third year.

Sir Cadogan tried to lean forward on his portrait, eyeing him suspiciously.

"Are you the Head boy?"

"No," he answered, confused.

"Then I can't let you in," said Sir Cadogan, crossing his arms.

"What? Why not?"

"Are you a Prefect?" he asked again.

Harry hesitated. "No."

"I'm sorry, young lad, you cannot enter."

"But I'm a friend of both Head boy and girl!" he protested. "And – hey! I know the password! You should let me in!"

Sir Cadogan narrowed his eyes but didn't budge to give him access to the dormitory.

"Are you really going to make me wait here for either the Head boy or Head girl to come when I already know the password?" he argued.

"Fine. You may enter!" he boomed, raising his sword which caused him to stumble on the ground. Nevertheless, he opened the portrait hole.

Harry grinned as he walked inside the Head's common room. He sat down on one of the couches in front of the fire that crackled merrily.

He looked down when he felt something moving at his feet and saw a familiar creature purring loudly at him.

"Hey," said Harry, lifting the cat-like animal from the floor and placing it in his lap. He nuzzled its neck using his hand. "I haven't seen you in a while. I didn't know you transferred here."

The creature only purred, obviously enjoying the attention from Harry. They stayed like that for a while: the animal playing his hand while he continuously scratched every part of its body, until he heard footsteps.

"Crookshanks?" called Hermione. "Crook–! Oh, Harry, I didn't know you'd be here."

"Yeah, I decided to come here early and just wait for all of you to finish your patrols," he explained. "I didn't know you'd be here."

"Oh, I – er, I – I fell asleep when I came back to leave my things in the room," she stuttered.

Harry nodded, noticing that she was still wearing her robes and was in disarray. Hermione looked at his lap when she saw movement and frowned.

"He likes you."

He glanced down. "I guess so. He was a buddy sometimes when I was studying late at the Gryffindor common room."

Hermione was amused. "Crookshanks likes you," she mumbled more to herself as she approached them.

"Crookshanks. That's his name . I take it he's yours?" Harry smiled at her but the moment he caught sight of her face, his smile vanished. "You look pale," he observed, frowning.

Hermione was surprised at his comment. She laughed nervously as she sat down beside him.

"This is nothing. Maybe it's because I haven't slept well last night. I was – I was busy studying."

"But we studied last night before we all went to bed."

"Well, I want to study a bit more," she said nonchalantly.

"You need to take plenty of rest, Hermione," Harry stated. "And you should also eat more, you know."

Hermione turned to him questioningly.

"I notice you haven't been eating that much lately," he replied sheepishly.

She smiled softly. "Thanks for the concern, Harry. But you needn't worry. I know what I'm doing."

Just then, four different voices reached their ears as the portrait hole opened. Crookshanks jumped from Harry's hold and made his way to Hermione's room.

In the middle of their study session, Ron lifted his head from his Defense Against the Dark Arts book and stared at his sister.

"Hey, Gin, where did you go when you left us at Honeydukes last Saturday?" he inquired.

"What business does it have to do with you?" Ginny questioned back, focusing on her Transfiguration essay.

"I have business with it, you're my sister! I need to know if you're meeting someone secretly or something."

"Ron, do you honestly think I would confess to you that I'm seeing someone secretly when it's supposed to be a secret?" she retorted. "Besides, if I am seeing someone, what are you going to do? Trail me – oh, I suddenly remembered! Luna, I did buy that thing we were talking about!" she said excitedly.

"What thing?" asked Draco.

"Oh, you just wait," she said and stood up, grabbing Hermione's arms to make her stand up as well. "Come, Luna."

"What –?" started Hermione, already halfway on the stairs to her room.

"What do you think they're doing upstairs?" asked Ron, curious. Harry and Draco shrugged, just as curious as their friend was.

An hour later and the three young ladies still haven't come down.

"What's taking them so long?" said Draco. He saw Ron opening the jar of sweets again. "Stop munching on our sweets!"

"I'm hungry," Ron whined, his mouth full.

"But it's not yours alone to devour," he scolded Ron. He grabbed the jar, replacing the cover and keeping it on his side. "You're buying the additional sweets for our jar."

"What? Why –?" Ron coughed, a piece of chocolate choking him.

"Because it's almost empty and you're the only one who ate all of them."

Harry laughed at his two friends while shaking his head. He always wondered how these two got along and became friends.

They heard voices at the top of the stairs outside Hermione's room.

"Come on, Hermione. It suits you perfectly," they heard Ginny say, making them exchange looks with each other.

"No, it doesn't. I look horrible," said Hermione.

Their curiosity was certainly heightened when they saw Luna appear at the bottom of the stairs. She's smiling mischievously.

"Brace yourselves," she grinned at them.

They raised their eyebrows at Luna and Hermione's voice flittered to them again.

"Please, Gin. Let me –"

"Hermione," Ginny's voice was stern, "if you don't go down willingly, I'm going to push you. I'm serious."

The three boys looked at each other once again and swallowed loudly. Leave it to Ginny to threaten a friend. Suddenly, they heard shuffling at the stairs.

"Don't laugh!" Hermione's strangled voice shouted and they breathed a sigh of relief.

"We won't. Just come out already," said Draco.

Her shoes were the first thing that came into view which is certainly normal and not funny, then her robes that's still the same .

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Hermione, nothing has changed. You still have –?"

Her face finally came into view. And her hair was different. It wasn't the same bushy brown hair that they were accustomed to. It was straight and shiny. She looked eerily familiar to Harry. He just couldn't pinpoint where.

"Harry?" said Ginny. She had come down while he was busy staring at Hermione and remembering where he'd seen a familiar face like hers. "We were asking for your opinion."

"You look perfect," he said, dazed.

It was a sunny Wednesday when an unfortunate incident happened.

The six friends were happily eating their lunch at the Great Hall when Luna announced that she wouldn't be able to watch them on their Quidditch practice that day.

"We're having a study group at the Ravenclaw common room this afternoon," she told them and they nodded in understanding.

"But you're still coming with us, right?" Ginny asked Hermione.

Harry thought Hermione was about to decline when he heard her answer, "Of course."

"Why don't you skip today's practice, Hermione?" he couldn't help but ask. "You look like you need rest."

"What are you talking about? I'm totally fine," she answered with a hint of annoyance. "I'm going to watch."

Harry dropped the subject and just nodded. He didn't want to infuriate her, especially now that he's on her good side.

As usual, they waited for Hermione's last class for the day before they proceeded to the Quidditch pitch. Hermione immediately went to the stands as her friends collected their brooms and started their training.

Thirty minutes later, everyone was still on high spirits. Harry was smiling widely; the 1st game's victory is in the bag. Out of habit, he looked to the direction of where Hermione was sitting. He was about to send her a thumbs up when he noticed something was wrong. He squinted his eyes to make out what was happening when he saw her body disappearing from sight.

"Hermione!" he shouted, dashing his broom to her location. He was barely aware that his teammates heard his shout and were on his tail. All he knew was that he needed to get to Hermione as fast as he can.

He jumped off his broom when he was near the ledge of the stand and lifted Hermione's limp form quickly. He went down with hurried steps, wanting to get her to the hospital wing in a matter of seconds if he could.

Ron, Ginny, and Draco were on his heels as he neared the entrance of the pitch.

"What happened?" Ginny asked in a heartbeat, worry evident on her voice.

"I don't know. I just saw she fainted."

"Fainted?" asked Draco.

"We need to bring her to the hospital wing," said Ron.

"We are. Madame Pomfrey'll know what to do."

They were already on the third floor when Hermione stirred. "Harry?" she croaked.

"Don't worry, Hermione, you'll be fine," he said softly.

"Where are we?" she asked groggily, trying to turn her head but getting dizzy instead.

"Castle. Third floor. We're taking you to the hospital wing."

"What?" she said, alerted.

"Hermione, don't move much," Harry instructed.

"No, no, Harry, put me down," she told him, holding his shoulders and trying to sit up on his arms.

"Hermione, what are you doing?"

"Put me down."

"No," Harry said forcefully, holding her tighter.

Hermione gave up. "Fine," she said weakly. "But don't take me to the hospital wing."

Harry stopped walking and the other three followed suit. "What? Why?"

"I'm okay. I don't need to go there. I'll just be a nuisance to Madame Pomfrey."

"You're not okay. You collapsed, Hermione."

"I'm okay," she repeated, firmly. "I'm fine now. I just need a little rest, that's all."

Harry doesn't seem convinced.

"Please," pleaded Hermione, burying her face into his shoulder.

"Alright," Harry sighed. "But you're going to take a rest. For the whole day. No studying, no reading. Just rest."

Hermione nodded against his shoulder. "Thank you," she whispered.

Their friends never said a word in their whole conversation, just listening on the two argue and waiting who will lose.

They reached the Head's dorm silently but as Harry made his way towards the stairs leading to her room, Hermione's eyes widened while Draco, Ginny, and Ron stopped in their tracks, realizing what he was about to do.

"Harry, what are you doing?" asked Hermione, raising her eyebrows.

"Bringing you to your room," he replied nonchalantly.

"Harry, you can't. The stairs – It'll still become a slide when you step on it," she reminded him.

He came to a halt. "Right. Ginny, then," he said, turning to Ginny. He brought Hermione down and gave her to Ginny who took hold of her by the waist.

He watched them until they have fully entered Hermione's room. He turned to his male friends who were now comfortably sitting on the couch with all-knowing smirks on their faces.

"What look is that?" he asked suspiciously, marching over them and sitting on the far end.

"You act like she's your girlfriend," Draco remarked, his smirk never wavering.

"What?"

"And you're her boyfriend," jeered Ron.

"Shut up!"

"Oooh, Potter's not denying anything!" said Draco.

"She's a friend, I'm supposed to be concerned about her," he defended.

"Now on a defensive stance."

"He even followed her to her room with his eyes," interjected Ron, wiggling his eyebrows at Draco.

"Are you testing my patience?" said Harry, clenching his fists.

"Oooh, Potter's getting –"

"She's fine. She's asleep now," Ginny told them softly, appearing from the stairs.

"Good. I can finally go to my room and rest," he told Ginny and stood up. But before he went out of the Head's common room, he glared at Draco and Ron as he passed by them.

"What happened?" asked Ginny with raised eyebrows.

"Long story. I can tell you on our way to Gryffindor tower," answered Ron, cackling loudly with Draco as he ushered her out.

A/N: OMG! OMG! I am so sorry! I can't express how remorseful I am… asdfghjkl I had no idea it's been a year since I last updated. I have this great excuse but I know no one from you would want to hear it. lol. All I can hope is that there are still readers out there patiently waiting for a new chapter.

A/N: If you want to scold me because of not updating, you may do so. I have a twitter account; it's on my profile. You'll be able to reach me there much more easily. :)