Romione: Love & War

I must not break rules

Hi everyone!

Thank you so much for reading this far! I hope you're enjoying it. This one is placed again in 5th year when detentions were happening after the discovery of Dumbledore's Army. I liked that the movie added scenes where the D.A was having detention, using the blood quills (not that I liked to see them carve themselves, I just thought it was interesting), so I made this one-shot based on that. 

Enjoy!

The only sound was the crackling of the fire. It was late at night and there was no presence gracing the cozy Gryffindor common room except for the inanimate furniture. Brick wall made up the squared perimeter of the room, along with an embracing fireplace emitting the only light shining in the whole tower. There sat worn-out maroon armchairs, never replaced in years, but still brought immense comfort. A maroon sofa was placed above a maroon patterned carpet, lining the length of the fireplace. Many memories were created in this room, even beside an annoying portrait of two old men or a hard table in which studying was done. Gold flexes were placed everywhere in the room, giving off a glow created by the firelight. Stray homework and food littered the tower from one corner to the next but made no noise as if the whole tower was asleep.

Before it could strike twelve, the silence was broken by eighteen students, a loud complaining tone lingering in their voices. The rumbling of their stampede had awoken many Gryffindors, who immediately headed back up to their dorms once they found out the source of the noise. Most of the eighteen decidedly followed their peers upstairs to their dorms where they angrily slumped upon their beds. The others lingered in the cozy common room either talking to others or silently swearing underneath their breath. They might have all been different in age, size, and appearance but they all had three things in common. Gryffindor. Dumbledore's Army. Detentions with Umbridge.

You could spot something lingering on all students, something frightening. Something disturbing. A mark was etched upon each of their right or left hands. All of them were different in a way. They all had scars that were drawn with their own handwriting. It was like a knife was run through the back of their hands, scraping the words 'I must not break rules'. 

It was 1:15 am, and the common room was quiet once more. The crackling of the fire, again, the only sound. A certain Gryffindor, with curls of brown chestnut, tiptoed down the stairs to the comfort of the maroon sofa. She sat with a relieving sigh and with a groan, pulled out her left hand. In perfect cursive, it conveyed 'I must not break rules'. It was red, with a pink outline, scratched and scabbed. It was throbbing and felt like a knife was piercing into her skin, and she couldn't take it anymore. Hermione lifted herself off the sofa and grabbed her potion kit. She remembered a potion of sorts called Murtlap Essence, which could cure and even heal scars and wounds. She was looking for a book when she heard, "Looking for this?". Hermione turned around to see Ron Weasley, barely carrying a worn-out potions book and placing it beside her before he sat down, cross-legged on the soft carpeted floor. "I was just going to ask you to make it", he crinkled his nose when he groaned at the pain of his own scar. Hermione smiled to herself and flipped through the pages of the book. "Oh really. Why didn't you try it yourself?",
"Is that really a question?"
"I guess not."
She found herself flipping past the page she was searching for, glancing behind her where Ron was peeking over her shoulder. "I think you missed it", he said as he placed his chin on her shoulder. "Right", Hermione mumbled as she snapped back to reality.

Ron watched carefully as Hermione prepared a potion, defeating the urge to intertwine his hand in hers. He sweetly stared as she drained the pickled tentacles of Murtlaps into a small, intricate potion bottle. Hermione blushed at his stare and softly took up his hand. "Sorry," she apologized as she heard him whimper at her touch. Hermione nervously dropped a splash of the potion on his scar and smoothed it around with a cloth. Her complexion turned crimson, realizing this was the first time she really held his hand. His ears turned pink as she finished, and he cleared his throat before gazing at the spot she had touched. The scar healed as much as it could, and the throbbing stopped. "Th-thanks," Ron said, barely looking at Hermione,
"No, um...problem."
Hermione gulped before she gave him a soft smile and lifted her own hand onto her lap. Her hands started to shake as she lifted the dropper, and Ron took hold. He lifted her scarred hand and placed the essence upon the wound. Hermione held her breath as he helped her and suddenly realised they had been frozen on the spot a while after he finished. She abruptly stood up gathering up her things and struggled to say goodnight without stuttering. Ron laughed to himself as she dawdled back up the stairs to her dormitory. "Well, that was something". Ron jumped at the sight of Harry and scowled, "Shut up." 

Harry merely rolled his eyes and helped Ron up. "It's about time don't you think?"
"About time for what?"
"You'll know sooner or later," Harry strutted- I mean walked back up the boys staircase leaving a confused Ron on the sofa.

Ron pushed Harry's comment out of his mind and closed his eyes, imagining her smile. "So that's what he meant," Ron whispered to himself wide-eyed and picked himself off the seat, following Harry's footsteps. 

I hope you enjoyed this one-shot! Please comment any requests and vote if you liked it!

Thanks for reading,

Hermione.W