Harry Potter (Ron/Draco)

Title: Ripping
By: random_glitch
Rating: FRT
Summary: Hermione wonders what sound, if any, a heart makes when it breaks. Then she gets to find out.
Word Count: 1,144
Disclaimer: Nothing in this fic belongs to me...not even the plot, technically. :D
Notes: Written based on a request on slashfest by animadri The challenge? Draco/Ron: Hermione watches.
I had more problems with this than I thought I would at first. Voyeur!Hermione just didn't want to be written. Angstyandheartbroken!Hermione did, however; and this was the result. I apologize if that wasn't what you wanted, dear, and if you'd like I shall try again. :D

Hermione had often wondered what the sound of a heart breaking would be.

She wouldn't know from personal experience, having firmly resolved to never ever give her heart away, but she often saw the way that her year mates looked after a bad breakup and wondered. Was the breaking of a heart like the shattering of glass, or was it simply the same agony as remorse, or perhaps anger?

Of course, she'd never even considered asking anyone. It would be too rude, to walk up to someone who was clearly suffering and ask them if their heartbreak was a tangible thing, something that could be heard and grasped and fixed, or was it like the air, something you could feel but never reach? For all her book smarts Hermione couldn't figure out the answer to this question herself, and she was quite happy to continue that way. Letting your walls down meant that you might feel that heartbreak first hand, and she was in no rush to do so, despite her raging curiosity.

Of course, it was rather inevitable that for all her determination to never ever give her heart away, she did so almost as soon as the opportunity presented itself; and gave it so completely that sometimes she was afraid of how deeply she felt. Everyone had expected her to love Harry; hell, if she'd been asked she'd have said the same. Harry was the hero personified; dark and troubled, with a horrific past and a terrifying future. It helped that he was actually quite good-looking and really nice, as well. One could hardly blame those that had assumed that were Hermione to fall for one of her two best friends, he would be it.

Because Ron was...well...not really that good-looking or particularly nice. In fact, he was rather gangly and temperamental, and he and Hermione fought constantly, so Hermione really couldn't see why she had to fall so hard for him of all people. She couldn't make sense of it, and she suspected she never would...but that was the nature of love, she supposed, which was why she'd never wanted to fall in the first place.

But fall she did, and for the densest person in the whole of Hogwarts, she thought sometimes. No matter how many subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) hints she dropped, Ron never seemed to be willing to pick up on them, and she found herself getting more and more frustrated. Ron seemed much more inclined to discuss Quidditch with Harry or fight with Malfoy than to act like a normal boy of his age and get himself a girlfriend...namely one Hermione Granger. But Ron didnt seem interested in any girl, really, and Hermione eventually decided that he really was too dense to pick up on her infatuation, and resolved to try harder...which is why it came as such a shock to find them together.

She had been making her way towards the Charms classroom, intent on finding Professor Flitwick and asking him for some extra reading on the subjects he would be covering during the final exam, when she heard Ron's voice coming from around the corner. Curious to see what he was doing, she automatically walked around the corner, only to find that Ron was somewhat...occupied.

He was pressed against the wall, his head tipped back and his eyes closed. His arms were wrapped tightly about another figure in black school robes, whose face Hermione couldn't see as it was currently buried in Ron's neck, but she didn't need to see their face to know who it was; all she needed was the perfect silvery blond hair on top of their head, each strand gelled carefully into place. Ron was currently being ground into the wall by none other than Draco Malfoy, and judging by the small sounds of pleasure he was making, he had absolutely no problem with it whatsoever.

Hermione was unable to stop the small gasp that escaped her at the sight, and as Ron's eyes flew open and Malfoy pulled his mouth from Ron's neck, she quickly darted back around the corner, praying that she hadn't been seen. There was the sound of someone moving closer, and she held her breath, ready to bolt if she saw even a hint of robe.

"What the hell?" Malfoy muttered, his voice sounding much too close. Hermione tensed, ready to make a break for it, but then Ron let out a small laugh. "We probably scared some first year," he said, followed by, "Come back here, Draco. We've only got a few more minutes."

Malfoy huffed, but by the sound of it, was doing what he'd been told and going back to Ron, and before Hermione could talk herself out of it, she had peeked around the corner again.

Malfoy was standing about a foot away from Ron, smirking. "It might have been a first year," he said, "or perhaps it was your mudblood girlfriend." In an instant, Ron had flung himself off of the wall and slammed Malfoy into it, hard. "Don't call her that," he hissed, and Hermione was happy to note that Malfoy was no longer smirking, "She's worth twelve of you."

Malfoy gave a small flinch at these words, but snarled back, "Well, then, if she's so wonderful why don't you go shag her?"

Ron let out a laugh, but it wasn't a pleasant one. "Because, Draco dear," he said softly, mockingly, fisting a hand in Malfoy's hair and forcing his head back cruelly, "I doubt that she would break as prettily as you." And then he kissed Malfoy none too gently. Malfoy let out a small, helpless sounding noise and wound his arms about Ron's neck, obviously kissing back for all that he was worth, and Hermione decided that she'd seen enough. As she turned away she heard a thick ripping sound, followed by another soft cry, but didn't turn back to look. Instead, she crept quietly away from the pair in the hall, and when she felt that she was far enough broke into a run. She didn't stop until she was at the entrance to the Gryffindor common room, and even then it was only to give the week's password to the Fat Lady and fly up to her room, where she threw herself upon her bed, closed the hangings and wept silently into her pillow, feeling almost as much pain for Malfoy as she did herself, knowing finally that a heart did not make a sound as it broke; it caused an agony so deep it was almost a physical pain.

But from that day on when Hermione thought of what a the breaking of a heart would sound like, if it were to be heard, she imagined not the sound of shattering class, but the ripping sound of heavy cloth when forced apart by uncaring hands.