With A Little Drop of Poison

A/N: Much thanks to my wonderful betas Gemma and Kat.

Disclaimer: All characters belong to J.K. Rowling

In response to LJ's community do_me_profsnape's challenge. Details at end of chapter, story is now AU with the release of HBP

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Hermione settled into the plush chair in the library. For once in her young life, she hadn’t come to the library to study, but to escape. She had thought that her apprenticeship with Professor McGonagall would be filled with excitement over the new knowledge she was gaining and of what was in store for her future, especially with the recent demise of Voldemort. But no, so far it had only been filled with a sense that something was missing, that something wasn’t quite right.

She smiled faintly as she thought about Harry and Ron, though her smile faded slightly as her mind conjured up the image of the redheaded boy that up until very recently had been her boyfriend. Ron had been one of her best friends, and it had seemed predictable that they would go from friends to something more, inevitably ending with the pair of them marrying. Except, I don’t want predictable, she thought as she brushed a bit of hair away from her eyes. And that had been the problem. While Ron had kissed her and felt excitement, she felt only a sort of lukewarm feeling coupled with an awkwardness, as if she were kissing her brother. He hadn’t taken it well. Demanding to know why, if it were over some other boy. He even had the gall to ask if it was Harry, though thankfully it wasn’t. It had never been her intention to hurt him, but she felt she had owed him the truth, and to let him be free to find someone who would feel the way she was supposed to feel about him. If only life were easy. But life wasn’t easy; she had learned that the hard way from the war, if nothing else. Both sides had lost members, though thankfully the losses for their side had been kept to a minimum.

Usually it was easy to avoid Ron since he normally only came during the weekends with Harry to visit Ginny. However, ever since the last confrontation with Ron, when he had cornered her in a corridor and demanded in a very loud and angry voice an answer as to why she had broke up with him, Hermione had taken to hiding out in various locations. It irked her to a degree that she couldn’t spend time with her other best friend, but thankfully Harry seemed to understand. Though he seemed confused about her and Ron’s break-up as well. Surprisingly Ginny had been very understanding and had told her that even though her and Ron had broken up, she still very much considered Hermione a friend. Whether Ginny actually meant it or not was something else altogether, but it felt nice to have someone understand. Yawning slightly before giving her shoulders a roll, Hermione picked up one of the many books in her stack and began to lose herself in a book about folktales from different places in the wizarding world.

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Two pairs of footsteps could faintly be heard walking around the library. “Are you sure she’s in here?” Fred asked George.

“Quite sure; the Map has never ever been wrong,” George replied. The pair quietly wandered the labyrinth that was the library 'til they finally found Hermione softly dozing, a book lying face down in her lap.

“She looks very peaceful for someone who broke a person’s heart,” Fred noted.

“Indeed. But that’ll change, won’t it, brother?”

“Oh yes, that will most definitely change,” said Fred as he drew back Harry’s invisibility cloak and placed the water pitcher and glass down on the nearby table. “We should also remember to thank Harry for the lend of his cloak and the map.”

“We should, but then he doesn’t know we borrowed them, does he?”

“True. Where are Harry and Ron?”

George looked at the Marauder’s Map. “It would seem that Ron, Harry, and Ginny are outside on the Quidditch pitch.”

“Maybe we should go out and cheer him up.”

“Indeed. After all, what are brothers for?”

“Exactly. Look alive, Gred, she’s starting to wake up.” Fred and George quickly scooted under the protection of Harry’s invisibility cloak and proceeded to walk out of the library. Smiling to one another, they watched the map and noted as the dot named Hermione moved a little before once again going very still.

“Well, that takes care of that,” Fred said with a smile. “Now, we just need to direct Ron down here before she wakes up.”

“How long do you think the potion will last?”

“Well, she shouldn’t be asleep that long, but as for the other part, we never did get a chance to fully test it out.”

“True. Maybe once we know how it works on her, we could start to fix it up and sell it at the shop.”

“Capital idea, Gred. But first, let’s go find Ron and see how the trial run goes.”

“Right. Lead the way, Gred,” said George as they meandered down the hallway away from the library and toward the exit.

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A/N: The challenge is simply to use the song "Strange and Beautiful (I'll put a spell on you)" by Aqualung. Any pairing and circumstance(s) are allowed. The song will eventually be featured in the story, this is just the first chapter were everything is established.