It was dark, about 1 a.m. on Thursday June 7th. Hermione was lying in her bed trying to sleep, but was tossing and turning all night. She couldn't stop playing what had just happened through her head.
A few hours before she went to bed she was sitting in the common room doing her homework when Ron Weasly, her close friend at Hogwarts, entered. He sat beside her on the couch, not saying anything. He looked tense and nervous. "So…" Ron said to her looking down at her books "Studying I see." Hermione gave him an odd look wondering what was wrong with him. "Uhhh… yeah, you know we have that big test in Potions tomorrow, I need this 100% to bring my average up. Snape has really been harder on me this year, not that he isn't always hard but he is pulling down my grade for stupid reasons." She rolls her eyes at the thought of Snape and went back to studying. "Yeah…" Ron replied. "Can you maybe help me study?" he said, his voice shaky and unsure. Hermione cocks an eyebrow at him "Yeah… but since when do you care about test scores?" Ron shrugs and pulls out a piece of parchment and a quill. As Ron begins to write on the piece of parchment in front of him, his elbow knocks over his inkbottle, spilling it all over the hard wooden floor. Hermione looks at him and sighs "Ron you are such a klutz sometimes" As Ron goes to clean it up Hermione stops him. "Let me do, it, you'll just mess it up more." As Ron blushes Hermione bends down to clean it up. As she is bending over her shirt falls open at the top slightly to show cleavage. When Ron sees this his eyes grow wide and he can't help but stare. Hermione looks up at him and he quickly blinks out of his daze, shaking his head slightly. All of a sudden Ron slams his hands down on his book, making a loud clapping sound and he jumps up out of his chair. "That's it!" he yells "I am sick and tired of keeping it in any longer! Hermione you are beautiful. I am in love with you!" He says loudly and forward. A few people in the common room look at him shocked, but the most shock of all came to Hermione. She stands up and looks at him with her jaw dropped slightly and her eyes wide.
"What?"
"Hermione I love you"
"I know I heard you the first time, its just shocking that's all"
"Well?"
"Well what?"
"Well are you going to say anything?"
Hermione pauses for a moment. "I should get to bed" and with that she runs up the stairs to the girls common room. Ron sits down on the couch again as Seamus walks over. "Wow, that was pretty harsh Ron"
"I feel like such an idiot"
"I would to I mean the way she just ran out on you like that…."
"Shut up. I don't want to talk about it"
There is an awkward silence. The two boys sit there for a while until Harry walks in with two girls following him. One of them, who was named Sienna, was tall. Her hair was blonde and curly and her eyes were big and brown. The other, Aria, was a bit shorter and slim, not utterly skinny but in good shape. Her hair was perfectly straight and dark brown with aqua blue eyes that stuck out from her fair skin. As they walked in Seamus fixed his hair as he saw Aria. Almost all the guys thought Aria was the most beautiful girl in the school, especially Seamus. Seamus stretched a big grin across his face as Aria sat down on the couch beside him with Harry and Sienna. "Hey," Harry said looking at Ron and Seamus "Where is Hermione?" Ron and Seamus look at each other then back at Harry. "I don't know" Seamus says with a shrug "We haven't seen her all night" Ron nods acting like nothing happened. He didn't really want to tell Harry, because he didn't want things to be awkward for all three of them. As they are sitting on the couch a loud clap of thunder echoes from outside. Suddenly all the candles are blown out. "That was weird… let me light them again" Harry says as he stands up to the Candles. He uses his wand and all the candles light up at once but before the flame is big enough to give off any light it dies again. A cold wind spreads through the room and they all shiver slightly. "What's going on?" Sienna asks looking over at Harry. Harry shrugs "I don't know. I bet it's just the wind though. There is probably an open window somewhere." he says feeling that something is wrong but not wanting to scare everyone. Sienna stands up "Well I'm heading to bed. Aria you coming?" she says looking down at her friend. Aria shakes her head "Nah, I'm going to stay up a bit longer."
"Alright suit yourself" Sienna ads with a shrug as she heads upstairs.
"So, Aria, what are you doing this coming up Saturday night?" Seamus asks out of the blue. Ron and Harry shoot him weird looks and Aria gives him a confused smile "Going to the Yule Ball… Like everyone else." Seamus laughs "Oh yeah. Me to. So I guess that means we'll see each other there?"
He says shakily. Aria, still confused at what he is trying to say, looks at him and nods slowly "Yes, I guess it does mean that." She looks over at Harry and gives him a 'what's he saying' sort of look. Harry just shrugs. "Oh that's cool" Seamus says blushing a bit. Aria flicks her hair and tucks one side behind her ear. She looks over at Harry and flashes him a flirtatious smile. "Hey speaking of the Yule ball, do you have a date yet Harry?" she says as she bats her long eye lashes. Harry looks over at Seamus who looks devastated. Harry ponders for a moment about what to do, on the one hand he wouldn't want to hurt Seamus who is a close friend of his, but on the other she is the most beautiful girl in school and it would be kind of nice to go to the dance with someone. "Uh… well knowing you wouldn't you have a whole list of guys who asked you out?"
"Well only a few. But I don't want to go with any of them." She says looking at him as she puts her hand on his knee. When she does this Harry straightens up slightly and swallows looking at her hand. "Sure" he says, his voice cracking. When Harry says this Seamus and Ron give him both surprised looks. Aria's face lights up "Alright! I'm really excited now! Well I better head to bed. I'll see you tomorrow" She gets up and walks away to her dorm. All three boys watch her walk up the stairs and then turn to Harry. "I can't believe you" Seamus says quietly. "What?" Harry says with a shrug. "It's not like you asked her to go or anything" Ron turns to Seamus "He's right you know. Nothing to be angry about." yeah whatever" Seamus says as he gets up and goes up to the boys room all sulky. Just as Seamus disappears up the stairs there is a loud scream. Aria comes running down the stairs with her hands over her eyes. Harry Jumps up "Aria? What's wrong?" Seamus runs towards them and looks at her "Are you okay?" he asks her putting a hand on her shoulder sitting her down on the couch. "I bet she just saw a bug," Ron said mockingly. He snickers a bit imagining her screaming at a tiny beetle. Harry and Seamus both shoot Ron a glare and he stops laughing instantly. "There was something in my room." She says shakily. Ron laughs "Was it big and scary" he says making fun of her. "SHUT UP!" Harry and Seamus both yell at him. Ron jumps and rolls his eyes "Fine but when you find out its only a little insect don't expect me to laugh with you." he said crossing his arms. "Aria what did this thing in your room look like" Harry said comfortingly yet seriously. "It was tall, taller then a human and black. I couldn't see its face because I ran out to quickly" she takes a deep breath and straightens up. She pauses for a moment then looks at Harry. "The weird thing was there were other girls awake and no one else seemed to notice it standing there in the middle of the room" Harry pauses for a moment thinking about the situation. "Aria maybe you imagined it. You should just go get some sleep." he said, lying of course. He knew something was up, he could feel it. He helps her stand up, but she snatches her wrist out of his. "No Harry I saw something there. I can't go to sleep with it standing over me." Harry knew that she was scared of whatever was in her room. "Fine. Me Ron and Seamus will sleep down here in the common room with you." When Harry says this Aria smiles and hugs him "thank you so much I knew I would feel safe with you!" Ron looks at Harry "What? I'm not sleep-" Harry cuts him off before he can finish his sentence "Yes Ron you are." he says firmly. The four of them set up their beds on the couches and slowly fall asleep, Except Aria who is still wide awake to scared to do anything but lie there thinking of what that thing was and what it could do to her. Suddenly she hears footsteps coming down the stairs. She Jumps and looks up only to see Hermione. "Hermione," She whispers "what are you doing down here?" Hermione looks around at the three boys sleeping on the floor beside her "What am I doing down here? What about yourself? And with three boys. If anyone finds out about this you will be in so much trouble." Aria sits up and invites Hermione to sit down next to her "Well didn't you see it?"
"See what?" Hermione asks confused.
"I don't know what, but it was in our dorm" she says scared still
"No Aria I didn't see anything."
"Never mind then." Aria says with a sigh. "So why are you up?" Hermione looks around. "Well I can't really sleep. I don't really want to talk about it right now." she said looking down at Ron who was sleeping soundly on the floor. She feels bad for just walking away but how could she tell him she didn't feel the same way?
