When Cupid Comes To Town

Hermione stared out of her room's window, and watched as the clouds slowly moved across the sky, covered the sun, and then watched as the bright red glowing ball disappeared under the roofs of the houses and a full moon took its place. There was a slight breeze in the air, and the shopkeepers were closing up their shops until the next morning. But all these sights were blurred with tears, because as the young witch sat on her bed, the only thoughts that crossed her mind were those of her friends Ronald Weasley and Harry Potter. They would be with her, comforting her right now if only she had spoken out. Hermione let her worries wander, and recalled earlier in the day. Ron had just told her how much he had fallen for her. He had finally fessed up and admitted that he had undeniable feelings for HER of all people. But instead of telling Ronald that she felt the same way for him, she had merely stared at the horizon, thinking. And the love of her life took this as a sign that she had no feelings for him. With that, he had stormed out of the common room and gloomily spent the rest of the day in the boys' dormitories. Harry Potter, Hermione Granger's other best friend, strutted up to her and yelled at her for upsetting his best mate and Hermione had fled from the Gryffindor common room in tears. Without knowing where she was going, her feet had carried her down to the boathouse, and she had pulled down one of the many rowboats that first years traveled in and set off for the Leaky Cauldron. Now here she was, sobbing on a stiff bed without any belongings or any comfort. The tiny rivers of tears flowed steadily down her cheeks for hours until the final stars appeared and Hermione was too exhausted to fight that sleep weighed her eyes, and she fell into a painful sleep.

The next morning, Hermione awoke to the sun's heat upon her back. Groggily, she stepped out of bed, but only to topple on the cold wooden floor do to the cause she didn't know where exactly she was. Looking around, Hermione realized that she was in room 36 of the Leaky Cauldron, London. And then the memories flooded back into her and she felt like sobbing all over again.

A muffled hoot came from her windowsill, and Hermione realized she had received an owl. Quickly she stood up and pulled a yellowed scrap of parchment off of the barn owl's leg and let it have a sip of water before once again letting it fly off into the early morning horizon. Glancing quickly at the note, she noticed Harry's bold scrawl. It read:

Hermione,

I'm sorry if I came off a bit harsh yesterday, and we were wondering where you might have gone to. We're worried about you, Hermione. Ron too. Especially Ron.

At these words, Hermione's heart skipped a beat.

However, Ginny said she would like to tell you something and wasn't comfortable telling you in a letter, so the faster you come back to Hogwarts, the faster she can reveal her 'secret'. We do hope you're alright. XOXO

Missing you,

Harry

Hermione was crying by the time she finished her letter, but then reread the words "Ginny would like to tell you something". It had to be about Harry, Ginny's new boyfriend, and no one except she and Hermione knew about their relationship. But then again, it could be something else. Quickly, Hermione put on her sneakers, glanced in the mirror, and ran out the door to hopefully catch a ride on the Knight Bus back to Hogwarts. But the bus never came.

As Hermione waited at the muggle bus station, her thoughts roamed freely, and ended up settling themselves in the Gryffindor common room. She remembered her bed, and how soft and plush it was. She would give anything to be in that comfortable bed than sitting here on the hard, cold plastic chair. But in one certain bed, a red head boy just couldn't stop thinking about the girl with the milky chestnut eyes and the chocolaty brown bushy hair. That boys name was Ronald Billius Weasley, and he was in love with her.

Ron rolled and tossed in bed, trying to get comfortable and trying to push the thoughts of Hermione out of his mind. But she stayed, lingering and torturing him when he imagined her delicious red lips and her soft, fair skin. Finally, he could stand it no longer, and wrote a note to Hermione for Pig to deliver. His owl zoomed around the ceiling, and once Ronald had finally caught him, the note was tied on the owl's leg and sent off. Ron stood by the window, staring out at the sky and wishing he could just touch her hair, kiss her lips one more time. But what if she had died? What if he would never see Hermione again? Or even worse, what if she had found someone new! Ron quickly pushed those disturbing thoughts out of his mind and instead tried going back to sleep, but it seemed the worry that filled his heart forbid him from lying down and closing his eyes, so instead, he pulled the Potions essay he was supposed to be working on out of his book bag and got to work.

'The only use for Felix is that I could kiss Hermione…' he wrote, but then after realizing his mistake he crumpled up the parchment and tried again. 'Felix is used for many ways of luck, and one use of Felix is to make me fall in love with Hermione.' This paper he threw away also. After ten more tries and no success, he gave up and took his place by the window once more. Suddenly, he heard a loud thump down in the common room and quickly went down to investigate. Was Hermione back already! But no, as he rushed down the stairs and turned the corner, the only faces he saw were those of Ginny Weasley and Harry Potter, eating each other's faces by the portrait hole. He tried to hold back the anger he was feeling at Harry, but it was no use.

"WHY ARE YOU SNOGGING MY SISTER!"

This brought Harry and Ginny out of their lip lock fairly quickly, each with a startled look on their face.

"Ron, mate, I thought you were asleep?". Ginny was blushing so furiously, her face had turned a bright shade of red and looked rather like a tomato.

"You can't kiss my sister!"

"Don't tell me who I can and can not kiss, Ronald! I'm sixteen years old, and you can't control my love life. It's time you need to face reality!" Ginny stormed up to the girls' dormitories and slammed the door - hard.

Harry watched her go with a sad look on his face, and then realized that Ron was still there.

"Mate, I'm sorry. We honestly thought you were asleep," Harry remarked.

"SO THAT'S WHAT YOU'VE BEEN DOING! SNEAKING OUT WHEN I'M ASLEEP TO GO SNOG EACH OTHER!" His voice was rising with every word.

"No, Ron…"

"YOU THINK YOU CAN JUST GO OUT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT AND GO MAKE OUT! OR…" Ron paused. "Or worse!"

"No! Ron we haven't gone that far!" Harry chuckled.

"Ron breathed a sigh of relief and looked at Harry guiltily. "I'm really sorry. I'm just worried about Hermione, you know?"

Harry gave Ron a look of concern. It had been days since the owl was sent, and she still had made no sign of returning. "Maybe…maybe she's just…far away, man. Maybe she's alright, and she just got the letter?"

Ron scoffed, but yet he couldn't help but feel hopeful. Maybe Harry was right. Maybe she was okay.

"Look, let's just go down to the Great Hall. Eat some breakfast, it may make you feel better," Harry told him. Ron regrettably followed his best friend out the portrait hole, but even through breakfast the only thoughts he had were those of Hermione. He hated feeling so helpless, but at the same time it was the best feeling he could have ever felt, because just the thought of her filled made his heart beat faster and a tingling feeling came to his lips. Ron was going to share this with Harry, but doubted whether, best friend or not, Harry would understand. Had Harry ever felt that way about someone? No, most likely not, because Ginny wasn't off who knows where, she was sitting right beside him. For a moment, Ron watched Ginny play with his friend's hair, but soon the figures of Ginny and Harry disappeared and instead in their places were Hermione and himself. The hallucinations evaporated as Dumbledore stood up to make an announcement. This was odd, for it was just a normal day, nothing important really to discuss with the whole school. But the announcement he was going to make must have to be grave, for the usual hint of a smile was suddenly lost and the twinkle in his eye had disappeared too.

When everyone had quieted, Dumbledore spoke. "As some of you already know, a student has been missing since yesterday around 3o'clock PM," he started. Ron's heart gave an uncomfortable lurch. Of course, he was talking about Hermione. He suddenly felt the need to puke. "Hermione Jane Granger disappeared for a reason yet to be discovered, and we have not found where she might be located at the present time. If anyone knows anything about her location, please come to my office after your first period class. Oh yes, and I tend to like Butterbeer," the Head Master added as an afterthought. The hall once more filled with chatter, but the conversations of Quidditch and the Daily Prophet had subsided and instead had been replaced with the low whispers of Hermione. Harry cast Ron a nervous glance, but Ron didn't notice, because he currently looking at the Slytherin table. The only person who did not seem uncomfortable with the new news was Draco Malfoy. In fact, he looked a far from disappointed, he looked pleased, and was smirking as he whispered to his cronies Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle. Fury welled up inside of Ron and he had a sudden urge to hit someone. Harry followed his gaze to Malfoy and suddenly realized why Ron had grabbed his wand and was clutching it with a death grip. Ginny noticed too.

"Don't Ron, it's not worth it, you'll just land yourself in detention," Ginny remarked, and with a final wave good bye, she stalked out of the Great Hall to attend her first class. Ron sighed. She was right, however much he hated to admit it, hexing Malfoy would not bring Hermione back to Hogwarts. With a last angry glare at the Slytherins, Ron sulked out of the Great Hall to mope a bit more in the common room, and perhaps make another attempt to bring Hermione back to him. Even if she didn't love him, he still loved her, and she was the person he would never give up on.

Hermione stared at the bus schedule. The next ride had been delayed again, due to the fact that another accident had been caused in their route to Hogwarts. She sighed and tried to think of any books that had hinted at another way of transportation. Sadly, there were none. You couldn't apparate near Hogwarts, not that she had enough strength to anyways, and the only other way she could get there was if she got a ride on the Hogwarts Express, which currently wasn't running at the time. The multiple times she had tried to ride the Knight Bus, no transportation of any kind had come, and so that was just another failed attempt. Now the only wonders she had were where else she could go? Her parents' was out of the question, because they were currently vacationing in Paris, and there was no way she could just show up at the Weasley's without notifying them first! So Hermione waited until the next hour to see if the bus was still running. Suddenly, she glanced at the muggle child next to her. She had to be about eleven or twelve, and the girl was holding a sort of squished box with buttons on it. Her fingers moved faster than light as she moved the figure on the little screen. "What's that?" Hermione couldn't help but ask.

The girl replied, "It's called a video game. Where the hell did you come from!"

A bit surprised at the answer, Hermione just blushed and turned away, not wanting to admit that she didn't know what a video game was. There didn't seem to be any reason to play it. She traced back through her memories, trying to remember of she had ever come across the mention of a video game in one of the past books she had read. Maybe there was one time…but that was a long time ago. But the girl wouldn't stop pestering Hermione know that she didn't know what a video game was. "My name's Faith, what's yours?" she asked. Deciding she couldn't ignore Faith any longer, Hermione replied.

"It's Hermione."

"Where are you going?" Faith pried.

"To school. I sort of had to leave…for a reason." Hermione painfully remembered the scene with Ron.

"Boyfriend troubles?" she asked knowingly.

"How'd you know?"

"Your face," Faith merely shrugged. "My sister's around your age, and she had to break up with her boyfriend because he was caught in bed with one of his study partners. She was crying for a week."

"Oh," The only comment she could make on that was, "I'm sorry."

Faith sighed and went back to playing with the small box. And then Hermione realized that she had agreed to Ron as her boyfriend. Did it just come naturally? This kept her wondering until a voice called out over the loudspeaker, "Anyone boarding bus #225 please board now."

"Well, bye then," Hermione said to Faith. Faith merely waved, as if sad to see Hermione go. But Hermione shook aside this odd action, but then realized something. "Faith, where are your parents?"

She seemed hesitant, but then spilled, "I'm an orphan. I'm going to an orphanage right now, but I'll probably leave sometime." She smiled a little and continued, "I always have." Hermione thought for a moment, then a brilliant idea overtook her.

"Faith hold this for a second, would you? See what happens?" She handed her wand to the small child.

Faith seemed confused, but obeyed, and once the wand came in contact with her hand, the wand sent off beautiful pink and purple sparks. She gasped. "What the bloody hell was that about!" she exclaimed.

"Faith, come with me. Come to school with me."

The little girl sat in awe. "Are-are you sure? I won't be too much trouble?"

"No, you won't. Now come with me!" Hermione and Faith quickly entered the vehicle and sat down. Finally, they were off to Hogwarts. She was going to see Ron again!