Hermione put the new necklace she had gotten on her neck and tucked it in her shirt. This morning she had found it on her bed last night after all her classes were done and she was finished studying in the library. It was in a silver box that had a spell which allows only her to open the box, a spell she herself had also used during the war so that whatever she sent to members of the Order was only opened by the Order. It confused her at first who would send her this expensive-looking piece of jewelry. But she then figured that Harry had finally taken a fancy to her and had used his fortune to buy her a token of her affection. Although it was odd, she overlooked it due to its beauty. What she had really taken a liking to was the glistening black crystal in the center of it.
But that wasn't even the best part. To most it was just an lousy stone, but in times she was in complete distress, she could feel her power strengthen. When she said simple spells, they came with three times the power! She once used a spell to clean up Ron's DADA notebook again, when she then accidently cleaned the whole common room! Being the daft person Ron is, he didn't notice a thing but was only grateful that he didn't have to clean up the mess he made. Only Luna Lovegood walked over to ask if she was okay (FYI, as Ron's new girlfriend, she had been hanging out at the Gryffindor common room a lot lately) . Of course she passed it as some kind of prank that Fred and George had pulled on her, because she couldn't tell Luna what was going on, no matter how close of a friend she was... because she herself didn't even know what was going on. After that she then decided to take another trip to the library for some healthy research.
After she was done getting dressed up, she went down stairs to the common room, where Ron, Luna (who had been glued to his side), and poor lonely Harry were waiting for her. Harry and Hermione had often shared the joke that Luna and Ron had spent so much time in the bedroom, that the "Golden Trio" had become the "Golden Dildo". Hermione glanced over to the couple expected a "Hello", or "Good Morning", but as seconds passed by and Luna continued to shove her tongue down his throat, Hermione realized she wasn't going to get any attention from them, she turned to Harry. Strolling over to him, she leaned over to him and whispered, "You wanna go without them, I think Ron has gotten enough food for today. Plus I bet you they won't even notice."
As soon as she saw Harry nod his head,she linked her arm through his and hauled him towards the door, ready to get away from the eager couple. After years of yearning for Ron's attention, and him either basically ignoring her affection or just never seeing it, she still wanted him. Him never noticing her as more than a friend was enough to seriously hurt her ego, but when he got a girlfriend that wasn't her... that was what turned her into a jealous bitch. Don't get her wrong, she didn't hate Luna or Ron, she loved both of them (some in different ways than others), it was the circumstance she hated. Hermione could usually hide her feelings and emotions from her friends about Ron pretty well, but ever since Ron had taken to dating Luna, she had been slipping up. And of course as a girl in a similar situation with Harry, Ginny noticed all the signs. But as her mind was preoccupied with other things, Hermione hadn't noticed. So she was totally caught off guard when she asked to talk to her.
"Hey, Harry!" Ginny ran up to them, trying to catch up, "Do you mind if I steal Hermione for a moment?" she looked him in the eye then looked back down again, blushing and suddenly taking interest in her shoes. Ginny and Harry had gone out in sixth year but it didn't work out due to the fact that Ginny was an incredibly jealous girlfriend. And it didn't help that Harry had his own fan club of girls following him through the hallway and everywhere he went (sometimes not excluding the men's room). Even though they broke up, both agreeing that they were better off friends, that was only what Ginny had told Harry. Secretly, Ginny still liked Harry and was hoping to get back with him.
After the longest 30 seconds of her life, Hermione spoke, trying to break the silence and the tension.
"Ok... so I'll see you later Harry. Let's go, Ginny."
"See you at breakfast 'Mione. And remember we have Potions with the Slytherins first so prepare yourself!"
"Don't worry, Harry. I've learned to ignore them. I'll be fine."
After that, Ginny hastily pulled Hermione behind a suit of armor that was in the hallway which was a secret passage and a longer way to the Great Hall. She needed a long way because she needed to talk to Hermione in a place where no one could eavesdrop. Once deep enough in the tunnel where it was almost impossible that anyone in the main hallway could mistakenly hear, Ginny started to talk.
"So Hermione, I wanted to get straight to the point because I know you know that I didn't just want to talk to you about my homework assignment." And that was true. Hermione was too smart to think that. She knew that this was going to be a little bit more complicated than the usual DADA homework. But she was still wondering on what the subject of this conversation would be.