A/N: Easter break is gonna be over in around 9 hours. T_T I still want some holidays.

Anyway this chapter was written just a day after I finished writing Damsel in Distress. That's my first time ever in writing two chapters in a row. Wow. Hopefully this chapter is as good as the first one.

This is about Ron and Hermione having a date in the zoo where Ron had to go to the house of spiders. A big portion of this chapter has already been written in The Zoo which is the longest fanfics I've ever written so far. So this small portion is all about what really happened inside the house of spiders.

Disclaimer: All characters belong to JK Rowling.


HOUSE OF SPIDERS

"Ron?"

He didn't even turn his face towards her; his eyes were transfixed on the signboard.

"Come on," said Hermione, pulling his hand to encourage him to move.

He shook his head. "No," he murmured.

"I'll be there for you."

He mumbled a 'no' again.

"I promise."

Ron then turned towards her. "Do we really have to go inside that monster house?" he finally asked.

"Yes, if you want to go home after that."

"Can't we just skip it? So that we can go home now?"

It was her turn to shake her head. "We have to, Ron."

"Why?" asked Ron, childishly.

Hermione cupped his face with her small hands. Looking at him intently, she answered, "I want you to face your fear. I've told you that before, haven't I?"

"But –"

"No buts," she cut off his sentence. "I won't leave you. For anything."

"Not even for books?"

She brought his head down to kiss his forehead. "Not even for the best books in the world."

"Not even for your schoolmates?"

She kissed one of his cheeks. "Not even for McGonagall."

"Like she's going to come to the zoo," mumbled Ron.

"Well, we would never know now, would we?" she said, smiling. "So, ready to go in yet?"

As a response, Ron rested his head on her shoulder. "Not even for Vicky?" he continued quietly.

"What? What does Viktor have to do with this?"

"Just answer me, 'Mione."

Hermione sighed. "No, Ron. Not even for Viktor Krum. Not even for Gilderoy Lockhart. Not even for Cormac McLaggen."

Ron laughed. "Brilliant," he said, before kissing her lips.

"Now can we go?" asked Hermione, after breaking apart.

"Why are you so eager? Have you been to this house before?" he asked instead. "Or you're just so eager to see me scream?"

"I haven't been there before. That's why I want you to come with me," she answered, pulling him towards the house. "And you said it yourself: it's no fun looking at the animals without me."

"That's because I was looking at the giraffes, Hermione. Those animals are nothing compared to this … monster."

"Oh, of course there is more than one spider, Ronald," said Hermione. "It is a zoo, after all."

Ron stopped instantaneously. "I'm not going in there, 'Mione," whispered Ron, shaking his head again. "I don't like being in the same room with a tiny spider, let alone loads of them."

"I'm aware of that, obviously."

"Then you must know that I hate those monsters!"

"Yes, and I know why as well."

"So why do you still insist in entering?"

"Because I want to see what's inside."

"Spiders of course. Loads of them!"

"You don't know that. Maybe there's something else."

"Give me an example," he said, crossing his arms across his chest.

Hermione paused for awhile to think. "I don't know; I told you I haven't been there before."

"Wow, the world is coming to an end," said Ron, sarcastically. "Hermione doesn't know something."

"No-one's perfect, Ronald."

"You are to me," he said, smiling sweetly.

"How kind of you," said Hermione, before pulling his hand again. "But you're still coming with me."

"Nooo," whined Ron, letting himself being dragged by his girlfriend.

Inside the house of spiders …

"See, it's not so bad," remarked Hermione, walking near the spiders. Ron however was standing far behind her, too frightened to walk. Realising that her boyfriend was not beside her anymore, she looked back and gestured him to come. "Why are you so far away from me? Take a closer look."

"It's okay, I'm fine here," said Ron. "You go ahead, 'Mione. I'll just stay here and wait for you to finish."

"That's ridiculous," she said, walking towards him and pulling his hand yet again. "You can't see anything over there."

"That's the whole point," he mumbled.

Pretending to not hear it, Hermione pulled him along from one spider to the other. Ron looked like he had the urge to go to the loo. Knowing this, Hermione tried to speed up the expedition.

After ten painful minutes, they both saw the exit door. Ron was about to exhale some air when he heard some girl saying: "Mummy, the spider's tickling me." Hermione heard that as well. And being a curious person that she was, she looked back to see a small girl with a tiny spider on her palm. With an idea on her mind, Hermione started walking back to the girl. Since they were still holding hands, Ron held her back.

"Don't tell me you're going there, Hermione, please."

"Come on, Ron. I want to hold the spider."

Ron sighed. "Fine, just hurry up."

"You're not coming?" asked Hermione, tilting her head slightly.

"Are you mad? Of course not!"

Hermione nodded faintly. Alone, she then walked closer to the girl and asked for the spider. Ron just stayed where he was – far away from the tiny monster.

"Are you sure you don't want to touch it, Ron?" asked Hermione, looking at him.

"Positive."

"This poor thing doesn't bite, you know."

Shaking his head, he said, "Never."

"You know," looking back at the spider, "people are waiting for you to move from the exit."

Ron realised that a number of people were indeed standing in front of him. So he moved away to the side, allowing them to go out. However, that led to being near to one of the biggest spiders inside the house. Therefore he made a decision to stand closer to Hermione.

"You finally came over," said Hermione, looking up before offering him the spider. "Decided to hold the spider?"

He put his hands up while taking a few steps back. "No."

"I promise: after you hold this spider, we will definitely go home."

Ron shook his head again.

"Just this once, Ron," she convinced him. "After this one, I won't ask you to hold another spider."

Ron sighed; a sign of giving up. "You certain that thing doesn't bite?" he asked, taking a few steps nearer.

"Yes, I would have told you if it did."

"We can go home after this?" he asked again, finally in front of her.

Hermione nodded. "Promised you, didn't I?"

He murmured a 'yeah'.

"People are waiting on you, Ron," she said, taking his hand and putting the spider on his palm. "There."

Ron wanted to wiggle his hand free from the spider, but Hermione was grasping his wrist so tight he could see some veins popping out of her hand.

"Don't you dare drop the spider, Ron. You can't even find it if it falls to the ground. People might step on it, you know."

Noticing Ron's face had turned pale, Hermione took the spider from him and gave it to the person standing behind her as it was their turn to hold it.

"How I wish I had a camera with me," she said, walking towards the door with Ron beside her.

"Thank Merlin, you didn't," he murmured. "I don't want any memory of that."

"Why not? Don't you want to remember when and where you have touched one small spider?"

"No, that memory is already imprinted here," answered Ron, his finger tapping his temple. "I don't want another one."

Hermione smiled. "But I am proud of you for facing your fear."

"Yeah but I'm still scared of spiders," he said, shuddering.

"Doesn't matter," she said, stroking his back lovingly. "But it wasn't that bad, was it?"

"I'd rather die now than touch another one."

"Well at least you didn't scream like a girl," she said, smiling even wider.

"Very funny, Hermione."

Hermione just laughed.


A/N: I don't know which one is shorter - this one or Damsel in Distress? Anyway hope it turned out all right. Review please!

Less than half of chapter 3 is done. Don't really know when exactly I'm going to put it up here. But I will finish the story. Don't worry about that.

By the way, I would like to thank those who gave me ideas for chapter 3. The chapter 3 that I had in mind is different from what you've given me, but I will try my best to write and put it here.

Til next time.

P.S: Anyone seen the latest Harry Potter HBP's trailer? The fifth one? It's so cool. It's by far the coolest and greatest trailer of Harry Potter. You should watch it. Just go to YouTube and type Harry Potter 5th trailer. And tell me what you think.