21.30

Hermione had been walking back and forth in her room for the past hour. Was she going insane? Why had she been so ridiculously unreasonable to him? Yes, he knew her opinion on alcoholic beverages during these times. But their victory on Hogsmeade was indeed one of the biggest in a few months.

And she knew it was unfair to bring up Theo. His alcoholic intake was indeed close to that of an addict, a totally different situation than Ron was in now.

Also, Theo had been a touchy subject altogether for Ron. He couldn't really handle the way the two of them were that close, while she drove Ron more away every day because she had been so focussed on saving the troubled Slytherin. It had been a hard period of time, when Theo lived at Grimmauld Place, and had not done their relationship much good.

But Ron had to respect her opinions right? He knew how much she valued staying sober and focussed in times of war, and it was for his own good after all! She was only worried something would happen to him, that he would get himself killed.

She sat down on the edge of her bed and let her head rest in the palms of her hands. She had been debating with herself for the last hour and she was rather tired of it.

Downstairs she could hear the laughter of her friends. They were loud, obnoxious, but it sounded incredibly fun. She sighed, and massaged her temples. Maybe, she should just go downstairs for a little while, apologise to Ron, have a pumpkinjuice and then go back to bed..

She stood up, walked up to the mirror and looked at herself. She pulled out her wand and casted a quick charm to contain the frizzyness that were her dark brown curls.

The closer she got to the kitchen, the louder the voices became. She could distinguish Harry's, Ginny's, and that highpitched giggle definitely was Luna's. She opened the door and the people standing closest to it turned towards her, and smiles appeared on their faces.

"Oi 'Mione! I thought you might never come down!" Seamus called out.

"Yeah, well, I thought I might as well grant you guys the pleasure of my company."

Her friends laughed and Ginny wrapped her arms around her friend, hugging her tightly.

"Here, have a drink." Dean hold out his hand in front of her, holding a glass of Fire Whiskey. She flinched.

"No, thank you. Have any of you seen Ron?"

"I haven't, sorry. I haven't seen him for a pretty long time actually.. Maybe George has seen him, he's in the livingroom with the rest of the order."

Ginny placed a soft peck on her cheek, and she nodded.

Making her way through the partying people took longer than she hoped it would. Since when were there so many of them? Finally she reached the living room, scanning the space for her red haired wizard.

"Hermione! Fancy seeing you here!" George made his way up to her, and smiled his cheeky smile.

"Have you seen Ron? I've been looking for him."

"No I'm sorry." he said. "Anyone of you seen Ron?" he said while turning to the crowd behind him.

"I saw him go upstairs a good 15 minutes ago mate! Haven't seen him since."

Hermione frowned. Why was he upstairs?

"Thanks."

"You're welcome!"

She walked up the stairs to the first floor. Had she just missed him going upstairs? Maybe he came to apologise as well. She opened the door to her room, but it was empty. Confused she closed it again, and walked towards Ron and Harry's room. Getting closer to the door she heard some rythmic bangs to the wall. What the hell was happening there?

She could distinguish a woman's voice, moaning of pleasure. She knocked on the door, her heart pounding in her chest.

No response.

She got hold of the doorhandle and slowly pushed the door open. The moaning intensified, and a male voice joined, heavily panting and growling.

She stepped into the room, and let her eyes get used to the dark. They slowly adjusted and she noticed the figures on the bed. A dark haired woman riding a man.

A red haired man.

Ron.

She looked at the scene and was not able to look away. It was as if she witnessed a horrible accident, was absolutely disgusted, but just had to keep looking. The tears started burning in her eyes, and she felt sick to her stomach.

The woman started to go through her deep black locks with her hands, letting her head fall back in pleasure. Ron's hands went up her body, caressing every curve, softly massaging her voluptuous breasts.

The breathing and moaning intensified, and suddenly the pair got a good grip on eachother, Ron pounding a few last times before growling her name.

"Bloody fuck, Cho!"

She turned away immediately, tears streaming down her face. In a reflex she ran downstairs, towards the kitchen, but suddenly very aware of all the people behind that door. She bit her bottomlip, wiped away her tears and slowly opened the door.

Just keep that pokerface, you can do it. You've done this before. Don't be a baby now.

She suddenly got a taste of iron in her mouth. Shit, bit too hard. She rolled her eyes and continued to walk through the people.

She heard her name being called several times, but she couldn't respond. Suddenly a hand grabbed her arm and she was forced to stop walking. She turned around, ready to snap at the person grabbing her arm so forcefully, but when she met his eyes, she calmed down.

Harry looked at her, frowning, worried.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Just let go of me."

"Did you find Ron?"

Hermione swallowed.

"Yes, i did."

"What was he up to?"

"Too pissed to function. He went to bed."

She never had been a good liar, and this time was no exception. She could see Harry growing more suspicious by the minute, but he let go of her anyway. Apparently her face had been looking so pissed off, he didn't want to wake the dragon.

She turned around and walked towards the glass cabinet, from where she grabbed a tumbler and she walked up towards the fridge. She opened the door and was startled by a woman immediatly grabbing something from the fridge.

"Thanks Hermione. I'm dying of thirst!"

She looked next to her, and stared straight into the eyes of Cho. She couldn't move. She wanted to scream, but was completely paralised. Cho downed a bottle of butterbeer and turned around, disappearing into the crowd.

"Oi! Are you finally having a drink with us! That took you long enough!"

Dean stood next to her, slowly sipping his Fire Whiskey, which suddenly smelled so luring. He grabbed the bottle and hold it out to her.

"Come on Hermione, live a little."

Suddenly, from the corner of her eye, she saw a flash of red entering the kitchen. She looked to the side, and saw a flustered Ron talking, laughing, looking proud of his conquest.

She snapped. She grasped the bottle from Dean's hands and put it to her lips, allowing the burning sensation of the liquor to warm her insides.