Wow, I didn't really expect that so many people would read chapter 1 and actually bother to review! Thank you all my luffly reviewers! As a tokens of thanks to you, and because it's January 2005, and just because I feel like it (!) here is the next chapter! I hope you enjoy it. Btw, sorry I have been so long in updating, but I've had exams for the past 2 weeks and before that I had to revise, so I really didn't get much chance to write the next chapter.

Set: The road back to Hogwarts

Harry and Hermione walked slowly back along the snow covered road from Hogsmede back to school. They were laden with their shopping but Hermione didn't really seem to notice how heavy her bags were. True, she had done the locomotor charm on one of them to carry it back to school, but the only thing really weighing down on her at that moment was how was she supposed to tell Ron what she had just told Harry??? It was all very well for Harry to reassure her that Ron liked her just as much as she liked him, but that didn't help the fact that she was going to have to be the one who voiced it first – why was it that boys were just so… embarrassed about the whole thing? Admittedly, Hermione was extremely embarrassed about it too, but she was actually doing something about it wasn't she?

Harry didn't quite know what to say. Even though he was pleased that Hermione liked Ron as much as Ron liked her, he was now involved in the whole getting-it-out-in-the-open scheme too, and he wasn't sure how Ron was going to take the fact that his best friend knew before he did himself. Although the silence between Hermione and Harry was quite amicable and the snow covered road was quite beautiful, Harry wanted to say something, just to break the silence.

"Hermione?"

"Mmm?"

"How are you going to, you know… tell Ron?"

Hermione sighed and said, "that's just what I was wondering. How???"

"Tricky, huh?"

"Yeah. But the thing is," she said, looking sideways at Harry, "how do I know that he won't just laugh it off in my face? I mean," she said slightly angrily as Harry gave a great snort of disbelief, "you know how similar to Fred and George he is in some ways, and they certainly wouldn't treat anything like this with even the remotest sign of seriousness."

"Look, Hermione," Harry said to her, once he was certain that he had control over the muscles that kept twitching his face into a grin, "I know Ron. And I know the twins. And believe it or not, I also know you. Now I can tell you perfectly seriously that Ron would not laugh in your face if he could tell how serious you were. I won't, and I'm sure they wouldn't themselves, deny that the twins most probably would laugh if someone told them that they loved them, but Ron has always been very different in that respect. Now all I can suggest in this case is that you just get it all out in the open and be straight and candid with Ron. You know how much he hates other people talking about secrets that he doesn't know."

Harry looked at Hermione and saw that she was thinking really hard. He hoped that his small speech had helped, but he had little hope that it really meant anything significant – he had just said it all without really thinking, his main aim being just to console and calm Hermione, and not to make it sound like he actually knew what he was talking about. Harry sighed and thought introspectively, yeah, it's fine for me to try to help them sort out their feelings for each other, but if and when they ever get together, how will I feel about it? I mean, they're my two best friends, and boyfriends and girlfriends do like to spend some time alone together. What will I do if they do that? Who will I hang around with? He glanced at Hermione again, and noticed that she seemed to be quite happy, even though she was clearly quite at a loss at how to vocalise her feelings to the very person that they involved. Harry felt a little voice in his mind (the one that for some reason always spoke in a feminine voice which he vaguely recognised but could never quite place) argue back, but what right do you have to spoil their potential happiness together? If they so clearly want to be together and you know that they get along already, why do you have to be so self-pitying? Maybe Rita Skeeter was right – I am an attention-seeking disturbed teenager. But then his own voice in his mind said, Hey, you know perfectly well that that Skeeter woman is a complete and utter cow and a liar – Dumbledore himself said as much, and like Hermione said, if you can't trust Dumbledore, who can you trust? Just let Ron and Hermione do what they want. If they're true friends then you'll never feel alone.

Suddenly, Hermione grabbed his arm and said, "Harry, let's go this way, come on!" She dragged his arm forwards and tried to lead him onto the opposite pavement, and moaned in his ear, "please, if we're quick they might not see us…"

"Who? Who might not see us?"

"Them, they're the last people I want to see right now…" said Hermione, gesturing towards a little knot of oncoming people. Harry peered at them and in the fading light, just made out a glint of white-blond hair. Malfoy and his gang.

Harry quickened his pace, but unfortunately stumbled, just as people always do when they least need something like that to happen. Harry grabbed onto Hermione's arm to hold himself upright, but Malfoy being Malfoy of course saw Harry trip and laughed loudly across the road, calling "enjoy the trip, Potter?"

"Just ignore him, Harry," Hermione whispered, and she threw a dirty glance over her shoulder at Malfoy.

"Hey, touched a raw nerve, have I Granger? You don't mean to say that mudbloods are so poor that they can't even afford something like a sense of humour?"

"Push off, Malfoy!" Harry shouted. "Haven't you got anything better to do than hang around street corners and throw unwitty remarks at anyone who passes by?"

"Oooooh!" squeaked Malfoy, in a high-pitched, girly voice. "Scared of the big bad boys marauding at the corner, are we?" Crabbe and Goyle, predictably, grunted laughs. Malfoy, encouraged by his apparently appreciative audience, carried on. "The mudblood and the scarhead need each other to stand up to those scaaary people, do they? Hey! Scarhead and the Mudblood. Don't you think that sounds like one of those old-fashioned muggle cartoons? Yeah, I bet that those stupid muggles who scrape a living on writing cartoons base them on hopeless cases like Scarhead and the Mudblood! Maybe it helps them to feel more famous… Scarhead and the Mudblood! Scarhead and the Mudblood! Scarhead and the Mudblood!"

Hermione tutted loudly, picked up their shopping bags, and pulled Harry around and started dragging him back up the road towards the castle. They could still hear Malfoy's chant of "Scarhead and the Mudblood! Scarhead and the Mudblood!" drifting across the snowy road back behind them, rather spoiling the otherwise beautiful scene. "So immature!" Hermione muttered.

"I'm sick of him doing stuff like that!" Harry said, vehemently, "If he does that one more time, he'd better watch out that I haven't got my wand to hand!"

There ya go! Sorry it isn't a very long chapter, and not much really happens, but it was really just me trying to write about how I thought that the characters would be feeling. The next chapter will be much more interesting!

Hints about the next chapter:

Hermione will actually confront Ron about how she feels.

But will Ron respond in a Ron-like way?

So please, please, please review, even if it is to tell me how bored you were while reading this chapter!