Part Two|Breakfast Breakthroughs

Ron was wandering the corridors at random. His feet automatically shuffled through the familiar paths that he had been trotting the past six years. Cutting through many of the secret passageways that he and Harry had discovered using Harry's ever helpful Marauders' Map, his mind was racing, his thoughts were completely jumbled. I hooked up with a girl who doesn't even remember last night. She's raving and she changes personalities every few minutes. "Since when did Hogwarts allow complete nutters in?" he muttered to himself.

Ron's brooding was interrupted with an uncomfortable churning in his abdomen, followed by a low gurgling sound. This ache wasn't to do with his unsettled feeling about his current predicament; he was hungry. Ron stopped and looked around. It took him a second to realize that he was on the first floor. If he wasn't mistaken, the next portrait on his right side would lead him to the side entrance of the Great Hall. Opening the small latch on the side of said portrait, he walked down the sloping path and opened the door at the end.

His eyes were greeted by a rather packed Great Hall. He was shocked: he didn't think he had been wandering for that long, but it was apparent that he had. He really needed to wear his watch. It was still sitting in its case that he had opened on his birthday, all those weeks ago. He had yet to put it on.

He walked passed the Slytherin table, ignoring the calling jeers of "Weasel King" and the mocking salute to his "royalty." He had gotten used to these calls, though he wasn't as brave as Harry to call and mock them right back.

As he approached the Gryffindor table on the far side of the spacious room, Ron quickly recognized Harry, his messy black hair bobbing around the other tops of heads. What he was surprised to see, though, was another red head sitting across from him. Ron wondered why Ginny was talking to Harry. Maybe Quidditch? It was odd, though. To Ron, Harry seemed to be… glowing. He was radiating happiness. Ron had a faint idea and briefly wondered how long that had been happening. He really missed a lot during his stint with Lavender. He pushed the thoughts to the back of his head and continued to the table.

"Well, thanks, Harry," Ginny said, rising from her seat.

Harry fumbled with the goblet of pumpkin juice in his hand, sloshing a bit of it onto the table. "Oh, yeah, anytime, Ginny. I'll be around, you know where to find me." Harry hastily took his napkin and began to wipe up the spill.

Ginny laughed and turned, almost running straight into Ron. "God, Ron, you scared me," she said in a slightly irritated voice. "Where've you been, anyways?"

Ron opened his mouth and racked his brain for something. "Uh, you know, walking around. You know how I wake up early… You know." Ron still felt lame with his answer, despite the fact it was the truth. Well, most of it anyways.

Ginny's sharp green eyes pierced his, and she stared him down, waiting for him to break and say more. When he didn't, though, she just raised her eyebrows. "Alright then. See you two around." With that, she walked around Ron and out of the Great Hall.

Ron sat down in the seat Ginny just vacated and began to fill the plate in front of him with bacon and pancakes. Harry was looking at him with a suspicious look. "Walking around, really? Have you been walking around since last night? You never came back from your kitchen adventure while I was still awake- which was a long time, mind you, I was finishing Slughorn's antidotes essay- and then you were gone before I awoke. I think you have some explaining to do." Harry leaned back from the table and stared at his best friend, waiting for a truthful response.

Ron was torn. He'd never kept secrets from his best friend before. His fears, his likes, even some of his most embarrassing moments had been shared with Harry. He was the greatest form of friend there was. He took every word Ron said seriously and never made him feel as if he was any less of a friend for the things he said. Even so, he was still apprehensive about telling Harry. Telling him the story would mean having to tell about last night, when we… A smile suddenly lit up on Ron's face, and a dreamy, vacant expression clouded his eyes. My God, he had done it, he had actually done it. In all of the shock from what had happened his morning had clouded over the fact that he had actually gotten with a girl.

Ron was lost in his sudden recollection that he barely registered what Harry was now saying. "-and besides, Ginny wasn't inclined to believe you at all. It's probably due to the fact that your hair is sopping wet. What did you do, Ron? You really need to- why are you smiling? You look like a complete idiot. Honestly, you look like-" Harry stopped, his eyes growing wide. "You didn't!"

Ron looked up to Harry, his dreamy expression slowly drifting away. "Didn't what? Harry, why are you looking at me like that?" Ron felt his voice catch. A lump was quickly rising in his throat. He knew.

Harry's words came out slowly; a grin was slowing breaking across his face. "If I wasn't sure, I'd say that you had the shag of your life last night, and now you're confused about it," Harry said dramatically. "Tell me I'm right!"

The tips of Ron's ears flamed up and turned scarlet, matching the rest of his face. It was good enough as an affirmative for Harry. Pumping his hand in the air, Harry gave an excited, "YES!" which attracted attention from the other end of the table. Taking care to keep his voice down low, Harry leaned across the table to Ron. "Who was she? Don't question it, mate, everyone needs a good bounce back, especially after Lavender. Come on, tell me, I don't really mind who. Besides, I won't tell Hermione. Come on. Do we know her, she in our year? What?"

This last word was addressed to the person who was now standing behind Ron. He slowly turned in his chair and, to his horror, stood Dory. Harry caught the expression in Ron's face and instantly understood.

"Are you, uhm," Dory looked down into her hands. Ron noticed that she was clutching a book, one awfully familiar to him. "Ron Weasley?" the girl asked, reading the name off of the inside cover of the book.

"I am," Ron said thickly, his voice shaking.

"Yeah, well this book was in my room. Hannah said I could find you here." She gestured with one hand behind her. Ron looked around her and saw a panicked looking Hannah Abbot nearly sprint into the room. Seeing Dory with Ron, she began to walk towards him, an annoyed expression on her face. "Anyways, I'd prefer that you'd keep up with your stuff next time. I don't know how it got underneath my bed, but if I find anything else of yours there, I'll file a complaint." She thrust the book, Flying with the Cannons, into Ron's stone still arms and turned and walked haughtily away. Hannah grabbed hold of Dory, who smiled up to her saying, "Hi, I'm Dory!" Hannah had an exasperated look on her face and dragged her away. Looking back to Ron, she gestured to Dory and mouthed the word, "Later" back at him. Ron gave a slight nod and turned back to Harry.

"Her," Ron muttered weakly.

Harry whistled. "Well, she seems a bit-"

"She has short term memory loss," Ron said abruptly. "She doesn't remember that we even did it and she attacked me when she woke up this morning in my arms." Ron put his head in his hands miserably.

"She attacked you?" Harry asked, genuine concern filling his voice. "Are you okay?"

Ron's voice came out muffled from under his arms. "She only slapped me a few times, nothing more. Hannah Abbot intervened at the perfect time."

"Wow, Ron. That's… that's interesting right there. What are you going to do?"

"I don't know," he wailed.

Harry put a serious face on; no doubt he was trying to think of a solution to Ron's newfound girl problem. He was about to voice an opinion, when a bushy haired girl joined them at the table.

"I simply cannot believe I slept in today," she said, filling up her plate. "Today, of all days! I have a tutoring session soon and then a meeting with McGonagall at 1. I'm worried that my sofa still has monkey-ish features, I was supposed to study for Snape's exam he hinted at giving in the last lesson, and I just don't have time for this today! Harry, why looking so serious? And what's wrong with Ron?"

"Discussing Quidditch," Harry replied smoothly. "The Cannons lost their last game, putting them out for any chance in the quarter finals." Harry had a knack for being able to pull small lies out of his head to calm Hermione, and Ron was grateful for it. True, the Cannons were out for the rest of the season, but Hermione's low level of Quidditch knowledge wouldn't allow her to know that the Cannons had fallen out of the running weeks ago. Not that she would have known from Ron when it had actually happened; he was still busying being wrapped around Lavender during that time.

"Why are you worrying so much anyways, Hermione?" Harry asked, taking the last bite of pancake from his plate. "It's Saturday. Besides, you already know how to identify a werewolf, you've known since our third year. And how does a sofa have monkey attributes, anyways?"

Hermione tittered. "You wouldn't understand. Maybe if you paid attention in Transfiguration for once, instead of playing with fake wands in class, you'd might understand. Enough about me, though. What are you all doing with your day? School work, I hope."

"Ah, no such luck, Hermione," Harry replied back. "We have Quidditch practice right at tw- one." Ron noticed the falter in Harry's voice. What interested him more was the fact that Harry had lied about the times. Practice was at two because Coote had dentition until 1:30 with Sprout for purposefully upsetting the Mandrakes that were resting in the back of class by planting stink pellets into their pots. Ron didn't say anything though.

"But surely you have time to do something before then. It's only 9:48!" Hermione bolted up. "I have tutoring at 10!" she said in alarm. "Why did I ever sleep in?" She picked up an apple from the table and turned to leave. "Bye Harry, Ron…" she looked at the latter, who still had his head buried in his hands. "Boy, he's taking this pretty hard," she said, staring down at Ron with a troubled expression.

"They really had a chance!" Harry called out to Hermione's retreating figure.

Ron lifted his head from his hands. "Thanks," he said appreciatively.

"Just tell me one thing," Harry said, leaning back in towards Ron, a half smirk formed on his face. "Was it good?"

Ron couldn't help but grin as he looked up to his best friend. "'Mazing."