Chapter 3

Is that what you call it?

Quidditch practice was going really good and by the day the big game arrived I was over the moon with excitement. Ron on the other hand wasn't so keen.

I found Harry, Ron and Ginny at the Gryffindor table when I came down for breakfast. Ron looked like he was ready to puke into the scrambled eggs on the plate in front of him.

"Oh know, what's wrong with him?" I asked.

There was no way that I was letting Cormack anywhere near the goal posts on our first game of the season and against our biggest enemy. Ron was the best Gryffindor keeper we've had since Oliver Wood and I didn't just think that because I liked him.

"His nerves have got the better of him", Ginny told me.

"Ron you really should eat something", Hermione said pushing his plate closer to him.

It just made his face turn greener. We watched Ron all with worried faces. That is until we caught a look at the strangest outfit I had ever seen. Luna Lovegood came and sat down next to us. She was wearing a lion's mane and a Gryffindor supporter's shirt along with matching pants. The other students form her Ravenclaw house gave her some very odd looks.

I noticed Harry doing something to Ron's drink out of the corner of my eye. I watched him pretend to put something in the drink and then put the vile back in his pocket.

I knew exactly what he was doing and I intended to play along. See in that first potions lesson, for Harry's perfect potion professor Slughorn awarded him with a small vile of liquid luck. Harry knew that if Ron thought he had drunk the liquid luck, then he would play as if he knew he would win and luck was on his side. Luna noticed Harry's actions as well.

"Is Ron not feeling well?" she asked.

"He is a bit nervous about the game", I explained.

"Oh, is that why you put something in his drink harry?" she asked.

Everyone's eyes fell on Harry. He tucked the vile deeper into his pocket. Hermione turned to him with a scowl on her face. Ron's eyes lit up as he grabbed for the glass before Hermione could get to it.

"Ron don't you dare!" she scalded, before turning back to Harry, "Harry how could you, that's cheating".

"Come off it Hermione, it's not the world cup", I said and Ginny nodded in agreement.

She always had a knack of taking things out or proportion. She glared at me, but it bounce off my skin now. Things hadn't always been this way. Sure I had never really liked her very much. I always thought she was bossy and stuck her nose where it didn't belong, but other than Ginny she was the only girl I really talked to. Then one day I thought I would talk to her about my feelings for Ron, which was a big mistake.

*Flashback*

I sat in the common room and went over my charms essay. Hermione sat beside me doing the same. She was just starting to pack up her things when I gathered up the courage to ask her advice.

"Hey Hermione can I ask you something?" I asked her.

"Sure", she replied sitting back down.

"Ok so there is this really awesome guy and I like him a lot, but I don't know how to tell him", I explained.

"Ok well I really don't know about this kind of stuff, I mean there is this guy that I like too, but I'm too scared he won't feel the same".

"Oh is it Harry? Because you shouldn't be scared, you've been friends for ages" I encouraged her.

"No it's not Harry, but if you like Harry then go for it, I know he thinks highly of you".

This was a little weird, I had never thought of Harry like that. He was more of the annoying brother my parents never had and he knew I thought of him that way.

"Hermione, who is it that you like?" I asked her, hoping I wasn't going to hear that name.

"Well, I like Ron" she blushed.

I sat there silently, letting her words replay over in my mind. I had always suspected that she had liked him; she had always paid extra attention when we had our study sessions.

"I see", I finally managed to reply.

"Kim who is it that you like?" she asked now.

I knew she suspected my answer. I wasn't sure I actually wanted to tell her, I didn't know how she was going to react.

"Well the thing is, I like Ron too".

Her face went a slight purple colour. She looked rather annoyed at my answer. I want going to lie to her; I wasn't ashamed of liking Ron.

"Too bad I like him first", she snapped at me.

"Excuse me?" I asked shocked at what she had said.

"I said I liked him first, so back off!" She snapped again.

"I can't help who I like and nothing you say is going to change that", I spat back at her.

I stood up and packed up my books, I wasn't going to sit there and listen to her if she was going to be like that. She too began to pack her things angrily. She stood at the foot of the stairs and glared at me.

"Don't you dare try anything with him, or I'll make your life miserable", she hissed.

"Bring it on" I hissed back.

*end flashback*

I wasn't going to let Hermione intimidate me, not then and definitely not now. Ron looked down at his goblet and without hesitation gulped the liquid down. He placed the goblet back on the table in front of him.

"How do you feel?" Ginny asked.

"I feel great!" he exclaimed.

He stood up and with out another word, marched out to the quidditch pitch. The rest of us followed closely behind him. Luna and a moody Hermione made their way into the stands, while the rest of us entered the change rooms.

We changed into our quidditch robes and waited to go out onto the pitch. Harry stood at the front; after all he was the team captain. I stood up the back next to Ron. I was starting to get a little nervous now. Ron on the other hand was more confident than I had ever seen him.

"Are you ready for this?" I asked.

"You bet I am" he replied with a smile.

I smiled back at him. I'm not sure what came over me, but before I could think about it I stood up on my tip toes and kissed him on the cheek.

"Good luck", I blushed.

"t-thanks", he stuttered.

Madam Hooch called out the two teams onto the pitch. We lined up and faced the Slytherin team. It seemed that the slytherins had replaced Malfoy as their seeker. I figured he was too busy being a git to have time for the team, that and he did a lot of sneaking around these days.

We got on to our brooms and took to the air. Madam Hooch released the bludgers and then the golden snitch before finally releasing the quaffle and beginning the game.

The game was fast paced and crazy, but Ron never missed a goal. Ginny, Angelina and I managed to score a few times avoiding the bludgers that were being pelted at our heads. More than once Pansy Parkinson tried to knock me off my broom.

We saw the new Slytherin seeker turn into a nose dive. Harry chased after him thinking he had seen the snitch. He hadn't though he was trying to take out harry, but harry was too fast for him.

The game went on for what felt like forever and then he saw it. Harry took off past me like a bullet with the Slytherin seeker close on his tail.

I held my breath; all I could do was watch. Harry began to dive; he was getting closer and closer to the ground to the ground. I thought he was going to crash, but at the last minute he pulled up. We watched silently for a moment until Harry raised his hand with the snitch.

The crowd erupted with cheers. We all flew over to him hugging him tightly. Not even the boo's coming from the Slytherin team could be heard.

We continued the celebrations back in the common room. Some of the students managed to sneak some food from the kitchens. It was going off. Harry and I pulled Ron aside and sat him down; we had to confess something to him.

"You did that on your own you know" I smiled at him.

"What are you talking about?" he asked confused.

Harry held up the unopened bottle of liquid luck in front of Ron's nose. He grabbed the vile and examined it for himself.

"You mean i saved all those goals by myself?" he said in disbelief.

Harry and I both nodded. Ron jumped up off the chair with a new found confidence in his eyes. He threw the bottle down to Harry and hopped up onto one of the tables and cheered.

We couldn't help but sit there ad laugh. Hermione sat down beside Harry and frowned. Seriously I didn't get her, she was angry when she thought Harry had been cheating; now she was angry that Harry had tricked her. You just couldn't win with this girl.

"That was a dirty trick Harry" she scalded.

I turned away while they talked; I wasn't going to let her ruin my mood. I looked up at Ron who was still cheering loudly on the table. I watched as he was joined on the table by lavender brown who proceeded to throw herself into his arms and kiss him on the lips.

My jaw dropped and I felt something break inside me. I couldn't believe my eyes, yet I couldn't stop looking at the scene in front of me. I could feel tears beginning to well up in my eyes and I wasn't going to let them see. I stood up quickly running from the common room. I ran and kept running not thinking where I was headed. I finally stopped when I had reached the owlery. I sat down on one of the steps and let the tears fall.

I didn't know why I let myself feel this way, I knew inside he didn't feel the way that I did yet I stilled hoped. I put my hands in my pockets looking for a tissue; instead I pulled out the letter I had received that morning. I read over it again and figured now that I was certain that Ron wasn't interested in me it couldn't hurt replying to this letter.

I found some blank parchment that someone had left in the owlery and wrote a reply.

Dear …

Your letter has made me curious.

How could you know that I don't have feelings for you, if I don't know who you are?

I don't even know if this will reach you, but if it does a little more information would be nice.

Maybe then I can decide how I feel.

Sincerely Kim

I folded the letter and walked over to the school owl that had delivered the letter. I knew her clearly from the distinct markings she had on her feathers.

"Alright Rosey, I want you to take this letter to the person who sent me this", I showed her the letter.

She hooted softly at me and flew out the window. I sat down on the step and watched her fly around the castle. I wasn't ready to head back to the common room just yet. I didn't want to have to see the guy that I had such strong feelings for kissing someone else.

I didn't even move when someone sat down beside me. They didn't say anything at first and that was fine with me. We sat there with out a word for what seemed like hours. Eventually they spoke and I realized it was Ginny who had found me.

"They've stopped snogging if that helps" she said placing an arm around my shoulder.

"Not really", I sighed.

"Well Hermione didn't take it well either", she added.

"How so?" I asked.

"Well she was so angry that she sent a swarm of paper birds shooting after him"

I couldn't help but giggle a little bit. I knew that's what Ginny wanted, to see a smile on my face. Well she got it, however I still felt awful inside.

"I though maybe he might be realizing that I liked him", I confessed.

"Kim, my brother is an airhead. He wouldn't know it was his birthday if mum didn't remind him".

I laughed again. She didn't have a point; Ron was definitely not the most observant person in the world.

When it started to get dark I knew it was time to head back, whether I wanted to or not. So we walked back taking our time. When we got back the party was still happening. I wasn't really in the celebrating mood now, so I headed up to the girls dormitory. The party was definitely over for me so there wasn't really a reason to hang around.

I could hear Ron calling me back, but I wasn't going to talk to him now. I couldn't I knew it would only make me more upset and that's not what I wanted now.

I changed into my pajamas and climbed under the covers of my bed. I pulled the blankets up over my head and I laid there listening to the commotion going on down stairs eventually falling asleep. I didn't even hear the other girls coming to bed.

The next morning when I woke everyone was still asleep. It seemed like the party had gone well into the night. I walked down to the common room and noticed a few of the school house elves cleaning up. I offered some assistance, but they declined looking as though I had offended them buy asking.

I walked down to the great hall for breakfast and found that all the tables had at least some students, well except the Gryffindor table that is. I returned the wave hello that Luna was giving me, as strange as she was she was still such a sweetie.

It wasn't until I was nearly finished that my fellow gryffindor's began to join me at the table. Once I was finished eating I walked back up to the common room to get my school stuff. I was planning to go sit own by the lake and study a little, it was a Sunday after all and I had nothing better to do.

I met Harry at the bottom of the dormitory stair cases. He looked as if he hadn't slept at all that night.

"Morning" I greeted him.

"Morning to you too" he yawned.

If I knew Harry right, he would be waiting for Ron to come down stairs and I was still a hurt from the events from the previous night to talk to Ron.

"What you got planned for today?" Harry asked.

"Going to study by the lake" I told him.

"I see" he smiled; I knew there was something else that he wanted to ask me.

"Harry what's on you mind?" I pressed.

"Well, I noticed you disappear after the Lavender incident and Ginny may have mentioned that you had feelings for him", Harry trailed off.

Ginerva Weasley you are so dead, I thought to myself. I was going to kill Ginny when I saw her; this was supposed to be a secret. She swore to me that she wouldn't say anything, especially Harry. After all he was the closest person to Ron there was, they were best friends.

"Yeah about that" I sighed.

"Why didn't you tell me about it?" he asked sounding a little hurt, "I though I was like a brother to you?"

"That's why I couldn't Harry, because you're his best friend Harry and it doesn't matter anyway, he clearly likes someone else".

As if someone had summoned him, Ron appeared at the top of the stairs. He had something hidden in his hand and when he notice me looking at it he quickly shoved it in his pocket. I figured it was probably a love note to Lavender or something and I really wasn't in the mood for it.

I could see him going to say something to me, so I cut him off. I didn't want to hear anything especially if he was going to bring up last night. So before he managed to get a word out I made my escape.

"Anyway Harry I'm going to go", I said abruptly and walked away before he could ask anymore questions.

I was happy to see that when I returned with my books they were no longer hanging around in the common room. They had probably gone down to the great hall before breakfast was over. I walked down to the lake and sat in the shade of one of the big trees. I could see Hagrid's hut with out the lights on. I missed talking to Hagrid and having Fang drool all over us it was something that as strange as it sounded, made Hogwarts what it was to me. Now that he was doing work for Dumbledore, we never got to see him anymore.

I opened up my herbology text book and began reading over the chapter we had just completed. We had to hand in a parchment with a summery of what we had learned. I didn't mind doing these kinds of assignments, mainly because herbology was one of the subjects I had always like.

I was about half way through the parchment when something hit me in the head. I looked down beside me to see a letter addressed to me. I then proceeded to look in the tree above me and saw that Rosey the owl was in one of the branches.

I knew that this letter was a reply to the one I had sent the previous night, but I hadn't expected a reply so soon. I was both nervous and excited to read the reply. I carefully unfolded the parchment and read.

Dear Kim

I was surprised to get your reply to my letter

You do have a point though, with out knowing my identity you can not make a decision.

I am willing to give you some hints, but I will not give who I am away easily.

Signed …..

Rosey sat in the tree waiting to see if I wanted to reply to the letter now or later. I wasn't going to let her wait there long.

I grabbed out a blank piece of parchment and wrote out my reply quickly so the owl could get flying. That was easier said than done, it took me forever to think of what to right and how to word it. I finally managed to jot something down.

Dear ….

So what kind of hints are you going to give me?

Could I maybe know what house you are in? Or maybe the initials of your name?

I am intrigued to know what it is that you like about me though.

Sincerely Kim.

I folded up the parchment and handed it to the bird. She hooted happily before flying off again. If this was going to keep up I was definitely going to have to invest in some owl treats.

After that I couldn't think about studying again, all I had on my mind was trying to figure out who this mysterious person was and why they were interested in me.

I mean I wasn't anything special, I was no Fleur delacor, or Cho chang. I didn't really think I was anything spectacular, yet some one out there thought I was.

It was then that another idea dawned upon me. What if someone didn't have feelings for me, what if this was just someone's idea of a funny gag? I knew people could be cruel, but I didn't know who would want to be that cruel to me.

I packed up my things and headed back up to the common room, I was clearly done studying for the day. When I got back to the common room, a smiling Ginny met me at the portrait. I wasn't smiling though. I grabbed her by the arm and pulled up into the dormitory. I made sure the room was empty before I let loose on her.

"You told harry I like Ron!" I said angrily.

"Yes, but only because I thought if Ron liked you he wouldn't tell anyone but harry!" she defended herself.

"And what did he say?" I asked.

"Well he never got to tell me because Hermione walked in" she sighed.

I sighed along with her before following her back down to the common room. She was my best friend after all; I really couldn't stay mad at her for long.

The common room had filled slightly since we had gone for our little talk. Harry was sitting by the fire with Hermione, while Ron and lavender were attached at the lips over in a corner. Ginny and I decided that we would rather sit with little miss bossy pants over watching the snogging fest any day.

"I wish they would get a room" Ginny grumbled loudly.

We all nodded in agreement, but I did secretly wish it was me he was snogging. I sighed for like the hundredth time just thinking about it.

"They've been at it all day" Harry muttered, "I don't think she's let Ron get two words out".

We all laughed a little at Harry's remark. I doubted Lavender could have an intelligent conversation with anyone. She wasn't the brightest light bulb and she worshiped Professor Trelawney.

When the snogging fest got to much Harry, Hermione, Ginny and I walked down to the great hall for dinner. Ginny walked ahead talking to Hermione, while I stayed back a little so I could talk to Harry.

I pulled the new letter I had received from the secret person and showed it to Harry.

"I got this while I was out studying".

He read over the letter and smirked a little. It was almost like he knew something about it that I didn't and that made me feel a little weird.

"Did you reply?" he asked, with an eyebrow raised.

"Maybe I did, maybe I didn't" I stuck my tongue out at him.

He laughed and we kept walking. Ginny and Hermione waited at the door to see what was taking us so long.

Harry sat next to Hermione on one side of the table and I sat with Ginny on the other. We sat and talk about anything that didn't involve what was happening back in the common room.

I looked around the great hall and noticed Draco Malfoy whispering angrily to Crabbe and Goyle. He stood up and stormed out of the great hall with them on his tail. I turned back to Harry.

"What's got the ferret all worked up I wonder?" I said playing with my food.

"He's been acting weird since we got back to school", Ginny said before adding, "well weirder than usual".

"Harry thinks You Know Who has him working on a secret mission" Hermione said.

"I don't think it Hermione, I know he is and Snape is in on it" Harry defended himself.

He started telling us about his trip to Diagon Alley and seeing Malfoy and his mother sneaking around and then he told us about Draco talking to the Crabbe and Goyle about something important he had planned. It seemed Harry had been keeping tabs on Malfoy's suspicious activities.

"And Hermione said she saw the dark mark on his arm" he added.

"Harry I don't know what I saw" she sighed, "it could have been anything".

Harry gave up arguing with her, but I actually thought he might be on to something. After all it was known that the Malfoy's were big supporters of the Dark lord when he was last in power. Now that he was back maybe as an initiation, he was putting Draco to work.

I would definitely be talking to Harry about this theory later, when Hermione wasn't around of course.