Chapter 4:

Waiting

The sun was hanging low in the sky. Ginny's broom was making circles around a frightened Hermione. Ginny's laughter was echoing all through out the field, as Hermione hid her face.

"Ginny!" Hermione said, "I thought you were going to practice!"

"What?" Ginny yelled, "I can't hear you Hermione!"

Ginny flew high into the sky, and then rushed back down to the earth. Hermione ran out of the way. She was laughing but scared at the same time.

"Ginny!" she yelled.

"Hermione!" Ginny yelled back. She then twirled her broom around and faced Hermione. Ginny floated in the air and laughed. "You want to take a ride?" Ginny asked. Hermione shook her head no.

"No, Ginny, you know I hate flying!" Hermione shouted back to her. Ginny nodded her head and then shrugged.

"So what?" she laughed. The broom started to pick up speed. Hermione was stepping back; she gulped and then burst into a sprint across the field. Ginny moved the broom directly behind Hermione. She was playing chaser. Hermione's skirt was flowing with her shirt. Her house tie was loose and also flowing in the wind. Ginny got up close to Hermione's body.

"Don't be scared!" Ginny yelled as she held out her arms. She picked up Hermione by her waist. At this point, Hermione's feet were inches from the earth. She was yelling at the top of her voice.

"Ginny!!"

Ginny was just laughing as she lifted Hermione onto the broom. Hermione was in front while Ginny held onto her waist.

"I can't steer this thing!" Hermione yelled.

"You can, I'll help you," Ginny said calmly, "Put your hands on the front and just let me help you."

Hermione did as instructed. Ginny lowered her hands down Hermione's arms until her small hands were on top of Hermione's.

"Take a deep breath and relax," Ginny whispered into Hermione's ear. Hermione shut her eyes tight as Ginny helped her control the broom. Ginny's pale light skin was glowing against Hermione's skin. Bushy brown hair was blowing into her face, but she didn't seem to mind. She was just enjoying the flight, breathing in Hermione's smell.

"How are we going to land?" Hermione yelled back to Ginny.

"Like this," Ginny grasped Hermione's hands and gently pushed them down. The broom started to loose its velocity.

"Stick your feet out gently," Ginny whispered softly. After about a minute, they landed safely on the field. Hermione was gasping for air, and her hair seemed to have grown about 2 times its own size.

"I should kill you for that," Hermione finally said without having to yell. Ginny was laughing hard as she held her broom close to her body.

"You enjoyed it though," she stated matter-of-factly. Hermione blushed.

"Let's go back inside, the sun has gone down, we can't be out here. We shouldn't even be flying!"

"Of course, whatever you say miss prefect!"

Ron was sitting on the couch nearest the fire eating chocolate frogs when the portrait hole swung open. Lavender was walking in with Parvati laughing and gossiping. Ron looked up then back down again quickly.

"Hello Ron," Lavender said, "How are you?"

"I'm fine," he said with a mouth full of chocolate. Lavender laughed, but Parvati looked a bit disgusted.

"I'm going to go catch up on announcements and my homework," she said. Parvati walked off leaving Lavender and Ron alone.

"Ronald," she started, "can I talk to you?"

"What about now, my sister, Hermione? No thanks," he snorted.

"Nothing of the sort," she assured him, "it's more about you."

"Me?"

"Yea, I was wondering if you have anybody you might, oh, I don't know."

"Someone that I…"

"Fancy."

"No, not really," he answered.

"Oh come on, that's a lie. Don't you like Granger?"

"What? No. No, I don't. She's my mate that's all."

"Right, then you must like Potter?!"

"No! Lavender!"

"I'm kidding Ron."

"You better be!" he shouted with a raised eyebrow. He started to get up when the portrait hole opened up again. Ginny and Hermione this time crawled into the common room with huge grins on their faces. However, when they saw Ron standing with Lavender, the smiles faded from their pretty faces.

"Ron," Ginny said, "you ok?"

"Yea," he lied, "I need to talk to Hermione."

Lavender turned her head to look at Hermione with a grin. Hermione was quiet and Ginny was standing close by to her.

"Alone!"

All three girls sighed. Lavender shrugged her shoulders, "have it your way". She walked off to meet with Parvati once again. Ginny grabbed her schoolbag and walked upstairs to the dorms.

"What is it Ron?" Hermione finally asked.

"Did you go help Ginny with school work at the library?" Ron asked.

"Yes," Hermione lied. She started to bite her lip nervously.

"Alright," he said, "I'm glad we can be honest with each other." He sat down again on the couch and just watched the fire roar.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Hermione asked with narrowed eyebrows.

"Oh nothing," he sarcastically stated, "I mean, I must not be aware of the snogging class being held."

Hermione's blood felt like it stopped in her body. Her hands grew cold even through the entire room was warm.

"Ron," she started, "I can explain…"

"I'm sure you can," he said, "I would love to hear what you are doing with my sister. Maybe what she's doing to you. I never thought she was like that. It must be my fault. Having 6 brothers, that's got to be it. We made her like this, but that doesn't explain you!"

"I don't know what to tell you Ron," Hermione admitted, "I kind of always felt that way in the back of my head. Every time I looked at you, I thought of her. I would look at her sometimes from across the table. I just don't know Ron."

Ron shook his head. He picked up his frogs, books and wand. He started to stick them all into his bag. "When you do know, can you please tell me?" he spat. He stalked off to the boy's dorms.

"Ron!"

He didn't turn around and disappeared around the corner. Lavender was watching but couldn't hear what was being said. "I really wish I had Fred and George's extendable ears right about now," she sighed. Parvati laughed.

Hermione crashed onto the couch and curled herself into a ball. Crookshanks came into the room meowing. He jumped onto her lap and curled himself into a ball. "I guess you are the only one who would understand me and not judge me," she said sadly. He only looked up and meowed softly.

The time passed, and Hermione had dozed off slightly. The portrait opened up again at midnight. Harry stumbled into the room exhausted. He saw that everyone had gone off to bed except one person. He noticed the bushy hair right away. It was Hermione curled up with Crookshanks. Harry made sure to come into the common room quietly, but his footsteps made Hermione stir. She opened her eyes and it took her a moment to make out Harry standing with his eyes squinted behind his glasses.

"Harry?" Hermione asked in a sleepy daze.

"Hermione," he said softly, "sorry for waking you."

"Its fine, I'm starting to get a neck ache," she got up slowly and started to rub the back of her neck. Harry moved closer to her and sat down next to her. Crookshanks leapt off of Hermione and took off. Harry put his arm around her in a friendly manner.

"No, it's not fine;" he said slowly, "Ron spoke to you. He told me he was going to."

"Yea, he did, lucky for me Lavender was too far away to hear what he told me," she sighed, "He says that he saw me kiss Ginny in the library this afternoon."

Harry cleared his throat, "I saw it too."

"What? What were you two doing there in the first place?"

"We were going to ask you two if you wanted anything to eat, but as we were there, we saw that you were in an intimate position," he explained.

"So you two weren't spying trying to figure out if Lavender was right or not?"

"No," he shook his head, "we would never do that."

"Right," she sighed.

"Hermione, I don't mind too much," he said, "I mean, you can't control who you fall in love with and I guess love is important. Maybe Luna was right, love is love."

"Luna Lovegood?" Hermione almost laughed, "Yea, I guess she was… for once."

Harry couldn't help but to laugh. "Try to get some sleep; I'll be here for you."

As his hand came off his shoulders Hermione noticed his hand. "Harry?"

"Yes?"

"What is that on your hand?!" she nearly yelled as she took his hand into hers.

Hermione was telling him the truth so he didn't think he should lie about this. "Umbridge happened to me."

"What? Didn't she just make you do lines? What is this scar?" Hermione pressed him.

"It's some special black quill, it makes you write out of your own blood," he explained.

"No, you need to tell Dumbledore about this right away!"

"I can't do that Hermione," he said getting up, "he has enough to worry about. Besides, I don't want to give her the satisfaction. Good night Hermione. Remember I'm here for you."

"Good night Harry. Remember I'm here for you too."

Ginny woke up and looked around the room the next morning. All the other girls were getting up and getting ready. Ginny got up finally and started to get dressed as well. Lavender packed up her things.

"I wanted to get up and be ready before you got up Weasley," she said coldly.

"Yea me too," Parvati said.

Hermione came into view fully dressed in her uniform and robes. "What's going on?"

"Oh, it's your lover Hermione," Lavender mocked, "I'm most definitely out of here. They might start to snog or something disgusting."

The girls all followed Lavender out of the dorms. Ginny was left standing with a sour look on her face. "She better watch her pretty little back. I'm famous for my hexes!" Ginny snapped.

Hermione was beat red in the face. "Ginny please," she said, "it's not helping."

"You are just going to let her continue abusing us?"

"No, I'll get her one way or another," Hermione assured Ginny, "I'm sure I can catch her slipping up."

"She never does Hermione," Ginny said, "What did my brother tell you? He didn't look well."

"He saw us," Hermione told her, "Harry did too."

"Oh no," Ginny said with a sigh, "that's not good. That's really not good since he doesn't want me to date anyone."

"Date?!" Hermione's eyes were as wide as golf balls.

"Well, are we?"

"I don't know," Hermione said, "I mean we like each other and the kiss in the library…"

"So that's a yes then?"

"I…"

They stood in silence for a while. Ginny finally sucked in her breath and walked close to Hermione. She wrapped her arms around her and pulled her in. "You smell good," Ginny whispered.

"Thanks… I think," Hermione whispered back with a slight laugh. They hugged for a while until Ginny pushed her body off Hermione's and looked into her eyes again.

"I think we are a bit of an item," she said, "I really like you Hermione. You're smart and pretty. I love that."

Hermione didn't say anything but pulled Ginny in once again and placed her lips to hers. This time, Ginny was a little shocked but closed her eyes and enjoyed the feeling. Hermione started to tilt Ginny into a dip. She held on to her tightly. As the kiss ended Hermione looked at Ginny with a look of passion in her eyes. Something that Ginny has never seen there before.

"I'm going to ask Harry for his cloak," she said, "We won't have to worry about gossip or Ron seeing us. What do you think?"

Ginny smiled, "I think it's brilliant."