CatB: Yay! It's Chapter 4. 'Nuff said.

Disclaimer: Still not the owner of Harry Potter. Still borrowing the characters for my own enjoyment, yadda yadda yadda. I need a more creative disclaimer, honestly.

WARNING: I admit, Hermione is a little OOC in this chapter. Unfortunately, there was not a whole lot I could do about that. Sorry! If you have any suggestions about what to do to fix this, please let me know.

That evening at dinner, I sat with Ginny, careful not to look Ron's way even once. I knew he was crushed by how I had treated him and was very likely going to spend the rest of the night dissecting my behavior towards him with Harry. I sighed miserably. It wasn't fair that I had to avoid both of my best friends.

Remembering that I still had Ginny, I turned to ask her something, only to find her deep in conversation with Dean Thomas. At least she had her boyfriend, and of course, Harry and Ron had each other, so that left me with…no one. I felt so alone and didn't know what to do about it. My first thought was that I could throw myself further into my studies to take my mind off things, but then I realized that was what I had always done. I needed to do something different, especially after what I had told Ron earlier about people changing over time. I found myself thinking I should get a boyfriend, assuming they would be more supportive than my friends had been.

As I scanned the Great Hall, my eyes fell on Zacharias Smith, and I smiled. Smith was perfect-he was decent-looking, he didn't care too much about school, and Harry and Ron couldn't stand him. Come to think of it, I couldn't stand him either, but I wanted to send a clear message to Ron that I wasn't interested in him, without having to tell him outright. I was too much of a coward and cared for him enough that I couldn't break it to him personally.

"I'll be right back," I told Ginny, who did not give any indication that she had heard me.

I walked over to the Hufflepuff table, noticing as I did so that Ron was staring at me.

I tapped Smith on the shoulder and he turned around, brow furrowing in confusion as soon as he saw me.

"I was just wondering if I could sit here," I said sweetly. Harry was staring at me by this time, too. "I have to talk to you about something," I added.

He looked nonplussed, but managed to say, "Well, there isn't any room, sorry."

"I can't just sit on your lap or something?" I asked, and he laughed. I hadn't meant to be funny.

"You have to talk to me that badly?" He smirked, looking me up and down appraisingly, his gaze lingering a little too long at my chest.

I gritted my teeth. Over at the Slytherin table, Malfoy was watching me closely as well. "Excuse me," I said politely to the girl sitting next to Smith. "Do you think you could get up for a minute, please?"

She stood up most unwillingly, glaring at me as she did so.

I swung myself over the bench and onto Smith's lap. It was not as comfortable as everyone made it seem. "So," I continued casually, as though I sat on a boy's lap every day, "I was wondering if you'd like to go to Hogsmeade with me sometime."

"Well," he said slowly, "I might just have to take you up on that offer, Gra-Hermione."

I smiled at him. "Great!" I said brightly, and then paused. "I'll see you later, I guess."

"Sounds good," he said rather suggestively, and I forced myself not to roll my eyes.

I walked back over to my table and sat down, ignoring the shocked looks on the faces of people in the vicinity.

"What was that all about, Hermione Granger?" Ginny demanded in a whisper.

I shrugged. "Just asking Zacharias Smith if he would go to Hogsmeade with me sometime."

"You…asked out Smith?" Ginny gasped. She narrowed her eyes at me. "Would this have anything to do with my brother, by any chance?"

"Can I tell you later?" I said nervously, afraid we might be overheard.

"Yes, you will tell me later." She turned back to her boyfriend, leaving me alone again.

I looked over at the Hufflepuff table, and Smith winked at me. I resisted the urge to shudder. What on earth had I gotten myself into?

A short while later, I was finished my food, so I told Ginny I was going back to the common room to finish some homework. I had no intention of doing this, however. I was actually planning to go to the Room of Requirement again.

Unfortunately, I had no idea that someone had followed me out of the Great Hall…

I was thinking so hard about what instructions to give the Room (because I didn't want someone to walk in on me again) that I didn't notice the footsteps until I had reached the fifth floor. The person was slightly out of synch with my pace, and their steps sounded rather heavy, so I guessed they were male. Fearing it was Harry, or worse, Ron, coming to demand an explanation for how I had acted at dinner, I carefully drew my wand out of my pocket and continued to walk.

I walked briskly up a moving staircase that would take me to the sixth floor, almost forgetting about the trick step. I was getting panicky, so I gripped my wand tighter and walked a little faster, but I could still hear the footfalls of my pursuer. None of the portraits seemed to think there was anything unusual about all this, so I made sure to give each of them my best glare as I passed by, practically running.

Finally, as I headed up the stairs to the seventh floor, I couldn't take it anymore. I couldn't have the person follow me to my little book haven. I whipped around and pointed my wand at-

"Smith?" I said disbelievingly. I put my wand away regretfully, thinking it would have been nice to hex him into oblivion. "You gave me quite a scare," I said sternly.

He pouted. "Were you hoping it was someone else?"

I really wanted to say yes. "No," I said quickly. "Of course not."

He grinned. "Good," he said, taking a step closer to me, "because that," another step, "makes me very," two more steps, "happy."

The sneaky little git had backed me into the railing so I paused, trying to decide if I should continue up the stairs of go back down. Seeing my indecision, Smith swiftly closed the small gap left between us and crashed his lips down on mine.

Though I hadn't expected to enjoy it, I had to admit to myself that Smith was actually a decent kisser. I reveled in the fact that he was not as good as Viktor Krum had been, however. I relaxed slightly and began to kiss him back, but then he moaned and I remembered who I was with. It didn't matter that he knew how to kiss, he was still an idiot. I couldn't even remember why I had picked him out of the hundreds of eligible students.

I pushed him away from me with some difficulty-he didn't want to budge. Finally, he backed off, looking rather hurt. "Is something wrong?" he asked.

I tried to smile. "No, no," I said airily. "I've just remembered that I've got to get to the library to meet someone."

"Meet someone?" Smith's features took on an angry expression. "Is this someone a guy?"

"Well, we're studying together," I said, a bit too defensive considering I had made up the whole library story.

"Studying?" He made a face. "Never mind, you go ahead. Have fun for me."

"I will," I replied. I began to climb the stairs again, but I had only gone a few more steps when I heard, "Uh, Hermione?"

I held in my sigh and turned to face him. "Yes?"

"Isn't the library on the third floor?" he asked, frowning.

I privately wondered how he even knew where the library was, since I doubted he had ever used it. "Yes, it is, but I'm going this way because it leads to the kitchens," I lied.

"It does?" He raised an eyebrow. "I've always heard that it's on the first floor."

He obviously didn't realize it made more sense for it to be on the first floor, but I wasn't going to tell him that. "Whatever you've heard is a lie, I guess. The kitchens are actually up here-but please don't tell anyone I told you."

He grinned. "Of course I won't. "

"Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to be going." I ran up the stairs without waiting for a reply, laughing quietly to myself. What an idiot Smith was, if he actually thought the food would be transported six floors down to the Great Hall. Magic or not, the idea was ludicrous.

Outside the Room of Requirement, I told the Room I needed a place to do my homework where Ron and Harry couldn't find me.

I pulled open the heavy oak door and walked in, pushing aside the red silk curtain that hung just beyond the doorway. The Room had, for some reason, decided to decorate itself with the Gryffindor colors, red and gold. There was a wall of windows, just as there had been last time, and a single scarlet armchair sat right by this wall. There were fewer bookcases with glass doors but there was a magnificent fireplace with red brick that I had never seen before. Gold accents dotted the walls and shelves, little brass sculptures and golden masks perched on tables and hung from hooks.

I walked over to one of the shelves to discover that my little crystal dragon was back, fully intact. I picked it up gingerly and set it on the table closest to the windows. I smiled at it, then sank into the armchair with a groan. I massaged my shoulder and winced while glaring at my ridiculously heavy bag, which I had carelessly dumped next to my chair.

I reached into the bag and grabbed the first book I found-my Arithmancy textbook. This was a good choice, as Professor Vector had given us a generous amount of work. I slipped my shoes off, curled up in the chair, and began to read…

Sometime later, I woke to find I had dropped the book on the floor and accomplished absolutely nothing, as far as my Arithmancy homework went. I glanced at the clock and gasped. It was 10: 32-if I was caught on my way back to the common room, I would probably receive a detention, not to mention point-docking. I buried my face in my hands. What was I doing, falling asleep in the middle of a book? I had never had this problem before. It finally hit me: Getting up in the middle of the night to get food from the kitchens was the cause of all of this. If I hadn't been in the kitchens that other night, Malfoy wouldn't have caught me-and I wouldn't be acting this way! I told myself I just needed to stop making those trips so late. It wasn't like there was no other time I could go. I could always drop in before breakfast or dinner, although the house elves would be extremely busy then.

I shook my head to clear my thoughts and stood, stretching luxuriously. I carefully returned the dragon to the shelf where I had found it, all the while bracing myself to creep through the darkened hallways to Gryffindor Tower.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" I whispered, levitating my bag. I proceeded to cast a Disillusionment Charm on myself, wishing I had the protection of Harry's Invisibility Cloak. With a Disillusionment Charm, I still ran the risk of being detected.

Luckily, however, my journey back to the common room was fairly uneventful. I did run into Mrs. Norris, but she merely hissed at me, her large eyes following me down the corridor.

I gave the rather grumpy Fat Lady the password, "Canis latrans," climbed quietly through the portrait hole, lifted the Disillusionment Charm, and stopped. Ron was standing, arms crossed, right in front of the stairs to the girls' dormitory.

"Hello, Ron," I said cheerfully, smiling at him. "Late, isn't it? I'm off to bed." He didn't seem to understand my hint. He didn't move, at any rate.

"We need to talk, Hermione," he said seriously.

"Aren't we talking now?" I asked nervously.

"You know what I mean!" he shouted.

"Please, Ron, do you think we could talk about this later?" I pleaded. "I still have work to do! I have enough to worry about without you yelling at me, too, you know." My voice cracked.

He had the grace to look ashamed almost immediately. "I shouldn't have yelled," he said apologetically, "it's just-you've been so…distant lately, and that scares me little, I guess."

"Oh, Ron," I sighed, tears springing to my eyes for some inexplicable reason, "don't worry. You'll always be my best friend."

He stiffened a little at this. "Yeah," he said softly. "Best friends."

He moved away from the stairs, his head hanging, and turned to go up to his own dorm.

"Um, Ron?" I said gently.

"What?" he mumbled, still looking at the floor.

"Can I-can I tell you something?" I asked.

He shrugged.

"Well, you'll probably hear about it soon anyway, and I'd rather you hear it from me." I took a deep breath. "I'm sort of going out with someone."

His head snapped up. "It's Smith, isn't it?" he said bitterly.

I wanted to tell him I didn't even like the guy, but I couldn't, because then he would demand to know why we were going out in the first place, and I wasn't sure I could answer that question very well. "Yeah. So, I was thinking, if I'm seeing someone, maybe you could see someone, too," I said carefully.

"Yeah?" He snorted. "Like who?"

I hadn't exactly gotten that far, but then I had an idea. "Well, how about Lavender?"

"Lavender? Lavender Brown?" Ron said slowly.

"She likes you," I said quickly. "You should ask her to Hogsmeade or something, she'd be thrilled."

He shook his head. "She's not you."

I couldn't help myself-I ran over and hugged him. He patted my head awkwardly. "Um, I think you should go finish your work," he said, unwrapping my arms from his waist.

"Oh, Merlin," I moaned. "Thanks for reminding me."

His eyes flashed. "There you go again," he said through clenched teeth.

"What do you mean?" I asked, looking confused.

"Never mind," he grunted, but then he added, "I can't believe I'm reminding you to do your work."

"Well, who says I forgot about it?" I said hotly. "We were having a nice little conversation, Ron. There was no need to ruin it by reminding me to do my work!"

"Who's to say you wouldn't have forgotten if we had continued to talk about, well, what we were talking about?" Ron said angrily.

"I wouldn't have forgotten. I always do my work! I haven't changed overnight!" I screamed.

"You haven't?" he said quietly. "Because it sure seems that way." He climbed the stairs to his dormitory without looking back.

I stood in the empty common room for a moment, watching the dying embers of the fire, and then I stomped up to my own bed. I pulled my books out and tried not to panic at the thought of what was sure to be my first all-nighter.

CatB: Ugh, I'm sorry there's no Dramione action in this chapter! I really wanted to have some, but there will DEFINITELY be some in the next chapter, I promise. I just needed to...set some things up in this chapter. *coughsmithcough* Soooo...this chapter was longer, too. Hope that's appreciated. I know it's not like really really long, but I tried. I did. I just didn't want it to drag on and on either....

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