Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or his world. I just play with them sometimes, but I always put them back where I found them.
A/N: Wow, this took a long time to get out, over a month, but I'm really happy with the way the confrontations with Ron and Lavender & Parvati go. I hope you are too, and I hope I didn't lose too many readers in the interim!
Like I said before, your best bet is to sign up for Story Alerts, so you can be sure to get my updates! Enjoy!
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It wasn't a pleasant feeling for Hermione as she watched Harry cross the common room toward the boys' dormitories, but it wasn't an entirely bad feeling, either. It was a bit lonely that only she and Harry would be able to know about their happiness. It somehow dampened the excitement of a new relationship to not be able to share it with anyone, but at the same time, a secret thrill was already growing in her at the prospect of a cloak and dagger affair.
"Harry?" She had just remembered Ron.
He turned on the spot midway through the rectangle of morning sun shining through a window. The light glittered across his glasses as it reflected off the snow outside, and Hermione caught her breath as he responded. "Yes?"
"What are we going to tell Ron?"
He grimaced, running a hand through his hair again. His headache was beginning to surface again and he'd forgotten that he still had to face Ron. "I'm not sure," he said at last. He moved a few steps back toward Hermione, reaching out to take her hands in his own. "I'll talk to him, but—well, that's what we were talking about in class yesterday when he jinxed me. He's worried that we're abandoning him. So, I'm not sure how well he'll react. But, for now…let's just say that we should be especially careful around him, alright?"
"Yes, alright." She had been suspecting since the previous afternoon the contents of Harry's and Ron's heated discussion, but the confirmation unnerved her. She knew that Ron had had a crush on her sometime in their third year, but he seemed to have quickly gotten over that, and she hoped he wasn't hurt by she and Harry. She didn't want to be the cause of another rift in their friendship like the Tri-Wizard Tournament had two years before. Ron had a way about him of assuming people were out to get him, and if he discovered that they were together before Harry had a chance to tell him—Hermione shuddered at the thought. "Well, we'd better get to bed. You've got some explaining to do."
"I suppose." Harry pulled her into a hug, and despite their embraces of the night before, there was a certain air of awkwardness between them, as Hermione wondered whether or not it would be appropriate to kiss him. She deferred the decision to Harry, pulling away from the hug slightly, but not stepping back. He sighed in frustration.
"What's wrong?"
"I was just thinking," he replied with a smirk, "that this'll be the last one of the day."
She grinned broadly. "Better make it a good one."
He did.
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"Hello there!"
"Where have you been all night?"
Hermione suppressed a groan as Lavender and Parvati greeted her from where they sat on Lavender's bed in their pajamas brushing each other's hair. But as she remembered where she had been all night, a slow grin crept across her face as she leapt for joy inside her head with Lockhart, thinking about she and Harry in the library…she and Harry on the sofa…she and Harry just then downstairs. She knew it wasn't subtle, but she couldn't help the giddiness sweeping over her as she stood leaning against the close door of the girls' dormitory.
The two other girls screamed in delight, and Hermione heard Lavender shriek, "You were right, Parvati!"
This brought her swiftly back down to earth as her reasonable side kicked in, Professor McGonagall demanding that she discover their suspicions. "What do you mean?"
"Weren't you with Harry all night?" As soon as the question was out of Parvati's mouth, the two silly girls fell into bouts of laughter, and Hermione kicked herself for not having straightened out her story with Harry.
"Er—no," she answered, but even to her, it was a pitiful attempt at a lie.
"Oh no?" Lavender squealed. "Then why was Ron alone in the common room all night?"
Not all night, she thought impishly. "I haven't the faintest."
"What are you so damn happy about, then, Granger?"
"Well if you must know," Hermione began, letting the grin steal across her face again as she reminisced briefly about the night before, and enjoying immensely the baited looks on her roommates' faces, "I spent all night doing my Arithmancy homework, and I'm almost sure I've gotten full marks on it!" Hermione nearly laughed aloud at the stupefied looks she received from the dumbfounded Lavender and Parvati. This really could be quite a bit of fun. She clapped her hands delightedly and fluttered to her bed. "Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to get just a bit of rest before class."
"But—you can't—but— Really, that's all? I mean—Hermione!" They spluttered indignantly for some time at her story, but in the end agreed with a knowing look between them that it was exactly the kind of thing to excite Hermione Granger. Rolling over so that they could not see her, Hermione grinned excitedly, glad that she'd been able to play her part so convincingly.
Hermione dozed off into a comfortable sleep, enjoying the comfort of her four poster bed more than she ever had before. She could not keep the grin from her face. Even in sleep, all she could think about was Harry. Harry and his amazing hidden muscles, his lips, his breath, his pungent spicy smell, oh and the breathy words he'd whispered into her lips between kisses.
"I suppose we should have known," Parvati muttered sulkily as they made their way down the stairs, though Hermione could hear their conversation echoing up the stone stairwell. "I mean, really, Harry Potter and…Granger?"
"Yes," Lavender agreed readily. "What's she got that could possibly attract him?"
"Nothing, that's what."
Her mood slightly dampened, Hermione rolled over onto her back, snuggling deep into her comforter and trying to ignore what the other girls had said about her. What was the point, she wondered, of having a secret boyfriend if you couldn't tell anyone about him?
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After leaving Hermione in the common room, Harry paused a moment outside the broad oak door between himself and the sixth year boys' dormitory. Although he knew Ron would be asleep—it could hardly be past seven in the morning—he was incredibly nervous, and after Ron's explosion of the day before, suspected his message would not be received very well. But perhaps, he thought, Ron had been upset in thinking they weren't telling him, and now that Harry was coming clean, he would be thrilled? Knowing his friend as he did, Harry doubted that would be the case. In either outcome though, he'd be able to spend an extra hour or so in bed; he wasn't feeling very hungry.
With a deep breath, as though preparing to jump in with the sharks, Harry gently pushed open the heavy door, wincing when it creaked loudly. As his eyes adjusted to the relative darkness, he was able to make out the form of Ron, not tucked under his covers, or even splayed out across the mattress as was usually the case in the morning, but rather slumped against the headboard of his bed, as though he had fallen asleep waiting for Harry to return.
This was a very bad sign.
As much as he would have liked to have waited until the others woke up, Harry wasn't quite sure that their presence would lessen Ron's reaction, and this wasn't a discussion he wanted to have publicly. As quietly as he could manage, Harry crept to his wardrobe and changed clothes, wondering if he should go bathe before waking Ron. However, he had to admit even to himself that that was a cowardly excuse to not have to face his best friend's rather famous rage. In an attempt to calm himself down, Harry stopped to ask himself why Ron would possibly be angry with him. After all, it wasn't as though he—Ron—knew anything for sure; how could he? Harry and Hermione had only discovered it themselves the night before, and there was no way Ron could have—
But Harry suddenly remembered the slamming of the door that had pulled him out of his Hermione-induced state of nirvana, and the taste of bile suddenly rose to his mouth. If Ron had heard them…come down to see what they were doing…and seen them wrapped up in one another… Harry cursed under his breath and glanced over to Ron's bed to find Ron staring at him, malice plain upon his face.
"Morning." He'd tried to sound bracingly cheerful, but the tremble in Harry's voice gave him away at once.
"Had a good night, did you?" Though his words were civil enough, the tone was clipped and indifferent. So he had seen them, Harry thought with a sinking stomach. When he could not think of anything to say, Ron continued angrily, "I suppose you'd best get dressed. Hermione'll be sure to be waiting for you, won't she? A little lovers' breakfast?"
Ron's voice was getting louder, and Harry was concerned it might wake the other boys. It would be just his luck for Ron to wake them and have all of Gryffindor knowing about he and Hermione by lunch. Knowing it would anger Ron, knowing that it would probably make things worse, and knowing most importantly, that it might protect Hermione, Harry raised a finger to his lips and whispered, "Careful, you'll wake the others."
"'Careful, you'll wake the others,'" Ron mocked petulantly, but he still lowered his voice by a smidge. "Don't you want everyone to know about your happy news? Or is this a game of keeping everyone in the dark, not just stupid, lonely, little Weasleys? But I suppose that's all part of the fun, isn't it? Have some intrigue to keep fanning the flames?" Despite his best efforts to shush his hot-tempered friend, Ron's voice was once again growing louder with each bitingly sarcastic query.
"Ron, please," Harry whispered desperately. "I'm sorry you found out the way you did, but just come downstairs with me, and I'll explain it all."
"I don't think I care to know all the gory details, thanks." The hurt in Ron's eyes was unmistakable, but Harry knew that there was no way he could acknowledge that hurt without making the situation much, much worse for himself.
"It wasn't—we didn't—" Harry couldn't think of a detailed enough summation to get Ron downstairs before he exploded into the wave of rage that Harry could see bubbling beneath the surface. "We weren't meaning to. It's so new! It just—it just happened last night, I swear!"
"Do you really think I'm that thick?" Ron stood from his bed now, his pajamas dangling several inches above his ankles and his fists clenched at his bare hips. When midriff began appearing between the top and bottom of his pajamas that fall, Ron had stopped wearing his nightshirt after several rounds of verbal lashings from Harry, Seamus, and Dean. Only kind little Neville had stepped out of the taunting, and now Harry wished that he had joined him on the sidelines, so as to give Ron one less reason to be upset with him. "Just last night? Anyone can see it's been longer than that. Harry, I asked you about it earlier this week! I asked you, and you lied to my face, and I never even suspected, it never occurred to me that you'd— How long has it been going on, really?"
"I'm not lying to you Ron." Harry was desperate to make Ron understand, and especially to get him to shut up before anyone could overhear their conversation. "Two nights ago, Hermione was upset, and we talked in the common room after you'd gone to bed—Just listen!" Harry held up a hand to Ron, who looked ready to burst. "And I—well, I kissed her after she'd fallen asleep, only well, not. Look, that's the only part I didn't tell you about, and that's just because I felt so damn stupid for doing it. And then last night I was going to tell you, but then Hermione needed to go to the library, so we went with my cloak, and—and while we were there I—" Harry paused, not sure whether Hermione would want him to share this part of their nocturnal adventures. "—I found out that she'd been awake when I kissed her, so to make up for a stolen first kiss, well, I—I tried again. And it just sort of…took off from there," he finished lamely.
For several seconds, neither of them said anything, and Harry didn't have the nerve to look up and see Ron's reaction to his story. After a full tense minute, he finally got up the nerve to look at Ron, only a few feet away now, and saw the crushed look on his best friend's face. But when he saw Harry looking at him with a glimmer of pity, Ron quickly became enraged once again.
"I don't believe you." He hissed it through his teeth, too angry and hurt to even consider Harry's explanation.
"What?" Now Harry was getting mad. His headache was back with a vengeance, and he had wanted to get another potion from Madam Pomfrey before breakfast, not stand here taking abuse from Ron. Why was he the one with the stupid best friend who would never listen to reason? "Why would I be lying to you about this?"
"Oh, I don't know," Ron snapped, "maybe so that you could keep me in the dark, hoping I wouldn't notice that you two never talk to me anymore, or that you're always lost on each others' eyes, or whatever disgusting things you two do when I'm not around."
"We don't get lost in each others' eyes!" Harry burst out angrily. Immediately, he clapped a hand over his mouth, realizing he had been far too loud. Neville rolled over in his sleep, grunting softly, and Harry held his breath, waiting to find out if he would wake up.
Though he half expected Ron to jump on Neville's bed as though it were Christmas, yelling, "Wake up Neville, Harry's got good news!", Ron seemed to understand that Harry didn't want this news shared. Then again, maybe he was just waiting until everyone was awake before he said anything to them, but Harry didn't want to think about it. He watched Neville's still-sleeping form with baited breath, willing him to settle back into sleep. When Neville's snoring took up its usual rhythm, and Harry was confident that Neville would not awake, he turned back to his fuming friend.
"Please, Ron, I—I'm—I'm scared for her." He held his hands out entreatingly to Ron, who rolled his eyes infuriatingly. "We've decided not to tell anyone but you, because I'm afraid something bad might happen to her."
Ron snorted derisively, sneering down at Harry, who couldn't understand why Ron was being so difficult about this whole situation. He should be happy for them, not feeling resentful and abandoned.
"We wanted you to know," Harry repeated, begging with his voice for Ron to accept them. "We weren't trying to keep you in the dark, I swear. In fact, we decided to tell you, and no one else, because we trust you, and we know you'll do whatever you can to help keep her safe."
"Listen to you." Ron was nearly choking on his bitterness now, and feeling humiliatingly close to the verge of tears. "Just listen to yourself. It's already 'we want you to know,' 'we trust you, Ron.' I'm already not a part of it anymore. Soon it'll just be 'us, and Ron,'" he spat out harshly, making his own name sound like an afterthought.
"No, Ron, we just—"
But Ron strode toward him, arm pulled back.
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A/N: Okay, this isn't where I wanted to end the chapter, but I figured that six weeks is way too long to keep ya'll waiting. I've got a couple pages already done on the next chapter, and I'll have some spare time this week, so I'll do my best to get the next chapter up ASAP.
A poll for my readers: Do you have a preference for longer chapters (5,000+ words) that take a month or two to get up, or more frequent, shorter chapters with only a couple of week in between?
Thanks to all my reviewers from the last chapter, and to everyone who didn't review but still sat patiently waiting for the update email!
The winner of my favorite review line from Chapter 9 came from gravacor, who said: "I can just imagine how hard it will be for them to hide their new found relationship. The funny thing is, they are already close, some touching will be unnoticeable, however, it is easy to go too far. Lol, I guess pinching her butt might give the wrong idea."
Rock on, keep reading, and as always, review!
cj596
