Hi peeps, sorry for the long wait with this one but as I said when I updated Heartfelt Dream I had to get Pleading and Praying out of my system before I could write anything else.

Anyway, I hope you like this one and I hope it was worth the wait :D

Cheers, Step ;)

Chapter 10

Ron opened his eyes and blinked at the bright light that surrounded him. His eyes focused and his brow furrowed as he saw the sink in front of him. He lifted his head off the cistern and groaned.

'Oww!' He exclaimed. 'What the hell?'

'Ron?' Hermione called from the bathroom.

'Yeah? Ah!'

He tried to loosen his neck but winced at the stiffness in the muscles.

'Are you all right?'

'Yeah, just got a stiff neck.'

'Oh, okay. How long are you going to be?'

'What?' Ron asked, confused. He really hadn't woken up properly. He stood up and walked towards the door.

'How long are you going to be in the bathroom. It's just I've slept in a bit and I need to be quick.'

Ron emerged from the bathroom still holding his neck and rubbing it.

'Hermione, I think I…'

'What? You think you what?'

'I…promise not to laugh?'

'Promise not to laugh at what?'

'I think I fell asleep sat on the toilet!'

Hermione's mouth twitched and she pressed her lips together tightly to contain her laughter. She swallowed and took a deep breath.

'Er…you…you fell asleep on the toilet!'

She let out a small squeak which she tried to cover with a cough.

'Yeah…I presume so. I must've…'

He turned around and walked back into the bathroom. Hermione took the chance to try and straighten her face and stop laughing, but the more she thought about Ron sleeping sat on the toilet, the more she wanted to laugh. She had to let out a very un-Hermione-like snort, she would have exploded if she hadn't, and this seemed to sober her up more than anything. She took another deep breath and straightened her face just in time, as Ron stepped through the barrier dividing the bathroom and bedroom carrying the full glass of water.

'Well you managed to fill the glass up at least!' Hermione said with a smile. This was a fatal mistake as the urge to laugh overtook her again.

'Yeah but, I don't just fall asleep! I wouldn't have just fallen asleep, especially sat on the bloody toilet!'

'Ron don't swear. Look we both worked 'til late last night and we were both pretty tired, so it's not surprising if you fell asleep where you sat down. Even if it was on the toilet!'

She could hold her laughter in no longer and it exploded in full volume.

Ron's eyes widened at this and then his brow furrowed in annoyance. He stomped past Hermione and put the glass down on his bedside table. He wrenched the curtains around his bed, undressed and dressed in his school robes ready for lessons. He could still hear Hermione laughing for another minute before the laughter died away. He presumed she had gone into the bathroom.

When he pulled his curtains back a few minutes later Hermione was stood waiting for him, ready to go down to breakfast.

'How did you get ready so quickly?' Ron asked.

'Well I wasn't sat on my bed sulking for one!' she replied with a smile. 'Come on lets go and get something to eat.'

Ron stood up and picked his bag up from the table.

'Oh stop sulking, you'd have laughed your head off if it had been me!'

'I wouldn't!'

Hermione smirked. 'Liar!'

Ron couldn't help but smile. 'Okay, you've laughed at me and called me a liar all before breakfast. That's just mean Hermione! I'm heartbroken!'

'Ah, you'll fix! Come on, I'm hungry and we're late. Harry might start to think we've killed each other.

'Why would he-?' he remembered how he and Hermione had been behaving last time they were with Harry. 'Oh, right, yeah we'd better had.'

They made their way down to breakfast and sat themselves down opposite Harry. He looked up at them with a concerned expression on his face.

'Morning,' he said cautiously.

'Morning Harry,' Hermione replied brightly.

'How are you mate? Sleep okay?' Ron asked as cheerfully as Hermione had.

'Er…yeah…fine…you?'

Hermione sniggered quietly but quickly suppressed it after a sharp look from Ron.

'You can stop that!' Ron said sternly but with a smirk on his face. 'I slept fine.'

'Er…I hate to bring this up, but I have to ask… Are you two…okay now? Friends I mean?'

Ron and Hermione looked at each other with raised eyebrows.

'Well, he still annoys me by swearing-'

'She still lectures me for not doing my homework-'

'And he still tries to put me off doing mine so he doesn't feel guilty-'

'She still harps on about House Elves-'

'And he still calls my organisation spew-'

'But apart from that, yeah!'

'We're friends again!'

Harry had stopped dead still and was staring at his two friends. As the two of them had been talking they had – subconsciously it seemed – been preparing the other's breakfast for them.

Hermione had taken six slices of bacon from the tray and made a sandwich smothered in brown sauce for Ron, placed it on a plate, cut it in the way he liked it and pushed it in front of him. At the same time Ron had picked Hermione's favourite cereal from the variety in front of him, poured it into a bowl and smothered it with the right amount of milk for her, before taking two slices of toast and buttering them. He then pushed both plate and bowl in front of Hermione.

'Harry, why are you staring at us?' Hermione asked.

'Did…er…did…'

'Er…Harry, why are you stammering?' Ron asked.

Harry seemed to find his voice. 'Do you two not realise what you just did?'

Ron and Hermione looked at each other in a confused way before looking back at Harry.

'What did we do?' Ron asked.

'You er…you just prepared each other's breakfasts!'

The two opposite him again looked at each other.

'What? No we-' Ron looked down at his plate and his brow furrowed. He had no recollection of making himself a bacon sandwich.

He looked at Hermione who had had the same thoughts about her cereal and toast.

'I…' she began before stopping.

'Did we…?' Ron asked. 'Did we?'

'Apparently!' Hermione replied quietly.

Harry shook his head before biting into his toast.

'Weird,' Ron said before picking up half of his sandwich.

'Very,' Hermione added.

The morning's lesson passed without incident and Harry was very relieved to see both Ron and Hermione happy and not arguing, no more than was perfectly normal anyway. In fact he thought they were getting on better than they had in a long time. He didn't mind though, he was just glad they were back to normal. It had been a while.

The mood was dampened slightly when Lavender appeared in full force at break time. Harry, Ron and Hermione came through the portrait hole and walked towards their normal sitting area in the common room. Ron flopped down onto a large squashy chair and Harry sat down on the floor. Hermione perched herself on the arm of another large chair and put her bag on the floor.

Suddenly she burst out laughing. Ron and Harry both looked at her with puzzled and slightly concerned looks on their faces.

'What?' Ron asked Hermione.

She tried to suppress her giggles. 'Nothing, nothing!'

'Hermione you're blatantly lying. Now be a good little Gryffindor and tell us what's making you laugh!' Ron replied.

His condescending remark stop Hermione laughing. 'Well, if you must know,' she started, with a twinkle in her eye. 'I was reliving the moment you told me that you'd fallen asleep on the toilet and spent most of the night sat there!'

Ron's face fell, but Harry roared with laughter, scaring a couple of first years sat close to them.

'You f…fell as…sleep on the toilet?' Harry stammered through his laughter.

Ron glared at Hermione and saw that the biggest grin had appeared on her face. As much as he tried to look offended he couldn't, and he chuckled along with Harry.

'Yes, I did. And you're gonna pay for that!' He said to Hermione.

'Oh am I? And what are you gonna do-oo-ooo!'

During the last word of her sentence Ron had grabbed both of her ankles and tipped them upwards so she fell backwards into the armchair, her arms flying in every direction to try and steady her balance. She landed and turned red with embarrassment.

'Oh you are gonna pay for that!' she shrieked.

She grabbed a not too heavy book off the table and threw it at him. He laughed as he easily dodged it – her aim was never the best – then picked up some balled up parchment off the same table and pelted her with it.

'Stop it, that's mean! You know I can't throw to save my life!'

'Won Wo-!'

Hermione and Ron stopped still at Lavender's sudden arrival.

'What's going on?' the longhaired witch demanded.

'Nothing!' Ron answered far too quickly.

Hermione quickly righted herself on the chair and started talking loudly to Harry in hope that their conversation would drown out Ron and Lavender's. Ron watched with slight regret that he couldn't carry on talking to his best friends, but quickly brought his attention back to his girlfriend.

'So Lavender…I haven't seen you for a while. You weren't at breakfast…were you?'

She twirled round and before Ron knew it she was sat in his lap, her arms wrapped around his neck.

'No, I wasn't, Parvati was upset and I didn't want to leave her on her own, so I talked to her until we had to go to lessons.'

'Oh, right. Well, that was good of you.'

'Well, that's what friends do!'

Ron looked over and Harry and Hermione.

'Yeah it is. Look Lavender, I'm…gonna have to go in a minute, Hermione…er…left a…book in our room and she has to get it before her next lesson.'

Lavender turned pink with anger. 'But I haven't seen you all day!' she shrieked.

Ron smiled. 'But it's only quarter to eleven, there's still plenty of the day left!'

'Yes, I suppose there is.'

'Well I'd better be off.'

He tried to shuffle forwards in his seat but couldn't under the extra weight Lavender was adding to his lap. Before he knew what was happening she had thrown herself towards him and started to kiss him. At first his brain was overwhelmed but after a few seconds he remembered Hermione was sat only a few feet from him and he'd promised to not rub his and Lavender's 'relationship' in her face. He pulled away and she looked slightly put out by the fact Ron had ended the kiss.

He mustered his strength and stood up holding Lavender in his arms and then set her down on her feet.

'See you later Lavender.'

'Wait! I don't even know where your room is?'

'Ah…well you see…' Ron thought about how he could best phrase this so to not cause an upheaval. 'The thing is…only me and Hermione are allowed in there cause it's in the staff wing of the castle and McGonagal doesn't want anyone else knowing how to get in there.'

Lavender looked like she was going to protest so Ron cut her off.

'You can ask McGonagal if you want! She'll tell you the same thing!'

Lavender seemed satisfied that Ron was telling the truth.

'Fine.'

Ron didn't think she was going to move until she saw Ron leave the room. He just and hoped Hermione would play along with what he was about to do.

'Er…Hermione?'

Hermione looked up from Harry who was still sat on the floor.

'Yes,' she replied coolly.

'Er…we'd better go and get that book you've forgotten, we don't want to be late for your next lesson and it'll take a while to get.'

Hermione's brow furrowed as she looked at Ron. She had no idea what he was talking about. Ron's eyes widened slightly as if trying to send her a secret message. She looked at him and saw him tilt his head a fraction towards Lavender, and then a fraction backwards towards the portrait hole.

'The…book I've forgotten?' she asked slowly.

She saw Ron's ears turn red and she knew he was panicking about something.

Ron was staring at Hermione. Why couldn't she have learned Occlumency? He thought desperately. He was willing her to give it a try right now, but he knew that was ridiculous.

'Yeah…the book for Ancient Runes, your next lesson!' He tried to make it seem like Hermione was being thick by talking in a patronising tone. Unfortunately this was not the way to get Hermione to try and play along with something she knew nothing about.

As she looked at him continue to panic, she thought she had a vague idea of what he was trying to do. A sly smile spread across her face.

'Ron my next lesson is Arithmancy, not Ancient Runes and I have all my books here!'

Ron really started to panic, but then he noticed the smirk on Hermione's face had broadened into a smile. He realised she was being facetious and was trying to make trouble for him. He stole a quick glance at Lavender and she was looking thoroughly confused, he knew it was only a matter of time before she realised he had lied to her.

Ah well, he thought, desperate times call for desperate measures.

He turned, picked up his bag and walked towards the portrait hole.

'Well that's not what you said before we came in here!' he called over his shoulder. 'So either you're lying to me or you're lying to yourself! Now come on, we haven't got much time.'

He had reached the portrait hole and had pushed the portrait forward. He looked back expectantly at Hermione who had half stood up.

As she watched Ron's retreating form she inwardly smirked, unless he physically moved her out of the room, he couldn't go anywhere without both of them ending up in the hospital wing again. Her invisible smirk disappeared, however, when she realised this probably wouldn't bother Ron in the slightest if he was this desperate to escape Lavender. Hang on, she thought, why is he trying to escape from Lavender? Surely things can't be bad in snogging experience paradise?

She pondered her situation for a minute. She really didn't want to end up in the hospital wing, mainly because she didn't want to miss anymore lessons, she had missed enough recently as it was, and as she had already contemplated, she wouldn't put it past Ron to make sure that happened. She resigned herself to the fact that she would have to follow Ron, but she was not happy about it!

She picked up her bag and glared at Ron whilst walking through the common room to the portrait hole. She followed him out of it and then followed him as he started to walk down the corridor. She really had no idea where they were going, she really did have all her books for her next lesson, so their destination was a mystery.

'Er…thanks for coming out. I er…I just wanted to be away from…you know…Lavender.'

Hermione looked to her right and knew the solid wall they were walking past was in fact a door leading to another, normally deserted corridor. She shoved Ron towards it and opened it with a flick of her wand.

'What the-?' Ron exclaimed as he was again shoved towards the now open door.

Hermione shut the door behind them.

'Hermione what-?

'Don't you ever use me as an excuse to rid yourself of your girlfriend again! Do you own dirty work, Ron! Don't get your friends to do it for you!'

Ron held up his hands in surrender. 'Okay, okay I won't do it again! I promise! I just…'

'You just what?' Hermione demanded.

'I just…didn't want to make a scene or upset anyone. What I really wanted to do was to talk to you and Harry but I knew she wouldn't leave me alone as long as I was in there.'

He looked at the floor and appeared slightly embarrassed at what he had just said.

Hermione calmed down a bit.

'If you want to break up with the girl just do it!'

'Who said I wanted to break up with her?' Ron said defensively.

'Well, no one, but you certainly don't give the impression of wanting to spend time with her, if you did we wouldn't be stood here would we?'

Ron sighed and didn't reply.

'Look Ron, I don't want to fight again, especially not over her. Let's just…get to my lesson. I presume that's where we're going.'

'Yeah, there's nowhere else to go I suppose.'

Hermione opened the door and walked out, careful to hold the door open in case it shut before Ron walked out of the corridor.

They started walking along the original corridor in silence, both looking a bit sulky.

'I'm sorry I used you like that. I won't do it again. I didn't think of it like that, and I didn't want you to see us…you know.'

'It's fine…and…thanks…for the consideration. Just let me know next time and I'll try and help, but you could just do the decent thing and-'

'I know, I know. Just…let me gather up the courage first. It could take a while!'

Hermione giggled. 'Well, you could always tell her you sleep on toilets, that may help!'

Ron laughed. 'You're not gonna let me forget that, are you?'

'Oh no! Not for a long time!'