Well, I'm sorry for the long delay people, but interviews for a full time job and starting my first full time job have taken up most of my attentions. I'm sure you'll understand, but things will be slower fom now on, this working lark isn't easy you know! lol

Hope you like this one, now things can get really interesting! (laughs at evil plan already formulated!)

Let me know what you think, cheers

Step ;)

Chapter 12

Hermione opened her eyes and rolled over. Her and Ron were still in the hospital wing. They hadn't tried to breach the subject of being let out of there yet, they thought they'd wait until Ron had had some sleep before trying that one.

She rolled over and watched Ron fidget. She presumed he was awake – she was after all – but she liked the fact that he had his eyes shut; she could look at him without him seeing.

Wait, she thought, where did that come from?

She shook her head a little but didn't take her eyes off Ron. He turned his head a fraction towards her and his fringe fell haphazardly into his eyes. She sat and watched him, wishing that he could fall asleep without her having to do the same. She wanted to see him drift into that blissful place that let him be whatever he wanted to be, and do whatever he wanted to do.

She had only ever watched him sleep once, properly anyway. It was on one of the nights Harry had had a detention with that Umbridge woman the year previous. He had fallen asleep in a chair in a common room and she had caught herself watching him dream, muttering the odd word and smiling at something that his mind was making up. She didn't know how long she watched him for, but it was longer than she liked to acknowledge, she should have been doing her homework.

She sighed knowing she wasn't going to be able watch Ron sleep for a while at the very least. She closed her eyes and curled up into a more comfortable position.

Ron opened his eyes and instantly focused on Hermione's face. He knew she was awake and had been for the past ten minutes, he had, so she had. He was slightly saddened that she was awake, he liked to watch her sleep, he didn't know why, he just did. He loved the fact that she always looked like she was concentrating hard on something, even in her dreams. Even when she was asleep she was working! Amazing really.

He had watched her sleep the previous summer. They had been working hard all day trying to decontaminate Grimmauld Place and she had fallen asleep across the kitchen table. She had gone in to make the two of them some coffee and hadn't come out. Ron had walked in and had smiled at the sight before him. Her brow was furrowed even though she was asleep. He was concerned that Hermione looked worried even in her dreams, but the next moment she had muttered something about her schoolwork and it had been all he could do not to burst out laughing at Hermione dreaming of her lessons. He wasn't surprised though, this was Hermione Granger, the hardest working person he knew.

His head gave a painful throb and he rolled onto his back. He jumped and opened his eyes when someone started hammering on the hospital wing doors.

'What the hell?' he said as he tried to sit up, the pain in his head stopping him from doing fully.

'Ron don't get up.' Hermione said as she sat up.

Madam Pomfrey bustled out of her office and opened the double doors a few inches to see who was disturbing the peace of her hospital wing.

'Can I help you Miss…'

'Brown, Lavender Brown.'

Ron swore into his quilt and Hermione laid back down on her bed, sighing in frustration.

'Hermione!' Ron whispered.

'What?' she whispered back.

'Pretend to be asleep!' he said still whispering, his eyes stayed jammed shut.

'Oh for-' Hermione started.

'Please Hermione. I really don't want to talk to her. My head's killing me and I think I'm starting to feel a bit sick.'

Hermione knew Ron was lying about feeling sick.

Wait, she thought, how do I know he's lying? Why can I feel that he's lying to me? Why can I feel a shade of guilt that isn't mine?

She didn't have time to contemplate her own questions; Lavender was managing to persuade Madam Pomfrey to let her see Ron for a few minutes.

'Fine!' she whispered back to Ron.

'Well, it looks like they're both asleep,' Madam Pomfrey said to Lavender. 'I don't want them waking up but you can stay with him for a few minutes if you want. Just please don't wake them.'

'I won't Madam Pomfrey, I promise,' Lavender replied.

She made her way through the wing and over to Ron's bed. She pulled the chair as close to his bed as possible without crushing herself between it and the bed and leaned forwards, resting her elbows on the mattress.

'Ron, I know you can't here me, but I'm going to talk anyway.'

Hermione felt a giggle start to form and tried her hardest to suppress its growth. She wasn't sure why she was finding this funny, but she was. Lavender continued her heartfelt talk.

'I'm quite annoyed that I wasn't told about your injury again! People seem to be forgetting that I'm your girlfriend and I deserve to know. Especially now that…Ron, I…I think I love you, Ron!'

Oh please! Hermione thought, the urge to giggle grew a bit more.

Ron was trying not to shout out loud at her declaration and he hoped that she wouldn't see him turning red. For some reason he also felt the need to laugh, something that he really couldn't do.

'I don't think I've ever felt like this before about anyone,' Lavender continued.

Ron's urge to laugh increased and he had no idea why. Laughing would mean having to talk to Lavender, and having to explain his actions. He started to get angry with himself.

Lavender stopped talking and stared at Ron, tears filled her eyes. They escaped and rolled slowly down her cheeks. Suddenly she threw herself on Ron and hugged him. It was all Ron could do to not open his eyes in shock or pain. Lavender landing on him had caused his head to jerk and throb painfully.

Hermione heard Lavender's sob which accompanied her movement. Not being able to curb her curiosity she slowly rolled onto her side and opened her eyes a fraction. A flame of jealousy flickered inside her head but she couldn't take her eyes off her. Get off him! She thought desperately, she was surprised she hadn't snarled it out loud. As much as she hated seeing Lavender sprawled all over Ron she couldn't tear her eyes away.

The jealousy inside her grew as she watched Lavender squeeze Ron's hand and stroke his arm. Before she did something very un-Hermione like she shut her eyes and slowly rolled onto her other side, so she could no longer see Ron using Lavender as an interactive blanket.

To his credit Ron was trying extremely hard to ignore Lavender's affections. The pain in his head had gone, but now he was trying not to giggle at the tickling sensation moving up and down his arm. As he was lying in the darkened room he started, for the second time in the last five minutes, feeling emotions that he couldn't believe were his. He got a squirming feeling in his stomach and it unsettled him. He tried to pin down what he was feeling, he had felt it before but he couldn't remember when. He couldn't feel Lavender trace the veins on his arm anymore; he was too deep in thought.

He had a vision in his head but it was a vague one, there were a lot of people around him, but he wasn't paying them any attention. Without realising it he screwed up his eyes in concentration, (luckily Lavender didn't notice) and tried his hardest to remember why he had felt…strange.

The squirming in his stomach got worse, and that's when the memory came to him in full force. He was sat at the Breakfast table and was looking at Hermione, she had just told Parvati that she was taking McGlaggen to Slughorn's Christmas party. It was then that he felt the same squirming as he was now. It was jealousy. But why was he feeling jealousy now?

'Miss Brown, I'm afraid it is time for you to leave, you have to be in your common room in five minutes,' Madam Pomfrey said quietly, tapping Lavender on the shoulder gently.

With a melodramatic sigh Lavender lifted herself off Ron and took one last look at him. She closed her eyes and leant forward towards Ron.

'Now Miss Brown!' Madam Pomfrey said sternly, gripping Lavender just above the elbow and stopping her leaning any nearer Ron.

Lavender sighed indignantly and stormed out of the hospital wing.

Madam Pomfrey watched her leave and then turned back to face Ron and Hermione.

'Your potion is on the bedside cabinet Mister Weasley for when you decide to stop pretending to be asleep. At least Miss Granger opened her eyes whilst Miss Brown was in the room!'

She turned away from Ron and walked back to her office. 'Although I understand why she shut them again!' she muttered to herself.

When Ron thought he had waited long enough for Madam Pomfrey to disappear he opened his eyes and rolled over towards Hermione.

'So you opened your eyes then? You do realise she could have seen you?'

Hermione rolled over to face Ron so he would get the full force of her glare.

'Believe me Ron, there was no chance of her seeing me, she only had eyes for you!' she hissed.

Ron watched as Hermione rolled over and it was then he felt that strong surge of jealousy course through him again. His brow furrowed as he tried to think about why he was feeling jealous of all things.

As he watched Hermione shuffle under her quilt everything fell into place. It wasn't him that had been feeling jealous, it was Hermione!

'It was you that was dying to burst into laughter!' he exclaimed before thinking any more.

Hermione rolled back to face Ron.

'What?' she asked.

'Before, when Lavender was…in here, you wanted to laugh!'

'I know I did, she was saying the funniest things in the world…but, how do you know I wanted to laugh?'

Her brow furrowed and she looked at Ron, confused.

'I felt it!'

Hermione's eyes widened. 'What do you mean you felt it!' she asked in a very confused tone, but then her expression turned to horror.

'Did you feel what I was feeling?' she screeched, sitting up as she did so.

'Yes!' Ron replied at the same volume.

'There's no need to shout!' she replied in a quieter tone.

Ron ignored Hermione's comment even though it caused him physical pain to not try and correct her. 'Do you think this is because of our connection?'

'Well there's hardly any other explanation is there!' she again screeched.

'Hermione calm down! Why are you getting so wound up?'

A small smirk appeared on his face, he knew that Hermione had realised he had more than likely felt her jealousy towards Lavender.

'Did you er…' Hermione started, trying not to let her concern show through her words. 'Did you er…feel anything else?'

Her tone was innocent but Ron saw right through it.

'No, no,' he answered lightly, but the smirk on his face showed he was lying.

Hermione blushed deeply.

'Well this is bloody perfect isn't it?' she snarled.

Ron was shocked to hear Hermione swear.

'Language Hermione!' he said with a grin on his face.

'You can wipe that smile off your face too. You do realise what this means, don't you?'

Ron stopped smiling and started to think about the situation. His brow furrowed in concentration.

Hermione smirked. 'Didn't think so!'

'Alright Miss Know-It-All, what does it mean?'

The smirk fell off Hermione's face and she reddened with anger.

'It means, Ronald, that we won't have any privacy, AT ALL! Anything you feel I'll feel, and vice versa! Merlin, my own feelings aren't even my own anymore!'

She had thrown herself back on her bad and started pummelling the mattress with her clenched fists.

'Merlin Hermione, calm down! It's not that bad!' Ron said, startled at her reaction.

'Yes it is!' she snapped back at him.

'No it's not,' he sat up in his bed so he could see her better, only wincing ever-so-slightly at the pain in his head. 'Look, the way I see it…we know that much about each other anyway, that knowing each other's feelings won't be too much of a big thing!'

'Ron do you tell me everything?' she demanded.

'What?'

'You heard me!'

'Well, no I suppose I don't tell you everything!'

'Exactly, and you have your reasons for that, and I have my reasons for not telling you things too. Well us having the choice of what we tell each other is about to disappear. I know, we aren't actually reading each other's minds or seeing each other's memories but its still an invasion of privacy!'

Ron fell silent, he hadn't thought about it like that.

'Look Hermione, there's nothing we can do about it. It's just something else we have to get used to.'

She sighed and closed her eyes.

This is not good, she thought.

'Hermione, it might not be as bad as we think. I mean, I can feel you're angry at the minute, but I'm guessing that's because you're really angry, so I'm guessing that we can only feel each other's emotions when they're really strong, so it won't be all the time.'

Hermione smirked. 'The thing is Ron, normally our strongest emotions are the ones we want to hide.'