A/N: I hope I didn't keep you guys waiting for too long!

I ended with a cliffhanger last time so I shouldn't keep you waiting.

Disclaimer: I'm not earning money for this, so I don't own it.

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"Pro-professor, I didn't know you were out here." I stuttered nervously.

I had just found a piece of parchment on the ground that I was sure Lavender and Parvati had written while I was looking for my wand, or rather, after I had found my wand. And then I read it, got all excited, and seemingly forgot all about the detention I was supposed to be serving.

"Yes, well, I saw Professor McGonagall in the corridor and she asked me to check up on you." Professor Slughorn said. "I'm quite surprised that you're not fulfilling your detention duties."

I gulped again. "You see Professor, I lost my wand, and I went around looking for it." I explained.

"I see, and have you found the wand?" he asked.

"Yes sir," I held it up as proof. As I did, I discreetly stuffed the parchment into my pocket.

"Very good, now, I believe you have some rats and raccoons to look for."

I nodded my head, relieved that he didn't see the parchment or, if he had seen it, chose not to mention it. I walked over to the muggle garden while Professor Slughorn followed. I got down to my knees, took out my wand and muttered "Lumos," and got to work.

"Miss Granger," Professor Slughorn said after a while (he had been told to supervise me).

"Yes professor?" I picked up a rat by the tail and hastily dropped it into the large box beside me.

"I must say that I am a bit surprised about you being in detention. I'm sure you have been asked this numerous times but, what on earth did you do?"

I groaned inward. I have been asked this numerous times. For the past two days conversations have been all 'Whatever did you do?' and 'Hermione Granger in detention for a fight? Say it isn't so!' I learned from experienced that in these kinds of situations it's best to stick to one story and stay as close to the truth as possible.

"I got into a muggle fight with Lavender because we exchanged a few harsh words." Pretty close to the truth, right?

"A fight over harsh words? I've been hearing, and this is just gossip now, that it was over something else, like a boy." Professor Slughorn said.

I shined my wand away from my face so that he couldn't see how red it was. "I wouldn't fight over a boy! We simply got into a disagreement and didn't settle it in a proper manner." Not so truthful this time.

Although "Mhm," was all he said, Professor Slughorn gave me a look that seemed to say 'You can't fool me; I know that you're lying.' Luckily he didn't say any more about it and proceeded on with another topic.

"You're friends with that Weasley fellow aren't you?" the blood rushed to my face as I nodded in reply. "How is he? I feel very embarassed about what happened. I should've done something but-"

"Oh, he's feeling fine. And he doesn't blame you for what happened." I answered quickly. In truth, I may have sugar-coated the truth; Ron was none too pleased with Prfessor Slughorn's lack of action.

"That's fantastic! That's one thing off my conscience." He leaned in and spoke in a low voice "And just between you and I, when I went to the hospital wing one night to check up on the lad, I was still guilty you see, and just as I was leaving I heard him say in his sleep 'Hermy...mione'. What do you think it could mean?"

I glanced at Professor Slughorn and he looked as though he honestly did not know what it meant. I replied with a simple "Dunno" and went back to work witha million questions in my mind. Why did Ron say my name a second time in his sleep? Could that be the reason why he didn't tell Lavender when he'd be going back to classes? But the one question that kept coming back was:

"Does Ron Weasley love me?"

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A/N: Made a few (actually, a lot) of changes when editing it, and this is what came up. Are we getting closer to the ending? Yes.

Stay tuned for the next chapter!