AN: Hey! Sorry for the delay. I took a couple of days of as my Beta was out f town, and that was god because I got some new ideas for this story which will happen pretty soon. But until then I hope you enjoy this one.
Chapter 14: First Night and Day Back!
Hermione lay in her bed in the most uncomfortable position so she wouldn't fall asleep. She could only guess the time because her drapes were drawn around her bed. She guessed it was about 12 am; Lavender and Parvati had just stopped to catch up on all that was worth gossiping over the summer and had just fallen asleep. Sometimes Hermione really hated being roommate with those two. She was so sick of hearing every boy they had ever fancied which was almost every boy from fourth year and up (she had almost jumped on Lavender when she told Parvati that she fancied Ron in fifth year). She really hoped she would be Head Girl next year because she knew they had their own room and she would never have to listen to Lavender's and Parvati's dorm talk ever again.
When she and Ron got back to the common room earlier this evening, they found Harry and Ginny. Ginny had apparently gotten over her anger about not being allowed to stay when McGonagall wanted to talk to her, Ron and Harry. Ginny had looked at Hermione and smiled at her when they climbed in through the portrait hole. It felt like she knew exactly what she and Ron had done, (well not exactly) but she knew that they hadn't been at McGonagall's office the whole time.
"Wow, what did McGonagall do to you? As your tie is a little loose Hermione and your buttons are all wrong… Ron it seems like she forced you to snog in front of her." Ginny snickered at them. Hermione refused to blush since she and Ron had every right to go and snog whenever they wanted; well they hadn't just snogged now but she wasn't going to let Harry and Ginny know about that. Ron was apparently on the same page.
"Shut up Gin. We thought we'd spare you the sight of us snogging; but if you really want to see us, I guess we can always do it in here." With this Hermione felt Ron grab her and before she knew it he kissed her right there in the common room. Everyone from the second year and up broke up and applause and shouts of "Finally!" and "About time!" could be heard. She smiled against his lips as a flash of light snapped in front of them which made her and Ron break away from each other. It was Collin Creevey with his muggle camera who had taken their picture.
"I will give it to you when I turn the film in." He said and smiled at them. When the commotion had calmed down a little, Hermione turned to Ron and said quietly so only he could hear.
"I thought we agreed not to kiss each other in front of any first years and here you break it before any of the lessons even start." The first years were cuddled up at one of the tables in the corner, not understanding what had happened just now.
"I'm sorry, I couldn't resist when Ginny got on us. I just wanted to get her back."
"So that was the only reason you kissed me?" She raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms over her chest but they weren't like that for long as Ron grabbed them to pull her close to him again and kissed her once more.
"No, I kissed you because I wanted everybody to know that I love you." She smiled at him and put her arms around his neck.
"I love you too." She kissed him but they were interrupted this time.
"Ok lovebirds, I would appreciate that you go away for your little moments elsewhere as both Harry and I don't want to see you glued together." When Hermione and Ron sat down in each chair opposite Harry and Ginny whom were sitting on the sofa, Harry immediately wanted to know what McGonagall wanted with them. Hermione told him that it had to wait until tomorrow when there weren't so many people around. They didn't talk about much more than how the classes would be and Ron and Ginny discussed with Harry about how he should build up his Quidditch tryouts in two weeks. The common room was getting emptier as more people headed up to their dorms as Ginny, too, announced that she was getting tired as they all decided that it was time for bed. Hermione bid good night to Harry and Ginny before she turned to Ron and hugged him.
"Don't wait up." She whispered in his ear. "I have to wait for the whole tower to fall asleep and if I'm not asleep by then, I will come." She pecked him on his smiling lips.
"Good night." Ron said and pecked her once again.
"Good night." She said and pecked him one last time before she went up the girls' stairs.
Hermione peaked out from her drapes, with it nearing one o'clock. Both Lavender's and Parvati's drapes were drawn around their beds and she heard them breathing deeply. She knew they were definitely asleep. The question was, was everyone in the boys' dorm asleep? Well there was only one way to find out. She drew up the drapes slowly and as quietly as she could, got up from her bed just to draw the drapes back again so it would still look like someone was sleeping. She put on her dressing gown and her slippers and tiptoed out of her dorm. She really couldn't believe she was going to do this. She was the proper Hermione Granger who was the teacher's pet and who always turned in her homework two weeks before it was due. Hermione was not the girl who would sneak in to a boy's bed in the middle of the night.
She stopped just before she got to the common room and looked around the corner to see if there still was someone there. When she confirmed there wasn't anyone, she walked over to the boys' stairs and then tiptoed up to the sixth year's dormitory. She opened a crack in the door to hear if there was any talking in there, but all she heard was snoring. She went in, closed the door quietly and walked over to Ron's bed and found him still awake when she drew away his drapes. They both smiled at each other but didn't say anything. Hermione slipped off her slippers and put them under his bed so no one would see them if they woke up during the night. She also took off her dressing gown and put it at the end of his bed before she sat cross legged on it and put the drapes back around.
She took out her wand and cast a spell so no one could hear them, but they in turn would be able to hear everything. It also was so no one could pull up the drapes until she put down her spell.
"Hi." Ron said when she was done.
"Hi." She said back and Ron moved away his sheet for her to lie down beside him. She put her head on his chest and curled her arm around his bare stomach. "I thought I told you that you didn't have to stay awake."
"I know but I couldn't, I was too excited." He put his arms around her and kissed the top of her head. "And I couldn't stop thinking about what we did earlier." Hermione didn't have to look to know that his lop- sided grin was plastered on his face.
"I'm glad you liked it." She said and smiled into his chest.
"Liked it? I thought it was freaking amazing." Hermione chuckled at him and reached up to kiss him.
"We can't make a habit out of this Ron." She said when she broke away and looked down on him. His smile faded.
"You mean this is the only time we'll do this?" He pouted but she kissed it away.
"Merlin no, I only meant that we cannot do this every night or even every other night. It's too risky and I really don't want to get caught; plus we are N.E.W.T. students which mean we will be busier with school than ever before."
"Yeah, you're right. Maybe we could make it a weekend thing then. We will sleep in and you can maybe stay a little longer." Hermione thought about this for a moment and really couldn't find any fault with it.
"Yeah, all right. But only if you've done all your homework before then."
"Aaahh… do I have to?" He sighed.
"Yes you do- otherwise I won't come." She smiled at him.
"Fine, it's a tough choice, but I'll do it." She smacked him on the chest and he chuckled at her. When he calmed down, she put her head back where she had smacked him and said,
"If your homework is truly done and correct, then maybe what we did earlier this evening will also become a weekend thing."
"Really?" He asked and she nodded but didn't look up. "So that means you will look through my homework?"
"Yes I guess since you have to have compromise in a relationship." She smiled when she felt his lips on the top of her head. "I think we need to sleep now so I can get up before anyone else wakes up." She put her leg over his left one and snuggled deeper into his chest as she listened to his soothing heartbeat.
"Good night, my love." He said and yawned.
"Good night, I love you."
"I love you too." She pecked his chest and then slept peacefully.
She felt warm, cosy and so comfortable. She had never slept this good in her life, truth be told. She just wanted to fall back into it and because it was still dark, she thought she could if it wasn't for that damn beeping- oh wait, good, it stopped. She sighed and snuggled deeper into the body that was the cause of her warmth and comfort.
"Good morning." Hermione opened her eyes and saw a sleepy Ron staring down at her. At first she was a little confused, but then she remembered that she had snuck into Ron's bed the previous night. She looked at the alarm clock that was next to him on the bed. It read 5:31 am. She didn't have to get back quite yet as most people would get up at seven when the classes started at nine.
"Good morning, why did you set the alarm for now?" She said and snuggled closer to him once more and closed her eyes.
"Well I thought we could snog a little before you go back to your dorm." She looked up at his smiling face.
"We can't snog now Ron."
"Why not?" He frowned and pouted at her.
"Well… first because of morning breath."
"I don't care about that. And I thought you wouldn't either."
"Well no I don't really, but I thought maybe you did. Second, I know I always look a mess in the morning. My hair is even more uncontrollable when I wake up and I have to take a shower and some Sleekeazy's to get it down a bit." At this, Ron put his hands in her hair and drew his fingers through it.
"I think it's beautiful."
"No it's not, it's..."
"I always think it's more beautiful when it's wild and crazy. You don't need that Sleekeazy's Hair Potion; I think you're beautiful just the way you are, no matter if it's morning or evening, night or day." Hermione frowned at him.
"You've watched me at night?"
"Yes and I think the little snores you make are adorable." He smiled his lop-sided grin at her.
"I do not snore Ronald Weasley!" She yelled, hitting him on his chest.
"Oh yes you do, not like me mind you, but soft tiny ones and I think it's the cutest thing." He put his hands on her cheeks. "Now, we have wasted fifteen minutes of snogging time, so stop making up excuses and come here."
"I was not making up exc..." but her words were lost as Ron pressed his lips to hers. They snogged until 6am before Hermione had to return to her own dorm before anyone woke up. When she got back, she decided there wasn't any point in going back to her bed since there was less than an hour before she would get up. She headed for the showers and cleaned up before she went out and started to dress for the first school day of the year. She was packing her books in her schoolbag when the alarms of Lavender and Parvati blared.
"Oh good morning Hermione- had an early start did you?" Parvati said when she stuck her head out from her drapes.
"I bet she was too excited for the new school term to sleep." Lavender said a bit sleepily as she too got out from her bed curtains.
"Or she's can't stay away from Ron for one more second." Parvati said as both she and Lavender snickered.
"Laugh all you want but you should remember that I got a real boyfriend before any of you did." She said and smiled at them when they immediately stopped their laughs. She was just about to head out to the door when Lavender spoke again.
"Aren't you gonna put some Sleekeazy's in your hair today?"
"No I didn't plan to, why?"
"Well I thought that now you have a boyfriend, as you so kindly pointed out to us, I thought it would make you want to make a little bit more effort about your looks; you know, get a little bit more control over your hair and perhaps some make-up." Hermione could feel the anger boil inside her.
"Well for your information, Ron likes me just the way I am without makeup and stuff like that and I don't care what anyone else thinks." She slammed the door after her and stomped down the stairs to the common room. She sat down and started to read one of her schoolbooks, trying to forget Lavender and Parvati.
Half an hour later Ron and Harry came down the stairs from the boy's dormitory with their schoolbags on their shoulders. She and Ron smiled when they saw each other as Ron walked over and kissed her like he saw her for the first time that morning.
"I see your hair looks extra wild this morning." He said so only she could hear.
"Only for you, my love." She smiled and kissed him again.
"Urgh, are you two gonna do that every morning from now on?" Harry asked with a disgusted face. "If yes, then I think I'll have to wake earlier so I can head down to breakfast before I lose my appetite."
"Shut up Harry." They both said. They all headed down to the Great Hall for breakfast.
"I wonder how our schedule will look now when we're N.E. students. I bet it will be quite a few free hours now that we won't have all the classes we had in the past."
"We'll have free hours?" Ron asked and Hermione nodded. "Sweet, then I can practise more Quidditch before the tryouts."
"Ron, the free hours are for studying as we will have a ton of homework to prepare for the N.E. ."
"It's over one and a half years left until the N.E. ." He frowned.
"Yes and you will have to make use of all the time you have if you want to even pass them. You will have to make a little extra time if you want to pass them with good grades."
"Oh bloody hell." He groaned.
"Don't swear and you know what will happen if you do your best on them." They smirked at each other while Harry looked at them with confusion.
"What will happen if you do your homework? Oh wait... oh no I don't want to know, forget that I asked that!" Hermione and Ron snickered when Harry's face once again screwed up in disgust. When they sat down at Gryffindor's table, Hermione started to pour some pumpkin juice into Ron's cup and put some bacon and eggs on his plate. Ron poured her tea and put two spoons of honey in it just like she wanted and also put some marmalade on her toast. Ginny, who had joined them at the table asked,
"What are you doing?" Hermione looked up to see Ginny and Harry staring at her and Ron. Hermione looked at Ron who looked just as confused.
"What?" They both asked at the same time.
"You're making each other's breakfast." Harry sated. Hermione looked down at her hands which were putting the bacon on Ron's plate.
"So?" They both asked at the same time once again. But Harry just cocked his head and Ginny snickered before they went back to loading their own plates.
They ate their breakfast and as the clock got closer to nine; Professor McGonagall started to hand out the schedules to everyone at the Gryffindor table. As she was passing out the schedules, she saw the trio and proceeded to say something.
"Ah yes Mr Potter and Mr Weasley, I must say that I didn't expect such nice OWL results from you… I was very pleased with your Os in Transfiguration." She gave them one of her rare smiles. "And it looks like you can take all the classes you signed up for: Transfiguration, Potions, Charms, History of Magic, Defence Against the Dark Arts and Herbology." She wrote down Ron's and Harry's schedule and handed it to them.
"But Professor, I didn't even pass History of Magic, how is it that I can take it?" Harry said.
"I talked with Professor Binns and convinced him to take you in his NEWT's class. I told you last year that I will do anything so you can be an Auror and I didn't think it was fair that the happenings at the Department of Mysteries would stand in your way of your dream."
"I-I don't know what to say Professor... thank you."
"You're welcome Mr Potter. I expect you will now do a better performance in this class than you have done the previous years."
"I promise I will Professor."
"Good. Now Miss Granger I am kind of disappointed..." Hermione had been excited about how Professor McGonagall would react to her OWLs. Now it felt like a stone had dropped in her stomach. "...at myself as even I didn't that many O's in everything." Hermione let out a breath she didn't even realise she had been holding. "Of course, you can take all the classes you signed up for which are the same as Mr Weasley and Mr Potter, plus Arithmancy." Professor McGonagall gave her the schedule and smiled at her.
"Miss Weasley, here is your fifth year schedule." She handed it to Ginny and then walked away to the rest of the students.
"Wow." Ron said as he followed McGonagall with his gaze.
"Yeah I can't believe she did that." Harry said still in shock.
"Congratulations on still having a chance of becoming an Auror, Harry." Ginny said and smiled a very flirty smile at him.
"Thanks Ginny." Harry said but didn't look up from his breakfast and Ginny's smile went unnoticed by him. Hermione knew that Ginny hadn't really given up on Harry; she had just decided to back away and date other guys to see if her crush on Harry would go away. Apparently it was still there and Harry was as blind as ever.
"Oh bloody hell… Double Potions with the Slytherins is the first thing. Just the start we need at the start of every bloody week the whole bloody year." Ron groaned to them.
"Don't swear Ron and if we just follow the instructions on the board and ignore the Slytherins, we should be fine."
"Well, I've got Muggle Studies first, so I'll see you at lunch." Ginny took her bag and headed off to her class as Hermione, Ron and Harry went down to the dungeons. They took their usual seats in the back of the classroom. The Slytherins had already arrived even though it was ten minutes until the class started. Hermione wasn't the least bit surprised that Snape had let Crabbe and Goyle and most of the Slytherin's back in his class, even though most of them really sucked at Potions.
"I heard you had to beg all the teachers to make them take you in their classes Potter." Malfoy said as he turned around when he heard them come in. "Apparently your grades were so bad, that they were gonna expel you from the school." All the Slytherins laughed. "How you got Professor Snape to let you in though, I have no Idea. Maybe you paid him but, no wait… then Weasel wouldn't be here." The Slytherins laughed harder. Hermione saw Ron rise out of his seat red faced and started to move towards the Slytherins, but both she and Harry grabbed each of his arms to hold him back.
"Ron don't- he's not worth it." Harry said as the Slytherins just continued laughing. But everything stopped when Snape walked in. He took a look around and his eyes landed on the trio.
"Ten points from Gryffindor for each of you- Weasley get back in your seat." Ron sat down again as Snape walked to the front of the classroom. "I am surprised that so many of you managed to get such good OWL's that you were worthy of coming back here." Hermione saw him glance at Neville who sat with Dean and Seamus in the middle of the room. "You must not have acted as dumb on your tests as you do here." They let him insult them since everyone had insults of their own to give him, but they all kept quiet not wanting to lose points.
"We will start your NEWTs year with a potion Professor Dumbledore has requested. This will be fun for me to watch since this potion is extremely difficult to brew. I am sensing that many of you will fail," Snape said as he looked at the trio snidely. The potion we will make is called Amortentia; anyone know what it is and what it does?" Hermione shot her arm up in the air and saw Snape sigh when he saw no one else knew the answer. "Yes, Miss Granger."
"Amortentia is the most powerful Love Potion in the entire world. It causes a powerful infatuation or obsession in the drinker. It has a distinctive mother-of-pearl sheen, and steam rises from it in characteristic spirals. It has a different aroma for everyone who smells it, reminding each person of the things that they find most attractive, even if the person themselves doesn't acknowledge or is unaware of their fondness for the object of their affection." She quoted from The Most Dangerous Potions.
"Though I hate to admit it, you are right Miss Granger. The instructions to brew it are on the black board. "I expect you to make it to number five today as your potions need to be left alone for two days. After that, you will bring an example to me at the end of the class so that I can see if you even need to bother coming back to the next lesson. Begin!"
All headed off to get the ingredients and a couple of minutes later, all the caldrons had their fire going. Everything ran smoothly; her potion looked exactly like it said in the instructions. She looked over at Ron's and noticed that it wasn't too bad. Actually, she thought it looked a little bit more dark blue than deep purple like it should do after he had stirred it seven times against the sun.
"Stir it one more time." She whispered to him.
"What?"
"You've counted wrong when you stirred it and only did it six times, do it one more time." She demanded again. He did as she asked and the potion immediately turned purple.
"Thank you." He smiled at her.
"You're welcome my love."
"Silence." Snape said. Nothing more happened and it was now the end of the class and Hermione was just about to cork her half done Love Potion when a big bang came from the front row and Crabbe flew several feet in the air, landing on his fat stomach on Snape's desk, unconscious. Snape got up and checked to see if he was alive.
"Mr Goyle, take Mr Crabbe here to the Hospital Wing." Goyle pointed his wand at Crabbe and cast a Wingardium Leviosa spell to make him float behind him as he walked off to the Hospital Wing. "Now Mr Malfoy, it wasn't the potion that exploded, so I want to know what happened here."
"I saw it all Professor, Weasley back there pulled out his wand and cast a spell that hit Crabbe on his back, but he is known for bad aims so I think it was made for me." Snape turned around to Ron with anger written on his face.
"Detention Weasley this Saturday and thirty points from Gryffindor!"
"But I didn't do..."
"SILENCE! Twenty more points. I want you to read the chapter about Amortentia in The Most Dangerous Potions. Class dismissed! Now bring me your examples and get out of here." Everyone left their examples on Snape's desk (it almost looked like Ron wanted to toss it at Snape when he left it) and cleared out of the classroom.
Hermione had to run to catch up to Ron as he headed up the stairs from the dungeon.
"Bloody Snape and his ferret pet named Malfoy!" he mumbled. "I mean, how could he ever think it was me? There were several people between me and Crabbe and I didn't even have my wand out." Ron was so angry that Hermione was surprised steam didn't come out of his ears.
When they came up from the stairs, they saw Malfoy and Pansy were waiting for them.
"Weasley, you really need to start controlling your anger attacks, but if you can't do that then you need to at least practice your aim a bit as it was I who angered you in the first place." Pansy laughed with him.
"Get your little fur covered ferret butt over here so I can kick it to China." Ron started to head over to him, but Hermione and Harry stopped him once again.
"Held back by a Mudblood; you are a disgrace against the purebloods Weasley, you and your whole family." Malfoy walked off with Pansy on his tail, still laughing. Ron stopped struggling against them as he had a defeated look on his face. Hermione got in front of him and took his cheeks in her hands and pulled him down to kiss him.
"Don't let him get to you Ron. He just wants to get you angry so you do something like hitting him."
"I know, I just can't stand when he talks about my family, which includes you both."
"And I love it when you stick up for them, for us. But you can't fall in his trap anymore because that can be dangerous now. His father is a Death Eater and I bet his son knows a lot of his father's friends. So please, please try and stay calm when he is on us." He sighed.
"Fine… I will try my best."
"That's all I ask." She kissed him.
"Sorry you got detention mate, I was ready to kick his ass myself." Harry said and clapped Ron on his shoulder.
"What I just said to Ron goes for you too Harry. None of you can let him get to you anymore."
"Ok, ok Hermione I'll try. Now come on, we don't want to miss lunch. You and I have a free period Ron while Hermione has Arithmancy, so you can help with setting up the tryouts."
"Or you can read the chapter Amortentia Snape just asked about." Hermione said as she took Ron's hand and they started to walk to the Great Hall.
"Awwww." Both boys said but Hermione just gave Ron a look and knew at least he would do it. After lunch Hermione kissed Ron and said bye to Harry and Ginny (who they had joined when they sat down in the Great Hall) and while she walked in the corridor to her class, she thought this was the most normal first day she had ever had here at Hogwarts.
AN: There it was! Tell me what you think about the chapter and the story so far! =)