Sorry it's been such a long wait! Luckily (for you lot, not for me!) I've been ill for the past two weeks, so the next few updates should be quicker because all I've been able to do is write. This chapter's quite bitty because there's a lot of stuff to cover before I get onto the next part. I hope you still enjoy it though!
Hermione woke in Neville's arms the next morning with a big smile on her face. She couldn't work out why so she was so happy for a moment, but as she brushed Neville's hair off his face, the new ring on her finger glittered in the sunlight and the events of the night before came back to her. She was engaged! She shifted slightly to admire the ring, which prompted some muffled groans from her fiancé.
"Sorry," she whispered. "Go back to sleep. You've got another hour."
"It's alright. I'm awake now," he replied. "Are you admiring my good taste in engagement rings? Or rather, my great-great-grandfather's taste in engagement rings."
"Yes," she smiled. "It's beautiful."
She held it up to the light. The word "beautiful" didn't really do it justice. It was made of two pieces of silver twisted round each other, with the two ends joined by the diamond. It wasn't a very big diamond compared to other rings Hermione had seen, but it was beautifully 'd always thought that big diamonds looked tacky. Lavender's ring had had a huge pink stone on it, which Hermione had always thought made it look like it had been made for a giant Barbie doll.
"It matches my bracelet," she said, looking over to her bedside table where she kept her Christmas present every night.
"Yeah, I kind of planned that," Neville laughed. "When I bought it, I wasn't planning on proposing to you anytime in the near future, but I thought I'd probably want to at some point, so I thought it'd be nice if they matched."
"When you bought that, we'd only been together for about a month," Hermione said. "Do you mean you knew by then that you wanted to marry me?"
"I know!" Neville laughed. "It sounds crazy! We'd shared so much in that month though, and I felt really strongly about you. I wasn't planning on proposing until at least the summer, but then at Christmas I found the ring at my Gran's. Mum couldn't have it at the hospital. They were worried she'd hurt herself with it, like she'd swallow it or something, so Gran had taken it home. Anyway, I happened to find it and it got me thinking, why not sooner? And your Dad was there, so I thought it was the perfect time to ask his permission."
"I think it was too," Hermione smiled. "We'd better get up," she said, stretching. "We're going to have to tell the kids at breakfast, before any of them see the ring and get the first word in."
"We'll have to talk to Bernard before then though," Neville said. "Let's not make the same mistake as before."
Hermione nodded in agreement and tried not to make a face at the mention of Bernard's name. She'd rather deal with a hall-full of badly behaved children than him!
...
Hermione and Neville happened to see Bernard walking in front of them on the way to the Great Hall for breakfast, which was unusual. Normally he was there much earlier than them. At least it meant that if he got angry with them there wouldn't be an audience to see it, unlike there would be in the Great Hall. Walking faster, Hermione kept her hands behind her back as she and Nevile caught up with him.
"Hello, Nev, Hermione," Bernard smiled. "How are you today?"
"We're fine thanks," Neville said. "Listen, we've got something to tell you, which isn't easy for us to say and will be difficult for you to take in but we thought we'd better let you know." He took a deep breath. "Hermione and I are engaged."
Bernard suddenly stopped walking and stared at them. Hermione was preparing herself for another angry outburst, but Bernard spoke.
"Congratulations," he smiled. "I'm very happy to hear that."
"Are you really alright?" Hermione asked. She hadn't been expecting that.
"Yes, I really am," he said with as much warmth as he could manage. "In fact, we should all go out and celebrate tonight."
"That'd be fun. Wouldn't it, Hermione?" Neville said, nudging her.
"Oh, yes," Hermione said. "I'll ask Julie too, if that's okay with Bernard."
"Yes, that's fine," Bernard smiled. "I'll see you later."
He walked into the Hall and left Hermione and Neville outside, looking at each other with a mixture of excitement and disappointment.
"He's not completely okay with it, is he?" Hermione asked.
"No, but he's trying to be, so he'll get there. He's been in similar situations before. But anyway, he was the easy part. Are you ready to deal with the kids?"
...
As they took their seats next to Juliet, Hermione was feeling more and more nervous by the second. Almost every student was in the hall. Normally, you'd be lucky to get more than half of them together at breakfast, as they could come and go as they pleased. It had to be that day that the hall was full, didn't it? Still, it meant they'd all know the truth, instead of half of them hearing the exaggerated version later.
"Are you alright, Hermione?" Juliet asked. "You look ill."
"Oh thanks," she smiled weakly. "No, I just have to make an announcement to the students and I'm a bit nervous."
"What about?" Juliet asked.
"You have to promise you won't squeal or anything. Don't draw attention to us yet," Hermione warned.
"Why would I squ-" she started, before looking from a smiling Neville to a very nervous Hermione, who was looking almost green and had her hands in her pockets.
"You're engaged, aren't you?" she gasped. "Congratulations," she said, as they both nodded. "Before you make the announcement to the students, does Bernard know?"
"Yeah, we just spoke to him," Neville said. "We're all going out for drinks tonight to celebrate, if you want to come."
"That'd be great, as long as he doesn't mind me being there," she said.
"Not at all. We've already checked," Neville said. "It'll be like the good old days."
"The good old days which were actually just a month or so ago?" Juliet teased. "Anyway, I'm looking forward to it. So all that's left to do now is make your announcement."
Hermione groaned and slid down in her chair.
"We don't have to do it today, Hermione," Neville said. "We can wait."
"No," Hermione said, smiling nervously, "We'll do it now. Come on."
She stood up slowly, pulling Neville by the arm to get him to stand too for moral support. She cleared her throat, but the students' chatter didn't stop. Some of them stared at her angrily, annoyed that she'd interrupted their conversations, just like they'd done on her very first night. Memories of how vile they'd been before flashed through her mind, which didn't do anything to help with her nerves.
"Excuse me," Neville boomed, making the students and Hermione, jump. "Thank you," he said, as the students turned their attention to him. "Professor Granger and I have an announcement to make."
"Yes," Hermione said, as the students started whispering to each other. "I –"
"I don't remember either of us saying you could talk," Neville said sternly.
"Thank you," Hermione smiled, as the noise stopped. "Before I make this announcement, I would like to tell you all what I told the Gryffindors on their first night, which is that my personal life, and also Professor Longbottom's personal life now too, are none of your business. For Merlin's sake, stop talking! There's no need for you to start whispering after everything I say! Professor Longbottom and I are engaged, and we don't expect any bad behaviour or snide comments because of this. We just thought it would be courteous to let you know."
The pair sat down, amazed that the students hadn't started talking after that announcement. The Ravenclaws were smiling, and Jennifer was even bouncing up and down in her chair from excitement. The Hufflepuffs looked pleased too, probably because of their loyalty to their Head. The Gryffindors looked outraged though, and the Slytherins looked smug.
"That wasn't too bad," Juliet smiled.
"No, but I have Slytherins first thing this morning," Hermione sighed. "I was expecting them to be like this though."
"I have Gryffindors," Neville groaned. "We'll just have to keep looking forward to tonight. Today's not going to be fun."
...
Neville was right: he was having one of the worst lessons ever. The Gryffindors didn't want to work.
"Hey, Professor," one of them smirked, pointing to some plants. "Do you like what we've made here? These branches that are grabbing everything is Professor Granger, and this little plant that's stuck in its grasp is you!"
"Detention tonight," Neville said angrily, before remembering he was meant to be going out. He couldn't change it now; he needed to look strict. They'd have to go without him. They could all go together another time.
...
"Did you just try and make my hand turn black?" Hermione screeched at a group of laughing Slytherins.
"No, I was going for your engagement ring. I usually have really good aim, but that ring's very small," the girl laughed.
"Is that really anything to do with you? Detention tonight," she said angrily. "Actually-"
"What?" the girl asked. "Busy with Professor Longbottom tonight?"
"No," she lied. "I'll see you tonight."
...
"Bad news," Hermione said to her friends at dinner, "I put someone in detention tonight, so I can't make it out tonight. You all go though, and we'll celebrate together another time."
"I did the same thing," Neville laughed. "Shall we go at the weekend instead? You two still go though. Have a good time."
"I don't know," Juliet said. "Do you think that's a good idea, Bernard?"
Bernard thought for a moment. He hadn't really wanted to go at all. He'd just blurted it out in an attempt to seem fine with everything. Going with just Juliet would be even worse. They hadn't spent long periods of time together since they'd broken up, so it'd be really awkward. It'd be rude to say he didn't want to go though.
"I don't see why not. After all, we are friends. I'll meet you in here at about nine."
...
Bernard and Juliet hadn't planned on staying out late; they'd thought that the night would be uncomfortable and they'd both planned on feeling strangely "tired" after an hour or so. After three hours though, they were both still wide awake and deep in conversation.
"I had no idea you were interested in Runes," Bernard said animatedly. "I've done a bit of translation myself, but nothing near the level you've done."
"It's really just a hobby now," she replied. "I'm starting to look into other ancient languages too. There's not a lot in the library about it though. It's a shame there's no one who can teach it here. It'd be a useful O.W.L . for people to have."
"Yes, I agree entirely. We were always provided with translations of old texts in History of Magic lessons, and I often wished I could read the originals to get a better understanding and see how exact the translations were. "
"That's exactly what made me think about it too! I've only just got round to doing something about it though. I'm thinking of taking a trip to Diagon Alley soon to see what books they have about old languages. You should come too!"
"I'd like that very much!" he said excitedly. "I might have a few useful books in my quarters. We could go and look now."
"I don't think that's a good idea," Juliet said, smiling nervously. "We could meet in the library tomorrow though and put all our books together."
"Yes, that would be good. Oh," he said, looking around at the emptying pub, "I think they're closing. We should get going."
"I didn't realise it was so late," Juliet exclaimed. "The time has flown! Let's get back. We have to teach early tomorrow!"
They stepped out, shivering in the cold. Although they both liked a nice glass of wine, Bernard and Juliet weren't the type of people who liked going out and getting drunk, so they had no warmth from the alcohol. Pulling their cloaks tightly around them, they set off quickly towards the castle, before something caught Juliet's eye and she stopped in her tracks.
"Are you alright, Julie?" Bernard asked, moving back towards her.
"Yes, fine," Juliet said. "I've just seen a copy of tomorrow's Prophet though. Poor Hermione. How does news travel so fast?"
She rummaged in her bag before taking out some money and buying a copy. She unfolded it and held it up so Bernard could see the headline:
Heartless Hermione engaged! Why her poor fiancé should get out now, before it's too late!