Chapter 20.

It was about 2 o'clock in the morning and Hermione was lying awake in her bed. "Shit", She said to herself, "It was Ron's birthday today, why didn't

I remember, I bought his presents ages ago and have them all wrapped up, I know, I'll give them too him now." Hermione got out of bed and grabbed the

gifts before walking to the boy's dorm. She slowly opened the door and quietly whispered.

"Ron, are you awake?" she said. "Mione is that you?" Ron said as he looked around the room.

"Yes, it is, come downstairs for a bit, I need to talk to you." Hermione whispered again so as not to wake anyone.

Ron got out of bed and put on his dressing gown before walking downstairs with Hermione.

"Ron, I am so sorry, I don't know how I did it but I forgot your birthday, so here you go Happy Birthday." Hermione said as she gave him the three

presents.

Ron looked at Hermione with a mixture of elation and sadness. She had remembered but no one else had, something was going on. Ron sat down on the chair near him and he opened his presents. Hermione had put together a photo album, much like the one that Harry had, it was full of photos of Hermione, Ron and Harry from the 7 years that they had know each other. Hermione had written next to the picture why she had chose that exact one above all the many others that she could have and why that one meant so much to her. Ron smiled to himself as he flicked through the album, there were many memories that he cherished and now he had a way to remember them. Hermione had also bought him a gift box of products from Honeydukes and a bottle of his favourite aftershave.

"Thanks 'Mione" Ron said after he had opened the other two gifts.

"It's okay and hey, I'm really sorry for forgetting." Hermione said.

"Don't worry, you weren't the only one." Ron whispered.

"Well who else forgot?" Hermione asked.

"Everyone" Ron said with a tear in his eyes.

"Everyone? How did that happen?" Hermione said unbelievingly.

"I dunno." Ron said.

Hermione was very disturbed by her new discovery, she thought it had been a slip of the mind but if everyone had forgotten it had to be something more

than that.

"We will think about this is the morning. I've got to go back to bed now I'm tired, Goodnight, and well Happy Birthday." Hermione said as she started to walk up the stairs.

"Hey 'Mione" Ron said as he begun up the stairs behind her.

"Yeah." Hermione said as she stopped and turned around.

"You forgot my birthday kiss." He said with a cheeky look in his eyes.

Hermione walked down to the step that Ron was on and kissed him. It was a soft, gentle but lingering kiss one that Ron didn't want to end but it did

and with that Hermione walked up the stairs and into her dorm. Ron got back into his bed and sat wondering why it was that no one else had remembered his birthday. Ron lay back on his bed thinking about things until he eventually fell asleep again. Ron was only woken up the next morning by the

sound of hooting and a gentle pecking on his arm, he woke up to find Errol the family owl pecking at his arm.

"Hey you." He said as he took the package and letter from Errol. He opened the letter and found that it was not as he was hoping from his mother and father but from Charlie.

Ron,

Hey mate, it's me Charlie, and I'm looking after the house for a while. Mum and Dad are busy with the order but don't worry they're okay. I forgot to send this to you yesterday for some reason, so Happy Birthday. The presents are from Mum and Dad and myself, hopefully the others have sent you something

too.

Write Soon Charlie.

Ron opened the parcel and found his presents. Charlie had got him a rather interesting book about the history of Dragon Breeding and Keeping. His mum and dad had got him a few rather interesting books, one of defensive and offensive spells, one on seriously advanced transfiguration and one on specialised charms work. With them was

note: These might come in handy. Happy birthday Ron. With Love Mum and Dad xxxx

Ron smiled to himself, 'books' he thought to himself, 'I'm not Hermione' Ron was sat thinking when suddenly he was hit on the arm by something hard. He looked down and found a small package next to him. He turned around to see Harry stood looking at him.

"There you go mate, happy birthday so I forgot to give it to you yesterday." Harry said. Ron muttered an 'it's okay' as he opened the package to find yet another book this time it was "Beating the Odds" by Joey Jenkins. Jenkins was one of the beaters for Ron's favourite team the Chudley Cannons.

"Oh wow mate, hey thanks." Ron said.

"It's okay, it's from me and Gin by the way."

"That's ominous, you know joint presents. When's the wedding?" Ron said,

"I dunno yet Ronald, He's not asked me yet." Said a voice from the stairs, Harry turned round to see Ginny stood at the bottom of stairs.

Harry's mouth hit the floor as he looked at her. She had made a real effort with the way she looked today. Her red hair was in soft curls that fell to just below her shoulders, her make up was natural but noticeable and underneath her school robes was a pair of boot cut jeans and a beautiful lilac blouse.

"Ginny Weasley, you look amazing." Harry said as he got up from his seat and kissed her.

"Why thank you Mr. Potter you don't look so bad yourself." she said as she took Harry's hand.

Harry, Ginny, Hermione and Ron then walked to the Great Hall for breakfast. They all sat down and began to eat soon after they began

they were interrupted by Draco.

"Um, Hi, can I talk to Hermione for a minute?" Draco said.

"Draco, of course you can talk to me there is no need to ask anyone."

Hermione said as she got up from the table.

"Great um, well I was thinking that we could get together after class today and plan the music for the ball." Draco said trying to ignore Harry and

Ron's angry faces staring at him.

"Yeah that'd be good Draco, hey you have a free class at the end of the day like me, so I'll see you in the usual place as soon as classes finish."

Hermione said as she bit her lip realising that she and Draco had a secret that they shared with each other.

"Yeah okay Hermione", Draco said, "I'll see you then."

"Yeah alright" Hermione said as Draco left the table.

Hermione sat back down at the table and carried on eating.

"What?" Hermione said as she noticed Ron staring at her.

"Well it's just that, well where do you and Draco go?" Ron said.

"It's not important, Ron." she said.

"But" Ron said before Hermione interrupted.

"It's not important. So if it's okay with you, I'm going to class now"

Hermione said as she got up, picked up her books and walked out of the Great Hall. Hermione could barely wait for her classes to end and once they had finished she practically skipped to the Room of Requirement where she found Draco waiting for her.

"Hey." Draco said as he smiled at Hermione.

"Hey, so are you ready?" Hermione asked.

"Yep." Draco said as he grabbed Hermione's hand and the two of them thought the usual "We need to plan the ball" 3 times with their eyes shut. They opened their eyes to see the door awaiting them. Hermione and Draco walked into the room to find everything just as they had left it.

"Right, so music" Draco said as he sat down on a comfy sofa that was waiting for him.

"Yeah I had an idea but I don't know if you'll like it." Hermione said.

"Well try me" Draco said.

"I was thinking that we could play muggle music at the Ball." Hermione whispered.

Draco smiled at Hermione and spoke, "I think it sounds like a great idea."

"You do?" Hermione said.

Draco again smiled and said, "Right, well we will need a lot of muggle music." Draco said.

Suddenly in front of Draco and Hermione were several piles of CD's and a CD player.

"That's not much help, it's not gonna work in the castle." Hermione said.

As she said the words suddenly CD players started working.

"Cool, it's working." Draco said.

"Yeah I guess it must be because this is the Room of Requirement, you could get anything to work in here I guess" Hermione said.

"So this is a CD" Draco said as he held up one of the CD's that he had just taken out of it's case.

"Yeah, that's a CD, Draco, hey it's one of my favourites, that's cool." Hermione said.

The CD in question was one by Evanescence, one of Hermione's favourite bands. Hermione put the CD in and skipped to her favourite song, My Immortal.

"I didn't have you down as someone who would listen to this stuff Hermione." Draco said as he listened to the track.

"Did you have me down as anything? I've been Mudblood for 6 years in your eyes nothing else." Hermione said.

"That's true." Draco said.

By the end of the evening Hermione and Draco had a play list that included songs like, Why Don't You Kiss Her by Jesse McCartney, All The Small Things by Blink 182, My Immortal by Evanescence and Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) by Greenday and many many more.

Hermione and Draco left the Room of Requirement and did a quick sweep of the corridors to check for students that were out of bed before saying goodnight and walking back to their common rooms.