Thanks to everyone who's been following! I think we're about halfway finished!
Harry and Ginny were in Remus' office, the essays they were supposed to be writing were sitting on their desks. Instead, they were dueling non-verbally as Lupin watched, with a careful eye on the Marauders Map. Whenever someone got close, they would resume writing. McGonagall checked on them three times to ensure they weren't abusing Harry's relationship with Remus to goof off. They were, but she didn't know that. Especially with the text duplication spell Remus had developed in school to get out of having to write so much in detentions. Hermione and Ron stopped by halfway through their detention and briefly joined in the dueling, but mostly just sat on the desks together as Harry and Ginny dueled. Remus was careful to shoo them away before Flitwick came in. This continued for most of their detentions, besides the one McGonagall sat in on because Sirius had accidentally blown up his kitchen and needed Remus' help to fix it. That had been the dullest two hours of Harry's life.
By the time Harry and Ginny had served all their detentions, Ron and Hermione's continued closeness had become a very popular topic in the Hogwarts rumor mill, though it was still second to Cho and Cedric, according to Lavender Brown. How Harry had missed the constant glances when the other noticed the first time around, he would never know. It certainly explained why he'd never had a chance with her.
But for Harry, the most interesting rumor that had made its way through Hogwarts was the one Luna had brought to his attention one morning while she joined them at breakfast.
"Terry asked if it was true that I've been spiking your morning pumpkin juice to get into your circle of friends." Harry nearly spit out his orange juice in an effort to contain his laughter.
"What did you tell him?" Ginny asked with a smile.
"I told him that there was no possible way I could, as you all drink orange juice in the morning. Oddly enough, he wasn't convinced by my answer."
Ron grinned, "I mean, that is how we Weasleys became his friends. After all, what would The-Boy-Who-Lived want with the Weasleys? It's definitely not because we're just good people who aren't dependant on money for loyalty."
"Trying to imply something, Weasley?" Ron turned around and saw Draco. He'd been eavesdropping on their conversations since the train. Or, trying to. Third year Draco was one of the least covert people Harry had ever met. Even so, the eavesdropping had been grating on Harry's nerves lately, which was doing nothing to help his attempts to keep Malfoy from completely hating him.
"Eavesdropping again, Draco?" Hermione questioned, and Harry could almost see Malfoy straining against saying Mudblood.
"I'm more concerned with the fact Malfoy assumed he was talking about his family. Ron didn't name anyone specifically. He really didn't even imply it was your family." Ginny put in, and Luna nodded in agreement.
"He must be trying to warn us. Is your father bribing Ministry officials?"
"Oh, that's illegal, Luna." Ginny waved the notion, "Mr. Malfoy would never stoop so low as to openly bribe Ministry officials, though I am sure they appreciate the large donations he talks about so often."
"That makes much more sense." Luna turned back to Draco, "Is that what you were trying to tell us, Draco? Has your father gained his power from being generous with the money he has?"
Malfoy opened his mouth the respond, but instead whirled around, fuming.
Ron laughed once he was out of earshot, "You'd think he would get tired of us accusing his family of at least two crimes before he can get a word out."
"We didn't accuse his family of doing anything illegal last time. At least, not that I can think of." Harry pointed out.
Ron scoffed, "We might as well have, you told him about when his father dated Bellatrix, and then helpfully mentioned that he looks like her."
"I was just relaying a story Sirius told me over break. And besides, everyone in that family looks similar, probably because three-quarters of Purebloods are at least half Black."
"Except us Weasleys. Our closest Black relative is my great-great aunt once removed or something. But I think you're even more distant, aren't you?" Ron asked, and Harry nodded.
"Not that I plan to look too closely at the family tree anytime in the foreseeable future, but as far as I'm aware our relationship is distant." He glanced at his watch. "Ron, we need to get going if we want to get to Defense on time."
"Since when are you worried about Defense?" Hermione asked, eyebrow raised as she packed up her books.
Harry grinned, "Since Snape is going to be our teacher and Ron and I may or may not have slipped Dobby some itching powder to put in all his robes."
"Sirius would be proud." Ginny laughed.
"It was his idea."
The trio walked into Defense minutes later and Harry and Ron fought smiles as Snape's eyebrow twitched incessantly, and it was only with his trained eye that Harry noticed the more stressed frown on his face. Snape's eyes fixed on the group as soon as they walked in, and Harry dutifully looked confused as to why Snape looked angrier than usual. Normally, he'd fess up about it to lose points, but he'd only just finished the last set of detentions. The group took their usual table in the middle of the classroom and watched as Snape tried to teach about werewolves while resisting the urge to itch uncontrollably, it made the lesson far more entertaining, and he even forgot to assign the essay that would out Lupin as a werewolf to many students.
"You think Lupin will make it to next year? It hasn't happened yet."
"I doubt it. Something will happen to get him quit or get canned. It's all part of the jinx." Hermione pointed out.
"I know, it's just hopeful thinking. He's the only competent teacher we've had thus far on the subject, how are we supposed to learn anything when we have a different teacher every year?"
"Throwing yourself into life-threatening situations?" Hermione asked innocently, and Harry laughed.
"I mean, it has been helpful so far, but I can't see much adventure happening at the end of this year. I'm going for a whole year without incident."
"Good luck with that. Come on, we should probably get to Ancient Runes if we want to get there on time. It's not like you two can show up and still get everything right." Hermione, however, could practically sleep through the class and still pass with flying colors. Not that she ever did.
"That's because we're not certifiable geniuses like somebody is."
"I'm not a certifiable genius, I just put some effort into my studies and practice often."
"There's not much difference. You're the only person I know who started studying for O. at eleven."
Hermione's response was cut off by them entering the classroom and Professor Babbling starting the class.
A few weeks later, exactly one week before final exams, the four Gryffindors were sitting in the common room, chatting as they worked on homework. Around eleven, Hermione and Ron had both fallen asleep, Hermione had her head on Ron's shoulder and Ron's head had fallen onto hers. Harry and Ginny weren't the only ones who found this funny, Lavender and Parvati noticed this development and had fled up to their room in fits of giggles. Eventually, Harry said goodnight to Ginny as she walked upstairs. He was tempted to wake them up, but they looked so comfortable he couldn't bring himself to do it. Besides the fact that Fred and George had placed a bet on the two of them getting together soon and figured he wouldn't get in the way of that.
The next morning, Fred and George were thirty Galleons richer and Ron and Hermione thoroughly embarrassed.
"You could have woken us up, Fred and George took far too much pleasure in taking that honor." Ron groaned at breakfast.
"Exactly. They told me they had a bet on you two for something, and I figured they could use the extra Galleons for that joke shop I know they're planning."
"Besides," Ginny said as she sat down next to them, "It was far too cute to break up. Colin got a picture if you want to see it."
Hermione groaned, "I liked it better when you two were the subject of everyone's gossip. What happened to that?"
It's not that they minded being seen as a couple, but neither was particularly fond of their relationship being the subject of gossip.
"Let's see, you started hanging out without us more often, you've been seen in the back library alone, and you fell asleep on each other last night," Ginny said, ticking each point off on her fingers. Hermione rolled her eyes and turned back to her breakfast and Ron laughed slightly, which caused Hermione to lightly hit him on the arm.
"Reason number four, you act like an old married couple."
"They've always acted like an old married couple." Harry pointed out, and Ginny nodded in agreement as Luna slid into the seat next to her.
"Good morning everyone." She turned to Ron and Hermione, "So, are you two official yet?"
Hermione sighed, "We might as well be." She entwined her hand with Ron's and turned to Luna, "How in the world did you know already?"
"Oh, Lavender and Parvati got ahold of the picture Colin took and showed Padma, who told nearly everyone in Ravenclaw and Pansy, and word got to Hufflepuff through Terry Boot, while Pansy gagged about it to the Slytherins. Nearly everyone knows." Luna told her, "Of course, if you weren't friends with Harry and if you hadn't gotten involved in your previous adventures, it wouldn't have been as big a deal."
"At least I've been offered a reprieve from all the talk of me dating a twelve year-old." Harry grinned as his friends' exasperated looks grew.
"I'm nearly thirteen, thank you very much." Ginny corrected, "But I agree, it was getting tiring telling everyone that I wasn't hiding in broom cupboards with you every chance I got."
"Oh, don't worry, those rumors are still circulating, but everyone is freaking out over these two, so it's not as obvious," Luna assured them.
"How do you know all this?" Ron asked, he had only heard whispers and caught a few pointing, he had no idea how big it apparently was.
"There's an advantage to people not noticing you. It's quite easy to hear what others are saying, though it's a shame it's not all nice."
"How do they not notice you? You're friends with Harry, and you have the craziest sense of style I have ever seen. I'd have a hard time not noticing you." Luna had decided to continue wearing her Butterbeer cork necklace, along with all her other eccentric accessories, including her lion and raven headpieces for Quidditch games.
"I suppose the better term would be ignoring. Not that I mind, I love Ravenclaw and all it stands for, but I think some people forget that part of gaining wisdom is believing the impossible, and searching for proof until you find it or are proven wrong beyond a shadow of a doubt."
Hermione nodded her agreement, she hadn't always understood that, but being friends with Luna for so long had opened her eyes to a lot of different impossibilities being possible.
"You should write a book for all those people Luna." Ron joked, "You could title it, 'The Joys of Being Open Minded: A Journey in Believing the Impossible'. It would be a best seller."
"I would buy it." Harry offered, completely serious.
Luna laughed, "Perhaps I should. It might open peoples' minds to the idea of people with eccentric personalities."
"Of course, you would have to write it under a false name, otherwise they wouldn't take you seriously."
Luna nodded seriously, "That would be unfortunate."
Ah, I love Luna! And looks like Ron and Hermione broke first!
~PH