That had been the scariest experience of Harry's life. He could almost smell the troll's foul stench from here although they were floors above it now he could feel Ron shaking a bit beside him.
"You were great." He told his friend "You saved all of our lives back there." Ron stopped shaking and looked over at him, giving him a lopsided smirk that Harry was starting to associate as completely and utterly "Ron"
"Thanks, mate." Ron replied "You were pretty great yourself." they made the rest of the journey to the common room in silence they gave the fat lady the password and scrambled inside the first thing they saw was that plenty of food had been sent up for the students, everyone was milling around getting food and eating. Their eyes fell on Hermione who seemed to have been waiting for them they made their way over to her and, all of them looking at the floor muttered "Thanks." at the same time. They then scuttled over to the food and reached for plates at the exact same time, Harry felt his hand brush against both Hermione's and Ron's and then something strange happened. Instead of following his brain and yanking his hand back he felt an urge to hold on tighter, so he did. They all stood there, none of them moving all of a sudden Harry felt a warm glow in his chest and something that felt like a string wrapping around his arm and flowing around Ron and Hermione's as well, then it was over. He stared at the other two, his eyes wide. Ron had an expression appropriate to one who had just been hit round the head with a beater's bat and Hermione had her free hand over her heart.
"You felt it too?" Harry asked them quickly. They nodded slowly.
I've never felt anything like that before..it was nice.
Harry stared at Hermione, he'd just heard her voice clearly but he hadn't seen her mouth move "What on earth?" he asked shaking his head
I'm going insane...bloody crazy.
That time it was Ron "Did you just say something?" Harry snapped, turning to his friend
"No." Ron answered as the three of them finally dropped their hands. Something struck Harry, as crazy as it sounded he felt like something had shifted in his mind. Like some kind of thread was connecting him to the other two so he decided to try his luck.
Can you guys hear me? He thought looking from one to the other
Yeah.. Came Ron's voice from inside his head
Wow! Came a whispered thought from Hermione and Harry saw her smile This is...
Bloody brilliant! Ron finished for her, the lopsided grin back on his face. Harry couldn't help it, he smiled too and the three of them finally started on finishing the Halloween feast.
From that moment on Hermione Granger became their friend. You can't knock out a twelve foot troll and suddenly be able to hear each others' thoughts without ending up as anything but friends after all.