Chapter 4: School?

The cursor was back. Their eyes snapped open as they were told to go back to bed. They stood up and walked side-by-side back to the bedroom. Harry had trouble falling back asleep, however, as he found that Ginny continued to pop into his thoughts. It seemed much easier with her than it had with Cho, and he didn't understand why. Eventually, he fell back into a fitful sleep.

The four woke up at the exact same time the next morning. Harry looked warily at the others as they all stood up together. Sure enough, he saw the cursor hovering. There was a flash above them, and Harry looked up to see a message appear in the sky. "The bus will come for Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny in one hour."

"Bus? Seriously? We have to go to school?" Ron groaned, but Hermione smiled.

"Yeah, that's right. I think we go to University as well, after some time." She looked quite happy, but Ron was far from it. He walked away, grumbling to himself as he was told to sit down to eat.

An hour later, the bus arrived, and the four of them climbed on. "You know," Hermione started as they all sat down, "When I played this, I couldn't control the sims when they went to school. Maybe we'll get some free time while here."

"Great! How long are we here?" Ginny asked. Hermione pondered for a minute.

"Well, we get home at 1:00, the bus came at seven, so six hours, two of which are spent on the bus." Ron groaned and began to hit his head on the window. Harry glanced at his watch (which had seemed to adjust to the new 'game time' oddly enough) and was met with a peculiar sight. The minute hand seemed to be speeding up. He watched, transfixed, until the hands slowed and at 1:00 PM. The others didn't seem to notice.

"Hermione," he said, interrupting her. "I don't think we will have to go to school." He showed her his watch, and Ron and Ginny also leaned in to get a look. "It sped up." Hermione looked a bit disappointed, but Ron, however, looked relieved.

The bus stopped to let them out back at the house. When the four stepped out, two things appeared in each of their hands. Harry looked curiously at the first, which read "Report Card" across the top. He glanced at the others', and saw that everyone's had a C underneath. They pocketed them. Harry noticed Hermione held her lips tightly together, frowning at hers as she did.

Ron had noticed too. "You know, Hermione, it isn't real. You don't have to worry about your grades." She looked up and glared at them both, as Harry was fighting a smile.

"I know that, Ron, I'm not worried about it." She stomped off inside, and Harry and Ron just grinned at each other. As they followed Hermione inside, they got a look at the other paper in their hands.

"What? Homework? How can we have homework? We didn't even actually go to school!" Ron groaned and followed up with "Stupid game." When they reached the living room, they all placed their homework on the ground, and were told to complete it. Hermione sat right down, and began to work on it quickly. The others reluctantly started as well, Ron muttering darkly every couple of minutes.

To no one's surprise, Hermione finished hers first, and stood up. She eyed the cursor, waiting for it to tell her to do something. It didn't. Instead, it told Harry to tell Ginny a joke. Hermione looked at the line of bars behind her. Only the hygiene one was low. Getting an idea, Hermione tried to take steps toward the bathroom. Surprisingly, she found she could do it without getting trapped. She took a shower, eager to test more theories. After finishing, she tried to move back to the living room. Unfortunately, she found that she was once again stuck in place. Sighing, she slid onto the floor.

The cursor, seemingly realizing Hermione wasn't doing anything, sent her back to talk to Ron. Walking back to the living room, she saw Ron sitting on the couch still doing his homework, but no sign of the other two. Hermione sat down, turning to him as he seemed to finish what he was working on. "Did you see where Harry and Ginny went?" She asked as he stuck his homework into his pocket.

"They're in the bedroom. Lucky them, got to leave their work, and the damn controller made me finish theirs for them." He looked cross for a second. "While you were gone, it had Harry ask her to go steady with him. Didn't really even seem like he was forced to, either." Hermione glanced through the doorway into the bedroom, seeing Harry and Ginny just sitting on the beds talking, seeming to be in good moods.

She turned back to Ron. "How do you feel about that? If that shifts from game to real?"

"Well," he began, leaning back against the couch, where his shoulder leaned up against hers. Hermione bit her lip, enjoying the slight warmth of him next to her. Ron continued, not seeming to notice, "I mean, she's my little sister. I hate to think of her with anyone. But if she's got to be, well, Harry's my best mate. Can't imagine trusting anyone else more." Hermione smiled at him, and his mouth turned up into a crooked smile. "I thought she had gotten over him though.

"Well, I think she just got over her schoolgirl crush. Maybe that's what it took for Harry to look at her differently. I'm happy for them. Oh, I wanted to tell you, I found out that we can do anything on our own as long as it will help increase a mood bar that's low." Ron glanced at his bars.

"So, if I'm hungry, I can eat something on my own?" Hermione nodded, so Ron stood up, pulling her up with him, and headed for the refrigerator. Hermione rolled her eyes, but followed, feeling a bit silly to feel her hand tingling from his touch. Ron searched the shelves and took out a bag of chips, taking them to the table. He sat next to Hermione. He looked at her before opening the chips. "Well, I guess I can bring you with me too." Hermione looked at her own bars again, and saw that social was getting lower, and figured that must be why it was allowing her. She felt herself growing anxious, her mind buzzing with what else she needed to figure out about how the game worked. "You know," Ron said quietly, and Hermione realized he had finished already, and that she must have been in a fog, "you don't have to try to figure out about this game."

She immediately resisted. "But you and Harry and Ginny are counting on me, I have to remember everything I can, and do some more testing and -"

Ron cut her off, grabbing her hand she had been moving about wildly. "Hold up, you don't need to get yourself worked up on it. You know, I was thinking." He sat up a bit straighter, still holding her hand. "What if someone cast the spell to give us a break? In here, there's no fighting, no one has to die, no… no You-Know-Who to hide from or horcruxes to find." Hermione still looked a bit tense. Ron maneuvered his hand, threading his fingers through hers "Please? Try not to stress too much. We'll figure it out. We already know time works differently in here, so maybe we can take it one day at a time." Hermione felt herself relaxing, her mind focusing in on how nice it felt to have her hand in his.

"Thanks, Ron," she said softly, looking into his eyes. "You've been doing pretty good at this whole calming me down thing." Before she could change her mind, she reached up and quickly kissed his cheek. She saw the tips of his ears turn pink, as he looked a bit dazed, and she suddenly felt nervous. "Look at that, I need some energy. I'll just, ah, go take a nap." She quickly walked to the door, leaving Ron desperately trying to make words come out of his mouth. She closed the door, missing how Ron groaned and let his head drop painfully onto the table.

Now standing in the backyard with Ginny, Harry was finding himself growing more and more frustrated. The cursor wouldn't leave them alone. He had thought that after asking Ginny to 'go steady', it would let them go and move to Ron, or Hermione, or even the older lady that Harry had found out was supposed to be their 'guardian'. But it didn't. It kept him talking with Ginny for hours. That wasn't the frustrating part, of course; he was actually really enjoying getting to know more about Ginny, and to hear some of her experiences with growing up with her older brothers. The difficult part was that they were both growing incredible tired. Both of their energy bars were really low, but the cursor either didn't notice or didn't care. Earlier in the day, he had wondered what would happen if any of the bars went down to nothing. He now hoped that he wouldn't have to find out.

"Harry…I'm getting…ti…ti…tired." Ginny yawned. Harry noticed grimly that her bar was even lower than his. Ginny leaned her head on Harry's shoulder.

Suddenly, her head shot straight up, a lullaby sound started, and Ginny started falling, her eyes closing. Harry's eyes widened, and he quickly reached toward her falling form. She fell into his arms barely and inch off the ground. Harry lifted her up carefully, aware that his own legs felt weak, and started walking her inside. The cursor seemed to finally realize they needed rest, and let them go. Harry stared down at Ginny's tired face. She was slightly frowning in her sleep. He kicked open the door of the bedroom. Ron and Hermione's beds were empty. Ron's sheets were strewn around on the floor, while Hermione's bed was carefully made. Harry headed for Ginny's bed quickly, knowing he might not be far behind her, energy-wise. He placed her onto the bed, suddenly feeling lightheaded. He barely noticed the music or the pain of it as he fell to the floor. He was already sleeping.

Original A/N: A bit longer, and hopefully good!