Disclaimer: JK Rowling owns all the original
Harry Potter characters but the story's mine!
~ Enchantress! ^^
"Hey,
Cho! Wait up!" Harry panted as he raced up the flight of stairs to get to the
girl.
"Nothing much, just wanted to walk you to class… we have
this one together, right?" Harry asked, a bit anxiously. He shifted weight from
one foot to another. No matter how much they talked, Harry always felt a bit
awkward with Cho. She was so pretty that whenever he tried to talk to her, his
words got stuck somewhere in his throat! It was very annoying.
"Sure do," she answered silkily and linked her arm with his.
"Let's go."
Harry felt his face grow hot, but thankfully Cho didn't
notice. Harry was really starting to like her. She was so natural, so totally
at ease. She could talk to anyone without feeling nervous as he always did when
he entered into conversation with someone new!
All
day Harry pictured himself spending time with her. Taking her to Hogsmede,
drinking butterbeers and walking by the lake… he noticed that now he usually
lapsed into daydreams about her! He bet even Ron and Hermione had noted this.
When he had seen her outside the hall at breakfast, he had practically run to
meet her! Ron had asked him about it, but Harry had just brushed him off, it
was a bit embarrassing to tell!
Still, Harry wondered whether Cho liked him as much as he
did. Cedric and Cho had broken up directly after the ball and boy, had there
been a row! According to Cedric, he had been enchanted by Pansy to go with her!
As if! Pansy barely knew how to control herself let alone have power over
someone else! Still, the outcome was that Cho was free of Cedric and available
for Harry. What a bit of luck for him!
They walked down to class and the usual lessons began. Harry
had nothing on his mind except Cho.
*
"Oh lord! Hermione, you
are soo lucky!" gushed Ginny as she clutched excitedly at the letter she was
holding. Poring over it, she exclaimed again as she came to another vow of
undying love.
"Relax,
Ginny…" replied Hermione, blushing.
The
previous night Hermione had been miserable after the fight with Ron. She had
cried her eyes out for an hour or so, but had finally pulled herself together.
If Ron was going to behave like that, let him! She as just going to ignore him.
It
was then that she decided that she couldn't remain bottled up and had finally
spilled the beans that night to Ginny Weasley. Only, Hermione just told her
about the letters… nothing about Ron or Victor Krum.
Ginny
had been an eager listener, but she had been so excited by the prospect of a
secret admirer that she had forced Hermione to show her everything as soon as
possible.
Now
the two girls were sitting on the dormitory floor with letters and parcels
addressed to Hermione scattered about them. The door was locked so that no one
could enter and penetrate their secret.
"I
wish I had an secret admirer…" sighed Ginny dreamily as she folded the letter back
into its envelope. "It would be so romantic…" she added and glanced at
the window.
The
two girls could see a clear corn-blue sky outside and the branches of a blossom
tree were tapping gently on their windowpane. The tree's pale peony petals were
gently floating in the wind and snow was falling wispily. The scene seemed to
mirror Ginny's poetic feelings exactly!
When
the letters had arrived, they had flattered Hermione, but Ginny had been
completely bowled over after reading them!
Hermione
knew that Ginny wanted to be happy for her, but was also feeling a mixture of
awe, jealousy, longing! Hermione was a bit pleased at the attention she was
getting, but she kept a straight face in front of Ginny so that she wouldn't
think that she was acting superior. After all, Hermione had never asked
for a secret admirer!
"So,
who is it?" asked Ginny at last, her eyes twinkling animatedly.
Hermione
laughed. "Would you stop it? How the heck am I s'possed to know! You're missing
the whole concept of the 'secret' part!"
Ginny
grinned at her friend and replied: "Well, I bet its Douglas Munster! Remember
the time when he bumped into you? I bet that's the time when he first saw you,
and it was love at fist sight and then he…"
Hermione
threw a pillow at her friend.
*
Ron was fuming.
After last night, he had
decided that although he truly did love Hermione, she was too pigheaded to
notice anything other than her darling Victor!
He had been certain that
it was Krum who sent her the flowers, but now he wasn't so sure… Why would
Hermione say that he didn't send them if he did? Wouldn't she want to rub it in
and show him that it could have been him at her side instead of Krum if he had
asked her out?
Ron was lying in his bed,
sorting things out with Harry snoring on the bed beside his own. Throughout the
day he had ignored Hermione and had been distant and cool whenever they came
face to face. The gloomy thing was that she didn't seem to want to apologize
for last night either!
And if Ron didn't have
enough on his mind, there was Harry. He was acting strange too! He kept staring
into space and was unnaturally quiet. Ron guessed it must be because of that
girl, Cho Chang. He had seen Harry with her once or twice and Harry seemed very
infatuated with her.
"Girls… nothing but
trouble…" grunted Ron as he shifted in his bed. Then the face of a laughing
Hermione came into his mind and he paused. He cared so much for her… and she didn't.
Getting half angry, half
wistful again, Ron suddenly got a sneaky idea.
What if he went over to
her dorm and see for himself who had sent her the flowers? He had seen a card
attached… surely he could find the flowers… he knew Hermione had them in her
bag.
He got up, shrugged on
his dressing gown and tiptoed out of the boys' dormitory and went over to the
girls'. He paused. He hated to go into the girls' dorm! No respectable guy
would have liked to be caught dead in it! Then, thinking of the flowers and
Krum, Ron made up his mind.
He cautiously turned the
knob and stepped inside. It was dark in the room and everyone seemed to be fast
asleep. He stood there for a second, till his eyes got used to the dark. Then,
he stealthily crept around the room, looking at each of the slumbering girls,
trying to catch sight of Hermione. He first spotted his sister, because even in
the darkness, he could see the bright flash of her flaming red hair!
Just as he had thought,
Hermione's four-poster was right next to his sister's. He tiptoed over to her
and drew a bit of the curtains of her bed. She looked so peaceful, so serene,
that Ron physically felt a stab of pain. Why wasn't she like this with him?
Sighing, he started
looking around for her backpack. Sure enough, it was at the foot of her bed. He
bent down to get it, but saw a flash of something white under her bed. Ron
frowned in puzzlement and reached out for it.
It was a letter.
He opened it and stared
at the tiny writing on it.
He looked intently at it,
but couldn't read the writing since it was too dark in the room and he had not
brought his wand along. Thankfully, there was a window next to Hermione's bed
and the full moon's light was filtering into the room. Ron held the letter
directly under the moonbeam and read the letter.
As his eyes roamed over
its contents, Ron made a choking sound, something between a growl and a yelp.
First, he couldn't
believe it. He read it again, and again. Each time, his face getting redder. He
was so moved by the letter, he just stood there, frozen.
He thought of Krum as a
rival, an enemy, but who the hell was this? Another person who loved Hermione?!
It didn't seem possible!
Ron was so numbed by his
discovery that he didn't notice that someone had stirred because of his
exclamation.
"You!" she choked out as
she saw Ron by the window, clad in his dressing gown, in the girls' dorm!
It was Hermione.
She stared at Ron, not
believing her eyes, till her gaze fell on what Ron was holding.
Her mouth hung open and
she goggled at the boy.
"Herm…" Ron whispered,
taking a step towards her. "What- is- this?" he hissed and shoved the
letter towards her.
Hermione grabbed the
letter, her eyes glazed over with the intensity of her fury and wide in anger
and disbelief. He noticed how her hair was tumbling down, her mouth set in a in
a furious grimace.
"I'll tell you what, you…you…"
she hissed, her voice low, trying to find an insult to suite him. "Y'know, I
can't even think of something that's lower than you are! How could you??"
she wrung out her words. "You came here to look through my stuff? My PERSONAL
stuff? And then have the gall to ask me what this is?" she waved the
letter in front of Ron's face.
Ron silently frowned down
at her.
"Well, Ron, " she grimaced
as she said his name. "It's a letter. From someone who loves me! Did you
hear that? Love! And I-I hate you, Ronald Weasley!"
Ron paused and then left
without another word.
**
Author's note: Hmmm… don't worry folks! I have everything under
control! This story *does* have a plot! I know exactly what I'm doing!
:P and I would like to make a request, if I make a chara wear something or have
something they don't really have or wore, please, please excuse it! Trust me,
it doesn't matter whether Hermione's blond or a brunette! It's the story that
counts, riiight? I appreciate you guys picking out my mistakes, but could you
not do it about teensy matters like that? ^_^ Sorry if I seem like a jerk to
you^^, but I wanted Cho to be blond! But don't worry (sigh) I'll change it!
Thanks for being patient with me! I know how tough that is!! See ya!
~Enchantress!^^