There had never been hatred between Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger quite like it. Harry couldn't remember ever seeing them so angry with each other. Not even in first year when Ron and Hermione had disliked each other practically on sight. Not even in third year when Ron thought Crookshanks had eaten Scabbers the rat. Far from throwing vicious insults at each other, both of them had gone on to pretend the other didn't exist. Hermione avoided Harry at first, until he tracked her down and asked her what had happened between them, as it had been three days since they had last spoken to each other, and Harry still had yet to find out what was going on.

"Go and ask Ron!" she snapped. "He'll tell you his version, and you'll side with him, like you always do!"

But Harry stood his ground. "Ron's already told me what happened," Harry said. 'But I couldn't understand. He was a bit…upset." He smiled at her, trying to coax her to smile back. She didn't.

"I suppose he told you I let Viktor know the password?"

Harry looked at her uncertainly. "Yeah…but it's not really a big deal. I mean, it's the end of term soon and the password'll be changed, won't it?"

Now it was Hermione's turn to look uncertain. "But Harry…some of the stuff he said, like putting Gryffindor in danger and all that…I know Viktor would never do anything to harm anyone, but he still has connections to Durmstrang, and…" she trailed off, looking at the ground.

Harry shook his head. "I don't really believe Viktor Krum would make an attempt on my life…I guess…" he sighed softly, "I guess it does bother me, you know, someone who's not in Gryffindor knowing the password." He took in her expression and added "But, remember Neville gave Sirius the passwords once, and Sirius scared Ron out of his wits, and Ron forgave Neville pretty easily."

"But Neville didn't MEAN to give Sirius the passwords!" Hermione burst out. 'And besides, Sirius is hardly dangerous, is he-"

"You think Viktor's dangerous?" Harry laughed. Hermione finally smiled, it was a very small smile though. Harry tried again to reassure her. "Listen…you feel guilty about giving Krum the password, right?" Hermione nodded vigorously, and harry continued, "So it's obvious you're still loyal to Gryffindor, so I'm not mad. Some people might be upset, though…but you won't have to worry, all right? I'm going to stick by you…and Ron's going to come round soon, I'm sure…"

"What makes you think Ron is bothering me?" Hermione snapped suddenly. "I don't care what he thinks!"

But it was obviously bothering Hermione. Harry tried, over the next few days, to get them to talk to each other but it didn't do any good- as far as either of them were concerned, the other wasn't worth their time. Harry couldn't discern if their argument was bothering Ron, but any mention of Hermione seemed to aggravate him. Ron got increasingly annoyed with Harry whenever he tried to get Ron to come round, to talk to her, which finally stopped when Ron threatened to curse harry if he didn't leave him alone.

As for Hermione, she was taking a lot from the other Gryffindors. As Harry had predicted, they were perturbed by it, although, "some people might be upset" was a bit of understatement. Fred and George Weasley acted as though she had mortally offended them, as they hadn't liked Krum since Harry competed against him the year before, although it was hard to tell if they were serious or not. Most of Gryffindor, upon finding out, suddenly became very cold towards her. Like Ron, a lot of them seemed to think she had betrayed Gryffindor in some way. Even Neville Longbottom, who idolised Hermione, was hesitant to talk to her these days. But, funnily enough, Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown, whom Hermione had never been the best of friends with, backed her up completely and fully. They seemed to think Hermione's telling Viktor Krum the Gryffindor password was a romantic act of love, and both of them found this idea so appealing they started protecting her from the acid comments of other Gryffindors. Ginny Weasley took the same attitude as Harry- she didn't really think it mattered.

But it was in Transfiguration class one day that Harry realised just how much of a toll the whole experience was taking on Hermione. Professor McGonagall was handing back a particularly hard essay on Switching Spells to them one day- she had been working them extremely hard the whole term, as their Ordinary Wizarding Levels were due at the end of the year- and she was very displeased at the whole class' performance.

"As fifth years, you should now be taking your school work in a far more serious manner," she barked at them, "and I'm sorry to say that most of you have not performed up to the standard that I have come to expect. I'm handing back your essay now, but I want it redone by tomorrow, all of you!" she yelled above the Gryffindors groaning. Professor McGonagall now moved among the desks handing back the papers, calling out their grades as she did so. "Miss brown, C minus…. Miss Patil, an improvement on your last essay, I'm afraid, D plus…Longbottom, F! I have never yet met a fifth year student who couldn't decipher the difference between Reichstag switching spell and a Reichstrat spell! Most disappointing…. Weasley, disappointing from you, too, C plus…" Ron looked pleased at his mark, though, as he'd had a lot of trouble with the assignment and Fred and George had had to help him write the whole thing. "Potter," said professor McGonagall, as she reached his desk, "Not bad, B minus…". She stopped when she reached Hermione's desk, and her face assumed an expression of deep gravity. "Miss Granger, I have never been so disappointed," she started. Upon hearing this, the whole class swivelled in their seats to watch. McGonagall breathed in through her large nostrils and slapped the parchment down on the desk, "A C, Miss Granger." The whole class gasped as one. Hermione had never gotten less than full marks since first year! This was unheard of within the Hogwarts walls. Hermione blushed a deep crimson and bowed her head, hiding her face with her curls. Ron was still staring at Hermione, opened mouthed, as the rest of the class turned to each other, whispering. Hermione felt his gaze and turned to look at him, and Ron quickly looked away.

Hermione was very upset, and didn't come down to the common room, or dinner, and by the time Harry had finished his homework he was quite worried. He asked Ron to come and help him look for her, but Ron pretended not to hear him, so Harry went by himself. A venture into the girl's dorms didn't sound particularly fun, so was debating where to look for her first when he spotted Ginny Weasley reading a book in the corner. He hurried over to her.

"Hey, Ginny!" he said, upon approaching her, "Um, I'm looking for Hermione, have you seen her?"

"Ummm, she said something about going down to visit Hagrid," said Ginny uncertainly.

"Right said Harry, "Thanks," he turned to go outside to Hagrid's hut but Ginny stopped him.
"Wait!" she said. 'That was ages ago, before dinner."

Harry hesitated, "But you haven't seen her since then?"

Ginny shook her head "Well, no…I guess she could be in the dorms, I haven't been there for a bit."

"Oh…" said harry. He wondered whether he could ask Ginny to go and fetch Hermione for him...but that might be mean.

"We could go and look," said Ginny. "Come on…" She closed her book and hopped off the enormous squashy armchair. He noticed Dean and Seamus watching him and sniggering as he followed Ginny through the door to the girls' dorms. Harry rolled his eyes at them exasperatedly and shut the door behind himself and Ginny.

Ginny led Harry up the spiralling staircase to the girl's dormitories, and showed him where the fifth year girls slept. Harry paused outside the door. "D'you think you could go in?" he asked, flushing, "Only I'm not supposed to…"

"It's okay," she said. "Just come on," she grabbed his arm and pulled him through the door, Harry still protesting slightly. Upon being in there, though, he was glad he came. Hermione was sitting on her bed, knees drawn up to her chin, shoulders shaking. She was crying. He hurried over to her.

"Hermione!" he cried. She looked up. "Harry?" she said tearfully. Harry didn't say anything, he couldn't. He just put his arm around her and let he cry into his shoulder for a few more minutes, Ginny on Hermione's other side patting her on the back. Eventually Hermione gained control.

"I'm all right," she said to Harry. 'I just…needed to have a bit of a cry, that's all…"

"This isn't because of the mark on the essay, is it?" said Harry. "Or is it because of Ron? It's Ron, isn't it-"

"No! It…it's a lot of things," Hermione said, shaking her bushy head. Harry understood; he nodded slowly, and Hermione gave him a watery smile. 'Thanks Harry," she said, giving him a hug.

Harry felt a bit awkwrad, not used to being hugged, but that didn't stop him being concerned about Hermione. He felt it was his duty to try and help her. After all, who had given him help last year, when he had been announced school champion, and most needed someone to talk to? Hermione had come to his aid, and now it was his turn to help her. Harry frowned as he hugged Hermione back. Ron needed to come to his senses, and it had to be done soon. Well, it was Christmas in a few days; maybe that would bring them back together.