Hi all! I'm going on vacation tomorrow, so I'm sorry to say that I won't have another chapter out for a whole week! Gah! I'll seriously try to get a hold of a computer, but it might not be too easy. Don't get your hopes up. Anyway…

Chapter 5

Good Ole Hermione

Hermione woke up very early that morning. She quickly got dressed and headed to the common room. It was dark and empty. It was dark because the sun hadn't yet risen, and it was empty because no one in their right mind would wake up that early on a Sunday. Especially considering they had been up to 3:30 in the morning.

At the moment it was 5:00.

But Hermione didn't mind. She had some investigating to do, some theories to confirm, and some toast to eat.

She headed down to the kitchens, where she was greeted by the sight of a whole mess of house elves preparing breakfast. Many of them came up to ask her if anything was wrong or if she needed anything.

She said sweetly, "I wouldn't mind something to eat…" She was very hungry, as she had been reading during the party, instead of eating.

The elves who had been inquiring her scurried away, only to return a few moments later with a tray packed with food. They showed her to a small table in the corner where she could eat.

Hermione looked at what they had given her. All she had wanted was some toast, but here she had not only toast but muffins, waffles, pancakes, bacon, ham, eggs (both fried and scrambled) butter, honey, marmalade, and a goblet of juice.

Everything did look extremely appetizing, but she turned her attention to her juice. It looked normal. She sipped it. Orange juice…

She thoughtfully flipped through her book until she found what she was looking for:

One would notice, that when consuming a drink with a love potion in it, the taste of the said drink will be sweeter than usual, with all of its flavors seemingly expanded…

She shut the book and took another sip. Nothing. This was normal.

Of course, by now, she had figured out what was going on with Ginny. It was obvious that some one was putting some sort of love potion in her drink.

It had seemed unlikely at first, since Ginny had picked Malfoy as the object of her affection and he sat a ways across the Great Hall, but the book said that it was possible to program the potion to make it's drinker fall in love with one person in particular by whispering their name over the potion at just the right moment.

Hermione had also concluded that this is also what had happened to Justin and Pansy, and Neville and Seamus. (She had been quite a bit surprised to see them holding hands as they walked down the hall)

She took a bite of toast (after all, that was what she had really wanted in the first place) and decided to ask the house elves about it. They were all running about, apparently very busy.

The elves didn't seem too keen on answering her questions…

"Excuse me." She had said to one who seemed to be doing nothing. "Do you know of anyone putting anything… funny, in any of the goblets?"

The elf looked at her a moment before answering, "Of course not! Nothing! No one!" He scuttled off to do something.

She tried another one, "Yes, er… hullo. Can you tell me if you have seen anyone putting something in the…"

"I haven't seen anything! Nobody!" And he too ran off.

Hermione pondered. She knew the house elves were nervous, but not that nervous. Then she heard something that got her attention. And elf saying, "For Ginny…" She turned to where it had come from and spotted an elf carefully carrying a goblet. "Go see where they sit!" Another one shouted at a particullarly nervous one. He nodded and headed out of the kitchen.

Realizing that she wasn't getting anywhere here, she thanked the elves for the breakfast and chased after the nervous one.

"Excuse me…" She began.

"Yipe!" He screeched, jumping a bit. Yes, he actually said yipe!

He spun around and looked at her.

She put on a warm smile, trying to calm him down, "Hullo, I'm Hermione! What's your name?"

"Shniddle…" The elf said because it was his name, and because it's a fun word to say.

"Well, it's very nice to meet you, Shniddle!" Hermione said and reached down a hand to shake his.

Shniddle's eyes widened and he stared at her hand for several seconds before grabbing it and shaking it.

He began to run off again, but Hermione stopped him. "Can I accompany you to wherever you're going?" She asked and then added, "Since we're friends now?"

The little elf's eyes grew eve wider, "Friends?"

"Yes!" Hermione said grinning.

The elf smiled happily and waited for Hermione to catch up.

"So…" Hermione asked him. "Where are we going?"

"We must wait for them. Must see where they sit!" Shniddle replied, thoroughly concentrating on his task.

"And why is that?" Hermione asked casually, although she was bubbling with excitement.

"So we can give them the special drink to…" He clamped his hand over his mouth and whimpered.

Worried that Shniddle might have the same punishment habbits that Dobby had (and Dobby won't be in this fic becaue I like Shniddle better!) Hermione knelt down beside him and looked at him sympathetically. "It's all right." She said. "You can tell me. I won't tell anyone." She hated lying to the cute little elf, but it was the only way she could get some information.

"Well…" He said after a moment. "All right…" He sat down on the floor and began talking, "He came in and said we had to…"

"Wait, hold on. Who came in?"

"I do not know. He. He had lots of hair and was small… like me…" He squeaked. "He gave us names and said to give them special drinks because it would make them happy. So I must see where they sit so we can give them the special drinks and they can be happy!" He began wimpering again.

Hermione patted him on the back, her mind racing. So she was right! Some one was putting love potions into their drinks!

"Listen Shniddle, I've got to go now. But I'll see you around, okay?"

"Okay." The elf said, smiling. He began walking again, heading towards the Great Hall.

* * *

"WAKE UP!" Hermione hissed in Harry's ear.

He yawned. "Hermione? What are you doing here?" He groggily sat up and put on his glasses.

"I won the Quidditch cup again?" Ron said in his sleep. "How nice…. I think I'll just put it with my other trophies…" He reached up and grabbed Hermione's head, pulling it towards him.

She slapped him and he snapped awake. "OW! What the… Hermione? What's your problem?"

"Wake up and come with me! I know what's wrong with Ginny!" She raced down the stairs and was tapping her foot impatiently when they reached the common room.

"It's too early…" Harry yawned.

"I know it is!" She snapped. "But I know what's the matter with Ginny!"

"Well tell us, so we can go back to bed!" Ron said, his eyes were closed as if he were going to fall asleep standing up.

"Some one is putting a love potion in her drink at meal times!" Hermione said happily.

The two suddenly seemed to wake up. "You mean she doesn't really like Malfoy?" Ron asked hopefully.

Hermione nodded.

"WOOOOOHOOOOO!" Ron shouted gleefully. "We thought we were going to have to get her some councelling!"

Harry though a moment before asking, "How do you know that? And don't tell me it's a girl thing!"

"Well, it had seemed odd to me that not only had Ginny started liking Malfoy, but Malfoy also liked her. That is what started my suspicions. Then after running into Justin and Pansy as well as seeing Seamus and Neville holding hands, I thought that there was only one explanation! A love potion! So, just to see if I was right, I got a book out of the library and read up on it at the party. Then of course, I decided the situation needed further investigation so today I went to the kitchens and I…"

Ron cut her off, "So it's not a girl thing really, it's a Hermione thing."

"Precisely." She said happily.

"Well… did you stop whoever it was from doing it again?" Harry asked.

"Well I… wait… no…" Hermione sighed.

"Brilliant." Ron muttered.

"Well, I did find out was going on! Which is more than either of you can say!"

"Yeah, well, you're Hermione! You're the one whose supposed to do that stuff!"

She was about to protest until she saw the truth in the statement.

"Is there any way to stop them now?" Harry asked.

"I don't think so…" Hermione explained, "The elves were being particularly careful about it…"

"Great! Just great!"

"Although…" Hermione said, the gears in her brain turning full speed. "We could… find the person who is doing it! I know that he is small and hairy…"

"Well that shouldn't be too hard! How many small and hairy things can there be here?"

END OF CHAPTER FIVE

Mweee! O'ay, I wasn't lying before, that was the last chapter for a week! I'll try and write it while I'm on vacation and then I can just type it up when I get home! I will tell you this though, the next chapter is going to be called "Hunting Cupid" for obvious reasons! ^_^ Will we finally figure out who the furry little creature is? Can the trio stop Ginny's relationshp before it becomes too regretable? Will we see Shniddle again, just cause he's so darn cute? Stay tuned and find out in the next episode of: A love Story!

PS: Thank you to all who reviewed! Please keep 'em coming! I love reading them!