Chapter 3-Ron's Realization
I stared at her for a moment longer, taking in her fluffy brown hair, her gorgeous brown eyes and the way her body curved just right. Our robes sure did hide a lot. I mean, I did know what she looked like, somewhat, underneath them, because I had seen her in the summers and stuff, but..wow. She looked really good in her swimming suit.
I tore my eyes off of her before she caught me looking. "Hey..Ro-on..." came a voice from beside me. I turned and looked at my little sister. "Staring at Hermione, are we?" she asked, grinning sneakily.
"O-Of course I wasn't. What are you on about?"
"Oh, nothing..just you've been staring over there for the last five minutes," she said, smirking at me.
"Oh, like you haven't been staring at Harry," I shot back at her.
"No, you must have been more out of it than I thought. The only thing I noticed were his lovely heart-patterned trunks. Did he get those from Fred and George?Well, anyway, Harry is underwater just now, can't you see? Everyone but us has already jumped in!" and with that she dived into the water.
"Oh," I said a bit sheepishly, and dived in too.
"Now," said Dumbledore. "Stick your head below the water and blow bubbles."
I did as he said, sticking my head underwater, but once I got there, I saw Harry, clad in the valentine-y trunks, waving me over. So I swam over to him, and he went above water.
As soon as I did, too, he was all over me. "Ron, did you think you were being slick there?"
"Slick?" I asked, bewildered.
"Yeah, slick. Smooth?" Harry said, trying his best to clue me in.
"Er..okay..no?" I said, quite confused.
"I'm sorry, it's just stuff that Dudley was saying last year. It must have been ingrained in my brain," Harry apologized. "So you weren't, though?"
"I don't think so. What are you talking about, though?" I asked, still not completely clued in.
"You were staring like-like you'd seen a ghost!" Harry exclaimed.
"I see ghosts all the time, it's not that big of a deal..." I was confused again.
"Sorry, it's another muggle expression, I guess. Well, you were staring pretty hard, though, anyway," Harry said, smirking at me.
"Oh..you mean with Hermione, don't you?" I was guilty.
"Yes, you thick-headed dolt. Who else have you been staring at? My goodness," said Harry, winking heartily at me.
"Harry, give it a rest, will you? I'm sick of worrying about Hermione all the time-whether she's happy or she's mad at me, whether she's crying or off studying, whether she's wearing a beautiful bathing suit or whether she's wearing sweatpants and a teeshirt. I love her just the same, why should it matter?" I had really had it. I didn't want to be waltzing around each other all the time. "I think we should either get together or just not be friends. I can't stand it just sitting here like a duck, waiting for something to happen." I splashed my fisted hands into the water.
Dumbledore glanced over at me before continuing to talk. "When you put your face into the water, never breathe in, or else you will find your nasal passages filled with liquid. It is also helpful to blow out, thus breathing while not truly breathing."
I wondered if he could tell I wasn't paying attention. Just as I started to listen again, Harry responded to my outburst.
"I think you should tell her all that and not me, mate. Just..er...go ahead and tell her you rate her, why don't you? It's true, isn't it?"
"I-I didn't say that. I said..I said..er..," I was really feeling shirty there. What had I just blurted out?
"How can you say that? You just told me that you loved her..." Harry was really trying to kill me.
"All right, I guess I did. Does that mean I have to tell her?" I didn't really know what I wanted.
"You just said that you were tired of dancing around each other, so why don't you do something about it? Tell her what you told me in the beginning there. And don't get flustered. You never sound good when you're flustered," Harry whispered, glancing at Dumbledore to make sure he wasn't watching us. "It's just some friendly advice, mind. I don't really know what I'm doing."
"Right. Well, I'll do it later, maybe towards the end of class. But don't you think we ought to pay a bit of attention to Dumbledore? I mean, he's a nice guy, and we do need to know this for OWLs," I whispered, turning and listening to Dumbledore.
"She's rubbed off on you more than you'll ever know, Ron. You just told me to pay attention to a teacher because of OWLs!" Harry laughed.
"Bug off, mate. Shut your gob," I said, turning back to Dumbledore. He was now explaining something that I didn't understand at all.
"So if you will all kindly come to the edge here, I will teach you how to kick, just in case you did not understand what I just said," called Dumbledore, lapping over to the edge and demonstrating how to hold on.
When he asked for us all to follow him, I did, and made it so I was just next to Hermione. I got into the position he had told us to and waited for him to come and check me.
"Hey there, Hermione," I said softly so that no one would hear.
"Hello," she whispered back.
"Well..er..I guess this is one class where you can't take notes, hmm?" I said a bit flusteredly.
"I suppose so. Not that that's a bad thing, of course. It gives much more time for actually doing the work, and plus, there's less writer's cramps. I hate writer's cramp," she muttered, more to herself than to me.
"I've personally never had it, so I can't really sympathize," I said, shaking my head.
"Not that you do that much work to begin with, eh? Usually you just copy off of mine," Hermione muttered darkly.
"Not this again. Hermione, can't we ever discuss anything without fighting? I haven't got the time to be worrying whether you're mad or happy with me, or crying or just stressed out because of OWLs. I am sick of sitting on my arse waiting!"
"Oh, yes, you're the one who has been waiting. Ronald Weasley, I've been waiting nearly three years for you to come to your senses and grow up. And you say you've been waiting. Ha!" she rolled her eyes at me and grinned, shaking her head.
"You've been waiting..How long?" I asked in complete bewilderment.
"Like I said, about three years for you to grow up. Although I've been waiting far longer than that for you to realize that you--" she stopped dead. "Never mind."
"What? What were you about to say? Tell a bloke what you've been waiting for him to do for however long!" I raised my eyebrows. Just then, one of my hands slipped and my face went flying into the water. I came up spitting and blinking it out of my eyes.
Hermione laughed heartily before continuing on. "Ah, never mind, like I said. It's probably never going to happen, so what am I wasting my time for? It's not like..like..like you'll ever..umm...er...oh, never mind it all!" she cried, sufficiently flustered.
"But, Hermione, I want to know! Can't you just tell me and be done with it?" I asked, becoming impatient.
Dumbledore came just at that instant and surveyed Hermione. "Very good, Miss Granger. You will be quite the good swimmer, eh?"
Hermione nodded proudly. "My parents sent me for lessons when I was younger, but I felt it would be good to brush up."
"Ah, very good. Well, you may go and wait with the others who are finished," Dumbledore said, nodding over to a waiting crowd near the edge of the water.
Hermione turned and swum off, soon becoming immersed in the crowd.
"Well well, Mr. Weasley. I can see you are quite infatuated with young Miss Granger. You have done nothing but talk about her all lesson," Dumbledore said, looking down at me.
I blushed and looked away, then looked into his eyes. To my surprise, he didn't look stern or even mad. He was smiling, and that familiar twinkle was going in his eyes.
"I'm sorry, Professor. It won't happen again," I muttered.
"On the contrary, Mr. Weasley, I think it is quite the healthy thing to be in love. You may think what you like, but do trust me on one thing: a girl like Miss Granger is hard to come by, and may only cross in your path once in a lifetime. Do try to keep that in mind, when you feel the rise of your temperature next time, eh?"
"Yes sir, but..did you say..in love?" I asked, completely embarassed now.
"Excuse me. I meant..ahem..friends with," Dumbledore said with a wink. "By the way, Mr. Weasley, you have good form."
"Thank you, Professor," I said quite politely. Then I went over into the crowd of people. I bumped into Harry and he started talking to me.
"Did you tell her yet?" he asked, splashing a bit of water on me.
"No, but she was going on about some rubbish about me growing up, but I truly have no idea what the mad woman was talking about," I confessed.
"You growing up? So she must have..and then..yes, that's the only way that makes sense.." Harry mused to himself.
"Er..Harry?" I asked hesitantly, not wanting to ruin whatever it was he was talking to himself about. "I don't know what it is you're mumbling about, but can't you clarify what the bloody hell she said to me?"
"Ron, mate," said Harry. "Go ask her yourself. I don't want to be dragged into this."
"Fine, I will," I said, and pushed through the crowd to where Hermione was doggie-paddling, trying to stay afloat.
"What are you doing, Hermione?" I asked, laughing at her small predicament.
"I can't touch the bottom, but everyone else is standing where it's shallow enough for me to touch, so I'm paddling right here until Dumbledore says it's time to go," she said breathlessly. She sounded like it might be wearing her out.
In a brief flash of nobility and gentlemanliness, I spoke up. "Here, lean on me. That way you won't be so tired from trying to keep yourself from drowning."
She smiled in that cute way, like she knew something I didn't. I seemed to see it on her face almost all the time. "Thank you, Ron. You're lucky to be so tall."
She took the arm that I held out to her. I could feel my face starting to burn in that familiar crimson.
But just then, I heard a shout from in front of the lockers. "Aww..look. The weasel finally found himself a girlfriend-in the mudblood! How utterly sickening."
I immediately recognized the voice as Malfoy's, and before Hermione could warn me to ignore him, I shouted back. "Malfoy, you snake! She may be muggle-born, but she's got more wits than you'll ever have! Besides, at least I have a girlfriend, unlike you!"
I could see that Hermione looked bewildered, but also surprised and happy. "So, what, now we're going out?" she hissed. "Why wasn't I informed?"
"I just complimented you, and you come back at me with that?" I hissed back.
"Don't argue just now, Ron, I want to know why you said what you just said," she hissed, even more urgently than the first time.
"Can't this wait until later?" I said painedly.
"No. I want to know now," she sounded slightly peeved this time.
"All right, just a minute, don't have kittens!" I whispered, straining to hear anything from over near the lockers. The conversation with Hermione had made me miss Malfoy's comeback.
It must have been bad, though, because the next thing I knew, Dumbledore was yelling for everyone to go ahead and change so that he could speak to 'Mr. Malfoy' privately.
I guided Hermione back to shore, ignoring her pleas for me to explain my insult to Malfoy.
As soon as we were out of the water, I rushed into the lockers and closed the door. Phew. She was out of my hair-for a little bit, anyway. I tried to take as long as I could changing, but all too soon, I was ready to face the whole of Hogwarts again. Damn.
But I was never one to be a scaredy-cat, so I put on my best face and walked out of the lockers confidently. I kept this up until I saw Hermione. Then I ran and hid behind Harry.
"What are you bloody doing, Ron? Are you scared of Hermione?" Harry asked, a smile playing about his lips.
"Do me a favor, and shuddup," I whispered, ducking down.
"Well, what did you do this time?" he pondered.
"I accidentally told her, when I was yelling at Malfoy. She wanted to know what the bloody hell I was on about. I can't explain this to her! Hide me," I confessed, trying to keep hidden from view.
"Ron. Stop it. Go over there and explain to her. Look, I've talked to her, all right? She feels the same way. Don't worry. Go, before I have to hurt you," Harry confided in me.
I commented, "Like you could," before casually walking to where Hermione was waiting for the bell.
"Look who it is. Will you tell me now?" she asked urgently.
"I..er..um.." was all that came out of my mouth. Damnit. I regained my voice and squeaked, "Look, Hermione, not here. I'll tell you when we're..alone."
"I hope so, Ron. I'm getting sick of waiting," she said in a tired voice.
"I give you my word, I'll tell you tonight. The common room, when everyone else is in bed. Are you satisfied?" I was grumpy. I wondered if she could tell. Probably. Hermione had a knack for that sort of thing.
Just as I was thinking about walking away, the bell rang, and Harry wandered over to us so that we could begin the long trek back up to the castle. As we were leaving, I heard Malfoy yell, "Hey, Weasel! I know you were lying back there! You can't even get a mudblood to be your girlfriend!"
I had nearly turned around to wring his neck when two pairs of hands grabbed my robes and forced me onwards. "What a little ferret..calling you a mudblood.." I murmered angrily.
"Don't worry so much, Ron. He's done it a million times before. Besides, I've given him his penance. Remember third year?" A smile played about her lips as she looked up at me.
"Oh, yeah...that was hilarious. Good times, Hermione, good times," I laughed in rememberance.
With that we again started trudging towards the castle. In the end, we had to run in order to make it to Transfiguration on time. Next week was the beginning of OWLs, and Hermione didn't want to be late. Besides, McGonagall hadn't eased up on giving detentions and taking away house points.
We slid into our seats just as the bell rang. McGonagall raised her eyebrows. "In the nick of time, I do believe you all made it."
Nearly everyone had been almost late. No one had anticipated that the walk from the lake to the castle would take that long. Everyone grinned in relief. Today it was only Gryffindors in the Transfiguration class, and no one wanted to lose any house points so late in the year.
"We will be doing a review for the OWLs today, as they begin next week," McGonagall continued. Everyone groaned until she said, "I shall pair you up so that you can quiz each other."
Then everyone grinned in relief. That is, until she paired us. "Finnegan with Brown, Potter with Thomas, Patil with Longbottom, and Granger with Weasley."
I smiled weakly at Hermione, begging to her with my eyes not to bother me about what I had said. I truly hoped she understood me.
When she didn't, I was ever so glad. I really couldn't handle it just then. Too much had happened in the past hour or so for me to be able to take any more without a rest.
The rest of Transfiguration went okay, except for the fact that I knew about 1% of the answers. But then, that wasn't abnormal. Not abnormal at all.
After Transfiguration, we had a break, and then was dinner. I ate kind of slowly, much more so than usual. I was trying to figure out what I was going to tell Hermione. Perhaps the truth would be good, but..I just knew she didn't feel the same way, and then we'd be uncomfortable around each other for at least a few months. That wouldn't do. But what sort of lie to tell...
A/N-Another chapter over and done with...ah, aren't you all so pleased? I got this in by my own personal deadline. I'm so proud. :) I'm again sorry this is perhaps short.
As always, tell the truth in your review(s), I will examine your opinion, I promise.
Also, as I usually forget to disclaim but don't want to be sued, this isn't mine. Really, nothing but the plot, and as I've said before, that should really almost be credited to METMA Mandy, because she was the one that came up with the challenge that inspired this. Many thanks to her. ;-)
Also, one more thing. The next chapter may take a week or two. I'm not going to be home this weekend, so I mayn't have as much time to work on it. I'm pretty sure either that one or the next will be the last, but I haven't exactly planned it out yet.
Cheers!
-Lissy
I stared at her for a moment longer, taking in her fluffy brown hair, her gorgeous brown eyes and the way her body curved just right. Our robes sure did hide a lot. I mean, I did know what she looked like, somewhat, underneath them, because I had seen her in the summers and stuff, but..wow. She looked really good in her swimming suit.
I tore my eyes off of her before she caught me looking. "Hey..Ro-on..." came a voice from beside me. I turned and looked at my little sister. "Staring at Hermione, are we?" she asked, grinning sneakily.
"O-Of course I wasn't. What are you on about?"
"Oh, nothing..just you've been staring over there for the last five minutes," she said, smirking at me.
"Oh, like you haven't been staring at Harry," I shot back at her.
"No, you must have been more out of it than I thought. The only thing I noticed were his lovely heart-patterned trunks. Did he get those from Fred and George?Well, anyway, Harry is underwater just now, can't you see? Everyone but us has already jumped in!" and with that she dived into the water.
"Oh," I said a bit sheepishly, and dived in too.
"Now," said Dumbledore. "Stick your head below the water and blow bubbles."
I did as he said, sticking my head underwater, but once I got there, I saw Harry, clad in the valentine-y trunks, waving me over. So I swam over to him, and he went above water.
As soon as I did, too, he was all over me. "Ron, did you think you were being slick there?"
"Slick?" I asked, bewildered.
"Yeah, slick. Smooth?" Harry said, trying his best to clue me in.
"Er..okay..no?" I said, quite confused.
"I'm sorry, it's just stuff that Dudley was saying last year. It must have been ingrained in my brain," Harry apologized. "So you weren't, though?"
"I don't think so. What are you talking about, though?" I asked, still not completely clued in.
"You were staring like-like you'd seen a ghost!" Harry exclaimed.
"I see ghosts all the time, it's not that big of a deal..." I was confused again.
"Sorry, it's another muggle expression, I guess. Well, you were staring pretty hard, though, anyway," Harry said, smirking at me.
"Oh..you mean with Hermione, don't you?" I was guilty.
"Yes, you thick-headed dolt. Who else have you been staring at? My goodness," said Harry, winking heartily at me.
"Harry, give it a rest, will you? I'm sick of worrying about Hermione all the time-whether she's happy or she's mad at me, whether she's crying or off studying, whether she's wearing a beautiful bathing suit or whether she's wearing sweatpants and a teeshirt. I love her just the same, why should it matter?" I had really had it. I didn't want to be waltzing around each other all the time. "I think we should either get together or just not be friends. I can't stand it just sitting here like a duck, waiting for something to happen." I splashed my fisted hands into the water.
Dumbledore glanced over at me before continuing to talk. "When you put your face into the water, never breathe in, or else you will find your nasal passages filled with liquid. It is also helpful to blow out, thus breathing while not truly breathing."
I wondered if he could tell I wasn't paying attention. Just as I started to listen again, Harry responded to my outburst.
"I think you should tell her all that and not me, mate. Just..er...go ahead and tell her you rate her, why don't you? It's true, isn't it?"
"I-I didn't say that. I said..I said..er..," I was really feeling shirty there. What had I just blurted out?
"How can you say that? You just told me that you loved her..." Harry was really trying to kill me.
"All right, I guess I did. Does that mean I have to tell her?" I didn't really know what I wanted.
"You just said that you were tired of dancing around each other, so why don't you do something about it? Tell her what you told me in the beginning there. And don't get flustered. You never sound good when you're flustered," Harry whispered, glancing at Dumbledore to make sure he wasn't watching us. "It's just some friendly advice, mind. I don't really know what I'm doing."
"Right. Well, I'll do it later, maybe towards the end of class. But don't you think we ought to pay a bit of attention to Dumbledore? I mean, he's a nice guy, and we do need to know this for OWLs," I whispered, turning and listening to Dumbledore.
"She's rubbed off on you more than you'll ever know, Ron. You just told me to pay attention to a teacher because of OWLs!" Harry laughed.
"Bug off, mate. Shut your gob," I said, turning back to Dumbledore. He was now explaining something that I didn't understand at all.
"So if you will all kindly come to the edge here, I will teach you how to kick, just in case you did not understand what I just said," called Dumbledore, lapping over to the edge and demonstrating how to hold on.
When he asked for us all to follow him, I did, and made it so I was just next to Hermione. I got into the position he had told us to and waited for him to come and check me.
"Hey there, Hermione," I said softly so that no one would hear.
"Hello," she whispered back.
"Well..er..I guess this is one class where you can't take notes, hmm?" I said a bit flusteredly.
"I suppose so. Not that that's a bad thing, of course. It gives much more time for actually doing the work, and plus, there's less writer's cramps. I hate writer's cramp," she muttered, more to herself than to me.
"I've personally never had it, so I can't really sympathize," I said, shaking my head.
"Not that you do that much work to begin with, eh? Usually you just copy off of mine," Hermione muttered darkly.
"Not this again. Hermione, can't we ever discuss anything without fighting? I haven't got the time to be worrying whether you're mad or happy with me, or crying or just stressed out because of OWLs. I am sick of sitting on my arse waiting!"
"Oh, yes, you're the one who has been waiting. Ronald Weasley, I've been waiting nearly three years for you to come to your senses and grow up. And you say you've been waiting. Ha!" she rolled her eyes at me and grinned, shaking her head.
"You've been waiting..How long?" I asked in complete bewilderment.
"Like I said, about three years for you to grow up. Although I've been waiting far longer than that for you to realize that you--" she stopped dead. "Never mind."
"What? What were you about to say? Tell a bloke what you've been waiting for him to do for however long!" I raised my eyebrows. Just then, one of my hands slipped and my face went flying into the water. I came up spitting and blinking it out of my eyes.
Hermione laughed heartily before continuing on. "Ah, never mind, like I said. It's probably never going to happen, so what am I wasting my time for? It's not like..like..like you'll ever..umm...er...oh, never mind it all!" she cried, sufficiently flustered.
"But, Hermione, I want to know! Can't you just tell me and be done with it?" I asked, becoming impatient.
Dumbledore came just at that instant and surveyed Hermione. "Very good, Miss Granger. You will be quite the good swimmer, eh?"
Hermione nodded proudly. "My parents sent me for lessons when I was younger, but I felt it would be good to brush up."
"Ah, very good. Well, you may go and wait with the others who are finished," Dumbledore said, nodding over to a waiting crowd near the edge of the water.
Hermione turned and swum off, soon becoming immersed in the crowd.
"Well well, Mr. Weasley. I can see you are quite infatuated with young Miss Granger. You have done nothing but talk about her all lesson," Dumbledore said, looking down at me.
I blushed and looked away, then looked into his eyes. To my surprise, he didn't look stern or even mad. He was smiling, and that familiar twinkle was going in his eyes.
"I'm sorry, Professor. It won't happen again," I muttered.
"On the contrary, Mr. Weasley, I think it is quite the healthy thing to be in love. You may think what you like, but do trust me on one thing: a girl like Miss Granger is hard to come by, and may only cross in your path once in a lifetime. Do try to keep that in mind, when you feel the rise of your temperature next time, eh?"
"Yes sir, but..did you say..in love?" I asked, completely embarassed now.
"Excuse me. I meant..ahem..friends with," Dumbledore said with a wink. "By the way, Mr. Weasley, you have good form."
"Thank you, Professor," I said quite politely. Then I went over into the crowd of people. I bumped into Harry and he started talking to me.
"Did you tell her yet?" he asked, splashing a bit of water on me.
"No, but she was going on about some rubbish about me growing up, but I truly have no idea what the mad woman was talking about," I confessed.
"You growing up? So she must have..and then..yes, that's the only way that makes sense.." Harry mused to himself.
"Er..Harry?" I asked hesitantly, not wanting to ruin whatever it was he was talking to himself about. "I don't know what it is you're mumbling about, but can't you clarify what the bloody hell she said to me?"
"Ron, mate," said Harry. "Go ask her yourself. I don't want to be dragged into this."
"Fine, I will," I said, and pushed through the crowd to where Hermione was doggie-paddling, trying to stay afloat.
"What are you doing, Hermione?" I asked, laughing at her small predicament.
"I can't touch the bottom, but everyone else is standing where it's shallow enough for me to touch, so I'm paddling right here until Dumbledore says it's time to go," she said breathlessly. She sounded like it might be wearing her out.
In a brief flash of nobility and gentlemanliness, I spoke up. "Here, lean on me. That way you won't be so tired from trying to keep yourself from drowning."
She smiled in that cute way, like she knew something I didn't. I seemed to see it on her face almost all the time. "Thank you, Ron. You're lucky to be so tall."
She took the arm that I held out to her. I could feel my face starting to burn in that familiar crimson.
But just then, I heard a shout from in front of the lockers. "Aww..look. The weasel finally found himself a girlfriend-in the mudblood! How utterly sickening."
I immediately recognized the voice as Malfoy's, and before Hermione could warn me to ignore him, I shouted back. "Malfoy, you snake! She may be muggle-born, but she's got more wits than you'll ever have! Besides, at least I have a girlfriend, unlike you!"
I could see that Hermione looked bewildered, but also surprised and happy. "So, what, now we're going out?" she hissed. "Why wasn't I informed?"
"I just complimented you, and you come back at me with that?" I hissed back.
"Don't argue just now, Ron, I want to know why you said what you just said," she hissed, even more urgently than the first time.
"Can't this wait until later?" I said painedly.
"No. I want to know now," she sounded slightly peeved this time.
"All right, just a minute, don't have kittens!" I whispered, straining to hear anything from over near the lockers. The conversation with Hermione had made me miss Malfoy's comeback.
It must have been bad, though, because the next thing I knew, Dumbledore was yelling for everyone to go ahead and change so that he could speak to 'Mr. Malfoy' privately.
I guided Hermione back to shore, ignoring her pleas for me to explain my insult to Malfoy.
As soon as we were out of the water, I rushed into the lockers and closed the door. Phew. She was out of my hair-for a little bit, anyway. I tried to take as long as I could changing, but all too soon, I was ready to face the whole of Hogwarts again. Damn.
But I was never one to be a scaredy-cat, so I put on my best face and walked out of the lockers confidently. I kept this up until I saw Hermione. Then I ran and hid behind Harry.
"What are you bloody doing, Ron? Are you scared of Hermione?" Harry asked, a smile playing about his lips.
"Do me a favor, and shuddup," I whispered, ducking down.
"Well, what did you do this time?" he pondered.
"I accidentally told her, when I was yelling at Malfoy. She wanted to know what the bloody hell I was on about. I can't explain this to her! Hide me," I confessed, trying to keep hidden from view.
"Ron. Stop it. Go over there and explain to her. Look, I've talked to her, all right? She feels the same way. Don't worry. Go, before I have to hurt you," Harry confided in me.
I commented, "Like you could," before casually walking to where Hermione was waiting for the bell.
"Look who it is. Will you tell me now?" she asked urgently.
"I..er..um.." was all that came out of my mouth. Damnit. I regained my voice and squeaked, "Look, Hermione, not here. I'll tell you when we're..alone."
"I hope so, Ron. I'm getting sick of waiting," she said in a tired voice.
"I give you my word, I'll tell you tonight. The common room, when everyone else is in bed. Are you satisfied?" I was grumpy. I wondered if she could tell. Probably. Hermione had a knack for that sort of thing.
Just as I was thinking about walking away, the bell rang, and Harry wandered over to us so that we could begin the long trek back up to the castle. As we were leaving, I heard Malfoy yell, "Hey, Weasel! I know you were lying back there! You can't even get a mudblood to be your girlfriend!"
I had nearly turned around to wring his neck when two pairs of hands grabbed my robes and forced me onwards. "What a little ferret..calling you a mudblood.." I murmered angrily.
"Don't worry so much, Ron. He's done it a million times before. Besides, I've given him his penance. Remember third year?" A smile played about her lips as she looked up at me.
"Oh, yeah...that was hilarious. Good times, Hermione, good times," I laughed in rememberance.
With that we again started trudging towards the castle. In the end, we had to run in order to make it to Transfiguration on time. Next week was the beginning of OWLs, and Hermione didn't want to be late. Besides, McGonagall hadn't eased up on giving detentions and taking away house points.
We slid into our seats just as the bell rang. McGonagall raised her eyebrows. "In the nick of time, I do believe you all made it."
Nearly everyone had been almost late. No one had anticipated that the walk from the lake to the castle would take that long. Everyone grinned in relief. Today it was only Gryffindors in the Transfiguration class, and no one wanted to lose any house points so late in the year.
"We will be doing a review for the OWLs today, as they begin next week," McGonagall continued. Everyone groaned until she said, "I shall pair you up so that you can quiz each other."
Then everyone grinned in relief. That is, until she paired us. "Finnegan with Brown, Potter with Thomas, Patil with Longbottom, and Granger with Weasley."
I smiled weakly at Hermione, begging to her with my eyes not to bother me about what I had said. I truly hoped she understood me.
When she didn't, I was ever so glad. I really couldn't handle it just then. Too much had happened in the past hour or so for me to be able to take any more without a rest.
The rest of Transfiguration went okay, except for the fact that I knew about 1% of the answers. But then, that wasn't abnormal. Not abnormal at all.
After Transfiguration, we had a break, and then was dinner. I ate kind of slowly, much more so than usual. I was trying to figure out what I was going to tell Hermione. Perhaps the truth would be good, but..I just knew she didn't feel the same way, and then we'd be uncomfortable around each other for at least a few months. That wouldn't do. But what sort of lie to tell...
A/N-Another chapter over and done with...ah, aren't you all so pleased? I got this in by my own personal deadline. I'm so proud. :) I'm again sorry this is perhaps short.
As always, tell the truth in your review(s), I will examine your opinion, I promise.
Also, as I usually forget to disclaim but don't want to be sued, this isn't mine. Really, nothing but the plot, and as I've said before, that should really almost be credited to METMA Mandy, because she was the one that came up with the challenge that inspired this. Many thanks to her. ;-)
Also, one more thing. The next chapter may take a week or two. I'm not going to be home this weekend, so I mayn't have as much time to work on it. I'm pretty sure either that one or the next will be the last, but I haven't exactly planned it out yet.
Cheers!
-Lissy