Disclaimer: They aren't mine.

Harry sat down in the Great Hall for lunch. He was exhausted (as well as starving) from Double Potions that morning. Hermione and Ron seemed to agree.

"I hate that man," Hermione said through gritted teeth.

"This coming from the girl who once said, and I quote," Harry paused briefly to clear his throat, "'We should never ever speak badly of our professors.'"

Hermione went red, "Stop," she muttered.

Ron and Harry shared a laugh as they noticed Fred Weasley walking over to them.

"Hey," Fred said. He got to the point quickly, turning and looking straight at Harry. "There are going to have three Quidditch team meetings this week. You know, deciding on the new captain, getting in some early practice, yada yada. The old drill. But we all need to be there."

"Cool," Harry said, starting to shift his attention back to lunch. Suddenly, he turned back around to ask, "When?"

"Well, what day is today? Tuesday?"

"No," Harry shook his head. "Wednesday." He shot a meaningful look at Ron and Hermione.

"Oh! Tonight then. Seven to nine." Fred grinned.

"But I thought we weren't allowed to practice after dark!" Harry said, obvious panick on his voice.

"Just this week. Hufflepuff's booked the same schedule. But don't be scared," Fred said with a wicked grin. "Madame Hooch will be overseeing."

"All right." Harry swallowed nervously.

"See you then, old sport." Fred gave a military salute as goodbye and walked off.

As soon as Fred was out of earshot, Hermione wasted no time in saying, "Harry!"

"We have to go to the library tonight!" Ron said.

Hermione gave him a look that simply said, Duh. "As if that wasn't the most obvious thing in the world." She rolled her eyes.

"I know!" Harry hissed. "I know," he said, calming himself. "But I have to go to these practices. It's my duty." He paused and thought. "Can't we do it this weekend?"

"And waste valuable study time?!?!" Hermione said, shocked. "Besides, I can't. I'm tutoring Neville in Potions both afternoons."

"Like that's going to be any help," Ron said with a scowl.

Harry sighed. He wondered why he was doing this, but. "I guess you two'll have to go without me, then."

Ron and Hermione glanced at each other. It was going to be one of those kinds of days.

It was shortly after dinner that Harry went to Quidditch practice, and Ron and Hermione were left retreating quickly to the Common Room.

"What are we going to do without the invisibility cloak?" Hermione questioned through the pair's fast pace.

"Relax," Ron said nonchalantly. "I know where it is. Snorglebat." He gave the password and the portrait of the fat lady swung open to the Gryffindor Common Room. He walked in, Hermione close behind, and was glad to see it was still empty. He began to walk up the stairs to the boys' dorm when he noticed Hermione's footsteps were no longer present behind his. He turned to look at her. "What?"

"Ron," she said impatiently. "You know I'm not allowed in the boys' dorm!"

"What?" he said again with a grin. "No one's around. And it's not like you're breaking a law or whatever."

"Ron it's a school rule." She said school rule with a specific emphasis, as though it was worse than breaking a law.

"Oh calm down, don't be scared. I bet you the girls' dorms are exactly the same. Come on." He motioned with his hand for her to follow.

She gave a groan of impatience and quickly climbed up the stairs. "I still don't see why I have to do this." she muttered.

She followed Ron through the doorway apprehensively, but at once saw that he was right. It was exactly like the girls' dorm, with the small exception that it was a lot messier. Oh yes, and the Quidditch and soccer posters surrounding the walls. She couldn't help but feel a shudder of nervousness about the fact she was standing in the room where Ron slept, but shrugged it off as quickly as possible.

Ron, meanwhile, had taken the liberty to open the trunk at the foot of Harry's bed and was going through the items inside like he had done it every day. "Hey, look, Hermione," he said, holding some sort of box up. "He still hasn't eaten the Chocolate Frogs Hagrid sent for his birthday. You know if it were me, they would've been."

"Ron!" Hermione said. "We don't have all day you know."

"Fine, fine," he said, going back to the trunk immediately. "Don't worry, though, I know exactly where he keeps it. It should be right." Ron's voice faded away slowly as he swallowed nervously. "Here." It was a faint end to a sentence, especially for one that had started out so confidently. This, of course, made Hermione panicky.

"What?" she asked, her voice higher than usual. "What is it?"

"The cloak," Ron said softly. "The cloak isn't here."

"What do you mean it's not here?" Hermione said shrilly. "I thought you knew exactly where he kept it!"

"I did, he's kept it in the same spot for the past four years!" Ron said matching her tone. "Only now it isn't here!"

Hermione lowered her voice, realizing that she would be in big trouble if they were to scream and be found out. "Okay, so now what do we do?"

Ron thought for a moment. "Don't you know any spells that can make you invisible?"

Hermione shook her head. "We could've saved years of trouble if I knew that one."

Ron inhaled slowly, knowing there was only one option left. "We'll have to try to sneak into the library without it."

"And just how are we going to manage that stunt?"

"There are plenty of dark corridors. Anytime we hear something, just duck in there."

Hermione knew it was a risk, but she also knew that they had to find out exactly what was going on with that key. For all of their safety. She nodded carefully.

The two crept down the stairs so that they were not noticed, and left the Common Room without any disruption or notice. They kept up a fast but quiet pace in the hall. Suddenly Ron broke their tensed silence.

"So what are we looking for again?"

"Ummm." It was obvious Hermione wasn't thinking. "Locks," she replied regaining her senses. "A book on old Muggle locks."

"I see," he answered. He was tempted to ask, "How are you, Hermione?" but he didn't. He didn't even know what was going on anymore. Lately.lately it seemed like things were different, somehow. Hermione seemed different too, but in a way he'd never imagined she could be. He knew he was seeing Hermione in a way he never had before, as well. It wasn't the way he saw girls like Lavender Brown or Parvati Patil. Hermione wasn't like them. She was smarter than all of them put together, she was ever ambitious, and just so incredibly beautiful.

Wait. Had he just said that? About Hermione Granger? Had he really just said that Hermione was beautiful? No, no, that couldn't have been. Just a little slip of the mind was all. Just a little slip. Ron literally shook his head to remove the thought.

"Are you all right?" Hermione asked, a genuine look of concern crossing her face.

"Yes, fine," he muttered. He suddenly wished the invisibility cloak had been there, just so that he could spend a few minutes under it with her. Suddenly, Ron jerked his head up in surprise. Footsteps? Yes, and they were getting closer. He spotted a dark corridor, and grabbed Hermione by the elbow to pull them both inside of it.

The corridor was much smaller than Ron had thought it would be, but he supposed it was a good things since too much light was not let inside. Ron stayed close to the wall, and soon enough, Filch, the school's caretaker, came around to eye everything in sight.

Hermione, however, was not paying attention to Filch. She had all of a sudden realized what close quarters she and Ron were in. They were facing one another and were barely centimeters apart. She could hear him breathing. Were his breaths as nervous as hers seemed to be? Was she acting stupid? She couldn't help but to slightly inhale his scent through her shallow breaths, and at once told herself to stop acting like such a teenage girl. But why was her heart beating so fast? And, more to the point, was Ron's as well? Suddenly, a hand on hers knocked her out of her reverie. A million shocks washed over her like waves on the sea. She looked up to see a smiling Ron.

"Filch is gone. We can go now." He took her hand and pulled her out of the little corridor, glad to be outside the tiny space.

"Well, that's the first plan of yours that's ever worked," she said with a grin.

"What are you talking about?" Ron said in mock defense. "Don't you remember the live chess game in our first year? Who led us through that?"

"You did," she said with a laugh. How could she forget?

They found the library without any more trouble from Filch or his cat Mrs. Norris. No one was inside, but it turned out the place was locked. Hermione was the first to pull out her wand. "Alohomora," she said under her breath. The lock instantly opened. She pushed open the door.

"Hermione's famous spell," Ron said with a half smile.

"Shhhh," she said. They crept past rows and rows of regular books before finding the restricted section. Without a second glance at Ron, Hermione pushed open the tiny gate. Now the two were among some of the oldest and most horrible books in history.

"Locks, locks," Hermione muttered. The shelves were very, very tall, reaching quite above Ron's head. She could not see all of the books, but she could see Ron looking as well.

"Muggle Studies: Muggle Locks!" he exclaimed. "I've found it!"

"Where?" Hermione asked excitedly.

Ron pointed to a shelf that was quite high above his own head. "I was leaning back to read all the names of books up there," he said.

"But how do we get the book down?" Hermione muttered. She was quite sure that Ron would not be able to reach the book, even from his height. But she knew that she might be able to with a ladder. "Ron, see if there's a ladder anywhere around here."

They checked the whole library for its battered up ladder but it was not to be found. "Where could it have gone?" Ron said, scratching his head.

"More to the point, how do we get the book down now?" Hermione asked.

Ron turned to look at her. "Well," he said embarrassedly, "I could always lift you." He turned fairly red, which was obvious even in the low light of the lantern they were carrying.

"Well." Hermione said apprehensively, "Well, all right."

"Come here," Ron said. He stood behind her, and placed his arms around her waist. Jesus, he thought. He lifted her slightly, mildly surprised at her lightness. Once she was a good distance up, he moved his hands down to her lower hips, realizing there was no other choice than this uncomfortable position.

But it was really not so bad.

Hermione felt a bit unsteady in someone else's hands, but seemed to feel very safe. She wondered if she would feel the same safety if it was Harry, but tried not to think of that. Instead of reveling in the fact that Ron was touching her, she did her best to turn her attention to finding the book. "Was it this one Ron?" she asked, her voice cracking just a bit.

"Is it green?" he said with the same nervous crack in his voice.

"Yeah," was her almost instant reply. She grabbed the book and said, "Okay, I've got it."

Ron slowly put her down, very carefully, almost as though she were a china doll. He found his hands around her waist again, and took a moment to remove them once more. The two did not look at each other as Hermione stepped away.

"D'you think we should look at it now, or wait until Harry gets back?" Hermione asked.

Ron couldn't help but think of how it was so like her, to be thinking of everyone else on the planet. "Wait for Harry," Ron said with a short nod of his head. "After all, he has just as much right to know."

They left the library with a quick repair of the lock, and Ron was breathing slowly and deeply to recover from.from whatever had happened there. He hoped the Common Room would be empty, as he really didn't want to deal with anyone at this moment.

It was just his luck.

"I don't understand why Harry's not back yet," Hermione said, her brow furrowed. "It's already nine-thirty."

"Well," Ron started, "we may as well get a peak at the book now. I mean, the sooner we start the work the sooner it'll be done." They sat down at a corner sofa together, keeping a reasonable distance from one another. Ron swallowed. "I.I think we should probably open the book now," he suggested.

"Oh!" Hermione seemed to suddenly snap back to attention. "Yes, yes, of course." She absently flipped to page 23. "So.locks." She wasn't paying any attention whatsoever. "Locks are." She seemed to suddenly realize her strange behavior, and at once went back to being Hermione. She sat up straighter, and began to read aloud about locks, starting from page one.

"This is boring," Ron said after a brief three minutes.

"I know, isn't it?" She giggled and turned in to face him. "I can't believe we're reading about locks."

Suddenly they were a lot closer together, and Ron tried to hide the strain in his voice. "I thought you liked to know everything about everything." He gave her the most mischevious grin he could muster.

She shot him a teasing glare. "No, you know I don't. It's just crazy. You know, in the Muggle world, nobody really cares about locks. It's just funny that wizards would find such boring things so interesting."

"So speaks a Muggle-born," Ron said with a roll of his eyes. "But I do see your point."

"I knew you would," she said. And suddenly, they were both uncomfortable again.

It seemed to be the theme of the night.

Later that night, Hermione was awake in her bed, trying to ignore the snores of Parvati next to her. She wasn't up thinking about locks, like she might've been two years ago. Now she was thinking about the trip to the library itself.

Had all of it really happened? It had been so weird, so uncomfortable. But all so wonderful at the same time. And she knew that she wasn't the only one. She had heard Ron speak funnily twice that night. Was she crowding him? No, that was nonsense. They were best friends, they had been crowding one another since they were eleven. Maybe Ron was having a tough time with something else.

She wished he would talk to her about it. Maybe she would be able to help. But deep down, she knew it wasn't something else. It was something to do with both of them, something she had never faced before, and something she didn't want to come close to admitting.

Meanwhile, Ron was awake as well. He could still feel Hermione's waist in his hands, and he longed to touch her again. But why was he thinking like this? Was he insane? Maybe he should go to visit Madame Pomfrey. No, that was a Hermione thing to think.

Hermione. And the cycle began again.

They both knew one thing. Tomorrow their focus was going to be on one thing and one thing only: locks.

So, my very first romantic chapter. How do you like? But don't worry, I have plenty in store for these two, just you wait and see. For all you plot- lovers out there, I promise the next chapter will have more of that. For now, I WANT REVIEWS!!!!!!!!!! PLEASE REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!