Chapter four

"Oh wow, that's cute!"

"Are they-"

"I guess!"

"Ah, ickle Ronnie's growing up! Look at that!"

Hermione woke with a start. She barely had to raise her head to see that almost every Gryffindor was standing around them, staring and gushing. Oh dear, she thought, what will Ron think? She looked around for a sign of Ginny or Harry, and eventually her eyes found them in the corner, Harry wearing a mischevious smirk and Ginny looking like she had just seen a baby hippogriff take it's first steps towards his mommy. Get them out of here! she mouthed to Harry, but he pretended not to understand. She looked down at Ron as he began to stir.

"Hm, but I don't like walnuts mum!" he mumbled, and Hermione tried to block out the noise so he wouldn't wake. She stalled as much as she could, but to her dismay, he opened his eyes and sighed happily. Before he had a chance to notice everyone else around them, Ron looked at Hermione, kissed her on the cheek and said "Good morning!" He honestly hadn't put much thought into his actions. Of course, just as he did this, practically all of the girls swooned, and the guys all chuckled. Ron was startled and frantically got a glance at his fans before blushing a bright tomato red.

"Er, good morning! um...right" he managed to squeeze out before he ducked under the blanket. Hermione laughed and blushed as well.

Ron had insisted on waiting for everyone to leave before he emerged from under the blanket, so Hermione decided to go change. She figured she would cause more damage if she stayed there with him. She came back down in her robes and noticed that the common room was almost empty. Everyone had left since it seemed obvious that the show was over. Hermione walked over and pulled the blanket off of Ron.

"Morning sunshine!" she said sarcastically.

"Are they gone?" was the only thing Ron could say without blushing profusely.

"Yeah, the crowd died down once George had figured you'd suffered enough and brought out some of his and Fred's new inventions. Rather nice of him, really." She smirked at him as he stood up cautiously, looking around just to be sure.

"Better get ready if you want to make it to breakfast!"

"Hey, will you wait for me?" he asked, smiling innocently.

Hermione smiled resignedly and plopped herself on a chair as he ran up the stairs. She couldn't help but chuckle. Since when did he not like walnuts?

Downstairs, the students recieved their schedules, and just then did Harry realize that, for the first time in their history at Hogwarts, they had the same DADA teacher for the second year in a row. Mrs. Figg had come last year, and no one could really have expected her to say, considering the injury she sustained during the bringing down of Voldemort. But bravely and astonishingly enough, she had decided to hang in there. Which was a good thing. Harry had really enjoyed her DADA class last year, she was a particularly interesting teacher. Harry mentioned this to Ron, but Ron was too preoccupied to respond. He was busy throwing toast bits at Hermione while she tried to read her schedule.

Normally Hermione would scowl at Ron, but for some reason she laughed instead and picked up her toast bits. The rest of breakfast was spent avoiding shots from the both of them and half of Gryffindor table watching in amusement. Fred and George were about to join in when McGonagall threw them a sharp look from the head table, and they reluctantly placed their ammo back on their plates.

Harry, Ron and Hermione said goodbye to Ginny as they climbed out of the portrait hole and headed towards Care of Magical Creatures, which they had first. They reached Hagrid's hut and waited for him outside. He emerged a few moments carrying what looked like boxes of plant bulbs. The three of them looked at each other, bewildered...plants weren't magical creatures...but watched all the same. Finally Hagrid spoke.

"Mornin, all! How are we doin today?" he asked, smiling.

"Good," they replied.

Soon everyone arrived and stood around the plants, wearing expressions similar to those worn by Ron, Harry and Hermione moments before.

Hagrid assigned four to a group, and each group to a table. They were supposed to remove the excess soil off the roots and simply plant the bulbs into the ground, which seemed simple enough. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville walked over to a table, put on their gloves, and began working. Harry noticed that Ron seemed much calmer now, so he decided to bring up their argument...

"Er, Ron?" Harry asked tentatively. Ron looked up from his bulb.

"Yeah?" Ron wondered why Harry sounded so cautious.

"Well, about last night...I wanted to say that you're right, I probably wouldn't be a very good person for Ginny to be with...I guess I just hadn't thought about it, but you're completely right. She needs somebody who's good for her, and I'd probably end up screwing things over somehow, and I wouldn't want to ruin things with her or you..."

Harry had been staring at his bulb the whole time, resignedly picking soil out of the same spot, although there wasn't any more soil there to be picked off. Ron looked at Harry incredulously. Was he serious? Now that he had just become used to the fact that they liked each other he was giving up? Right before he opened his mouth to speak, he noticed Hermione glaring at him, but only because she had not been aware of this before now. He smiled sheepishly and turned back to answer Harry.

"Harry, are you joking? You're the best guy I know, of course you'd be good for her! I can't believe you're saying this!" Ron tried to convince Harry that he encouraged this relationship, but nothing he said was very encouraging at all. It turned out he wasn't very good with words. (what a surprise...) Ron became flustered and picked at the same spot of his bulb as well. Harry had already decided it wasn't worth causing a rift in his friendships with Ginny or Ron, and nothing would change his mind. Or could it? If the three of them hadn't been so involved in their own thoughts, maybe one of them would have noticed that Neville seemed to be deeply occupied in his own turmoil. He had been a little taken aback by the previous conversation...

The rest of the afternoon passed in virtual silence. Ron had given up on trying to convince Harry that he wanted him to go out with her, and Harry was feeling really down about the whole thing, but was determined to get over it. Hermione was the only one who spoke, but nothing she had to say was consoling to either of them, so she basically ended up talking to herself. Finally, in what seemed like the longest day ever, classes were over and they were sitting at the Gryffindor table at dinner. Ginny came over to them and sat next to Harry, of course not aware of what had happened that day. She smiled at them all and asked them how the first day of classes went, to which they all mumbled some form of encouraging remark, to which Ginny frowned.

"What's wrong?"

Harry couldn't bring himself to look at her bright, caring eyes, so instead he kept staring at him potatoes.

"Nothing, we're just...tired, that's all." he said, trying to sound the part. Ginny felt a little hurt by his coldness, so she too stared down at her plate and played silently with her peas. Ron really couldn't take anymore of this. He was about to blab when Hermione noticed and kicked him under the table.

"Hey, what the--"

"Ron, I'm going upstairs to start our potions work, but I need help. Would you mind?" she asked pointedly.

Ron glanced at Harry and Ginny before he got up and followed Hermione. Ginny and Harry sat in an awkward silence, while Harry was constantly aware of the parcel in his pocket. He had kept it there every day and looked forward to when he could present it, but now the whole thing seemed pointless. He took the parcel out of his pocket and placed it on the table.

"I got this for you, I noticed you watching it in Diagon Alley, so I went back for it..."

He wanted to keep talking, but he was too upset and didn't want to imply anything more, so he got up from the table and walked out of the Great Hall. Ginny, tears pushing from behind her eyes, stared at the package until finally, she couldn't take anymore. She slowly pulled apart the tape and took the paper off to see a silver case. A big grin spread across her face as she opened the case, and the tears streamed down her cheeks...

He had seen her watching it, he went back for it...she closed the case and sighed. Then she realized that he had just taken off, so she got up as quickly as she could without tripping over herself and chased after him.