Disclaimer: Guess what? I don't own Harry Potter.
A/N: All you people who are reviewing- I love you! Seriously, if it weren't for you, I wouldn't be writing this at all. Kay, I'm not sure if I really like this chapter. . . I've brought in some more characters, as the world of Hogwarts does not revolve around our favorite trio. . . .so anyway, there's going to be somewhat of a side plot, and it starts in this chapter. Anyway, enough talk. Read
Harry winced as he heard Ron's loud and angry footsteps coming up the stairs. It must've been a disaster, judging by the fact that Hermione had run up to her dormitory in tears fifteen minutes ago.
Ron flung the door open and walked over to Harry, crossing his arms over his chest.
"I can't believe you," he said, nearly spitting with anger. "Can't you keep a secret?"
"It was all for the best, really," Harry tried rather timidly. At that, Ron lost control.
"ALL FOR THE BEST? Ha! The best. What a joke," he shouted, swinging his arms around wildly. "Hermione's mad at me, and I'm mad at you. Bloody hell, Harry! All for the best. Ha!" Harry took a step backwards.
"If you would just face the facts," he began, but Ron cut him off.
"Face the facts! What facts? I don't like Hermione. She doesn't like me. Oooh, real difficult, Harry," Ron sneered. Harry stamped his foot, frustrated.
"You do like her, liar, and I know she likes you, I know it!"
"How do you know for sure, hmm?" Ron challenged, his eyes flashing.
"She told me, you git," Harry said, before clapping a hand over his mouth. Hermione hadn't directly said 'don't tell Ron' but it had been pretty obvious that their conversation had been a private one. "Look, pretend I never said that, okay?" Ron held out a hand to stop him.
"Wait just a second. She likes me? For real?" Harry nodded miserably. Now he'd done it. Lost his two best friends in one fell swoop. Congratulations to the Boy Who Lived His Life Without Friends, Harry said to himself.
"Brilliant!" Ron was shouting. "I knew it, I always did! I've got to go talk to her, I've got to apologize-"
"I don't think now would be the best time, Ron," Harry advised, still upset. "She ran up here crying. I take it you had something to do with it." Ron nodded. "Er. . . .I just don't think she really wants to talk to you right now, is all." Ron sat on the bed, sighing.
"You're probably right. She's still mad at me. I must've sounded like a brainless git down there," Ron mumbled.
"What did you say?" Harry asked dubiously.
"I told her that I knew she didn't like me, and that I didn't like her, so we'd never go out with each other. In a somewhat harsher manner." Harry groaned out loud, while cheering inside his head. There was still a chance!
"Nice one, Ron."
"Well, none of it would've happened if YOU hadn't told Hermione I liked her, so this is really all YOUR fault," Ron said, annoyed. Harry gaped at him soundlessly. At last, after a few minutes, Harry managed to find words.
"MY fault?" Harry asked incredulously. "My fault? If you must know, Ron, I never wanted any of this to happen. But I don't expect you to believe that. It's always the same, always. You didn't believe I didn't want to be a Triwizard Champion, and I bet you won't believe me now. But honestly. You really think I'd want to lose my two best friends?"
"What do you mean, lose us? And I DID believe you about the Triwizard thing, eventually. Wait a minute. . . Harry, are you jealous?" It was Ron's turn to sound incredulous, and Harry's turn to be extremely annoyed.
"I am NOT jealous. What gave you that idea? Why would I be jealous of YOU?"
"I don't know, Harry," Ron spat. "I suppose I'm just not quite up to your standards. Not quite good enough for you, eh?"
"No," Harry said furiously. "You're not. I don't want a friend who blames me every time something goes wrong between him and his crush. Just. . .leave me alone, okay?" Harry snapped his bed curtains shut and laid down, breathing heavily. Ron followed suit.
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Hermione sobbed quietly into Crookshanks's fur. "I can't believe I was so stupid," she murmured. "How could I have believed Harry? It was probably his and Ron's idea of a joke. . ."
"Hermione?" Hermione jumped as she heard Lavender's voice.
"Go away," she muttered, pressing her tear-streaked face harder against her cat's back. "Just leave me alone." She really wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone, especially Lavender, whom she'd never been good friends with since the incident about Lavender's bunny's death in their third year.
"It's my dormitory, too, Hermione. And anyway, you're crying. What's wrong? Malfoy?" Lavender guessed. Hermione shook her head. "You failed your N.E.W.T.S.?" she joked. "Tell me, is it Ron and Harry?" At this Hermione nodded. "Oh, Hermione, don't worry about it. Boys will be boys, and boys can be grade-a jerks a whole lot of the time. You should hear the things Seamus says to me-!"
"But Ron and Harry aren't Seamus, they're Ron and Harry, my best friends, and now. . . .I can't face them tomorrow, I can't, I just-" Hermione broke off, and Lavender frowned.
"Okay, Hermione, spill it. What have they done?" Hermione sighed.
"I don't know why I still have inhibitions about telling you, as everyone will know by tomorrow anyway, but still. . . . it was so humiliating." She looked up at Lavender. "Promise you won't laugh or anything?" Lavender nodded.
"Promise."
"Harry told me this afternoon that he knew I liked Ron- you know, LIKE like. And then, he said. . . .Ron felt the same way about me, and that I should tell him how I felt. He was so convincing! But when I told Ron, he started laughing, and saying that he never liked me."
"Did he blush?" Lavender asked immediately. Hermione frowned, remembering.
"Come to think of it, yes, he did, at least, I THINK he did. . . .but I'm not quite sure. . . ."
"Because if he did," Lavender cut in, "then he really does like you. He's probably just embarrassed, you know? Maybe he thinks you were the one joking, or something. You know boys- they have a strange way of looking at things." Hermione thought back on what she told Harry. Maybe Ron still thought it would be losing, in a way, to admit he really did have feelings for Hermione, after denying it for all these years.
Hermione suddenly broke into a grin. "I think I've figured it out!" she cried gleefully, her former tears forgotten. She got up to go find Ron and talk to him, but Lavender stopped her.
"I don't think now is the greatest time-" Lavender began. Hermione's face fell.
"You're probably right."
"Listen, Parvati and Dean are out on a walk, and I've got no one to talk to..would you mind if I just stayed in here and talked with you?"
"No, I don't mind," Hermione replied. And for once, she meant it.
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"Hey, Ron and Harry, want to join Neville and me for a game of exploding snap?" Seamus asked, bursting into the dormitory. Ron stuck his head out from behind his bed curtains.
"Sure," he replied, leaping out of bed, realizing he was still in his school robes.
"Harry, you coming?" Seamus called in the direction of Harry's bed. There was no reply. Seamus shrugged. "Guess he's asleep already."
"So, looks like it's just you, me and Neville," Ron stated as they walked down the spiral staircase to the common room. Seamus nodded.
"Guess so. Oi, Neville, deal out!" he called. Neville nodded.
"Creevey brothers are joining us," Neville told Ron and Seamus. They nodded, and sat down, forming a circle.
"I go first," Seamus announced, which meant Ron went last. He grinned. It was best to go last.
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Seamus was wrong. Harry was not asleep, nor did he wish to be. What he really wanted was a nice warm mug of butterbeer, but that was out of the question at nine o'clock on a Friday night. Instead, he settled on rereading "Flying with the Cannons" for the ninety-seventh time. However, when he opened it, he saw Ron's message on the flyleaf:
Chudley Cannons rock! Maybe we'll play for them after we're out of school. Cool! Anyway, happy birthday. Ron.
What an idiot I'm being, Harry thought to himself. A selfish idiot at that. And Hermione must think I'm a horrible git. She must think I lied to her! For a hero who saved everyone from Lord Voldemort, I'm not very noble at ALL. I should probably go and apologize to them both right now, Harry thought.
However, it was getting later, and he was tired. He'd just have to deal with it in the morning. And with that, Harry yawned, rolled over, and fell asleep.
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"To tell the truth, I'm kind of mad at Parvati right now," Lavender confessed to Hermione. "When she had a crush on Dean, she was totally best friends with me, but once I set them up and they started going out, it's like I'm not even here anymore."
"That's awful," Hermione said quietly. "To lose your best friend to a boy, I mean." A sudden thought occurred to her. "You don't think. . . .well, you don't think Harry would be mad if Ron and I. . . .went out?" Lavender clapped a hand to her mouth.
"I never thought of that," she said in hushed voice.
"What if he gets mad?" Hermione asked anxiously. She had thought she had it all figured out, but now there was a whole other dimension to this big argument.
"Wait a minute, Hermione. We're forgetting something: Harry was the one who tried to set you up in the first place, right?" Hermione nodded. "Well, then he CAN'T have anything against, not if he was the one who started this whole thing." Hermione nodded, and tried to feel relieved, but couldn't help feeling that it would be just like Harry to put her and Ron before himself.
"Lavender?"
"Hmmm?"
"I'm getting kind of tired. Would you mind if I just went to bed?" Lavender shook her head and yawned.
"Not at all. I'm rather sleepy myself."
Hermione changed into her pajamas and slipped under the covers of her bed, pulling the curtains shut. It had been a very strange day, she reflected, from the chess match, to her discussion with Harry, to her argument with Ron. And now she was friends with Lavender. Hermione sighed into her pillow, wondering what tomorrow would hold.
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"Dennis! How many times do we have to tell you, you're out, so go away and leave us alone," Colin cried, annoyed at his pesky younger brother.
"But I wanna play," Dennis whined, sounding more like a five-year-old than a fifth year.
"Dennis-just-shut-up," Ron said, spitting every word out separately. He was concentrating very hard. If he was careful, and played the right cards, the results could be. . . well, entertaining. And he wasn't going to risk messing up because of that stupid Dennis Creevey.
"I'm warning you, Dennis," Colin said.
"Oh, fine," Dennis replied, giving up. He walked up to his dormitory, leaving the four other boys to finish the game. They were on their fifth round.
"I'm telling you, you guys are all fighting a losing battle," Seamus bragged. "I'm the master of exploding snap. You haven't got a chance." He put on a great show of drawing out his card and placing it on top of the deck. "You see? I am the MAS-" he was cut off as the entire deck blew up in his face, leaving him with a charcoaled face and singed eyebrows. Ron let out a great HA of laughter.
"Explosion courtesy of me," he said, bowing and laughing.
"Wouldn't want Lavender to see you like that, Seamus," Neville said between snorts of laughter.
"Whys should I care about Lavender?" Seamus asked primly. Everyone present rolled their eyes.
"Come on Seamus, you can't fool us," Colin said. "We know you've got eyes only for her." Seamus raised one eyebrow.
"Are you sure? Because I can't help admiring Parvati's hair."
"Better not let Dean hear you say that," Ron said warningly.
"Do you really think Parvati would choose Dean over me?" Seamus asked, a smile playing over his lips. His teeth stood out whitely against his blackened face.
Ron shrugged. "How should I know? I'm a guy. All I know is that Lavender sure has got her eye on you, mate. But I understand if you don't care for slender, light-brown haired, violet-eyed girls."
"Oh, that's not it," Seamus said hastily. "It's just that there're so MANY girls who have fallen for me, I can't just pick one!" Colin rolled his eyes as the others groaned.
"Don't flatter yourself or anything, Seamus," he said.
"If you've got so many admirers, how come you're single, then?" Ron challenged.
"Well, you see, it's just-"
"I thought you were supposed to be every girl's fantasy. The 'dream boy'. Are you telling me that the dream boy of Hogwarts is to shy to ask a girl out?"
"No! No, I just. . . can't help thinking. . . .well, she's only. . . ." Seamus stuttered, caught off guard.
"Listen, Seamus," Neville whispered. "Let me give you a clue. She isn't going to say no. You've only got to ask." Seamus nodded. If only that were the case for me, Ron thought wishfully. After the way he'd acted in the Great Hall, he wouldn't be at all surprised if Hermione hated him for the rest of his life. Still, he had to try and apologize, at the very least. Tomorrow. He'd do it tomorrow.
A/N: Well, I dunno if I like this, so it'll be interesting to see if you do. Review and tell me, and I'll try to get the next chapter up as soon as possible, as tomorrow's Friday.
A/N: All you people who are reviewing- I love you! Seriously, if it weren't for you, I wouldn't be writing this at all. Kay, I'm not sure if I really like this chapter. . . I've brought in some more characters, as the world of Hogwarts does not revolve around our favorite trio. . . .so anyway, there's going to be somewhat of a side plot, and it starts in this chapter. Anyway, enough talk. Read
Harry winced as he heard Ron's loud and angry footsteps coming up the stairs. It must've been a disaster, judging by the fact that Hermione had run up to her dormitory in tears fifteen minutes ago.
Ron flung the door open and walked over to Harry, crossing his arms over his chest.
"I can't believe you," he said, nearly spitting with anger. "Can't you keep a secret?"
"It was all for the best, really," Harry tried rather timidly. At that, Ron lost control.
"ALL FOR THE BEST? Ha! The best. What a joke," he shouted, swinging his arms around wildly. "Hermione's mad at me, and I'm mad at you. Bloody hell, Harry! All for the best. Ha!" Harry took a step backwards.
"If you would just face the facts," he began, but Ron cut him off.
"Face the facts! What facts? I don't like Hermione. She doesn't like me. Oooh, real difficult, Harry," Ron sneered. Harry stamped his foot, frustrated.
"You do like her, liar, and I know she likes you, I know it!"
"How do you know for sure, hmm?" Ron challenged, his eyes flashing.
"She told me, you git," Harry said, before clapping a hand over his mouth. Hermione hadn't directly said 'don't tell Ron' but it had been pretty obvious that their conversation had been a private one. "Look, pretend I never said that, okay?" Ron held out a hand to stop him.
"Wait just a second. She likes me? For real?" Harry nodded miserably. Now he'd done it. Lost his two best friends in one fell swoop. Congratulations to the Boy Who Lived His Life Without Friends, Harry said to himself.
"Brilliant!" Ron was shouting. "I knew it, I always did! I've got to go talk to her, I've got to apologize-"
"I don't think now would be the best time, Ron," Harry advised, still upset. "She ran up here crying. I take it you had something to do with it." Ron nodded. "Er. . . .I just don't think she really wants to talk to you right now, is all." Ron sat on the bed, sighing.
"You're probably right. She's still mad at me. I must've sounded like a brainless git down there," Ron mumbled.
"What did you say?" Harry asked dubiously.
"I told her that I knew she didn't like me, and that I didn't like her, so we'd never go out with each other. In a somewhat harsher manner." Harry groaned out loud, while cheering inside his head. There was still a chance!
"Nice one, Ron."
"Well, none of it would've happened if YOU hadn't told Hermione I liked her, so this is really all YOUR fault," Ron said, annoyed. Harry gaped at him soundlessly. At last, after a few minutes, Harry managed to find words.
"MY fault?" Harry asked incredulously. "My fault? If you must know, Ron, I never wanted any of this to happen. But I don't expect you to believe that. It's always the same, always. You didn't believe I didn't want to be a Triwizard Champion, and I bet you won't believe me now. But honestly. You really think I'd want to lose my two best friends?"
"What do you mean, lose us? And I DID believe you about the Triwizard thing, eventually. Wait a minute. . . Harry, are you jealous?" It was Ron's turn to sound incredulous, and Harry's turn to be extremely annoyed.
"I am NOT jealous. What gave you that idea? Why would I be jealous of YOU?"
"I don't know, Harry," Ron spat. "I suppose I'm just not quite up to your standards. Not quite good enough for you, eh?"
"No," Harry said furiously. "You're not. I don't want a friend who blames me every time something goes wrong between him and his crush. Just. . .leave me alone, okay?" Harry snapped his bed curtains shut and laid down, breathing heavily. Ron followed suit.
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Hermione sobbed quietly into Crookshanks's fur. "I can't believe I was so stupid," she murmured. "How could I have believed Harry? It was probably his and Ron's idea of a joke. . ."
"Hermione?" Hermione jumped as she heard Lavender's voice.
"Go away," she muttered, pressing her tear-streaked face harder against her cat's back. "Just leave me alone." She really wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone, especially Lavender, whom she'd never been good friends with since the incident about Lavender's bunny's death in their third year.
"It's my dormitory, too, Hermione. And anyway, you're crying. What's wrong? Malfoy?" Lavender guessed. Hermione shook her head. "You failed your N.E.W.T.S.?" she joked. "Tell me, is it Ron and Harry?" At this Hermione nodded. "Oh, Hermione, don't worry about it. Boys will be boys, and boys can be grade-a jerks a whole lot of the time. You should hear the things Seamus says to me-!"
"But Ron and Harry aren't Seamus, they're Ron and Harry, my best friends, and now. . . .I can't face them tomorrow, I can't, I just-" Hermione broke off, and Lavender frowned.
"Okay, Hermione, spill it. What have they done?" Hermione sighed.
"I don't know why I still have inhibitions about telling you, as everyone will know by tomorrow anyway, but still. . . . it was so humiliating." She looked up at Lavender. "Promise you won't laugh or anything?" Lavender nodded.
"Promise."
"Harry told me this afternoon that he knew I liked Ron- you know, LIKE like. And then, he said. . . .Ron felt the same way about me, and that I should tell him how I felt. He was so convincing! But when I told Ron, he started laughing, and saying that he never liked me."
"Did he blush?" Lavender asked immediately. Hermione frowned, remembering.
"Come to think of it, yes, he did, at least, I THINK he did. . . .but I'm not quite sure. . . ."
"Because if he did," Lavender cut in, "then he really does like you. He's probably just embarrassed, you know? Maybe he thinks you were the one joking, or something. You know boys- they have a strange way of looking at things." Hermione thought back on what she told Harry. Maybe Ron still thought it would be losing, in a way, to admit he really did have feelings for Hermione, after denying it for all these years.
Hermione suddenly broke into a grin. "I think I've figured it out!" she cried gleefully, her former tears forgotten. She got up to go find Ron and talk to him, but Lavender stopped her.
"I don't think now is the greatest time-" Lavender began. Hermione's face fell.
"You're probably right."
"Listen, Parvati and Dean are out on a walk, and I've got no one to talk to..would you mind if I just stayed in here and talked with you?"
"No, I don't mind," Hermione replied. And for once, she meant it.
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"Hey, Ron and Harry, want to join Neville and me for a game of exploding snap?" Seamus asked, bursting into the dormitory. Ron stuck his head out from behind his bed curtains.
"Sure," he replied, leaping out of bed, realizing he was still in his school robes.
"Harry, you coming?" Seamus called in the direction of Harry's bed. There was no reply. Seamus shrugged. "Guess he's asleep already."
"So, looks like it's just you, me and Neville," Ron stated as they walked down the spiral staircase to the common room. Seamus nodded.
"Guess so. Oi, Neville, deal out!" he called. Neville nodded.
"Creevey brothers are joining us," Neville told Ron and Seamus. They nodded, and sat down, forming a circle.
"I go first," Seamus announced, which meant Ron went last. He grinned. It was best to go last.
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Seamus was wrong. Harry was not asleep, nor did he wish to be. What he really wanted was a nice warm mug of butterbeer, but that was out of the question at nine o'clock on a Friday night. Instead, he settled on rereading "Flying with the Cannons" for the ninety-seventh time. However, when he opened it, he saw Ron's message on the flyleaf:
Chudley Cannons rock! Maybe we'll play for them after we're out of school. Cool! Anyway, happy birthday. Ron.
What an idiot I'm being, Harry thought to himself. A selfish idiot at that. And Hermione must think I'm a horrible git. She must think I lied to her! For a hero who saved everyone from Lord Voldemort, I'm not very noble at ALL. I should probably go and apologize to them both right now, Harry thought.
However, it was getting later, and he was tired. He'd just have to deal with it in the morning. And with that, Harry yawned, rolled over, and fell asleep.
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"To tell the truth, I'm kind of mad at Parvati right now," Lavender confessed to Hermione. "When she had a crush on Dean, she was totally best friends with me, but once I set them up and they started going out, it's like I'm not even here anymore."
"That's awful," Hermione said quietly. "To lose your best friend to a boy, I mean." A sudden thought occurred to her. "You don't think. . . .well, you don't think Harry would be mad if Ron and I. . . .went out?" Lavender clapped a hand to her mouth.
"I never thought of that," she said in hushed voice.
"What if he gets mad?" Hermione asked anxiously. She had thought she had it all figured out, but now there was a whole other dimension to this big argument.
"Wait a minute, Hermione. We're forgetting something: Harry was the one who tried to set you up in the first place, right?" Hermione nodded. "Well, then he CAN'T have anything against, not if he was the one who started this whole thing." Hermione nodded, and tried to feel relieved, but couldn't help feeling that it would be just like Harry to put her and Ron before himself.
"Lavender?"
"Hmmm?"
"I'm getting kind of tired. Would you mind if I just went to bed?" Lavender shook her head and yawned.
"Not at all. I'm rather sleepy myself."
Hermione changed into her pajamas and slipped under the covers of her bed, pulling the curtains shut. It had been a very strange day, she reflected, from the chess match, to her discussion with Harry, to her argument with Ron. And now she was friends with Lavender. Hermione sighed into her pillow, wondering what tomorrow would hold.
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"Dennis! How many times do we have to tell you, you're out, so go away and leave us alone," Colin cried, annoyed at his pesky younger brother.
"But I wanna play," Dennis whined, sounding more like a five-year-old than a fifth year.
"Dennis-just-shut-up," Ron said, spitting every word out separately. He was concentrating very hard. If he was careful, and played the right cards, the results could be. . . well, entertaining. And he wasn't going to risk messing up because of that stupid Dennis Creevey.
"I'm warning you, Dennis," Colin said.
"Oh, fine," Dennis replied, giving up. He walked up to his dormitory, leaving the four other boys to finish the game. They were on their fifth round.
"I'm telling you, you guys are all fighting a losing battle," Seamus bragged. "I'm the master of exploding snap. You haven't got a chance." He put on a great show of drawing out his card and placing it on top of the deck. "You see? I am the MAS-" he was cut off as the entire deck blew up in his face, leaving him with a charcoaled face and singed eyebrows. Ron let out a great HA of laughter.
"Explosion courtesy of me," he said, bowing and laughing.
"Wouldn't want Lavender to see you like that, Seamus," Neville said between snorts of laughter.
"Whys should I care about Lavender?" Seamus asked primly. Everyone present rolled their eyes.
"Come on Seamus, you can't fool us," Colin said. "We know you've got eyes only for her." Seamus raised one eyebrow.
"Are you sure? Because I can't help admiring Parvati's hair."
"Better not let Dean hear you say that," Ron said warningly.
"Do you really think Parvati would choose Dean over me?" Seamus asked, a smile playing over his lips. His teeth stood out whitely against his blackened face.
Ron shrugged. "How should I know? I'm a guy. All I know is that Lavender sure has got her eye on you, mate. But I understand if you don't care for slender, light-brown haired, violet-eyed girls."
"Oh, that's not it," Seamus said hastily. "It's just that there're so MANY girls who have fallen for me, I can't just pick one!" Colin rolled his eyes as the others groaned.
"Don't flatter yourself or anything, Seamus," he said.
"If you've got so many admirers, how come you're single, then?" Ron challenged.
"Well, you see, it's just-"
"I thought you were supposed to be every girl's fantasy. The 'dream boy'. Are you telling me that the dream boy of Hogwarts is to shy to ask a girl out?"
"No! No, I just. . . can't help thinking. . . .well, she's only. . . ." Seamus stuttered, caught off guard.
"Listen, Seamus," Neville whispered. "Let me give you a clue. She isn't going to say no. You've only got to ask." Seamus nodded. If only that were the case for me, Ron thought wishfully. After the way he'd acted in the Great Hall, he wouldn't be at all surprised if Hermione hated him for the rest of his life. Still, he had to try and apologize, at the very least. Tomorrow. He'd do it tomorrow.
A/N: Well, I dunno if I like this, so it'll be interesting to see if you do. Review and tell me, and I'll try to get the next chapter up as soon as possible, as tomorrow's Friday.