Title: The Fifth Year
Author: Cactuskitty
Chapter: Four
Summary: It's the summer before Harry's fifth year at Hogwarts. He is feeling guilty about Cedric's death, and is staying at the Burrow. Ron gets in a fight with Hermione leaving them all angry…

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters from the Harry Potter book series; they belong to J. K. Rowling, so please don't sue.

Chapter Four:

The Oak Tree

When Harry found himself in the Weasely's fireplace, he was still very perplexed and eager, so he decided he really needed to consult to Ron. Harry found his companion in his horrid orange room, staring out the window with a bemused expression on his face, but at the moment Harry didn't care what his friend was going through, he just wanted to tell him what he had seen.

"Ron, you'll never guess who I saw at the Leaky Cauldron!" But Harry didn't give him time to reply, instead he just started rambling, "Itwasherthatgirlfromthedeliwemetbutshedidn'ttellushernameremember! YourememberherRon? ThatgirlwhowaswearingcowboybootsandstartedtalkingaboutthatmuggleEinstein? TheonewhoaskedGinnyifshepreferedtobe…"

"What in hell are you talking about? I can't understand a single word you say when you speak like a bloody girl!" Ron growled.

"What's wrong with girls, Ronald Weasley? You better stop making sexist comments or I'll tell Hermione to give you a nice lengthy lecture. Now please repeat yourself again so we can understand you." The two boys were so focused on their conversation they didn't even notice that Ginny had followed Harry to Ron's room to see what he was so riled up about.

"Ginny! What the hell do you think you're doing in my room and listening to our private conversation?"

"What do you mean private? Your door was wide open! Now shut your bloody trap so Harry can tell us what happened at the Leaky Cauldron."

"Thank you Ginny. Now as I was saying, you'll never guess who I saw at the Leaky Cauldron!"

"Who? Draco right? I am thoroughly surprised that we didn't manage to run into that prat one time this entire trip. "Ron said while grinning and clenching his fists, "I kind of wish we had, I wanted to try some of the neat boxing moves Charlie taught me when he was down in July…"

"No, not that stupid ferret. It was that girl from the deli! The one we met who never told us her name, remember?" He quickly added when he saw their questioning faces, "You remember her Ron. That girl who was wearing cowboy boots and started talking about that muggle Einstein? The one who asked Ginny if she preferred to be…"

"OH! Her! You saw her? Are you sure, Harry?" Ginny yelped in shock.

"Yes I'm sure it was her..." Harry growled.

"You're sure it was who?" Ophelia had decided that she wanted to be a part of their conversation.

Virginia turned and shot her a look that showed great distaste and annoyance, and Ophelia just glanced at her innocently. Harry observed that things had been awfully awkward between the two girls the last few days. Ron noticed too, and decided that he had better answer before one of them started fighting. So he began explaining. Though after the first three words of her brother's story, Virginia abruptly got up and left as quietly as she came in. So no one noticed as usual; except for maybe Ophelia who appeared like she was about to say something but chose to keep it to herself.

"…Then she left without her even telling us her name. Then when Harry was leaving the Leaky Cauldron he saw her. Right Harry?" Ron concluded.

"Ya, and she was talking to some one, but I couldn't tell who they were."

"So she was really into muggle science and she interrupted your conversation? She doesn't sound like that great of a person to me, but that's only my opinion. Though neither of you guys told me why on Earth you're looking for her."

"We aren't looking for her, really…" Harry said with his recurrent wistful expression, "I think it would just be nice to find out who she is. That's all, I suppose. You know, it was just the fact that she was pleasant and made us think, that was all."

Ron thought about it for a while then replied, "Yes, that's all, she made us think. She's like an math problem, and we are trying to put two and two together." one thing about Harry, was he is always able to state the obvious. Ron admired that about him. He, on the other hand, just ended up baffling everyone.

"I see now. You don't really care about her, you just need to figure out the answer." Ophelia, declared with a look of absolute satisfaction on her face.

"Kind of, but I actually would like to get to know her, she sounds pretty interesting to me." Ron realized that he hadn't wholeheartedly agree with what he had said a moment before. But it didn't make a difference if he was now contradicting himself, because she seemed to have disregarded his comment anyways. She was now busy chatting Harry up, once again leaving Ron to be forgotten. He knew it, so he continued what he was doing before Harry had came and told him about his sighting…

****

Saturday came quickly and it was time for Ophelia and her parents to go back to Sheffield, almost everyone was sad to see them go. Mrs. Weasely packed them all sandwiches, and Mr. Weasely was making plans for Ophelia to come and stay with them next summer. But because of the look Treva made, they all seriously doubted that it would ever happen. Percy and the twins were busy packing their uncles car.

Meanwhile, Harry, Ron, and Ginny were out near the huge oak tree in their back yard, busily saying goodbye to a teary eyed Ophelia. She had been moping about the Burrow all morning, which only made things harder. They heard Walter saying that if they didn't leave soon, he'd be late for a meeting with the Minister. Then Ophelia hugged her two cousins and said her goodbyes. When she came to Harry she tried to smile, and started sobbing harder. So not knowing what to do, Harry pulled her into a tight hug and told her not to fret, that they would see each other again. She mumbled something about never forgetting him and nuzzled her head into his shoulder. Harry grinned and continued to look down at her, as Virginia left. Once again unnoticed. No one seemed to have observed the evil smirk Ophelia had aimed at her, but there wasn't anything anyone could do anyway, the damage was done. Ophelia was leaving, and Virginia was glad.

****

School started on Monday, so everyone woke early. The boys packed their trunk, and headed to Platform 9 ¾. The crowd in the train station wasn't as big as it usually was, and while walking towards their destination they found the one person all three of them were looking for: Hermione. After saying their goodbyes to Mrs. Weasely, the four of them happily boarded the train and started their search for an empty compartment: a task easier said then done.

They finally found one near the back of the train and merrily started chatting. Until they asked Hermione what she had done over the summer and she told them about her trip to Victor Krum's house for a week in the beginning of August.

"What do you mean you went to Krum's house in August? You were on vacation… Oh, I see now."

"No, Ron. It's not like that. It's not like I preferred his company to yours or anything. I would have had a much better time at the Burrow. I had to go…"

"Who forced you? Who pointed a wand at you and told you if you didn't go they'd use the killing curse? Krum?" Ron's face was red with anger.

"No! Victor wouldn't ever do anything to hurt anyone, you know that, and I had to go because he asked me before you did." Ginny could have sworn she heard Hermione mumble the words "once again."

"Why didn't you just tell us that was why you couldn't come? We wouldn't have minded; you had no reason to lie."

"Ronald Weasely, do you honestly think that if I told you I couldn't come vacation with you because I was staying with Victor, you would have acted rationally? You would have reacted the same way you are reacting right now. You would probably refuse to speak to me and call off our friendship like you will in a few minutes!"

"You're damned right I'm calling off our friendship! Who wants a friend who lies to them, huh? Who keeps secrets?"

"Do I have to go over this with you again? Fine, let me explain this to you Ron. How many secrets do you and Harry keep from me?  A myriad, correct? So why should I have to tell you guys everything? It's always acceptable for you to go and hang out with whomever you want; flirt with girls. But I'm not, right? I'm not allowed to do anything, am I? I'm not permitted to notice anyone other than you and Harry because I am your possession. Ron, you don't even notice I'm a girl unless someone else does first. If Victor were a girl you wouldn't mind him half as much. But because he's male and he knows I'm a girl, you care." Hermione was on a roll, and the other three people in her compartment were staring at her in surprise, so she took a breath and continued,  "Want to know something Ron? If anyone should be not on speaking terms, it should be me not talking to you." And with that, she got up and left the compartment.

"Ron, you should go talk to her." Virginia said after a few minutes of silence.

"I'm not talking to her, she's the one who lied." Ronald challenged.

"Ya, but Ron, she is right. You do take advantage of her." Harry stated quite plainly, as usual.

"Are you taking her side now?" Ron accused, Ginny was bored by this entire conversation so she go up and silently left to find Hermione.

"No, but she was right, we never notice her until someone else does. Think about how many times we take her for granted. Think about it, and then we had better go talk to her and apologize."

"You can go, but I won't. I don't feel as if I've done anything wrong."

"Well, she thinks you have, and we are not going to ruin our friendship with her just because you are being a prat. You have no say in this, if you don't go, Ron, I swear I'll give you a black eye." the look on his face showed that he meant what he said; Harry had grown slightly muscular over the summer, and now stronger than Ron.

"Fine! Let's go and get this whole bloody thing over with!" Ron scowled, but he got up and went with Harry to go find Hermione.

When they found her she was not alone, she was in a compartment with Virginia, Lavender, and Parvati. The two boys were in a state of shock when they saw Virginia in there with the other girls. They could have sworn she was just in the compartment with them! They quickly snapped out of it, and Harry started, "Hermione, Ron and I have to tell you something."

She raised an eyebrow when he said Ron, but she nodded her head and continued listening, "We wanted to say that we are sorry that we take you for grated, but sometimes; you know how it is, we find it hard to relate with you because you are a girl. We don't… come on Ron it's your turn."

"Fine, Harry you little…It's just we don't notice that it bothers you, so when you do it to us we don't realize that it's a feeling you get all the time. So, I'msorryIactedlikeatotalprat." Ron mumbled the last part; he really hated apologizing especially when he knew he wasn't in the wrong.

"What was that Ron?" Hermione wasn't going to let him off that easy, but she knew she shouldn't really be pushing her luck, because she was actually the one who they should be getting yelled at, not the boys. But she really needed to understand what they were constantly doing. And it wasn't everyday that she could get Ron to apologize to her…

"You know what I said. And I wouldn't repeat it for all the tea in China! So there, are you happy now? Would you now be able to go back our compartment without another lecture! " Ron shouted and turned to leave the compartment as the four girls giggled at him.

"Fine let's go then. We'll finish our conversation at school, okay, Lavender and Parvati?" And with that, she turned and followed Ron. She left Harry there to wonder what the heck they were talking about for a few minutes. Then, he noticed the three girls giggling at him, and he too headed for their compartment on the other side of the train. They sat there in silence until the train stopped at the front of Hogwarts and they quickly got out and searched for an empty carriage.

This year the sorting seemed shorter than usual, and might have been because it appeared that there were a lot less first years than ever before. It also seemed that there were less returning students: Neville Longbottom, Pansy Parkinson, Justin Finchfinchly, and Hanna Abbot, to name a few. They were all very sad to hear about Neville's not returning, but Seamus said he had spoken with him over the summer and said that he was attending Beaubaxton this year, because his gran thought that Hogwarts was getting too dangerous. Things were going to be different this year, Harry thought to himself. This year I am not going to get in to trouble. I am not going to do anything that will put my friends or me in danger, because it's not fair. It's not fair that because Voldemort has some weird grudge against me everyone I know is in danger.

A/N: Well, that's it for this chapter. It may seem like nothing happened, but a ton of things actually did, you just need to read between the lines. All the big exciting stuff will happen in the next chapter, and it may include the identity of the mystery girl. I'm still deciding.

Thanks to all of my reviewers and my wonderful beta reader Steffi who, with the help of my other friend Rachel, forced this chapter out of me; only after two weeks of pestering. With out them this story would never have been made. Oh, and I can't forget my other beta Tommy, who even though he wasn't able to help me lately has been there since chapter one. Thanks again, and please review.