Disclaimer: We don't own them...you believe us, do you? After all...who would think that two crazy chicks would own Harry Potter? No no no...we do this just for fun^^

Sorry for the delay. Like always...ehm, you just have to get used to the fact that we always need an eternity!

Confusing Experiences and Hidden Feelings

by Kaeera Latrisha

Chapter 8: Diagon Alley

Slowly and very tiredly Ron sneaked down the stairs. His pajamas were wet with sweat. ~What a dream!~ he thought in horror. It was perhaps three or four o'clock, not the usual time for him to get up, but a strange dream had thrown him out of his sleep. The last thing he remembered was Hermione and blood, yes it might have been blood, all over her body. Ron shuddered. It had just been so real.
But as he was already was awake now, there was nothing against having a look in the fridge. He drank a glass of milk and went to bed again. The next morning he did not remember anything about the dream.

HARRYS POV

"OK boys, are you ready?!", Mrs. Granger asked in a good mood. She seemed to be very happy. Perhaps it was because of our shopping trip to Diagon Alley today. It must be very exciting for real muggles, but it was also exciting for Hermione and me because we had not been there very often either.

"Oh, I have an owl!", Ron interrupted my thoughts. "It's from Mum." A beautiful gray owl landed next to him and chirped proudly when she stretched out her leg to show the little piece of parchment that was attached on it.

Dear Ron, Ron read to Harry,

Don't forget to meet us in front of Gringotts. I hope the owl reaches you in time.

"Tsss, Mom thinks I'm NOT able to remember such things!", Ron mumbled annoyed.

"But you did forget about it, didn't you?", I asked. I knew Ron like the back of my hand.

"Uhm". On his face appeared an embarrassed grin. He continued reading.

Dad won't come with us, he has much to do in the Ministry. Does Harry feel fine?
Love,
Mom

"Mom is simply crazy about you, Harry.", Ron sighed. "There will be an extra Weasley-sweater for you on Christmas day."
We went downstairs and I brushed my teeth at high speed. Soon I was ready to go.

"Guys, let's go now!", Hermione yelled while brushing her hair. It was the typical morning atmosphere. Mr. Granger, who vacuumed the living room, gave the background sound and Ron ran from one corner to the next, looking for his left sock. I could not find Hedwig's food, and she, deadly disappointed, stared at me for a while and then decided to go hunting. Sighing I watched her fly out the window and then I returned downstairs.

"I'm ready", I said. "Ron?"

Ron came jumping down the stairs, missing one of his shoes. In his mouth I could see the list with the things we would need. "Haf anyone feen my -"

"It's here.", Hermione sighed and threw his shoe over to him. Finally we left and only Mr. Granger stayed at home.

Diagon Alley was full of people. It was the last day of the summer holidays and still so many people had not bought their school things yet. Busy wizards hurried through the crowded street and had difficulty in making their way through the people. A few new first-years stood in front of Olivander's, looking proudly at their new wands.

"But mine has a unicorns hair!", a small girl with long, blond hairs told the others.

"And mine the heart of a dragon in it!", the boy next to her replied. He seemed to be Asian.
Hermione, Ron and Harry passed them grinning and shaking their heads, amused. It was only a few years ago when they themselves had got their first wands. Ron looked down at his list. "Where shall we go first?", he asked. "We need to fill up our ingredients for Potions ."

"And all those new books we need", Hermione added with a dreamy look in her eyes. She seemed to float towards Flourish & Blotts. Mrs. Granger soon met the parents of Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan, and all five of them went into the Leaky Cauldron to drink a cup of tea.

"Oh, I need to buy some owl-food." Harry said, remembering Hedwig. Surely she still was angry with him, but, Harry thought, she would keep on being angry for weeks if he did not buy her the most expensive owl-food he could find. Harry disappeared into the shop where Hagrid had bought Harry's snow owl. It was still full of cages and little cartons with tiny slots and holes in them. The strangest kinds of cats stared out of the cages. Their big, beautiful eyes gloomed golden through the darkened room and reminded Harry on little tigers. On the other side the owls were hidden under their wings to sleep. The air was stuffy and dusty. He asked an old witch where he could find the owl-food and then paid as fast as possible.
Outside again, the sun made him blind for a short moment. When his eyes were okay again, he could hear Ron and Hermione speaking to someone. It was Draco Malfoy, the most unbearable guy on earth, the slimiest git the three friends ever met, leader of two other Slytherin boys, Crabbe and Goyle.

"And the day began so well ", Harry said while walking towards them. Malfoy turned around with a nasty grin on his face.


RONS POV

"Oh, Potter! I knew, this little muggle-lover couple never goes anywhere without you. Must be their hero, huh?", Malfoy said when he noticed Harry.

The word couple made Hermione and me blush slightly. For a moment I wanted to ask him if all the Slytherins, or even worse, all of Hogwarts thought that we were a couple. But then I decided, (and I felt that Hermione thought the same), that there was something more important to do at the moment. For example insulting Malfoy and his two servants.

"You also never seem to leave your personal bodyguards at home, do you?", Hermione pointed out sweetly. Crabbe and Goyle chuckled stupidly, only understanding the word "bodyguard". They stopped immediately when Draco whispered a short but plain "Shut up!"

For about five seconds he did not know what to reply, but then he held his nose up into the air and said "Did you say something? Sorry, I didn't listen, I usually ignore anything a mudblood says."

I felt the pure anger boiling up within myself when he spoke out the last two words. Hermione knew, as well as Harry and I did, that mudblood was the nastiest word he could have called Hermione, whose parents both were muggles.

"Ron, it is not that bad, I do not car - ", Hermione tried to calm me down, but without any success. How did this disgusting ton of bullshit dare call my - uhm, call Hermione a mudblood?! I gasped for breath and thought about the fitting words to express my anger. My fingernails were about to burry themselves deeply into the hard wood of my wand until one of them split apart at last.

"Oh, Weasley, did I insult your little girlfriend?", Malfoy asked sweetly. "Sorry, that was of course not what I had wanted to do."

Girlfriend? What would I have given just to be able to scream "Crucio" at that moment. Unfortunately the curse was too difficult and illegal, so I limited myself on an easy and, although simple, indeed very painful method.
Before he had noticed anything, I kicked Malfoy between the legs, into a place very sensitive.

"Ooow!", he yowled and hold his hands above it. "Weasley, you you"

"Feel happy that he doesn't know the Cruciatus curse yet", Harry said coldly as if he could read minds. Perhaps he could?

"Asshole!", Malfoy screamed after us, and the little Asian and his friends who were already passing us looked shocked about this word.

Harry pushed Hermione softly and she went on, dragging me with her. "That was cool. Thanks.", she whispered with a gloating grin.

My pulse somewhat went faster and I felt myself blushing slightly. But immediately I managed to calm down. "No problem!" I said and passed her so I walked next to Harry, suddenly feeling much more casual than ever.

HERMIONES POV

We stopped in front of Gringotts, waiting for Rons family to arrive. I was still flabbergasted about how angry Ron got, just because of Draco calling me a mudblood. I never got frustrated or anything when he called me that, but I guess that you have to grow up in the wizard world to understand.
Ron had not spoken a single word to me since he had kicked Malfoy. I hoped that the look on Malfoys face would burn itself into my mind forever. Now I felt the same as Ron, when professor Moody had turned Malfoy into a ferret. But I felt like that because it had been Ron who did it. And he did it to defend me

"Mom! It's about time!", Ron suddenly yelled and made me stop thinking.

Mrs. Weasley rushed over and left Fred, George and Ginny behind her.

"Harry!", she cried and pinched his cheeks so powerfully that Harry had to hold back a cry of pain. "Hello Hermione", she said, smiling at her warmly. Obviously she finally believed Harry that there had been nothing between he and Hermione. *Rita Skeeter*

RON's POV

She had written some articles about the so-called triangle relationship of Harry, Hermione and Victor Krum. Victor Krum?! Suddenly I remembered that Hermione had said something about visiting him in the holidays. I felt some kind of pain deep in my stomach. Not that I was jealous, I'd prefer the word interested.

"Herm?! Didn't you go on holiday before Harry and I came to visit you?", I asked peripherally. "I remember that you mentioned something about Bulgaria, didn't you?"

I hoped that it did not sound too garish. Harry gave me a confused look but soon realized why I had asked. Grinning he imitated the duck-like pace of Krum, and just stopped at the moment Hermione turned to look at him. I secretly nodded to him.

"Oh, you mean if I went to see Victor?", she asked in an all too normal tone. "No, my parents didn't allow me to go, but he will spend his winter holidays at Hogwarts to improve his English."
~Dammit~, I thought, but it was good to hear that she hadn't visited him.

Fred and George came over too, greeting Harry and Hermione. Harry took Fred's arm and pulled him close to his face. "So, what's with Ron's new cloak?", he asked grinning. "Found something?"

Fred nodded. "Yeah, it's dark blue. And, only for your knowledge, sponsor, Mom didn't find any of our new inventions yet. Everything's going great!" With that he chuckled briefly. Harry really hoped that he did not have to try some of their new inventions involuntarily. Then Ginny caught his eyes. She had grown up a little since the beginning of the summer vacation. Her hair was tied back to a long, red pony tail. When she noticed Harry watching her, she blushed slightly and looked away.

"We have already been in Flourish & Blotts.", Hermione informed Mrs Weasley. "But we still need our ingredients for Potions."

They went into many shops, their bags getting heavier and heavier, until they finally had bought everything they needed. Harry and Ron didn't have a chance to talk to Hermione, because she was soon deep into a conversation with Ginny. Heavily gesticulating the two of them told each other what they had done and seen during holidays.

"Girls!", Ron said rolling his eyes, but soon shut up when he heard Hermione saying the words: "and then, you won't believe it, he simply kicked him in the"

Proudly Ron felt himself growing a few inches.

They visited the Leaky Cauldron and collected Mrs. Granger. Together they went back to the car, out of Diagon Alley. In front of the magical wall, Mrs. Weasley hugged Harry.

"Harry, darling, in case we won't see each other before you get back into the train, I just wanted to ask you to be careful.", she said seriously,

"Every year something happens to you. Please try to ignore all abnormal things that might happen. Only for this year." Ron glanced at him eye-rolling. But Harry promised to try not to be involved in anything strange. Finally they left.

"Bye Ginny, bye Fred and George!", Harry and Hermione shouted when they walked away. "See ya tomorrow."

When they were back home, all three of them found themselves in a very gloomy state. Probably thinking about the fact that the following day school would begin again let their mood sink steadily.

After supper, Harry forced himself to clean his broom stick for the third time that week, without flying on it once. Ron seemed to stare at little holes into the air, and Hermione was buried in one of her new school books.

HERMIONES POV

This is the last day, I thought sorrowfully. How much would I have liked to turn back the hands of time just to have more time together with Ron and Harry. Of course we spend our time together nearly the whole year, but school was something else. I decided to ask Mom and Dad sometime if Harry and Ron could spend another week at us during the next summer vacation. That would be fun.

I went through my check-list in my head.

Where was my diary? Didn't I bury it under my pillow, just in case Ron would find it while searching through the rest of my things?
I fetched it and wanted to put it into one of my bags, but then I felt the wish to open it. The last time I signed it was after the first task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament , when Ron and Harry stopped quarreling after a long, long time. I never wanted to forget that moment, so I wrote down every detail.
But this evening I decided to write in again.

Dear Diary, I wrote, not knowing how to start otherwise,

Today is the last day of summer vacation. This time I am not looking forward to school. I'd rather stay here with Ron and Harry. Even when we quarreled a lot, Ron and me, it was nice.
We visited the museum and the stadium and we had lots of fun.
When we were buying our things today, Ron defended me in kicking Malfoy in the, well, you know where I mean. It is not that I have a crush on him, he is only so sweet, and, OK, perhaps, a little, tiny little crush he behaved so manly today, defending me, and

I read everything once more. Bloody hell, why did I write such non-sense?! Where was I, in the middle of a soap opera? ~Just because you spend so much time with him. Harry is also there, it could be that you love him and not Ron. Where is the difference? Harry has brains, he is always nice to me and he - but Ron is also nice. And he is so sweet.~ Bit by bit I had to confess myself that I did have a crush on Ron. Hermione, are you ill? RON! Mr. Idiotic, man of mars, the only male human being who had really no idea how to behave in front of a woman!
I felt my mind wanting to curse my heart.
But I continued writing on the next page.

I might have blamed him very often and I also can't see why I love him, but -

"Love whom?" said a curious voice, which I knew too well next to my ear. Ron! After jumping up and nearly touching the ceiling I repeated my thoughts verbally. "Ron?"

"ME?", Ron shouted blushing like a tomato. He glanced at my diary and wanted to grab after it. "Let me see!"
I hid it behind my back and stared at him furiously. He always had the talent to bother me at the wrong time.

"Ronald Weasley,", I groaned, "if you really do think I have a crush on you, then you are highly mistaken, my dear." I tried not to blush. I was coarse, and dishonest, but should I have told him the truth? He couldn't have stood that. He looked sheepish at me before turning around. "Good.", he said, somewhat sounding bothered.

"But," I added as kind of an afterthought, "it is not Victor Krum!"

But he didn't give a damn about what I said and went up. Harry had probably overheard the conversation and only shook his head. The rest of the evening none of us spoke a word. Our bags were packed and we now seemed to await the train to set off the next morning.
Early we went to bed, the boys in the guestroom and I in my own room. My head was about to explode, so full was it with thoughts. It was already late when I finally fell asleep.

Note to self: Never open that damned diary again!

To be continued...

Allison M Potter - See, we talk to you^^ Sorry that we forgot it the last time. It's always a little bit tiring...
Latrisha: "It was your fault! You forgot it."
Kaeera: "Yeah, but I am always editing and uploading the chapters. I'm in stress! I'm two grades higher than you and have a lot of work to do!
Latrisha: "Really? -.- You are working? So why do I see you everyday reading mangas, sleeping, sitting in front of the computer and going out with friends???
Kaeera: "*sweatdrops*.....That's all....educational!"

GinnyWPotter - Wow, you want to overread our story? We are flabbergasted....but we already have a beta who's trying to of a great help(that doesn't mean that we always listen :P)

Adnap Nottap - No, Nat isn't a witch. We thought about that but then decided against it. However, we have already planned a story in which Nat will have a bigger appearance. Remember, this is Ron/Hermione!*smile*

Chris and Crystal porter and Beth and Elizabeth Johnson - Ron and Herm admit their feelings? Ahhh, not yet....there's much more to happen^^

Medrelina the Weird - No, Nat doesn't go to Hogwarts. She's a normal muggle, a skater girl with no magical powers. But how we said to Adnap, we have a plan for her....after we have finished this piece, of course!

Latrisha: Thanks for all the reviews! You are soooo great!*hugs everybody*
Kaeera: *gets hugged by Latrisha* "HMPHF!"
Latrisha: *waves*"Now she must write the next chap. Have fun, Kaeera!"
Kaeera: *glares and wanders off*