"Uncle Vernon…" Harry said timidly as he walked into the living room. The Dursley's had made sure to be extra unfriendly to him this summer especially after the note they had received home from Professor Dumbledore explaining what had happened at the Tri-Wizard Tournament. As if Harry didn't have enough to deal with they had been reminding him every ten seconds that he had been responsible for the death of an innocent boy. 'Kill the spare' was all he heard ringing in his head every time, he fell asleep and all day he had the Dursleys. "Do you think you could give me a ride to the Underground?"
Mr. Dursley mumbled something, which Harry took as a yes and immediately went upstairs to begin packing for the new year. He was so excited, after a long summer in which he hadn't been able to visit his friends he was finally going back to school. Now he had nine months to spend with the only people who really cared about him, well except for Sirius and Remus of course.
Harry had decided right at the beginning of the summer that he would tell Ron about his crush on Hermione. He had it all planned out. He would sweep her off her feet and spend a romantic weekend with her in Hogsmeade and they would fall in love and live happily ever after. Now of course he knew this was impossible, and not just because he was Harry Potter either. He knew it just wasn't a realistic situation that he had been dreaming about, but the impossibleness of it made it all the more desirable. Telling Ron would also take a huge burden off his chest, he would finally be able to get it off his chest. He had kept it a secret for so long and wasn't sure if he could take it anymore.
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"Ron have you seen Harry?" Hermione asked Ron as soon as she saw him on the Platform. "I've been looking everywhere for him. I hope he doesn't miss the train again."
"No I haven't seen him, and is it really so horrible to be alone with me?" Ron replied with a mock pained expression on his face. Even though he appeared to be unaffected by her question he couldn't help feeling like everything always revolved around Harry. Why couldn't she just see that he, Harry's sidekick, cared for her!
Before Hermione had a chance to reply, they heard a shout and turned to see where it had come from. "Hey guys!" Harry shouted again as he ran up to them and gave them each a hug. "Good to see you mate. How was your summer?" He asked them.
"Fine," Hermione replied as the three proceeded to board the train. "My parents took me to France for a few months. That country is just so beautiful, no wonder they call it the city of love."
'I wonder if she realized just how beautiful she is.' Harry wondered as he gazed over at Hermione. Hermione continued to talk about her summer as they searched for a compartment and she didn't seem to notice that she had lost both Harry and Ron's attention. They sat down and remained quiet for a little while until a very familiar boy poked his head in.
"Have you guys seen Ginny?" Asked her boyfriend Neville as he continually glanced up and down the hall to make sure she wasn't around.
"Yea, she's been looking everywhere for you," Ron replied. "I think she said she would find a compartment for the both of you." When Neville heard this, he left and continued his search for her. "I swear he'd lose his head if it wasn't connected."
The three burst out laughing and when they finally calmed down they found they had nothing to say. Hermione decided to take out a book and read which left Ron and Harry to talk about Quidditch. They had been talking for quite a bit about how Ron was trying out for the Keeper's position when Hermione interrupted saying, "I don't understand your fascination with Quidditch. It isn't much of a sport; all you do is throw a ball through a hoop. That part of the game doesn't even make a difference though. The only way to really win is to catch the snitch and you only need one person per team for that."
"You're missing the beauty of Quidditch," Ron replied half mocking half serious. "It takes a lot of concentration to be able to fly and beat off bludgers, and protect the goals, and score with the quaffle."
"Whatever." Hermione said, realizing there was no way that she could win this argument she just went back to reading her book. She continued reading until Neville returned saying, "We're going to be arriving any minute you three better change into your robes."
When the train finally arrived, the carriages were waiting and it took awhile to find one that wasn't already occupied by a large mass of people. When they did find one Harry took Hermione's hand and helped her in saying, "There you are my lady."
Catching on Hermione replied, "Well thank you good sir." Harry took his seat next to her and the two of them began to laugh again.
When they got inside the castle Harry, Ron and even Hermione kept getting weird looks from the other students, but they just shrugged it off and continued into the Great Hall where the Sorting Ceremony was about to begin. "I can't believe we take our O.W.L.s this year. I've been studying for most of the summer but I'm afraid that after going to France I may have lost some of my focus. I hope it was enough." Hermione said as they took their usual seats inside the Great Hall.
"Leave it to you to bring those up our first day back." Ron cracked.
Hermione prepared to say something just as sarcastic back but was interrupted by Professor Dumbledore standing up. Everyone in the hall fell silent and he began, "Welcome back to Hogwarts everyone. I hope you are all ready to start the new school year. I would like to remind everyone that the Forbidden Forest is off limits to ALL students." Dumbledore said looking directly at the trio with a twinkle in his eye. "I would also like to say it is wonderful that all of you have returned especially when our world is in such peril with the Dark Lord returning. Now all of you I am sure are aware of what happened to Cedric Diggory last year but for the first years, I would like to remind them that he was a brave young lad who died at the hand of Lord Voldemort. This year we will hold the Diggory Ball in remembrance of him. This ball will be held in place of the Yule Ball, which was held last year. Now let the Sorting Ceremony begin."
When the ceremony was finally over the food appeared on the tables and Ron began to stuff everything that he could reach into his mouth.
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"Hey Harry I wanted to talk to you about something." Ron said as they entered the Gryffindor common room. "But not now, how about around 11 tonight. That way everyone else will be asleep."
"Okay Ron," Harry replied as he sleepily walked up to the 5th year boys' dormitory.
3 hours later Harry walked back into the common room to find Ron already sitting on the couch. "All right Ron, what was so important that I had to come down here in the middle of the night?" Harry asked impatiently. The last thing Harry needed was to fall asleep in Potions' class and receive a detention on their first day of classes.
"Well I think that…over the summer…she's just so beautiful…and well I…ummm…I think." Ron stammered.
"Bloody hell Ron just spit it out! I want to go back to bed before morning comes."
"I think that I might have developed a thing for Hermione. When I saw her at the train station she was just so pretty and…"
'Noooo!' Harry yelled to himself. 'Why did you have to ruin everything Ron why?' How could Ron do this to him, Harry had liked her for over a year and now he had missed his chance because Ron thought she looked beautiful. He of course couldn't say this to Ron so instead he replied, "That's what you dragged me out of bed to say? Wonderful Ron just wonderful I'm going back up to bed."
The pair went upstairs to the dormitory, but what they didn't notice was that someone had heard them make plans to meet and had heard the entire conversation.