**Author's Note: Thanks again to all who have reviewed. This is another short chapter (noticing a trend?). I wrote it fairly quickly--I was inspired after having just watched The Chamber of Secrets.**

"Hermione."

She jumped about a foot from her chair.

Harry took off his glasses and cleaned them of dust and grit. "You've been a bit jumpy lately.

Hermione laughed a bit nervously. "Jumpy? Who's jumpy? I'm not jumpy." She exhaled and pushed her bangs out of her face with a shaky hand.

"Ron's worried about you," Harry said. "So worried that he came to me. Usually he keeps his girl troubles to himself." He laughed.

"Um, actually, Harry-not to put you off or anything-I'm kind of busy," she said, not looking up at him.

Harry shrugged. "Y'know, that's what George said too."

"George?" she asked incredulously. She nearly stood up, and then lowered herself back down calmly.

Harry couldn't help but laugh at the confusion her outburst caused him. "Hermione, what's going on? You can tell me. I promise, I won't repeat anything you said to anyone else."

She looked up at him, biting her lip. "All right. You promise?"

Harry nodded and she pulled him out of the room. Before he knew it, they were bolting down the corridor, heading towards Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. After he had caught his breath, he asked, "Why here?"

Hermione paced back and forth in front of the sinks nervously. "Harry. I think I possess romantic feelings for George Weasley."

He looked at her, stunned, unable to form any words.

"Oh, Harry, you can't tell anyone, especially Ron-you promised!" she pleaded frantically, clutching his hands.

"Okay! Okay! I won't!" he said loudly, trying to pull away from her. "Hermione, I won't say anything!" Harry looked at her seriously, watching her frightened, glistening eyes. He smiled and said, "Don't cry."

She wiped her eyes dry. "I don't know what to do. I mean, what will Ron think. He'll hate me-I won't be able to deal with that again." She sat down on the floor and cupped her face in her hands.

Harry thought a moment. "You have to tell him. It'll be worse if you don't. Ron will understand-he has to." He offered her his hand. "C'mon, let's go to dinner. You need it."

Hermione took his hand and they walked down to the Great Hall together. She spotted Ron immediately and pulled him away from the table. He smiled his boyish smile at her as she tried to think of the words to tell him. "Ron…um, you're not going to enjoy hearing this, but-but I have to tell you."

Ron shook his head good-naturedly. "You know you can tell me anything, Hermione."

She swallowed. "I have romantic feelings for your brother-for George," she said as quickly as she could.

His face fell. "Oh." He started to walk away, but then he turned around to face her again. "Is this some kind of joke?" Hermione shook her head. Ron looked at her, disgusted, and left the Great Hall, pushing past anyone in his path.

Hermione covered her face with her hands. Unable to think of anything better to do, she rushed out of the Hall.

George saw her, quickly said to Fred, "I'll see you later," and followed her out. "Hermione!" he called.

"Oh, no," she muttered. She dried her eyes with the sleeves of her robes and turned around. As he drew near, he slowed and stopped. "Hello, George."

"Are you all right?" he asked. "You looked pretty upset when you ran out of there."

"No," she said, "I'm fine."

"You don't look fine," George observed.

"Why does everyone keep saying that?" she shouted.

Ron heard her voice and stopped when he saw whose body it belonged to. He stamped his foot angrily and asked, "Oh, so now I bet you're planning the wedding. Well, let me know how the children turn out!"

A horrified look passed onto Hermione's face. She whirled around. "Ron!"

George stared at the two of them, befuddled. "Uh, what's going on?"

Ron rolled his eyes. "Don't give me that innocent garbage. You know what's going on. And so do I. I know all about your secret love affair."

George couldn't help but think how nice that would be. But he quickly removed the thought from his head and wiped the ridiculous smile from his face. "I'm sorry, I'm still not following. Since when are me and Hermione having a love affair?"

"We're not," Hermione interjected. Suddenly she wished she had never consulted Harry. He didn't know what he was talking about anyway. "Ron, please calm down."

"You two probably planned your lines together!" Ron went on. "I bet you did this one, George: 'I have romantic feelings for your brother.' Was that yours, George?" He shook his head angrily. "Hermione, you can just leave me alone from now on. And I hope you fail your O.W.L.s!"

Hermione stared after him furiously.

"Uh, Hermione?" George spoke up. "What's going on?"

She sighed. "Just what he said." She wouldn't face him, but remained with her back turned towards him. "I heard you in the common room a few weeks ago."

George's eyes widened. "Oh." He felt his face turning red and he was glad she wasn't looking at him.

"The more I thought about it, the more sense it made to me," she said. "Why couldn't we have something?" Hermione turned around. "I do love Ron-dearly-but only as a friend. He doesn't understand. I mean, I did want to be with him, but not as much as he wanted it." She paused. "That's not to say he forced me to be his girlfriend. That's just silly." She smiled to herself. "Ron's too sweet and sensitive to ever do something like that."

George just stood there, listening intently. When he thought she was finished, he said quietly, "Hermione, I'm having second thoughts about our-" he laughed, "-secret affair."

She smiled sadly at him. "I am too. I'm sorry, George. I didn't mean to put you through all this-you didn't deserve it." She kissed his cheek and hugged him. "You're a good friend."

George hugged his elbows, watching her walk away. "Yeah." He walked back to his dormitory, wanting to crawl under a rock where no one could find him.