Disclaimer: I don't own them although I wish I did (and boy do I wish I did!)!

*** Kudos to Pineapplehead who was also the first to review!  Thank you and I hope you enjoy this chapter too!  Danidancer I knew that middle part was confusing and to some extent readers were supposed to be a little confused but then get it so I'm glad it worked out that way for you!  Thank you for reviewing!  Shaunna I'm glad that last part affected you like that.  That's what I was going for.  I promise you'll like this chapter too, OK?  OK!  Enjoy!  Lycr thank you for the nice compliment!  It's nice to hear that I'm good at describing things!  Thank you!  Amanda thank you for the suggestion…I'm definitely thinking about it!  And it's awesome that you enjoy my story so much!  That's great!  I hope you enjoy this chapter too!  Sugar Blossom thank you for liking my story so much!  I hope you enjoy this chapter (which deals with some Infirmary thing, R/Hr, and Mitch) so it's not a little of everything, but that is how I wanted it!  Thank you so much!  Soupcann314 that is one of the most wonderful things anyone has ever said to me…about my writing improving…that is awesome!  Thank you!  Ronaldrose I'm glad you get it now…sorry that it was confusing…I didn't know any better way to write that!  But I hope you enjoy this new chapter!  HogwartsHoe you said it and now I'm saying it back to you: ::SMILES::  Thank you!  Hermiones-Twin I hope you enjoy this chapter…I'm glad you still enjoy my story…you know, you've been one of my oldest reviewers…that's pretty cool in my books!  Thank you!  Lily Michelle I love Shakespeare!  I don't know those sonnets off the top of my head but I'm going to go through a poetry book I have and read them!  Thank you!  Alexa thank you!  I'm glad you think I "rock the Harry Potter house!"  That's an awesome thing to say!  Thank you!  Ann I'm so glad you love the storyline!  Thank you for reading and reviewing!  Quellie the *RW/HG* Obsessor your thought would work except…Natalie and Katie aren't friends (and it makes for a few more interesting chapters).  Anyway, thanks for reviewing!  I'm glad you love my story!  HpFaNaTiCa thanks for reading!  And you're right: poor Mitch!  Poor Cedric, too!  Thank you, thank you, thank you!  Hermione Weasley you gave me a long review!  Thank you!  I like going back and forth between characters so I'm glad someone else enjoys it that way too!  And yes, they aren't too worried about Pansy…isn't that awful?  Damn kids…only care about people they like!  LOL!  I hope you enjoy this next chapter!  Thank you!  Jenny thank you for the long review!  I'm glad the whole Cedric thing worked with that last chapter!  And I'm glad it got people to think too!  Thanks for being such an awesome reviewer!  Love you!  Kim it is awesome that you check and see every day whether or not it has been updated!  Thank you!  Mina thank you for saying I've kept all characters in character for 40 chapters!  That's awesome!  Thank you!  Triniroo it's OK that you haven't reviewed for a long time—I understand and hey!  It took me a little while to get this posted!  But thank you!  And I hope you enjoyed your Spring Break!  Vanilla Baby I'm glad you love Mitch Reed!  That's awesome!  I really like him too!  Thanks for another awesome review!  KamikazeCreamPuff you're name made me smile!  Thanks for reading and reviewing!  Celeste good, good!  It's nice to know that her diary is making more sense as well as the Mitch/Katie stuff too!  Thank you!  Rdaviessweety thank you for saying my story is really cool!  That means a lot to me!  I hope you enjoy this chapter!  Fredngeorgegirl that song is an awesome song—I just really like all of Faith Hill's stuff!  Thank you for reading and reviewing and I'm definitely going to fit "This Kiss" or "The Way You Love Me" into some fanfic!  Thank you!  Felicia I know!  Doesn't it bug you when people don't use words right?  And dichotomy is such a weird word too!  Anyhow, thank you for reading and reviewing and making me feel good!  Americanangel reading your review confused me!  LOL!  There were a lot of "hers" and "hes" and "shes!"  Oui!  Thank you for the review and I hope you enjoy this chapter too!  EVERYONE READ HER STORY "HOW MANY WAYS" IT IS GOOD and WELL WRITTEN!  Thank you for the review!  Marjojo thank you for the review and I like the R/Hr sweetness too!  And since I've completed my thanks in my other story I'd like to say thank you for reading and reviewing that story also!  It makes me feel good to have so many faithful reviewers!  Thank you!  Andie thank you for the review!  And—LOL—you're right!  I didn't say "by now" one to many times but I haven't changed it yet…Thanks for pointing that out!  Hermionereincarnated thank you, thank you for telling all your friends about my story!  I hope they do read it (and review) and thank you for your review!  It's great that you're obsessed with my story!  Thank you!  MinMuni thank you for review!  I'm glad you love it!  About the chapters thing…I don't know.  There won't be too many more…but I hope you'll still read it!  Thank you!  Fiona Goldfeet it is OK that you haven't reviewed for awhile!  I hope your meet in Prague went alright!  I'm glad you like the Natalie-Lee-Carmen triangle.  I do too!  This chapter is for you because you're an awesome reviewer!  Thank you!  Thank you everyone for reading and reviewing!  You all are so awesome!  It means a lot to me to have so many faithful reviewers!  Thank you!  Enjoy!

Chapter 41: Nights and Romance

"Well this is interesting," Ron remarked dryly with a hint of shallow sarcasm in his voice.  Hermione looked like she could have punched his lights out and not be upset later on about it but she kept her thoughts to herself.  Harry thought it was probably just because they were in the Infirmary that she didn't start screaming her head off.

Parvati on the other hand gave Ron a glare Harry wasn't even aware that she could make.  It was rather intriguing really.  He would have to talk to her later on this.

Finally Harry looked around.  Natalie wasn't there anymore.  She was with Carmen.  She was smiling and crying all at the same time and Harry wondered if she wasn't smiling and crying for the exact same reasons. 

On one hand she seemed to be smiling because Carmen was awake and on the other hand…she was crying because Carmen was awake?  Girls made no sense.

Ron smiled and nodded ever so slightly.  It seemed that Ron could now read peoples' thoughts too.  Harry chuckled inwardly.  Ron knew what he was thinking because Ron had been observing Natalie's strange behavior too. 

Madame Pomfrey did a little tongue-cluck thing and shooed them away from the Infirmary.  "Go now.  Now that we know what has happened it 'tis not such a big deal.  You go on now and get your homework finished."

Harry thought he heard Hermione utter something about never being able to get anything done hanging around those two gits of boys but he was completely sure and so he said nothing.  He wouldn't have said anything anyhow.

They walked quietly up the flights of stairs, only speaking when Hermione and Ron motioned that they were going back to the library.  Harry looked questioningly at Parvati, silently asking her if she wanted to join them but she just shook her head and so they said goodnight and parted their ways.

***

"Hmm, I have to wonder why none of the texts made mention of the person liking another telling them someone else liked them too," Hermione pondered out loud but not loud enough for the old librarian to hear.

Ron stayed quiet as he didn't have a good answer anyway.

Hermione immediately found the book with the Treuth spell in it and it wasn't five seconds before she found the spell too.  Ten seconds later she was scribbling the ingredients for the spell down fiercely on the sheet of parchment.  Ron watched the whole time.

It wasn't long though before the parchment, as well as the text, was in front of Ron.  "I didn't leave anything out, did I Ron?" she asked.

Ron scanned the paper and tried not to look too disgusted at that one ingredient—hair of spider, and when he saw that everything was in seemingly perfect order he nodded absent-mindedly and pushed the things back toward Hermione.  "It all seems right Hermione," he replied.

Hermione looked at her boyfriend with a sense of worry.  Something was wrong.  Something had gone wrong between the last time they were here—really only a few minutes, and now.  Shouldn't he be trying to flirt with her and things? 

"Ron what's wrong?" she asked softly.  She didn't wish to intrude of his thoughts but feared that might be exactly what she was doing.

His face was unreadable, something that was totally not Ron. 

Fear semi-overtook Hermione, who was not at all able to stay calm when something was so apparently wrong with one of her best friends.  Her best friend, really.  "Ron?  Please, tell me if something is wrong," she pleaded, foregoing any thoughts of appearing weak.

Ron looked at her then.  His blue eyes, always so full of laughter, had a serious, razor-sharp edge to them.  "Honestly?  Nothing is wrong.  I'm just…I don't know, you know?  In a way…I guess I just feel bad for Carmen.  She woke up with nobody to love her."

Hermione's heart broke upon hearing his words.  How sweet could her boyfriend be?  By now he was blushing from his toes to the roots of his hair and Hermione found that even more endearing. 

She smiled sweetly.  "Oh Ron!" she let out with a breath of a laugh. 

He looked confused and his eyes turned a wild blue, making him that much more sexier in her eyes, something she would never ever reveal to him.  Not if she ever wanted his already large ego to deflate, anyhow.

"Oh Ron!" she repeated, this time a bit softer.  "Come here," she bid and when he seated himself next to her she took his head between her hands and kissed him so passionately he went dizzy.  Or maybe he wasn't dizzy and the world around him began to tilt again.  Either way, he didn't want her to stop whatever it was she was doing.  He didn't care if she was trying to prove him wrong even, as long as she continued kissing him like this…

***

Mitch snuck down to the Ravenclaw Common Room late in the night.  It was dark out, completely dark. 

The fire burning in the fireplace illuminated the large raven's head that protruded from the wall, it's great beak wide open as if he were caw-cawing.  Mitch watched it for a long moment, willing it to speak but nothing was brought forth from the beak as one might expect. 

He was a bit disappointed.

And so Mitch continued to the corner he knew so well.  He smiled in the dim light of the fire.  It was a corner he knew well.  He had snogged his first true girlfriend, a sixth-year Ravenclaw named Jillian Franke.  The corner had definitely been good to him.

He sat Indian-style on the floor and his almost now constant companion, the diary, was laid out before him.  The flickering flames of the fire was hardly enough to read by but it would suffice for tonight.

Tonight was a night for romance.

Tonight was the night he would allow Katie's words to completely wash over him and he would either forget about her or his old feelings would fully resurface with a passionate vengeance.

He sucked in a deep breath and closed his eyes so he could focus on remembering what her voice sounded like.  It was soft at times.  Soft like the whoosh of a bow across the tight strings of a violin.  And it was warm.

At the thought of her voice, now clearly remembered, tiny sparks ignited in the most appropriate of places—his fingertips, his ears, his spine—and other sparks ignited in more inappropriate places.

Never minding that, Mitch finally looked down at the pages in front of him. 

What makes a person someone's "meant to be?"  I've been wondering this for some time now and you know what? it just doesn't make any sense to me. 

I've asked my mum and what does she say?!  She says, "What do you think make's someone another's meant to be?"  I just have to shake my head.  I don't know.  I mean, that's why I'm asking you, you know?

Take Fred and Angelina, for example.  Why are they so perfect for each other?  It's not because he's white and she's black.  It's not even because he's a wizard and she a witch!  It goes much deeper than that.  It has to.  If it doesn't go much deeper than that then that means Lee is my meant to be!  Understand my reasoning? 

Or why are Ron and Hermione so right for each other?  They fight all the time.  I'm serious.  All the time.  So then, does that mean if you fight a lot it's a good thing?  I can't imagine that!  But, do you understand my dilemma?

What about Cedric and Cho?  They are so cute!  You should have seen them at the Yule Ball!  Cho is just a beautiful girl and a damn good Seeker too…Harry has a crush on her (and she knows and she even thinks it's kind of cute)…and Cedric is just…Cedric.  I can tell you that unless anything happens they will marry and live happily ever after.  Why then, are they so happy when they don't fight?  I just don't understand.

And hey, if you ever find the answers to these questions, please answer me!

Hey there!  I've finally updated!  I apologize that it took a bit long.  I didn't think it would take that long!  Sorry!  And I apologize for the cliffhanger!  I had to do it though and I promise you'll like the next chapter!  Please review and thank you!

The fighting part of the war is basically over, so now I ask that you all pray/light a candle/meditate/whatever-it-is-you-do for those who lost loved ones, no matter what side they were on.  And I ask you give support to our government and I pray personally that you pray our government(s) make the right decisions in the coming days.  I apologize if this request has offended you.

Smile when your heart is aching…smile even though your heart is breaking.