Chapter 6

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At exactly eight thirty the next morning, Harry stood with his ear against the door to the Astronomy tower, Ginny standing behind him, bighting her lip anxiously.

"Do you hear anything?"

"No. Maybe we should run once we unlock the door. What do you think?"

"Oh, stop it, Harry. You're going to have to face them at some time or another. Just open it and get it over with. You were fine with everything last night, saying how perfectly everything went."

"Yeah, but they were still locked up then. Maybe we should just leave them in there. . ."

"Harry! You unlock that door this second or I'll hex you and let them out myself!"

"Oh, fine," Harry said, sufficiently threatened. With great reluctance he pulled a key from his pocket and turned it slowly in the lock. He opened the door cautiously, prepared to jump back if anything seemed amuck.

He wasn't quick enough.

He barely had time to register the fact that a fist was flying toward him before he went down, and landed hard on his backside. Ginny gasped and kneeled down next to him, glaring furiously toward the door as she helped him up. Harry groaned and, cradling his smarting jaw, said "That's one hell of a right-hook you've got there, Hermione."

Hermione still stood in the doorway, arms crossed over her chest, her jaw stiff in her disproval. Ron stood behind her, looking down at Hermione with a mixture of indulgence and surprise. "Jeez, Hermione, when you said you'd handle it, I didn't know you meant with you're fist."

"Yes, well, it seemed appropriate," she said, her militant stare still fixed on Harry.

"I suppose I deserved that," Harry said as Ginny examined his jaw, where a bruise was already beginning to form, and probed it gingerly. When he winced at her touch, her eyes darkened in anger and she turned on Hermione.

"There was no call for that, Hermione. I want you to apologize right now!"

"I most certainly will not!" Hermione said, affronted. "He's right, he deserved it! And you better not start with me, Ginny, because I'm far from happy with you."

"Oh, so are you going to hit me too, now?"

"Don't be ridiculous," Hermione said, "but that doesn't mean that I'll apologize to him!"

"You will!" Ginny said, becoming extremely agitated.

"Ginny, its okay, don't worry about it," Harry muttered, a little shocked at how upset Ginny was getting.

"No it isn't, Harry. There was absolutely no excuse for any type of violence in this situation. I can't believe you'd stoop to this level, Hermione."

"Oh, you have the nerve to talk about stooping, when you blatantly lie to people who trust you!'

"Cat fight!" Ron shouted jokingly, and Hermione glared at him.

"Now is NOT the time, Ron," Hermione admonished, and Ron sobered, sighing and raising his brows at Harry as if to say 'oh brother'.

"If anyone should be expecting an apology, it should be Ron and me!"

"Yes, and Harry and I were fully prepared to offer you one, until you decided to act like a child!"

Hermione's eyes widened in indignation. "With what Ron was thinking last night, he could have seriously hurt me in his temper, and all thanks to that CHILDISH stunt that the two of you pulled!"

"Oh, nothing could have possibly happened!" Ginny said, and Harry looked at her doubtfully. She had taken a very different stance yesterday. "Harry and I were outside the door the entire time, and we were ready to jump in if Ron started getting out of hand. Besides, Ron's temper is an issue that you'll have to take up with Ron, not us!"

"Ugh!!" Hermione growled in frustration. "We aren't getting anywhere yelling like this! Now, if you'll excuse me, I've been locked in a room for eleven hours, so I need to go find a toilet!" and with that, she stomped off down the hall, her back straight and her nose in the air, leaving a rather speechless group behind her.

"Well. Umm, she told you, didn't she?" Ron grinned, and he seemed to be in a perpetually good mood.

"I didn't realize she would be so upset about this," Harry said, rubbing his jaw.

"Well, if you ask me, she hasn't any right to be. We were helping you out, after all." Ginny said, glowering at Ron.

"Hey, don't start attacking me, Gin. Hermione and I have every right to be upset. I'm not going to pretend that I'm not pleased that Hermione and I are together now, but it still wasn't your place to interfere."

"So you are 'together' then?" Harry said, a wide grin spreading over his face.

"Yeah," Ron said, blushing and ducking his head to hide his own smile.

"That's all well and good, but she still shouldn't have hit Harry." Ginny said, though not as vehemently as before.

"I have to admit, Ron, I thought it would be you taking a swing at me."

"Oh, don't get me wrong, I seriously thought about it, but I'm really too happy with how the whole fiasco turned out to be inflicting pain on anyone."

"So why is Hermione so upset?" Ginny asked.

"Well, you know Hermione," Ron said, shaking his head, "she likes to be in charge, in control. When she loses it, she doesn't take it well. Her ability to make her own decisions is very important to her."

Ginny was quiet for a second. Again she was being swamped with guilt. Hermione had only hit Harry once, really, and if Harry hadn't been so taken by surprise he probably wouldn't have even stumbled backwards. And he had sort of deserved it. Just seeing Harry wince like that had driven her a little crazy. She wouldn't tell them that, however.

"Maybe I overreacted about her hitting Harry just a little," Ginny said. "Harry, I'll go with you to Madam Pomfrey and she'll get rid of that bruise. Ron, we'll meet you in the Great Hall in twenty minutes or so, all right?"

"Sure. I'm going to go find Hermione. See you guys in a few." He called over his shoulder as he walked off.

"I really don't have to see Madam Pomfrey, it's only a bruise." Harry said, self-consciously.

"Don't be daft. Come on." Ginny said, grabbing Harry by the elbow and hauling him after her. He protested the whole way, embarrassed to have Ginny fussing over something that, compared to other things he had been through, was quite trivial.

A little later Ginny and Harry walked into the Great Hall to find Ron and Hermione sitting next to each other in an otherwise unoccupied room. Ron had his arm around Hermione's waist, and she was leaning into him and smiling at him in an adoring, very un-Hermione like fashion as he spoke to her. As they approached, Ron kissed Hermione's nose, and she giggled girlishly.

"Well, that's a shocker," Harry whispered to Ginny, who nodded, just as taken aback by the love-struck Hermione, someone she had never seen before.

Hermione looked over at them in mid-giggle. She immediately stopped, and pulled slightly away from Ron, who kept his arm firmly around her. While Hermione dug into her breakfast rather enthusiastically, blushing and refusing to acknowledge that Harry and Ginny had arrived at the table, Ron stared them down, daring them to say anything.

After sitting down across from them, Ginny was the first to speak. "Look, Hermione, I'm sorry. I was feeling a little guilty about what I did and I guess that I just got a little defensive. I shouldn't have shouted at you like that."

Hermione looked up from her plate, "No you shouldn't of, but I accept your apology. Now, about what you did last night-"

"Yes, about last night," Harry said, interrupting her, "We're sorry about lying to you, Hermione. And you, Ron. But we're not sorry for what we did. You were driving us mad, Hermione, the two of you arguing all the time. We just wanted you to be happy together."

"I understand that, but couldn't you have just talked to us about it?" Hermione asked.

"That's what Ginny wanted to know. What is it with women always wanting to talk through everything? Do you really think just talking to Ron about his feelings would have worked?"

Hermione's looked at Ron, who shrugged. She muttered, "Well, maybe not, but it could very well have worked just fine with me."

"You don't get it, Hermione," that had to be a first, "we couldn't just talk to you about your feelings, neither of you, you were both in too much denial. We had to force the two of you to see what you felt for each other. And that's exactly what we did."

"Yes, but what if it all had gone horribly wrong, Harry, and Ron had done something that would have made it impossible for me to forgive him?" Hermione implored.

"There are too many 'what ifs' in the world for us to dwell on them all," Harry said, and Ginny saw a flash of pain in his eyes. Her heart went out to him, and Ron and Hermione looked away guiltily. That was the first time he had even alluded to the tragic events of last year since he had returned to Hogwarts. Uncomfortable with the turn the conversation had taken, Harry said, "Just be happy, all right?"

Ron and Hermione looked at each other, and then Ron cleared his throat uncomfortably, "We are, Harry. Even though we still might not be happy about how you went about making it happen, you had the right intentions." Here he took Hermione's hand. "Thanks. Both of you."

Hermione was becoming a little teary eyed. "Well, I suppose your hearts were in the right place, if nothing else," she said grudgingly. "Oh, fine, let's just not talk about it anymore. But next time you have an issue, please come to me before doing something rash like that."

"Done," Harry said, smiling. "Ginny, lets go get breakfast, okay?"

"I am a little hungry. Don't go anywhere, you two, we'll be right back."

Hermione and Ron watched the pair go, and Harry put his hand on the small of Ginny's back, to guide her in front of him. Ginny jumped and almost tripped at the contact, and, noticing this, Ron turned to Hermione.

"What was that all about?" he asked her, as Hermione was still watching the pair. Harry was laughing at something Ginny had said, and she was slapping his shoulder flirtatiously.

"Don't you know?" Hermione smiled.

"Should I?" Ron looked perplexed.

Hermione laughed, "It's obvious that they're crazy about each other. You really didn't know?"

"No! Well, I've always hoped that they would want to get together, and I knew that Ginny used to, but I thought she was going with Dean now. And Harry has never even hinted to me that he liked Ginny."

"Well, he wouldn't, you're her brother, aren't you? Plus, I think he's having a little trouble facing the facts. Ha! Now there's someone who's in denial."

"But why wouldn't he tell Ginny? I mean, she liked him before she- oh. . ."

"Precisely," Hermione said, frowning. "You said so yourself, Ginny has a boyfriend now."

"But you said that she still likes Harry?"

"Yes," she lowered her voice, "as a matter of fact, she was very angry at someone the other day, Harry I think, because when I brought it up in front of him, she didn't want to talk about it. I forgot about it until now, but I think something might have happened between them, and now they're trying even harder to hide whatever it is that they've got going on."

"Eww," Ron said with a pained look, "I really don't want to think of my sister getting anything on with anybody."

"Oh, grow up," Hermione rolled her eyes, but she was smiling. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Probably not," Ron grinned.

"Well, I was thinking," Hermione said, "that we can't just TALK to them about their feelings, we need to make them SEE what they feel for each other. I was thinking," here she looked downright mischievous, "that we might need to extract a little friendly revenge."

"How?" Ron asked.

"You let me worry about that," she said, patting his arm. "What WERE you thinking about, anyway?"

Ron got a very naughty gleam in his eyes and whispered something in her ear. Her eyes widened and she blushed. "Well. . .umm, that sounds very. . . interesting. Maybe we could. . .discuss that some more, later," she smiled devilishly.

"There's nothing I'd enjoy discussing more," he said, and kissed her lightly. She smiled and looked away to see Harry and Ginny heading back toward them.

Her smile widened. "Oh, this is going to be fun."

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Okay, so I lied. There was a little more Hermione/Ron pov left in me(: I know that was a little bit of a short one, but good things are to come. . .hehehe. I have to go study for my midterm, now- I hope you all keep reading!

And just in case I haven't said it enough-REVIEW!