Chapter three – Discovery

Hermione's POV

Slowly I opened my eyes and viewed my surroundings. I was still in the Gryffindor common room and my head was on someone's shoulder. It was Ron. "Ahhh!" I screamed. Ron awoke suddenly and we both jumped up blushing a deep shade of red.

"Er… um… how?" Ron stuttered. "I…don't…er…why" I replied. Neither of us made any sense. We both turned and tried to run in opposite directions but fell over trying. "Huh?" Ron said. We both stood up and tried to go in different directions but we couldn't get further apart than about one metre.

"What is going on?" I asked worried. "I'm not sure. Maybe we should do a spell" Ron suggested. "Good idea! Reveala" I said. Just visible on our wrists was a pair of shiny, silver handcuffs. After a few seconds, they disappeared. We looked at each other with astonished expressions.

"Who did this?" Ron asked. At that moment, Ginny and Harry walked downstairs sharing the same amused expression. "Hello! Did you have a nice sleep?" Harry asked cheerfully. "Did you do this?" I asked suspiciously. "Did we do what?" Ginny asked, looking innocent.

"This!" Me and Ron tried to move away further than a metre apart but couldn't. "Oh that! Well, yes we did" Harry said as though it was nothing. "But why?!" I asked. "Because me and Harry are fed up of you two arguing all the time and dragging us into it" Ginny said.

Me and Ron looked at the floor truthfully ashamed of ourselves. It was our own fault and we should have thought about their feelings. "Sorry" we both said together. "That's ok" Ginny and Harry said. "There is a way to release you" Harry said. Me and Ron looked up hopefully. "But we won't until you two stop arguing and realise why you became friends in the first place" Harry said.

"I'm sorry we had to be so drastic but we didn't know what else we could do" Ginny said. "It's ok Ginny, Harry. We understand don't we Hermione?" Ron asked. "Yeah, we do" I replied. They smiled at us and left the room leaving the two of us by ourselves.

"This sucks" Ron said. "Oh I'm sorry that you aren't happy to be handcuffed to me but we have to fix this" I replied. "I know but what can we do?" Ron asked. "Come on" I said, grabbing Ron's hand. "Let's go and see Professor Dumbledore.

I dragged him out of the common room and we made our way to Dumbledore's office. "But Hermione it's embarrassing" Ron whined. I ignored him and carried on walking. Ron grabbed hold of a door handle.

"Don't be so childish, Ron" I snapped.

"But what if people find out? Imagine what Malfoy will say" Ron said. "Who cares about what people say" I said. "I do!" Ron said. I sighed gently. "Ok, if you come I'll give you some ice cream" I replied. Ron still had a grip on the door handle. "You can't bribe me!" he said. "Fine! Chocolate ice cream with sprinkles" I said. "Add a flake and we have a deal" Ron said. "Deal" I replied and he let go of the door handle.

We reached the stone Gargoyle and I realised I didn't know the password. Luckily, Dumbledore appeared in the opposite direction. "Hello" he said cheerfully. I smiled. "Hello sir, me and Ron need some help" I said. "Do you Miss Granger? Well, you'd better come to my office then" Dumbledore replied.

Ron's POV

Dumbledore said the password (Chocolate Frog) and led us up the stairs and into his office. "What can I do for you?" he asked. I let Hermione do all the talking and became very interested in an oddly shaped lamp.

"Well you see sir, our friends handcuffed us together and we were wondering whether you know the spell to get rid of them" Hermione asked. I looked at Dumbledore and noticed that he had an amused expression on his face; similar to the one Harry had this morning.

"Indeed, yes I do. But let me ask, why did your friends do this in the first place?" Dumbledore asked. Well, let me see. It was because Hermione was being unreasonable and wouldn't listen to anything I had to say, that seems about right. "Because we keep arguing" Hermione began. That's the understatement of the year! "And they want us to get along" she continued. Well good luck to them!

"I see… Well, it seems like a clever idea to me, don't you think?" Dumbledore asked. A clever idea! No it was not a clever idea! I can understand why they did it but under no circumstances was it a clever idea!

"Well yes I suppose so" Hermione replied. What?! How could she say that? Or think that? Is she completely nuts or something? Well… maybe. "That settles it then! I'm very sorry Miss Granger, Mr Weasley but I think you're going to have to learn to get along" Dumbledore replied. Get on with her?! That won't happen in a hurry! "Yes, you're quite right sir. There's just one other thing" Hermione said. "Yes Miss Granger, what is that?" Dumbledore asked politely.

"Well, how are we going to sleep?" she asked. Good point! There's no way I'm going to sleep in her bed! Unless… I started stroking my chin and looking towards the ceiling. "Well, there is a spare room in every house in case of an emergency of this kind. There is one opposite the sixth year boy's dormitories. The password is 'Chocolate Cake'. I thought of it myself" Dumbledore said. My head shot up at the mention of chocolate cake. "Thank you for your time sir" Hermione said. "My pleasure" Dumbledore replied.

We both left his office and once we got away from the stone Gargoyle, Hermione rounded on me. "You could have been more helpful you know! Then maybe he would have released us" Hermione yelled angrily. "I thought you had everything covered. Besides, I don't think anything I said would have made a difference, I think he thought it was quite funny" I said calmly.

Hermione stormed off then realised she was still attached to me so she grabbed my arm and dragged me to our first lesson. It was a strange day being with Hermione all the time. We had to tell our Divination and Astronomy teachers we wouldn't be able to attend their lessons and that we'd get the homework from our friends to catch up.

As I expected, most of our year knew we were handcuffed together. Unfortunately, Malfoy knew. "So Weasley, I heard you have to be attached to this filthy Mudblood" Malfoy drawled. A hot anger was rising inside of me. How dare he call her a Mudblood! "Don't you dare call her a Mudblood you disgusting ferret. Also, I know that you bleach your hair!" I shouted. "What!? Goyle I can't believe you told!" Malfoy shrieked. He quickly ran away without saying another word.  

Hermione looked at me with astonishment and respect. "Thank you" she said softly whilst smiling sweetly. I smiled back. "Don't mention it". Did I just defend her? What is she going to think?! "How did you know Malfoy dyed his hair?" Harry asked. "I didn't, it was just a guess" I replied. The three of us laughed and made our way down to dinner.

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A/N: Another chapter finished! What did you think? Please review! Thank you to everyone who has reviewed so far.