Chapter thirteen – Three's a crowd

Harry's POV

The next morning, when I was washed and dressed, I made my way to Ron and Hermione's room. I knocked softly on the door in case they were still asleep, but a few seconds later, they opened the door. "Hello Harry" Hermione said cheerfully. Ron said hi as well but with less enthusiasm.

Hermione looked at him with a look of great curiosity on her face. Not wanting Ron to become upset, I quickly began to talk. "Come on, let's go to breakfast" I said. They both nodded and we walked down the staircase to the common room.

Ginny was there waiting for us. She smiled at us and I felt myself blush slightly. At that moment, I wished I could walk right up to her and kiss her and hug her but obviously I couldn't because Ron and Hermione didn't know about us yet.

The four of us walked down to breakfast and took our usual seats with Ron and Hermione next to each other and me and Ginny opposite them. I was just about to start on my bacon when I heard someone clink their goblet and clear their throat.

I looked over at the professors table and saw Dumbledore standing there, goblet in hand and waiting for everyone to hush. When all was quiet, he began to speak.

"Thank you. I have two announcements to make before you all rush off to lessons. First of all, I would like to remind third years and above that there is another Hogsmeade trip on Christmas Eve". "How could I forget?" Ron muttered bitterly.

"And secondly" Dumbledore continued, smiling around the room. "There is also a Christmas ball on Christmas day and I am hoping that it will be a great success" Dumbledore took his seat and let everyone talk amongst themselves.

To my surprise, I saw Ron smile. Whilst Ginny and Hermione were talking, Ron leaned over the table to whisper to me. "This will be great; I can have Hermione to myself for the whole evening. It's not very likely that Seamus will want to go with her if I'm there is it?" I looked at Ron with an unsure expression.

"But he's coming with you to Hogsmeade, how is this any different?" I asked. "Well, how can he dance and enjoy himself with Hermione while I'm there? It's just not possible" Ron replied, looking the most cheerful I'd seen him in days.

But a great doubt was in my mind. What if Seamus did want to go with Hermione? That would be an awful evening. I was snapped out of my thoughts by Ron. "Come on mate, we have Defence against the dark arts".

We took our seats at the back and waited for Professor Sapphira to arrive. She was actually quite a good teacher but no one could ever replace Remus. "Hello class" Sapphira said brightly. "Because it is Christmas quite soon and this is your last day of lessons before the holidays, I thought we'd study a small, interesting creature".

She brought out a cage and inside was a small pixie. Everyone in the class gasped and hid behind their books. Sapphira furrowed her brow in confusion. "What is the matter with you lot?" she asked. Hermione raised her hand.

"Yes, Hermione" Sapphira said politely. "Well, in our second year. We studied Pixies and it wasn't a pretty situation". I thought that was clearly an understatement, it was chaotic.

"Their only pixies, how can they be so much trouble? There's a simple spell to make them tame" Sapphira answered. Hermione raised her hand again. "Hermione?" Sapphira asked. "Our teacher wasn't what you'd call qualified" Hermione said. "Oh, who was it?" Sapphira asked. "Gilderoy Lockhart" Hermione replied.

"Oh, him. Isn't he in St Mungo's?" Sapphira asked. Most of us nodded. "Ah well, I can assure you all I am quite qualified and will not let this pixie harm you". She let the Pixie out of the cage and the class winced. I heard Sapphira mutter: Ancora.

I looked up and saw the pixie quite still and calm looking. Sapphira held the pixie in the palm of her hand and brought it around the room to show everyone. "First of all, I am going to teach you how to calm a pixie down. Take out your wands and repeat after me Ancora". The rest of the class repeated it.

The rest of the lesson went by smoothly. (A/N: I know pixies seem easy to a sixth year class but it's the last day so they've got to have a little fun haven't they?) By the end of the lesson, they knew how to handle pixies and other important facts.

"Thank you class you have done well today. Next lesson after the holidays we'll be learning about Nundu's but we will not to be seeing a real one for safety reasons. Have a nice holiday!"  

No one's POV

The next week passed by and already Christmas seemed to be making an appearance. The snow outside went up to the ankles and people were already planning to go home. Quite a few people decided to stay because of the Christmas ball but also because Hogwarts was magnificent at Christmas.

The morning of Christmas Eve approached and Ron seemed to be in a rotten mood again. "Hermione, do we really have to go to Hogsmeade?" he asked her at breakfast that morning.

"Yes, Ron. We need to go Christmas shopping you know" Hermione replied. "But I've done most of it already, can't we just stay behind?" Ron asked. Hermione was still final with her answer but couldn't work out the real reason Ron didn't want to go. That reason was because Seamus was coming.

Seamus and Hermione's relationship was slowly building into something amazing, much to Ron's annoyance. But it would seem to someone who was surveying them closly that Hermione seemed to be enjoying it more than Seamus.

Sure he kissed her and hugged her a lot but that only seemed to happen when there was a lot of people around. "He's an exobicianist you know" Ron whispered to Harry at breakfast when Seamus sat down and kissed Hermione's cheek. "His just trying to show off that he has a girlfriend".

"Are you saying that because it's obvious or because you're jealous?" Harry asked, raising his eyebrows. "Both" Ron muttered, stirring his cornflakes.

Hermione's POV

Ah, another Christmas to look forward to. But a Hogsmeade trip to dread. I don't think it is a good idea that Seamus comes with me and Ron, I know there will be conflict and I'm going to be stuck in the middle of it all.

We walked past a disgruntled Filch who was ticking off names on a piece of parchment. Me, Ron and Seamus walked by with no problem and made our way to Hogsmeade. Harry told us he wasn't going to Hogsmeade but it was so obvious he wanted to go with Ginny.

I can't believe Ron hasn't figured it out yet, it's so obvious. I wonder why they haven't told him, who knows! We entered Hogsmeade and began shopping at once. I dragged the boys into a dress robes shop and made Ron stand outside the dressing room curtain while I changed. It was quite difficult changing when I'm handcuffed to him but I managed.

I tried on about four dress' and found the perfect one but hid it from view from Ron and Seamus, they'd see it tommorow. I thought the day was going along ok but of course I was wrong. While we were walking past a big group of sixth years, Seamus stopped me and Ron and leant in to kiss me.

Before our lips had even touched, Ron walked forwards, dragging me with him. "Ron!?" I said annoyed. "Oh I'm sorry, I couldn't understand why we had to stop" he replied. The rest of the day went by like that. Seamus put his arm around me so Ron put his arm around me, knocking Seamus' off saying I had a feather on my shoulder.

Whenever we got close, Ron would cough really loudly and distractedly so we wouldn't be able to do anything. By the end of the day, I was quite annoyed with him.

Ginny's POV

Me and Harry walked around Hogsmeade hand in hand without a glance from anyone and you know why that was? We were invisible. I'd never been under the invisibility cloak before but it was quite enjoyable. We could do whatever we wanted without looking over our shoulders to check that Ron wasn't there.

We tripped up a few people, mainly Malfoy. He seemed quite annoyed when he'd tripped up for the fifteenth time and had no idea what he was tripping over. We were laughing so much when he started getting all flustered and scared.

People around us could hear the laughter but had no idea where it was coming from which kind of freaked them out, which made us laugh even more. I don't think I'd ever had such a fun day before. Me and Harry had tickling fights and we kissed everywhere we could and it was different and exciting. I love having a boyfriend.

Ron's POV

"Isn't there some way we can get rid of him?" Seamus whispered to Hermione. "I can hear what you're saying!" I said indigantly. Hermione and Seamus ignored me and continued talking as though I wasn't there. "I told you Seamus, we're handcuffed together and there's nothing I can do about it" Hermione replied.

"Oh yes, the handcuffs which your little friends put on you. It doesn't seem very believable you know. How do I know if you didn't put the handcuffs on yourself?" Seamus asked, becoming quite angry. "Seamus please believe me I didn't" Hermione replied. "Whatever. I'm going back to the castle, I've had enough of the pair of you for one day" Seamus said, walking off.

Well, good riddence I say! But Hermione didn't seem to think so. "This is all your fault!" she yelled angrily. "My fault? How is it my fault? Seamus is the one who stormed off" I retorted. "Because of you and the way you've been behaving today" Hermione replied.

I laughed slightly. "Can't he take a joke? If there's anyone I hate, it's people who don't know how to have a laugh". Hermione rolled her eyes at me and dragged me back to the castle. I did feel slightly guilty though for making her so stressed and angry.

When we arrived back in the common room, I decided to appoligise. "Look Hermione, I'm sorry I got you all stressed out today but you can understand can't you?" I asked. She looked at me searchingly. "Yes, I suppose so" she replied, sighing. "Good, so you forgive me?" I said, giving her my puppy dog eyes. "Yes, Ron. I forgive you" she replied, rolling her eyes.

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A/N: Another chapter down! Please review.