Chapter 4 DISCLAIMER: JK's only. With just three days until they had to board the Hogwarts Express for another year at Hogwarts, Harry, Hermione and Ron decided to make the most of their freedom. Harry was lazing around on Ron's orange Chudley Cannons bed, a copy of 'Magical Me' by Gilderoy Lockhart spread out in front of him, a black felt-tip pen in his hand and an evil smile on his face. Ron was telling them some story about something he and Ginny had done when they were 10 and 9, oblivious to the fact that neither Harry or Hermione were paying him any attention. Hermione was pretending to read her Arithmancy textbook, looking up every now and then at Harry. "You know what?" Harry said suddenly, making Ron stop his story and glare a little at him. Hermione looked back at her book. She was sure Harry had just caught her looking at him. Her face was a little red. Harry continued. "Lockhart looks better like this." Hermione risked a glance back his way, and saw him holding up a large picture of Lockhart, now sporting a curly black moustache, star-shaped spectacles and a huge mole on his chin. The Lockhart in the picture was scrubbing at his chin in vain; the marker just would not come off. Hermione smiled a little and tried to concentrate on 'Life By Numbers: The History of Arithmancy.' She couldn't focus, though, as much as she tried. All she could see was a cheeky grin and a pair of sparkling green eyes. "I'm going for a walk," she announced suddenly, standing up and knocking over a glass of pumpkin juice that had been next to her on the floor. Luckily, it blended into the carpet. Ron was a Cannons guy, through and through. "I'll come with you," Ron said, grabbing a few tissues and pushing them into the juice on the carpet. "Harry?" Harry seemed to consider it for a moment. "Nah," he decided. "I've got some stuff to do still. Have fun guys." Hermione wondered what 'stuff' Harry would be doing. Oh, that's a bit dirty, she scolded herself. Her cheeks flushed a little. She said a 'see you later then' quickly and strided out of the room, Ron at her heels. *** "So.. where are we going?" Hermione had absolutely no idea. "I don't know, but the holidays are nearly over and I want to make the most of the sunshine and freedom." "How about the field then?" Ron suggested. "Sure," she replied, and they set off to the nearby field. When they got there, they sat down on the grass in silence for a few moments. Then Hermione started picking the little flowers around her and doing some weird thing with them Ron had never seen before. "What are you doing?" he asked, curious. "When I was little, I used to sit outside and make daisy chains out of flowers, like this," Hermione reminisced. "I could sit outside for hours making rings and necklaces and everything." Ron was enthralled by it. "How do you make them?" "Well, first you get a whole lot of the little flowers... only the ones with fairly long stalks," she added, as Ron picked the head off one. "Otherwise it doesn't work. Then you split them with your nails... except you don't have long nails. Here let me do it... then you thread the next one in, and so on." Ron was impressed. "You seem quite the expert, Miss Granger." Hermione's smiled dimmed just a little, and she looked at the ground. "Well, I had a lot of spare time back then. There weren't many people around who... well, who liked me that much." Ron felt terrible. "I'm sorry, Hermione," he said, before carefully putting his hand over hers, which was fumbling a little over splitting one of the stalks. She looked up at his eyes, which were a fairly light blue, and he smiled. "But it's okay now, you have me and Harry!" "Harry and I" she corrected automatically, but her smile had brightened up a notch or two. "But thanks." She put her head back onto the grass and rested there with her eyes closed, the daisy chain forgotten. Ron lay back as well, and took in everything around him. It was a beautiful day, he was lying in a beautiful area next to one of his best friends, and he was starting to feel a little sleepy. "'Mione?" "Yes Ron?" "You smell nice." Hermione had always smelt nice, but today it was different, and the smell was making Ron a little dizzy. "Um.. thanks Ron." Hermione was flattered a bit, but she didn't like where this seemed to be going. "Is it a new shampoo?" "Yes, Ron. It's apple." "Oh, I thought so. It makes your hair shinier, too." Ron had propped himself up on one arm and was looking at Hermione, whose eyes were still closed. Hermione's hair certainly did look shinier. "Is it magic shampoo?" "No," she replied. "Just Muggle stuff." "Well those Muggles sure know their stuff," Ron commented, extending one hand to brush some hair off Hermione's face. Hermione opened her eyes to see Ron smiling down at her, now absentmindedly stroking her hair. This was just too weird. Ron was just a friend! "Ron, I think we should get going," she said, a little uncomfortably. Ron crinkled his nose a little. It was such a nice day still! "Er, well I suppose so," he said. "Actually I could do with a nice glass of pumpkin juice." The two of them got up and started back to the Burrow, Ron a little disappointed and Hermione very confused. A/N: Yeah, the chapters are sometimes a bit short, but it's taking awhile to get all my ideas into play. I have so many things I want to happen, but it has to tie in and everything still. Anyway, read and review, as always, and when you've reviewed satisfactorily I will give you Chapter 5! ~Ange.