Chapter Three
"Harry." The voice said. He blinked once, and the world came back into focus. Harry found himself standing on the doorstep of his relatives house. A moment of disoriented thought and then he realized he was standing in front of the Headmaster of Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore.
"Harry." said the wizened wizard, placing a hand on Harry's elbow and supporting him. Harry for the life of him couldn't imagine how he had come to be there, standing in front of his professor, when a moment before he had be using a spell on Visily Tolov, in the park a few blocks away.
"How did I get here?" he croaked out, his voice sounding disembodied in his own mind.
"It isn't important right now Harry, come we must talk." The Headmaster, still holding on to his elbow, led Harry through the door, and started him up the stairs. Harry glanced into the sitting room to his left as he accented and saw all three Dursely's sitting side by side on the couch, blank expressions painted on there faces.
"I had to subdue them, you can imagine their reaction to this afternoon's exploits." Harry cringed visibly and looked up at the old wizard. Dumbledore for his part was smiling down at Harry with a look of pure amusement. " Your uncle has quite the opinion of Wizards Harry, very colorful vocabulary."
Harry could very well imagine what his uncle has said to Dumbledore.
They came to the top of the stairs and Harry led them to his room where he closed the door behind them. Dumbledore seemed to take in Harry's room a bit reminiscently, smiling serenely at the clutter strewn across the floor. Harry felt himself redden at the mess.
"Sorry Professor, I wasn't expecting company."
"No need to worry Harry, I am quite aware of what it is to be sixteen, I myself was never the most organized young man." With that, the greatest wizard of the age promptly sat down on Harry's desk chair ignoring the pair of boxers that hung from the back of it.
Harry sat likewise on his bed, steeling himself against the conversation that was about to take place.
Dumbledore sat staring at the floor for a moment. "How did your encounter with Visily go?" he said looking up from the spot on the floor.
"Rough at first." Harry said shifting in his seat. "But it explained a lot in the end."
Dumbledore simply nodded.
"Professor." Harry said "Is this how it happened to you. He came to you and told you about the Primo Animus."
Dumbledore nodded again and looked as if that explained the matter, but then seemed to think it better to speak. "My seventh year at Hogwarts, Visily came to me over the holidays at Christmas. It had already been a confusing time in my life, but when he appeared, as you said it explained many questions." Dumbledore sighed and stood up and started pacing the length of Harry's small room. Harry could only look on.
"I swear Harry." Dumbledore said, never breaking stride. " I had no idea, if I did, I would never have let you stay in the dark this long. It is my fault, I wanted to protect you and now I find that I have wasted five years that I had to prepare you." Dumbledore took another turn at his door and then stopped when he reached the window, staring up at the sky, that was already darkening into night. He stood a moment and seemed to gather himself, stiffening up to his considerable height. "I can only say that I wanted you to have as normal a life as was possible under the circumstances."
"Its ok." Harry said. "We discussed this after..." at lump rose to the top of Harry's throat. "after the ministry and Sirius...." Harry stood and walked to the side of the Wizard, who at this angle, looked very old indeed. "I don't blame you Professor."
Dumbledore turned and looked down at Harry. " I should have know though Harry, all the signs were there, I just.... I just couldn't believe it would happen again so soon. You have no Idea what being the Santimoni Animus entails."
"Then teach me, I'll learn, I've already come to terms that I must kill Tom Riddle anyway, this is just one more reason." Harry's word reverberated in the quiet of the room, strength gathered around him and he felt...he felt....peace. It was comforting to say it out loud.
A smile flashed across Dumbledore's face. "I know Harry, thats why I've come. After Visily came to see me this morning I started making arrangments for you to....deal with this matter."
"Deal Sir?" asked Harry, swallowing the lump that was steadily grow in the back of his throat.
"Yes dear boy, you must be prepared, in my own experience with primo animus, I had decades to prepare for my confrontation with Eric. You Harry, you most likely have only months, perhaps a year." Dumbledore straightened his withered frame. "It is time for us both to except that all is not well, you Harry, have never, and will never be a normal wizard...."
"But Im just...." Started Harry, but Dumbledore held up his hand.
"I know, you are just Harry Potter, and then you are not, you are the Santimoni Animus, a champion of virtue, of all that is good in this imperfect world. Upon your shoulders falls the responsibility of destroying the threat that lurks beyond the veil...." Dumbledore broke of his train of thought there and looked at Harry with sorrowful eyes.
"The veil, like.....like Sirius...in the ministry." Harry heard himself speak but the words were barely a whisper he knew.
"Yes Harry, like Sirius. Sirius, fell into shadow. Not so much a death, but an in between, neither dead nor alive, only....a nothing." Dumbledore reached out a hand and placed it on Harry's shoulder. "There is nothing that can be done for him, he is simply gone."
Harry choked on the very large lump in his throat and let out a pained sob. He felt the hot tears prick his eyes and then roll down his cheeks. But through the pain, he felt the questions burning.
"What is behind the veil, Professor." Harry gasped
Dumbledore sighed and stared pensively at Harry for a long moment. "The ministry of magic has for sometime now, sought to understand the very nature of magic. Where it comes from, how it is so few can use it and so forth. So they have studied various possibilities, some of which in my own opinion verge on the Dark Arts, something I have never condoned. One of the experiments is that archway deep in the department of mysteries. Its acts as a doorway between this world and another, not the great beyond that is waiting for us all in death, more of a purgatory."
Harry gasped again "Sirius!"
"Yes Harry, I know. It is most distressing and I have since that night berated myself for allowing it to occur with in my sight,......especially since it has once again caused you pain."
Dumbledore turned from Harry and made his way back towards the seat near the desk. "There is another matter that concerns that night." Dumbledore spoke as if selecting his words carefully. "Ronald Weasley had the misfortune to be introduced to a horrific material, something that should not be allowed within reach of anyone."
"Ron?" Harry wiped a stray tear from his cheek. "but he's just fine, he was right after that night."
"The brain Harry." the word brain seemed leave a sour taste in the old wizards mouth, like he had swallow a vomit flavored bean.
"What about the brain, I mean it was disgusting and all, but he seemed alright."
"That brain, or if you can call it that, came from something that you are regrettably very familiar with.....a Dementor."
"What?"
"Another one of the ministries so called experiments. Take the brain of a Dementor and study the remains of the souls it has devoured, hundreds of souls Harry, and each soul's most unfortunate memories, those same memories are now clinging to Mr. Weasley. Remember Poppy's warning?"
"Some scars you can't see with your Eyes." Remembered Harry. At the time he had been so caught up in his own grief of his godfather, that he hadn't thought to question it. "So he can see, right, he can see all of their worst nightmares."
"Yes, he can see them. Unless a solution is found, he will have them with him his entire life."
Fresh tears threatened to leak. Harry rubbed angrily at his eyes with the back of his hands. So many people had been hurt or threatened in someway, all because of Tom Riddle.
Cedric, Sirius, Ron now. Harry would make him pay for all of it....with interest."
"What do I have to do."
"Learn." Said Dumbledore simply. "With me. As I said before, it is pass the time to wish for normalcy. You will come with me now, and begin what will be the most difficult thing you can imagine. Once school begins, you may sleep and eat with the rest of your class, but your classes will be comprised of hours upon hours spent with this very old wizard."
"So I wont be able to continue with my studies?" asked Harry.
"No Im afraid not, not in the traditional since anyway."
"What will I learn."
"How to kill Voldemort."
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Ron Weasely sat staring at the chess board in front of him. Any number of moves jumped out at him, but he just sat and took every possible channel into consideration. He looked up at the person across from him. She to seemed entranced by the chess board, and Ron took the time to study her.
Still the same wildly bushy hair, sharp intelligent brown eyes and pinked cheeks. All made beautiful by that brilliant smile plastered on her face as she sat staring at him.
"Wait." Thought Ron. "She's caught me looking at her again. Oh God." Ron averted his eyes back to the game at hand.
"When are you going to make your move?"
Ron choked on the air he had just taken into his lungs. "What!?!" he looked up from the board once again, startled. Hermione sat with the same brilliant smile looking at him expectantly.
"I er...well...um"
"The game Ron. You know? Chess?" Hermione said, her smile never wavering.
"Right, Chess." Ron focused once more on the black pieces in front of him. He knew his face was red, but he didn't care, it was almost always red lately.
It had been this way for the past few days. Ever since Hermione had arrived by floo. Where last year her remarks toward him had been biting and short, the weeks before her arrival had changed her attitude towards him into something far more horrifying then her usual bossy self.
Flirtatious Hermione was far more frightening then a thousand You- know-who's.
Yes it was terrible. She had taken to embarrassing him at every opportunity presented. Even now as she stared at her white pieces scattered about the board she was doing it. Biting her lip in concentration, sighing and looking at him with those big doe eyes.
"Oh bloody hell?" Thought Ron, "that lip biting is going to be the end of me."....... at least he thought he only said that in his head.
"Don't swear Ron." said Hermione, feigning a stern expression. "And what's this about lip biting?"she then took on that new Hermione look, the crooked grin and narrowed eyes. "It sounds rather interesting."
Ron could only gape fish-like at her. Had she just propositioned him. No, it couldn't be, Hermione would never do anything so...so..well so un- Hermione. And yet she still had that gleam in her eye, sitting there obviously trying to stare at him seductively. "Why was she doing this?" he thought, and he liked the question so much he said it aloud.
"Why are you doing this 'Mione?"
"Doing what, Ronald?"
"Acting so.... well, I don't know, you tell me your doing it." Ron tried to not sound defensive, but he could tell by the look that appeared on her face, that Hermione had caught it anyway.
"You don't like it." She said, taking her eyes off of him and settling on some spot on the table in front of them.
"I didn't say that." Ron said quickly, he didn't want to be misunderstood, he just wanted to clarify what was going on. "It's just your acting more like, well I don't know." That was a lie he knew exactly the way she was acting. "Like you would toward a.....bloke you, you know."
"That I fancy?" said Hermione calmly. "Or a boyfriend for that matter?"
"BOYFRIEND?!?"screeched Ron, leaping out of his chair and upsetting the forgotten chess match, sending pieces to the floor where they grumbled and tried to right themselves.
Hermione merely sat calmly in her seat and looked up at him, chin raised and proud just the way he liked her. "Yes a boyfriend, good lord Ron, it's been obvious for ages."
"What's been obvious?" said Ron, who had discovered he had a nervous tick right next to his eye.
Hermione, showing greater patience then Ron had ever seen her manage merely elaborated as though stating the most obvious thing in the world. "Well it's been very plain to me that we've been an item for quite sometime, we just haven't voiced our decision to be exclusive out loud."
Ron felt his face screw up in confusion, "Oh, but, since when?"
Hermione, her patience wearing then, rolled her eyes, and continued. " Well since fourth year, the fight remember? You made your intentions very clear."
"I did?"
"Uh-huh. So?" she said looking expectant again. "Aren't you going to kiss me?"
"Uh....?"
Rolling her eyes again Hermione got up from her seat and walked around the table, pulled him up by his shirt and planted her lips full on his mouth.
Ron stiffened slightly in shock But as the kiss intensified he relaxed and closed his eyes, letting the bliss float over him like warm water. It was awkward, it was wet, and it was bloody wonderful.
He felt Hermione break away and Ron opened his eyes to look into her's.
"Ron!" she screeched "What was that for?"
"What do you mean, what......" but Ron noticed something. The dim light that had engulfed the sitting room, was now replaced with a lighter glow of morning. Something else seemed wrong too. He wasn't standing, he was lying down.
"Wait a minute." he thought, and as the rest of the room came into focus, he realized he wasn't in the sitting room, he was in his bed. "Uh, oh." He looked back at Hermione, who had slowly back away from him, red faced, hand clutched over her mouth in horror.
"Hermione...I...um...what happened." He didn't know what else to say, it was obvious he had been dreaming and somehow in his sleep had really kissed the girl he had been kissing in his dream.
"I came in to wake you and tell you we've received a letter from Dumbledore about Harry. You were mumbling in you sleep, and when I pulled the covers off of you to try and get you out of bed....you just grabbed me and kissed me." she said all this never taking her hand away from her mouth.
Cold dread flooded into Ron's blood, "Oh Merlin. I never wanted her to find out this way."he thought.
"What were you dreaming about." She said, her eyes still wide as saucers, her face red as a tomato.
"Well..you see...its, complicated." Ron knew he was a coward "just tell her, he thought" but he knew he couldn't, not now having thoroughly made an ass of himself.
"Oh. Well just.....you know...warn me next time." Hermione said, her face taking on a renewed redness.
"Next time, huh." thought Ron grinning like a maniac. "I will. I promise. So." he said, thinking it was better to play nonchalant. "We've received word of Harry have we?"
"Yes, your mother has the letter now, I just thought you'd like to know." Hermione said and turned towards the door to leave, face still red.
Ron was about to let her leave without another word, but thought he'd see how far he could take this little 'misfortune', "Oh, 'Mione."
"Yes, Ronald."
"How was it?"
Her mouth opened slightly in shock, but then gained control of herself.
"It was lovely." With that she practically fled from his room, face so red she was purple.
Ron flung himself back on his bed. "I made Hermione blush."
"Point to you Ron."
From down stairs he could have sworn he heard girls squealing.
"Harry." The voice said. He blinked once, and the world came back into focus. Harry found himself standing on the doorstep of his relatives house. A moment of disoriented thought and then he realized he was standing in front of the Headmaster of Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore.
"Harry." said the wizened wizard, placing a hand on Harry's elbow and supporting him. Harry for the life of him couldn't imagine how he had come to be there, standing in front of his professor, when a moment before he had be using a spell on Visily Tolov, in the park a few blocks away.
"How did I get here?" he croaked out, his voice sounding disembodied in his own mind.
"It isn't important right now Harry, come we must talk." The Headmaster, still holding on to his elbow, led Harry through the door, and started him up the stairs. Harry glanced into the sitting room to his left as he accented and saw all three Dursely's sitting side by side on the couch, blank expressions painted on there faces.
"I had to subdue them, you can imagine their reaction to this afternoon's exploits." Harry cringed visibly and looked up at the old wizard. Dumbledore for his part was smiling down at Harry with a look of pure amusement. " Your uncle has quite the opinion of Wizards Harry, very colorful vocabulary."
Harry could very well imagine what his uncle has said to Dumbledore.
They came to the top of the stairs and Harry led them to his room where he closed the door behind them. Dumbledore seemed to take in Harry's room a bit reminiscently, smiling serenely at the clutter strewn across the floor. Harry felt himself redden at the mess.
"Sorry Professor, I wasn't expecting company."
"No need to worry Harry, I am quite aware of what it is to be sixteen, I myself was never the most organized young man." With that, the greatest wizard of the age promptly sat down on Harry's desk chair ignoring the pair of boxers that hung from the back of it.
Harry sat likewise on his bed, steeling himself against the conversation that was about to take place.
Dumbledore sat staring at the floor for a moment. "How did your encounter with Visily go?" he said looking up from the spot on the floor.
"Rough at first." Harry said shifting in his seat. "But it explained a lot in the end."
Dumbledore simply nodded.
"Professor." Harry said "Is this how it happened to you. He came to you and told you about the Primo Animus."
Dumbledore nodded again and looked as if that explained the matter, but then seemed to think it better to speak. "My seventh year at Hogwarts, Visily came to me over the holidays at Christmas. It had already been a confusing time in my life, but when he appeared, as you said it explained many questions." Dumbledore sighed and stood up and started pacing the length of Harry's small room. Harry could only look on.
"I swear Harry." Dumbledore said, never breaking stride. " I had no idea, if I did, I would never have let you stay in the dark this long. It is my fault, I wanted to protect you and now I find that I have wasted five years that I had to prepare you." Dumbledore took another turn at his door and then stopped when he reached the window, staring up at the sky, that was already darkening into night. He stood a moment and seemed to gather himself, stiffening up to his considerable height. "I can only say that I wanted you to have as normal a life as was possible under the circumstances."
"Its ok." Harry said. "We discussed this after..." at lump rose to the top of Harry's throat. "after the ministry and Sirius...." Harry stood and walked to the side of the Wizard, who at this angle, looked very old indeed. "I don't blame you Professor."
Dumbledore turned and looked down at Harry. " I should have know though Harry, all the signs were there, I just.... I just couldn't believe it would happen again so soon. You have no Idea what being the Santimoni Animus entails."
"Then teach me, I'll learn, I've already come to terms that I must kill Tom Riddle anyway, this is just one more reason." Harry's word reverberated in the quiet of the room, strength gathered around him and he felt...he felt....peace. It was comforting to say it out loud.
A smile flashed across Dumbledore's face. "I know Harry, thats why I've come. After Visily came to see me this morning I started making arrangments for you to....deal with this matter."
"Deal Sir?" asked Harry, swallowing the lump that was steadily grow in the back of his throat.
"Yes dear boy, you must be prepared, in my own experience with primo animus, I had decades to prepare for my confrontation with Eric. You Harry, you most likely have only months, perhaps a year." Dumbledore straightened his withered frame. "It is time for us both to except that all is not well, you Harry, have never, and will never be a normal wizard...."
"But Im just...." Started Harry, but Dumbledore held up his hand.
"I know, you are just Harry Potter, and then you are not, you are the Santimoni Animus, a champion of virtue, of all that is good in this imperfect world. Upon your shoulders falls the responsibility of destroying the threat that lurks beyond the veil...." Dumbledore broke of his train of thought there and looked at Harry with sorrowful eyes.
"The veil, like.....like Sirius...in the ministry." Harry heard himself speak but the words were barely a whisper he knew.
"Yes Harry, like Sirius. Sirius, fell into shadow. Not so much a death, but an in between, neither dead nor alive, only....a nothing." Dumbledore reached out a hand and placed it on Harry's shoulder. "There is nothing that can be done for him, he is simply gone."
Harry choked on the very large lump in his throat and let out a pained sob. He felt the hot tears prick his eyes and then roll down his cheeks. But through the pain, he felt the questions burning.
"What is behind the veil, Professor." Harry gasped
Dumbledore sighed and stared pensively at Harry for a long moment. "The ministry of magic has for sometime now, sought to understand the very nature of magic. Where it comes from, how it is so few can use it and so forth. So they have studied various possibilities, some of which in my own opinion verge on the Dark Arts, something I have never condoned. One of the experiments is that archway deep in the department of mysteries. Its acts as a doorway between this world and another, not the great beyond that is waiting for us all in death, more of a purgatory."
Harry gasped again "Sirius!"
"Yes Harry, I know. It is most distressing and I have since that night berated myself for allowing it to occur with in my sight,......especially since it has once again caused you pain."
Dumbledore turned from Harry and made his way back towards the seat near the desk. "There is another matter that concerns that night." Dumbledore spoke as if selecting his words carefully. "Ronald Weasley had the misfortune to be introduced to a horrific material, something that should not be allowed within reach of anyone."
"Ron?" Harry wiped a stray tear from his cheek. "but he's just fine, he was right after that night."
"The brain Harry." the word brain seemed leave a sour taste in the old wizards mouth, like he had swallow a vomit flavored bean.
"What about the brain, I mean it was disgusting and all, but he seemed alright."
"That brain, or if you can call it that, came from something that you are regrettably very familiar with.....a Dementor."
"What?"
"Another one of the ministries so called experiments. Take the brain of a Dementor and study the remains of the souls it has devoured, hundreds of souls Harry, and each soul's most unfortunate memories, those same memories are now clinging to Mr. Weasley. Remember Poppy's warning?"
"Some scars you can't see with your Eyes." Remembered Harry. At the time he had been so caught up in his own grief of his godfather, that he hadn't thought to question it. "So he can see, right, he can see all of their worst nightmares."
"Yes, he can see them. Unless a solution is found, he will have them with him his entire life."
Fresh tears threatened to leak. Harry rubbed angrily at his eyes with the back of his hands. So many people had been hurt or threatened in someway, all because of Tom Riddle.
Cedric, Sirius, Ron now. Harry would make him pay for all of it....with interest."
"What do I have to do."
"Learn." Said Dumbledore simply. "With me. As I said before, it is pass the time to wish for normalcy. You will come with me now, and begin what will be the most difficult thing you can imagine. Once school begins, you may sleep and eat with the rest of your class, but your classes will be comprised of hours upon hours spent with this very old wizard."
"So I wont be able to continue with my studies?" asked Harry.
"No Im afraid not, not in the traditional since anyway."
"What will I learn."
"How to kill Voldemort."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ron Weasely sat staring at the chess board in front of him. Any number of moves jumped out at him, but he just sat and took every possible channel into consideration. He looked up at the person across from him. She to seemed entranced by the chess board, and Ron took the time to study her.
Still the same wildly bushy hair, sharp intelligent brown eyes and pinked cheeks. All made beautiful by that brilliant smile plastered on her face as she sat staring at him.
"Wait." Thought Ron. "She's caught me looking at her again. Oh God." Ron averted his eyes back to the game at hand.
"When are you going to make your move?"
Ron choked on the air he had just taken into his lungs. "What!?!" he looked up from the board once again, startled. Hermione sat with the same brilliant smile looking at him expectantly.
"I er...well...um"
"The game Ron. You know? Chess?" Hermione said, her smile never wavering.
"Right, Chess." Ron focused once more on the black pieces in front of him. He knew his face was red, but he didn't care, it was almost always red lately.
It had been this way for the past few days. Ever since Hermione had arrived by floo. Where last year her remarks toward him had been biting and short, the weeks before her arrival had changed her attitude towards him into something far more horrifying then her usual bossy self.
Flirtatious Hermione was far more frightening then a thousand You- know-who's.
Yes it was terrible. She had taken to embarrassing him at every opportunity presented. Even now as she stared at her white pieces scattered about the board she was doing it. Biting her lip in concentration, sighing and looking at him with those big doe eyes.
"Oh bloody hell?" Thought Ron, "that lip biting is going to be the end of me."....... at least he thought he only said that in his head.
"Don't swear Ron." said Hermione, feigning a stern expression. "And what's this about lip biting?"she then took on that new Hermione look, the crooked grin and narrowed eyes. "It sounds rather interesting."
Ron could only gape fish-like at her. Had she just propositioned him. No, it couldn't be, Hermione would never do anything so...so..well so un- Hermione. And yet she still had that gleam in her eye, sitting there obviously trying to stare at him seductively. "Why was she doing this?" he thought, and he liked the question so much he said it aloud.
"Why are you doing this 'Mione?"
"Doing what, Ronald?"
"Acting so.... well, I don't know, you tell me your doing it." Ron tried to not sound defensive, but he could tell by the look that appeared on her face, that Hermione had caught it anyway.
"You don't like it." She said, taking her eyes off of him and settling on some spot on the table in front of them.
"I didn't say that." Ron said quickly, he didn't want to be misunderstood, he just wanted to clarify what was going on. "It's just your acting more like, well I don't know." That was a lie he knew exactly the way she was acting. "Like you would toward a.....bloke you, you know."
"That I fancy?" said Hermione calmly. "Or a boyfriend for that matter?"
"BOYFRIEND?!?"screeched Ron, leaping out of his chair and upsetting the forgotten chess match, sending pieces to the floor where they grumbled and tried to right themselves.
Hermione merely sat calmly in her seat and looked up at him, chin raised and proud just the way he liked her. "Yes a boyfriend, good lord Ron, it's been obvious for ages."
"What's been obvious?" said Ron, who had discovered he had a nervous tick right next to his eye.
Hermione, showing greater patience then Ron had ever seen her manage merely elaborated as though stating the most obvious thing in the world. "Well it's been very plain to me that we've been an item for quite sometime, we just haven't voiced our decision to be exclusive out loud."
Ron felt his face screw up in confusion, "Oh, but, since when?"
Hermione, her patience wearing then, rolled her eyes, and continued. " Well since fourth year, the fight remember? You made your intentions very clear."
"I did?"
"Uh-huh. So?" she said looking expectant again. "Aren't you going to kiss me?"
"Uh....?"
Rolling her eyes again Hermione got up from her seat and walked around the table, pulled him up by his shirt and planted her lips full on his mouth.
Ron stiffened slightly in shock But as the kiss intensified he relaxed and closed his eyes, letting the bliss float over him like warm water. It was awkward, it was wet, and it was bloody wonderful.
He felt Hermione break away and Ron opened his eyes to look into her's.
"Ron!" she screeched "What was that for?"
"What do you mean, what......" but Ron noticed something. The dim light that had engulfed the sitting room, was now replaced with a lighter glow of morning. Something else seemed wrong too. He wasn't standing, he was lying down.
"Wait a minute." he thought, and as the rest of the room came into focus, he realized he wasn't in the sitting room, he was in his bed. "Uh, oh." He looked back at Hermione, who had slowly back away from him, red faced, hand clutched over her mouth in horror.
"Hermione...I...um...what happened." He didn't know what else to say, it was obvious he had been dreaming and somehow in his sleep had really kissed the girl he had been kissing in his dream.
"I came in to wake you and tell you we've received a letter from Dumbledore about Harry. You were mumbling in you sleep, and when I pulled the covers off of you to try and get you out of bed....you just grabbed me and kissed me." she said all this never taking her hand away from her mouth.
Cold dread flooded into Ron's blood, "Oh Merlin. I never wanted her to find out this way."he thought.
"What were you dreaming about." She said, her eyes still wide as saucers, her face red as a tomato.
"Well..you see...its, complicated." Ron knew he was a coward "just tell her, he thought" but he knew he couldn't, not now having thoroughly made an ass of himself.
"Oh. Well just.....you know...warn me next time." Hermione said, her face taking on a renewed redness.
"Next time, huh." thought Ron grinning like a maniac. "I will. I promise. So." he said, thinking it was better to play nonchalant. "We've received word of Harry have we?"
"Yes, your mother has the letter now, I just thought you'd like to know." Hermione said and turned towards the door to leave, face still red.
Ron was about to let her leave without another word, but thought he'd see how far he could take this little 'misfortune', "Oh, 'Mione."
"Yes, Ronald."
"How was it?"
Her mouth opened slightly in shock, but then gained control of herself.
"It was lovely." With that she practically fled from his room, face so red she was purple.
Ron flung himself back on his bed. "I made Hermione blush."
"Point to you Ron."
From down stairs he could have sworn he heard girls squealing.