Disclaimer: Character's are J.K's.
Notes are at the bottom so you don't have to go through half a page of 'em to get to the story.
Bloody Hell, are we ever going to have a moment's peace around here?
"Harry! How did you get in?" I asked in a steady voice, disentangling myself from Ron and turning around.
He'd hardly looked angrier in the time I'd known him. His face was turning from red to purple, his hands were shaking and those green eyes I loved so much were narrowing in a murderous fashion.
"Not that it matters but my appointment finished up early and I snuck in behind some 6th Years. Lucky though, you probably would have been to distracted to open the door for me" he spat out.
"Calm down Harry, you're jumping to conclusions" I said, placing a hand on his arm. He threw it off.
"Conclusions?! To think, I asked you to talk to him tonight!"
Ron looked at me, puzzled, then back to Harry.
"Well, she was going to have to, wasn't she?" Ron said, as if explaining something to a five year old.
"What? Why?" Harry said, bewildered.
"We because we (he missed my glare here) organised to study together tonight…"
Harry's eyes snapped to mine with a questioning look.
"I…I didn't know id you'd want me to, if you'd understand" I muttered pathetically.
"I WOULD HAVE ENCOURAGED YOU TO!" he roared. The students in the room, who had been watching intently, scampered away, leaving us alone in the common room.
"That's because you trust me, isn't it?" I asked, trying to remain calm.
"Yeah, what a fool…"Harry muttered defiantly.
"Well, I trust him" I implored.
"Why? He's in league with Cho. He took Polyjuice to imitate me, Hermione. He tried to manipulate our relationship. He's been in love with you for years, he's jealous!" Harry shouted, flailing his arms about.
"Not anymore" I said quietly.
"What?" said Harry incredulously, but Ron overrode me in my reply.
"If you calm down, I'll tell you about Cho, I'll tell you about the Polyjuice and why I'm not jealous…anymore" he said evenly.
Harry sat down across from us.
"You know if you give us some bollocks story, I can take you on," he said threateningly. I snorted.
"You don't want to take on Ginny Weasley if she decides to back him up". Ron cleared his throat.
"It'll be the truth. I think I owe you two that much" he said sincerely. Harry raised an eyebrow.
"You got that right".
"Can I get on with the story please?" Ron asked with a glare.
"Go right ahead Ron" I said, glancing at Harry.
"Alright. Well." He flushed red. "Yes Hermione, I did have a crush on you. And I did for a while. And he," he pointed at Harry, "knew that. It's probably the only reason he ever saw you as fanciable." Harry opened his mouth to object, but Ron cut him off.
"Anyway, it became pretty clear after Harry stayed at your place during the holidays that he'd been pulling the moves on you, and I was jealous. But you agreed to go to the Halloween Ball with me, so I figured there might be hope yet. But then, well, you got all jealous over Cho, and then the dance lessons, and the actual Ball (here he glanced at me as though he hadn't shunned me for Fleur anyway) and well, I got really jealous. And I think Cho saw that. Anyway, the day after the ball she came up to me and started feeding me some story about how she thought you really liked me but that I had to make sure you two didn't get together, and she was willing to help me. I was such an idiot that I didn't question her motives for one minute. She said she'd got her hands on some Polyjuice Potion from Snape's dungeon, and I remembered that you two had planned to meet that night".
"So you were listening," I thought out loud. He gave me a wan smile.
"Yes, I was. Anyway, I had Harry's toothbrush, which I'd forgotten to give back, and it had some of his hairs on it, so I took the Polyjuice, went down to the change room and nocked Harry out while he was packing up the Quidditch set. I think you both know what happened that night. I was really surprised when I found out that you were together, I reckon that was some of the best acting of my life when I found you two…So I hunted down Cho the next day and told her it hadn't worked. She hit the roof, said I was an idiot – that's what she was saying when you two went on your swearing rampage. And I felt really guilty after that, that's why I've been avoiding you. I didn't have the guts to tell you what I'd done, I'm such an idiot." He sighed.
"Yeah, you're right, you are" Harry said. Meanwhile, all the pieces were falling into place in my head.
"He's not going to do any more stupid things, though, because he's not jealous anymore" I grinned.
"That was sudden". Harry looked dubious.
"Yeah, well, that Fleur Delacour's quite a girl" Ron said, suppressing a smile.
"Fleur Delacour?" Harry repeated?
"The very same. We've been owling each other since the ball".
"You're a lucky man" Harry said, apparently relieved his girlfriend wasn't being lusted after anymore (by anyone else, that is). I slapped his shoulder.
"Watch your mouth". Harry glanced at me, then back at Ron.
"Well, good luck mate. Hey, maybe you can help us with something".
"Yeah?" Ron looked eager to make up for his wrongdoings. I caught on to Harry's game.
"Yeah, the other day, the other day we caught Malfoy rushing out of Snape's dungeon…"
A/N: No, that is not the end! We aren't finishing this story without somehow explaining what the heck Malfoy was doing down there…
Thanks heaps reviewers for your lovely comments on the last chapter. What do you guys think of this Fleur thing anyway? Is it plausible? No one said anything about that except Chocolat Elf (thanks a ton for your massive review. In one note of reply, I write the Slytherins like that because that's how J.K does and their character development isn't exactly integral to the plot. I'm not a member at Fiction Alley so I haven't really considered it, but hey, I'm a feedback whore, lol, so maybe I will).
Reviews of this chapter will be much appreciated!