Disclaimer:  I don't own HP.  If I did, Ra would eat Voldemort while little Belossoms entertain an over-worked Harry Potter. ^^

Author's Notes: BLAH.

Chapter 10

The Ghosts that Aren't

As soon as everyone was through eating, they headed upstairs towards the Gryffindor tower.

"Password?" asked the fat lady in the painting.

"Section Deliria," said Johnny Hamstring, who was a seventh year prefect.  As everyone crowed in, McGonagall met them in the common room.

"Listen up, Gryffindors.  We have a new prefect.  The prefect is… Hermione Granger!"  Harry and Ron cheered the loudest of all.

"Way to go, Hermione!" Ron shouted.

As they were getting into bed, Harry turned to Ron.

"Ron, do you like Hermione?"

"Who, me?  No, I mean I like her as a friend, that's all."

"Come on Ron, it's easy to see."

"Okay, so I like her a little bit, but…  Where did you come up with that idea?" Ron asked.

"Oh come on, like you don't know.  Fred said you've talked about her all summer long, you volunteer to take her to the hospital wing, you get angry when ever she and Viktor Krum are together, and you were trying to eat the same food as her at dinner tonight.  I mean come on Ron, it's obvious to see that you like Hermione," Harry told him.

"Well, okay, so she is a little cute, but that's all, I mean it!" Ron replied.

"Oh, REALY?" said Harry, who doubted it.

"Okay, okay.  So I have a little crush on her.  What about it?"

"LITTLE?  LITTLE?  You call that LITTLE?" Harry said loudly.

"Ugh!  Fine, I'll tell you everything," Ron snarled.  "But only because you're my best friend."

"Okay," said Harry.  He was ready for this.

"Well, I started liking her the day we met.  She looked kind of cute, but she didn't seem very nice, so I pretended to not like her.  Man, if I'd of known that my actions would make her troll dinner, I probably never would have said that.  But then you got me to help you save Hermione anyway. 

Then she became our friend, and I saw that she was really a nice girl after all."

"So…  You like Hermione…  Well Ron, you're in luck.  Viktor likes Fleur.  Do you still like her?  She's here you know."

"Not any more.  The only reason I liked her was to make Hermione jealous, but it didn't seem to work."

"What didn't seem to work?"  At this, both boys turned around and saw Neville Longbottom standing in the doorway.

"Neville, we thought you were asleep!" Ron said, fear in his voice.

"Nope.  I was doing my homework and then I heard y'all talking about Hermione and…  Never mind."

The next few days were quite a bother to Harry; since all that talk about Pan and Harry having a sister, Harry, for once, wasn't the center of attention. 

"Hello Harry!" said a familiar voice.  Harry turned around.

"Nearly Headless Nick!  How are you?" asked Harry.

"The usual.  The Headless Hut won't let me join.  I've tried and tried, but it's no use.  My head just doesn't want to come off."

"Nick," Harry said, "why do some people become ghosts and others don't?"  Harry was sure Nick wouldn't know, but just in case, he thought he'd ask anyway.

"Well, ghosts like me that died of a reason other than old age, have unfinished business.  I think that is why.  Maybe we're supposed to finish it."

"But Nick, my parents were younger than you, and they didn't become ghosts."

"That's true…  Oh, I know why!  You see Harry; I think God is giving those who did wrong, very wrong, a second chance to make up for it.  The reason they are ghosts is because that wrong thing that they did caused them to loose being solid.  Understand?"

"I think so but does that mean You-Know-Who will be a ghost too?"  "I don't know Harry, I really don't know." Harry raced off to tell Ron.