The months seemed to pass quickly and soon Christmas came to Hogwarts. Ginny was on her way to the Gryfindor common room when she was forced to take the scenic route after someone had let off dung bombs down the usual corridors. This new path took her through some of the lesser-used passageways of the school and after a while she was sure that she was going round in circles. Finally Ginny heard some voices she recognised and followed their echoes. After about five minutes she could make out the words: -
"How come its us that has to put these bloody decorations up?" said a voice that Ginny recognised as her youngest brother's.
"Ron! Don't swear." Yes that was defiantly Hermione. "You're a prefect, you should be setting a good example."
"To who? Nobody uses these corridors. Except maybe Peeves who then attacks my with bl- with ruddy tinsel!"
Ginny had finally found the source of the noise had had to bite her tongue to stop herself from laughing at the sight of Ron. Her brother was wrapped, Egyptian mummy style, from head to foot in silver, glittery tinsel. The two prefects hadn't seen her yet as she stood in the shadows and she was about to make her presence known when something very strange happened.
Hermione was walking closer to Ron and begun to help disentangle him. This wouldn't have seemed strange if it wasn't for the fact that she was giggling at the same time- Hermione hardly ever giggled and certainly never in front on her brother. Intrigued Ginny crept closer to the wall and watched with interest.
'You know Ron," Hermione chided but smiled at the same time, "maybe if you just ignored Peeves he wouldn't try to strangle you."
"Yes well that's easy for you to say. Here I am being chivalrous and you're laughing at me."
"And how is yelling at a poltergeist being chivalrous?" Ginny had the very odd thought that Hermione was being flirtatious.
Now fully rid of the offending Christmas décor Ron had his arms free and Ginny gasped in surprise when he placed them snugly around Hermione.
"Well I had to get his attention didn't I? I'm hardly going to let him prank my girlfriend," as he dipped his head to kiss the other prefect his last words were barely above a whisper, but Ginny heard them clear enough. With a silent shriek she leapt backwards and disappeared as quickly as she could, stumbling in shock.
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Somehow she made it to the common room and mumbled the password. Inside was devoid of human life and Ginny was about to scream with frustration when she heard footsteps coming from the boy's dormitory.
"Oh, Neville, I have such a problem!" she yelled as he descended the stairs.
Neville ran to her quickly when he saw her shocked face, "Ginny what's wrong?"
"Okay. Okay. Okay. Neville, I have got to tell you something." She dragged him to the sofa.
"What is it?" he asked concerned.
"Oh merlin, it's so huge. But you just have to promise me that you wont tell anyone," she figured that if Ron and Hermione had kept their secret long enough for them to be that comfortable with each other then her spreading the news could do more harm than good.
Neville suddenly closed up, "Oh no, no-no-no-no! I don't want to know!" He'd had enough of secrets and lying to Harry had been slowly eating him up since September.
"Yes! Yes! Yes, you do want to know! This is unbelievable!"
"I don't care, Gin! Look, I am tired of being the guy who knows all the secrets but can't tell anyone!"
"What? What secrets? You know secrets? What are they?" she asked excitedly, temporarily forgetting about the earlier gossip.
"Ginny stop it!"
Slowly she calmed down and took deep breaths. "Okay," she began, "so I was in one of the corridors when-"
"I'm not listening to you." he interrupted.
Ginny sat in silence again thinking about what she'd seen and then remembered what Neville had said about knowing too many secrets. Conspiratorially she looked him in the eye, "Okay then, I'm not going to tell you, but if you found out on your own, that would be okay and then we could talk about it. Right?"
Neville thought for a moment, "Well, then it wouldn't be a secret. So yes, that would be okay."
Ginny tried to work out the best way to do this. Then she had an idea, "Hey uh Neville, would mind going with Ron and Hermione on their next prefect patrol?" she asked innocently.
"You mean when they're usually alone and don't get back till late."
Ginny nodded and he questioned her, "Do you know something?"
"Do you know something?" she replied.
"I might know something," Neville confessed.
"I might know something too."
"What's the thing you know?"
"Oh no, I can't tell you until you tell me what you know," Ginny wasn't about to give in first.
"I can't tell you what I know."
"Well then I can't tell you what I know."
"Okay, fine," Neville ended and they both became silent. "You don't know," he sneered, "you're just trying to get it out of me."
"All right, fine." Ginny finally snapped, "How about I go over there and I will walk up to Ron and I will ask him that thing that I think that I know is actually the thing that I think that I know!"
"You know!" he gasped.
"And you know!!"
"Yes, I know!!!" Neville admitted, relief filling his voice.
"Ron and Hermione!? Oh, this is unbelievable!! How long have you known?" she was so excited to be actually able to admit to what she'd seen.
"Too long! Oh merlin, Gin, I've been dying to talk to someone about this for so long! Listen, listen, we can't say anything about this to anybody though, they're so weird about that!"
Suddenly they both remembered that they were in a public place and both quietened down to tried to contain their excitement. Settling down on the sofa Neville proceeded to tell Ginny about how he'd found out on the train and she replied with her own story. However, she soon began to get annoyed when he couldn't tell her the intimate details she wanted.
"Look Ginny, I've told you everything I know. It's not that big of a deal, so Ron and Hermione are together." He squirmed under her glare.
"I can't believe you would say that! I mean come on. This is a huge deal, not least because they've managed to keep it quiet for over four months! I need more details like... who initiated the first kiss?"
"I don't know."
"Is he romantic with her?" Yuck she thought I can't believe I just asked that about my own brother.
"I don't know."
"Are they in love? I mean we know they've fancied each other for ages but..."
"I don't know."
"You don't know anything!" she yelled in frustration.
"What do you expect? - Lads just don't talk about things the way you girls do." He paused, "I do know one thing though."
"What?" she asked eagerly.
"They got off with each other right there on the couch." He laughed out loud when she leapt up from where she'd been sitting.
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AN: Come on people I'm starting to get depressed at the lack of reviews. If you press the little blue button then I promise to send you joy down the modem, okay?
Thank you BrownPryde and Liza my only reviewers- there do the rest of you feel guilty now?
Lol, it doesn't really matter I suppose. I bet no one is even reading this but if you are then there is just one chapter left, or maybe two depending on how disjointed it is.
Btw I'm writing this AN past midnight and am very tired so plz forgive me if it makes absolutely no sense.