The next Hogsmeade weekend came around pretty quickly after the students got back into their old routines. By now, snow was falling on the grounds as winter slowly approached. The trip to Hogsmeade wasn't until the afternoon, so Harry and Ron had an entire morning to fool around.

            "So what're you going to wear?" Ron asked Harry, while trudging through the snow on the grounds.

            "Wear? I didn't think I had to dress up or anything. I mean, I never dressed up when I went out with Cho," Harry said, puzzled.

            "But Cho dumped you, didn't she?" Ron remarked.

            "Well, yeah, but I don't think it had to do with what clothes I was wearing. She was more concerned about the fact that I was going to meet Hermione in the middle of our date," Harry grumbled.

            "I'm not sure what I'm wearing yet…probably normal stuff. You think the girls are dressing up?" Ron asked.

            "I shouldn't think so…at least not Hermione. She's known you for years, there's no reason for her to try to impress you," Harry said.

            "Yeah? Well I'm certainly going to try to impress her. I've annoyed the hell out of her for six years, so I'd better do something drastic tonight," Ron said.

            "I really don't think you should do anything drastic. Hermione obviously wouldn't have said yes to a date with you if she didn't think you were…dateable," Harry reasoned.

            "Well, let's go to lunch then, shall we? Give us time to get ready for the big date?" Ron said.

            "Take it from experience, Ron. Don't get your hopes up," Harry warned.

"But lunch sounds good anyway."

            The two friends walked back to the castle and into the Great Hall where they found Ginny and Dean, enjoying their own dinner.

            "Hello, Harry!" Ginny called out.

            "Hey Ginny," Harry said, sitting down. Ron sat down, eyeing Dean.

            "I heard about the big date, Harry. Congratulations!" Dean said.

            "Yeah. Hopefully me and Stella will have a good time this afternoon," Harry said.

            "You and Stella?" Dean said, looking confused.

            Ginny made desperate signs over Ron's head attempting to stop Dean before going any further.

            "I thought it was you and Hermione…," Dean said.

            "Why would you think that?" Ron interrupted, angrily.

            "Well, everyone thought it was pretty obvious that they liked each other. So when we heard that Hermione was going on a date, we assumed it was with Harry," Dean answered.

            "So is it not possible that Harry DOESN'T like Hermione and someone else does?" Ron said, with clenched teeth.

            "I guess…," Dean trailed off. "Who is Hermione going on a date with then?"

            "Me, you idiot," Ron said, face getting redder and redder.

            "Oh, right. Er…that was my…uh…second guess. Um, Ginny…don't we have that…um…thing?" Dean stuttered.

            "Yeah, we better go," Ginny said. "We don't want to be late for the, uh…, thing."

            People think I like Hermione? Harry thought. This is news to me. Hermione and I have always been friends.

            "Slimy git. Never liked him anyway," Ron muttered.

            "So did I miss the owl saying that I liked Hermione? I thought people realized that that article Rita Skeeter wrote was just rubbish," Harry said.

            "I guess not," Ron said. "It's the first I've heard of it."

            So there are rumors about me and Hermione? Cho probably started them, no doubt. I hope this doesn't ruin our date, Harry thought.

            Snow fell lightly on the Hogsmeade paths as the two couples made their way into the small village.

            "I heard there was some sort of a tea shop here," Stella said, "Maybe we could-"

            "It's really not that good," Harry interrupted. Bad memories of a certain crying female came to mind when Harry thought of that tea shop. "Why not try Honeydukes?"

            "All right, then." Stella agreed.

            Once inside Honeydukes, the four paired off to sample the chocolate. While Harry looked through the Chocolate Frogs, he noticed Stella scanning the shop. "Want to try one of these?" Harry asked.

            "What are they?" asked Stella.

            "They're Chocolate Frogs," replied Harry.

            "Are they real frogs?" Stella asked, tentatively.

            "No," Harry laughed, "that's what I thought when I first tried one."

            Harry went to the counter and paid for two chocolate frogs and then he and Stella went outside to eat them. Harry dusted the snow off of the bench before letting Stella sit down. He didn't want her to get wet.

            "What a gentleman," Stella said. Harry blushed a color that would have made Ron proud.

            So far, so good, Harry thought. Keep it up.

            They sat on the bench, opening their Chocolate Frogs.

            "I got Dumbledore," they said together. Stella and Harry laughed.

            "He was the first card I ever got," Harry remembered.

            "Well now he's my first card too," Stella smiled. "Are you supposed to collect them?"

            "Yeah," Harry said. "Ron is desperately trying to find Agrippa; it's the only one he doesn't have."

            "Agrippa," Stella said, "the famed alchemist. I read his book…Of the Uncertainty and Vanity of the Sciences and Magic…excellent. Although I hear you've had your dealings with alchemists already."

            "Yeah, Nicholas Flamel…" Harry grinned.

            There it is again, he thought, that feeling I can't shake. Like she reminds me of someone. Someone…someone really special…like I…

            "Harry?" Stella said, interrupting his thoughts. "Did you hear me?"

            "Oh sorry, I zoned out for a second there," Harry said, sheepishly.

            "For a second I thought you were somewhere else! You were just staring off into that window at Honeydukes," Stella smiled.

            "Oh was I? Sorry…so would you like to see the Shrieking Shack? There are some very interesting stories I could tell you about that place. In fact, there's something I could show you," Harry said, mysteriously.

            "What interesting stories?" Stella asked.

            "I'll tell you while we walk," Harry said.

            The couple left their snowy benches and made their way to the Shrieking Shack while Harry started saying something about a werewolf and Animagi.

Reviews:

Raven-Padfoot-Marauder: Hey Raven! Yeah, Chrys is right, your inbox will probably be full of alerts, since I update fairly quickly. Thanks for putting me on your favorites list! Keep watching Buffy and keep reading my fanfic!

Brittany Michelle Granger: Thank you very much, hope you liked this chapter…it's actually going to have two more parts to it.

Avalon64: Merci, avalon64. You seem like a very happy person. Happy people say LOL. I'm glad I'm happy. Otherwise I would write sad fanfics.  Yay for happy people.

Geena-Waters: Yes, Geena, I know. hangs head shamefully. You know, it seems like whenever people say things like that in their reviews, my chapters get longer. This is my longest chapter yet and I'm thinking the next two are going to be just as long. So you like the R/Hr, eh? Good, I like it when my readers are happy. I'm really actually portraying my thoughts on what's going to happen in book 6. Thanks for the good luck, really appreciate it.

Peaches-503: Yo peachy! Your name always reminds me of Princess Peach off of Mario…weird huh? Anyway, I'm glad to see you've done your research. I'm impressed. Keep thinking.

A/N: Could someone please give me the names of all the Death Eaters and their status (i.e. Lucius Malfoy: Azkaban)…need it for the story but don't have access to OotP.