Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot. All the characters and the setting belong to JK. Rowling. If I did own the Harry Potter then I would be in the UK spending my billions as fast as I could—which I am not unfortunately so it is safe to say that I am not JKR.
A/N: I'm Baaaaaaaack!!! Did you miss me? LOL! I feel inspired! First I would like to say thanks to all my reviewers! You all rock so much! I wouldn't be able to continue without all your support! It means so much!
Now this chapter is dedicated to my good friend Ashley! Ash—without your help I would have never been able to keep going with this fic! After this fic is done, we are SO doubling up and writing a nice long fic together. It's going to be awesome! I see a lot more HP days in our future! Hehe! Thanks so much for everything!! You're the greatest! x0x0z!!! Alright you've all waited long enough! On with the story...
Ron's POV
Ron was pacing in his dormitory beside his bed. He and Harry were the only ones in their room and Harry was still asleep. It was early in the morning of Hogsmede day and pretty soon he'd be forced to see his git of a roommate Seamus and the only girl he ever loved on an actual date together. He shuddered at the thought. Ron didn't trust Seamus as far as he could throw him! He knew about Seamus' reputation and heard all his "chick stories" straight from his mouth and having had to have lived with him for nearly 6 years, he heard quite a few of them. If he ever tried anything with Hermione Ron wouldn't even worry about using magic; he'd strangle him with his bare hands! He had to do something—anything to make sure that she would be alright. He wracked his brain trying to think of what he could do. Then, it came to him.
"Harry! Harry wake up! I need your help!" Ron said loudly, shaking him awake.
Harry awoke and looked at him groggily, "Ron? What's the matter? What time is it?"
"Never mind what time it is!" Ron snapped. "Look, I've figured out what we're going to do about the Hermione situation."
"We?" said Harry.
"Yes, WE! Now listen! Hermione would never let us come near her on her little date with Seamus right?"
"Right..." Harry said slowly.
"And she would notice us if we followed them around wouldn't she?"
"So?"
"So, that's where your invisibility cloak comes in!" said Ron with a smile.
"Hmmm let me think. NO!" said Harry laying back into his bed, covering his head with his pillow.
Ron threw the pillow off of him angrily and said, "Why not?"
"Because that would be spying on her." said Harry firmly.
"Oh come on Harry it's not really spying. It's just... looking out for our best friend." said Ron rather unconvincingly.
Harry looked at him skeptically and said, "Looking out for our best friend, eh? Yeah I bet. You're just jealous of Seamus and don't want Hermione to be with anyone but you."
"So what? I don't trust the prat! You've heard all the stories he tells us about all the girls he's had! What if he tries something with Hermione? At least if we're there with her, we can help her if she needs us." said Ron determinedly.
Harry said nothing, still lying on his bed face down.
"Please Harry, I'm desperate! I'm really worried about her! Please help me!" Ron pleaded.
Harry sat up, looked at Ron for a moment and then sighed. "Oh... I guess. But we have to be really careful! It's really hard to walk around under the cloak in Hogsmede with all those people around without bumping into someone. And if Hermione catches us we're both dead!"
Ron nodded with a huge smile on his face. "Thank you so much Harry! Well let's get a move on then, shall we? Hermione's meeting the git soon and we don't want to loose track of them!"
Harry sighed again and the two of them got dressed. Harry was going rather slowly for he was still half asleep whereas Ron was rushing as fast as he could. It was still really early but he didn't care. He wanted to make sure that he could keep as close of an eye as possible on Seamus and Hermione.
Ron wouldn't give up that easily on the girl that he loved! He knew or at least hoped that deep down, Hermione really didn't want to be with Seamus and she really might need his help today. Ron had made a vow to protect her back in the Department of Mysteries and no matter what, that was exactly what he was going to do! And if he got to punch out Seamus in the process, that was an added bonus.
Hermione was silently sitting on her four-poster bed wringing her hands together nervously. She had barely slept the night before in fear and nervousness of the day before her. Today was the day that she was to go to Hogsmede with Seamus. At first this idea didn't scare her; she thought she was mature enough to handle this. But now as it was really going to happen, she was having second thoughts about it. She really never wanted to go with Seamus in the first place; she would have much rather gone with Harry and Ron like always. But she said that she would and a promise is a promise. Well OK she never actually said that she would, Seamus didn't even give her a chance to respond but she didn't want to be rude to him and not show up. Plus she really felt the need to at least try to get over Ronald Weasley.
"But what if Seamus thinks of this as a real date?" she asked herself. "Or worse; what if he tries to kiss me? I may want to get over Ron but I don't think that I'm quite ready for that yet!"
Nevertheless Hermione knew that no matter what, she would at least give it a try. She could always go back up to the castle if things went wrong. It was only Hogsmede after all. What was the worst thing that could happen?
Hermione looked at her clock; it was a quarter after eight. She decided that she should start getting ready if she was going to make it on time. She hurriedly washed her face and got dressed. Then she put a bit of make-up (yes make-up) on. Though she was never as extravagant and crazy with it as Lavender and Parvati; she still liked to wear it sometimes. It made her feel like she wasn't just "one of the guys". She put on a little bit of neutral eye shadow, mascara and some shiny clear lip gloss; not too out there but still pretty.
Hermione looked in her mirror. She usually never did this for long periods of time but for some reason she felt the need to stare at it for a moment. "You look lovely, dear!" the mirror said to her.
Hermione smiled weakly at it and muttered "Thank you." Being a muggle born girl, she still wasn't used to talking mirrors. There was just something really odd about her reflection telling her that she was beautiful. Nonetheless the complement made her feel a bit better.
As she continued to look at herself, she noticed that delightfully, her hair seemed to tame a fair bit this year. It wasn't really as bushy anymore; it was just wavy. She actually liked it. She definitely looked more mature. With her hair being a little more attractive and the make up that brought out her eyes and lips she couldn't help but to think to herself, "I only hope it's not too much. Maybe I should have made myself look uglier instead of more appealing. This isn't right! Why on earth am I going through with this? Oh my gosh, I really don't want to do this!"
She decided that she would skip breakfast that day considering that she was too nauseous from being nervous to eat anything. "Calm down, Hermione." she told herself, "just breath! You can do this. It's going to be alright. You're going to be fine."
It was almost 9:00 now. Hermione breathed in and out with a sigh still looking at herself in the mirror and whispered to herself, "Well, this is it. Here goes nothing."