The-insufferable-know-it-all: Thanks! I'm going for realism here...bit of personal experience helps.

Amour-lily: Thank you! Hope you're still enjoying it!

Spazzy Babe: You so totally rock! Thank you so much! I'm trying to keep the characters as real as possible, but changes are coming. Believe it or not, I have the ending done already, but I'm having a bit of transitional problems with the chapters that come right before. Not to worry! I'll get there soon!

And without further ado...chapter 5!

oOoOoOo

5. Vicious Cycles

As the month progressed, so did Hermione's stamina. Slowly but surely she caught up with Parvati and Lavender in her ability to run longer distances. The burn from the first week took longer and longer to show up, but she found herself increasingly addicted to the euphoria it produced.

By the end of September, Hermione was down to 110 pounds. And she felt GREAT! Her 5 foot 3 inch frame looked better than it ever had in the past. She felt svelte, toned and beautiful for the first time in her life. Besides exercise, her calorie cutting really paid off. October 1st marked the phase 2. If 1000 calories lost her nearly 20 pounds, going down to 700 should help even more. Breakfast would remain the same; she needed to get her metabolism moving in the day. Lunch could be omitted she supposed, but dinner needed to go down to half the size. Dinner hadn't been cut back much. An idea suddenly dawned on her.

'What if I head down to the quidditch pitch earlier? I only have Arithmancy Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, Monday and Wednesday I could go earlier. I just sit around reading anyway. Yeah, that's what I'll do. Who knew running could be so much fun?'

oOoOoOo

October passed way too fast. In that time, Hermione had learned all sorts of tricks to fool people into thinking her diet had ended. Only once Ron noticed she wasn't eating her dinner, just pushing it around the plate.

"Why aren't you eating? You sick or something?"

"Oh...no, I'm just not that hungry tonight."

"Oh. If you don't want that chicken, can I have it?"

"Sure." She passed it across the table.

A silent breath of relief passed her lips. He bought it!

She rolled her eyes at the memory. Men. How unobservant could they get? Bless their hearts. She tugged on her running shoes. If she was lucky, maybe she could get an extra couple of miles before Lav and Parvati joined her.

oOoOoOo

The air was crisp, and a light breeze blew in from the south. Hermione huffed along the track of matted grass at the edge of the pitch. She'd been out for about 30 minutes when she began to sweat. Glancing around, and seeing no one, Hermione pulled her t-shirt over her head and tossed it to the side. The breeze dried the lingering perspiration as more formed in its place. As she passed the bleachers, she paused for a moment to swig from her water bottle. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and continued on her run, not seeing the shaggy, black haired figure watching her from the door of the boys' locker room.

oOoOoOo

Sick and tired of History of Magic, Harry took the afternoon off. As enlightening as the Wizengamot ruling on book binding practices of 1674 was, he just needed a break. What better than a fly around, excuse me, practice session, around the pitch?

After lunch, Ron and Harry parted ways, Ron heading for Advanced Charms, Harry for History. When Ron was out of sight, he doubled back and grabbed his broom from under his bed and dashed out of the castle. He felt slightly guilty about not telling Ron where he was going, but he doubted Ron would ever catch it if he let it slip.

'Hermione didn't show up for lunch again today,' he thought, his brow furrowing. 'Wonder what's going on.'

Upon arriving, Harry saw the figure of a girl, running, on the opposite side of the pitch. Not an unusual sight, Harry entered the locker room. He took his time changing; he had nearly 2 hours to himself to fly. Once ready, he picked up his broom, and walked to the door. Just as the door shut, he caught a glimpse of the girl slowing to a jog. She didn't seem to see him though he stood just feet away. His jaw dropped as she tipped her head back to drink.

'HERMIONE?' he thought. 'I knew you were losing weight, but Merlin, girl! Enough is enough!'

He suddenly felt like an intruder, and abruptly ducked back into the locker room. Minutes later, he stowed his broom beneath his bed, and cast an unenthusiastic look at his ever growing homework pile.

'Meh. Homework. That is so NOT what I wanted to do on my afternoon off!' he thought as he settled himself at his desk.

oOoOoOo

"Hey Ron, guess what day it is?" Harry asked.

"Uh...Tuesday?" the oblivious red head responded.

"No, eejit! Well, yeah, but that's beside the point. We test the veritaserum in potions today," said Harry.

Ron's eyes widened.

"What are you looking so scared for?" asked Ginny. "Weren't you partners? You already know everything about each other!"

Ron laughed and turned a bit pink. "I s'pose you're right Gin!"

Harry looked thoughtful. "You know, this could work to our advantage. Have you looked at Hermione lately?"

"I saw her in class today," said Ron, bewildered.

"No, I mean really looked at her. She's lost a lot of weight."

"Weight she didn't need to lose in the first place," agreed Ginny.

"Exactly. I was down near the quidditch pitch yesterday and saw her running. She was wearing shorts and well, it looked kinda looked like a bra..."

"A sports bra?" asked Ginny. "Don't tell me you've been playing quidditch for seven years and you have yet to see a sports bra?" She laughed. Harry blushed.

"Ok, ok. That's probably what it was. Anyway, she was really skinny. I mean, if I got close enough, I could have counted her ribs. Her spine sticks out a bit too."

Ginny looked concerned. "Now that you mention it, she's still dieting. She won't admit to it, but I've noticed she doesn't eat like she used to."

"Well, the Halloween Feast in Friday," Ron pointed out. "How can she not eat there? It couldn't hurt to let the diet go one night right?"

"I'll keep an eye on her just in case," said Ginny as she rose to leave. "I've got to get to class. Good luck on the veritaserum. Hope it works." She cast a pointed look at Harry. He caught it and nodded.

"Me too."