The three sixth year Gryffindor students who were sitting together in
a cozy train compartment remained silent. None of them uttered a word as
the Hogwarts Express chugged by the barren landscape quickly. It was odd
that they were silent, especially when each wanted to say so many things to
each other. Harry Potter, for instance, was thinking about his many rides
on this train. All of his rides had been memorable, why he'd even met Ron
and Hermione in a compartment like this one. He'd met his parent's friend
and favorite professor Remus Lupin here as well. Harry smiled fondly at the
thought of Lupin, but after a moment his smile vanished. Lupin and Sirius
had been James Potter's best mates, but Sirius was gone. Long minutes had
passed since they'd left platform nine and three quarters, but while they'd
been there Harry had stared out onto the platform thinking of Sirius. He'd
smiled sadly as he looked towards the window almost hopefully, looking for
the big black shaggy dog, who should be sitting on the concrete platform
wagging his tail, and baring his enormous teeth in an unmistakable grin.
But the only thing that had greeted Harry was the reflection of his sad
green eyes against the glass.
Harry longed to break the silence that had infested their normally cheerful compartment. They were going home to Hogwarts; they should be happy and bursting with the excitement of the New Year ahead of them. Normally they'd be talking about new classes, the dirty Slytherins, the foul Professor Snape and best of all Harry would be discussing Quidditch with Ron while Hermione read over their homework clucking disapprovingly over their numerous mistakes. Where were the smiles? The jokes? Harry opened his mouth to make conversation but paused when he noticed Ron concentrating very hard on his hands and Hermione throwing glares at Ron over a large brown book, which had the glittering title. 'A Book of Spells – Grade Six by Miranda Welkins'. Harry let out a deep sigh and looked towards the window at the passing landscape.
He'd spent the last week of his holidays at the Burrow. He'd been extremely happy to go at first, but his mood changed when he had arrived. Ron was sour and Hermione bitter. Ginny, whom Harry had exchanged letters with through out the summer, had told him that neither had been speaking to the other, especially after they'd had another row. Hermione had apparently told on Ron for buying six boxes of Fred and Georges Skiving Snacks. Harry remembered how Ginny had tossed her long red hair behind her shoulder casually as she told him the tension between the two had raised sky high when they'd been in the kitchen one evening drinking cocoa together.
Harry had tried to divide his time between them equally but not to long after he'd been there Hermione had told him off for 'siding' with Ron, in the matter of Viktor Krum, and Ron accused Harry of 'associating with the enemy'. He'd gotten sick of being in the middle of the raging war. Suddenly Harry had found himself with Ginny a lot of the time. They practiced Quidditch, which was relieving since Harry hadn't played for so long. They attempted to pull pranks on Fred and George, who were only home in the evenings. They succeeded only once. They had sat behind Harry's invisibility cloak together laughing silently as Fred and George both got their hands stuck on the front door knob, where Ginny had placed one few of the unstickable gumballs, which Fred and George had made themselves. Harry smiled fondly at the memory of Ginny's body so close to his, and the smell of her fruity hair.
Harry, who'd only ever seen Ginny as Ron's little sister before, found himself considering her as a friend. He had been quite impressed with the fight she'd put up at the Department of Mysteries, and she'd proved to be amazing company, and have a sympathetic ear. It had seemed that in their anger, Hermione and Ron had forgot that Harry had lost Sirius, but Ginny had been there to listen whenever Harry'd needed to talk, even if it was late. Harry thought back on the long walks to the Weasley quidditch pitch that had taken place in the wee hours of the morning, where Harry and Ginny had shared with each other the grief they'd both been feeling through out the whole summer. She was easy to talk to, and suddenly Harry felt a great longing for her in the pit of his stomach. If she were here in this compartment, she'd be easing the silence with her bubbling laugh, and wide grin. She was probably off with Dean Thomas in some compartment having fun, while Harry had to sit here with these two. He stopped himself; Hermione and Ron were great friends - when they weren't jumping down each other's throats for the dumbest of reasons.
Harry though better than to open conversation with the two sitting in front of him. To make things worse the night before Ron and Hermione had begun arguing about Viktor Krum. The topic this time was Hermione snogging with Viktor in the backyard. Harry and Ginny had been in the kitchen enjoying a game of Exploding Snap when a war erupted from the sitting room. The fight left them standing extremely close, Hermione rolled up on the balls of her feet attempting to rival Ron's height, and Ron throwing his chest out, his hands balled into tightly clenched fists. The fighting match lasted a mere fifteen minutes, but many hurtful words were exchanged, causing Hermione to burst into tears and dash up the rickety stairs of the Weasley household. Ron had stormed out the back door muttering angrily under his breath. Ginny and Harry were left gapping from the kitchen door. Ginny had glanced nervously up the stairs after Hermione,
"No," Harry had whispered grabbing her small wrist, and touching her soft skin with his fingers, "Don't go up; let her cool down,"
"You want me to stay?" she had said uneasily, looking up at her with her pale green eyes.
"Well, there's no point in trying to talk to either of them, they're both riled up, and plus, I'd be bored with out you,"
Ginny had smiled at him wistfully, and pulled walked over to a small cupboard. She knelt down, and pulled out a very old wizard chessboard.
"Wanna play?" she grinned.
And they had, late into the night; so late the Mrs. Weasley had scolded them to bed looking deviously between the two. The wrenching feeling of longing pulled at his stomach again, and Harry shifted uneasily on the padded bench.
Hermione grimaced at Ron from behind her spell book as he picked at his long hands. His red hair was falling into his face hiding his deep brown eyes, and light freckles. Her eyes followed his defined cheekbone and rested on his pouting lips. She felt her face twist up in disgust as she watched him. She couldn't believe him, or what he'd said. He'd called her, a... It was awful; she closed her eyes at the horrible memory,
"Like you could love Krum?!" he spat at her, his mouth curling into an ugly snarl.
"And what if I do Ron?" she yelled back, rolling up on her toes.
"Did you enjoy your snog-fest Hermione, I suppose he let you come up for air once in a while,"
"What Viktor and I did in private has no concern with you," She growled.
"My backyard isn't exactly private Hermione!" Ron challenged, breathing hard.
"You shouldn't have been snooping," She cried, "Like it or not Ronald Weasley, Viktor is my boyfriend, and that's what you do in a relationship."
"So I suppose fornicating in my backyard is okay because it was in the name of 'love'," Ron snapped in a sing-song voice, "Or maybe he was slipping you a few of those precious Galleons under your cloak."
Hermione felt like she'd been slapped across the face.
"Is that what you think of me?" she whispered, tears brewing in her eyes.
"What was I thinking?" Ron cried, "Why don't you just go write to Viktor, and complain to him?"
"I WILL!" she shouted, "I will go write to my BOYFRIEND!"
"Better hope he's not to busy writing to one of his other bimbos!"
"Other Bimbos?" Hermione cried, "I'm a bimbo?"
"Yea Hermione, you can't think just you is good enough for the infamous Viktor Krum, the guy's got a girlfriend in practically every country."
"Other Girlfriends?" She felt her heart plummet, "You are a liar Ron!"
"Would I lie?"
"Well Ron, so far you've called me a Bimbo, a tramp and said I'm not good enough for him! So I'm not sure what you're capable of!"
"Viktor is no good for you Hermione"
"And I suppose you are?" She spat, "Like you know how to treat a girl. Is it so hard to realize that somebody actually cares about me Ron? That I care about someone?"
"Why would I care Hermione?"
"I don't know, Why would you?"
Ron paused, his breathing filling the silence between them. She watched his brown eyes rest on her own, and bore into them. She felt her own breath catch in her throat, as he continued to stand over her, breathing hard, the angry jealousy fading from his eyes. She watched them become soft and docile, and his posture weaken. She felt her heart begin to race, as she realized they were fighting for a stupid reason. She needed to apologize; he was after all only trying to protect him. He reached up slowly brushing his red hair out of his face, stepping away from her. He blinked slowly as she watched him contemplate something. He opened his mouth to respond, but shut it quickly, changing his mind and glancing at his wristwatch.
"It is getting late Hermione; Krum will be here soon, you don't want to miss your weekly salary!" He whispered venomously and the anger flashed in his eyes again.
Hermione stared at him, their bodies extremely close. Ron didn't break eye contact with her, as her lip began to tremble. This was really what he thought of her, some tramp that Viktor used once a week. She was more than that! If Ron couldn't see that, then he wasn't her friend. If Ron couldn't see that then she didn't...she paused as she felt a sob rise in her throat. Ron's image blurred as fresh tears filled her eyes.
"Don't ever say that about me again,"
With that she dashed up the stairs to the privacy of Ginny's room, hoping nobody would follow her.
When she made it to the room she was sharing with Ginny, she shut the door hard, and stood against it, tears slipping down her face. She honestly couldn't believe him. Why was he so mean, why did he say the things he had? Like she would accept money for being his girlfriend! Like Viktor had other girlfriends! She let out a laugh, wiping her tears. Ron really was a git.
A soft hoot filled her ears, and Hermione looked quickly towards the window. Her owl had returned, with a response from Viktor. She rushed to him, feeling happier already, but she paused half way to the window. There was no yellowish white amongst the grey-blue feathers of her owl. She reached quickly for the owl, but he didn't raise his leg. There was no parchment. No reply.
Hermione blinked a few times returning to the jolting train compartment. Harry shifted on the bench beside her, and Ron continued to pick at his hands. He looked up suddenly catching her eye. She stared at him for a moment, getting lost in his innocent features. They were supposed to be best friends, and he'd said all those things, she couldn't forgive him. It had been his fault she'd been up all last night wondering why Viktor hadn't replied. It had only been one day, but he was usually very quick with replies. Maybe he was busy writing to someone else... She laughed at herself. She was getting all worked up over nothing. Ron couldn't be right...She was Viktor's one and only, wasn't she?
Ron looked away from Hermione's long hair, and face that was beautiful despite the dark look. He moved back to his hands, which were read an irritated from him picking at them. But no matter how raw and painful his hands became, his thoughts lingered on Hermione. She thought he was just jealous, but there was more to it than that. He knew a bad apple when he saw one, and Viktor Krum was one. She wondered why he was angry with her, but since when did his backyard become the ideal place to make out?
He looked angrily out the window, they were coming up to Hogwarts, and really should get changed into their robes, but he didn't move. Any kind of unsettlement would likely bring Hermione to a yelling rage again. She was constantly yelling at him to act more like a prefect should. Prefect this and prefect that. Why couldn't she be more like Harry and just not care so much? Harry broke the rules all the time, but he didn't get all bothered.
Ron looked up at Harry, who was staring idly out the window. He felt bad for his best mate (well best now that Hermione was being insufferable). He'd lost so much in his life, and all he had left were Ron and Hermione...and Ginny, whom Harry had been spending a lot of time with. Ron felt a pang of guilt stab at him, as he realized he hadn't been there a lot for his best friend when he probably needed him the most. Ron slid down the bench a little so he was directly across from him.
"Harry?" he asked tensely, glancing at Hermione hoping that she wasn't ready to pounce on him.
Harry glanced up at him with weary green eyes.
"Are you okay?" He asked softly, stilling watching Hermione out of the side of his eye.
"I am fine," Harry sighed, "Why wouldn't I be?"
Why wouldn't he be? The world's darkest wizard was after him and had killed his parents and Godfather, why wouldn't he be okay?
"I don't know mate," Ron told him, "Just checking,"
Harry opened his mouth to respond, but closed it quickly as the compartment door slid open. Ron followed his gaze, and his eyes fell on his sister.
"Hullo Harry," Ginny smiled, "I think it's time you all got changed into you're robes, we're due to arrive at Hogwarts in ten minutes!"
Hermione seemed to react very slowly, her brown eyes coming to life, as she was startled out of her thoughts.
"Oh my!" she cried, grabbing a small bag, which obviously held her robes, and hurrying towards Ginny,
"Thank you for reminding us!"
"No problem, coming Ron?" Ginny asked,
"Of course," Ron muttered, reaching for his trunk.
He reached into it dumbly, feeling for his black robes, watching Ginny and Harry exchange small smiles.
Harry stood, with a lopsided grin,
"Come on Ron!" he cried, "We're almost home!"
"Yea," Ron muttered, following Ginny and Harry to the back of the train.
Harry longed to break the silence that had infested their normally cheerful compartment. They were going home to Hogwarts; they should be happy and bursting with the excitement of the New Year ahead of them. Normally they'd be talking about new classes, the dirty Slytherins, the foul Professor Snape and best of all Harry would be discussing Quidditch with Ron while Hermione read over their homework clucking disapprovingly over their numerous mistakes. Where were the smiles? The jokes? Harry opened his mouth to make conversation but paused when he noticed Ron concentrating very hard on his hands and Hermione throwing glares at Ron over a large brown book, which had the glittering title. 'A Book of Spells – Grade Six by Miranda Welkins'. Harry let out a deep sigh and looked towards the window at the passing landscape.
He'd spent the last week of his holidays at the Burrow. He'd been extremely happy to go at first, but his mood changed when he had arrived. Ron was sour and Hermione bitter. Ginny, whom Harry had exchanged letters with through out the summer, had told him that neither had been speaking to the other, especially after they'd had another row. Hermione had apparently told on Ron for buying six boxes of Fred and Georges Skiving Snacks. Harry remembered how Ginny had tossed her long red hair behind her shoulder casually as she told him the tension between the two had raised sky high when they'd been in the kitchen one evening drinking cocoa together.
Harry had tried to divide his time between them equally but not to long after he'd been there Hermione had told him off for 'siding' with Ron, in the matter of Viktor Krum, and Ron accused Harry of 'associating with the enemy'. He'd gotten sick of being in the middle of the raging war. Suddenly Harry had found himself with Ginny a lot of the time. They practiced Quidditch, which was relieving since Harry hadn't played for so long. They attempted to pull pranks on Fred and George, who were only home in the evenings. They succeeded only once. They had sat behind Harry's invisibility cloak together laughing silently as Fred and George both got their hands stuck on the front door knob, where Ginny had placed one few of the unstickable gumballs, which Fred and George had made themselves. Harry smiled fondly at the memory of Ginny's body so close to his, and the smell of her fruity hair.
Harry, who'd only ever seen Ginny as Ron's little sister before, found himself considering her as a friend. He had been quite impressed with the fight she'd put up at the Department of Mysteries, and she'd proved to be amazing company, and have a sympathetic ear. It had seemed that in their anger, Hermione and Ron had forgot that Harry had lost Sirius, but Ginny had been there to listen whenever Harry'd needed to talk, even if it was late. Harry thought back on the long walks to the Weasley quidditch pitch that had taken place in the wee hours of the morning, where Harry and Ginny had shared with each other the grief they'd both been feeling through out the whole summer. She was easy to talk to, and suddenly Harry felt a great longing for her in the pit of his stomach. If she were here in this compartment, she'd be easing the silence with her bubbling laugh, and wide grin. She was probably off with Dean Thomas in some compartment having fun, while Harry had to sit here with these two. He stopped himself; Hermione and Ron were great friends - when they weren't jumping down each other's throats for the dumbest of reasons.
Harry though better than to open conversation with the two sitting in front of him. To make things worse the night before Ron and Hermione had begun arguing about Viktor Krum. The topic this time was Hermione snogging with Viktor in the backyard. Harry and Ginny had been in the kitchen enjoying a game of Exploding Snap when a war erupted from the sitting room. The fight left them standing extremely close, Hermione rolled up on the balls of her feet attempting to rival Ron's height, and Ron throwing his chest out, his hands balled into tightly clenched fists. The fighting match lasted a mere fifteen minutes, but many hurtful words were exchanged, causing Hermione to burst into tears and dash up the rickety stairs of the Weasley household. Ron had stormed out the back door muttering angrily under his breath. Ginny and Harry were left gapping from the kitchen door. Ginny had glanced nervously up the stairs after Hermione,
"No," Harry had whispered grabbing her small wrist, and touching her soft skin with his fingers, "Don't go up; let her cool down,"
"You want me to stay?" she had said uneasily, looking up at her with her pale green eyes.
"Well, there's no point in trying to talk to either of them, they're both riled up, and plus, I'd be bored with out you,"
Ginny had smiled at him wistfully, and pulled walked over to a small cupboard. She knelt down, and pulled out a very old wizard chessboard.
"Wanna play?" she grinned.
And they had, late into the night; so late the Mrs. Weasley had scolded them to bed looking deviously between the two. The wrenching feeling of longing pulled at his stomach again, and Harry shifted uneasily on the padded bench.
Hermione grimaced at Ron from behind her spell book as he picked at his long hands. His red hair was falling into his face hiding his deep brown eyes, and light freckles. Her eyes followed his defined cheekbone and rested on his pouting lips. She felt her face twist up in disgust as she watched him. She couldn't believe him, or what he'd said. He'd called her, a... It was awful; she closed her eyes at the horrible memory,
"Like you could love Krum?!" he spat at her, his mouth curling into an ugly snarl.
"And what if I do Ron?" she yelled back, rolling up on her toes.
"Did you enjoy your snog-fest Hermione, I suppose he let you come up for air once in a while,"
"What Viktor and I did in private has no concern with you," She growled.
"My backyard isn't exactly private Hermione!" Ron challenged, breathing hard.
"You shouldn't have been snooping," She cried, "Like it or not Ronald Weasley, Viktor is my boyfriend, and that's what you do in a relationship."
"So I suppose fornicating in my backyard is okay because it was in the name of 'love'," Ron snapped in a sing-song voice, "Or maybe he was slipping you a few of those precious Galleons under your cloak."
Hermione felt like she'd been slapped across the face.
"Is that what you think of me?" she whispered, tears brewing in her eyes.
"What was I thinking?" Ron cried, "Why don't you just go write to Viktor, and complain to him?"
"I WILL!" she shouted, "I will go write to my BOYFRIEND!"
"Better hope he's not to busy writing to one of his other bimbos!"
"Other Bimbos?" Hermione cried, "I'm a bimbo?"
"Yea Hermione, you can't think just you is good enough for the infamous Viktor Krum, the guy's got a girlfriend in practically every country."
"Other Girlfriends?" She felt her heart plummet, "You are a liar Ron!"
"Would I lie?"
"Well Ron, so far you've called me a Bimbo, a tramp and said I'm not good enough for him! So I'm not sure what you're capable of!"
"Viktor is no good for you Hermione"
"And I suppose you are?" She spat, "Like you know how to treat a girl. Is it so hard to realize that somebody actually cares about me Ron? That I care about someone?"
"Why would I care Hermione?"
"I don't know, Why would you?"
Ron paused, his breathing filling the silence between them. She watched his brown eyes rest on her own, and bore into them. She felt her own breath catch in her throat, as he continued to stand over her, breathing hard, the angry jealousy fading from his eyes. She watched them become soft and docile, and his posture weaken. She felt her heart begin to race, as she realized they were fighting for a stupid reason. She needed to apologize; he was after all only trying to protect him. He reached up slowly brushing his red hair out of his face, stepping away from her. He blinked slowly as she watched him contemplate something. He opened his mouth to respond, but shut it quickly, changing his mind and glancing at his wristwatch.
"It is getting late Hermione; Krum will be here soon, you don't want to miss your weekly salary!" He whispered venomously and the anger flashed in his eyes again.
Hermione stared at him, their bodies extremely close. Ron didn't break eye contact with her, as her lip began to tremble. This was really what he thought of her, some tramp that Viktor used once a week. She was more than that! If Ron couldn't see that, then he wasn't her friend. If Ron couldn't see that then she didn't...she paused as she felt a sob rise in her throat. Ron's image blurred as fresh tears filled her eyes.
"Don't ever say that about me again,"
With that she dashed up the stairs to the privacy of Ginny's room, hoping nobody would follow her.
When she made it to the room she was sharing with Ginny, she shut the door hard, and stood against it, tears slipping down her face. She honestly couldn't believe him. Why was he so mean, why did he say the things he had? Like she would accept money for being his girlfriend! Like Viktor had other girlfriends! She let out a laugh, wiping her tears. Ron really was a git.
A soft hoot filled her ears, and Hermione looked quickly towards the window. Her owl had returned, with a response from Viktor. She rushed to him, feeling happier already, but she paused half way to the window. There was no yellowish white amongst the grey-blue feathers of her owl. She reached quickly for the owl, but he didn't raise his leg. There was no parchment. No reply.
Hermione blinked a few times returning to the jolting train compartment. Harry shifted on the bench beside her, and Ron continued to pick at his hands. He looked up suddenly catching her eye. She stared at him for a moment, getting lost in his innocent features. They were supposed to be best friends, and he'd said all those things, she couldn't forgive him. It had been his fault she'd been up all last night wondering why Viktor hadn't replied. It had only been one day, but he was usually very quick with replies. Maybe he was busy writing to someone else... She laughed at herself. She was getting all worked up over nothing. Ron couldn't be right...She was Viktor's one and only, wasn't she?
Ron looked away from Hermione's long hair, and face that was beautiful despite the dark look. He moved back to his hands, which were read an irritated from him picking at them. But no matter how raw and painful his hands became, his thoughts lingered on Hermione. She thought he was just jealous, but there was more to it than that. He knew a bad apple when he saw one, and Viktor Krum was one. She wondered why he was angry with her, but since when did his backyard become the ideal place to make out?
He looked angrily out the window, they were coming up to Hogwarts, and really should get changed into their robes, but he didn't move. Any kind of unsettlement would likely bring Hermione to a yelling rage again. She was constantly yelling at him to act more like a prefect should. Prefect this and prefect that. Why couldn't she be more like Harry and just not care so much? Harry broke the rules all the time, but he didn't get all bothered.
Ron looked up at Harry, who was staring idly out the window. He felt bad for his best mate (well best now that Hermione was being insufferable). He'd lost so much in his life, and all he had left were Ron and Hermione...and Ginny, whom Harry had been spending a lot of time with. Ron felt a pang of guilt stab at him, as he realized he hadn't been there a lot for his best friend when he probably needed him the most. Ron slid down the bench a little so he was directly across from him.
"Harry?" he asked tensely, glancing at Hermione hoping that she wasn't ready to pounce on him.
Harry glanced up at him with weary green eyes.
"Are you okay?" He asked softly, stilling watching Hermione out of the side of his eye.
"I am fine," Harry sighed, "Why wouldn't I be?"
Why wouldn't he be? The world's darkest wizard was after him and had killed his parents and Godfather, why wouldn't he be okay?
"I don't know mate," Ron told him, "Just checking,"
Harry opened his mouth to respond, but closed it quickly as the compartment door slid open. Ron followed his gaze, and his eyes fell on his sister.
"Hullo Harry," Ginny smiled, "I think it's time you all got changed into you're robes, we're due to arrive at Hogwarts in ten minutes!"
Hermione seemed to react very slowly, her brown eyes coming to life, as she was startled out of her thoughts.
"Oh my!" she cried, grabbing a small bag, which obviously held her robes, and hurrying towards Ginny,
"Thank you for reminding us!"
"No problem, coming Ron?" Ginny asked,
"Of course," Ron muttered, reaching for his trunk.
He reached into it dumbly, feeling for his black robes, watching Ginny and Harry exchange small smiles.
Harry stood, with a lopsided grin,
"Come on Ron!" he cried, "We're almost home!"
"Yea," Ron muttered, following Ginny and Harry to the back of the train.