Not Your Ordinary Love Story

by LondonWitch

A/N: Chapter number nine. Love potion number nine. See the connection? Actually, this chapter has nothing to do with that (real) song, or a potion of any kind. But this author's note does have to do with the fact that I don't own Harry, or any of his little friends. I hope you're enjoying it so far.

Chapter Nine: At O-Nineteen Hundred Hours

Wednesday, September 25th

At precisely o-nineteen hundred hours, every Gryffindor student marched up the steps to their dormitories and sat, waiting and watching, doing exactly as they were told. Lavender had somehow gotten hold of a bullhorn and had been shouting directions through it as it blasted in Parvati's ear.

"You there! Budge up a little, so Colin can breathe! Hey, little girl! Move quicker, we haven't got all day!"

Seamus sighed as he watched this, but decided not to interfere and instead joined Neville and Dean on one of the steps. After breakfast that morning, they'd pulled Harry and Ginny aside and filled them in on their parts in the plan. Right now, Harry and Ron were at the Quidditch pitch practicing for Saturday's match against Ravenclaw, and Hermione and Ginny were taking a walk around the lake. Ginny would tell Hermione she'd forgotten something on one of the Common Room tables, and could Hermione go and get it. At the same time, Harry and Ron would head up to the Common Room and Harry would make his exit by needing to go and 'grab his quill from the library'.

So, Ron and Hermione would both get into the Common Room at the same time – and then Parvati would seal the door from the inside. People (like Harry) could still get in by using the password, but no one could get out until she preformed the counter-charm. Hermione wouldn't even be able to charm her way out, since the spell only worked for the person who cast it. To get them to eat the candy, Harry would come in, do his part, and then go up the stairs to 'take a nap'.

But that still left Ginny outside and clueless as to what was happening inside. That was why after Ron and Hermione had left, Ginny was going to meet Harry outside of the Quidditch pitch and get his broom. She would fly up to one of the Common Room windows to watch the scenario.

"Lavender!" Parvati hissed, grabbing her arm and dragging her to a half-empty stair, "I hear noises outside!" She sat, but Lavender dropped the bullhorn and said just loud enough so that everyone on the stairwell could hear: "Enough!"

The students fell silent and held their breaths as Hermione and Ron entered the Common Room, bickering again, this time over a missing bottle of ink.

"Ron, I handed it to you and said, 'Hold this for a second, so that I can check my bag for my Defense Against the Dark Arts book.' And you said, 'Okay," and then you and Harry went off to eat dinner. Where did it go, Ron?"

As Hermione sighed and checked the various tabletops for Ginny's missing scarf, Ron replied in a huff, "I gave it back to you at dinner, Hermione. I didn't lose it! Honest!"

Hermione grabbed at the edge of a gold-and-scarlet piece of fabric that was Ginny's scarf, and went over to look Ron straight in the eye. "Ronald Billius Weasley. That was my good ink that cost a bundle. I got it in France when I was on holiday. And now it's gone." With that, she walked towards the portrait hole and tried to push open the door. But it wouldn't budge.

"Ah! It – won't – move!" Hermione panted, throwing her weight against the portrait in case it was stuck. Nothing happened, and so Ron, temporarily forgetting the squabble, went and tried to help.

In a last attempt, Ron took out his wand and yelled at the top of his lungs, "Alohomora! Alohomora!" He gave Hermione a quizzical look when it didn't work and she tried several different counter-charms unsuccessfully before admitting that they were indeed stuck in the Common Room. In defeat, Hermione wandered over to a couch, pulled a bottle of water out of her bag that she had been carrying, and began to read a book entitled, 'Hippogriffs and Trolls – Everything You Need to Know about Magical Creatures.'

Just then, Harry walked through the portrait hole, holding not one but several quills that he'd 'misplaced' in the library earlier that day. "Harry!" Ron almost screamed, "Don't shut that –" But the portrait had already swung closed behind him and Ron finished dejectedly, "Door."

"Why not?" asked Harry, knowing perfectly well why not. Save for that had been the plan, after all. Some of the students on the girl's dorm stairwell snickered, but were quickly silenced by a steady, evil glare from Lavender.

"Because now we're stuck in here with nothing to do! The portrait won't open from inside! I'm bored...and I'm hungry!" Ron wailed, flopping down on a squashy armchair rather loudly.

Hermione remarked over her shoulder, still paging through her book, "Ron, you're always hungry. All you think about is food. You look at Harry and you see a roast beef. You look at McGonagall and you see a suckling pig. Get over it, we just ate dinner."

Ron just stared at her in disbelief, seeing not Hermione, but a lamb chop. Harry snapped him out of it by throwing a handful of green-wrapped, mint-sized candies at Ron's feet. Ron dove for them, and hurriedly stuck three in his mouth at the same time.

"Fanks, Hawee," Ron said through a mouthful of candy. (A/N: To see how that would sound through a mouthful of candy, I actually chewed some Double Bubble and said it. It tasted quite good.) Harry nodded, and walked over to Hermione, pulling out two sticks of gum from one of his robe's pockets.

"Hey, Hermione, want a piece of gum? It always helps me study," Harry explained, holding out the stick with the white wrapper to her. He popped the other one in his mouth, and Hermione, not even looking up from her book, took it. "Thanks."

Ron was now making absurd faces for absolutely no reason, and Harry could see as Ron stuck his tongue out that it was a light shade of periwinkle blue. Harry knew he had to hurry upstairs before they started to tell him that they thought he was a crazy scar-headed boy.

"Okay, well, I'm going to go take a nap. Ron, if Seamus or Neville or Dean comes in, can you ask them not to come up? I really need some peace and quiet," Harry said, heading for the stairs.

Hermione waved one hand to show that she understood and Ron called out goofily to Harry's retreating back, "Goodbye, loopy!"

A/N: Never thought I'd end a chapter with the word 'loopy'. Then again, I never thought that I'd actually make it to the 10th chapter. That's right – the next chapter will be the 10th one! On we go...