VERY IMPORTANT A/N AT THE END!!! READ STORY AND THEN A/N!!!!!!!!!!VERY IMPORTANT!

Talking

Hermione looked around at her friends. Harry's jaw had dropped as he stared at her in disbelief. Ginny had tears in her eyes and a blank look on her face. Hermione had just told them what had happened. Throughout the ordeal, Ron had held her and squeezed her hand when her voice began to waver. Dumbledore paced back and forth in the boy's dormitory, not knowing whether to comfort her or reprimand her. No one to his knowledge had ever done this before; at least not while in school.

"Well," he sighed. "At least it wasn't Voldemort or one of his followers. I don't know what you were thinking. I have to contact some people. I'll send for you later." and with that, he walked out. ( A/N– I had wanted to say he vanished, but this voice in my head kept asking me if I ever read Hogwarts, A History. Go figure)

Silence fell in the room, but was soon broken by a screeching Ginny.

"What was wrong with you? You, dolt, you could have talked to me! I would've pointed out that my brother had been in love with you for like forever! This is the only stupid thing you have ever done!"

"I was in a depression, Ginny. I wasn't exactly thinking straight. Thank heaven for Madame Pomfrey's Rictus Potion. It helps me see things clearly."

Harry was still in shock. He hadn't changed his facial expression since Hermione had begun to tell her story.

"But I'm fine now. Or at least I will be. Now that one of my problems has been rectified." she said with a twinkle in her eye.

"Listen guys, could we have some alone time?" Ron pleaded with a meaningful look in his eyes.

"Sure, I'll steer oh dazed one downstairs." Ginny laughed as she lead Harry out of the dorm. The second the door was closed, Ron was on Hermione like two socks out of the dryer.

Hermione leaned back against the wall. She had never been kissed like this before. Her past experiences with the Muggle boys in her neighborhood had been the results of truth or dare games. They hadn't wanted to kiss HER; they had just wanted to kiss. Ron though, he was something else. She couldn't understand how he could be so passionate, so energetic, and yet be so gentle and loving. As their tongues explored each other's mouth's, their hands roamed over each other's bodies. ( No, not there! Ron's a gentleman, and they've only been going out for like an hour!) At one point, Ron's finger started circling around a freckle at the back of Hermione's neck. She couldn't suppress the small giggle that escaped her lips.

"Oh, you're tickle-ish I see!!!" Ron squealed. "This has possibilities!" and with that, the passionate kissing became a tickling match, leaving them lying on Ron's bed, out of breath.

"Does anyone else know about that spot?" asked Ron with that infamous twinkle in his eye.

"No, and I'd prefer it if nobody knew." Hermione said sternly.

"No worries there, I want to keep that little piece of information all to myself."

"Wow. I haven't laughed like this in a long time." Hermione said with a sigh.

"Why not?" Ron said. His tone was serious and that twinkle was gone. "Why haven't you laughed in a long time? It couldn't have been all over me."

"Well, you were the straw that broke the camel's back." Hermione said. "It's a Muggle expression," she continued, seeing the confused look on his face. "See, I started noticing things. For example, do you realize that besides you, Harry and Ginny, I have no friends? When you and Harry go off to have some guy time, I'm left alone. Ginny's VERY popular and has her own group of friends in her year. I used to sit with Lavender and them, but I got tired of being ignored. They weren't mean or anything. It was just little things like I would sit down and no one would look up or say hello. I would listen to the conversation and laugh at the appropriate times, but no one would ask me how my day was, and if I had a funny story to tell, everyone would interrupt me with their story. And if I got up to leave, not one person would say goodbye. It was like I was invisible; I wasn't even worth the effort it takes to be outright mean. But then, that certainly wasn't the case when they needed help with homework. Then I was suddenly Miss Popular!" Hermione laughed rather disturbingly at this. "But if I refused outright copying, I was suddenly invisible again."

Hermione lapsed into silence, apparently reliving past encounters with her 'friends'. But as Ron was about to speak, she started up again.

"Then this summer, I overheard my parents fighting...alot...over me. My dad doesn't want me staying at Hogwarts. He says it's too dangerous. My mum realizes this is where I belong and that I'm old enough to take care of myself. So they argue incessantly."

"Then there was you. Once I realized that my feelings for you weren't going away, I tried leaving subtle hints, but you didn't respond to anything. At first I didn't know why, so I sat down and made a list of my faults. It was really long. I was in a depression after all. So I made a pact with myself, that if we had another fight within the week, I would give up."

"The morning of the fight, I had been in a bad mood. I had overheard Lavender listing those she considered her friends. I wasn't there. Then my mum sent back the owl I sent her with a note saying she was going to 'visit' her mother. I was just about to sit and have a nice long cry when you came in, saw my books, and called me a brainiac." Ron winced. "I know now, that you had simply been joking, but as stressed as I already was, the comment kind of made me snap. And you know the rest."

"Hermione, I'll have you know, you do have a lot of friends. The entire school was worried sick about you. They weren't allowed to visit, otherwise, the hospital wing would've been much too crowded. Harry was the only one allowed in. I, of course, never left."

"But you missed class!!! Over me!!!"

"Hermione, not now. You can reprimand me later. Second, I really can't do anything about your parents except be here for you. But you must realize that parents fight. My mum goes home to 'visit' at least once a year. Everything ends alright every time. Lastly, I'm a clueless prat, you should know this by now."

"Oh Ron." and with this Hermione collapsed into sobs in Ron's arms. He held her a whispered to her until the both fell asleep.

A/N – This is one of my favorite parts in my story. It's sooo sad. I want to address some things here: I've gotten reviews saying I need to use proper English. I'm not writing this as an essay for school. Since this is mostly dialogue, I'm writing it the way I would talk to my friends. So there'll be nothing proper about this. Even intelligent people use slang. Second, I've been told that Hermione is OOC. I can see where this is coming from, but it's also one of the points I'm trying to communicate. The point is that sometimes, even people who look like they have their act together have shit going on in their lives that even their friends don't know about. The people who are always cool, calm and collected have drama too. They just keep up the "everything's fine" facade to save face. But, they pour so much energy into acting the part that they sometimes crack. That's what happened to Hermione in the story. She kept everything bottled up and then she exploded. I relate to this a lot. In fact, this story is my outlet to keep from doing what she does. So don't look at it as OOC. Look at it like this is her inside personality; the one she hides from everyone.

Now, I want you to tell me what you think. And all, the Hermione's out there, I sympathize. Now REVIEW!!!