My dearest reviewers... It has been forever, I know. I'm awfully sorry, but if you must know, I've been in school for the past three weeks, scraping by with less than five hours a night, and I'll probably be insane by the end of this schoolyear. People who said that junior year would be tough weren't kidding. And of course, I just have to be the stupid one who decides to pile up on honors classes that her counselor specifically warned her against. Way to go me.
Anyway, at the risk of sounding like an absolutely whiney complainer, I'll be quiet. But I'm really sorry it's taken me so long. I actually just found a break in my homework load (well not really a break, actually I was just tired of doing it) and wrote out this chapter because I felt guilty for leaving you guys. So here it is.
Thank you so much to: AmyChris, BrownPryde, Tru Lys, Dianne, Vietnamaenglish, Chantal J, Dianne (you again? lol, kidding, i heart you), SaSush3, squidward, Rebekahek623, and finally, elvengirl9. What would I ever do without you guys?
More specific thanks:
Emily T- Oh gosh, I am SOO sorry about leaving you at a cliffhanger and then not updating in forever. I really am. But maybe this new chapter will make it up to you? Oh, and I love Harry's character as well. Personally, I'm more fond of him than Ron, but shh... I mean it in the way that I love to write about Ron and Hermione, but would rather, like you said, marry Harry (hah, it rhymes!). Anyways, have fun with this chapter.
Kingmaker- Oh you, one of my most faithful reviewers ever. I love Trelawney as well; she's such an interesting character. A little kooky, but she's really only trying to do good. It was tons of fun writing about her, and maybe I will write another Trelawney story. Someday. As in months (if not years) from now. But let's not get ahead of myself. Anyway, thanks for your splendid review. Hope you enjoy this!
Tweek's Panda- Oh I know, sometimes that happens, when half the screen won't load and I want to bang at it and scream. Yes, so anyways. Thanks for reviewing! Ahaha, I think I'd die if I was forced into a kiss, but Ron and Hermione are strong kiddos. They can handle it. And besides, you know they liked it. Anyways, on with the story!
Viper676- Thanks for the review! Argh, I can't believe you didn't go see my cousin's movie, lol, KIDDING. It's quite alright; I'm just a random stranger on fanfiction. Anyway, I hope you have fun with this chapter; I know it was a long wait. So do read, and I hope you enjoy!
Okay, so please read and review. Please? Reviews make me very happy, and I had very few for the last chapter (which consequently made me sad, are you following my train of thought here?). So please review, and make the author happy. And the author will try to update someday. If you don't review, the author may just disappear and never come back to finish the story. That wasn't a threat, I promise.
They hadn't spoken to each other in five days, four hours, and twenty-six minutes.
Not that she was counting.
Nevertheless, Hermione found herself carrying out her everyday routine with that small nagging feeling of apprehension and gloom. Mind you, in this case, "small" had the same meaning it did when someone said, "Voldemort is a small threat to humankind."
Being the rational girl she was, Hermione had dealt surprisingly well.
After spending the first two days locked up in the girls' dormitory, spending much of that time floundering in her confusion, Hermione had emerged, having read through several magazines targeted towards a teenage witch audience (supplied by a very helpful Ginny Weasley), and come to the conclusion that if she really wanted the boy, she must pursue him in every way possible!
Unfortunately, she just wasn't that kind of girl.
So instead, she resigned herself to her studies once again, as during her two-day stay in the dormitory, she had only been able to barely finish her homework in time. And that was absolutely shameful.
Who said that those magazines had the only right answer?
Why couldn't she win Ron over with her intelligence, her courage, and her assiduity when doing schoolwork?
She groaned to herself.
Who am I kidding?
She couldn't help but notice that Ron had avoided her at every turn, she couldn't help but notice how he abruptly stood up and left every time she entered a room, and she couldn't help but notice how when he did glance her way (which was rare), he had an unreadable, almost solemn expression on his face.
And she couldn't help but admit that her grades were suffering from it.
I should've known, she sighed to herself, lowering her eyes as she picked at her food at dinner. Ron doesn't like me; not like that, anyway.
Had she ventured a glance at Ron, she would've noticed that he wasn't eating much either.
Beside her, Harry ate ravenously, barely pausing between bites to spurt out with overly cheerful conversation, an obvious attempt to ease the awkward tension. She appreciated it, she really did. In fact, as he carried on animatedly about the horrors of his latest run-in with Filch, she even giggled, despite her attempt to frown disapprovingly.
"You really shouldn't be wandering the halls after curfew, Harry," she tried to reproach him, but the smile that tugged at the corners of her lips gave her away.
Harry merely grinned at her, knowing fully well that she was rather lenient when it came to his midnight ramblings. "Oh 'Mione," he teased, raising an eyebrow at her small smile, "You've broken the rules a few times yourself, haven't you?"
She huffed, blushing in embarrassment. "Well," she argued, "You're the one who always convinces me to break those rules. Honestly, Harry. You're such a terrible influence."
At this he chuckled, taking no offense at her words. "But Hermione," he replied, aggravating her further. "If it weren't for me, your whole life would be spent in the library studying, and that's not very exciting."
She shot a glare, turning back to her plate and stabbing at her food angrily, stuffing it into her mouth and chewing with the ferocity of a half-starved lioness. She blatantly ignored Harry when he told a half-hearted joke to bring her out of her foul mood.
It didn't work. She simply continued to ignore him, falling deep into her moody thoughts.
Harry sighed. At least she wasn't moping around too much. Now for Ron.
He turned to his other best friend. Ron sat beside him, staring into his goblet of pumpkin juice with intense concentration.
Looking across the table, Harry caught Ginny Weasley's eye, and both shrugged.
They had been working together for the past few days to cheer their friends up, and it just hadn't worked.
Honestly, Ginny's seemed to be saying as she rolled her eyes and sighed in frustration. Aren't they stubborn?
Harry nodded glumly. The tense atmosphere was killing him. Not only was it extremely boring when your friends refused to talk, he was also becoming incredibly frustrated with the two. Why don't they just admit that they both fancy each other, and get together already?
Ginny Weasley regarded her brother and his object of affection with a sigh. They were so hopeless, those two. They had avoided each other for the past week, both blushing madly whenever they happened to be in the same room. Really, it was quite obvious. Apparently, both Hermione and Ron were completely ignorant, especially when it came to romance.
Poor Harry.
She couldn't help but feel a pang of pity for the boy.
I mean, how would she feel if her best friends suddenly stopped talking to anyone and left her alone to talk to herself?
Not that Harry would talk to himself.
But still, he had to have been pretty lonely.
I mean, she should know firsthand what it was like when Ron got into arguments! He was an absolute git, if you asked her. But of course, the fact remained that this was not an argument.
This was, and she smirked at the thought, a lover's spat.
Purposefully, Harry stood up, motioning for Ginny to follow him.
"Well," he announced loudly, with a quite audible sigh, "Since no one really wants to hear or talk to me at all, I'm going to go practice some quidditch. Ginny, will you come with me?"
"Of course, Harry," she replied, just as loudly, grinning widely as she tried not to giggle. "I wonder if a certain brother of mine who happens to be an absolute quidditch fanatic would care to come as well?"
Silence.
Harry and Ginny stared at Ron in disbelief as he continued to pick at his food, staring quite intently at a large lump of mashed potatoes. Apparently, he hadn't heard a word.
The rest of the Gryffindor table shrugged their shoulders sympathetically, all aware of the recent tension between Ron and Hermione.
Ginny turned to look at Harry, mouth agape. "He must be completely deaf!" she whispered in awe.
He smiled grimly in return. "Either that, or just completely in love."
The Gryffindors at the table nodded wisely in assent, but Ron and Hermione stayed seated, both still lost in their thoughts.
Ginny looked at them and raised an eyebrow.
How in the world could you stare that long at a plate of potatoes? I mean, Hermione's certainly one to pursue mundane subjects, but honestly!
Harry, equally flabbergasted by how strange his friends were behaving, simply shook his head at her. "So," he said, after some time, "Ready to go?"
She nodded, and together, they walked out of the Great Hall.
All eyes at the Gryffindor table turned expectantly to Ron and Hermione, wondering when they would realize that their friends had disappeared.
"Hey," Lavender finally spoke up, poking Hermione in the arm as she feigned an innocent, truly concerned look. "Hermione, what was Charms homework again?"
Hermione looked up dully. Blinking for a moment, she sighed deeply, eyes flitting over at Ron for a second before returning to Lavender's expectant gaze. "How should I know?"
And having answered the question, she grabbed her book bag, stood up, and walked out of the Great Hall aimlessly.
Lavender turned over to Parvati, who was gaping in horror.
"Did you see that?" she shrieked, wildly glancing around at the Gryffindor students, all of whom sat open-mouthed in shock, except for one Ronald Weasley. "She didn't know the homework!"
The students stared at each other in wide-eyed shock. All they had known from their time at Hogwarts had just come crashing down on them! Their fundamental beliefs, the irrefutable truths in the world suddenly seemed so much more questionable. Hermione doing her homework weeks in advance was a fact of life, "certain as the sun rising in the east" (as a song from one Disney movie went).
All eyes slowly turned to Ron.
"They really like each other, don't they?" Dean finally said slowly, observing at his listless friend.
Parvati and Lavender nodded in assent.
"Hermione's fancied him for an eternity," Parvati stressed with a roll of her eyes. "She's just far too stubborn to admit it."
"And the same goes for Ron," Lavender added. "They're so silly. They're only making themselves miserable."
A contemplative silence fell over the group.
Throughout all of this, Ron had remained sitting where he was, still staring at his plate of food.
"Well," Parvati finally spoke up with an air of finality. "I think we should make them realize their feelings for each other."
Everyone grinned in approval.
"Tomorrow," Lavender commanded, a smirk playing at her lips. "All of you meet me in the Room of Requirement. We're going to start planning their..."
She paused for a moment, searching for the correct word.
"Doom?" little Dennis Creevey volunteered helpfully.
She scowled, shooting him a scathing look. "No, not their doom, you silly boy. Love," she sighed dramatically, "Is a beautiful thing. Far too complex for the likes of you anyway."
He gulped apologetically.
"We'll be planning how to nudge them towards a lovely relationship, of course."
And with that said, all stood up, having finished their dinners. In a crowd, the excited group of Gryffindors left the Great Hall.
...Ron suddenly looked up, noticing for the first time that his table was now empty.
"What?" he mumbled to himself in confusion, scratching the back of his head. "Where'd everyone go?"
Meanwhile, Hermione had found herself wandering over to the owlery. Normally, had she been looking for comfort, or just clearer thoughts, as her mind was rather befuddled at the moment, she would've sought out the library. But tonight, for some reason, she didn't feel like sitting there alone at a table, surrounded by thousands of volumes of literature. She didn't feel like poring over the newest edition of Hogwarts, A History. All she wanted to do was to think.
And that's what had brought her here. It was a large open room, and fairly empty. But rather than the stifling silence of the library, there was the comforting ruffling of feathers and the occasional low hoot. She sighed and sat down cross-legged, leaning against the wall. Reaching over, she pulled a leather-bound book out of her book bag.
Pulling out her wand, she tapped the cover and whispered a few words, the password to her diary. Moments later, the lock on the side sprung open and when she opened the book, her familiar scrawl magically appeared on the page. Flipping to the back, she began a new entry.
Dear Diary,
Well, I hate to say it, but life's been rather dull lately. I know I haven't written to you since last year when I fancied Ron like mad and used to write childish entries dedicated solely to him. And I must apologize for that, but I will tell you that I still carry you around at all times for sentimental purposes, so don't accuse me of abandoning you. But I'm going to have to tell you that even though I thought I had grown up and gained some maturity, I'm still a silly little girl.
A silly little girl who's madly in love with one Ronald Weasley.
Yes, that's right. It's happening again. Well, it all started with Professor Trelawney, you see...
And here, she proceeded to write down the events of the last several days.
...So now, dear diary, I'm not sure what I should do. Ron's not speaking to me, and it's creating a horrid tense situation that I hate. What should I do? I'm so afraid to talk to him; what if he says something about that dayand rejects me?
Oh what am I saying? I'm so confused, and I don't like it at all. This is why I usually bury myself in schoolwork and shun boys; because boys are complex, and schoolwork always makes sense! But I've found myself, inexplicably drawn to...
The door to the owlery creaked open and her head shot up, her hand coming down the reflexively snap her diary shut. Pulling out her wand again, she tapped the cover and whispered a few words, relaxing when the lock snapped shut.
She looked over at the person who had just wandered in...
...And found herself staring at Ron.
She gasped in surprise and he looked over, not having seen her before.
"Hermione," he stated in way of greeting, his ears turning slightly red as he quickly looked away.
She blushed. "Hello Ron," she replied in a voice that was barely above a whisper, her eyes widening in surprise as she realized that their silent spell had been broken. She stood up uncertainly, brushing off her robes as she gathered everything into her book bag.
He seemed to have heard though. He looked over at her again for a moment and quickly turned back to the owls, pretending to concentrate. "I'm going to send a letter," he stated the obvious.
She nodded even though he wasn't looking in her direction. "Um," she stared at her feet awkwardly, moving towards the door uncertainly. "Well, I think I'd better go."
She was halfway to the door when he bit his lip and turned to look at her retreating figure. "No," he interjected, although he had no idea why. The conversation was awkward enough as it was. "Don't go. I need," he searched for a plausible reason. "I need your help in picking out an owl. Some of these," he waved his hands at the rows of owls, "May be incompetent, you know. And I really want this letter to be delivered, err, soon."
In all truthfulness, the letter was one that he had hastily penned to his mother, assuring her that he was alright and that he had been eating and sleeping enough.
But that was important, wasn't it?
She hesitantly walked over to stand by him, her cheeks still flushed. "Well," she cleared her throat nervously, "I think you'd better pick a larger owl. Remember the trouble you had with Pig?"
He chuckled, the awkward moment momentarily dispelled. "Oh yeah. And I've had bad experiences with old owls too."
She nodded in assent, moving over absently to stroke the feathers of one owl. "Yes, well, it's practically common sense to pick a larger, young owl," she teased lightly. "I don't think you really needed my help."
He gulped, but managed to reply lightly as well. "Ah well," he shrugged with a smile, "I've just gotten used to your help, I suppose."
She turned around to look at him, a small smile playing on the corners of her lips even though she tried to narrow her eyes in disapproval. "Ronald Weasley!" she scolded with little success. "Shame on you. You really ought to do your homework sometime. You might find that you actually learn something."
He simply grinned in reply, knowing that it would only infuriate her further. And that was the exact reaction he wanted. He didn't want any of this awkward, tip-toeing around each other nonsense. He wanted it back to the way it had been, back when she had nagged him constantly to finish his homework and he had teased her about being a know-it-all (which she was). "Well," he replied nonchalantly, "I don't really want to learn," he grinned cheekily as her frown deepened, "I'd much rather have you do all the work."
She stared at him for a moment, lips tightly pursed in a frown, as she stood, torn between screaming at him for being a lazy git, or hugging him for actually talking to her again.
She chose the latter.
Launching herself at him, she burrowed her face into his shoulder, surprising Ron quite a bit.
And here I thought she was mad at me. Crazy women.
But he couldn't help but think that her sudden mood changes were certainly in his favor today.
He patted the back of her head awkwardly, not sure of what to do. The back of her very frizzy head, he might add. But still, it was a frizzy head that he adored. "Err..." he mumbled, not sure of what to say.
"I missed you," she stated, pulling away embarrassedly. "Sorry about that."
"Not a problem at all," he replied dazedly. "You missed me?"
She bit her lip nervously, shuffling her feet back and forth.
Yes! Yes! Yes!
Now my dear, snog him silly!
She shuddered. Her inner voice had started to sound suspiciously like Trelawney. Shoving the nagging little voice aside, she raised her eyes slowly to meet his. "Yes," she admitted, feeling a bit foolish. "I did."
His face broke out in a grin. Pulling her in for another hug, he replied happily, "Good, because I missed you too."
Well, this is nice, Hermione's inner-voice (aka mini-Trelawney) piped up. The boy you're madly in love with has his arms around you. You know, this would be the opportune time to snog him silly...
Oh shut up, she replied to her inner-voice. It was actually quite a talent to be able to carry on a full conversation with herself (or mini-Trelawney) in her head.
Ron grinned at Hermione again. Now that their little awkward phase was over, he felt unbelievably relieved.
"Well," he murmured, finally pulling out a letter from his pocket and tying it to the leg of the nearest owl. "I suppose I'd better get this sent off."
Hermione stood by him, watching curiously. "And who is this important letter for?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
He scratched at his head sheepishly, the tips of his ears turning slightly red. "Um..." he mumbled, "My mum."
To his great relief, she didn't laugh. Instead, she merely shot him another happy smile and stood by while he sent the owl off.
"Well," he turned to her, in a much better mood now that his little spat (if you could call it that) with Hermione had just ended. "Let's go down to the kitchens to grab some food. I don't know about you, but I'm starving."
She looked thoughtful for a moment and he waited, cringing as he realized what he had just said. Please God, no! Not another lecture about that SPEW business again!
But instead (as she was in a rather pleasant mood herself) she merely, nodded in agreement. After all, she hadn't had that much to eat. "That'd be lovely."
Offering his arm gallantly, he blushed slightly as she accepted, giggling slightly. In high spirits, she even ventured to tilt her head up to peck him on the cheek.
Ron blushed again. This was turning out to be a splendid day.
As they walked out, neither noticed Colin Creevey emerge triumphantly from behind the rows of owls, his camera in hand.