To my reviewers, thank you so much! Scrumptious...I'm really glad you like this! Your review made me go all warm and fuzzy inside (and maybe blush a little bit, too). Slytherin-girl...thanks for even reviewing back chapters. Your reviews were so nice :) (I agree w/ you about the H/Hr and D/P too, by the way...if you have any thoughts, by all means email or IM me!) In other news, readers, I changed my settings so that I can get anonymous reviews...so anyone can press the little button and make me happy. Thank you so much for reading...and here is Chapter 9!

All's Well That Ends Well

Harry was having another wonderful dream…and yet again was jolted out of it, this time by someone screaming "HARRY POTTER!". He bolted upright and looked around wildly. He smiled when he saw Hermione next to him, although he couldn't figure out what she was looking at with mounting horror on her face. She sat transfixed, looking in the direction of the Burrow, and as he turned to see what was holding her attention he felt his heart drop into the pit of his stomach. Coming towards them was none other than Mrs. Weasley.

"Just what do you think you two are doing out here? Leaving the safety of my house in the middle of the night?! You could have been killed! You could have died! It would have been all my fault…I didn't keep a close enough watch on you. What would I have told your parents, Hermione? Oh Harry, I could never forgive myself…" Mrs. Weasley trailed off. Harry fought off the urge to snort - he noticed she didn't have anything to say about the Dursley's missing him. In fact, he was sure they would thank her for having gotten rid of him, at last.

"Uh…we're sorry, Mrs. Weasley. I feel just awful," Hermione started to reply. Harry didn't know how she was going to get them out of trouble, but it sure seemed like she was about to try. "What I mean is, we feel awful," she said, while nudging Harry in the ribs.

"Ow!" exclaimed Harry. He furrowed his brow when he saw the look Hermione shot him, then glanced at Mrs. Weasley, who just looked confused. Then suddenly, he got it. "Oh right! We feel terrible that we worried you like this…erm…we were trying to actually do some…ah-"

"Studying!" Hermione shot out. She figured that it would be an answer that would be at least vaguely believable coming from her, though with Harry, she wasn't so sure. "We…got some homework from our Astronomy professor. Professor Sinistra told us that sometime over the summer we were to finish…charting, um, certain constellations and-"

"Yeah mum, they tried to get me to come with, but you know me…didn't really feel like starting that assignment yet…we still have a few days before we go back to Hogwart's and all, you know." This sudden outburst came from Ron, who seemed to appear out of nowhere. Harry and Hermione threw him thankful glances, and they both thought with a little bit of regret about the things they said to him the night before.

"Well…" Mrs. Weasley still looked rather suspiciously at Harry and Hermione, but seemed to realize she was outnumbered, not to mention the fact that they had a perfectly plausible alibi. "In that case, Ronald Weasley, you will spend the whole of tonight after dinner doing that assignment. You should take on the example of these two responsible friends of yours and get your work done sooner rather than later."

Ron groaned inwardly at his mother's words, seeing that all three of them had completed that very same chart in their third year. But, he thought, I guess it's a small price to pay to have them speaking to me again, as he noticed Harry grinning at him from behind Mrs. Weasley's back.

"As for you two," she continued, "You are not to leave the house like that without telling Arthur or I where you're going again…especially you, Harry. I thought you had more sense than that by now. Ah well, I suppose there was no real harm done…I have breakfast on the table. Come on, you lot." She gave Harry a pat on the shoulder as she passed, letting him know that her somewhat harsh words didn't really mean all that much.

As soon as she was out of earshot, Harry and Hermione walked hand in hand up to Ron. "Well, thanks…Ron. It was brilliant of you to help us like that," Harry offered.

"Yes, but what made you do it?" Hermione asked him.

"After you two left last night I did some thinking-" he started, as Harry tried to conceal another snort, "-and realized that what I did to both of you wasn't really fair. Harry, I'm sorry for acting like a jerk, and Hermione, I'm really sorry for invading your privacy the way I did. I wasn't being a very good friend to either of you, and I just wanted to find a way to make up for it, I guess."

"Wow, Ron…that's pretty deep," Harry said with a smirk and Ron playfully punched him on the shoulder.

Hermione kissed him on the cheek (at which his face immediately turned crimson) and said, "It's alright…I suppose it really was for the best, after all," and smiled prettily at Harry while lightly squeezing his hand. With that, Ron knew his two best friends had forgiven him.

"So, what d'you reckon? My mum said she had food on the table!" Ron said brightly while the other two laughed.

"Good to know things are back to normal," Harry replied as the three of them walked back to the Burrow together, chatting animatedly as though nothing had even happened.

But something had happened, of course. After a lengthy and very filling breakfast, the three friends started talking about their upcoming trip to Hogsmeade. Mrs. Weasley had relented and told them they could go before the start of term if they went to Diagon Alley and got their school supplies first.

"Well, our letters say all we need to get this year is The Standard Book of Spells Grade 6, Caring for Mythical Beasts for Intermediary Students, and to bring dress robes again. Do you think there's going to be another dance?" Hermione asked excitedly.

Harry smiled weakly at her and thought to himself, I hope not! I remember how that turned out last time around. He glanced over at Ron and saw that he held the same horrified look. The last ball hadn't turned out very well for either of them - the last thing they needed was a recap of that terrible night.

"Anyhow," Hermione went on, seemingly unconcerned with the boy's reactions, "that shouldn't take too long to pick up. We should have plenty of time in Hogsmeade!"

Ron, thankful for a change of topic from such heinous things as school and dances, replied, "Brilliant! You two have to see what Fred and George have done with their shop…and we need to go to Honeyduke's…my supply from last term is almost non-existent…and we haven't all sat down and had a Butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks in ages!"

Hermione smiled to see her friend's enthusiasm for their upcoming trip. "You know, Ron, you really should invite Ginny…it wouldn't be fair to leave her here while we go out and have fun."

Ron made a face as he mouthed, "Mental!" at Harry, then grinned at Hermione, who just looked up from their Hogwart's letters and said, "Yeah - I'll do that. I'll ask her before I do all my homework I have to do tonight."

Hermione swatted Ron with one of the letters and retorted, "Honestly, you'd think you'd be a little more remorseful for what you did. I can see that was short lived. I'll ask Ginny myself…she is my friend, after all…she's just your sister."

"I didn't mean - it's not that I don't want Ginny to go, it's just that…I thought it was going to be the three of us, and it's not the three of us if she comes…it'll be the four of us!" Ron spat back.

Harry sighed as he braced himself for a famous Hermione/Ron argument, but then something extraordinary happened. "It's alright, Ron. If you don't want her to come, we don't have to invite her. I just thought it'd be nice, that's all," Hermione said in a much softer tone of voice than she had before.

"No, it's okay," Ron replied. "She'll probably find someone else to hang out with while we're there anyways, there should be loads of people there with school starting and all…after all, she is my sister and your friend." It seemed that as soon as Hermione backed down, Ron cooled off immediately. Where was that information all these years? Harry wondered as he looked back and forth between the two. He just shook his head and stopped thinking about it…it was making his head hurt.

Later, when he had Hermione alone, he asked, "What was that all about? Before, about Ginny and Hogsmeade, I mean?"

"Oh," she replied cooly, "I thought I'd be much better off saving my energies for more important things than bickering with Ron." She then surprised him with a coy smile and wound her arms around his neck.

"Well, if that's the case, then I'm all for you two working out all your issues," replied Harry, as he brought his mouth down to her waiting lips.

When they finally broke the kiss, Hermione grinned and said, "That could take awhile."

Harry gave her one the most dashing smiles he could muster, and replied, "Good. I have all the time in the world," before letting his lips fall lightly on hers again.

"Does that mean we're a…a couple?" Hermione asked, a bit hesitantly.

"I hope so. I may not be very good at this sort of thing…so don't laugh when I screw it up, but…Hermione, will you be my girlfriend?" Harry asked, expectantly.

"Yes, Harry," Hermione said softly, "I would love to be your girlfriend. And you did it perfectly…I wouldn't have you any other way."