Alright! I'm well aware of the fact that it's been awhile...and there have been a few reasons for that. First of all, I have sadistic professors who enjoy giving out loads of homework. Secondly, I had a pretty tight work/class schedule. Lastly, I had to try something un-Harry Potter related, and thus wrote my Princess Diaries fic. Oh, that and the major writer's block I had on this story! Anyway, here are the shout outs to the reviewers:

Falron, Monkey, Slytherin-girl, and fanjimmy: Thanks so much for always reading and reviewing...you guys make my day!

Magnas: Thanks for calling my stuff well-written...uh...at least I think that's what you were implying by saying that lol.

harry4hermione: Thank you so much for your praise and constructive criticism. I admit to being wrong on the whereabout's of Fred and George's shop...but I kinda needed it there for my story, too. Rats. However...don't you worry your pretty little head about the O.W.L. results of the trio...I've got plans for that, m'dear :) Thanks again!

Without further ado, Chapter 13! Enjoy! (see previous chapters for disclaimer...I've wasted enough space here!)

Lover's Spats and Making Up

"All firs' years over here!" Harry whipped around as he heard the announcement, and to his right saw Hagrid waving over the new Hogwarts students.

"Hagrid!" Harry shouted over the din of all the excited teenagers getting off the train. Hagrid turned to his right, saw Harry standing with Hermione, and smiled - though there was a little catch in his smile when he realized Ron wasn't with them. He thought it was a little odd but figured Ron must have just been late changing into his robes.

"I can't wait to watch the sorting ceremony this year," Hermione said excitedly as she watched all the younger students getting into the boats to cross the lake. "It seems like ages ago when we got sorted…speaking of that, where is Ron, Harry?"

"Uh, well…he got a little caught up in something when we left the compartment. I'm sure he'll be with us shortly." Harry, of course, was certain of no such thing after the words he and Ron had exchanged during their little trip down the corridor of the express, but he figured Ron usually came around in his own time - or with some help from Luna, as the case seemed to be lately. He smiled at his last thought and grabbed for Hermione's hand without thinking.

"Harry?" she questioned as she glanced around nervously. "What are you doing? I thought we said it would be best to be a little more gradual in letting people know about us."

Harry kept hold of her hand and then caught the other in his left, turned her around to face him, and kissed the tip of her nose. "It would be too hard," he stated simply. Hermione looked at him questioningly, so he elaborated. "We spent so much time keeping it a secret at the Burrow…I don't want to have to watch to see who's looking at us every time I want to kiss you or hold your hand."

"I see," she replied cheekily. "And the fact that Malfoy caught us snogging has nothing to do with your choice?"

Harry looked at her in amazement. "Actually, that thought never crossed my mind."

"Well, it should. Because I'm sure he'll waste no time in letting everyone know about you two."

Harry turned to face the owner of the new voice among their discussion, as Hermione was already faced that way. Ron was standing there shifting his weight from his right to his left foot every few seconds or so, looking extremely uncomfortable due to his argument with Harry, which Hermione still knew nothing about. It wasn't that Harry wanted to keep things from her, but he knew that telling her what the argument was about wouldn't help Hermione and Ron's already tenuous friendship.

"Ron, were you late going to change your robes again?" Hermione asked disbelievingly. "I thought after becoming a prefect you would have gotten some responsibility."

Harry closed his eyes, waiting for another blowout between his best friend and girlfriend. When it didn't come, he opened his left eye warily, then the right. Ron was fixedly staring at Luna, who was coming to join them in one of the carriages to Hogwarts.

"Hello, Ronald," she said while smiling at him. "Harry, Hermione - I hope you don't mind. Ronald has asked me to join you."

At this remark, Ron's face turned almost as red as it had been the night Hermione found out he had read her journal. "That is, uh…if it's alright with you two," he said sheepishly.

"Oh sure, Ronald," Hermione answered sweetly. "It's just fine with us, isn't it, Harry?" She shot him a wicked grin, unaware of the dynamic between the two boys.

"What? Oh sure, yeah. It's fine." Harry, in truth, was a little frightened of what the four of them in a carriage would amount to. He knew that while Hermione had new respect for Luna for going with them into the Department of Mysteries, she still thought Luna was a little…well, off. And as for him and Ron - that was a whole other story.

One difference in the carriage ride that all of them could see straightaway was that not just Harry and Luna, but all of them could see the thestral in front of the buggy they were in. Ron exclaimed, "Guess we weren't missing out on much, Hermione. Ugly buggers those thestrals, eh?"

"Well, they may not be much to look at, but remember how helpful they were last year," she said quietly, not really wanting to remind Harry of that unpleasant trip to the Ministry of Magic and Sirius.

"Actually, Ronald…I think they're quite beautiful when you get used to them," Luna interjected distractedly.

"Er - yeah, I guess they're not so bad, then," he replied uncertainly.

Harry snorted as he remembered Ron's accusation from earlier in the day. What has having a girlfriend done to you? Luna wasn't Ron's girlfriend (yet, Harry amended) but there certainly were a lot of changes coming about in him as well. He just couldn't seem to see them.

They rode in silence most of the way to the castle, with an occasional comment from one of the two girls. They didn't even seem to notice that Harry and Ron weren't speaking - or so Harry thought until Hermione had him alone.

About an hour after the sorting ceremony and the feast (which, thankfully, was less eventful than it had been in the past - due in large part, Harry suspected, to Malfoy being conspicuously absent from this years festivities), Hermione and Harry sat on one of the overstuffed couches in the Gryffindor common room in front of a roaring fire. However, what should have been a quiet, romantic setting was lost on the two of them.

"What's wrong, Harry?"

"Nothing."

Hermione knew that was his standard reply whenever something really was bothering him - also she had noticed that although Ron sat with them at dinner, the two boys were uncharacteristically quiet. "Why do you think you shouldn't ever talk about what's bothering you?" she asked, a little more angrily than she intended.

He felt his blood pressure rise a little bit. Great, he thought, first from my best friend and now Hermione's going to start in on me, too. Must be my lucky day. "I didn't realize I had to talk about every little thought I have, I guess," he replied.

"You don't, but it would be nice if you would talk to me - include me - for once, about what goes on in that head of yours!"

"You want me to include you?" Harry cried out. "You're the only bloody person I've talked to about…about Sirius. You're the only person I've talked to about that whole horrible day! Even in third year I told you things I never talked about with anyone else…what more do you want to know?"

Hermione looked at him, taken aback by his impassioned outburst. She began to feel faulty for not respecting his privacy and feelings like she had in the past. If he wants to talk to me, he will, and there's no use in making him, she remembered thinking, once upon a time. "Harry, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have -"

He looked around and noticed the stares coming from the curious Gryffindors that were settled around the room. He became well aware of the fact that this was neither the time nor place to discuss such personal matters. "Hermione, I really think I should just go upstairs and unpack or something before one of us says something we really regret. We need some time to cool down. Goodnight."

She stared in disbelief as he got up from their cozy spot on the couch and went up to the boys' dormitories. Did we just have our first fight? she asked herself, and then thought with regret, He didn't even kiss me goodbye. Not caring about the other students in the common room, who were now going back to their previous activities, she got up from her spot on the sofa and ran, tears threatening to fall all the while, to the girls' dormitories.

If this is what having a girlfriend is like, you can count me out, the angry voice in Harry's head spat out. In his heart, he knew that he still cared very deeply for Hermione and that she had just been trying to help him, but the furious part of his mind was the one that was still prevailing at that point.

"So, trouble's brewing already, eh Harry?"

Harry whipped around from the spot he had been pacing in for at least ten minutes and saw Ron standing in the doorway. Luckily, none of the other boys had made it up to the dormitory yet. Probably because they think you're nutters again after that scene downstairs, Harry thought glumly.

"What do you care?" he retorted and sank down onto his bed. He pulled the curtains around him hoping that Ron would get the hint and go away, but there was no such luck to be had - Ron came and threw the curtains back open instantly.

"Well, I care a great deal," Ron replied. "First of all, Hermione's mental enough without you adding to it." Seeing the enraged look on Harry's face, he realized his joke fell flat and added, "Not to mention you two are my best mates, and all. I know it's been difficult lately, but it was bound to get this way sooner or later. We're growing up."

Harry, not knowing for sure but assuming this was a pearl of wisdom actually coming from Luna through Ron, and not from Ron himself, sighed. "I know," he said sadly.

"Listen mate, I'm not too sure what happened before, but I came into the common room and Hermione ran out crying. I'm assuming it had something to do with the two of you since you're not with her and you're in quite a bad mood?"

Harry nodded guiltily and started playing with a loose thread on his blanket.

Ron rolled his eyes. "And people think I'm the daft one," he muttered. "Alright then," he said in a more audible tone of voice, "what seems to be the trouble now?"

"I…I don't even know, actually. Well, she asked me what was wrong with me, and somehow that escalated into a huge argument…and then I kind of ran out on her."

"You do kind of keep people out, Harry," Ron replied. "She probably just thought it would help you to talk about some things."

Harry felt the anger building up inside him again. "Why does everyone want to know my bloody business? Fine, you want to know why I didn't tell her? I've talked to her about plenty of things I haven't told anyone else, but I didn't want to tell her about our fight earlier, which was what was bothering me! I knew she would want to know what it was about, which was her in case you don't remember correctly…and why are you trying to get us back on good terms, since you don't like what she's done to me, apparently?"

"Well, ah…see, the thing of it is…I kind of had a talk with -"

"Let me guess," Harry interjected, "Luna?"

"Yeah, actually," Ron answered, missing the irony in the situation. "Anyway, she sort of filled me in on why you might feel the way you do and act the way you do. I guess I never thought that loving you might put Hermione in danger…more danger than she was in when she was just your friend."

"Counting on Luna for a lot of your realizations these days, aren't you, Ronald?" Harry was still a little miffed, but he couldn't resist the easy shot.

The tips of Ron's nose and ears turned verypink and he turned away and mumbled something incoherent.

"Anyways, who said anything about Hermione loving me?" Harry asked. "We're together, but that doesn't really mean that she feels all that strongly."

"Are you completely mad?" Ron hissed. "Have you noticed the way she looks at you? Or the way you look at her, for that matter? I know you aren't that blind, Harry. I also think that's why you're trying not to get too close. I heard what Malfoy said too, you know."

Harry exhaled deeply. He knew Ron was right…again. He was going to have to watch Ron if he didn't stop hanging around Luna - his perceptiveness was growing by the day.

"Alright, so maybe I'm a little…scared of what could happen to her," Harry allowed. It was easier than he thought it would be to talk about it. "But how would you feel, Ron? How would you feel to know that simply caring for Luna too much would put her in the greatest danger of her life?"

It was the first time Harry had spoken seriously to Ron about his fancying Luna, and Ron didn't object to it as he had when Harry had said something about it in jest on the train. "Well, I would say that she has feelings of her own - and getting back to you and Hermione, if it's that important to you, she should know about it. She has the right to decide if loving you is worth the risk…and I think we both know what she would decide."

"I know that," Harry choked out in reply. "But what if something does happen to her? What if Malfoy isn't simply making things up?"

Ron was alarmed to see that Harry had tears running down his face. He rarely ever had seen Harry cry, so he knew this must have been a pressing matter for a long while now, maybe even perhaps before Malfoy had said anything at all.

"Harry, mate, we've all been through lots of things…and somehow you always come out on top. I think if Hermione's safety was really threatened, you would do what you had to to make sure she was kept from harm. I also think she knows that." With that, Ron laid a comforting hand on Harry's shoulder and left the room.

After Ron had left the room, Harry sat for awhile mulling over their conversation. It was really starting to seem as though Ron was good for something other than games of quidditch and wizard's chess lately. The other boys had slowly but surely come up to the dormitories to go to sleep. Harry knew he should, too, but couldn't seem to do so when he knew Hermione was still hurting. He decided to go look for her - he couldn't believe she would be sleeping, either.

He walked down the steps to the common room, raking a hand through his untidy hair. He stopped short when he saw Hermione curled up in a comfortable looking chair with her head in her arms. He stepped over towards the chair silently and laid an uncertain hand on her head, stroking her hair back.

As she jolted upright he saw the mixture of emotions on her face. At first she looked overjoyed to see him, then he saw anger, and lastly, the lingering emotion seemed to be sorrow. "What are you doing down here?" she asked, looking down towards the floor.

"I…I came to tell you what was bothering me." He kneeled down in front of her and lifted her chin up so he could look into her light brown eyes. She didn't pull away, which he took to be a good sign, so he continued. "You have the right to know why I acted the way I did about it."

"No, if you didn't want to talk, I shouldn't have forced it on you," she said softly. "I know how difficult your life has been, especially recently…I don't want to add to the trouble."

His heart started to pound…was she going to break up with him? He hastened to explain. "You aren't part of the trouble, 'Mione. Not at all, so don't think that, please. It's just…well, let's just say that Ron has helped me understand something, and that in turn has made me think more seriously about other things."

He paused to see how she was reacting, but so far her face was emotionless. He wasn't sure what to do, so he kept talking. "I realized that my caring for you could cause problems…it could endanger your safety. I don't want you to get hurt, Hermione. I don't know what I would do if something happened to you, especially if it was because of me."

As Hermione began to understand what he was so upset about, her anger completely dissipated. "Oh, Harry…don't you think I've thought about all this before? I knew what I was getting into and I'm still here. I'd rather be with you and run the risk than miss out on having you in my life. I…I…" She fumbled around, at a loss for words, her face becoming more flushed by the minute.

Harry smiled as he comprehended what she was trying to say. He swept her out of the chair and held her as tightly as he could. He breathed in her delicate scent and swore he would never let go of her as he kissed her fervently. " 'Mione, don't you know? I love you, too."