Chapter Two

"Oh my gosh! I am so sorry-I-I-I didn't mean to say that!" Hermione exclaimed, and she ran out of Honeydukes. Ron went to follow her. "I wouldn't do that if I were you. You should just leave her alone," said a voice behind Ron. Ron turned around. It was either Padma of Parvati, Ron couldn't tell. "Which one are you?" asked Ron. "Padma," she replied softly.

"Oh…well…why shouldn't I follow her? By the way, I thought Parvati was the one who is supposed to be giving advice for this kinda stuff."

"Well, it's not like we're sisters or anything!" she said in a sarcastic tone, "I can give advice too, you know! But to answer you question, she wouldn't want you to follow her. When this kinda stuff happens, girls hate it when guys follow them after they've been embarrassed. It makes us more nervous about being around guys."

"How do you know all of this?"

"It happened to me once."

"Oh…sorry. Well, I just wanted to see if she is alright."

"Follow me."

Padma led Ron into a back room and she pulled out what looked like a giant, clear marble. "This is a crystal ball," Padma said and looking at the annoyed look on Ron's face, she quickly started to finish what she had said. "It's not like the one's Trelawney uses-it's different. When you look into it, you can see who you are most concerned about at the time," said Padma, taking a breath.

Ron gave her a look that asked if he could look into it. Padma nodded. When Ron looked in, he saw Hermione sitting on a large rock in front of the gates of the Shrieking Shack. The rock was covered in snow, like everything around it, except for a small circle on the rock where Hermione had wiped off the snow to sit down. She was just sitting there and it looked like she was thinking very hard.

"You can go talk to her now, I'm sure she's alright now," Padma blurted into the silence. "OK," said Ron, "What do I say though?"

"Just ask her if she is alright and ask if you can sit with her," after Padma finished talking, she smiled a dainty smile and she and Ron walked out of the secret place. Ron hurried to Hermione and her rock. "Good luck!" yelled Padma as she winked. Ron gave a thumbs up and turned to walk straight into none other than….Fred and George.

"Where are you goin', little bro?" they asked.

"Oh-uh-to-uh-meet Harry in The Three Broomsticks."

"Uh huh! Sure you are!"

"No really I am I-uh-just have to go find Hermione. I think she went into the book shop,"

Ron gave a fake grin and bolted toward Hermione and "her rock" while Fred and George yelled, "Ronniekins has a girlfriend!" in a mocking tone. As Ron ran, he could feel the Weasley trademark blush creeping up his neck, but he didn't care. He really did like Hermione.

A/N: When I first wrote this one….I wasn't going to put it up because I was using it as an "experimental" chapter. Then Blondi edited it and said that I should use it…so I did! SMILES! Hope you like it!

Finny