Chapter 9 – Secrets and Rows

Ron and Harry were both awoken the following morning by excited chatter emanating from the common room. After several scowls from Ron ('How could anybody in their right mind be up this bloody early!'), curiosity eventually drove them out of their dormitory and onto the staircase leading down into the common room. But there they stopped – and stared – for the sight before them was unbelievable. There were girls everywhere. They were eagerly discussing the Ball with all their friends – what they were wearing – who they were going with – anything to do with the Ball that evening was suitable as a topic of conversation. Ron was particularly amused to spot Hermione among them, deep in discussion with Parvati, the book she'd been reading long since forgotten on the table beside her.

"Can you believe this?" Harry asked incredulously "I've never seen so many girls in one place!"

"I didn't even know all these girls were in Gryffindor!" Ron exclaimed

"Tell me about it!" Seamus said, suddenly behind them "Well – what are we waiting for?" he grinned mischievously "All those girls… so little time…"

"Sorry Seamus – Already taken, remember?" Harry said quickly

"Okay, so Harry's got an excuse – Ron, you comin?"

"Uhhh…" Ron spluttered "I dunno, Seamus"

"C'mon, it's not like you're tied down like Mr Potter here"

"Go on Ron" Harry grinned "Go flirt with your date a little…"

"Alright, alright! I can see this conversation's just going downhill anyway" he said, following Seamus down the stairs. He followed Seamus through the crowd, over to where Parvati, Lavender and Hermione were sitting.

"Hi Girls" Seamus greeted "mind if we join you?"

"Sure" Parvati said quickly, shifting up "there's space for you over here on the couch"

"Great" Seamus said, and abruptly went over to Parvati and left Ron standing alone.

"Hi Ron" Hermione said awkwardly

"Uh, hi" he replied, not quite sure what to do next

"Wanna sit?" she said, indicating the chair beside her

"Yeah" he answered and quickly sat down.

"So… did you sleep well?" Hermione asked, fidgeting with a nearby piece of parchment

"Yeah, sure. And you?"

"Yeah. Nothing unusual at all." she replied, catching his eye for a second, but then she returned to twirling the parchment over and over in her hand.

Silence.

This is too weird! Ron thought to himself Why can't I think of anything to say? And WHY is Hermione fidgeting like that? She must feel weird too.

"Uh, Hermione, I have to go…" he stated suddenly "I forgot - Harry asked me to help him with something…" he mumbled

"What? Right now, this minute?" she looked confused

"Uh yeah – something to do with Ginny" he invented "So, uh, see you later?"

"Oh, okay" she said, looking a bit disappointed

"Bye…" he said, backing away towards the stairs

"Bye" she replied "See you" and she turned back to her book (There was no point in rejoining her conversation with the girls, as both Parvati and Lavender were now so completely engrossed in whatever Seamus had to say, they hadn't even noticed her sitting there alone).

Ron ran back up the stairs to join Harry, who had obviously witnessed the whole thing and who now had a smug grin plastered all over his face –

"Well – I must say, that was quick" Harry remarked "Trouble in paradise?"

"Don't start - " Ron began, before Harry could continue "that was really awkward"

"Why?" Harry looked perplexed

"Um, I think I know" Ron answered, sitting down next to Harry on the top step.

"Yeah?" Harry coaxed

"Well, I'm not sure, because nothing actually happened but…well, there was this one moment last night…" Ron paused

"Yeah… And?" Harry's eyes widened

"Well, I could've sworn, just for a split second…"

"Hey! I've been looking for you two!" Ginny came running up the stairs, interrupting Ron

"Hi Gin" Harry said, giving her a kiss "I didn't see you down there…"

"That's because I wasn't down there" she explained "I was checking the Quidditch pitch! What are you two doing, hiding away here on the staircase anyway?"

"Er, we're not hiding" Ron answered, rather quickly

"Yeah, we were watching this, um, phenomenon" Harry grinned. Ginny followed his eyes to the mob of girls below and immediately shot him a you-better-explain-yourself-quickly look.

"I mean, have you ever seen so many girls?" Harry continued

"What!" Ginny said disbelievingly

"What Harry meant was: we couldn't sleep with all this noise so we came out to see what was going on…" Ron clarified quickly before Harry got himself into further trouble "So - what's so urgent you had to come find us?"

"Oh yeah!" Ginny exclaimed, quickly forgetting her irritation "Guess what! Oh, you'll never guess…"

Ron and Harry look puzzled.

"Okay – I know I really should not be telling you this - Bad, Bad Ginny! - but anyway – I can't keep this to myself! Besides, I figured you needed all the help you can get…"

"Ginny, what are you on about!" Ron said, totally confused

"Hermione" she answered softly "she woke me up this morning and she told me a secret. A very juicy little titbit. And she made me promise not to tell anyone, especially you and Harry! But… I just can't not tell you!"

"So tell us already!" Ron urged impatiently

"I'm getting there, Ronald!" she reprimanded "So anyway – She told me about this dream she had – about you!" she pointed at Ron

"What?" Harry and Ron both said together

"Yeah – she dreamt that you kissed her! And she wasn't sure why, but in the dream, you both had cream all over your faces! That part was kind of odd but anyway…"

Harry looked over at Ron curiously –

"You didn't tell her?" he asked

"No, I figured you would…" Ron shrugged

"Tell me what?" Ginny questioned

"Uh – I sorta kissed Hermione" Ron said timidly

"WHAT!" Ginny exclaimed for half the common room to hear

"Shhhh!" Ron said

"Why didn't you tell me!" she addressed Ron and then turned to Harry "And why didn't you?" Harry shrugged.

"And – hang on – why didn't SHE say something?" Ginny continued, utterly baffled by this new information

"Ginny – calm down, okay? I kissed Hermione – that day we had the picnic - but then she fell into another trance and she lost all memory of what happened… so I couldn't tell you because she doesn't remember it, so it's kinda like it didn't happen…"

"Except that she is remembering…" Harry jumped in "Her dream – Ginny said Hermione mentioned cream… don't you remember the cream, Ron?" Harry grinned

"Oh Merlin!" Ron exclaimed "does this mean what I think it means?" a smile slowly spread across his face "She remembers!" he said joyously "And hang on – what else did she say? How does she feel about this dream?"

"Okay – First of all - I'm not even going to ask about the cream" Ginny grinned "Second of all – I think it's safe to say that Hermione liked the dream and third of all - how are you going to explain all of this to her? She thinks it was just a dream!"

"But it wasn't a dream! It was a memory… And she did? Wow… I'm going to tell her… tonight… at the Ball" Ron said exuberantly, suddenly feeling rather confident

"You going to tell her… everything?" Harry asked disbelievingly

"Yes! I'm going to do it - I can't stand hiding how I feel about her anymore! She's driving me mental!"

"This is brilliant!" Ginny exclaimed, looking over at Harry, who could only grin at Ron's sudden enthusiasm.

"You do also realise what this means, right?" Harry said "If Hermione's getting her memories back, we should be able to figure out what Voldermort's up to…"

"Well – nothing's happened in a while… do you think he's still trying to…" Ron said

"I don't know – I haven't had a vision for a while either" Harry said "And so far, we haven't been able to figure out what the vision means…"

"Well – hopefully he's given up and gone home!" Ron said cheerfully – nothing could bring him down today – not even Voldermort!

"Yeah, hopefully" Harry said, although he knew better "Well, anyway – anybody else feeling hungry?"

"Yeah – I'm starving!' Ron exclaimed, rising from his spot on the top step "Let's go down to breakfast!"

"Okay" Ginny said, following suit "I'll go get Hermione" she said, and winked at her brother. Ron just stood there, grinning stupidly.

"Man, you've really got it bad!" Harry said, starting to descend the stairs "Well, are you coming?" he laughed

"Yeah, yeah – I'm comin'" Ron said, quickly waking up from his daze, and following Harry down to where the girls were waiting.


"Well – that was fast" Hermione said, somewhat sarcastically, watching him and Harry descend the stairs

"Wha'?" Ron asked, puzzled by her remark

"You – helping Harry" she said pointedly "it didn't take long, did it?"

Harry smiled at this but decided to bail Ron out –

"Yeah, well, we didn't need that much time, Hermione" Harry said quickly "but I was grateful for Ron's help"

"Oh – right" she said, looking a bit embarrassed, and proceeded to stroll ahead to the Great Hall. As she turned, Ron mouthed 'thanks Mate!' to Harry.

The rest of the day continued in a similar fashion – Ron grinning at every opportunity – to Hermione's irritation. Ginny and Harry speculated that Hermione was just feeling insecure because Ron was acting strange, and therefore, she'd over-react whenever Ron said something.

Eventually, at around lunch time, Ron had had enough – the four of them were sitting in the common room, around the fire, and Hermione's agitation came out in one biting comment too many…

"What is with you Hermione?" Ron said abruptly "you've been grouchy all day!"

"What! I have not!" she responded angrily

Harry and Ginny soon realised that there was another huge row coming… the tension had been building and now it was about to explode…

"Every time I say something, you make some little comment…"

"What are you on about, Ronald!"

Ron looked furious "Don't call me Ronald! It's patronising!" he yelled "Look - I know there's something bugging you so why don't you just get it off your chest and stop biting my head off every chance you get"

"I AM NOT patronising you! And I think you know what's bugging me Ron!" she yelled back

"What the bloody hell is that supposed to mean!"

"First, you keep secrets from me, and then last night, well… and NOW you act mysterious all day, like you three are all in on some joke…" she said, her voice breaking slightly

"Hey – we're not…" Harry objected

"What about last night?" Ron asked

Hermione scowled "Nothing! Absolutely nothing!" she yelled "it doesn't matter! Anyway – I've got stuff to do. I'll see you later – at the Ball… maybe" she said and got up to leave

"Hermione, wait! You can't just leave now…" Ron objected

"Watch me Ronald" she said and quickly scurried away.