Well it's the second last chapter of 'Snowball'. I'm TERRIBLY sorry for taking such a long time to update, but hopefully this chapter will be worth the wait ne?
I'd like to give a BIG thank you too all of the people who were kind enough to review my story. Hugs, hugs and more hugs! Anyways, I'm rambling, so I shall get on with it.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter . . . need I elaborate?
Oh everyone must know by now that thoughts are marked with an italicbut I'm just reminding you in case you forgot.
On with the story:
Were we last left off . . .
"Only one way to find out" she mumbled to herself, opening the door to her dorm. Ginny wanted something to do to pass the time. For the ball was in less than a week, and it was on that fateful night that Ginny would finally get the answer she desired.
Or feared.
Chapter 4 – Fighting
The day before the ball dawned clear and bright, which was quite a contrast to the moods of 4 certain teenagers. Ron and Hermione were still feeling rather awkward around each other, and were both trying to avoid the other. Ron was still angry with Harry and in no uncertain terms showed it by glaring at Harry whenever he came into his field of vision. Ginny was still angry with Hermione about lying to her and faking sick.
And that left poor Harry who wasn't angry with anyone, to keep up the peace. But that was a monumental task, because he couldn't get anywhere near Ginny without Ron standing right next to him, ready to choke him to death.
"Man when did life get so complicated?" Harry mumbled to himself. He sat down at his usual spot at the table, and half-heartedly buttered some toast.
"Good morning Harry."
Harry turned at the sound of name, and came face to face with Ginny. He blushed, and then quickly scanned the hall for Ron.
"Relax, Ron isn't even up yet." Ginny said, following his frantic gaze.
"Really?" Harry raised an eyebrow.
"Honestly Harry! It's Ron. That boy never gets up before 11 on holidays!"
Ginny laughed, and Harry's blush deepened.
"So . . . " he began awkwardly.
"What?" she asked, sitting down next to him. He gulped. Oh boy
"Uh-" Harry was so nervous; he racked his brains for something clever to say. Something witty.
"So the ball's tomorrow huh?" you idiot!
Ginny gave him an amused look before replying.
"It sure is!"
"Are you excited?" why don't you just stop talking? This is getting too painful to hear
"I think it'll be fun."
There was an awkward silence in which Harry contemplated stabbing his eyes out with a fork, and then
"Harry?"
"Yeah?"
"It's ok. You can relax you know."
Ginny took a deep breath, and reached for his hand, lacing her fingers through his. Harry stopped breathing for a split second, and then came back to earth when the thought of what Ron would do if he saw them like this entered his mind. It was with extreme reluctance that he pulled his hand away from hers.
"I'm sorry Ginny, I can't"
Harry abruptly stood up and left the table, and those haunting brown eyes behind.
Ginny watched him go, and when he was out of sight, she made a mental note to hex her dear brother into oblivion. She was going through her mind to find the most painful one, when another thought suddenly entered her head. I know Ron fancies Hermione, so if they get together, then he will be too distracted to worry about little ole me. Grinning, Ginny got up from the table, and headed in the direction of the library.
She needed to find Hermione.
Hermione put a bookmark in her book and closed it. Standing up to stretch and to take a break, she looked around the dim library. Being in the library comforted her. It's familiar surrounds were a welcome sight after the emotional turmoil that she had been put through these last few weeks. Heaving a contented sigh, she sat back down, only to hear someone call her name.
"Hermione!"
Startled, Hermione looked up and saw, to her complete surprise, Ginny.
"Hi Ginny" she said tentatively.
"No don't worry, I'm not here to yell at you." She said, seeing the look of worry on the older girl's face.
"That's a relief." Hermione relaxed. "So what's up?"
"Well . . . " Ginny paused. "I came to talk to you about Ron actually."
"What about him?"
"You like him, don't you?"
Hermione gasped and looked at Ginny.
"What makes you think that?"
"Oh come on 'Mione! Everyone knows it! Everyone except for my prat of a brother."
"He's just a friend Ginny." But the faint hint of a blush appearing on her cheeks suggested otherwise.
"I knew it!" Ginny cried triumphantly.
"Ok fine. So maybe I like him a little-"
"A little? Yeah right. And I just like Harry a little-" she clamped a hand to her mouth, eyes widening in a look of horror. Hermione smirked.
"So you still like him?"
"That's not the issue here."
"Oh really?" Hermione raised an eyebrow.
"Really, and besides, it's not as if we can go out without Ron intervening."
"Oh Ginny . . . "
"Well he sure as hell wasn't welcoming Harry with open arms when he found out that Harry liked me last night-"
"WHAT?" Hermione shouted so loud, that Madam Pince came over, and threatened to kick her out of the library if she didn't 'quiet down'.
"Are you serious?" Hermione said in a much quieter tone of voice after Madam Pince left them.
"Yeah. It all happened so fast . . . " Ginny paused.
"Oh no!" Now it was Hermione who had a hand clamped to her mouth, and her eyes wide with terror.
"What?"
"I've got to talk to Harry!" with that, Hermione turned and ran out of the library.
"Wait!" Ginny called after her, but she was too far from hearing range. Sighing, Ginny's sat down at the table, putting her head in her hands. This wasn't good.
Not good at all.
Hermione ran into Gryffindor Tower, frantically searching the common room.
"Damn!" she swore. He wasn't here. She turned to go back out to look for him, and she collided with something hard, and would have fallen over if a hand hadn't reached out and steadied her.
"Sorry." She said, and looked up into Ron's surprised face. Instantly she felt her heart race and a blush stain her cheeks.
"Are you ok?" he asked.
"I'm fine." She looked away from his piercing gaze, and it came to rest on their hands, which were still entwined. It calmed her frazzled nerves somewhat.
"Have you seen Harry?"
"No, have you?"
"Not since yesterday" she replied, feeling more edgy with each passing moment.
"Are you sure you're ok?"
"I'm fine." She snapped at him, and then instantly regretted it. Ron finally noticed that their hands were together, and pulled his away quickly. Hermione shook her head.
"Again Ron, I'm sorry. I just really need to talk to Harry."
"It's ok." He said.
Hermione looked up at him and smiled.
"Thanks Ron."
"No problem" he gave her one of his dazzling smiles, and Hermione thought she would melt into a puddle of mush right there. Luckily for her, the sound of pounding footsteps reached her ears, and then a voice;
"Hey Hermione, Ron"
Hermione whipped around, hitting Ron with her bushy expanse of hair. He inhaled a whiff of it in that split second, and smiled to himself.
"Harry, I need to talk to you!" she said.
"About what?"
"Not here, in a more private place." To Ron, she said. "I'll be right back."
"Sure. Whatever" Ron said, going to go sit on the couch.
"Uh . . " Harry allowed himself to be dragged out of the portrait hole, and down the hallway. They were walked around aimlessly for about 5 minutes before Hermione spoke.
"What happened with you and Ginny last night?"
Instantly, Harry felt his face heat up.
"Not too much, why?"
"Did anyone say anything, you know, like a CONFESSIONmaybe?"
Hermione stopped walking and looked Harry in the eye.
"Oh. That."
"Care to tell me YOUR version of the momentous event?"
"I dunno. I was talking to Ginny one moment, and the next, Ron comes barreling in, yelling about me trying to 'put the moves' on his sister, and then he told her how I felt-"
"And how did he find out?"
"Well yesterday he cornered me while I was in bed sick-"
"You played sick?" Hermione interrupted him again.
"Well I really wasn't feeling all that great, and then Ron came in, and he was yelling at me for 'not telling him anything' and then I was about to tell him when he smacked me-"
"Ron smacked you?"
"Hermione will you STOP INTERRUPTING ME?" Harry yelled.
"Sorry." Abashed, Hermione looked down at the floor.
"It's ok. Anyways, he smacked me and then I told him. And then he told Ginny later on. That's pretty much it."
"Oh."
"But the question still remains: how did YOU find out? Did Ron tell you?"
"No actually Ginny did awhile ago in the library."
"Well that's good."
"Not really. I'm wondering why she even told me when we're not really talking."
"Why not?"
"Well let's just say you weren't the only one who was 'sick' yesterday."
"No way!" Harry was shocked. He'd seen Hermione do some unexpected things, but playing sick to deliberately avoid doing something was something that went completely against her character.
"Guess we're both just a bunch of cowards huh?" Hermione said, grinning sheepishly at him.
"Guess so" he replied.
"Only difference, is Ginny knows about you. Ron still doesn't know about me."
"He will soon enough." Harry said, and impish twinkle in his eye.
"Oh no! Harry, you wouldn't!"
"Hey, a bet's a bet."
"But Harry-"
"Come on, Ginny found out about me."
"But YOU didn't tell her."
"So what? She still knows."
"Oh come on Harry! Don't embarrass me!" Hermione pleaded. Seeing the look in her eyes, he relented. Putting an arm around her, he smiled.
"Don't worry. You're secret's safe with me."
"Good."
"But not for long!"
Harry smirked, and Hermione smacked his arm. The two friends walked back to Gryffinodr tower throwing friendly banters at one another.
It was overall, shaping up to be a much better day than when it began.
The rest of the afternoon passed by rather pleasantly, with Hermione spending it hanging out in the common room with Harry and Ron playing wizards chess. Sometime in the late afternoon, Ginny came around.
"Ginny!" Hermione called the girl over, much to Harry embarrassment.
Ginny ignored Hermione, and walked towards the staircase. After exchanging a look with Harry, Hermione got up off the couch and ran after her.
"Wait up!" she called.
But Ginny continued her way up the staircase, and into the girl's dorms. Hermione followed her. She caught the door just as Ginny was about to slam it.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
"You know damn well what's wrong!" Ginny replied, her voice bitter.
"If this is about yesterday . . . "
"It's not just about yesterday Hermione! I was trying to talk to you earlier, and you just run off like that! How do you think it made me feel?"
Hermione looked at the ground, feeling shameful.
"Listen," she began quietly. "I'm really sorry about yesterday, and now today. It was wrong of me to do what I did, and I promise to never do it again."
Ginny said nothing, but crossed her arms and looked at the older girl.
"I know that sounds like a pretty lame apology." She continued. "But it's all I got."
"No you don't. You still have an explanation as to WHY you played sick, and as to WHY you ran out of the library like that."
"I can't tell you. I promised I wouldn't"
"Hermione!" Ginny glared at her.
"Believe me, if I could tell you, I would, but I'm not the only one involved."
"And just who else is involved?" Ginny asked in an icy tone.
"Ginny, can we please just forget about it?" Hermione pleaded.
"No we can't! I want to know who else is involved in your little scheme, and I want to know NOW."
Hermione flinched at the tone of her voice, which had gotten a few degrees cooler if that was even possible.
"Fine." She said quietly. "I'll tell you what you want to know, if only to stop the fighting and bickering."
Ginny leaned against the wall, and raised an eyebrow.
"I'm waiting."
"Well the other night, I couldn't sleep, and Harry was down in the common room-"
"So it's Harry!" Ginny couldn't believe this. He was conspiring against her too?
"Well we were talking about Ron, and then he was talking about you and . . . " Hermione paused.
"And what?"
"We did something stupid"
"Like . . . ?" Ginny prompted.
Hermione sighed. There was no going back now.
"It was Harry's idea really. We kind of made this deal, where we'd have to tell the object of our intentions how we felt about them, and if we didn't the whole school was supposed to find out about it."
Ginny stared at Hermione in shock. How could they do this to me? To her horror, she felt tears prickling at the back of her eyes, threatening to spill.
"How could you?" she whispered, not trusting her own voice. "I thought you were my friend Hermione!"
With that, she turned and went into her room, slamming the door. Through the door, Hermione could hear muffled sobs.
"Lovely. There goes our friendship down the drain." She went down the hallway into her own room.
Some much needed thinking was required.
At dinnertime, Hermione picked at her food. She wasn't really hungry, and had to force herself to come down and eat. Her mind was a whirlwind of jumbled thoughts. Stupid me. Stupid, Stupid, Stupid me
"Hermione?" She looked up, and saw Harry hovering over her.
"Hi Harry." She gave him a weak smile, as he sat down next to her.
"What's up?" he asked, digging into his dinner.
"Not too much. I just destroyed my friendship with Ginny." Her voice was full of bitterness.
"What?" Harry nearly choked on his food.
"We got into an argument."
"Really? About what?"
"Well let's just say that the 'cat's out of the bag'" Hermione said, knowing that Harry would get the meaning. It took a few seconds. And then;
"Why did you tell her?"
"She was demanding an explanation for my crazy behavior yesterday and this morning."
To her surprise, Harry chuckled.
"You're not angry?" Hermione was surprised to say the least.
"No not really." He replied. "It was a stupid thing to do, and I can see why Ginny's a little upset. I did kind of use her for my own personal gain."
"Now the question is, what do we do about it?"
"What are we going to do about what?"
Both Harry and Hermione turned their heads at the same time, and saw Ron sliding in next to them. Hermione felt her face heat up, and sent a pleading look to Harry, who caught it.
"We did something not too smart, and now we have to fix it." Harry replied.
"What'd you do?"
"It's a long story."
"So what? I got time."
Sensing that Ron wasn't about to let them off the hook anytime soon, Harry racked his brains for a tactful way to say it. He found a way to distract Ron a bit longer.
"I see you've decided to talk to me again." He said.
Ron's face darkened for a moment, before he replied.
"I'm only speaking to you at the moment, because my dear sister isn't around, and I don't have to watch you stumbling over yourself to impress her-"
"Ron, will you stop being a prat, and just let them be happy?"
Both boys turned to look at Hermione who had a disgusted look on her face.
"But she's my sister!"
"So what? And if she's your sister, then you should want the best for her!"
"Since when are you so knowledgeable about the affairs of my sister?"
"Since she told me that she still liked Harry!"
The two teens were shouting at this point, but were lucky, because the hall was practically empty, and those people who were there were used to them bickering and didn't think anything of it. Harry kept his eyes glued to his plate, and hoped that things would blow over.
"She told you?" Ron's voice was incredulous. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because I knew how you'd act Ron! And I'm surprised Harry even had the guts to tell you, knowing how worked up you get."
"Hey!" Harry looked up from his plate, clearly affronted, but the two teens were ignoring him.
"You're so nosy Hermione! Why don't you just butt out of everyone's business?"
"Because my friends ARE my business Ronald!"
"Oh really?" he voice dripped with disdain. "How can that be, when you don't HAVE any friends?"
As soon as he said that, he knew he'd gone too far. Hermione's eyes filled with tears, and she turned away and walked out of the hall. Harry now stood up, and glared down athim.
"That was low Ron. Really low. Why would you say something so awful?"
"Just leave me alone!"
Harry said gathered his things and was about to leave when he said;
"You know Ron, Hermione's right. You ARE a prat. I have no idea why she fancies you."
Ron didn't utter a word until Harry had left the hall, and then once he was gone, he yelled out the first words that popped into his head.
"BLOODY HELL!"
Hermione sat by the lake, her tears now drying. It was fairly cold, but she didn't care. She was numb. Of all the hurtful things Ron had said to her, this was definitely one of the worst.
"Ron, how could you?" she whispered, feeling tears pool at the edge of her eyelids. She wiped them away, and buried her face in her hands.
"Hermione."
She didn't respond to the voice, but continued to sit there like a statue. She hoped the person would go away, but instead the voice called her name again.
"Hermione."
This time, she recognized it as Harry's.
"Go away." She mumbled.
"Hermione, it's cold. You should be inside."
"I'm not cold."
"Yes you are."
Harry sat down next to her, and took one of her hands in his.
"Your hands are like ice."
"I don't care."
"Listen, sitting out here and freezing to death isn't going to make things better."
"I don't care." Hermione said again.
"I think you DO care, but you're just too upset to admit it."
"Leave me alone Harry." Hermione tried to turn away from him, but he caught her shoulder, and forced her back around to face him.
"What Ron said was completely out of line, and he knows it."
"Well then why the hell did he say it?"
"Because he was angry."
"What right does HE have to be angry? If anything, YOU should be angry."
"And I am, but it's easier right now to let things be."
"But you like Ginny!"
"And I know she likes me, but right now we can't do anything about it until Ron calms down."
"Which he never will." Hermione muttered.
"Oh he will eventually."
"But the ball's tomorrow night!" Hermione blurted, and then gasped. I've completely forgotten until just now!
"It's tomorrow? Are you sure?"
"Yeah I'm sure!"
"Why didn't Dumbledore announce it at dinner?"
"He probably did. We just came later on during the meal remember? The professors had already left by then."
"That makes sense."
It was getting unbearably cold by then, and Hermione was beginning to shiver violently. Harry noticed, and put his arm around her.
"Let's go in."
She shook her head.
"I can't face him." Hermione buried her face into Harry's shoulder.
"You'll have to sometime sooner or later Hermione. It may as well be sooner."
Hermione heaved a deep sigh, and stood up slowly.
"I guess you're right." She said slowly.
"Of course I am." Harry offered her a smile, and she gave a weak one in return.
The two walked hand-in-hand back to the castle.
Into to imminent doom.
After Harry had walked her to the tower, she bade him a goodnight and strode up to her dorm, avoiding conversation with everyone. Parvati and Lavender intercepted her at the end of the hallway.
"Excited about the ball Hermione?" Lavender asked.
"To tell you the truth, no I'm not" she replied tartly, not caring about the crestfallen looks on their faces.
"Did you have a fight with Ron or something?" Parvati asked.
Hermione had lost her patience. Giving each girl a scathing glance, she yelled,
"Yes I did ok? Are you satisfied?"
"Whoa. No need to get all moody on us Hermione." Lavender said in a huff.
"Yeah, we were just curious." Parvati said.
"Well mind your own damn business!" Hermione pushed past them into her room, slamming the door shut, leaving the two girls staring at the door in shock.
"Must've been a REALLY bad fight."
The two girls heaved a sigh. This certainly put a large damper on their plans. And with the ball less than 24 hours away, they needed to take drastic action. Lavener and Parvati went back downstairs to mingle, and to try to find Ron.
Operation Secret Admirer was a go.
After tossing and turning all night, Hermione finally managed to fall asleep when the first light of dawn appeared. Several hours later she awoke with a start, as if someone poked her. Shaking her head slightly, she stretched her arms, and wondered at the charged atmosphere in the air. Suddenly the events of the previous evening washed over her like a cold bucket of water.
Today was the day of what was sure to be the greatest event of the year.
The Snowball.
A/N:I know, I know! I said there wasn't going to be any more chapters, but my muse decided to take me places with the relationship problems and such, so here I am! But I can assure you that as the ending part of this chapter starts on the day of the ball, I shall be making every effort possible to finish it in ONE chapter. Whats is 'Operation SecretAdmirer?' Will Ginnyand Hermione make up? Will Ron and Hermione make up? Will thisstoryever get done?Again, please forgive me for writing so damn much! LOL And thank you to all of those who review! It's greatly, greatly appreciated. God bless CelestialMoon17