A/N: Hey all! Here's the next chapter…I hope it doesn't anger you too much…lol. Anyway, I just wanted to add that yes, Harry and Ginny are indeed a couple, as they should be! And a very cute couple at that, may I just add…Okay! Enjoy, you guys! It's extra long for you guys, I couldn't help it…it just happened that way. And make sure to review!

Lauren

Disclaimer: Me am not J.K.! Me too simple minded!

Chapter Six

A Very Unexpected Return

It was the middle of Transfiguration that Professor McGonagall announced the upcoming Hogsmeade trip that weekend. Being the first trip of the year, it was guaranteed to be quite a fun one, especially since it would be a chance for the trio (and Ginny) to spend some time together without having to think about school. For the next five days, all Ron and Harry could think about was getting out of the castle surrounding, so when the time came to set out, they could barely contain themselves.

Hermione and Ginny were sitting in the common room talking when Harry and Ron finally made their way down the dormitory stairs. With four wide, excited smiles, the four of them grabbed their cloaks and headed out the portrait hole and into the corridor. The air was thick with excitement from Gryffindors all around as they headed through the doors and into the wide open space.

The four excited Gryffindors walked side by side, Ginny's fingers perfectly entwined with Harry's, and Ron talking nonstop about the upcoming Quidditch game, the first of the season. Hermione, the only one of the four not on the team (Ginny had indeed taken over one of the chaser positions, as she had hoped) felt slightly left out from the conversation as a whole, but that didn't really have a chance to get to her, as she was deep in thought. Standing at the end of the line, she couldn't help as her eyes kept falling on the joined hands and happily twiddling fingers of two people enamored of each other. Of course, this only reminded her of the fact that Ron had never really liked to hold her hand when they had been together. She tucked this thought to the back of her head with the strand of hair she placed behind her ear and tried to be attentive to Ron's rambling.

Finally, Filch checked them out, grouchily of course, and a nice breeze of cool air washed over them. The rest of the walk there seemed very quiet to Ron, which was odd because he was talking nonstop. However, his mind was drifting to other things… he kept getting distracted by things Hermione was doing. Like, every minute or so, the same piece of hair would fall in front of her face, and every time she tucked it back behind her ears, he could see the tiniest bit of frustration flush pink across her cheeks, though she was most likely unaware of it occurring in the first place. She was probably also unaware of the slight pursing of her lips as she did this. This only reminded him of the fact that, by some odd coincidence, he had never gotten the chance to kiss Hermione when they were together. Strange, yes, for someone to be with a person for six months and never actually get up the courage to kiss them. Sure, there were innocent kisses on the cheek that came from Hermione every so often, but it seemed for the most part to be an overall awkward topic. Just as some things happen, some things, well…don't. This thought haunted both of them, though Ron found it did him even more so at this particular moment. Then, realizing what it was he was thinking about, he kicked himself mentally and carried on with his talk of Quidditch, wondering what could possibly lead him to believe that he would ever get the chance to do such a thing.

Ron was glad to finally enter Hogsmeade, so he would have more to distract him. He nearly dragged the rest of them to a building that, had he not pointed it out, would have seemed hidden between the two larger buildings around it. As soon as they entered, something jumped out of the corner and tackled Ron to the floor. Had the others not known better, they would have been scared out of their minds, but instead they were driven to immediate laughter. After a moment of frustrated noises, Ron finally emerged from the pile of Weasleys on the floor and brushed himself off, leaving the perpetrator on the floor.

"We thought you'd never come and see us!" said one of them, and it became clear that there were indeed two perpetrators.

"Yeah, we were beginning to think you had forgotten all about us! But you wouldn't do that, would you Ronniekins??" said the other, grabbing Ron's leg and causing him to fall to the floor again. Ron, realizing he was falling, grabbed a hold of whatever was closest to him, and so grabbed a handful of Harry's pants. Inevitably, Harry and Ginny joined the pile of Weasleys, leaving Hermione to clean up the mess, in her own fit of giggles.

Both Fred and George had changed considerably, though not in much of an obvious way. Sure, they had gotten slightly taller, but were still noticeably shorter than Ron. Fred's hair was a bit shorter and neater than George's, who had let his grow into a scruffy mop. But both of them still had those unmistakably signature mischievous grins that were useful for both getting them in and out of trouble. What no one could see though was that both of them had done a bit of growing up over the years after Voldemort's return…well, everyone did, really, but the twins had in a more unexpected way. A tiny bit of the wild fire that burned so brightly in their eyes was calmed, almost extinguished…something about them seemed a little more reserved, quieter…well, as much as being Fred and George Weasley, the most famous pranksters in the world, would allow.

When everybody had straightened up, the foursome noticed all of the empty shelves along the wall, and the counter in the back of the room. Six grins formed all around as Ginny gasped.

"Wait, you're not telling me…" she breathed. Ron stood proudly as though he had himself created the store. (In reality, over the summer they caught Ron eavesdropping on them planning, and was threatened into silence.)

Fred and George nodded proudly, opening their arms to show off the spacious area which would soon be filled by lots and lots of prank items.

"Yes, we were so successful in Diagon Alley that we're opening one here in Hogsmeade…what do you think?" George asked, a grin happily occupying his face.

Hermione, though somewhat concerned by the news of the first on in Diagon Alley, was much more excited about this one. The joke shop had really done what Harry had hoped for when he had given them the prize money: people, in a time of disaster at Voldemort's return, had found some sort of comfort in their products. Speaking of…

"Well wait, where are all the actual products?" she asked, as though it were obvious.

"Oh, they're still in the back, we haven't unloaded them yet. We have to do it before next weekend, that's our grand opening. We'll do it…eventually. Won't we Fred?" George asked, that mischievous smile on his face.

"Oh yes, eventually," he returned with a grin equal to George's.

Hermione began slowly walking around the room, dragging her fingers along the surfaces of the shelves and taking it all in. Ron watched as her eyes lit up at the very idea of those shelves being full of ingenious pranks created by Fred and George.

Fred, meanwhile, wasted no time in picking on Harry and Ginny, who were now decidedly the cutest Weasley couple. George looked over at Ron, who was still watching Hermione, and a genuinely sad, sympathetic grin took over his face.

"Hey uh, Ron, come help me with something in the back, I've got some stuff we want to show you guys," he said, walking over to a door behind the counter.

Ron seemed a little hard-pressed tearing his eyes away from the curiously beautiful brown eyes taking in all of the store, but he resigned and headed to the back of the store with George.

George led him into one of the three storerooms in the back and shut the door behind them after Ron walked in. He walked over to a shelf, lifted one of the several boxes, and placed it into Ron's arms. Just as Ron turned to leave, he was held back by the quiet sound of his brother's voice.

"Do you miss her?" he asked softly, his voice inflected with a bit of sorrow. Ron turned around slowly, looking perplexed, but sighed acceptingly and seeming as though it wasn't completely unexpected.

"Er…" he said, not sure what to say.

"Look mate, I know a forlorn look when I see one…and you've definitely got one," George said matter-of-factly. Ron wondered when it was exactly that George had learned about love, but didn't ask. He was already seeing more of Ron than Ron had hoped, which could prove to become dangerous…who knew what George was up to.

"Look, it's nothing, there's no 'forlorn look' or anything, so don't worry about it. I'm just…tired, that's all," he said in a way he hoped was convincing. Doubtful of his effectiveness, he promptly added a yawn, hoping he was slightly more convincing.

"Ron, we know all about what happened, it's not like we didn't happen to be in the same house as you for the whole summer. Well, we almost weren't, especially when mum got furious with us for damaging the roof, when really it wasn't our fault, it was that damn ghoul in the attic, but she was convinced it was one of our experiments, nearly skinned us alive…oops, sorry mate," he quipped, noticing the raised eyebrow on Ron's face. "Anyway, we know all about it, so there's no use hiding it…what's going on with you two now?"

"Er, well, we're friends again. Best friends," he added, realizing the one extra word made him feel both better and worse at once.

"Ah, I see…'best friends', eh? And are you okay with that?" George asked, the smirk on his face balanced by the seriousness in his tone.

"What do you mean? Yeah, of course I'm okay with it, it's far better than us not talking."

"No no, that's not what I meant…do you still fancy her?"

Ron's face turned red as a brick in a second flat before he could help it. Forgetting the box he was holding, he nervously ran his hand through his hair, and with an inevitably loud clatter, the box fell to the floor and popped open, revealing hundreds of smaller, colorful boxes inside. Ron apologized frantically, but looked up to find George laughing. As they began picking up the packages, they heard footsteps coming down the hall.

"Is everything all right?" asked Hermione, peeking her head around the corner of the doorway.

"Oh yeah, everything's fine…Ron thought he saw a spider, freaked out a little bit, but we're all right now," George said, grinning furtively at Ron. Hermione gave a bit of a concerned grin and headed back to the front.

Ron looked up, but before he could thank George, he was interrupted.

"Ron, what are you going to do about it?" he asked, just as seriously as before. Ron couldn't help but be slightly caught off guard by his earnestness…either he had seriously matured, or he was just having a rare moment…very rare.

"D-do about what, exactly?" he asked dumbly. George eyed him suspiciously.

"I'm not doing anything about anything. Even if I did like her, it wouldn't make a difference. She doesn't feel the same way, or else why would she have broken up with me in the first place? And besides, I'm just grateful we're friends again, I don't want to take a dumb chance knowing it'll mess everything up…we've just made up, and I don't want to go through that agony again," he finished, knowing he had made a very good point that George wouldn't be able to rebut.

Indeed, in lieu of a response, George merely sighed. After replacing the last package, he took the box and placed it firmly back in Ron's arms, looking him in the eyes as he did. The determination and certainty Ron saw in George almost made him yelp. It was nothing like anything he'd seen in his brother before in his life, which told him this was serious.

"As long as you know what you're doing…you think it's bad taking a chance and risking something you think you're willing to settle for, but after a while, you'll come to realize that the real risk is doing nothing at all. Before you know it, something will happen that could ruin a chance of anything ever happening again…but don't take my word for it," he said, more grim than he had ever seen his brother. Everything about how he had said that, and about what he had said, nearly made him shutter. With a reluctant grin, George picked up a box from the shelf and slid past Ron, heading back up to the front and greeting the others. Ron stood against the wall, still holding his box, and trying to grasp what his brother had just told him. He had never considered taking anything his brothers had ever told him to heart, but maybe this time…

After a moment of thinking this over, he returned to the front of the store to see the others unloading boxes and placing the colorful packages on the empty shelves. Setting his box on the counter, he joined in, joining Harry and Fred's conversation about their grand opening. Every so often, Ron would glance over at Hermione, who was smiling and chatting happily with Ginny at another shelf. George seemed to have disappeared somewhere in the back again, but Ron didn't particularly care; he was now feeling slightly annoyed by his earlier interrogation, wondering what had given George the idea he had a right to pry into Ron's love life like that.

An hour later, the foursome said their farewells to Fred (George still hadn't turned up, but they felt maybe they should let him be) and headed back down the crowded streets of Hogsmeade, each with a little one of the packages in their pockets. Ron could feel the warm September air on his face when he heard a familiar voice call out to Hermione. He whipped around, looking to see who the voice belonged to. Hermione stopped and turned around curiously to see George standing about twenty feet away, waving at her.

"Hmm, I wonder what he wants?" she said, more to herself than to the others, but loudly enough for them to hear. Without a look to the others, she headed back towards him, Ron wondering silently what he could possibly have to tell Hermione when suddenly he felt as though ice water had been poured over his head. What if he decided to tell Hermione about their conversation? He could feel the tips of his ears burning as though they were on fire, and he wasn't the only one who noticed.

"Ron, are you all right? Your ears are um, turning pink…" said Ginny, suppressing a giggle. Harry's attention was caught immediately and he nodded in agreement.

"You know, it's not like he's going to ask her out or anything, don't get all flustered over nothing," she said, making her brother's ears turn, if possible, even more pink. She could almost swear she felt heat radiating from them.

That really hadn't even occurred to Ron to be a possibility. But that's not what he was worried about. If George told…he would have just dug his own grave, that's for sure.

Ten minutes later, Hermione returned, her face looking slightly pink tinged and flushed. Ron turned around right as she went to take her place next to him, which made Hermione frown slightly.

"Ron, you all right?"

"What did he tell you?" he asked, trying his hardest to hide his anger and sound genuinely interested, which wasn't hard, because her really was.

"Oh, he just asked me what I wanted for my birthday. It was rather considerate of him, actually, as I've never gotten him a birthday present before," she responded contemplatively. Had Ron's mind not suspended itself mid-thought, he might have heard her wondering aloud when indeed George's birthday was. But the impact of her previous statement had his mind stupefied: her birthday was in less that a week, and he hadn't even considered what he was to get her. He looked around him in a panicky manner, searching for a store in which to find her something; what exactly the something was would have to be figured out later.

He was still looking when he heard his name from what seemed like fifty feet away.

"Ron? Ron, are you okay? Ron!"

Ron snapped back around to look at Hermione.

"It's in April," he said monotonously, not daring to give her the exact date in hopes she would forget.

"Oh, um…alright then," she replied, a little hurt. Something about him seemed rather distant, she thought, considering he had been telling her several times over the past few days about how glad he was they were best friends again. She looked down nervously at the ground, mechanically tucking an imaginary strand of hair behind her ear and pouting subconsciously. Ron looked over at her, feeling bad for being such a prat. It wasn't like she was doing anything wrong, she was just trying to be nice to George for being nice to her. He opened his mouth to apologize when she spoke suddenly.

"You know what, I think I left something back there…you guys go on, I'll meet you in a few minutes," she said, not meeting any of the other's eyes. Before anyone could answer, she had taken off and disappeared into the crowd around them. Ron sighed heavily, and Ginny and Harry exchanged suspicious glances. But as she had instructed, they all kept walking silently.

They had been walking for only a minute when Ron noticed something in the window of a store they were passing. He stopped roughly, causing a woman behind him to run right into him. He chose to ignore her as she cursed him and instead walked inside the store, accidentally bumping the poor woman again.

Harry and Ginny followed, curious as to what he was looking for. He walked straight up to the counter and asked the cashier if he could see the item in the window display. The small, whiskery man nodded, disappearing in the back room. Ron looked around the room at Harry, who with Ginny was now talking to Lavender, Parvati, and two other girls Ron didn't remember the names of. He did recognize them as two Ravenclaws, though. He turned back around as the cashier returned with two packages, one long and rectangular, the other smaller and square. He reached into his pocket and paid the man, taking the small brown bag the two packages had been placed in seconds before. With a smile, he left the counter and walked over to Harry and the others.

"Hey Lavender, Parvati," he said, nodding at the two Gryffindors, who grinned widely and giggled flirtatiously in response.

"Ron, this is Sarah, she's a Ravenclaw," Parvati said with an eager grin stuck on her face. Ron took her hand in his, and almost instantly, as though he were being possessed, his newly acquired flirtatiousness took over for him. He gave her the once over with the trademark Weasley grin, which nearly made Sarah go weak in the knees. Catching herself, she gave a weak smile and a faint 'hello'.

"And you remember my sister, don't you?" Parvati continued, pointing out the girl to her left, and Ron felt as though he had been hit in the head by something very heavy. Of course, you great bloody prat, you took her to the Yule Ball! He quickly moved his hand from the hand-shaking position and placed it around her shoulder, acting as though she were an old friend.

"Of course I remember, how could I forget?" he said, giving her a bit of a hug. Padma's look of skepticism was quickly replaced with that of surprise; she seemed clearly at a loss for words at the fact that Ron was nothing like she had remembered…he actually knew how to talk to a lady, which was something she had never thought possible after the Yule Ball incident.

Ginny looked on sickeningly as her brother managed to compliment the four girls nonstop for who knows how long before she decided she had had enough. She cleared her throat loudly, causing the rest to fall silent.

"Well, it was very nice talking to all of you, but I just remembered I have a few errands to run before we have to head back, so I think I'm just going to head out now. I'll see you all later then?" she asked sweetly, trying her hardest not to spew the contents of her breakfast all over Padma's new sweater. Harry thanked her telepathically (or tried at least) and volunteered to go with her. Ginny gave him a grateful smile, and the two waved goodbye and left rather hurriedly, or so it seemed that way to Ron. Lavender, prompted by the couple's departure, looked at her watch and nearly shrieked.

"Parvati, we have to get down to Madam Malkin's before she closes if we're going to get fitted for our gowns!" she said, grabbing Parvati's wrist and nearly tripping over herself.

"It was great talking to you Ron, but we've really got to go—Sarah, are you coming?" she asked pointedly. Sarah's face took on a look of disappointment, probably because of having to leave Ron, whom she had taken quite a liking to, but sighed resignedly before glancing at Padma and nodding. She waved goodbye to Ron, smiled at Padma, and left the store with the other two, leaving Ron and a flushed Padma standing in a quill store.

"Well, that was rather odd, wasn't it?" Ron asked smoothly, and with that he led her out of the store and back onto the slightly less crowded streets of Hogsmeade, his arm still around her shoulder.

Hermione left Weasley's Wizard Wheezes feeling very, very enlightened. She had gone back, almost sure that she had left her package on the counter, and so had gone back to retrieve it. But as she had planned on leaving shortly thereafter, she had found herself engaged in a very interesting conversation with George, who convinced her he had some very interesting things to tell her. And sure enough, an hour after she had came, she left, feeling quite flushed and excited. She could feel the warm air around her and felt as though she were on a cloud. So Ron really does miss me…I should have known…what should I say? Should I tell him straight out? No no, I'd never be able to pull that off… She walked nearly the length of Hogsmeade pondering this when something before her about ten feet away caught her eye. She heard a voice, another, and then a laugh; she looked over and saw no other than Ron and…who was that? Hermione couldn't exactly tell, though she strained her eyes to get a better look…she gasped so loudly she nearly choked.

"Padma??" she asked no one in particular. She could feel her cheeks grow red as passersby looked at her curiously. Luckily, neither Ron or Padma heard or noticed; she could feel her heart racing and her cheeks getting hot; not out of anger, but out of shock and hurt. She immediately spun around on her heel, taking off in the other direction as quickly as possible, Ron and Padma still in their place, laughing heartily.

Ten minutes later…

"GEORGE WEASLEY, YOU LIAR!"

George walked into the front room hesitantly, as though expecting a Howler from his mother, and was instead faced with a tear-streaked Hermione Granger, and all he could do was stare back at her, confused.

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