Chapter two :

Harry's shoes were squeaking on the stone floor. He was nearly mesmerized by the noise which had – if he focused on it enough - the untrivial hability to make him forget about everything else, if only for a short while.

One squeaky step after another… One squeaky step after another…

"Hurry up, mate !" Ron's voice echoed in the corridor, making the silence to flee and making Harry's wandering attention vanish. "Do you think there'll still be chocolate fondant cakes ?"

Harry lifted his gaze to look at his friend's tall frame walking ahead of him. He slightly shook his head from amusement. Breakfast was Ron's favorite meal. He used to say that it was the most important time of the day, for you have to make up for the night where you go without food for whole hours.

"I can already smell the bacon !" Ron marveled.

Yep. Besides, the Great Hall must be the only place of all Hogwarts where Ron was always in a hurry to go to.

Their stomach craving (especially the red-head one's), they finally entered what was the biggest indoor space of the castle.

"No frizzy brown hair in sight," Ron said, meticulously inspecting the room.

"Well she must be in…" Harry began.

"The library, yeah, I know," Ron interrupted, "she's always in there." His voice had dropped with his last sentence and he was now gazing into space with his brow knitted from apparent irritation.

Harry scanned the room and spotted Ginny with her friends. Then, the pace slower than a moment ago, they made their way towards the Gryffindor table.

"Hey guys !" Ginny said cheerfully, "'Slept well ?"

Ron mumbled something inaudible but Harry smiled at her and returned her the question. He had carefully avoided to anwer himself.

First, Ginny frowned but said eventually: "Well I tried but Martha is quite from the snoring type, you see…"

Thereupon, the aforesaid flushed crimson. Clearly she wasn't appreciating her friend's comment.

If it had only been between them… but Ginny had revealed that in front of two boys !

Offended, she looked at Ginny as if she was trying to put a jinx on her with her only eyes or to scold her telepathically.

And indeed, Martha's glare seemed to be effective.

"Actually… what I mean is… well, you know that girls just don't snore… don't you ?" Ginny stammered to Harry and Ron. She then glanced at Martha with an apologetic look.

Harry chuckled inwardly. He very well recognized the Weasley tendency to put their elbow in the butter dish.

The conversation died. Ron started to fill his plate up heartily.

Harry took some porridge and looked enviously at a melt-in-the-mouth cake out of reach.

"Ron, can you give me the cake which's next to you ?"

As Ron didn't move, he opened his mouth to repeat when he heard a voice.

"Hello you two ! Sorry for the late." It was Hermione.

She sat down gingerly next to Harry, paying careful attention to not dropping the books she was holding. It was only when she looked up to say something more that she noticed the scowl of the boy sat in front of her.

"Is something the matter, Ron ?" She asked, paradoxically both concerned and on her guard.

"What's on your face ?" Ron asked by way of good morning.

Hermione stiffened, but pretending sudden deafness, she didn't respond to Ron's question and put her books down on the table. She seemed to brace herself for what was about to come.

"Ron ! Leave her alone, that's none of your business !" Ginny scolded her brother.

"Is that… lipstick, Hermione ?"

"Actually, it's gloss, Ron, not lipstick," Hermione informed through clenched teeth but still not looking at him.

Ron was dumbfounded. "What's getting over you ? Make-up's for girls !"

Hermione snapped her head up and looked at Ron straight in the eye. The others recoiled.

An awkard silence settled only interrupted by Ron's eavy breathing.

Her new posture helping, Harry saw that Hermione's lips were indeed a bit shiny but also that it could go easily unnoticed at first sight. He scratched the nape of his neck. After Ron's comment, he knew what was going to happen : a confrontation. And if the looks of the two opponents were any indication, it was going to be a bad one.

The sound of a moving chair was heard. Hermione had jumped up, surprising every one.

Ron's initial startlement gave way to a surge of determination. He put himself together and did quickly just the same. He was now towering above her with his great height as an advantage. They were looking daggers at each other. The scene was frightening.

The others were rooted to their spot. They were used to rows between these two, but this one had an all new subject and they all wondered where this new conflict would led. They couldn't do nothing but wait for the commotion to continue.

"I dare you to repeat this." Hermione's voice and her whole body gesture were conveying anger and hurt.

Ron flinched. A light of comprehension crossed his features. "No, don't… I didn't want it to come that way… what I mean is…"

But Hermione wouldn't let him finish. "I thought the fact that I was a girl was established two years ago."

Ron winced. He painfully remembered the Yule Ball in fourth year and the fight which came after. He hadn't meant to offend her. Now, he absolutely didn't want to go further in getting himself into deeper and deeper water. "Please Hermione, let me explain…"

"Ron," Hermione's tone was icy, firm and sad, "I don't want you to try to explain yourself. I don't want to listen to you."

She put her chair back into place and settled her books on her hip. She began to shake a little and was agitating her left hand in the air.

"I'm beginning to understand I've been a fool for some time. I wrongly believed that… well I suspected that… I mean I thought that you could…" She bowed her head.

Harry tried to press her arm to comfort her. He was at a loss when dealing with girls' feelings but he tried to soothe her anyway. She drew back. She exhaled.

"You're right Ron, make-up is for girls, I…"

"You don't need it, Hermione." Ron cut her off.

Harry rolled his eyes from exasperation. Damn it Ron, when are you going to tell her about your feelings ? When she'll find somebody else ? Someone more tactful ?

"Stop it Ron ! I won't let you insult me ! I don't need you to tell me that I'm just plain or ugly

and that a bit of make-up is useless !"

"It is useless Hermione, because you know what ? Boys must be bloody blind if they don't see you're pretty just as you are ! "

Hermione's features crumpled. What did he just…? oh my ! OH MY !

"Because this all gloss thing, it's for a boy, isn'it ?" Ron seemed quite furious. "Is it, Hermione ?"

Come on Hermione, tell him, it's your turn ! He nearly confessed his feelings for you ! Harry was, right now, totally engrossed by this all too frustrating issue between his two best friends.

Hermione was too taken aback to make a sound. She was gapping at Ron in a bewildered way as if she hadn't taken in yet what he had just said.

In front of her, a very flushed and fearful young man was waiting for her answer.

Harry noticed the hall's light was gradually fading, giving grim expressions to people's faces. The atmosphere also was darkening. He thought that if someone right then, had a magic device to assess its tension, they probably would have been quite impressed by the high level.

The nervousness was infectious. Harry, Ginny and her friends were eye-jumping between Ron and Hermione, timidly waiting for the next word or movement.

Suddenly, a jug fell over and the pumpkin juice flowed over the table until pouring down on the floor.

A changement seemed to operate on Hermione. She blinked and shook her head.

"Hermione, are you alright ?" Ginny asked, concerned.

Hermione looked at her and then at everyone around. She then glanced in Ron's direction. She seemed to curb something.

Crac !

A deafening sound echoed throught the Great Hall and searing lights crossed the enchanted ceiling. All the students and professors jumped at once and some even cried from surprise. They looked above at the imitation of the outside menacing sky : rain and thunderbolts. A storm was blowing over and they hadn't seen it coming.

"Bloody hell ! Hermione !" Everybody turned their head towards the source of the disturbance. They found a stunned Ron looking at a brown-haired girl rushing out.

Harry saw Ron falling into his chair and staring intensely at his plate. He was pondering if having all one's hopes harshly blighted, could happen in even less time than it did for him in only a few seconds.

Bacon… eggs… a piece of cake…

Peering at him anxiously, Harry guessed he was doing the "focus-and-forget" trick.

"I… I can't believe she went away," one of Ginny's friends said to her in a whisper.

Ron snorted and spoke bitterly. "Yeah… Story of my life."

He had picked up his fork and was digging holes in his eggs. His feeling of dejection was now laced with sulkiness. It was no need to try to get him out of it for the moment.

His head feeling heavy, Harry resumed his eating - doing without the pumpkin cake which was still next to his friend. Ron and Hermione were infuriating. If they could only confess to eachother there mutual feelings and be over with it ! They were driving him nuts. Now, he would have to cope with them either not talking to eachother for the rest of the day, or being excessively polite with one another while feigning nothing had happened.

Of course, they can also do both.

The majority of the Hall had gone on chatting and finishing their breakfast. Some had fallen silent. The rain dropping above their head without reaching them was clearly heard by everyone. Some just ignored it, others couldn't hear nothing else.

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Oh please, just a little review ! I'd be so glad…

Hope you liked it !

Lilitorcen