Ron cleared his throat, and said, "Hermione, I um… thanks for, well forgetting what I said before. It slipped out… and well… thanks."
"Well Ron, how can I forget it if you keep bringing it up?" teased Hermione, poking him on the side of his stomach.
"Ouch! Hey, stop that!" laughed Ron, poking her back. Hermione laughed too, and poked him again.
"Ok, now you're asking for it, Hermione Granger!" said Ron, in a mock angry voice. He lunged at her and she squealed and started running up to the castle. Ron chased after her, his arms wide open like a mummy, except he was running, and mummies don't run. Anyway, he chased her to the castle and up the stairs, both of them laughing the whole way. Hermione reached the Fat Lady and yelled out the password before climbing hurriedly in. She tried to get to the girl's dormitories but Ron had caught up with her. He flung his arms around her and started tickling her madly. They collapsed onto the couch, Ron laughing, and Hermione both shrieking and laughing. Ron stopped tickling her and whispered, "I think we've attracted some attention!"
What an understatement, everyone in the common room was staring at them, some with smirks on their face. Hermione sat up quickly, blushing, smoothing down her hair and straightening her top. Ron had gone red too, but he grinned at her and said, "Where did you learn to run as fast as that?"
"Ron, just because I don't play Quidditch, doesn't mean I've never played a sport! I used to play Hockey in my Muggle school, and I still play with some neighbours in the summer holidays." She said, with dignity.
"Hockey? Never heard of it!" said Ron, leaning back on to his side of the couch, "You'll have to teach me in this summer holidays!"
"Ok, but I don't think you'll find it easy!" laughed Hermione. She looked at her watch. It was 5:30, the time Neville had told her the preparations would be ready by. She hurriedly got up and said, "Ron, I think I've left some of my books in one of my classes. Will you come with me to get them?"
"Sure, come on," said Ron, getting up.
Hermione led him out, and up to the 7th floor where the Room of Requirement was.
"Hey I didn't know there were any classes up here!" said Ron.
"You don't know a lot about Hogwarts, Ron," said Hermione. "Come on, it's that door over there."
That door was of course, the Room of Requirement, but as it only showed up when someone was using it, it was hard to think that it wasn't anything but a classroom. Hermione led Ron there, talking to him an unnecessary loud voice, to make sure that the others could hear them coming and get ready. When they arrived, Hermione turned the doorknob and opened the door slowly. The room was completely in darkness and Ron followed her unsuspectingly.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" came seven voices and the lights came on suddenly. Ron blinked and surveyed the scene before him. There was a huge table in the corner loaded with food items. There were brightly coloured banners and balloons attached to the walls; there was a smaller table with a huge pile of presents on it. In the very middle of the room were Harry, Neville, Dean, Seamus, Parvati, Lavender and Ginny. His mouth fell open in shock as he realized what was going on. Hermione, who was next to him, grinned at his expression and gave him a push.
"See Ron, what great friends you have?" she laughed.
Ron stood there gaping at everyone, then he grinned and said, "Bloody hell… this is… wow… I thought you guys had forgotten… "
Everyone laughed at Ron's babbling and pulled him in to the room properly.
"Lets cut the cake now, since the birthday boy has finally arrived," said Dean, excitedly.
Ron's face brightened immediately. "Cake?" he asked. Ginny chuckled and went over to the food table. She picked up the cake from the centre and brought it over to the middle of the room. It was a large, chocolate cake with silver balls all around and 'Happy Birthday Ron' scrawled across the middle in white icing. There was also a candle shaped like the number 15 stuck on the cake. Ron was given a knife, and Neville told him to hurry up and blow out the candle out. Ron looked down at the candle and puffed in his breath. Then he suddenly remembered that he had to make a wish. For a few seconds he thought about it.
"Would it seem too selfish to wish that Hermione could ever like me back the way I like her?" he thought, "Or should I wish for Voldermort to be defeated and world peace and all that…"
Just then Harry thumped him on the back, trying to get him to hurry up. In doing this however, Ron simply let out his breath causing the candle to go out. Everyone cheered and Parvati asked what he had wished for.
"Um… nothing…" he said sheepishly.
"Yeah right! We all know what you wished for!" retorted Parvati, her eyes flicking towards Hermione.
Ron blushed and said, "You don't know what you're talking about! Let me cut the cake already!"
He cut a slice and everyone immediately started singing.
Happy Birthday to you,
You were born in a zoo,
And the Hippogriffs kissed you,
Happy Birthday to you!
"Ok, time for presents!" squealed Parvati and Lavender together and brought out the pile of gifts. Ron looked in horror at them. All the gifts were covered in bright pink wrapping paper, and each had at least 2 large bows on them. Hermione gasped and made a mental note never to put Parvati and Lavender in charge of the presents again!
Ron started opening his gifts. First he opened the joint present from Dean, Seamus and Neville. It was a large Deluxe Honeydukes Chocolates box. Inside were layers and layers of all sorts of sweets imaginable. Ron grinned at them and said, "Just what I need, thanks!"
Then he opened Parvati and Lavender's gift, which was a bunch of magazines (yes magazines!) that were meant for males, and were all about how to improve looks and other such rubbish.
"They're great, really…thanks…" said Ron, who was looking mortified.
Next, he opened Harry's gift, which was a Chudley Cannon's Quidditch book that Ron didn't have.
"Open it," urged Harry, and Ron lifted the front cover to see all the signatures of the team members glaring him in the face.
"How did you… oh my god… Harry?" asked Ron weakly.
Harry laughed at his expression, and said, "Wasn't too hard mate…"
Ron was still gaping at the book, but Ginny pushed another package into his arms and he snapped out of his reverie. He opened this one, which was from both Hermione and Ginny, to see another book, but this time it was a photo album. Ron opened it to see loads of photographs stuck on. It was decorated on the sides of the pages as well, and it was beautiful. Ron kept turning the pages and he saw pictures of the trio hanging out, the Yule Ball, Harry in the Triwizard Tournament, Ginny and Hermione curled up on the couch in the common room talking, Hermione unsuccessfully trying to knit the hats and scarves for house-elves and many, many more.
He grinned at Hermione and Ginny and said, "This is bloody brilliant! Thanks so much!"
They murmured, "You're welcome," and then Ginny coughed, getting everyone's attention.
"Ok, now its time for games!" she said, standing up. "We've come up with some great games! First on the list… Truth or Dare!"
Everyone groaned, although most were hiding a smile behind their moaning. Truth or Dare was always a fun game to play at a party.
"Ok, here are the rules. Nothing too obscene, nothing involving going out of the room, and nothing that causes enough chaos to bring the whole school up here! And if you want, you can pass a Truth, but then you'll have to do a Dare to compensate, and vice versa!" said Ginny. "Ok let's start!"
Everyone got into a circle and got comfortable.
"I'm going first! Seamus, Truth or Dare?" said Harry.
"Truth!" said Seamus.
"Ok… tell us how you really feel about Lavender!" said Harry, grinning.
Seamus went red and said, "Um… well… actually, I'm kind of interested… not that… well… um yeah…" Parvati squealed and thumped Lavender on the back, who had also gone a shade of magenta.