The door slowly opened and Harry stepped inside, his hand poised on his wand, hidden inside his robes. The library was quiet. There was some suppressed talking, pages rustling and quills scratching but other than that, Harry felt pretty sure it was quiet enough for the entire library to here the confrontation that might go on here. It was just asking for more gossip to spread about the whole situation. He could just see Rita Skeeter handing out hundreds of galleons to Colin Creevy, who in turn handed out pictures to her like post-it notes.

Readjusting his book bag, he sighed and went to sit down at a nearby table. Krum obviously wasn't here yet, and so he felt he's better wait where Krum could see him when he came in the door. He'd brought his things, thinking he could at least look like he was working on something while he was sitting in here. Madame Pince hated it when people used her library as anything other than a "precious source of literary knowledge" as she called it.

He sighed and leaned back in the chair, taking his hand off his wand, glad he hadn't been pummeled to death the minute he'd walked in. Glad he was even still alive at this point.

He was deathly curious as to why Krum had wanted to meet him alone in the Hogwarts Library. And why not tell Hermione about it?

"Potter!"

His head snapped up. Madame Pince was staring down at him from her desk.

"Come here!"

Harry stared at her. "What?"

"Come here Potter! Good Lord boy, are you deaf?"

Harry stumbled to his feet and walked the few paces to stand in front of her.

"Here you go, this is for you." She handed him a piece of paper.

"For me?"

Madame Pince stared at him, as thought questioning his sanity. "Are you sure you're quite all right Potter? You're acting very odd."

Harry took the paper and went back to the table to wait for Krum and read it. He glanced once more up at the librarian but she'd already busied herself whacking a first year over the head with a dictionary because he'd dropped it in the lake.

He pulled open the letter and looked at it. It looked like Krum's handwriting. And it certainly had grammatical problems. He scanned through the letter, and his mouth fell open. Then, he read it again, this time slower.

It read:

Tomorrow, me meet in Three Broomsticks noon. Two can play this game. Warned be.

Harry stared down at it in shock. What was this? Was Krum not going to meet him here at all? This was just a way for him to get this letter? Then, why hadn't he written this on the original letter?

Harry sighed and tossed the letter on the table to stare at it. Now, he'd have to worry until tomorrow. Why couldn't Krum just have come here to meet him instead of postponing it till tomorrow in a different place?

And what did he mean by 'two can play this game'? Harry kicked the leg of the table hard, letting out his frustration. Krum was being so bloody annoying!

He stood up, grabbed the paper and rolled his eyes. Then he went off to find Ron.

"Ron! Ron!"

Ron looked up form his Charms homework. "Well, you're in one piece I see, how did it go?"

Harry threw himself into he chair across from Ron and handed him the note.

"He never showed up. He just left this note with Madame Pince for me. Read it. Go on."

Ron looked at him, and then grabbed the note, eagerly anticipating the subject verb disagreements.

He read it then looked up, stumped. "So, you meet him in the Three Broomsticks tomorrow? Where the whole party fiasco took place? That doesn't sound too bad. I mean, at least there will be a lot of people there to stop him from killing you."

"Yeah, but more people to gossip about it when it's over."

"You're going to go right?"

Harry glanced up. "I don't think I really have a choice. He wants to see me and talk, and there's a slight possibility he's not really mad at me so, I might as well take that chance."

As he spoke, Harry looked down at the Charms essay Ron was struggling through. He scanned the first few lines. It was awful. Clearly, Ron didn't have a clue as to what he was doing.

"You need some serious help on this before you turn it in." Harry said pointedly.

Ron nodded. "I know. But I haven't seen Hermione all day, and I don't know who else to ask to help me."

"Rewrite it for you, you mean."

Ron grinned. "You think I actually paid attention to replacement charms? I spent the class period we learned all this writing that letter to Hermione from Krum."

Harry grinned. "Well mate, I'd help you, but I don't know the first thing about them either. Looks like you're just going to have to track down Hermione. Good luck."

"Nah, won't be too hard to find her." Ron said, looking at the portrait hole.

"Why not?"

"Here she comes."

Harry whipped around, feeling his stomach do a thousand flip flops. His face was going very red. He hadn't planned on seeing Hermione after that incident in the Great Hall the other day. Not for a very long time at least.

She strode over to the two of them. Harry shrunk backwards into his chair, hoping to look invisible and wishing that he actually had his cloak with him.

"Hermione!" Ron grinned as she came over. "You are just the girl I need to see right now. Do you know anything about Replacement charms? This bloody essay is driving me crazy, and I don't have a clue. Please, help me!"

Hermione rolled her eyes and dropped a book on the table. "Here Harry, you forgot this in the library when you left."

Harry looked own at his History of Magic book.

"Thanks" he muttered.

She nodded and then looked over at Ron. "Here, let me have the essay. I'll read it and then give it back to you later."

Ron passed it over weakly. "You are an amazing person Hermione. Amazing. Wonderful."

Hermione kicked his in the shin gently and then looked at Harry. "Do you need help with yours too?"

"No, I'm good thanks."

Hermione nodded again then turned and went up the girls' staircase.

"How did she know?" Harry asked Ron slowly.

"Know what?"

"Know I was in the library?"

Ron snorted. "Harry, she lives in the library. It's like her second dorm room. She was probably in there when you were, saw you leave it, and brought it back. Lucky for me she did too, so she can help me on my essay."

Harry nodded. Then he suddenly gasped. "Ron, I didn't bring my History of Magic textbook with me to the library."

Ron laughed. "Yes you did. It's right there in front of you!"

Harry shook his head and opened the front cover of the book. "It's not mine Ron."

They leaned forward and read the first page of the book.

Property of Hermione Granger.