Chapter Three
"Nooooo! Did he really!" squealed Lavender, putting her hands to her mouth and gasping dramatically. "I can't believe he actually did that! That's soooo romantic… Can you believe it, Hermione!"
"Fascinating," said Hermione, who had no idea what the other girl was talking about.
"Yeah, so then I said, well, I don't know about you, but I could do with a kiss right now," said Parvati, and she and Lavender practically exploded with giggles. Hermione rolled her eyes and opened her trunk.
The first thing she saw was the jumper Ron had bought for her after they went to one of the Chudley Cannons' games – large, orange and itchy. "That's great, it'll match your cat," he had said, and Crookshanks forgive her, she had laughed. He was so funny when he wanted to, the dear Ron. Pulling the jumper out of her trunk she held it close to her face, breathing in its scent – cat and quidditch games... and Ron. Darling Ron.
"Oooooooooh."
Hermione turned, frowning, to see Parvati and Lavender standing with their hands pressed against their cheeks, contriving to look starry-eyed. "What?" she asked.
"That's so cute!" squealed Lavender, making Hermione wince slightly. "You've started liking Chudley Cannons because Ron does! Aw, that's so sweet!"
"Tell you the truth, for so long we thought you were going to go for Harry instead," Parvati cut in. "I mean, what with the tragic hero thing he's got going he's starting to look not so bad after all! And to think I just dumped him once. When you look at him closely you see he's got a kind of charm, after all..."
No, when you look at him closely you see he's an adolescent idiot with shorter fuse than Fred and George's Two-second Buster ("Just toss and run!", thought Hermione sourly. Out loud she said, "I don't like Chudley Cannons. I don't think I could ever like a team whose Seeker is so clueless he seizes the Quaffle and shouts 'I've got the Snitch! I've got the Snitch!' "
"Still, you've got the jumper," said Lavender slyly. "I bet it's just 'cos Ron bought it for you or something, right?"
"Yeah, that's right," said Hermione, matter-of-factly, then dropped the jumper and clapped her hands over her ears as the two girls screamed with delight.
"She admitted it!"
"That's soooo cute!"
"I said it from, like, year one! They were so destined to be together!"
"Hermione, can I tell Seamus!"
"Are you going out?"
"You are, aren't you!"
"Yeah, Ron's my boyfriend since about four months back," said Hermione, and quickly pressed her hands over her ears again.
"That's so totally awesome!"
"Now we're two Gryffindor couples in the same year!"
"Wow! You can go on double dates!"
"Parvati, you'll have to get together with Harry, that'd make it three!"
"That'd be the sweetest!"
That'd be a nightmare, thought Hermione, wondering if she could scrounge some old earmuffs from professor Sprout. With the way the noise level seemed to be set to in this dorm, she doubted that she'd outlive the year. She'd asked professor McGonagall once, in year four, if she couldn't move out and share a dorm with Harry and Ron instead. The look the professor had given her had been more than answer enough.
"Look, didn't you... I mean, Ron and I have been together for quite a long while now. Didn't you know?" Hermione looked from one girl to the other. She had thought it was obvious.
"Well, we've known since four years back," said Parvati, with what she probably thought was a conspirational wink. "But you haven't really made it official, have you?"
"Oh." Hermione suddenly realized that she had no idea how Ron felt about this. Maybe he'd prefer it if they didn't tell everyone yet? "Um... actually, we'd like to wait for a while longer before we do make it official," she said. "Would you mind keeping it quiet?"
"No, not at all!"
"You can trust us."
"Won't say a word."
"Silent as the grave!"
And that, reflected Hermione, means it'll be all over the school in three hours. Oh well.
"Ew, have you ever been in a grave?"
"No!"
"Cause it's really disgusting."
"And what have you been doing these summer holidays, if I may ask!"
"You really want to know?"
"Ooh, tell me!"
As she unpacked and made her bed – she had gone to the house elves and kindly but firmly asked them to leave her bed and let her do her own chores... because you had to start somewhere – Hermione reflected over what the girl Christine had said. "Then you're only with the same kind of people all the time, aren't you?" She had a point there, she sure had. And at the moment, Hermione would have given anything to share a dorm with any Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw or even Slytherin instead.
…………………………………
"Slept well?" grinned Ron the next morning at the breakfast table. Hermione groaned, making both her friends laugh. She then sat up straighter, summoned the jam jar from right under Parvati's nose (she got some satisfaction from that), and glared at them. Harry clutched his hands to his chest, pretending to be scared stiff.
"Ooh, we know she's angry now," he said, in a silly, hushed-up voice. "She only breaks rules when she's totally pissed off."
"Honey," said Ron disapprovingly, "I might have to tell McGonagall to take some points from Gryffindor for you using magic outside lessons. What a bad example you set. And you a prefect, too."
"Whoa, she's really steaming now."
"Maybe if we tease her a bit more we can get her to hex Snape under the table, you wanna try it?"
Hermione picked up her knife and pointed to them each in turn. "Shut up or I'll transfigure you both into cockroaches. And then I'll give you to Malfoy and tell him to feed you to his pet snake." That got a reaction, at least. Both Harry and Ron gasped, looking horrified.
"Hermione!"
"That's going a bit too far, isn't it?"
"You'd actually let Malfoy touch us?"
Hermione let her head fall forward and hit the table as the two boys laughed and gave each other a high five over the table. Gods, they were unbearable this morning. Almost like Fred and George... On the other hand, it was nice to see Harry looking happy again. He changed so much when he arrived at Hogwarts. She hadn't realized until this year how much Harry actually needed to be here. It brought out the best in him.
He must really hate that Muggle family of his more than anything in the world... she thought.
"Hey, what are we doing today?" asked Dean's cheerful voice, cutting through the other boys' yammer. Hermione raised her head from the table as he sat down beside them, and dove into her bag for her schedule to answer his question.
"Transfiguration first thing, lovely lovely..." She ran her finger down the timetable, frowning occasionally. "Then it's a short Care of Magical Creatures, lunch and then Arithmancy, Dean... I think you have a free period there, Harry and Ron... and then my day is over but you three still have Divination."
"Oh no we don't," said Harry and Ron.
"Hm?"
"I'm quitting," said Harry, while Ron nodded fervently at his side. "One more tea leaf and I'll pick up an axe and kill someone, and then my future will be very easy to read indeed. Life in a padded Azkaban cell."
Ron frowned. "Do they have padded cells in Azkaban?"
"Shut up, you're ruining my dramatic moment."
"And we don't do tea leaves anymore, not since we got Firenze instead."
"Great, now the whole speech is ruined. Thanks a heap, man."
"I think you're already loony."
"How about you, Dean?" asked Hermione, pointedly ignoring the other two. "You're not going to ditch the Divination too?"
"Actually..." Dean blushed. "I, um, I think it's pretty cool sometimes. And I'm not too bad at it, for some reason..."
"He means he did a perfect OWL and is probably a Seer," said Ginny, coming up to them and sliding her arms around his neck. "You are much to modest, Dean. You need to believe in yourself more, I don't know how many times I've said."
"Why, when you do it so well for me?" asked Dean, smiling up at her and receiving a kiss in reward. On the other side of the table, Ron gagged.
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Hello! Sorry for the long break until this update. I haven't had access to the computer for a couple of weeks – and it will be a week or two until the next time I get hold of it, too. (Sorry!)
In other news, I've snapped a ligament in my ankle. Pity me.
Thank you reviewers!
