As Hermione rode on the bumpy bus to Hogwarts, she couldn't help but study Faith more closely than before. She had straggly blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail that desperately needed to be washed, cold gray eyes surrounded by long black eyelashes and a thick layer of black eyeliner, full and pink, but chapped, lips, no blush whatsoever in her cheeks, and oddly pale skin that had been scratched and scarred in ways unimaginable. There were quite a few cuts, Hermione noticed, near the wrists. An uncomfortable feeling filled the pit of Hermione's stomach and she realized that the poor child might have started cutting at a fairly young age. Examining her body, which was unnaturally skinny, Hermione also noticed that the shirt Faith was wearing was much too long and too big. The fabric hung off her like a sheet hanging off the side of a bed. Faith's fingers were long and bony, and on the middle finger on her right hand, was a silver ring with a green stone embedded in it.
"Where did you get that? The ring," Hermione added, pointing at Faith's finger.
"Oh, my mom gave it to me…right before she died." Her voice had become choked up and raspy. "My birthday was two days before she passed away. I think my parents were murdered, but there was no mark on them. Like they just…died all of a sudden. I remember coming home to see my house surrounded by cops, and then I saw her going to the ambulance on the stretcher…" Faith stopped to let the tears flow down her cheeks. Hermione immediately felt pity for the girl and tried to embrace her in a hug, but Faith pulled away. Hermione understood. She had felt like that too, like she wanted to just close off the world around her and cry. Cry for the people that had died, cry for the people that are still alive and suffering. Just cry. So the bushy haired bookworm let Faith cry in her chair. The tears only stopped when more than a few people had started asking her if she was okay. Faith had merely nodded her head, but she couldn't keep crying after saying she was fine. So instead, she got lost roaming in her thoughts of everything that made her look like this, that made her feel so empty. The silence was oddly eerie, and Hermione tried to break it by asking Faith is she was hungry. The blonde had shook her head. Too many feelings were cycling through her fragile body to eat, and she was sure if she even smelled food she would puke. So Hermione left her alone so she could go get a bite for herself.
An hour later, the bus dropped them off at the Knight Bus station, so they could enter Hogwarts. Hermione raised her wand, thought about the huge triple-decker transportation they were in need of and soon the Knight Bus was in seeing distance. The conductor, Stan Shunpike, looked much gaunter now that he had just been released from the wizard prison, Azkaban, and the usually energetic voice he had was long gone, replaced with a hollow, bored one.
"Welcome to the Knight Bus. Better hold on to the rails so you don't puke, and I recommend you don't order hot chocolate because it will spill. Please step up into the Knight Bus and don't bother getting your trunks, because I'm paid to be a slave and bring them on for you," he told them. With the speech being quite a bit different than the one Hermione had heard two years before, it was evident that Mr. Shunpike had indeed been in prison. And the thought of being surrounded by dementors for no reason – just imagining it made her skin tingle and the hairs on her neck stand up. Faith, of course, knew nothing about the wizarding world and thought Stan's speech was quite a bit funny. Her giggles, which Hermione had never heard, were joyous and contagious. Her laugh was the kind that sounded like Christmas bells and could be bottled up and sold. Soon after hearing Faith's laughter, Hermione broke into fits of giggles too, and poor Stan had no clue what was so funny. He shoved them onto the bus, heaved their trunks up, and the bus took off to Hogwarts.
Ron stared around the common room. It seemed so lonely to him without Hermione studying Ancient Runes, or lecturing he and Harry about how no one could apparate into Hogwarts. He chuckled a bit at this memory, but stopped. Why was he laughing? Hermione was gone, and he needed to get her back, no matter what he had to do. That only thing was to write a letter. Ron sat up slowly, stretching his muscles and regaining the feeling in his legs. Groggily he started to walk up the stairs to the boys' dormitories just as he heard female voices outside of the portrait hole, and his foot paused on the first stair. He knew that voice… Hermione and Faith walked into the room, but Hermione stopped in her tracks when she saw Ron standing there, frozen.
"Faith, why don't you go up to my bed? We'll get you settled in a minute," but Hermione never took her eyes off of him. Sensing this was not a moment to ask why, she hurried up the stairs and sat on the bed. 'Her boyfriend', Faith thought.
"You-you're back," was the only thing Ron could say.
"Yeah, listen I'm really, really…" but she stopped, hearing someone shuffling around. Hermione saw Harry's pajama pant leg disappear around the corner before she started again. "I'm really sorry, Ron. I didn't mean that I didn't lo… I never meant…" She broke down sobbing and clasped on the floor in a small heap. Startled, Ron walked over to her and picked her up, embracing her in a comforting hug. They stayed there in that position until Hermione had no tears left, and she whispered in his ear.
"I love you, Ronald." Ron pulled away and looked into her milky, brown eyes. Then he leaned closer to her, pausing just an inch from her lips. Hermione smiled and came closer to him, and letting their lips melt together in their first kiss. This kiss was much more passionate and automatic than the kisses she had with Victor Krum, and it seemed that she could stay there for hours. This kiss was perfect. He wasn't eating her face like he used to with Lavendar, but he wasn't hesitant at all. He really loved her. But then Ron pulled away.
"Let's not tell Harry about this. I just don't want to… you know." Of course she knew what he meant. She had always been like a sister to Harry, and Ron kissing her would surely make him uncomfortable. But as Harry watched them kiss through the crack of the door, a jolt went through his stomach, and it wasn't because Hermione was a sister to him. He wanted to be in Ron's place. He wanted more than for her to be his "sister", and there was a known fact that she wanted nothing more from him. Harry disappeared back into the boys' dormitories, and when Ron came up, he said nothing. He couldn't without Ron hearing his tears.
(A/N: Sorry this is a short chapter, guys. I'm going on vacation and needed to wrap this up. The summary will make sense soon ;)