Ch. 6 Teaspoon of Emotion
As soon as Hermione left the common room, she broke into a run. The tears ran freely now. She could not get Ron's expression of utter shock and frustration out of her head. Did she really mean what she was saying? No….not at all. Why in the world had she said that she had fallen out of love with Ron? Hermione entered the girl's room and leaped on her bed, closing the surrounding curtain around her bed and dug her head in the pillow. Why, why, why had she said that? And things were good between them for once. Now she had ruined everything. She sobbed but it was muffled by the pillow. Would he ever forgive her. She knew deep down she had just said that out of pure spite. She was frustrated and confused too. Instead of opening herself up to love she had turned it away. Why had she done that? Probably, out of fear she thought. Fear that if anything were ever to happen she would loose the man she loved forever and in the process hurt more. Was that even possible? Her heart was aching at the moment from having hurt the one man she had always loved and who had just admitted to liking her back. I am such a git! She thought to herself. Hermione pounded her fist into the pillow. Man, I am such a git!
Ron ran a hand over his face as if in doing so he could wipe away the memory of what had just happened. He turned to the fire and then back to the doorway. Had that just really happened? He thought to himself. Had he, Ron Weasely, kissed Hermione Granger? Yes he thought. He sure did. If it had been under any other circumstances he would've smiled to himself. But as it were, it was a bad situation. A very bad situation. And to make things worse, he would have to face her in class tomorrow. Ron felt numb all over. His legs felt like lead and the thought of climbing the stairs to the boy's dorm made him feel queasy. Hopefully the rest of them would be asleep by now. He ran his hands through his hair. Was what Hermione said true? Had she really fallen out of love with him? How was that possible? Who…besides himself would she have feelings for. Victor Krum The mere thought of it disgusted Ron to no end. Resentment and anger began to boil up inside him. But of course. How could he have thought any different? Of course Hermione would rather fall for someone like Victor Krum than himself. And yet….A small part of him did not want to believe this. A small part of him wanted to believe that Hermione indeed had feelings for him even if she was difficult to figure out. Dammit! Ron thought to himself. Bloody Hermione! Why did he have to fall for her? The shock of the moments before had now turned to anger. Anger at Hermione for saying such things. Anger at Victor Krum if it really was true and anger at himself for not saying something sooner. If only he had said something sooner. Ron decided to go to bed. No point in standing in the dark thinking about a girl who just had ripped out his heart and stomped on it. They were supposed to be friends anyway. And now? Were they going to be friends now? Ron's biggest fear had come to life in the course of the evening. Suddenly, his life felt duller and gloom set in. Ron reached his dorm and threw himself on the bed without changing. What was the point? Tomorrow would be another day without Hermione in his life. Could he deal with it? His hand felt something hard under the pillow. He pulled the mysterious object out and squinted in the moon light to see what it was. The love potion; He had completely forgotten about it. Ron's thoughts whirled. Could he use this to make Hermione love him? A small voice in his head was yelling. 'Fake love is not real love!' True Ron thought. But then again……..No he thought. He could not do it out of loyalty to his friend. He could not live with himself if he did that. Ron stood up and stuffed the small bottle in his sock drawer before returning to bed. He pulled the curtains closed and pulled the blanket over his head. His heart felt heavy and he felt more miserable than he had in a long time. It was as if a boulder was sitting on top of his heart and crushing all the life out of it. Ron felt empty.
He cried that night. Not only for loosing his true love but for all the injustices in the world that had ever befallen him. There you go Hermione, Yes, I do have more emotion than a tea spoon.
The following day, Harry noticed a change in his friends. Ron left quickly to go to breakfast without saying anything to him and Hermione when he met her in the common room talked little and seemed distant. Then, when they entered the Great Hall for breakfast, Ron mumbled something about having to finish some Potion essay and left the table with a quick nod to Harry and completely ignoring Hermione. Harry was completely confused about the change of attitude and couldn't put his finger on what could have happened.
"Hermione…"Harry asked while cutting his scrambled eggs. " What is going on with you and Ron?"
"Nothing." Hermione replied suddenly really interested in her bacon.
Harry raised an eyebrow as he looked at her. Something fishy is going on here. He thought.
"I thought things were better between you and Ron?"
"Oh..Harry…Did you finished your Herbology homework? It was quite interesting actually!" Hermione said overly enthusiastically. She definitely did NOT want to talk about Ron. Harry got the hint.
"Yea…..finished that. Wasn't too bad."
The two finished breakfast in silence. Hermione was definitely not in the talking mood and when her Daily Prophet came she hide behind it, engrossed in some article or another. Harry, instead, trying not to catch the bad mood that seemed to have taken hold of his friends, started a nice conversation with Ginny.
"So Ginny, what are you doing today?"
"Er…nothing." Ginny simply said, glanced at Hermione and then back to her breakfast.
What in the world is going on here! Harry could not understand it at all. Now he was catching the terrible mood of the morning. Great! After a few more minutes of pushing around his breakfast on his plate (he simply did not have any appetite this morning), Harry excused himself from the table and left for the quite refines of the Gryffindor tower. He did not want to continue sitting with the grumpy bunch downstairs! Harry decided that he would definitely have to talk to Ginny later. He was worried that if he didn't make his move fast, someone else would ask her to the Ball. Yes, Harry decided as he reached the Fat Lady (Puffy Willows) and entered the Gryffindor common room. Ron was no where to be found. This suited Harry just fine. He really didn't need to talk to anyone at the moment. Hermione, Ron, and Ginny seemed to have caught some sort of bad mood flu and he did not want to have that. Harry decided to finish some homework so later if the weathered cleared (he hoped it would) he would then be able to practice some Quidditch. Quidditch is what keeps me sane.
As soon as Harry had left the table and was out of hearing distance (which was not far considering the noise of the Great Hall) Ginny spoke with Hermione about their plans for meeting with Dumbledore.
"Spsssst! Hermione!" Ginny said in a loud whisper as she leaned over the table to be in closer range with Hermione. "When do you want to meet with Dumbledore?"
Hermione peeked over the Daily Prophet, "I dunno…..lets say right after breakfast? We could just go and then separate ourselves from the group. I think this way it would be less obvious."
"Would it really matter?"
"Yes!" Hermione said. "We don't want people to start asking random question! I mean really….the only time anyone goes directly to Dumbledore's office is if there is a problem. We don't want people to be suspicious."
"I think you're paranoid." Ginny said.
"Why are you going to Dumbledore's office?" Neville asked innocently.
Grrr… thought Hermione. Must he be so nosey?
"No reason!" Ginny and Hermione said in unison.
"Riiight…." Neville said. Great…..what if he tells Harry or Ron what we are up to? Thought Hermione. Hermione searched her brain for a feasible reason for her and Ginny's visitation.
"Um…….we have a question about the Ball!" Hermione said with a smile and a wink at Ginny who grinned at her quick minded friend.
"Oh.." Neville said with disappointment. "Thought you guys were up to something exciting." Her turned away from them and poured himself more pumpkin juice.
Pheewww…. Close one. Turning to Ginny once again Hermione said,
"Ok…so want to leave now?"
"sure."
The two of them excused themselves from the table and Neville looked at them suspiciously but Hermione just smiled at him which caused him to blush profusely.
The two girls hurried out of the Great Hall and up the steps to where Dumbledore's office was.
"Shoot!" Hermione exclaimed as she remembered that the office was guarded by the gargoyle. "I don't remember the pass word!"
Ginny frowned and thought about it for a moment. "I think its…..Pickle juice."
Hermione looked at her friend questionably. " Pickle juice? But why would that be the password?"
"well, it is a flavor of Beaties Every Flavor Bean isn't it?" Ginny said.
"yes….And why would that be it?"
Ginny rolled her eyes, " Hermione, really, everyone knows that Dumbledore hates those beans. What better password to use than that? It would be the last thing anyone would think off."
"well, you thought of it."
"Yea..well….I had some help." Ginny replied with a guilty grin.
"from who?" Hermione asked in surprise. " Who told you?"
"never mind that! Just say the password!"
"Who was it?"
Ginny frowned a little but knew how stubborn Hermione was about obtaining more information (if that was even humanly possible) about anything.
"Harry." She said simply. "Now will you open that bloody door!" Ginny almost yelled the last bit.
Hermione grinned triumphantly and then turned to face the gargoyle but met face to cloak. She looked up and saw Prof. McGonagall with a grim expression looking down to her.
"I was wondering what all the commotion was about."
"eh…yea….sorry…ma'am." Hermione stammered and Ginny quickly felt embarrassed for swearing in front of the Headmistress.
"So how can I help you? You seemed quite determined to come into my office." She looked at Ginny and smiled. " Good thinking on the Beans. But I am sorry that I have changed the password again so it would've been no use to you."
Hermione looked at Ginny and Ginny back to Hermione. Hermione turned to Prof. McGonagall. and said, " we want to talk to Dumbledore!"
"really? Why is that? Something wrong?" She looked from one girl to the other.
"Noo…not really." Hermione started. "we just want to asked him a question. Is it okay?"
Prof. McGonagall looked defeated and then with her usual frown ushered the girls into her office. It looked exactly the same as when Dumbledore had been there. Hermione quickly walked over to the painting of Dumbledore which was sleeping, and tapped on it. Dumbledore stirred and gave a loud snore inhaling some of his beard but then continued to sleep. Hermione gave Ginny a look and she came over too.
Prof. McGonagall then decided to intervene but stopped herself. Hermione tapped again!
"Wake up! Wake up!" she said as she was tapping. "Ginny and I want to ask you something!"
"wha…what…is going on here?" Dumbledore said with a yawn. He looked down from the painting and then smiled.
"Oh hello Ginny and Hermione." He had his usual twinkle in his eye.
"We need to know about a store in Hogsmead!" Hermione said.
"Yea..we need to know if you knew it existed because we found it the other day!" Ginny added.
"A new store?" McGonagall asked.
Hermione ignored her and continued. " It is called Magic Spells That No One Sells. Have you heard of it?"
Dumbledore stared at them from his frame, " No. I know nothing about that."
Hermione's hope faltered. She really had believed that Dumbledore would be able to help 'from beyond the grave'. But no…obviously not. Defeated she turned to Ginny, "Well, I guess that settles it." Turning back to Dumbledore she said, " Thanks….have a good rest…" But she saw that Dumbledore had already fallen asleep again. Hermione sighed and then thanked McGonagall for letting them try.
"What is this store you speak of?" she questioned them. "I have never heard of such a store either."
"Must be very new then." Ginny said with a shrug. The two girls left the office feeling very down. Both had strongly believed that Dumbledore would be able to give them more insight. Then again, he was just a painting but a few memories tended to reside in the paintings of really strong wizards. I guess that wasn't one. Hermione thought to herself.
To Ginny she said, " Let's go back to the tower. We have some researching to do." Hermione marched down the hall with a frown from Ginny who then hurried behind her trying to keep up with her steps.
Ron felt depressed. No, depressed was not even close to how he felt. Ron rolled over on his bed. He didn't feel like doing anything. He went to his sock drawer and took out the love potion bottle. Ron could at least return it to Hogsmead. Yea, he thought he could do that right now. Ron stared at the bottle and thought his options over one more time and then walked out of the dorm and to the common room. Once he got to the common room he realized he had forgotten his jacket, (it was a bit dreary and chilly out) so he dashed upstairs to retrieve it. Ron placed the bottle on the table; he figured no one would be back for a while.
Harry entered the common room. What a day. He slumped down in the chair closest to the fireplace. Then his eye caught something. Is that…. Harry moved closer. Yea it was! The love potion from Ron was sitting on the table. I wonder where Ron is? He asked himself. It was so unlike him to leave something like this out in the open for anyone to see. Harry took the bottle into his hands and examined it. The liquid swished around inside it, a bright red color. I wonder…he thought. Harry knew it was a bad idea but his curiosity got the best of him. He grabbed a bottle of butter beer (left over from a previous party) and poured it into a glass. Then he opened the bottle of love potion and using a teaspoon he slowly added two filled with the liquid. As he poured them into the cup the mixture hissed and then stopped. Harry thought about giving this to Ginny just to see what would happen. He figured if anything were to happen they could just find the antidote for it. No big deal. To his luck, Ginny and Hermione came marching into the room. Upon seeing him they stopped.
"Hello Harry what are you doing?" Harry was so surprised to see them that he almost dropped the glass (he had placed the bottle in his pocket).
"Err…um….just relaxing." He hoped that his voice didn't come of guilty. "Ginny, can I talk to you for a second?"
"sure." Ginny looked at Hermione with a smile and mouthed "be right back."
Hermione made her way over to the chairs by the fire. The glass on the table caught her attention. Oh..so Harry had been drinking butter beer has he? She decided to try some and went to pick up the glass. Hermione glanced over and saw that Harry and Ginny were in a deep discussion. Good for her! She thought and then placed the cup to her mouth and drank.
Harry was trying to talk casually to Ginny about the Ball and slowly work up to asking her. Then he figured he could give her some of the butter beer as a happiness toast and she would drink it. He would say something to her and then Harry could see if it really worked. Simple! He thought. Something caught Harry's attention. Hermione was drinking something. Oh ok..no big deal. Then Harry froze. He felt himself turning pale and without thinking he yelled "HERMIONE NO!"
Hermione placed the glass down. As if in a dream she felt herself stand up and walk over to Harry. She did not noticed the shocked expression of him or of Ginny. Hermione didn't notice the surprised scream of "No!" from Ginny as she kissed Harry on the mouth. Harry's eyes grew wide with shock. So the potion wasn't kidding.
Ron had finally found his jacket. It had been somewhere way at the bottom of his trunk. First he had searched through the closet and then finally decided on searching through the trunk. Happy to be on his way and rid of the potion, he made his way down to the common room. Ron stopped short in his tracks as he reached the opening into the Common Room. Harry and Hermione? He dropped his jacket. All he saw was Hermione and Harry kissing and Ginny…poor Ginny ..had tears streaming from her eyes. No! This can't be happening! So the guy Hermione likes is not Victor Krum. It's…it's HARRY!