Disclaimer: i own niether the characters or the setting- those are all JKR's! I do own most of the plot tho!

Hogwarts: A Romance Chapter 4

They entered the Great Hall and took their places at the Gryffindor table, as the rest of the school seated themselves, the students waited for Professor McGonagall to bring in the first years. They all knew what it felt like, and almost every student had to say that they would much rather watch the sorting than be sorted again. Most of the older students felt a twinge of sypathy for the first years,but most of the time, they couldn't really remember their own sorting. All of the second years knew exactly how it felt, and knew that they musn't feel too bad for the first years, because they had to face all the sympathetic looks before, and they wouldn't want to go through it again. All of the students looked toward the heavy oak doors and waited anxiously.

Ron grumbled something about how the sorting is wayyy to slow, and that they should speed it up so that they could eat.

" Ron! I can't believe that you still have the emotional range of a teaspoon! I thought that you might have schanged in light of recent events!"

Ron grinned sheepishly and looked down at his feet. All of the sudden the doors oopened and Professor McGonagall walked down the aisle in between the tables, leading a group of scared looking first years. "Poor kids" Ginny said as she watched a small girl wringing her hands as she walked down towards the platform where a aged three legged stool sat, adorned with a very patched and frayed old wizards hat.

" Let the sorting begin!" Dumbledore called and the hat's brim opened up and started to sing its yearly song.

Oh you little pupils,

Gather round right here, and you will find out

where you will be until your 7th year

Many many years ago, as told in ancient lore,

Some people made this great school,

thus they were called the founders four

The first was Rowena Ravenclaw

She liked students with smarts, so thats where many learned professors

got thier schooling starts.

Number two was Salazar Slytherin,

He liked those who would be true,

those who would grow up to be

the wizarding world's select purebloood few

Godric Gryffindor claimed spot three,

He took the stuents who were much braver,

who he could trust to know that

their loyalties would never waiver.

Last was helga Hufflepuff,

she would take the rest,

for she believed that every students heart was the same

when they tried to do their best.

So this year remember to find those who you can trust

those who you can protecy you, and who you would protect when you must

If you ignore other houses, and decided not to make a single friend,

you might find that your life will lead you to a sticky end

So plave me on your head and I will show you where you oucht to go

and you can meet the people whop you will really get to know!

When the hat finished the song, the school clapped politely until professor dumbledore held up his hand, signaling silence. He looked around at the students and smiled. Everyone waited for him to say something. He opened his mouth, and then shut it again.

Finally he opened his mouth and said "Welcome to Hgowarts school of witchcraft and wizardry! We have some new teachers this year! I would like everyone to give a warm welcome to Professor Slughorn! He will be filling the position of ..."

Harry leaned over towards Ron and they both whispered

"Defense Against the D-"

"Potions Master" Dumbledore finished.

There was a stunned silence, then the hall broke out into talk. All around the hall the students were talking. All of the gryffindors were still silent, none of them dared to look at anyone else.

They all knew that one thing was certain, Snape, the former potions master, hated them all, and the other empty position at the school was Defense Against the Dark Arts. Everyone knew that the Gryffindors excelled in that subject, and that Snape was not their favorite person. This new arrangement, however, made it so that Snape would have to take the only empty position into...

"Professor Snape will be moving into a new subject this year! He will be teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts." Dumbledore looked at the Gryffindor table, for some strange reason, Harry felt that Dumbledore was looking at only him, as if somehow asking Harry's opinion on the switch.

Harry just looked at the ground. Food sudenly appeared on the plates.

As the school ate, Hermione just stared into space, she was still vividly remembering what had happened on the train.

"Will the prefects please show the first years to the dormitories." The whole school just stared at him, Ginny noticed that all the teachers were too.

She stood up and said "um.. Professor, the hat hasn't even sorted the new students into the houses yet!" She sat back down as everyone looked to Dumbledore, seeing what he had to say about that.

"Oh, I forgot to mention, we sorted the students over the summer! The hat is just tradition! All of the students should know what house they're in!"

The students were a bit surprised by this smidgen of news. Ron and Hermione stood up and looked for the students who were standing around the table, looking a bit nervous.

"First years, please follow us!" They called, joining the new 5th year prefects as they walked towards the door.

As the students entered the Gryffindor common room, a new babble of chatter rang out.

"Snape can't be teaching Defense Against the Dark arts! I'm not good at it already! He'll fail me!" Neville said, putting his head on his hands.

"oh yes!" Lavendar added quickly "He will be terrrible to us gryffindors!" She looked around, and then, for some odd reasons added

"Won't it be terrible Ron?".

Ron, who was playing chess, jumped about a foot in the air as if he had just been branded with a hot iron. "Wh- what ?whozaiddit?"

Lavendar giggled and started walking towards the girl's dormitories.

"Its really late now,I'm going up to bed, are you coming hermione?" Ginny asked, following Lavendar.

"Not right now, I have to do...something" Hermione said, blushing a bit.Ginny rolled her eyes and headed up the stairs.

Harry started for the potrait hole, on his way to dumbledore's office. As ron went to the hole with him, Hermione hurried up the stairs to the boy's dormitories. She knew that it would be empty because neville had eaten something that looked oddly like a Weasley's Wizard wheezes product and was in the nurses office for the night. Seamus had decided that he was going to go to the room of requirement to practice some spells. he had said that he wouldn't be back until about two in the morning. Dean had gone with seamus. Hermione hopped onto ron's bed, wondering if she was really going to do this. She decided to do it though. She took off her shirt and then unclasped her bra, but she didn't want to take it off yet- jsut in case. She pulled the curtains shut and tried to breathe noramally. After a few minutes, she heard Ron come into the room.

"huh? why are the curtains closed?" She heard him mutter. She watched his hand touuch the curtain, and he pulled it aside in one swift motion. He just stared at her. She smiled slightly

"uh- i was thinking that we could maybe pick up where we left off on the Hogwarts express!" Ron nodded "so- where did we leave off?"

Ron pointed at her bra "you...were...about to..umm..to ..yeah" He grinned sheepishly . Hermione reached up and closed the curtains again, hiding them fom view.

Inside the curtains, Hermione once again reached for her bra. She slowly started to pull it off, not looking at Ron. Ron stopped her when she was about half way through.

"'Mione, why are we doing this?"

"Ron, i really like you, and you really like me, so I thought that..well, you know"

"Oh- yeah, i guess you're right." Hermione turned around and took her bra all the way off, her back was towards Ron though.

"umm...you going to turn around? I mean, I only got to see for like, thirty seconds on the train" Ron said quietly.

Hermione turned just slightly so that Ron could only see the outline of her body. Then, as if she had just realized what she was doing.

"Ron- I shouldn't be here...we shouldn't...I truly love you, but... i want this so bad...but..." She reached for her bra, but it had gone under the bed.

Ron didn't want her to leave, he wanted her to stay forever, he loved her, and he wanted to prove it to her somehow. She was his life, his angel, he never wanted to be without her. He grabbed her arm, pulling her closer. Then he leaned down and kissed her. Hermione wrapped her arm around his neck, feeling like she was floating on a cloud, and deepened the kiss. They kissed and kissed, each kiss getting more passionate every time. Ron put his hands everywhere, but Hermione didn't mind at all. They were really heavily snogging by now, and Hermione was very glad that she didn't have a bra on.

Suddenly, she sat up. "Ron, did you hear that?" She asked , listening to the distant footsteps.

"Oh no! Harry must be back!" ron said as hermione threw on her bra and shirt again.She gave him a quick kiss and headed towards the door.

"Goodnight Ron." She walked out the door and into the night. Ron put his hands to his lips. He had his dream girl as his girlfriend, and she loved him just as much as he loved her. As he fell asleep, he vowed never to forget that night as long as he lived.