Disclaimer: I DO NOT own Harry Potter….blah, blah, blah. You know the drill. It all belongs to the FANTABULOUS J.K. Rowling.

Author's Note: I just want to tell all my readers that if you review I will take your ideas and thoughts into consideration and will most certainly appreciate them.

Dante Lewis: Thank you for reviewing! I know that it doesn't seem likely that Dumbledore let the students out at such a time, but let me assure you that it adds to the plot of the story. i really do appreciate your review... they make me feel so loved.Not thatI am not already extremely loved... I mean, who could not love me...

miss energetic: Thanks Natasha for reviewing. it really helps to know that some people like what you write. I actually would really like to hear some of your ideas. They really help when it comes to writing a chapter and needed ideas. I also want to please my readers. But of course, I can please anybody... hahahahaha...

Uploaded: Thursday, February 3, 2005

Chapter 5: Love Confessions and Other Happenings

Harry rolled out of bed the next morning confused and disoriented. Where am I? He thought. Then he gazed around the dormitory and remembered that he was back at Hogwarts. He glanced at the clock on his bedside table and realized he only had an hour before classes started, and he had Potions first thing. He definitely didn't want to be late for Potions, that would just give Professor Snape another reason to punish him. Ron had already gone ahead; Harry saw when he looked at his empty bed. He quickly changed into his robes and went downstairs to the Common Room.

"Harry, we'd better hurry, we have Potions and I want to get there nice and early," said Hermione, who was already taking down notes from her Potions book. Ron was sitting in the chair beside her, wolfing down a stack of toast and marmalade.

"She dragged me out of the Great Hall before I even got to load my plate!" Ron whined. Hermione shook her head and motioned to Harry that she had brought him some toast too. Harry nodded his thanks and attacked the toast.

"Couldn't you boys try to be more civilized?" Hermione asked, exasperated.

"Nope," said Ron through a mouthful of toast, purposely spraying food onto her parchment. Hermione let out an angry cry and swept her books off the table.

"Come find me when you boys can act your age. I'll be outside the dungeons," she said as she crossed the Common room.

"What's eating her?" Harry asked, chuckling at the figure of Hermione as she climbed through the portrait hole.

"I dunno," answered Ron as he started on his last piece of toast.

True to her word, Hermione was sitting outside the dungeons when Harry and Ron showed up. She just glanced up at them and went back to her note taking.

"Hermione, why are you taking so many notes? Classes haven't even started yet," Ron was obviously confused.

"Well, isn't it obvious Ron? We have to get excellent marks in this class if we want to go on to be Aurors," Hermione answered, not even looking up.

"Like she gets anything below Excellent, anyway," Ron muttered. At that moment, Professor Snape opened the door.

"It would do you no harm to listen to Miss Granger, Weasley. She knows what she is talking about." Snape sneered at Ron. The class filed in and took their seats.

"Since you are all here, it means that you have gotten Excellent or above in last years' exams. I expect all of you to be at the Outstanding level at the end of this year…when you graduate. Today we will be brewing Veritaserum. As I have told you before, it is extremely advanced potion-making. Take out your notebooks, copy these notes and begin. You have the whole period to work." The class shuffled around, getting out ingredients and the items needed for making the potion. Ron and Harry were working busily when Hermione started to chuckle and pointed to the other side of the room, where Snape was having a go at Malfoy.

"Mr. Malfoy, I would have expected better of you. You did extremely well in your exams last year and O.W.L.'s the year before. I would have expected that you would be able to brew even an advanced potion like the Veritaserum. You had better buck up, Mr. Malfoy, because N.E.W.T.S are coming up at the end of this year, and I will assure you that much more advanced potions will be on the agenda." Snape scolded. It seemed the Draco had been fooling around with Crabbe, Goyle and Blaise Zabini, bewitching their caldrons to fly over students' heads. Snape saw, and when he strode over to put an end to the childish nonsense, he had realized that Malfoy hadn't even brewed the potion properly.

"I wonder why we didn't notice, "Ron said, concerned. It concerned him because he was either the one making trouble or always the first to notice it.

"Well, you and Harry were concentrating very hard, weren't you? I must say, I'm well proud of the pair of you," Hermione answered, beaming in delight. She had always wished for Ron and Harry to take their lessons more seriously. At the end of the lesson, Snape came around and collected a vial-full of their potion for testing. Surprisingly, Harry noted, Snape didn't even sneer as he came around to their side of the room. The rest of their first day passed, rather uneventfully, except for the pranks that Peeves played on a group unsuspecting first-year girls in the bathroom. The week went by in the same routine as always. Classes, classes, homework and hardly any sleep. Already, as many of the seventh-years complained, the work load was much heavier than they had anticipated.

On Friday, as Harry, Ron and Hermione were making their way back to the Gryffindor Common room; they came across a crowd of students, standing around what seemed to be a notice from the teachers in the Entrance Hall.

"What's this?" Ron asked Seamus, craning his neck to get a better look at the paper. Really, Ron didn't need to crane his neck much, for he had grown about five inches over the past summer.

"They're planning a Hogsmeade trip for tomorrow!" Seamus said, excitedly.

"What, even with You-Know-erm- Voldemort hanging around somewhere?" Hermione asked, sounding critical.

"Yeah, but they said that "teachers will be supervising and patrolling the premises of Hogsmeade at all times" and "no student is allowed into Hogshead Pub"." Seamus read off the paper. Harry grinned. He didn't know why, but he felt that something good was going to happen at Hogsmeade.

"Harry? Harry!" Hermione called, sounding a little annoyed. "Ginny wants to know if she could meet us before Hogsmeade. She's going to meet up with her-umm- friend at The Three Broomsticks." Ron looked at Hermione quizzically and stared at Ginny with a look of pure malevolence on his face.

"What? Oh, yeah sure. No problem," Harry smiled at Ginny. Ginny smiled back at him, completely at ease. Sometimes, Ginny was torn between hanging out with her sixth-year friends or Harry, Ron and Hermione. She felt comfortable, like she could be herself and say anything when she was with Ron and the others. With her friends her age, she was afraid to disagree and she had to pretend that she knew how to be fast with boys. Harry never makes me feel that way, she found herself thinking. What am I saying? I can't like Harry Potter! I can't! Hermione is madly in love with him and I have Dean. Ginny excused herself from her friends and went to the library, the one place she knew she would never find Jaylin and her other friends. Ginny sighed. Why did her life have to be so complicated?

The next day, Harry got out of bed, only to find a note from Ron and Hermione.

Harry,

Ron and I have gone down to breakfast. Come down when you are ready. We'll meet you out by the lake.

Hermione

Harry dressed quickly and stared out the window, taking in the clear sky. He opened it and stuck out his head, breathing deeply. Quietly, Ginny stepped into the room.

"Umm, Harry?" she said quietly. Harry started, and turned toward the sound of her voice.

"Oh. Morning, Ginny," Harry blushed, knowing that he probably looked like a right big prat, with his head sticking out of the window and all.

"Morning Harry. Can we talk?" Ginny sat on the bed when Harry motioned for her to do so.

"Sure. What's up?"

"I don't know. I'm really confused. I think I may be in love with a guy that I don't want to be in love with. No, it's not Dean-but that would make Ron happy wouldn't it- it's… someone else." Harry gaped at Ginny. No girl, except Cho, had ever opened up to him like that. And even then, Cho had been slightly hysterical.

"Well. I guess you should do what your heart tells you,"

"Yeah." Ginny said distractedly. Ginny looked up at the boy sitting beside her. He's not a boy anymore. He's a man now. And I'm still a little girl to him. Look at him, he's just so gorgeous! How can a girl not like him? Ginny thought. Then she did what her heart told her to do… kiss the boy she had loved from afar for so long.

Harry walked into the Great Hall ten minutes later in a haze. He ate a quick breakfast then made his way to the lake. The air outside was warm, with a slight breeze blowing through now and again. He saw Ron and Hermione chatting animatedly, Hermione dangling her feet in the water and Ron sitting against a tree.

"Hi Harry! Ready to go?" Hermione greeted him. He nodded and the trio walked off.

"Wait now, where's Ginny?" Ron asked.

"Oh, she said that she had completely forgotten that she promised her friend Jaylin Warwick that she would meet her outside Ravenclaw Tower." Harry conveyed Ginny's message to the others. After Ginny had kissed him, and he did kiss her back, she had jumped up and run out of the room. As they neared Hogsmeade, Ron remembered that he had planned to go to Zonko's Joke Shop. Harry and Hermione said they would wait for him and The Three Broomsticks. Harry and Hermione chose a table for three and ordered three Butterbeers. Hermione had been rather quiet on the trip and Harry could think of nothing to say. He was still too amazed that Ginny had had the nerve to kiss him. He knew I would have been too scared to try that, and he admired her courage.

"Harry," Hermione said suddenly."

"Mmm?" He said.

"I-umm this is really hard for me, but here goes. I just wanted to tell you that I am in love with you. I know this sounds crazy, but I have always had feelings for you, somewhere deep down." Hermione was out of breath, for she had rushed her confession before she lost her nerve. Harry was speechless. He really didn't know what to say. Not to long ago, he had kissed a girl he thought he liked, and now a girl he knew he liked just confessed her love.

"Hermione, I-I don't know what to say. I like you too, but… well, in the boy's dormitory Ginny had come to talk and we kissed."

"Harry-oh-Harry! I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable. Just forget I ever said anything." Just as Harry was about reply, Ginny raced through the door closely followed by Jaylin.

"Harry, Hermione! Come quick! Ron- he's-he's-oh just come quickly!" Ginny cried

The two jumped up from the table and followed Ginny and Jaylin to Zonko's. When they got there, one of Dumbledore's worst fears had come true. A Hogwarts student had been attacked by Death Eaters under his watch.