A lovely evening

"Bloody hell Ron wake up."

"Try shaking him."

"You shake him, last time I did I had to go to the hospital wing."

"Ok I'll do it."

Neville leaned through the curtains covering Ron's bed and shook Ron's shoulder hard once and then backed up quickly.

Ron sat up, a scream dying on his lips and he looked around the dark room grabbing his wand. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness he saw Neville, Seamus and Dean looking at him a bit scared.

"Ron mate are you all right?"

"I was until you bloody bastards woke me up."

"I can't believe you were asleep. You were yelling like mad, something about Hermione. Not the good kind of yelling either."

Ron rubbed his face and then ran a hand through his hair. "Sorry, I thought I set a silencing charm last night."

Neville looked pale even in the dark "You did Ron, I saw you. We could still hear you through it."

Both Dean and Seamus just nodded behind Neville. Ron looked over at Harry's bed and didn't see any movement.

"Well I hope Harry is getting some rest at least. Look I'm really sorry guys; I'll try and make the charm a bit stronger."

The three of them just nodded and went back to their respective beds. Ron though couldn't get back to sleep and started thinking about the dreams he had been having. He kept seeing something happening to Hermione and him being just a few seconds too late to save her. The way she died changed every night but his being just seconds too late remained the same. It had gotten so bad that Ron had figured out a way to not let Hermione know what he was experiencing. He could now fool the necklace she wore into thinking he was fine when he wasn't. He didn't feel particularly good about doing it but since Hermione was overworking herself and needed all the rest she could get anyway he didn't feel as bad as he might have otherwise. The Hogsmeade weekend and the Valentine's party would be the perfect time to make it up to her, even if she didn't know what he was making up.

As he turned over and tried to get back to sleep he wondered briefly if it was ever going to be easy for all of them.

The next morning came way to soon for Ron and he struggled to get out of bed. To make matters worse Harry had gotten a really good night's sleep and was looking forward to classes that day. Those two things combined to cause the most dreaded event in the Gryffindor sixth year boy's dorm, Harry was singing. Singing though was really too kind for the sort of noise Harry was making and it seemed to be the final insult to Ron who had gotten almost no real sleep and then found himself assaulted by terrible wailing first thing in the morning.

"For Merlin's sake Harry, shut it."

Harry just smiled "Oh come on Ron, it's beautiful day. The sun is shinning and we have Quidditch practice later."

Ron groaned "Oh shite that's today isn't it?"

"It sure is and since I want to beat Ravenclaw we are going to have a really brutal practice."

Ron just snarled and threw a pillow at Ron.

Harry stopped laughing at him for a moment "Seriously Ron if you don't hurry you'll miss breakfast."

At that Ron had jumped out of bed and ignoring his throbbing head, threw on his clothes as fast as possible and ran down the stairs. He burst through the common room and hurried through the hallways and made it to breakfast just in time to load one plate full before the food vanished.

"Ron are you ok?"

Ron turned to see Ginny walking towards him.

"Yeah I'm fine, I've just been having a hard time sleeping."

Hermione looked up from the book she had been reading "You're having trouble sleeping again?"

"Well just a little." He lied.

Hermione hand went up to her neck and her fingers brushed over the necklace he had given her as if she suspected he wasn't being entirely truthful.

"You got an owl before you got down here so I took it. I was a bit surprised it let me since I didn't recognize it but it didn't seem to mind at all."

"Thanks Ginny."

The letter had a gothic style letter B emblazed on the front and was made of a jet black paper. Curious Ron opened it and started to read and choked on his pumpkin juice at the signature on the bottom.

Ronald Weasley,

I am writing to formally request a meeting under the ancient terms of Parley. I believe we have several matters of great importance to discuss. Further more I am indebted to you and wish to discharge said debt as soon as possible. Following the laws of Parley I shall await you on the western side of the Hogwarts Quidditch pitch this Saturday an hour after sundown. In accordance with custom and tradition I will cast the Circle of Peace spell to assure both of our safety. I am certain you will tell no one of our meeting in accordance with tradition as a member of such an old pure blood family.

Until swords cross,

Bellatrix Black

As Ron stuffed the letter into his pocket ignoring everyone's questioning stares the one thing going through his mind was what the ruddy hell was Parley.

"I'm telling you Neville we just need one more part and it will be ready."

"If you say so Ron but I'm glad you will be testing it and not me."

Ron laughed "It's going to be brilliant mate, I can feel it."

"Maybe so Ron but Hermione is going to go spare when she sees it."

"You know Neville I bet she loves it. Deep down inside there is just a touch of the bad girl in Hermione."

"Must be very deep inside." Neville frowned remembering Hermione catching him and Luna in the Room of Requirements after hours.

Ron laughed at the look on Neville's face "Oh come on mate surely your not still mad about her interrupting you two. She's only trying to be a good prefect."

"You don't take points away when you catch us shagging and you're a prefect."

'True but then again I'm a bad prefect so that could be the difference."

"Ok I see your point. We better get to Directed Studies or Moody will hex us to oblivion."

"Right you are Neville; I can't stay late if we don't make it on time. I need to get to the library."

"Boy Hermione really has had an effect on you if you're going to the library on your own." Neville smirked.

"Shut it you, what do you want to bet that Luna has made you a giant lion's head hat for the next Quidditch game?

Neville went pale "You don't think she has do you?"

Ron just grinned at Neville a bit before replying "I heard her telling Ginny about it I'm so to say mate."

"I wonder if I could just not wear it."

"I don't think there's much chance of that if you want to be going to the room of requirements with her any time soon."

"Now let's hurry up and get to class.

A/N I'm sorry I have to post such a terribly short chapter but I was having formatting problems and this is a quick fix. I would also like to say I'm sorry for my slow posting the last few weeks. I had a slight injury while lifting weights that slows down my typing which isn't very good to begin with.

Belanna30: You are one hundred percent correct, so far there has been no mention of how Hermione knew where or what the Circle is. A bit more will be explained in the next chapter(which my the way is going to have a lot of important information in it) and then There will be a chapter a short time from now which will deal almost totally with that subject.