The next couple of weeks passed in a blur for Hermione. All five of them spent most of their time studying and practicing as many different spells as they could find. Harry left for a couple of hours everyday to study with different members of the Order, and came back looking tired and dejected. By an unspoken agreement Harry and Hermione had decided to act like they were friends in front of the others. In the early hours of the morning they would meet in the garden with Harry's invisibility cloak and spend hours talking and kissing. They had not lost control since the evening spent on the side of the country road. Not because they didn't want to, but because they understood that it was not wise to jump into things like that so quickly. Well…Hermione knew it wasn't wise and reminded Harry breathlessly on a regular basis. She didn't regret losing control with Harry that night, but she did want their relationship to be in the open before anything else like that happened. She wanted things like that to be special, and it couldn't be as special as they wanted if they were keeping their relationship a secret. She didn't feel like they had anything to be ashamed of, but she would feel ashamed of anything she did with Harry if Ron had no idea about them. They found out things about each other that no one else in the world knew, and Hermione knew that she was falling for Harry harder than she had ever thought possible. They knew that what they were doing was unfair to Ron. They knew that they would have to tell him sooner or later, but every time Harry would mention Hermione's name Ron would interrupt with -

"I'm not interested in anything to do with Hermione," and walk away quickly. Harry knew that he was trying hard to be nice to Hermione and act like they were best friends again. Everyone could feel the tension, and Luna was quite fond of pointing it out. Every time Ron tried to make a joke about Hermione it came out bitter and nasty. Harry was having a hard time controlling his anger.

So the weeks passed, with Harry and Hermione's secret meetings at night and meaningful looks during the day. Harry knew that he had never felt this way about another girl before, but he was scared of admitting just how much she meant to him. What kind of danger would that put her in? He woke up every morning and wondered if today was the day she was going to see what he really was and run off with Ron after all.

It was a Friday evening, and after a gruelling week of hard work everyone was sitting in the living room playing games of chess and exploding snap. Ron left the game to go into the kitchen and came out with a large bottle of firewhisky. He put it on the table along with five glasses and poured them all a liberal amount.

"Oh how lovely," said Luna vaguely. She reached for the glass and swallowed the whisky in one. Then she pondered how to attack Ron's Knight, oblivious to everyone staring at her. Harry grinned at Ron and raised his glass…they swallowed it together and tried to look as cool about it as Luna had…they didn't succeed. Ron stood up and coughed loudly. Harry made a very unattractive face, which made Hermione and Susan laugh.

"If you two think it's that funny you try and do it without making a face," Ron said with his eyebrows raised. Susan grabbed the glass and swallowed it quickly, making a slight gagging noise. Hermione looked at all of them and shook her head. She stood up, reached for the glass and swallowed it as deftly as Luna. Harry grinned at her, but Ron simply poured everyone another glass. The evening was spent with the five of them getting louder and louder. Soon the games were abandoned as each of them began telling stories, which were a lot funnier than usual. Eventually it moved onto drunken guessing games and Harry wondered why Hermione was still getting everything right when she was totally drunk.

"All right! If you don't guess this one you all have to take a shot!" Ron said drunkenly and wobbled as he tried to stay standing. "Who was the wonderful but obviously gay author of the book 'magical me'" Harry started laughing as Ron did a very good impression of Lockhart's swaggering walk.

"Gilderoy Lockhart!" Susan said "But I really don't think he was gay…"

"Right!" said Ron pouring four shots "Sue got it right so everyone else take a shot!" They all knew that this was a ridiculous rule that meant four people had to take a shot every time a question was asked. No one really seemed to mind too much however, courtesy of the firewhisky. Susan tried to stand up, but ended up leaning on the couch trying not to fall off.

"Ok ok…" she said with a definite slur to her words "who shagged in the astronomy tower last year and was caught by Filch?" Hermione, Harry and Ron all looked at each other confused but Luna put her hand up quickly.

"Cho Chang and Michael Corner!" said Luna, and then toppled onto the floor. "Ooof…Tumbled over…" Everyone roared with laughter as Luna tried to get up but couldn't seem to find her balance. Eventually she gave up and just sat on the floor, her eyes seemed to be wider with the drink. She grabbed her wand and tied her hair up with it.

"That looks cute," said Susan surprised. "Lemme try it…" All the girls eventually put their hair up with their wands, though it took quite a while and the effect wasn't quite as cute as they all thought.

"Right, 's my turn…" said Luna loudly "Who is the heir of Slytherin?" Everyone except Susan put his or her hands up and she merrily reached for more firewhisky.

"Voldemort," said Harry loudly, echoed by Hermione whilst Ron said "Ssssnake Face". Susan shuddered at the name but no one seemed to notice.

"You know…" slurred Luna dreamily "My father told me that my mother and I are direct descendants of Rowena Ravenclaw." Everyone giggled at this idea but Hermione looked quite thoughtful. She summoned a book from her bag called 'Useful charms for every occasion' by Francis Bubbowter . She read through it not quite as quickly as normal and kept blinking her eyes in an attempt to focus.

"Only Hermione reads when she's drunk," said Ron, in a joking way. Everyone sensed that Ron wasn't really joking and the room when a little quiet. Hermione uttered a few words under her breath and stood up from the couch. She removed the wand from her hair and began to gather her things.

"What did you just do?" asked Harry.

"Sobering charm," said Hermione quickly "I've got to look up a few things before I go to bed, and I doubt I'd be able to do it with that much firewhisky in me. Night everyone." With that she made her way to the study and sealed the door.

"Nice to see she can just let go and party, eh Harry?" said Ron, filling his glass once again.

"Leave her alone Ron," said Harry with a warning tone in his voice.

"Leave her alone Ron," mimicked Ron in a squeaky slurred voice "She's not your girlfriend mate, no need to get pissed off." Susan stood up from where she was sitting and wobbled dangerously.

"I'm going to bed." she said and attempted to walk out of the room. She held onto the doorframe and leant against the walls before Harry decided to help her. Together they laughed hysterically all the way upstairs, each trying to balance the other without much success. Their thuds echoed down the stairs as each of them fell over several times.

Luna was still sitting on the floor and Ron was still drinking. She got up onto her knees and grabbed the bottle from Ron taking a large swig. Ron looked at her and started laughing.

"Never thought you'd be the type to handle firewhisky well Loony," he said, and took a swig himself. He half moved and half fell off the couch and sat on the floor with her.

"You're being quite nasty to Hermione you know," said Luna.

"You told me before," said Ron "I'm not being nasty to her, she just can't take a joke. Neither can you lot"

"It's not a very funny joke when it's mean about someone." said Luna and stared at the floor. "People think it's funny when they say nasty things about me, but I don't find it funny at all." Ron stared at the floor for a while before he finally spoke.

"I'm sorry for anything nasty I said about you." he said quietly "I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. I don't mean to be nasty towards Hermione either but I don't know how to act. I can't believe she doesn't want to be with me after all this time. It's hard trying to be her friend again when I'm angry at her."

"You'll get over it eventually Ron." said Luna "She was your friend before all this and she will be after" Ron remembered Harry's words that closely resembled what Luna had just said. He saw a new kind of wise ness in Luna that he hadn't seen before and was quite surprised. He looked at Luna and gave her a very big (and very drunk) smile. He put his arm around her and dragged her closer to him.

"Loony, Loony, Loony," he said and loudly kissed her cheek "No wonder you're in Ravenclaw. Me, I'm just dumb, but you're very smart. No wonder Harry wanted to have you with us. I'm glad, we need more brains around here to make up for me!"

"Ronald," said Luna "You are much smarter than you think. Now stop this self-pity nonsense and play me at chess. I'll beat you this time…" she turned to get the chess set but had problems trying to remember where they had put it.

"You're really nice to me Loony," said Ron drunkenly. He reached turned her head towards him and put his mouth on hers. Luna was in shock at first. What on earth was Ronald playing at? 'He would never look twice at someone like me!' she thought. Then she decided that this was what she had wanted for a while, and at least she could avoid some embarrassment by pretending that she was drunk too. So she opened her mouth and let him kiss her until they were both breathing heavily. He finally broke away and looked curiously into her eyes.

"Was that ok?" he asked. Luna smiled and nodded her head vigorously. Ron smiled back and kissed her again. Eventually he pulled away and began shaking his head. Luna's heart dropped to her stomach when she remembered that her daydream had not involved kissing Ron so drunk that he had no idea what he was really doing.

"We're both very drunk," she said very calmly "Don't feel bad. But I do think we ought to go to bed." Ron nodded his head in agreement and eventually they managed to get up the stairs, eventually they managed to find their rooms (after going into Harry and Susan's rooms... several times). Luna lay in bed and thought about Ron's kiss. She knew it only happened because he was drunk, and she knew it would never happen again. But she decided that it was the closest someone like her would ever get to living out her daydreams, and that was enough. Ron lay on his bed and thought about undressing, but after a couple of feeble attempts that landed him on the floor he decided not to. He passed out on the floor and didn't dream at all.

Hermione worked long into the night without a break, amazed and a little frightened at what she was learning.