Crazywendy: Thank you for being so worried! I don't mean to scare like that I was just in a massive writers block :S It's all better now, for the most part…lol. I hated writng them break up, but the story just led to it :(
Nebraska Smurphy: Well, Seamus wasn't really "uncomfortable" per say, but he was just weary of Herbert at first. Don't worry though, they'll have a nice chat, and they'll get warmed up to.lol If you haven't noticed by now, yeah…Seamus is kind of my favorite character this story, he'll play a big part later on "hush hush!"
A/N: Here is another chapter finally! I hope you all like it!
Disclaimer: I am not J.K.Rowling, and everything that you see in here is NOT mine. I am just a poor college student with either too much time, or not enough time on her hands!
A/N: HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!
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"Ok, now we cannot…do not make me repeat, make Neville uncomfortable." Hermione was rambling fast to Seamus and Harry as they made haste to the Gryffindor Common Room. "You know how emotional he is over his parents…and well…" she coughed, "anyway, just behave yourselves is all I ask."
"Hermione," Seamus said, "I don't understand….what about Neville and his parents?" Hermione stopped dead in her tracks. Turning around, she sighed and looked at Harry.
Harry looked sadly at Neville, "his parents….St. Mungos. Let's just say, they're still there…but not really."
Seamus opened his mouth to reply, but then realization took over his face. "Oh," was all that he said. As they started to walk down the hallways he spoke up again, "So…in fourth year when Mad-Eye was talking…"
"Yep," was Harry's reply. Seamus just made and understanding noise and followed the other two. They got to the portrait and said the password to get inside the common room.
"Oh great," Hermione muttered. Harry looked ahead and groaned. Seamus looked ahead…and smirked. There standing by the fireplace was none other than Ron.
"Well, isn't this a nice surprise? I went to go find you Harry, to play Wizard's Chess…but I guess you were out with Finnegan and Hermione. That's ok, I suppose we could just play another time…So…what were you guys up to?" Ron spoke quickly without as much as a glance towards Hermione. She walked up to him and looked him square in the eye.
"We need to talk to Neville Ron," she said, "His Dad was the last person known to have a book that will help us decode this foreign language. Are you in?" She watched as Ron turned away from her to pout. Awkwardly, she put a hand on his shoulder to make him look at her. "We would really like for you to be with us…we would like your help."
Smirking, just a little, Ron agreed. "Alright fine, anything to help Dean. Goodness knows he did date my sister and all."
Seamus clasped his hands together, "Well, that settles it then doesn't it? I'll go get Neville and bring him down to see what he can tell us." With that, Seamus bounded up the stairs to the boys' dormitories.
While waiting, the trio sat uncomfortably for a couple minutes. "So," Harry said softly, "I guess it's just us three again isn't it? Kind of like the old days." Ron smirked and chuckled at something.
"Hey Hermione," he started, "Remember that time when you came back to the Common Room and Harry and I had little signs by your 'elf hats' that said "Please take me, I'll set you free!"" He roared with laughter and Harry joined in.
Hermione sat there and scowled as Harry wiped a tear from his eye, "Oh man…Hermione, you should have seen your face…it was priceless. "All the work I've been through and this is what you guys do! What are you, twelve?"" Harry snickered and Ron held his side.
"Yeah," Ron said, "and then Harry's replies, "Why Hermione, don't you know us? We're just shy of fourteen; surely you wouldn't have forgotten our birthdays now? I know those hats are important to you…but c'mon!""
"And as I recall," Hermione scoffed, "I didn't find that statement one bit funny. Was it supposed to be a joke?" She glared at Ron and Harry, "Well!"
Ron shook and wiped his face, he looked Hermione seriously in the face, "Well…no, it's not really a laughing manner Hermione. In fact, it's quite serious." Harry stopped laughing and bowed his head in an ashamed manner as Ron continued, "You see what was making us laugh so much….oh I really shouldn't say this, I'm going to get slugged."
"Oh I'll tell!" Harry started to laugh again, "We were just glad Ron threw away what we were going to put out. Instead of S.P.E.W., we were going to switch some of the letters, add one, and replace the vowel to "I", so that what your badges said was W.H.I.P.S. Ron thought it was too mean, that 'You had spent so much time on them.'"
Hermione stood up furious, "Harry James Potter! You know how much freeing those house elves meant to me. You and Ron would just throw away a years worth of work! And you!" She rounded on Ron, "You were going to let him do that before you got all 'noble' and whatever!"
Ron gasped, "How does that make me the bad guy!" Hermione smirked at him, "It doesn't…I just wanted to say thanks. But Harry here will have to answer to me! Did you really want to do that?"
Harry was struggling to hold back a smile, "….We got you good didn't we Hermione."
Shocked, she looked at Ron who was holding his side chuckling ferociously, "Really Hermione," he said, "Did you really think we were ever that mean?"
"Well…" Hermione started, but she couldn't help it. Within seconds she was laughing right along with the others. They were having such a good time, talking and remembering and just hanging out when Seamus poked his head through the door.
"Harry…you gotta come quickly!"
Harry got up and bounded up the stairs after Seamus. Ron and Hermione sat back down on the couch and the silence began to sink in again. After what seemed a lifetime, but was only a few seconds, Ron spoke, "What do you think happened? I hope Neville is all right."
Hermione nodded, "Yeah, I hope so too." She fiddled with some lose string on the red couch by the fireplace. Ron was tapping his foot silently to some out-of-rhythm song. The silence was killing her; she couldn't take any more of this uncomfortable-ness.
"Ron," she sighed, "Is it ever going to be okay again between us? I mean, we were friends long before we ever went out right? Don't answer that, I know its right. I just want to hang out like we used to…kind of like the summer before our 5th year when we were at the Order…"
Ron coughed and scratched his head, "I would like to be friends Hermione, really…." He started.
"But", Hermione prodded.
"But I still love you, and its way to hard for me to just 'hang out'. I mean, I look at you now and there is nothing more I would rather do than just run my fingers through your hair…and kiss you passionately. I know that it will take some time…you left me suddenly, so I think that's pretty fair of me to ask." Ron sighed, "We could…I don't know, try working on our homework together or something…"
"Yeah," she said, "that would be nice. Homework is nice." She smiled and looked at Ron; she felt a fluttery sort of feeling in her stomach and would have thought about it if Harry and Seamus hadn't run down the stairs.
Ron got up first from the couch and walked over towards them, "So what was it, is he ok?" Hermione scrambled after him and pulled Harry aside while Seamus and Ron talked.
"Harry, what happened?" She looked at him as he looked around the common room. He took her by the elbow and walked a couple steps towards a corner, just in case anyone else was listening. He bent low and whispered, "We're not really sure. Seamus went to go get Neville and when he got there Neville's bed was a mess and the room was a complete disaster. He looked around for a bit and noticed it was all of my stuff that was blowzy. Kind of what happened our second year, now that I think about it…."
Hermione gasped and covered her mouth, she spoke through her fingers, "And that's why he asked only you to come up. Oh Harry, what if someone had been looking for you and Neville got in the way!"
Harry put a hand on Hermione's shoulder, "I think its ok. There was no blood anywhere, and to be fair, Neville is a little on the sloppy side when it comes to waking up." He smiled in spite of the situation and tried to make Hermione feel better. Ron and Seamus came running over.
"Did Harry explain to you Hermione?" Seamus looked worried… "I'm not sure what happened and…"
Seamus was cut off by the portrait opening, and Neville walked in. He stopped and gave a confused look by the 'crowd.' Before he knew what was coming, Hermione threw herself at him and hugged him tightly.
"I'm so glad you're okay!"
"I…I….what's going on?" Neville stuttered and was led to the fireplace by his 4 friends. "I swear I didn't mean to make that potion explode in Snape's class….I could have sworn I had it all right."
"Neville, where the bloody hell were you?" Ron looked at him, "we went to go talk to you and when we got upstairs it looked like you had been attacked!"
Neville looked at his feet, "You know I'm a horrible cleaner in the morning…" Harry poked Hermione, "See I told you."
"How do you explain Harry's stuff thrown all over the place…did something happen while we were gone?" Seamus looked worried and sat down by Hermione.
"Well…it was messy like that when I came upstairs earlier…I just figured Harry had a bad night….or something, I didn't really think about it. I had to go meet Luna about something so I just really didn't pay attention…I'm sorry."
Hermione chuckled, "Neville you don't have to apologize. You haven't done anything; we were just worried about you. Call it friendly concern if you must."
Harry smiled and patted Neville on the back, "Well that solves one problem today, and I think that's pretty good if you ask me!"
Hermione frowned, "Now we just have to figure out who wants you bad enough to trash your room."
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A/N: Please tell me what you think of this story. Is it going way too slow? Should I have more action scenes later? I want you all to like this, so input is important! Thanks!