Chapter 61
As Ron predicted, Harry didn't bother turning up for his Charms lesson, opting to spend the afternoon in the stands of the Quidditch pitch instead. From there he had an excellent view of the castle and the grounds, yet he, himself, was more or less hidden from sight. Ron certainly didn't seem to know where he was hiding. He never even glanced at the pitch when he came out of the castle and met Hermione outside the greenhouses when her Herbology lesson ended.
Of course if they really wanted to find him, Harry knew they'd be able to now that Hermione was finished with her classes as well. She still had the Marauder's Map in her possession after all, but he'd be damned if he was going to give her the satisfaction of asking for it back just so he could brood in peace. Then again, it was his and if he told Ron that he wanted it back, who was he to argue?
Not that he took Hermione's side earlier, Harry reminded himself. Well, not completely. Ron had actually been remarkably quiet during the exchange that took place between him and Hermione after her confession.
, Harry reminded himself. Ron had actually been remarkably quiet during the exchange that took place between him and Hermione after her confession.He didn't really know what he expected from Ron now that the two of them were officially a couple. Ron and Hermione still fought with each other the same as always, but Ron hadn't backed him in his own fight with Hermione. Before they were together, Ron almost always sided with him when he had a serious argument with Hermione, but this time that didn't happen. He didn't really side with either of them in the beginning, and when pushed to the point that remaining silent was no longer an option, Ron had taken on the role of intermediary rather than choose one side and sticking with it.
He'd obviously agreed that Hermione was completely out of line though, because he admitted that he'd already told her off for it. But just as Harry started to believe he had his ally back, Ron changed gears and made some statement about how Hermione's intentions had been good, and about how she knew that she'd messed up, which is why she'd confessed, and how that had to count for something.
Where the hell did that logical, see both sides of the story, Ron come from anyway? Harry had to wonder. What happened to the hot headed best mate that used to get insulted on my behalf and go on the defensive? Ok, so they're together now, and obviously he's not going to be hacked off at her just because I am, but come on. He could have stood behind me and yelled 'Yeah!' a few times.
Who cares if she meant well? Harry fumed. She still went about, shouting to the rooftops that any girl thick enough to fancy me must have a death wish. I don't care if the bloody room was shielded or not. She told Parvati and Lavender, which is that same thing as telling everyone else, because EVERYONE knows what big mouths they have. Every girl in school will avoid me like the sodding plague from now on. Thanks a lot, Hermione.
What do you care if I spend the rest of my life alone and miserable? You have Ron and he has you, but I'm not allowed to have anything like that, am I? I'm supposed to just sit around and be happy for you. You expect me to be content watching the two of you snog? What, I'm supposed to just wait around, all by myself, when you decide to sneak off an have a shag, because eventually you'll come back and spend some time with me? How bloody fair is that?
No one ever said life was fair, a little voice piped in from the back of his head.
Harry had to wonder. Harry fumed. a little voice piped in from the back of his head.SHUT UP! Harry rebuked himself. That's not the bloody point.
Harry rebuked himself.Fortunately for him, he did it in his head and hadn't actually shouted the words out loud, because if he had, chances are he would have drawn attention to himself. Time had slipped away from him and now that the afternoon classes had let out, the Slytherin Quidditch team was about to start their practice. They were still on the ground, but they wouldn't be for long and it probably wasn't such a good idea to get caught in the stands on his own just now.
Not that he was afraid of them, mind you. Truth be told, Harry was almost tempted to let them see him, because he knew what would happen. There was no way in hell they'd pass up an opportunity to take out the opposing team's Seeker a week before the match, and when they came after him, he'd be able to turn his anger on them and vent some of his aggravation as he fought back. Not having a broom would put him at a disadvantage, as would the fact that it would be seven against one, but that isn't what stopped him.
In the end it was the knowledge that he'd likely be the only one to receive a reprimand that finally got his feet moving and caused him to duck into the stairwell when they mounted their brooms. Snape always looked the other way when the Slytherins tried to rough up members of the opposing Quidditch teams, but it would be a different story if he fought back and managed to incapacitate a few of them in return. He'd just gotten his Quidditch privileges back after an unwarranted lifetime ban and he didn't really want to risk getting another one. Quidditch was the only diversion he had left thanks to Hermione. He couldn't go to Hogsmeade anymore. It didn't look like he'd ever have a girlfriend of his own now. Quidditch was the only respite he had from an existence that was completely buggered otherwise.
BREAK...BREAK
Harry didn't show up in the Great Hall for dinner until after the Slytherins had called it quits and retired themselves. It had been an intentional move on his part. He assumed that Ron and Hermione would have come and gone by that point, but as soon as he stepped through the oak doors he realized that he was wrong. Whether they had waited for him in the common room and then come down late themselves, when he didn't show up, or whether they had been waited from him in the Great Hall the whole time, he didn't know, or care. Nor did it matter, as he had no intentions of sitting with them.
Might as well get used to being on my own, he told himself as he approached the nearly empty Gryffindor table and deliberately took a seat at the far end away from where his friends were seated.
But apparently they weren't going to let him get away with it. Ron leaned forward and said something to Hermione as Harry was loading his plate full of food, and then the two of them stood up. Harry was sure that they were going to approach him together, but as they got closer, Hermione broke away and headed towards the door, leaving Ron to continued forward on his own.
"Hey," the redhead said as he sat down beside his sulking friend. "You aren't giving me the silent treatment too, are you?" Ron asked, when Harry shoveled more food into his mouth and ignored his greeting. "Because I didn't do anything."
"Whatever," Harry mumbled after swallowing.
"Oh so it's my fault now?" Ron replied.
"What's this?" a familiar voice drawled behind them. "Trouble in paradise? Potty and the Weasel King have a falling out?"
"Sod off Malfoy," Harry said, without even bothering to turn around and face the smirking Slytherin.
"So is it true?" he heard Crabbe ask. "Did you really make it up into the girls' dorms?"
Aw, Harry thought. That's why they're here. They want to know how he did it.
, Harry thought."That just proves it, doesn't it?" Malfoy sniggered. "The stairs don't react to poufs. No wonder you Keep like a girl, Weasel. You are one. Afraid of the Quaffle? Worried about breaking a nail? Is that why you can't catch it?"
"Bugger off," Ron snapped, his ears and face glowing red as his nemesis taunted him.
"Weasley cannot save a thing," Malfoy sang out, as his mates laughed. "He cannot block a single ring. That's why Slytherins all sing: Weasley is our King. Gonna have to change that to Queen now, aren't we?"
"Shut up, Malfoy!" Hermione hissed as she unexpectedly reappeared in the Great Hall and stormed over to where the Slytherins were standing. "Don't listen to him, Ron," she added, clearly enraged. "He's just trying to mess with your head. "
"Well, what do we have here?" Draco scoffed. "The Mud-blood coming to the defense of Potter's pet pouf?"
"DON'T CALL HER THAT!" Ron yelled, pushing away from the table and standing upright. But before he had the chance to pull his wand, Hermione, who already had hers in hand, lifted it upright and pointed it straight at Draco.
"Go ahead," she growled out in a low voice that was so menacing Harry would have stepped away from her himself, had he been standing. "Say that again. I dare you."
"Hermione," Ron said quietly, managing to sound both concerned and awed at the same time. He was just about to ask her what she was doing when it dawned on him.
Oh, right, he thought, realizing that she'd felt him react to Malfoy's insults and that's why she'd come back. It wasn't just her anger he was witnessing, it was his own as well. She'd taken it into herself, along with everything else he was feeling, including his need to defend her, and that's why she'd gotten in Malfoy's face. She was defending him. She was reacting to the situation the way he would, which wasn't a good thing. She was supposed to be the voice of reason, not the hot headed, in your face, aggressor. If he hadn't been so shocked, he probably would have joined her without even thinking about it.
Of course Harry didn't know this, anymore than Malfoy and his cronies did, and he was just as taken aback as they were by Hermione's open hostility.
"No?" Hermione asked Draco as he took another step backward and snapped his head around to glance at the staff table in an attempt to find some means of support other than his slow witted friends. Although he needn't have bothered, as he'd waited until he was sure that the staff table was empty before approaching the Gryffindor table in the first place.
It happened so quick that it actually took Harry a moment to realize what he was witnessing. The words 'crazy bitch' had barely had time to register with him, before Hermione and Ron were both moving. Hermione had her arm cocked back and was prepared to hurl her curse before Malfoy even had time to realize that calling her bluff had been a mistake. If Ron hadn't been standing next to her; if he hadn't reached out at that precise moment and grabbed her wrist, there was no telling what hex she would have nailed Malfoy with. Frankly Harry didn't know what surprised him more, the fact that Hermione had snapped, or that Ron had been the one to thwart her attack.
"LET GO!" Hermione shout as she spun around and fixed her angry glower on Ron. But rather than comply, Ron reached forward with his free hand and plucked her wand right out of her grasp. "GIVE THAT BACK!" she demanded.
"No," the redhead replied firmly, looking Hermione dead in the eye and refusing to be cowed no matter how vicious her glare was.
Of course while Harry, and the rest of the stragglers left in the dinning hall, focused their attention on the couple who appeared to be on the verge of a row, Malfoy and his friends took advantage of the distraction they'd created, and quickly ducked out of the room.
Harry expected Hermione to explode. He watched her eyes narrow, her jaw clench, and her nostrils flare. He could see the warning signs clear as day, having witnessed them many times before. It was going to be big. It was going to be loud. And it was probably going to get really ugly before they were through. Truth be told, there was even a small part of him that expected her to jump Ron and try and take her wand back by force if necessary. What he didn't expect was for Hermione's resolve to crumble as she stared into Ron's eyes, or for her anger to dissipate so quickly it almost appeared as if someone had flipped an invisible switch. He certainly didn't expect the stricken look that crossed her features before she stepped forward, and let her face fall against his best friend's chest.
What the hell is going on, he wondered, standing upright himself and staring at Hermione as Ron's left arm encircled her. She's completely lost it. One minute she's hell bent on cursing Malfoy and then she just falls apart. And he's no better, Harry thought, goggling at Ron, who looked just as pained as Hermione had, if not more so. He actually stopped her. What the hell?
he wondered, standing upright himself and staring at Hermione as Ron's left arm encircled her. Harry thought, goggling at Ron, who looked just as pained as Hermione had, if not more so."I'm sorry," Harry heard Hermione murmur against Ron's chest. "I don't know what's..."
"It's my fault," Ron replied, before she had a chance to finish. "I let him get to me," he added, holding his free hand out and offering her wand back, " I'm just ..."
"No, no I'm fine," Hermione insisted, reaching for her wand without even looking at his hand. "Don't... Don't do that," she said, squirreling her wand away in the pocket of her robes before latching onto his arm. "I'm fine and you are not worthless so... just stop. Stop that right now."
Stop what? Harry thought, his mouth falling open ever so slightly as he gaped at them. "What the hell is the matter with you two?" he asked, mystified by what was happening.
He was standing right there. He could hear every word they said and they weren't making any sense, not to him anyway. And yet what they said, or didn't say, clearly made sense to them. It was almost as if they were capable of carrying on a conversation without even bothering to finish their statements.
"What are you taking about?" Ron asked, looking at Harry in surprise. "There's nothing wrong with us."
"No?" Harry said sarcastically. "She storms in here like a woman possessed and tries to curse Malfoy," Not the he didn't deserve it. "And then just like that," he continued, snapping his fingers for effect, "all that anger is gone and the both of you look like you're on the verge of tears or something. What the hell is going on?"
"You know what's going on," Ron replied defensively. "You know she's had a hard time of it since..."
"Ron, don't," Hermione said softly, knowing that wasn't the reason.
"And you certainly aren't helping her any," he continued, hitting a little too close to home for Harry's liking.
Yes, he knew that Hermione had a hard time coping with what had happened to her. Ginny had told him about the nightmares Hermione had after she escaped. Ron had mentioned on more than one occasion that she still wasn't completely herself, that she was just able to hide her paranoia and the underlying fear that accompanied it most of the time. He knew that she was afraid sometimes. He'd seen it with his own eyes when she failed to repel the Dementor- Boggart in D.A.D.A. class. She was afraid something was going to happen to her friends. But that wasn't all, she was afraid for herself as well, which is why she didn't leave the tower on her own after dark if she didn't have to.
But it wasn't fair for Ron to say he wasn't helping. He'd let her keep the Marauder's Map and use it on her rounds so she'd feel more secure, hadn't he? He hadn't thrown it in her face when she wigged out and cursed the tunnel leading to Honeydukes. He'd pretended that it hadn't bothered him and gone out of his way not to make an issue out of it because he was trying to be supportive. He was trying to help the only way he knew how, by giving her space and letting her work her issues out on her own without embarrassing her by bringing them up. It's what he'd want if their situations were reversed.
Ok, so he'd just thrown the whole Parvati thing in her face, so maybe Ron did have a point in a way. But that was different and he hadn't been thinking about her reaction in those terms. Besides, it wasn't some stupid tunnel she'd cursed this time, it was him, in a round about way. Ok, so she hadn't actually cursed him with an spell, but he was still going to suffer when the entire female population of the school shunned him.
"Stop it," Hermione insisted, her eyes jumping from Ron to Harry and back again. "I'm not going to stand here and watch you two fight over..." me, "...over... this," she stated as she started to walk away.
"Where are you going?" Ron demanded, spinning around and latching onto her arm before she was out of range.
"I already told you that I needed to get some books from the library."
"You aren't going up there by yourself," Ron countered. "Not now. What if Malfoy is lurking in the hallway somewhere waiting to get even?"
"That would be pretty stupid of him, wouldn't it?" Hermione replied. "I've got my wand back, don't I?"
"Don't make jokes. It's not funny," Ron insisted. "And you are not going up there on your own. Not now."
She isn't the only one that's paranoid, Harry suddenly realized.
He fully expected Ron to insist on going with her, but that didn't happen. The tall redhead just stood there between the two of them looking torn. He tightened his grip on Hermione and stepped closer to her, but even as he did so, he turned his head and looked at Harry.
"Don't stay on my account," Harry said, unsure if he was really in the mood to talk to them just yet. He was more concerned about their odd behavior than angry with them now, but he wasn't sure if he was quite ready to let bygones be bygones, especially where Hermione was concerned. Maybe tomorrow, he decided.
"We aren't going anywhere," Ron replied, speaking for both himself and Hermione. "Malfoy isn't the only Slytherin that would love to take a shot at you right now. Any one of them would try and put you in the hospital wing this week, if you gave them half a chance. You shouldn't be walking around the castle on your own, any more than Hermione should. Ginny isn't too keen on playing Seeker again, and if she was forced to, we'd be down a Chaser, so the library is just going to have to wait a little while," he said, diverting his attention to Hermione, who stunned Harry yet again, by submitting to Ron's wishes with a nod of her head. " And you're just going to have to deal with us being around," he finished, looking at Harry again. "Because like it or not, we aren't going anywhere."
"Well, we do have a prefect meeting," Hermione said softly.
"Ok, so we're not going anywhere until 8 o'clock," Ron amended. "At which point you'll be in the tower surrounded by loads of other people."
"But," Hermione said weakly. "The Library closes at nine. We won't have time if we wait."
"We're not dragging Harry to the Library."
"Why not? There are other people there too, and it'll only take a couple minutes. It's on the way back to the tower. Besides, he really should..."
"Bloody hell," Ron moaned, smacking his right hand against his head in exasperation. "Don't start in on us about our homework."
"I was talking about my homework," she retorted, ignoring the fact that Ron looked at Harry and rolled his eyes. "If I don't get it done who are you going to plead with to let you copy."
"That might have worked if there were a snowball's chance in hell of you actually let me see your homework, which you won't, because you never do. Nice try though."
"Ron," she grumbled, stamping her foot.
"Hermione," he retorted, shifting his eyes to Harry, who mouthed the words, 'hell of your own making," and tried not to smile.
Harry knew that they'd end up stopping in the library on the way back to the tower. He also knew that Ron enjoyed baiting her, which is why he was still pretending that they wouldn't. Obviously it would take more than a few minutes though. Once Hermione was actually in the library, her few minutes had a tendency to turn into an hour. But he didn't really mind all that much, which sort of surprised him. Hermione would be around, but not in his face, which would mean he didn't really have to talk to her just yet. And while she kept herself occupied, he could tell Ron about the Slytherin practice he'd spent the afternoon listening to and sneaking peeks at.
BREAK...BREAK
By the time Tuesday morning rolled around, Harry realized that some of his fears, at least, had been unfounded and the female population of the school was not, in fact, giving him the cold shoulder. There weren't any stares or finger pointing over breakfast. There were no hushed whispers as he walked down the corridors. None of the girls shrieked in terror the instant he appeared or ran away if he got to close. The reason became clear during their History of Magic lesson, when Parvati, who was sitting directly behind him, poked him in the back and started passing notes. It was through them that he learned that she suspected that Hermione's warning had been an exaggeration and that she'd asked Lavender, who agreed, not to spread it around.
Having that crisis diverted went a long way of alleviating the ill will he'd been harboring against Hermione. That and the fact that she saw him passing notes during class, and although it obviously pained her to do so, she said nothing about it, not even after class had let out. He knew that she still didn't approve, because he'd asked Ron about it when the two of them were heading down for their own Quidditch practice, and he'd admitted, after just a little bit of badgering, that Hermione was just worried because she didn't think Parvati was the right girl for him.
Harry hadn't thought about it much after that, because Ginny showed up and he was too focused on how tense things were between them, to give Hermione's concerns any more though. He spent most of his time during Katie's compulsory 'before practice' speech, looking at Ginny, who went out of her way to avoid making eye contact, and trying to psych himself up in order to thank her for not turning him into McGonagall the way she'd threatened. But when the speech ended and he made up his mind to approach her, Ginny mounted her broom and flew off before he had a chance to get the words out.
He wasn't able to do it after practice either, because sometime during the middle of it, Parvati had shown up to watch, along with Lavender and a few other Gryffindor supporters, including Hermione. He wasn't all that surprised that Hermione showed up. She'd come to some of their other practices and Ron needed all the extra support he could get right now. What did surprise him was the fact that she only talked to Ron briefly before he returned to the changing room and then she left with Ginny, who didn't even bother to change out of her Quidditch robes.
What surprised him even more, was the fact that when Ron came back inside, he demanded to know what Harry had done to his sister, almost as soon as he cleared the door. Harry was bewildered by this, to say the least. He had no idea what Ron was talking about. As far as he knew he hadn't done anything to Ginny, but then why was she avoiding him?
Ron hadn't been much help in alleviating Harry's confusion. In fact, all he did was add too it with some off the wall statements about how Hermione was trying to keep it from him, but he knew she was worried, and he knew it had something to do with Ginny, even if neither of them wouldn't admit it. And then he stated that he knew Harry was part of it too, and someone had better tell him what the hell was going on. Harry, of course, having no idea what Ron was talking about, started to tell him just that, but he didn't get a chance to finish. He was right in the middle of his denial when Ron did the most bizarre thing yet, he sat down, closed his eyes, and completely zoned out.
Harry, mistaking the look of extreme concentration that covered his best mate's face, as a look of pain, immediately asked Ron what was wrong. The last thing he expected was for the redhead to say, "Shut up, you're distracting me."
"From what?" Harry asked, but it took Ron a full minute to respond. And when he did, his remark that it 'didn't matter, because she was fine', made absolutely no sense at all.
"Who?" Harry asked, more confused now than ever.
"What?" Ron replied, attempting to play stupid, but not quite carrying it off.
"What the hell was that all about?" Harry demanded.
"What's what about?" Ron asked, standing up and stripping off his red and gold robes.
"That whole tune me out, Zombie-like trance thing you were doing. Or how about the 'shut up, you're distracting me' thing? Distracting you from what?"
"Oh, that!" Ron said, sitting down again and unlacing the pads protecting his knees and shins. "That was nothing," he insisted, looking at his leg guards so he wouldn't have to look Harry in the eye as he sidestepped the truth. "I was... um... just clearing my head a bit, that's all."
"Yeah, right," Harry retorted with a scowl. "You don't seriously expect me to buy that, do you?"
"Sure, why not?"
"Because it's daft for one," Harry stated. "And you're a horrible liar for another. And if you don't tell me I might just have to mention this to Hermione and let her drag it out of you."
"Okay," Ron said indifferently, as he pulled off his shoes.
"So she already knows?" Harry asked, feeling more than a little annoyed at this point.
"Probably," Ron admitted.
"And you don't care if I mention it to her, because she isn't going to tell me anything either?"
"There's nothing to tell."
"Uh huh," Harry mumbled, feeling more than a little resentful now. He hated the fact that they were keeping something from him and he hated their excuse for doing it even more. It didn't help that he knew it was a valid excuse and that he hadn't really done all that much to remedy the problem, even though it was within his power to do so. He wanted to be mad at them for keeping secrets, but in the end, he knew that if he wanted to blame someone, he needed to point the finger at himself, because he was the one that had been slacking off. There was no reason he couldn't do those relaxation exercises Tonks had shown him, he was just being lazy. Although truth be told, the thing that had really been holding him back to this point was the knowledge that once he had the exercises down, he was going to have to approach Snape, and beg the slimy git for his help.
BREAK...BREAK
After the locker room incident, Harry started watching his best friends closely, looking for any further evidence of odd behavior, hoping he'd be able to figure out what was going on with them. It was obvious that they still had no intentions of telling him. Every time he asked Ron about it, he denied that anything was out of sorts, and Harry couldn't really call him on it, because the few things he had witnessed were either too subtle or too easy to for Ron to explain away.
So while he waited and watched, Harry went out of his way to make time to practice his Occlumency exercises. And as luck would have it, it turned out to be much easier to fit into his schedule that he expected. He spent the first hour or so after classes let out with Ron, playing chess or lounging around in the common room relaxing while Hermione sat her last lesson of the day. And when Ron, who didn't like the idea of Hermione walking around the corridors on her own, left the tower to meet her when her afternoon class let out, Harry went upstairs and practiced his exercises in his room, on the days they didn't have Quidditch practice that is. It was a win-win situation really. He got the quiet time he needed and at the same time, he was giving Ron and Hermione an opportunity to spend some time alone without them feeling guilty about it.
Where they went, Harry never asked. They certainly weren't using the boys' dorm, as he was in there, and they were rarely in the common room when he came back down. He highly doubted they were using the girls' dorm either, but they were going somewhere and they were usually in a pretty good mood when they returned. A little too affectionate for Harry's liking, but the hand holding and coy smiles usually tapered off around about the time they all went down to dinner.
After dinner, it was homework as usual, although homework 'as usual' for Ron and Harry, went hand in hand with frequent breaks. It was during those breaks that Harry periodically caught glimpses of the odd behavior he'd seen before. Sometimes during a chess match, Ron would blank out for a few moments, although he always claimed he was just strategizing in his head. It wasn't until Harry happened to glance at Hermione while Ron was doing it, that he noticed she was blushing, despite the fact she was sitting a good distance away and still had her face buried in her Arithmancy textbook. After that, Harry looked at Hermione every time Ron closed his eyes so he could 'concentrate', and more often than not, she'd flush soon after. A few times, she even squirmed in her chair, although she never once looked in their direction while he was doing it.
Eventually Harry realized that Ron only did this when Hermione was somewhere else. When the two of them were together, or when they were both with him, they behaved perfectly normal, or at least normal for them. But when they weren't together, when Hermione was in her late afternoon class, or they were at Quidditch practice and Ron didn't know where she was, or when they were in their dorm at night and she wasn't around, Ron had a tendency to zone out every so often. It was almost like he was daydreaming about her or something. It was the only explanation Harry could come up with, although why that would make Hermione blush, especially when she wasn't even looking at him and had no idea what he was thinking about, Harry couldn't begin to understand.
Little did Harry know that Hermione actually did know what Ron was thinking about most of the time. She might not know exactly what he was envisioning, but whether he was fantasizing about the things he'd like to do with her the next time they snuck down to that secret room behind the mirror on the fourth floor, or whether he was reminiscing about something they'd already done, she felt the end results. If he was having sexual thoughts, no matter where she was, she knew about it, unless she was asleep. And even that wasn't always a guarantee, unless it was a deep sleep. He'd actually woken her up on a couple occasions by giving into his raging hormones when she was in her own bed on the verge of nodding off.
Fortunately for Hermione, and for Ron as well, he wasn't actually fantasizing every time he blanked out. More often than not, he was just using their link to check up on her and monitor her mood. On those occasions when he had been fantasizing about her while she was in class, he knew he was in for it, even before she laid into him for it, because he could feel her irritation grow. Hermione didn't like being distracted while she was trying to focus on her note taking, and when she realized it was becoming a frequent occurrence, she gave Ron a severe tongue-lashing and threatened to postpone their afternoon encounters until late at night when everyone else was asleep if he couldn't control himself any better. Needles to say, Ron, who was more of an instant gratification type, didn't like that idea of waiting for something he could have right now, nor did he want to their alone time to be dependant on his dorm mates sleeping habits, so he made a concerted effort not to bog her down with his randy urges while she was in class. After class was a different story however. He only had so much willpower, after all.
But Harry, who didn't know about any of this, was left to make assumptions and wonder what Ron was doing when he got that blank look on his face. He suspected something was up, but he couldn't be sure that it wasn't just their relationship causing the changes. He had to keep reminding himself that they were married, because when they were with him, they usually refrained from being too demonstrative. But they were married, and even though Ron never mentioned what they did while they were alone together, Harry was sure that they spent at least some of that time shagging. They were far too happy and content when they returned to the common room for them not to be. And that being the case, it was only natural that Ron would be preoccupied with thoughts of that nature.
Hell, Harry thought about doing it all the time and his situation was no where near Ron and Hermione's. If you could even call what he had going on with Parvati a situation. She was obviously still interested. She tried to sit close to him in class when she could, she'd passed notes to him in History of Magic, she even came to his Quidditch practices. But there hadn't been any more encounters like the one in the Room of Requirement.
Of course even if she'd wanted to, she wouldn't have been able to initiate something like that, because she hadn't been able to get Harry on his own. He was under strict orders from Katie not to go anywhere alone until after the match. All of the Gryffindor Quidditch players were, after Amanda Donovan, one was one of the two new Chasers on the team, wound up on the receiving end of a couple jinxes as she was coming down to dinner one night.
The Slytherins didn't mess with Harry too much, seeing as how they were unable to ambush him like they did Amanda. He had to endure the usual jibes of course, but he'd long since stopped caring about any of their threats and their snide little comments rolled right off him.
Ron however was a different matter. When they threw an insult at him, it stuck, and they all knew it. He was the easiest to rile up and the most effected by their insults, so he became their prime target. It was practically impossible to walk down the corridors without some Slytherin spotting him and breaking into a rendition of Weasley is out King.
Of course when Snape caught the sixth year Slytherins in action while they were all waiting to enter the Potions classroom, he did absolutely nothing about it. He just sneered and allowed them to continue on with their ridiculous 'pouf' insinuations, while he wrote the instructions for their newest assignment on the black board. And as if that weren't enough, he then went out of his way to add fuel to the fire by stating, rather loudly, that Ron was 'too incompetent' to manage anything more complicated than tying his own shoes without 'someone else', at which point he looked at Hermione in disgust, 'spoon-feeding' him instructions, and there was no way he could get up those stairs without help.
Harry wasn't surprised when Ron's eyes narrowed and he shot the Potions Maser a look of deepest loathing. What surprised him was the fact that Hermione, whose face was just as red and Ron's by that point, did it as well. Normally when Snape was tormenting them, or accusing them of something, she remained impassive. She very rarely showed any kind of emotional reaction when Snape was watching her, because she used that partition trick of hers to keep him off balance and prevent him from reading her. But on this particular occasion, either she was unable to maintain her composure, or she was too incensed to care, because she fixed him with the glare to end all glares, which seemed to please Snape immensely.
But the most bizarre incidence by far, occurred the morning of their Quidditch match when Hermione showed up for breakfast in a foul mood and intentionally picked a fight with Ron. Although truth be told, the word fight didn't really do it justice. It was a full on, in your face, shouting match by the time she was finished. The coup de grace came when Hermione stopped dancing around Ron's buttons and pushed the biggest one he had, stating that Quidditch was 'dangerous' and using what happened to Viktor Krum during the World Cup as evidence to back her statement up. Of course the fact that she uttered Krum's name, in association with Ron and Quidditch, sent him soaring right over the edge. In the end, Ron shouted, "NO ONE'S MAKING YOU WATCH!" at the top of his lungs, followed by a well timed, "If you don't like it, don't come."
Not one to back down, Hermione, of course shrieked, "FINE! I WON'T!" back at him, at which point Ron threw his hands up in disgust and stormed out of the dinning hall, so incensed that he left his broom behind.
Harry wasn't the only one who was convinced that Hermione had lost her mind after the inopportune display. Ginny flat out asked her if she'd 'gone round the bend' when Hermione had the audacity to look down at Ron's forgotten broomstick and smile. Rather than reply, she sat back down, looking far too pleased with herself, and tucked into her meal as if nothing had happened.
Neville, who had been sitting directly across from the couple when the row started, was staring at her with his mouth hanging open. Seamus looked almost as angry as Ron had before he left. Parvati, who was sitting directly to Harry's left, just shook her head disapprovingly. It wasn't until Katie came running over and laid into Hermione for upsetting their Keeper on the morning of a match that it all became clear.
"He needed it," Hermione replied, non-pulsed by the fact that nearly everyone in the room, including several teachers, was goggling at her.
"WHAT!" Harry and Katie asked in unison.
"He was too nervous," she replied, lowering her voice so only those in the immediate area would be able to hear her. "He needed something else to focus on, so I gave it too him."
"What!" Harry asked again, unable to believe what he was hearing.
"Oh come on," she replied, looking at Harry as if he were the one who's mind wasn't working right. "He sabotages himself when he gets all self-conscious like he was. If you hadn't let him get that way, I wouldn't have had to distract him."
"ME!" Harry said in surprise. "He woke up like that."
"He did," Neville agreed.
"If he ever went to sleep," Seamus added.
"So you picked that fight on purpose to distract him," Ginny said, cottoning on. "Because if he's hacked off with you, he won't be worried about what the Slytherins are going to throw at him."
"That puts a whole new spin on the term taking one for the team, doesn't it?" Seamus said quietly to Neville. "It was like watching her poke an irritated dragon."
"Don't you dare tell him," Hermione replied. "Any of you. I didn't go to all that trouble getting him steamed just so you could let the cat out of the bag before the match is finished. He'll play better angry than he would have in the state he was in. All you have to do," she said to Katie, "is make sure he takes his anger out of them," she said, subtly pointing towards the Slytherins, many of whom were still laughing.
As it turned out, she was entirely right. When Harry found Ron in the changing room a little while later, he was slamming things around muttering under his breath about how he didn't care. He followed that statement up with some rubbish about Hermione being 'a jinx' because the 'best game he ever played was the one she didn't come to.' Rather than clue him in, Harry just handed Ron his broom, and then went about changing into his own uniform. It wasn't until Ron spotted Hermione in the stands that he actually calmed down and by that point he'd blocked enough shots that he didn't immediately start second guessing himself.
Of course it also helped that Hermione had confidence in him, which Ron could feel once he realized what she'd done and let his own anger go. The fact that she believed in him and he could feel it, made it easier for him to believe in himself as well. But Harry didn't know about that. He couldn't even really pinpoint when Ron stopped kicking the stuffing out of the Quaffle because he was angry and started doing it in an attempt to actually guard the rings, because he had to remain focused on finding the Snitch before Malfoy did. Which of course he did about forty-five minutes after the game started.
It wasn't until he'd caught the Snitch and won the game for Gryffindor that Harry started thinking about how he was going to persuade Ron that Hermione hadn't really meant any of the things she'd said. He assumed that it would take the combined effort of him, Ginny, and probably a few of the other people who had witnessed her confession, to truly convince him of that fact. You could have bowled Harry over with a feather when the redhead landed on the pitch beside him and he realized that Ron had already come to that realization on his own.
It wasn't until week later, on the afternoon of the first Hogsmeade visit, that Harry actually discovered how Ron had done it.
Author's Note:
Yes, I know, it's a terrible, evil place to leave off, but it had to be done. This chapter was already long enough and writing from Harry's point of view is still damned hard. I'm not even going to attempt to write the next section that way. So yes, you're left with a teeny tiny little cliffhanger, but it would have been far, far worse had I actually started in on the next section and then left you all hanging in the middle of that.
:-P