"Hey Ron, what were you going to do about Hogsmeade?" Harry asked the next day in Transfiguration class.
Ron looked up from his toadstool. It was supposed to be a frog (a/n: Hahaha, get it? TOADstool, TOAD, FROG? HAHAHAHA NOT FUNNY OK…on with the story…) but Ron wasn't really a genius when it came to school. In particular, Transfiguration.
Take that back! I am too a genius!
Just go with the story, Ron. Calm down.
"Well…I was just going to go with you…right? Or did you want to go with Cho?" Ron teased. Harry blushed.
"Well, no…of course not! But…um…" Harry glanced at Hermione who was on the other side of him. Her toadstool was now a frog and she was moving forward; her new task was transfiguring a cupcake into a glass (a/n: GET IT? CUPcake, CUP, GLASS? HAHAHA NOT FUNNY EITHER OK…moving on…)
She whispered to him a reply that would go with the plan, "Yeah, so let's meet at the Shrieking Shack."
"Yeah, so let's meet at the Shrieking Shack," Harry said quickly, casting Hermione a grateful glance afterward. Ron noticed nothing. Typical Ron.
Later that Evening After Classes
"Ginny? Oy, Ginny!" Harry called after Ginny. Ginny turned around, her red hair settling. The beautiful, radiant auburn hair that Harry loved.
"Yes?"
"Do you…I was wondering…you know…" Harry stuttered, unsure where to start. Hermione passed by him and inconspicuously kicked him, making him stumble closer to Ginny. Harry started over.
"Ginny, do you want to go to Hogsmeade with me?" Harry asked, looking away from her at the walls.
Ginny was surprised for a second but then a pleased and excited expression took its place on her face. "Oh…I…um…sure! Yes! Um…where should I meet you?" Harry was so relieved he thought he might faint. But being the noble geek he was, of course he didn't. Instead he replied instantly.
"How about Zonko's?" he responded.
"Sure!" Ginny replied.
Later (Yes, Even After That)
Harry walked past Hermione (who was chatting and debating animatedly with Laura, a fellow Gryffindor in their year, about Lormen's Loch, an enchanted, supposedly mythical lake inhabited by a werebeast) slowly, and slipped a small piece of paper into her hand.
"Oh, excuse me," Hermione said to Laura suddenly, "I need to go to the restroom. Be right back!" Hermione walked in the opposite direction Harry was strolling in and entered the girls' bathroom. But then she heard voices…
"I dunno what I'm supposed to do. Just go up to her and kiss her at the Ball?"
Hermione gasped softly so that only she could hear. The Ball! Victor! She'd completely forgotten…
You're still going to go, of course?
Of course! It's in a week! What, that's not enough time to prepare?
Oh, don't be all sarcastic. I'm just saying it slipped your mind.
Slipped—the note!
Who's IN there, anyway?
I don't know, but I obviously can't intrude on them.
That's Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, right?
Yes.
Why are you going to go to the bathroom in HERE? It's disgusting in this bathroom.
I'm NOT going to go to the bathroom, I'm going to read the note. Hopefully people will think like YOU and not come in here and intrude on me.
Oh. Well, you're going to intrude on these people?
NO, I'M NOT! I'm just going to read the note right here, in this corner, so no one can see me and I'm not INTRUDING in on those people talking!
Hey—that voice sounds like Ron…
It does…
"Why shouldn't you? It's perfectly reasonable," argued Ron.
"NO, it's not! She'd kill me if I kissed her!" Ron was apparently having an argument with himself.
"Well, I doubt that she'd KILL you."
"Oh, just shut up! She's with that prissy Victor and there's nothing I can do about it! She would have asked me if she wanted to go to the ball with me!"
"The boys are supposed to ask the girls out, stupid. And you're just saying that because you're shy."
Hermione gasped again, louder this time. Ron—if that was Ron in there—was talking about her!
But the gasp was too loud…
Ron peered around the corner. To find Hermione.
"Her—what are you doing here?" Ron demanded in shock. "Have you been—been listening to me!"
Hermione gaped, her mouth forming silent words. Then she was able to whisper only, "I'm so sorry Ron." And she fled. Away from Ron. Away from love and happiness, away from Hogsmeade and double dates.
But she also ran away from the note that she had unconsciously dropped, and Ron picked it up as he watched her run away from him.
"All is going according to plan; G is in and so is brother."
It was in Harry's writing. Obviously they were planning something, but as Ron stuffed it in his pocket, he couldn't ponder that. Only the fact that Hermione had heard every word he had said—or enough, at least.
Ron's mind kept replaying Hermione gaping at him, trying to speak but her voice silenced, then running away from him.
(A/N: I know, sad. I actually hadn't really planned for it to end this way, but I never really plan my writing although I DO try to have a GENERAL DIRECTION. Thank you to EVERYONE WHO HAS REVIEWED ch. 20/21/22—you guys rock! That would be: MyStIcS number 42, Kisshu-luv, corky, hippogriff-tamer, MyStIcS number 42 (YES, SHE DID IT 4 BOTH CHAPTERZ—GIVE HER A BIG ROUND OF APPLAUSE!), pinkpygmypuff, SingDownTheMoon, and MyStIcS number42 (AGAIN!). Thanks to you guys I'm motivated to finish this story once and for all! Go me! Go reviewers! Ckontowderdon!)
