Chapter 21

A/N: Okay, here we are again. I think I need to explain a few things before we get to the story. Sentences written in bold are the Hermione we know – smart, know-it-all, overwhelmed with common sense. And the sentences written in italic are that other side of her that we rarely meet. And 'normal' sentences are, well, normal sentences.

"Ron…we…need…to…talk." She panted out.

Ron, unable to speak, nodded and got up, leading Hermione back to the living room.

"What has he got that I haven't?" Colin asked with mock surprise plastered to his face.

"It's more like what you have got." Justin said grinning; pointing at his camera that still hung from his neck.

¤

"Ron…" She managed to breathe once more. "…We have a problem."

Ron nodded eyeing her from head to toe. "I mean…um…what problem?" He was completely unable to think with Hermione standing in front of him, half-naked.

"This." She almost shoved the drawing in his face.

"This is your problem? Hermione if you wanted be alone all you had to do was ask…" He said, giving her that devilish look again. Hermione decided to keep her head clear, but was failing more with every second that passed.

"I didn't draw this… I found it on my nightstand this morning… Now I know you are not too good at arts and can barely write understandably so I take it wasn't you who drew this, or was it?"

"You mean…?" He asked in utter disbelief.

"Yes. The Untouchable was in my room." She only now understood how terrible it actually felt. She shuddered at the thought of it.

"GODDAMIT!" He used a few juicier words to comment on the situation and finally said: Library. Now. Emergency meeting." Ron announced in an angry and pained voice.

No. Not pained. Ron wouldn't be worried and pained over that…over her… okay, so he'd be worried, that's for sure. He's allowed to be worried, right? They're friends after all… Granger! Give it up! You crossed the friends line already, remember? Snog in hallway, sound familiar? We were not snogging…he was just… Okay. Stop. So there is no good way to say this, but SHUT UP! Whispering in someone's mouth? Hello! That term does not exist! You were kissing! Get it through that thick layer of denial, will you! But… No! Shut up! You are not allowed to speak! You got us in trouble last time, now it's my turn to try!

"'Mione? You coming?"

Shit. She had been thinking too long. We are going to continue this later, you know. Oh honestly! Give it up! We want Ron and that's final! But he's our boss!

So what! That doesn't matter! You'll just do your part, and I'll do mine. What's my part? That's easy! All you have to do is shut up!

¤

They entered the library and Ron led the way through the maze of bookshelves. He stopped at the fireplace, rubbed the bridge of his nose and turned towards Hermione, who was now awkwardly standing in front of the sofa, holding the drawing in one hand and her wand in the other. Not to mention, her shoulders were bare, except for the spaghetti-like threads that held the night-gown up, that was intoxicatingly short for Ron to look at. He allowed himself the pleasure to look at her, from head to toe, and then tuned on the rational Ron station (A/N: I never knew it existed, up until now, of course).

"When did you find it?" He asked, blue eyes looking into her brown ones.

"This morning when I woke up."

"Specify."

"I don't even know what time it is," She said apologetically.

"Okay. Just tell me what you do remember."

"I dream…I feel sun on my face…I open eyes…I start to think why I didn't patrol…Why you never woke me up… I get up…Grab wand…See envelope…Open it… See drawing…Run around frantically, trying to locate the two dead bodies of my best friends and have my revenge…Run downstairs…Shock the hell out of all the people at breakfast… I think that's more or less it…" She was now looking at her bare feet, finding her toes more than interesting.

It had just struck her that she might not have seen the sunlight ever again, might not have breathed again, if their 'friend' had been in a bad mood. She felt the tears stinging in her eyes as she tried to hold them back and show Ron that she was not a girly giggly person who just cried because of everything. She was an Unspeakable and was not supposed to be soft. Nothing had really happened, now had it? He had just drawn a picture of her. Like that's a crime! She felt the first few tears dripping from her eyes. She had to get away! She was going to cry, that was inevitable, but she had to get away from Ron! She hated to think what he'd write in the report. She turned on her heel and was about to run when Ron turned her round and hugged her. She had not expected it to happen. She had just wanted to get away, be alone and cry, but now he was holding her. He didn't say anything, just let her cry.

How was she supposed to do something, not to mention run, when the sexiest man on earth was hugging her like that? Okay, rewind. She hadn't meant to think that. Surely she would find someone far sexier. Let's think…Hmm… She had liked Gilderoy Lockhart in her second year, but he was a coward. Okay, so being a coward would take a few points off from being sexy, but still… there had to be someone far more attractive…

"Herms, you okay?" Rona asked worried and cut into her thoughts.

She lifted her head and looked up at him. She had to look terrible. Just like the women on Muggle films – mascara all over her face. Wait! She didn't wear mascara, on that particular morning anyway. And sitting on the couch, hugging a woman with eyes red from crying had to be so much better that hugging a woman with mascara all over her face and eyes red from crying. Sitting on the couch? When did they get on the couch? That was, in all probability, the last reasonable, or remotely reasonable thought she held on to. All she could remember was that one moment she was wondering how they got to sit on the sofa and the next she was kissing Ron. Kissing Ron like there was no tomorrow, to be accurate. She wasn't sure who had started it and she didn't care. All she knew was that it was great. It sent little electric waves all over her body and paralysed her brain activity, which was welcomed. Even the smartest of people need time off from being smart and as she had just discovered keeping occupied with Ron, in the activities that involved just the two of them, was the best cure for losing complete awareness of the world and time surrounding them. She wasn't sue when it happened, but she found herself sitting in his lap, when somebody coughed and said: "We were just wondering where you went and if you wanted some breakfast, but I can see you are successfully sucking the life out of each other and will not be needing anything." Then two people laughed.

Hermione's head snapped up. She quickly slid herself off of Ron's lap and jumped to her feet. "This is not what it looks like."

"Oh yeah?" Colin asked amusement covering his features.

"I know it looks like we were kissing, but actually…"

"You were kissing! 'Cause it looked from here as if you were whispering in each others mouth!" Justin said and the two of them burst into laughter, seeing her troubled expression.

Hermione decided that being in the same room with Ron would be much too confusing at the moment and would result in either a major fight or ripping each other's clothes off. The last option didn't seem too bad in her mind. Nevertheless, she was determined that she needed some coffee to get her brain in working order and to sort things out.

"Ron, you coming?" Justin asked.

Ron hadn't even got up. He was just sitting there, with his back towards the three of them. Now he moved his head from side to side to show that he wasn't coming.

"And why, if I may so kindly ask, are you not coming?" Justin asked, smiling so broadly that Hermione feared he would get a cramp.

"Need to take care of some paperwork." Came the reply and Hermione suppressed the urge to say that, she too, had some paperwork to take care of.

"Just a second ago you didn't seem too busy with the paperwork…" Colin teased.

Ron didn't answer and as not reacting was the best weapon against teasing, they left him so he could go and "get some work done in the library".

¤

Ron's head was only capable of producing unreasonable thoughts like: 'I'm in love with her!' and 'What was I thinking, not going to have another cup of coffee!' He shook his head, trying to get it to work properly again.

What had he been thinking? What had she been thinking? What had they been thinking? They were on a mission for God's sake! They were not supposed to go around kissing… They hadn't been going around kissing, now had they? Just that one unfortunate…arghhh…whom was he kidding… That one fortunate time in the hallway and now… The difference between the two was, that in the hallway, he could have claimed temporary insanity, but now… He had been a bit taken aback when he saw Hermione closing the space between them, but he never hesitated, never thought about the consequences…he hated to think that if Colin and Justin would have been a bit slower than they would have witnessed a bit spicier scene… He sighed.

Why had she been crying again? The drawing. He noticed he had taken it and her wand to the library with. He hesetated, but started to examine the picture more carefully.

Hermione looked just like she had when he had come to wake her up – moonlight playing on her face, her brown curls scattered on the pillow, head tuned slightly to the left. It had to be the same time he came in. The moonlight was so accurately in place that The Untouchable could have stood next to him while drawing it.

The drawing did tell them something, didn't it? It had to. When he was patrolling outside of Harry's room he could clearly see Hermione's and there had been no movement near her door. That meant their beloved loony could get from place to lace without, apparating, floo or the use of doors. What was he supposed to do with this knowledge? Okay…so the person knew his/her way round the house pretty well and possibly owned an invisibility cloak. The only person he knew owned one was Harry. Was Harry pulling their leg?

He would not, would not joke around with things like this, especially after all those years fearing Voldemort would attack Hogwarts.

He turned to the table and stared at the pile of the reports he yet had to fill in. It would be for the best if he started now. With that, he decided that two heads were better than one and he'd wait for Hermione to return.

¤

Colin could hardly believe it – Ron Weasly and Hermione Granger making out on the sofa. Well, that certainly was worth a picture and he had taken a few when they weren't watching…well, they were far too busy with each other to notice some silly little distractions like a guy flashing a camera at them. It was about time they got it out in the open, although judging by Hermione's reaction they hadn't planned on coming clean just yet – her interest in her toes was most probably caused by embarrassment and he didn't want to push her into telling them something she didn't want to. Colin thoroughly believed there was a time and place for everything and if she felt this wasn't the time and place to tell them about her and Ron, he let it be.

Justin, however, didn't seem too understanding towards Hermione and her feelings.

"So…Herms…You wanna tell me what we just witnessed back there?"

Hermione gritted her teeth – Herms and 'Mione were something Ron called her.

"To be quite honest with you…NO!" She put on a sweet smile and looked him straight in the eye.

"Oh come on! You were almost ripping each others clothes off and you deny the fact?"

"Firstly: We were not ripping each other's clothes off." Although little was missing. "Secondly: I am not denying the fact and thirdly: I don't think it's any of your business altogether." She was sincerely mad at Justin. What did he want? She hadn't had the time to ponder over it herself and large pieces of what happened were till wonderfully blurry to her.

"Just, just leave her alone, okay?" Colin defended her right to privacy and Hermione was thankful for it.

Just then it hit her that he was still their main suspect. She studied his face. No. He wasn't The Untouchable that was certain…so that left her with…all the other people in the house, but herself and Harry and Ron. So that left her with…Niles and Justin and Ginny. Surely not Ginny?

They had reached the dining room and Hermione thankfully poured herself a cup of strong black coffee, pondering over the events and realisations of the same morning in much welcomed solitary.

¤

Best wishes,

B