Chapter 22
Having figured who the prime suspect in her eyes was, Hermione headed back to her bedroom to change, and now deep in thought over what she thought she should tell Ron once she saw him. Should she a) throw her arms around his neck and continue where they left off or b) ignore what had happened?
She put on her jeans, one of her white button-down office shirts and headed downstairs. She stopped abruptly in he middle of the stairs because she realised firstly, that her wand was lost and secondly saw a couple kissing passionately in the living room. She realised, after a moment of staring at the couple in awe, that she must've left her wand in the library along with the drawing and put a hand to block the two from view as she passed them. That wasn't necessary however, since the fiery headed woman and the guy with the messy jet black hair were far too interested in sucking each others brains out through their mouths (commonly known as kissing) than somebody seeing or passing them. She reached the door of the library and then realised that her thoughts had been so busy with Harry and Ginny that she had forgot to think about her and Ron. Did they look the same when Justin and Colin walked in on them? No. It must've been worse as she was already in his lap and it must've seemed to the two that they were about to rip each others clothes off... which they were…at least, as much as she was embarrassed to admit it even to herself, she was very close to that… Concentrate Hermione! What are you going to say to him? Just act natural. If he says something about it, then you will too, if not…well then he'll just prove to be that thickheaded prat you always thought he was.
Her eyes fond Ron sitting at the table, examining the drawing, then one of the letters and closing his eyes.
"What are you doing?" She asked curiously.
"I am trying to imagine the person drawing this and writing those letters…That is really all I can come up with at the moment. He's left us with zero clues." Ron looked at the picture, then turned to Hermione. " You want to help me with something? I don't know where we should go from here actually, since the letters hardly give us any information besides Harry and dead occurring in the same sentence a whole lot. Psychological profile, maybe? I've heard Muggels have that done for that kind of folk, maybe we ought to give it a try?"
Hermione simply nodded and took a seat at the table, starting to read the letters once more.
Silently she cursed Ron. She was so angry that she couldn't even form proper sentences in her head. That prat…what the hell…me…we…him…I wish he'd just… And the Hermione we all know and love rose to power once again. I was right. I was right after all. Snogging your boss is never good news.
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It was late afternoon when Niles at last came and announced that he wished the both of them would attend lunch, he has so lovingly prepared, every once in a while. Ron got up from his reports. "Hermione you coming?"
Oh so now it's Hermione! Nevertheless, she answered in a calm voice. "I'll be a few more minutes. I want to get this last paragraph down. You go ahead."
"Okay."
Okay, so what if it was not true. She had quite a bit yet to write, but she could have done it later. She just didn't want to walk all the way to the dining room with Ron. It was not right! Why did he have to be so stubborn? Couldn't he just let his hair down? She smiled when she remembered where the phrase had come from. At school it would have been her who needed the letting her hair down thing, but now it seemed to be Ron! The world was coming to an end! Really, Ron Weasly, The Ladiesman of Hogwarts had suddenly grown up and gotten all responsible…What had happened to the world the way she had known it? Next thing she knew, Harry'd be dying his hair blond and slicking it back like good old Draco used to. Okay, you will stop that image fro resurfacing!
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Ron was walking to the dining room, pondering over whether the way he acted was right or wrong. His heart was telling him one and the thing he used to call his brain told him the other. So he had acted the way his brain had told him, but it was the right thing to do! Or was it? Over the years at Hogwarts he had listened to his heart and where had it gotten him? Nowhere. And then, right before the exams he took his brains advice for once and got to be second best after Hermione. Well, that was accomplishment, seeing as Hermione had studied like crazy, starting with the first year and had probably read even more books than Madam Pince and the whole of Hogwarts's teachers had altogether. He still failed to understand how he had got so many N.E.W.Ts. He hadn't almost done one piece of homework the whole year. Okay, he had, but he wasn't conscious at the moment, most probably or somebody had done it for him. Maybe one of his girlfriends.
He reached the dining room where the rest of the residents of the house were already having dinner, laughing and talking. He stood at the door for a moment, knowing that one of them was the person they were after but who was it? Okay, so Harry wasn't a suspect but the rest of them… His gaze fell on Gin who was sitting next to Harry. She had a devilish look on her face that Ron recognised from when she used to tease him about his crush on Hermione, which was of course purely fictional. Harry next to her was looking rather red and silent.
Gin? No. She had been crazy over Harry but when he had gone to the ball with Cho, she had been rather bitter and decided that the Great Harry Potter did not deserve all the time she was giving him and soon after realised that Harry and Ron were not the only males attending Hogwarts. That was all much to the dislike of one Ron Weasly, who had understood that after Ginny had given up on Harry, he didn't have the slightest clue on who she was dating as other Gryffs thought it best not to tell him. They found that the common room was nicer when the air wasn't thick with Bloody Hells! and who knows what else. It actually afforded them with some study and leisure time.
Next to Gin there were two empty seats which were obviously saved for himself and Hermione. Opposite Harry there was Justin. Justin? What would he have against Harry? He was that weird eccentric accountant type who made his living and was happy to tell everyone who wanted or bothered to listen that he worked for Harry Potter, The Boy Who Lived and a famous seeker for England. Why would he want to kill Harry? He'd have absolutely nothing to talk about, making him even more boring, if possible, in the process.
And then there was Colin, his prime suspect, sitting right next to Justin, occasionally glancing angrily towards the poor man. Okay, so maybe he had misread his facial impression, because a second later he burst out laughing with the rest of the people, after Justin had said something funny.
"… You should have been there. It was…indescribable. I don't think Hermione has moved so fast in her life. I swear that when she got up, I thought she was moving at light speed…" Justin said, almost choking with laughter.
All of them roared with laughter and Ron took a step back, recognising a slightly similar happening from the same morning. He decided that he would stand there for a few more minutes, just to check out the rest of them…who were Colin and Niles. The conversation however cut in again and he was forced to listen some more.
"...And Ron?" Harry managed before he broke into new fits of laughter.
"He was so red in the face that it showed from behind. He never got up. I think the things Hermione had done to him gave him jelly legs and he just sat there, not looking at us. He didn't even move."
They laughed once more.
"And then I used that 'whispering in each other's mouth' thing and well… you can imagine…"
"What?" Ginny squeaked. "She sent some old, unliftable, very painful curse towards you that you had to duck?" She giggled softly.
That was it! He was not taking it any longer! But he did want to know what Colin and Justin thought of the whole display, didn't he? Yes he did. So he clenched his fists and stayed quiet.
"You know," Colin started, "when you first told us about that whispering thing, I never believed you, but seeing the effect that it had on Hermione…and Ron's neck seemed a bit affected by the comment also, if I do recall correctly," he added as an afterthought, "I just have to believe. I don't think I have ever seen anybody blush that much. They did look like tomatoes on fire." The statement was followed with more laughter.
Then Niles added: "I told them that dinner was being served about fifteen minutes ago…I wonder what's keeping them?"
Oh the rage that was flowing through the veins of Ronald Weasly at that moment! He forced a smile and walked in casually, as if he had just arrived and heard nothing.
"What's funny?"
The room was filled with a deadly silence. If a needle would have been dropped on the table, it would have sounded like a sword had hit the surface of it.
Suddenly Harry broke the silence, unable to keep from laughing. "Oh… Colin was just telling us a funny bit of a story…about his childhood..."
"Aha…I see." Ron said stiffly, as he sat down and the people around the table started talking again.
After thirty minutes of sufreing through a fairly normal meal, Niles stood up and announced that he was going to clean the table. In a few minutes Justin, then Colin and finally Harry and Ginny, who left, hand in hand followed his leaving. Ron was left to eat alone and wait for Hermione, who never turned up. Ron decided that she had either forgotten herself writing or was too embarrassed to attend with everybody else there.
Ron walked to the library, only to find that the fire in the fireplace was now slowly fading away and Hermione's papers and quill were still scattered on the table. Probably wanted to get to sleep, he thought to himself and decided that he was in order for some sleep before he went out to patrol.
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