Chapter 4 – Hiding Something

Ron awoke early the next day unrefreshed and totally confused as to where he was. He blinked his bleary eyes several times and eventually began to take in his surroundings.

"The common room?" he croaked, confused. "Oh yeah…I was up all night waiting for – HERMIONE!"

Ron had just noticed his sleeping friend snuggled up in the chair opposite him. She stirred, roused by his sudden yell.

"Ron?..." she yawned, sleepily. "What's with all the yelling? Everything all right?"

"Well…no, not really, Hermione!" he spluttered, irritably. "Do you mind telling me where exactly you got to last night or am I to be held in suspense for another 12 hours?! I've been up all night because of you – well, apart from when I fell asleep – but, still! I looked all over the castle and then came back here and waited for hours and hours and hours and - " Ron broke off, suddenly uncomfortably aware of how much he sounded like his mother.

"Are you quite finished? Keep your hair on, Mum," she yawned again, uninterested in rising to the argument she sensed was coming. "I was in the library."

"The l-library?" stammered Ron, amazed at his own gargantuan stupidity. He hadn't even looked in the library. The most obvious place where Hermione could have been and he had forgotten to check it. What on earth was the matter with him?

"Yes, the library, Ron. You know…the place with all the books?" A brief pause. "You did look for me there, right?"

"Of course I did!" Ron replied, indignantly, totally conscious of the fact that this was a bald-faced lie. Hermione narrowed her eyes at him.

"Hmm, yes, well…I suppose I was rather tucked out of view…Anyway!" exclaimed Hermione suddenly. "I'm still cross with you for what you said about SPEW yesterday!"

"Yeah well, it's a stupid idea anyway," Ron grumbled, half to himself.

"Excuse me?!"

Ron was about to launch into another tirade about how idiotic he thought SPEW was when he met Hermione's eyes and saw the acute hurt that lay there. The beginnings of the same hurt that had caused her to run from the Great Hall in floods of tears the previous evening. He sighed resignedly and looked at the floor.

"Look, Hermione…I feel really…bad about last night, OK? I didn't mean to hurt your feelings…I know I can be a little stupid sometimes…It's just that I tend to talk before I think sometimes, as you probably know well enough being one of my best friends…erm…And I suppose you're only trying to do what you think is right, even if it is…well…never mind. But, well…I mean, what I'm trying to say is…I'm sorry, Hermione."

He looked up and was surprised to see a tearful smile on Hermione's face.

"Thank you, Ron," she sniffed, happily. She had never thought she'd see the day when Ron would actually apologise for being unkind to her, and on top of that, he had even admitted he could be 'a little stupid sometimes'! She made a movement as if to hug him, but on spying the terrified look on his face as she moved towards him, she made do with an awkward pat on the arm.

"Right…" said Ron, uneasily. He searched around for something, anything, to say, before asking, quite innocently: "So…anything interesting happen in the library?"

"No!" exclaimed Hermione, in the unnecessarily loud and strangely high-pitched voice which Ron knew she only used when she was hiding something. "Why would anything interesting happen in the library? I just read some books…that's what I do, I read…nothing out of the ordinary happened…I just fell asleep, that's all! So…where is everyone? It's nearly 8'o'clock."

"It's Saturday," replied Ron, bewildered as to why his friend was acting so strangely. "They're probably having a bit of a lie-in…Hermione, what's wrong? Is there something you should be telling me?"

"Oh, of course! Saturday!" she cried, ignoring Ron's last questions. Hermione smiled nervously, unsure as to why she was hiding the events of the night before from Ron. The truth was - although at this point she didn't realise it - she wanted an adventure all to herself for once and felt Charlie could be just that. She went on, anxious to change the subject: "Perhaps we should wake Harry? We could go for a walk down by the lake or something. Get out of the castle for a little while." She looked at Ron hopefully.

"Hermione, it's like three degrees out there and, besides, it's raining, look!"

Hermione glanced out of the window to see an extremely angry-looking storm ravaging the grounds outside. Her face fell.

"Well…er…never mind…Anyway, I feel simply horrid in these robes, I've been wearing them all day and night. I'm just going to go up to my dormitory to get changed...See you in a bit." And with that she had left the common room and was hurrying up the girls' staircase, leaving an utterly bewildered Ron behind her wondering what on earth had come over his friend.

A/N:-

(5 Jan 05): Hiya :) I'm sooo sorry it's taken me this long to update and I'm really sorry it had to be with quite a short, boring, uneventful chapter! Believe me, it will definitely get better! I'm quite chuffed with the plot I've worked out, it's just getting it done that's the trouble! Anyways, hope you haven't lost too much interest in the story! I'm gonna start writing the next chapter right now, if that's any consolation for the boringness of this one! Please review and don't be too harsh! Cheers! Nicki x