Here it is...CHAPTER 7! waheyyyyyyy!

A little note: "Baby you belong to me..." and "Golden Summer" are my own 'songs' - in the broadest sense of the word... oh and be warned, swearing follows these statements...

Disclaimer: Harry Potter, Ron, Hermione et al - property of JK Rowling... Stupid plotlines - MINE!


Moonlight was flooding into Hermione's dormitory through a chink in the heavy curtains. From her bed, she could see the light fall onto the faces of her sleeping companions and just touch the whiskers of a snoozing Crookshanks. Apart from the sound of breathing and Crookshanks' contented purring, there was silence. Unusually for her, Hermione was having problems sleeping - she had been sitting on her bed for about an hour and was fed up. Maybe she should go down to the Common Room and see if there were any insomniacs around. Hopping off her bed she tiptoed across the dormitory floor and slipped out onto the landing. The stone steps down to the Common Room were a little cold to her bare feet, but as it was summer she'd left her slippers at the foot of her bed. As she neared the Common Room entrance, Hermione heard voices in a low murmur and – was that laughter? Curious, she poked her head through the door. At first, she couldn't see anybody, but as she slowly entered, she could make out several Gryffindors sitting cross-legged in the middle of the carpet. In the dim light, she thought she could Harry and Ron, chattering with a handful of other boys. She moved a little closer to the circle and was spotted by George Weasley.

"Oi Hermione!" Hermione jumped about a foot into the air, "Wanna come and join us?"

"What are you all doing?"

"Truth or Dare – Weasley-style." He wiggled his eyebrows, "Ginny's just gone to get you, but seeing as you're here already, please take a seat." He gestured towards a space between Fred and Dean.

"Um, I'm not really sure I want to play…"

"Ah just shut up and sit down – look – Ginny's back."

Ginny was indeed back and was now wedging herself in between Ron and Neville. Hermione gave up trying to protest and went to sit in her space. As they waited for Fred to finish casting a "Choosus Randomus" charm (his words, not Hermione's) on an empty bottle, Hermione took a chance to observe the various pyjama styles everyone was modeling.

Ginny was wearing her usual blue things, Harry had his black top and shorts, Neville and Dean were wearing Quidditch tops and shorts, and Fred and George were wearing big sleeveless t-shirts and baggy trousers. She had saved Ron 'til last because she didn't want to burn her eyes until she absolutely had to. For Ron had not known there were going to be girls, and had run downstairs in his "casual nightclothes" - i.e. he was wearing the same baggy trousers as the twins, but he had a very bare chest (it was summer after all). Hermione tried extremely hard not to stare too much at the muscles and the smattering of freckles on his skin.
Fred had finished the charm and was now making an amused face in her direction. She glared at him.

"'K, well now Hermione's with us, let's begin…"

He placed the bottle in the centre of the circle and sat back. It began to spin - quite lazily at first, but it quickly picked up speed until it was almost a blur. Then all of a sudden it stopped and pointed itself at Harry.

"Ohohoho!" cackled Fred, "Truth or dare matey?"

Harry looked terrified. "Errrm…"

If he picked Truth then argh, if he picked Dare then argh. Stoopid rotten Weasleys.

"Err…Dare…"

He saw Dean whisper something in Neville's ear, and then Neville beckon Fred towards him. Fred nodded as Neville spoke quietly, obviously taking pleasure in Harry's squirming.

"Ok Harry, it has been decided…we command you to belly-dance on top of the table while singing 'Oh baby you belong to me'…"

Harry winced. "Ah well... could've been worse," he said unconvincingly.

He got up onto the table, hitched up his t-shirt and began to wiggle his hips.

"Oh babyyyy you belong to meee, I got you in a cage, you can't get freee…" he shook his bum a bit and hopped down, his dare finished.

Ron was almost crying and Neville, Dean and Ginny were clutching their sides. George gave him a thumbs-up and indicated the bottle. Harry pointed his wand at it and said, "Choosus!"

Almost immediately the bottle spun to a halt in front of Neville.

"Neviiiiille, Truth or Dare?"

Neville bit his lip. "Truth."

Ginny looked pleased – now this was her speciality.

"Ok Neville. On November 19th last year, at 14:02 pm, you disappeared from the Gryffindor Common Room."

Neville had gone pink.

Ginny continued, "Where did you go, who with, and what happened exactly?"

"Hold on a second," protested Neville, "That's three questions."

Ginny smiled. "This is also WEASLEY-STYLE Truth or Dare."

"Yeh," chimed in Ron, "And believe me, the forfeits are a lot worse."

"Ok, ok, I went to the Forbidden Forest…"

"Yehhhh…"

"Um…with…um…Luna Lovegood…"

"And what did you do?"

"Kissing," he buried his face in his hands, "But you can't tell anyone k? We wanted it to be a secret."

"Don't worry mate, nothing leaves this circle," said George, patting him on the back.

This time, the bottle landed on Hermione.

"Ah, Miss. Granger."

"Yup."

"Truth or Dare?"

"Are there any other options?"

Fred ticked them off on his fingers, "Double dare, love, kiss, hate…"

"Uh…dare…"

"Oooh risky, Miss. Granger, risky…"

"Shut up."

"Hmmm let's see…who hasn't suggested anything…oh that would be me," Fred grinned, "Aha, a true Weasley-dare…you gotta eat marshmallows off Harry's back."

"Wot!" cried Harry and Hermione in unison.

"I've already done a dare," complained Harry.

Fred continued, ignoring both of them, "And she's gotta wear a blindfold…"

Ron's face had gone pink and he was looking at his brother with narrowed eyes that said 'I'll-get-you-for-this-later'

And true to form, after Hermione had eaten the marshmallows, the blindfold removed, the bottle spun and Fred chosen, Ron did 'get-him'.

"Fred, I get to choose your dare."

Fred looked a little worried, "Er ok – be nice – we are brothers after all."

"Brothers, crothers, smothers – yah, yah, whatever. Get naked, run down the corridors screaming 'I love you Millicent Bulstrode' and we're even."

"Even! Naked! Ron, oh sweet merciful Ron…"

"Do it."

Fred did, and the size of his you-know-what was the topic of discussion for many months after the incident.


Draco Malfoy was whistling. He didn't know what tune exactly, but it was a nice tune all the same. He continued whistling and sauntering until he happened upon Hermione and Ginny in quiet discussion. Once he reached them he said a chirpy "Mornin' 'Mione" and a "Hi Ginny" and carried on whistling away into the distance.

"My, Hagrid's lost weight. And height. But why did he have blonde hair?" asked Ginny, concerned.

"Ginny... that was Malfoy."

"Oh."


It had been a long day, thought Hermione. Especially since they'd been up so late playing Truth or Dare. Well, she supposed, it had certainly been interesting. She'd found out a lot of things abut her friends, and seen more of them than ever before. Especially Fred. Heheheheh. Now though, she wanted a nice cool shower before she joined the others. Wherever they were.

The shower room was a lot bigger than it appeared at first, and yet it was not a room that made Hermione feel small at all. She selected a cubicle and hung her towel up inside the door. The cubicle had a small area at the front, which was where a locker inscribed with 'H.G.' stood. Hermione unlocked the locker with one hand and with the other locked the cubicle door. She began to undress and placed her clothes and shoes in the locker. Next she took out two bottles of brightly coloured liquid, making sure she securely locked the locker itself. Grabbing the bottles she walked into the shower, which was separated from the dry area by a long curtain.

Placing her wand into a holder fastened to the wall, Hermione turned on the water and let her mind wander. It chose to wander down a path that she had been trying to avoid for hmmm…about four years. As the image of Ron's chest popped up in her mind once again, she found herself feeling strangely happy.

Ron was walking down to the boy's shower room. It had been a long, tiring day, but he was quite pleased that Hermione had not brought up the whole 'Seamus incident'. In fact, he had caught her staring at him a bit more than usual. Another couple of years and he might finally be able to tell her how he felt. The route to the showers took him past the girl's shower room. Someone was singing. He strained his ears. Whoever it was had a pretty good voice. The song sounded familiar.

"Silver midsummer moon

Floating against the mountains

Filling up the sky

Take me with you, hold me tight

I want to hold the sunbeams in your eyes

Kiss you good, kiss you right

Kiss you forever

My golden summer…"

Ah yes. Sounded like an Emerald Imps song. What was it called...? Oh. Duh…Golden Summer. He noticed that he had stopped outside the Girls Shower Room entrance to listen to the girl singing. A few Hufflepuffs walked past and looked at him strangely. He wondered if this was a weird thing to do.

As she sang, Hermione thought about Ron. She thought about his chest (surprise, surprise) and his stomach, and the little freckles on his skin, and his laughter. She was in such deep thought that she barely saw the soap on the floor, and when she did see it, she was lying flat on her back.

"Yeowch!" she yelped as pain soared up her ankle. Sitting up, she examined the place where the agony was coming from. To her horror, her right ankle was almost twice the size of her left, and was throbbing ominously.

"Oh fuck…" she muttered, and stopped. When had she started swearing? This was odd – Ron usually cursed enough for Harry and herself alone, but Hermione?

"DAMN YOU RONALD WEASLEY!" she shouted at the top of her lungs, and then, without warning, shards of pain shot up her leg again.

"Aaaaaaaaaarrrrghhhhhhhh!" she screamed.

"Damn me? What have I done this time?" asked Ron to no-one in particular, "Hold on a sec…is that Hermione in there? In pain?"

As the second cry of anguish echoed out into the corridor, Ron raced into the shower rooms.

"'Mione! 'Mione – are you ok?" he dashed into the first cubicle – it was empty.

"Ron! What the hell are you doing?"

"Trying to find you and take you to Madame Pomfrey."

"But…"

"What cubicle are you in?"

"7…but Ron…wait!"

"Uh?"

"I'm well, you know, naked?"

"You what? Oh…oh my…" Ron dashed out of Number 7 closely followed by a bar of soap.

"Chuck me a towel will you?"

"Um...sure…"

"Hmhmhmhm…ok you can come back in now."

"Er. Right." Timidly, he walked back in, to see a very wet Hermione – in a towel this time – sitting on the floor and clutching a severely swollen ankle.

"Yeeesh that looks painful"

"You don't say."

"Do you think you can stand?"

"I can try I suppose, but the floor is slippy and I don't want my towel to fall down."

"I wouldn't mind if it did…" mumbled Ron, ears pink.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"So what should I do?" wailed Hermione.

"Right…um…first…give me a minute…" Ron whipped off his black hoodie and handed it to her, "Here, wear this."

Hermione pulled it on, trying not to get it too wet.

"Thanks Ron. Could you pass me my wand?"

"Is it in this thing?" he tapped the wand holder.

"Yup"

"There you go."

"Thanks. Accio knickers." No knickers came.

"ACCIO KNICKERS" repeated Hermione, "What's going on?"

"Where are your knickers? In your room?"

"Please! You think I came down here with no underwear?"

"Maybe?"

"Don't be stupid."

"So where are they?"

Realisation dawned on Hermione's face.

"Oh. In my locker. And it's locked."

"I'll go unlock it."

Ron disappeared. Hermione sat, praying he wouldn't see them or wouldn't touch them. He returned holding a plain black bra and knickers, and wearing a stupid grin.

"RON!" Hermione blushed scarlet.

"Hermione calm down! I live with two women and I have had to wash their clothes sometimes. It's no big deal."

Hermione looked at him accusingly. "Then why are you grinning like that?"

"Er oh um yes that would be because I remembered you were singing an Emerald Imps song before and I never knew you liked them – never really talked about music before with you…" …and the fact that I holding underwear that belongs to the girl of my dreams, he added silently.

"Yes well I always liked them ever since the first time I heard them. Could you turn around for a minute?"

"Yeah…sure…"

Hermione stifled a laugh – Ron looked quite flustered.

"So, 'Mione, what other bands do you like?"

"The Weird Sisters..."

"Yup, snap – what else?"

"Hm…John Dee and the Alchemists, Unicorn Conspiracy and the Frogspawn. How 'bout you?"

"Well I like those as well, but I really also like the Midnight Pixies."

"Oh yeah, that lead singer's voice is incredible – you can turn around now by the way."

Ron span around, "K let's get you to the hospital wing."

"Um, but my trousers…"

"You want to risk scraping that thing!" he asked incredulously, pointing at the throbbing lump that had one been Hermione's ankle.

"I just feel – well - exposed I guess."

"OK then. Let me go get 'em."

After several attempts on both Ron and Hermione's part to gently tug the trousers up over her legs, they gave up.

" 'Mione, how much do you love these trousers?"

Hermione looked at the worn green combats and sighed, "Alright, take them, but be gentle…"

"I will," he replied. True to his word he gently traced a line under the knee of the trousers with his wand, making a faint white ring on the material and spoke a soft incantation under his breath. The bottom half of the right trouser leg fell to the shower room floor. He handed the mutilated combats back to Hermione and she slipped them on, pulling them up under the towel that was still wrapped around her.

"Ready to go?" he asked. She nodded and stuck out an arm for support. Ron readied himself for screaming. His father had twisted an ankle before and Ron had been on the receiving end of an awful lot of shouting, shrieking and swearing that day. And of course, the 'Thrymheim incident' had proved that Hermione had a talent for ear-splitting screams. But to his great surprise, when Hermione clambered up, wincing at the pain, she merely turned white and bit her lip, before sitting down again very quickly.

"Hurts too much," she mumbled.

"If you can stand up for 3 seconds and bear with it, I can lift you onto my back and get you to Madame Pomfrey."

"Ron! You can't! I can't! I'd break you in half!"

"Whatever. Look, do you want to get that seen to or not?"

"Well yeah…"

"Then get up and let me carry you. You'll only be standing for a moment, and if I can manage to walk with Ginny, Fred and Harry clinging to me, then you'll be no problem at all. Kapiche?"

"Oh fine," she said in a resigned voice, "But don't blame me if you end up looking like that dude at the Leaky Cauldron."

"Oh the one with the hunchback?"

"Yeah"

"Don't worry 'Mione, sheesh, I'm not that weak you know. Stop wasting your time and get on with it."

"Ok, ok, keep your hair on."

Somehow she managed to stand and sort of hop onto Ron's back. Kicking open the cubicle door, the red-head walked out of the bathroom, and into the corridor.

"That wasn't so bad now, was it?"

"No I 'spose not."

"You alright there? You haven't got vertigo have you?"

"Don't be daft," she said, swatting him on the head, "It's actually quite cool. I always wondered how things would look if I was taller."

"And how's your ankle?"

"Could be better, but it's not hurting as much as before."

"Good, good."

Hermione laughed quietly.

"What's so funny?"

"The looks on everyone's faces. I can see the Daily Prophet's headlines now – 'SON OF MINISTRY OFFICIAL GIVES PIGGY BACK RIDE TO A HOGWARTS GIRL WITH HALF A TROUSER AND A SWOLLEN ANKLE – Is this the first case of insanity at Hogwarts in a decade? – Rita Skeeter investigates…'"

Ron chuckled, "D'you think we should give 'em a show?"

"Yeah!" said Hermione, although she had absolutely no idea what he was talking about.

"You have no idea what I'm talking about do you?" said Ron with a twinge of sadness, "Look it's very simple – I'll do the bass, and you do the tune. A… one…two…a…one…two…three…four…"


Harry walked briskly down the corridors searching for his friends. No-one had seen them, and Harry desperately needed help with some of his homework. He rounded a corner to see a tall boy giving a piggy-back ride to a girl. Both were singing at the tops of their lungs and lurching from side to side. The girl appeared to be clinging to the boy's head with one hand, and shaking maracas furiously in the other. They were causing quite a stir, and several other students seemed to have joined in. Harry thought he could see Colin Creevey's head amidst the crowd, and sure enough, there he was, occasionally donging a cowbell in time to the song. Even Draco Malfoy had joined in – bashing Crabbe and Goyle's heads together in a complicated rhythm while Zabini played little drum rolls on their skulls. The procession continued past Harry and he decided to follow. As they carried on through the corridors, Harry fought through the mass towards the two who were leading the whole thing.

"Harry!" shouted Hermione, "Hellooooooooo!" she turned to the sea of faces behind her, "Come on people, let's be havin' you!"

"Er hi," said Harry, quite bewildered, "Um is that you Ron? What did Hermione do to her ankle?"

"Long story!" bellowed Ron, "We're just going to the hospital wing actually."

"These people too?" Harry indicated the throng of Hogwarts students weaving and dancing behind him.

"Nah. They just like the song I think."

"Oh. Good."

"Oi Harry – catch!" Hermione yelled and tossed him a whistle.

"What?"

"Harry blow it, ohhhhhh, Harry blow the whistle…" sang Ron, jigging from side to side. Harry looked at the whistle in his hand. Ah what the hell, he thought.

3 hours later, Hermione sat in the hospital ward for the second time that week, recovering from Madame Pomfrey's ankle healing tinctures. The Golden Trio looked tired but happy, and their red faces were beginning too fade.

"That was great guys!" beamed Harry.

"Yup," said Ron, and promptly fell asleep on Hermione's shoulder. Harry smiled at her, as he fell asleep on her other shoulder.

"This is the bestest place to be," she thought sleepily, "Sitting in Hogwarts with the two boys I love most in the whole wide world." She began to snore gently.

"Miss Granger! Miss Granger!"

Someone was shaking Hermione awake.

"Madame Pomfrey? Whatever is the matter?"

Madame Pomfrey snorted and indicated the two boys slouched on either side of Hermione. Hermione blushed a little.

"Oh, I'm sorry Madame Pomfrey, the tincture made me quite drowsy…"

Madame Pomfrey cut her off, "Yes dear, I know, but neither of these lovely young men had any tincture applied, and as you can see, it's getting rather crowded in here."

"Uh…where am I…" burbled Harry, lifting his head up off Hermione's shoulder and experimentally cricking his head from side to side, "Oooch my neck…"

"We can soon fix that, Harry m'lad," smiled Madame Pomfrey with a menacing glint in her eye.

"Oh I'm sure I'll be fine," he said, a little fearfully.

"Come on Ron, get up!"

Ron, who was currently ensconced in Hermione's lap, seemed to be showing absolute zero keenness in waking up. Hermione looked at Harry pleadingly. Harry looked at a sleeping Ron. Madame Pomfrey looked at Harry while brandishing a set of lethal looking tongs. Professor Snape looked round the door and stole Hermione's maracas while everyone looked elsewhere. In those seconds, time seemed to stand still. Well sort of. While no-one was taking action in the hospital wing, Snape was in fact dancing the salsa in the corridor outside it.

Once the seconds had passed, a decision was made and Harry dashed to the doors and wrenched them open, so that Hermione could stagger through, carrying a snoozing Ron in her arms. However, all three friends landed back in the hospital wing anyway, when Hermione promptly dropped Ron on his head and Harry pulled a muscle from laughing so much.

So Madame Pomfrey got to use her tongs in the end...


Did you enjoy? Did you puke? Did you cry?...please let me know...

I would just like to say a quick thank you to all the wonderful people who reviewed last time: Invaderk, HarryandGinnyRonandHermione & Crystal Springs...your reviews were very much appreciated - thank you!