Ginny saw the heels of the worn shoes belonging to her brother fleeing at the top of the stairs. Drat him! Now she was going to have to take over the concealment of the secret. Oh, yes she knew. She had known since she had bullied Ron into spilling and she could understand why they were hiding it from Hermione. She had reacted in a terrible way when she found out the truth, and she could only imagine that Hermione's reaction would be just as bad, if not worse, than hers had been. Best not to let her know.

Ginny didn't know the details of the affair, as it was a painful topic to her still, and therefore she didn't know when it had started or how it had started. All she knew was that if the school wanted to survive for another thousand years then it was best that Hermione knew nothing about it.

Fearing that Hermione would spot Ron's fleeing feet she did the first thing that came to her head and tripped Hermione up.

Apologising profusely she helped Hermione up and glanced at the top of the stairs. Thankfully the foot had vanished.

A moment later her coin started to dance in her pocket. That meant that they were to have a strategy meeting. Making up an excuse about leaving a book in the library she, too, fled the scene.

Hermione stared after her and shrugged as Fred and George came out of the great hall and, typical of the Weasley twins, gave her their usual greeting. This involved them sneaking up behind her and both of them tickling her mercilessly.

"Boys stop! Stop it!"

They didn't, as she had fully expected.

Sighing she slipped her wand out and the next moment both boys were hopping around the entrance hall with their bottoms on fire.

"You asked for it! You know I don't like being tickled. Stand still and I'll get rid of the flames."

When they entered the Gryffindor common room, flame free, they noticed a quartet by the window. Technically it was a quintet but they couldn't see the fifth person.

This group consisted of Harry, Ron, Parvati and Ginny.

They were whispering conspiratorially and stopped talking abruptly the moment Hermione approached them.

She knew what that meant. They were hiding something from her. Or they had just been talking about her. She studied each face in front of her and noticed that they were all avoiding eye contact with her.

"What's going on?" Hermione asked with the air that told them that she knew something was going on, and that she was going to find out what it was if it was the last thing she did.

The group immediately stared at Harry for direction. Subtly Parvati winked at him. He grinned and slipped his arm around Hermione's shoulders.

"Now why would you think anything was happening?" he said genially.

Hermione gazed up into his gorgeous green eyes and realised that she didn't need to know why everyone was acting strangely. She lost herself in his eyes and barely noticed that he was steering them to the sofa in front of the fire.

Ron backed off towards the portrait hole and exited the common room, but returned a moment later with Harry's invisibility cloak in his arms. He caught Harry's eye and nodded. Harry looked past Hermione to the girls and winked at them. Hermione missed it as he did it so well that it looked like he was blinking.

A moment later he left, to answer the call of nature he said. Parvati and Ginny took up position around Hermione.

"Oh my god! Hermione! Harry's gonna ask you out soon, I know he is!" Ginny squealed.

"I am still under the impression that we were still under the influence of that bet we made in Myrtle's bathroom. Are we?" Hermione asked looking between them.

"Of course, and he has just given us the clue that he's gonna pick you." Ginny was fairly bouncing in her seat.

Hermione noticed that Parvati was biting her lip in a way that told her that she wanted to say something, but was unsure if she should.

"What is it, Parvati? You look like you really want to say something."

"Harry won't choose Hermione. At least in the near future."

"What do you know?"

Parvati grinned and closed her eyes.

"He chose me!" she burst out.

"What! He didn't?" Ginny looked crestfallen but when Hermione wasn't looking shot Parvati a grin.

Hermione was looking at her knees and was looking very sad.

Quickly she got up.

"Why couldn't you have left me in my happy place? I was really happy a second ago. You know how I feel about Harry. Why did you have to ruin it?"

On the verge of tears she ran across the room to the staircases. She didn't go into the girls one but hid in the shadow of the boys.

A moment later she was joined by Fred Weasley.

"Think they bought it?" she asked him as he slipped his arms around her waist from behind.

"With an actress as good as you are, of course they did."

They watched Parvati and Ginny in silence as they high fived each other and then burst into giggles.

"You wouldn't happen to know what's going on do you? I know something is and I really want to find out. The four of them are up to something and I think I'm involved somehow. Since two of them are your siblings I thought you might know what they're up to."

"Sorry. I don't know what's going on. I could try and find out for you if you want."

"No, thanks. The last thing I need is them finding out I had you spy on them. What with concealing our relationship from Ron when I know he still has feelings for me, I feel that they'll never forgive me."

Fred thought for a moment.

"Hey, you know what would clear this up? A few drops of Veritaserum in everyone's drinks. Then all the secrets would be revealed. Including ours."

Hermione rolled her eyes at him.

"We'll keep that as Plan B shall we? Don't you have a sweet or something that'll make them feel so carefree that they'll tell it willingly? You've invented loads of great stuff."

Fred turned her around and looked into her eyes.

"What's this? Miss Hermione Granger appreciating our produce? The world must be coming to an end. In all attempts at seriousness, sorry we don't have anything like that. I could try and make something like that though. It would be fun to invent something like that. Want to help?"

"Just because I admire your inventions, doesn't mean I will help you to make them. You're right though, it would be fun. If you need any references just ask me. I know the library back to front anyway, so one of the books is bound to help."

"I'll fetch my twin and we'll begin on it tonight."

"Do you have to leave now?" Hermione pouted.

He grinned and led her up the stairs to his dorm.

Over in the corner Parvati saw the one ginger head moving up the stairs and wondered why only George was in the common room. The twins were usually inseparable. It was a rare occasion when they were separated.

She also thought she saw a bushy brunette head…