The Gryffindor common room was in an uproar. A crowd had gathered to witness the screaming match and Fred and George were happily making bets on who would stop screaming first. They had been going at it for more than half and hour and Ron was as red in the face as his hair was. Pansy had knocked a pile of books off a nearby table and had tipped over a chair in her anger. They wouldn't stop blaming each other.
"Just go to the Hospital wing already" an annoyed looking senior finally yelled. The argument which had roused people from their beds had been amusing at first but had quickly turned stale.
Still red with rage, Ron stalked outside and Pansy ran after him, not eager to feel the pain the charm inflicted when the distance between them became too great.
"Don't worry," A Gryffindor called out behind them as they left, "Madame Pomphrey can fix everything. "
It turned out that Madame Pomphrey could not fix everything, as she informed them, annoyed when they couldn't remember the spell, the name of the book, which shelf Ron had kept the book in, or even the section of the Restricted Section that they had been in.
"I could figure out how to undo the charm, but it'll take a while. Without knowledge of the spell used, it could take up to three weeks. I could cause the charm to become permanent if I'm not careful. "
She frowned at the distressed looks on their faces.
"I think you should go see Dumbledore in the morning. Till then, sleep in the hospital wing. The pain will be less, the closer you are to each other. "
Ron refused to look at Pansy as he stalked off to one of the empty beds. He'd just lay down and closed his eyes when he felt someone poking his cheek. His eyes flew open to see Luna snorting in amusement and Neville's worried face looking down at him.
"Is it true that you and Pansy are bound together?" Neville asked.
Ron glanced at Pansy- she'd taken a bed two beds away from his and her back was towards him. The tightness of her muscles told him that she was still awake.
"Yeah." he grumbled. "Hey I didn't know you two were dating." Ron exclaimed, staring at their conjoined hands.
"Oh we're not, we're just friends." Luna interjected before Neville could speak. A quick glance at Neville's face told Ron that he wasn't expecting that answer.
"YOU TWO, IT'S PAST VISITING HOURS".
Madame Pomphrey's shriek interrupted their conversation before Neville could reply as she shooed them out from the hospital wing.
As soon as they were out Neville pulled his hand from Luna's.
"Just friends? What about all the stolen kisses? And the handholding? Friends don't...friends don't do that to friends. I thought we were together."
"I never said that we were together though. I just thought that this was... " Luna didn't know how to finish the sentence.
Neville shot her a disappointed look. "I thought that you were different, but you're just like everyone else. I think it's best we talk after the holidays. "
He hurried away from her, not wanting to hear any more.
Patrols had been hell for Hermione recently, especially since she and Draco had kissed. They seemed to have lost whatever progress they had made in their relationship and were now back to being cold to each other.
"Malfoy stop." Hermione grabbed his wrist, pulling him to a stop but he yanked it away like she'd scalded him.
"What?" he asked warily.
"I've had enough Malfoy. We're always fighting and then ignoring each other, then talking and then fighting again. I'm tired of it. So either we're friends, proper friends, or we're nothing to each other. And if we're nothing to each other, then just stay away from me, because I don't know what we've got going on here but I'm done with it. So just decide."
Draco hesitated before sticking out his hand. She shook it, grinning at him.
"Friends? "
"Friends. "
"And now that we're friends you will not believe what happened that day in Slughorn's class... "
The sound of Hermione's laughter echoing in the abandoned corridor did nothing to ease the twisted feeling in his stomach which was telling him that he had just done a very, very bad thing.
