Hermione walked away from Ginny in a daze. Thoughts were swirling around in her head; it seemed to her like it was unraveling itself.

"Harry, g…gay?!" That thought was ludicrous, at least to her, but Ginny said she had seen him. And with MALFOY? It seemed like the wonders of the world would never end. But that couldn't be. She had known him for close to 7 years now, how could he? He hated Malfoy! She would have to confront Harry about it. One of these days. There were more important things right now, like exams. Besides, it was a sensitive issue. It wasn't like she could just walk up to Harry and go, "Yo mate. What's up? Heard you were gay." She would need time to think it through.

----- + -----

It was Easter break, and lessons were cancelled. In place of that, there was a Hogsmede trip scheduled, much to the delight of the students and the dismay of Flinch. Hermione had intended to use the day to revise for the highly important (to her) exams but her normally stone hard resolve had melted away like wax on a lit candle the minute Harry asked her to accompany him.

"Where's Ron?" Hermione asked Harry at the portrait hole where they had agreed to meet before hand.

"He came down with something last night. He's now in the hospital wing." Harry replied. Hermione thought she could detect something not just right with Harry's tone of voice.

"Oh? Why didn't he tell me? Are we still going? Or should we go visit him?" Hermione asked, worriedly. Secretly, she was hoping desperately that they would go anyway. It wasn't everyday that she got to spend time with Harry alone and she wanted to treasure every minute of it.

"Oh we're going. He said to bring him back some Sugar Quills. Said he ran out."

"What are we waiting for? Let's go then." Hermione felt like Christmas had come early. Ecstatic would probably describe it best. A small part of her though felt guilty that she did not care more for Ron. She hoped that Harry would not find it strange.

----- + -----

After shopping around Zonko's and picking up a bag of Sugar Quills for Ron at Honeydukes, they decided to stop at the Three Broomsticks for bottles of Butterbeer.

All the while, Hermione noticed that Harry had been smiling a lot more than usual. It seemed like he was paying exceptionally more attention to her; what she said, what she did. She pondered over this tidbit of fact as Harry went to get their Butterbeers. Could it be that he… liked her? Nah. He had snogged Malfoy and was going out with Ginny. She decided that she would use this chance to confront Harry. Besides, he seemed to be in a good mood today.

"Hey." Hermione turned and was shocked to find Harry's face so close to hers. She quickly inched backwards, hoping that nobody would see how red her face was. As she regained her composure, she chatted with Harry on some totally meaningless topics, hoping that that would help distract her from how close Harry was from her body.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, Harry leaned closer to her. "Hermione…" He leaned in, quite obviously for a kiss and Hermione almost kissed him back, when something in the corner of her mind screamed. "You can't do this! He's your best friend! He might be gay and he's dating your best friend's sister! STOP!"

At the last minute, Hermione leaned away. Harry was taken aback and it showed on his face.

"Hermione… why?"

Tears were almost streaming down her face and it was all she could do to stop them.

"Cause… you're… gay!"

With that, she grabbed her things and made a run for the doors. She couldn't face Harry, or in fact, anyone now. All she wanted to do was to be left alone.

AN: thankyous for all the reviews! xD sure i'll continue but it might be kinda slow, since skl started and all T.T read, review you know what to do! xD