Chapter 13 – Missed Opportunities

Ron instantly gripped his wand when he heard a crashing sound nearby. He held the invisibility cloak close to his body as he creeped along the rows of books of the library, he stopped when he heard a strange sound near him and he froze. The sound whatever it was made him cringe. Ron thought it best to leave before whatever it was decided to come back, but just as he turned around to exit the library he tripped and fell.

"What the -" Ron's voice caught in his throat as he stared down at a girl.

Ron crawled towards her afraid to confirm what his mind already knew.

"Petrified," Ron sighed looking at the poor girl.

As he continued to look at her something caught his eye. The girl was holding a mirror in one hand and a hastily ripped piece of paper in the other.

Furrowing his brow in confusion he looked around him to make sure no one was around before quickly snatching the paper.

His eyes widened in shock.

'This was it! This was what he and Harry had been trying to figure out for months.'

Ron felt a strange sensation along his arm and frowned. Yawning he slowly opened his eyes and tried to move his arm but it was stuck.

His heart stopped.

He was staring into Hermione Granger's sleeping face.

Ron gaped at her. He realized then that the reason he couldn't move his arm was because she was lying on top of it.

'I'm in Hermione's bed! And I have my arms around her!'

Ron panicked when he saw Hermione roll towards him. He instinctively rolled back and fell into a painful heap on the ground.

Ron clasped his hands over his mouth to stop from crying aloud from the pain and his eyes darted up towards Hermione's bed.

He could hear her moving, the noise he made from falling off the bed must have woken her up.

A thousand curse words flew through his mind as he saw her sit up.

Hermione yawned and stretched lazily. She had just had the most wonderful dream where she had been wrapped up in Ron's warm arms – wait!

Hermione sprung up from her bed and stared around her.

'Where's Ron?' Hermione panicked realizing the red head was no where in sight, which could only mean one thing, he had woken, seen her as a girl and went instantly to report her to Dumbledore.

Hermione was completely crestfallen as she trudged to the bathroom.

'All that hard work for nothing.'

She jumped backwards and fell onto the floor when she saw Ron lying on the floor still asleep.

She slowly walked over to his sleeping figure and stared at him in disbelief. Suddenly Ron groaned and strecthed.

"Ow...why am I on the floor?" she heard him groan.

Ron heard Hermione gasp before the bathroom door closed loudly. He laughed before slowly sitting up.

He rubbed his face and realised that despite the extra sleep he was still exhausted and he was begining to realise the reason why.

'For someone so smart she's so careless, even though it was my fault for getting into the wrong bed she should at least carry a supply of that potion around with her. This girl is going to drive me crazy.'

He finally stood up from the floor and prepared for class.

'I can't believe I was in the same bed with her...and I spent the whole time unconcious!'

"Morning!" John said cheerfully stepping out of the bathroom.

"Morning," Ron replied feeling his ears heat up from the thoughts that John had interrupted.

As they made their way down the stairs to the common room Ron made sure to walk ahead of John, he didn't want to face him at the moment.

"Ron, there you are," Harry said as he stepped out of his dorm room, "Look we need to talk."

Ron could have hugged Harry, he would have done anything to get away from John.

"Sure, let's go in here," Ron said before pushing Harry back in the room.

"Huh, uh - " Harry said before Ron hurriedly closed the door leaving John standing outside blinking blankly at the door.

Ron sighed with relief before leaning against the door.

"What's up?" He asked Harry while loosening his tie.

"I talked to Ginny last night and she said she doesn't want to visit the medi-wizard at St Mungo's anymore."

Ron stared at Harry.

"What – did – you – say," Ron glared at Harry.

Harry quickly backed away from Ron.

"It wasn't my idea! She told me she doesn't want to go there anymore, she wants to get over this herself."

"You convinced her to do this," Ron pointed an accusatory finger at Harry, "You never liked me paying for her medical bills and so you insisted she stop going."

"Don't be ridiculous!" Harry replied angrily, "I insisted that I pay for the bills. I'm the reason she's going to see a bloody psychiatrist every other week."

"Just shut up Harry," Ron said tiredly resting his head back on the door, "I can't believe this."

"She doesn't want to do it anymore Ron, she never liked having to go behind your parents back to get treatment," Harry explained.

"Yeah I know my sister, thanks," Ron replied bitterly, "We all decided that we didn't want mum and dad to worry about it. 'We' agreed."

"Well now she says she wants to stop, she's been seeing him for a while now, maybe she really is ready to stop."

Ron stared at Harry before letting his head drop in resignation.

"I'll write to her first to make sure sh –"

"Here," Harry cut Ron off handing him a letter.

Ron narrowed his eyes at Harry and Harry held his hands up before taking another step back.

"Don't look at me, she's the one who wrote it, I guess she knew you'd never believe me otherwise."

"Fine," Ron said folding the letter up and putting it into his pocket, "Let's just go eat, I'm starving."

Hermione reached for a muffin while flipping through her transfiguration textbook but bumped into Ron's hand as he reached for the muffin tray.

"Sorry," she said looking up at Ron.

Hermione saw Ron instantly withdraw his hand and look away from her.

'Okay - that was weird.'

Hermione continued to watch Ron in concern.

Ron dropped his butter knife when he looked up and caught John's eyes.

'Stop looking at me!' Ron pleaded internally putting his toast back down, not sure he would be able to stomach anything at the moment.

Ron reached into his pocket and looked at the letter from Ginny, he had just pulled the letter from its envelope when John interrupted him.

"How do you know Ginny?"

Ron started.

"How do you?" Ron questioned in return.

"Oh, my cousin Hermione told me about her."

'That doesn't sound right,' Ron thought to himself, 'Why didn't Ginny tell me so before?'

"So how do you know her?" John repeated his earlier question.

"She's my little sister."

Ron saw John's eyes bulge at this.

"What a coincidence, huh?" Harry said from beside him, though Ron thought there was something strange about Harry's tone.

"Isn't it," John replied absent mindedly before standing up from his seat, "I'll be right back."

Ron watched John leave with relief.

'Finally, I can relax.'

Ron grabbed a pile of pancakes and instantly began shoving spoonfuls into his mouth.

Ron choked when John suddenly appeared beside him.

"Here," John said sitting down beside him breathlessly.

Ron took the bowl from John's hands and stared at its contents.

"What is this?" he said after drinking some pumpkin juice.

"Fruit salad," John said reaching for some juice.

"Where'd you get it from?" Neville questioned staring at the fruit.

"Kitchen elves," John answered while trying to catch his breath.

"You okay?" Ron said in concern.

"Never better," John replied as he placed eggs and sausages on Ron's plate.

"Hey," Hermione greeted sitting down beside Ginny.

"Hi," Ginny greeted smiling at her.

Ginny watched Hermione grab a few plates of food before she began to eat. Ginny watched her progress before laughing.

"You look like Ron."

Hermione froze at this comment and looked at Ginny.

"What do you mean?" she questioned before wiping the pumpkin juice from her chin.

"Well maybe not as bad as him, but you're pretty close. You look like you haven't eaten for days."

"Oh, I'm just tired," Hermione explained before looking down at her watch, "Look I've gotta go, I'll see you later."

Ginny watched Hermione grab a bowl of fruit salad before running out of the Great Hall.

"See ya," Ginny laughed watching her new friend leave.

"Weasley, Potter, Longbottom a moment if you please," McGonnagal said as the students filed out of the room.

"I'll see you in Herbology," John said waving at them before leaving the classroom.

McGonnagal waited till the room was empty before looking at the three boys, "I hope you haven't already got partners for the Ball.

"Well, I don't but Ron – " Harry began but was cut off by Ron.

"No, I don't either."

Neville shook his head when McGonagall looked at him.

"That's very good news," McGonnagal said, "We need to have you boys alert in case Black decides to attack so you'll be helping Tonks and the others patrol the school."

"Oh, okay," Ron said feeling slightly disappointed.

He had wanted to spend some time with John but since she wasn't going to go as Hermione it might have been a bit awkward to ask her to dance.

Hermione tapped her fingers on the table in frustration.

'Ask me already,' Hermione thought internally as she glared at Ron sitting across from her.

They were currently in the common room and Ron was helping a few students with homework. Hermione was shocked when she saw the note he had posted on the bulletin board stating that he would no longer be tutoring students. After she had pestered him about it he simply told her that he wanted to focus on his own studies, something which Hermione could hardly criticise. However the majority of Gryffindor students that he had tutored felt otherwise, most were horrified that they could no longer rely on Ron. She was surprised by how many he had actually tutored and wondered how he had ever got any school work done before. He had reluctantly agreed to help a few first years with their homework but insisted that he could no longer tutor because of other commitments.

But this was all besides the point. The real issue was that the Christmas ball was fast approaching and Ron was acting as though he had completely forgotten.

'I thought he wanted to go with me?' Hermione thought in confusion watching him explain a spell to a first year, 'Oh, it was Harry that had said it not Ron.'

Hermione felt disappointed.

'So what if he had told Harry and Neville how pretty I am? That's no guarantee that he would still like me now, it's been months since we've seen each other, well since he's seen me as a girl.'

Hermione folded her arms and narrowed her eyes at the red head.

'He probably likes some other girl by now – someone really brain dead like Lavender Brown.'

Ron looked up at her when she had laughed at the idea of him dating Lavender. He looked at her strangely before returning to the helping another student.

"Do you need help?" Hermione asked a first year who was shuffling his feet near her.

He looked alarmed before nodding his head shyly.

"I'm the best in my year – "

"So he says," Ron cut in.

"So I could help you if you'd like," Hermione continued ignoring Ron's comment.

Ron looked up from his seat on the floor when Harry came into the dorm room.

"It's called knocking, try it sometime," Ron said sarcastically.

"Gee, thanks Harry for bringing me my dress robes," Harry said waving a package in his hands, "Oh no worries, what are best mates for'"

Ron chuckled before catching the package Harry threw to him.

"Hey John," Harry greeted when John walked into the room.

"Hello," John replied dropping his bag on the floor, "What's that?"

"My suit for the ball," Ron said before standing up.

"You're going?" John said in genuine shock.

"Yeah well actually – "

"But whose your date?!" John cut Ron off staring at him with wide eyes.

"I'm not going – "

"I have to go!"

The next moment John ran out of the room and Ron and Harry stared at the door in bewilderment.

"What the hell was that about?" Harry looked at Ron for an explanation.

"No idea, I'm starting to get the impression that he's a bit mental," Ron replied unwrapping the package in his hands.

"You're not coming?" Ron questioned as he tried to fix his tie.

He had had enough money left over from tutoring to buy himself some nice dress robes , perhaps not as good as Harry's but still better then the one his mother had offered him.

"No, I think I'll just finish off some studying before going to bed," John said not looking up from his work.

"Okay," Ron said, "I'll see you later then."

Ron stood at the door and waited for John to turn around but he didn't and Ron shrugged before leaving the room.

'Oh well, it's not like I could have spent anytime with her since I'm patrolling the school with Harry.'

Ginny gasped.

"Hermione you look gorgeous!" she said jumping from her bed to have a closer look at Hermione, "I knew you'd be able to fit it with a few adjustments."

Hermione stood nervously twisting her hands in front of her. Ginny smiled as she recalled how a panic striken Hermione had arrived at her dorm room and hurriedly explained that she didn't have a dress for the Christamas Ball. Ginny had thought that Hermione was going to become airborne at the speed that she had been waving her hands around in the air.

"What I don't get is why you didn't get a dress before today?" Ginny asked Hermione picking up the shoes beside her on the bed and handing them to Hermione.

"Well," Hermione paused and put on one of the shoes before continuing, "I didn't think the guy I liked was going to be there."

Ginny raised her eyebrows at this.

"You like him now do you?," Ginny laughed when she saw Hermione blush, "You told me you only respected him."

"Well I do - I mean respect him that is - and I like him too, but its complicated," Hermione tried to explain hastily putting the other shoe on before straightening her dress, "What do you think of the color?"

Ginny smirked before reaching for her wand.

"Let's make it blue instead."

Hermione didn't even have time to react before Ginny had shot the spell at her.

"There, now turn around and look in the mirror."

Hermione looked at her reflection genuinely pleased. She looked up at Ginny a smile spread across her face.

"Thanks for the dress," Hermione said pushing some stray curls out of her face before adding, "And I never would have been able to tame my hair without your help."

"No need to thank me," Ginny replied trying to hide how much she wanted to go to the ball.

Ginny was shocked from her thoughts when Hermione suddenly hugged her.

"I'm serious Ginny, thank you, I've never had friends here at Hogwarts Girls and..."

"Stop before you ruin your make up," Ginny said hastily hugging Hermione in return.

"Which perfume?" Hermione questioned biting her lip looking at the various bottles on Ginny's desk.

"That one," Ginny pointed to a small round bottle hidden amongst her books and make up.

"It's a beautiful dress Ginny, but why do you even have it?" Hermione questioned smelling the perfume before spraying some on her wrists and neck, "We don't really have parties at Hogwarts Girls?"

"I bought it for next year actually," Ginny replied blushing slightly, "I guess I was hoping someone would ask me."

Hermione looked up from the mirror to look at Ginny.

"Oh Ginny, you shouldn't have let me wear your dress."

"It's fine, I've got a whole year before I need to get a dress and besides it looks better on you anyway. Just take heaps of pictures okay. Especially of you and Ron,"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Hermione said in an alarmed voice.

"Nothing," Ginny said innocently.

'You owe me one big brother.'

A/N: Almost done with the next two chapters :) Thanks for reading and commenting! Casa'Frankar I've replied to your question below:

Casa'Frankar: I'm glad you are enjoying my fic, and I've rated it M because it just allows me room to write freely without thinking about not offending anyone. Hope that helps lessen your confusion ;)

Please visit my livejournal if you'd like to ask me questions about the story because I'm very reluctant to answer questions here in case it ruins the surprise for others who might accidently read "spoilers". Or you could just see what I'm up to when I'm not writing, you can reach my livejournal by the link in my profile :)