Ron confesses his fears about Hermione to Harry. Hermione continues to act out of character (much to Harry's displeasure) and we discover who her 'dirty little secret' really is.

Chapter 3 – Scorned

When Ginny entered the sixth year girl's dormitory, she was immediately rounded on by Hermione.

"So? What did he say? Did he fall for it, was he jealous?"

"Well… I didn't really stay long enough to hear anyone's response, except I heard Harry"-

"Never mind what Harry thinks." Hermione cut across. "I'm not doing this for him. What did RON have to say?"

"I've already told you I didn't stay down long enough to hear anyone else's response. Besides, what have you been doing? It looks like you've been kissing a girl!"

When all Hermione did was give her that cheeky smile, Ginny assumed that she was right.

"Christ Hermione! I didn't know you were into that kind of thing."

"It's not as bad as you think, you know." Hermione responded in a sing-song voice.

"Who is she then? This ought to be interesting."

"A seventh year Ravenclaw called Libra MacSabboth." A rather dreamy expression made its way across Hermione's face. Ginny was stunned.

"MacSabboth! That really pretty blond who went out with Zabini last year?"

"The very same." Hermione replied with an air of triumph, as if she'd just won some wonderful prize.

"Hay, isn't she a prefect too?"

"Yes she is."

"O.k. you being into that sort of thing I can accept, but her!" Ginny said in a sense of utter disbelief which matched her facial expression perfectly.

"Gee. Thanks." Hermione retorted, rolling her eyes.

"So… is she like, your girlfriend or something?" Despite the fact that this whole situation was very surreal to say the least, Ginny couldn't help but be curious about it.

"Or something. I'm more like her play thing, to be honest. The arrangement is that we meet up to play only, if you know what I mean. Reputations need to be kept, but she's really into the rough stuff-"

"Ok! I don't really want to hear any more thank you." Ginny decided that her curiosity ended at whether Hermione considered Libra her girlfriend or not.

"Ginny I thought you of all people would be open minded about all this." Hermione said in rather a sly/sarcastic way. Ginny, however, hadn't picked up on the sarcasm;

"Why? Do I look like a girl lover or something?" she said with panic in her voice.

"Ginny, lighten up. I was only takin' the Mickey." Hermione laughed as Ginny gave her a playful punch on the arm.

Over the next few days, all the six and seven year girls tried (what must have been every tactic in the book) to get Hermione to 'fess-up' about her new lover.

The rumours were flying like broomstick once more. But every time someone mentioned their Hermione-lover theory to, or around Ron, they soon regretted it. Not least if the rumour in question involved Hermione and another girl. He had not been in the best of moods since Hermione had appeared in the common room with a love bite on her chest.

Things were getting out of hand. Ron was just about to hex a third year for repeating what his older sister had said to him about one of the many rumours involving Hermione, when Harry had just about managed to stop him.

"Calm down mate! Honestly, I can't believe your letting these rumours get to you like this." Harry had to physically restrain Ron; he could have sworn that Ron was mad enough to kill by this point. "I mean, come on. Can you honestly tell me that you believe Hermione to be capable of doing even half the stuff we've heard so far?" Harry's attempt at calming Ron down seemed to be working. His rather red face was lightening a little and he started to give less resistance to Harry's restraint.

"But Harry, the lipstick, the love bite, the erratic behaviour. It all points to one thing doesn't it?" he asked rhetorically, relaxing totally now.

"Does it?" Harry decided to answer anyway. "Look Ron. All this, in my opinion, is a load of bull. If Hermione is up to something like that, which I seriously doubt, she would have told Ginny, right? They tell each other everything."

"What if she has told Ginny and Ginny's just been lying about knowing anything every time we've asked her? They are really close and I don't think Ginny would tell anyone if Hermione made her promise not to." Ron had obviously been obsessing about this more than Harry had originally thought. "You don't know Ginny like I do; she would take a secret to her grave… too loyal in my opinion."

"Ron, just think about it"-

"I have been thinking about it and it's driving me mental!"

"Yeah but Ron… Hermione, with a girl! Have you ever heard anything more ridiculous in your life?"

"Hmm… I s'pose it is a little crazy for her. But where else would the lipstick have come from?"

"O.k. suppose, just hypothetically, that she is with another girl. Why would that bother you so much? You've got Lavender. We should just be happy for her and accept her for who she is, right? She is our friend after all, and this is the 90's."

The look on Ron's face, after Harry had just said this, made Harry realise there was more to this than he had first thought.

"Harry, what if I'm the reason she doesn't like men anymore?" Ron's voice was solemn and barely audible above the buzz of the busy corridor as he confessed his worst fear to his best friend.

"What the hell are you on about, you Burk." Harry said rather unsympathetically, his surprise at Ron's last question was a little obvious.

"Think about it Harry, I've been treating her so badly lately. Making her cry, embarrassing her, and when I haven't been acting nasty towards her, I've been ignoring her completely."

"Well, I don't think that would have been enough to turn her gay." Ron winced at Harry's last word and Harry really was starting to pity his friend. Harry also couldn't help but think that maybe Ron had a point. He would never tell him this of course, but he had to admit he was being rather a prat towards Hermione lately. But bad enough to turn her off men?

Harry and a rather gloomy Ron then resumed their quest for the dungeons, as their next lesson was double potions with professor Slughorn. 'Somehow' thought Harry, 'I don't think Ron's mood is going to improve for a while.'

Harry, as was the norm lately, was situated between Ron and Hermione during their double potions lesson. What wasn't so normal about this lesson however, was the strange way in which Hermione was behaving. She was uncharacteristically cheerful and didn't even seem to mind (or rather notice) that Harry, once again, was outshining her by means of the Prince. She was making very little effort to listen and seemed to be daydreaming.

After ¾ of the lesson had passed, along with many complements from prof. Slughorn towards Harry ("marvellous performance once again Harry") and many questions going unanswered by Hermione ('just plain weird' Harry thought), Harry was beginning to wander whether there was more to these rumours after all.

He had just made a mental note to confront Hermione after class when something very strange happened (even to Hogwarts standards!).

Through the tiny gap between the open dungeon door and its frame a little paper butterfly came fluttering into the room. It flew erratically, rather like a real butterfly, until it came to a stop on the back of Hermione's hand which was resting on the desk.

All eyes were on her (including prof. Slughorn's) as she gently lifted her hand until it was level with her eyes, in order for her to closely inspect this tiny object which had so rudely (or sweetly) interrupted the lesson.

"Aha!" prof. Slughorn proclaimed triumphantly, he had a wide smile across his face and looked like he had just been proven right on something. "I told all the other teacher that the reason you seem a little distracted lately had something to do with someone special coming into your life." He paused momentarily to beam around the class until his gaze met Hermione's. "And I was right wasn't I?" this was more of a statement than a question. When no one answered he continued; "of cores I was. A pretty little thing like you was bound to be snatched up sooner or later." He chortled as a Slytherin boy scoffed somewhere near the front of the classroom.

The rest of the lesson went on as usual as Hermione's little letter was forgotten by most of the class. Hermione had read the letter (smiling sweetly at whatever it said and whispering to herself something Harry didn't quite catch) before putting it in the front pocket of her rather bulky school bag, and continued to daydream as she had been doing throughout the lesson, much to Harry's concern. This was not like his friend at all, and on turning to look at Ron, Harry's concern only doubled. Ron now looked much the worse for wear. He looked… depressed. That was the only emotion Harry could pair with Ron's features as he looked down at his hands.

'This is not good' Harry thought to himself. He was yet again caught in the middle of a drama between his two best friends and was at a loss of what to do or say to make the situation better.

Technically Hermione wasn't doing anything wrong. This made things worse for Harry. When Ron was treating Hermione like dirt, Harry could just tell him to stop it-as the hurtful and cruel behaviour was obvious to everyone.

This situation however, was different. For a start Harry didn't actually know all the facts behind Hermione's mysterious behaviour, so couldn't exactly tell her to stop doing whatever it was that was upsetting Ron so much.

Second of all, Harry had established earlier that Hermione wasn't hurting Ron on purpose and was doing nothing wrong. She was doing nothing to Ron that he hadn't done to her, except Ron had had nastier motives in mind.

Another thing he had concluded was that, for the first time in a long time, Hermione seemed happy. No, more than happy- Elated. Therefore he wasn't going to start telling her to stop seeing this mystery person, whoever he or she (Harry still wasn't convinced she was gay) may be.

Little did Harry know that; 'hell hath no fury like a woman scorned!'

Hermione was just in the middle of a rather satisfying daydream (Ron, on his hands and knees begging for her forgiveness, promising that he'll never treat her badly again) when something landed softly on her right hand. When she looked down she saw that it was a red paper butterfly. She recognised it as a 'flutter-by messenger', the type she had seen for sale in the quill shop in Hogsmeade. She brought it up to eye level for closer inspection. 'Oh, so sweet' she thought.

"Aha!" prof. Slughorn started to rant on about how he had been right, how he knew all along that Hermione's behaviour had been caused by love, and about how he was not surprised that "A pretty little thing" like her had been "snatched up."

When all the hubbub had died down and most of the class had gone back to the potion they were meant to be focusing on, Hermione opened the card-like note and read;

Hey kitten,

Meet me on the seventh floor corridor on the right hand side, at 7 for a little fun. There's an abandoned classroom that we could put to good use, if you catch my drift! I have a little surprise I think you'll enjoy (wink-wink!).

Yours expectantly,

Libra

P.S; wear that lip gloss you know I like. It makes your lips taste that much sweeter.

Hermione couldn't help but smile as she read through the rather sassy letter ("holy hell Libra!"). But she was a little surprised at Libra's boldness; their usual method of communication was Cupid, Libra's tiny Elf owl. Libra would normally send Cupid with a note for Hermione during the night, where he would peck at her dorm window. Having the bed closest to the window, Hermione would let him in and take the note (instructions on where to meat and what time the following day) off his leg, write her reply and send him back to his owner before either Lavender or Parvati could be woken by the over enthusiastic owl.

'What if some nosy brat had intercepted the note before it had reached me? We would have had some explaining to do once that got out, that's for sure!' she mused. For the moment Hermione was safe, the rumours about her shacking up with a girl were simply rumours, nothing more.

Hermione didn't plan on revealing the truth until later. Right now her plan was too encourage the stories and theories, which were already spreading like wild fire, by continuing to act out of character and by continuing to see Libra.

She was wrong in thinking that she would like teasing Ron. She loved it.