A/N: Only one more chapter to go! Thanks to my beta, Jonelle! Thanks to all who have reviewed and favorited!

Chapter 9- Past Events, Current Feelings, and Future Plans

March 1

Neville gasped for breath after he stumbled through the portrait hole into the Gryffindor common room. Leaning against the wall just to the right of the portrait hole, his eyes wandered around the room before they lit on the three people he was looking for. After he took a second to get his breath back as much as he could, he crossed the room to Harry, Hermione and Ginny. He puzzled for a second over the fact that Ginny was sitting very close to Harry since he thought that Hermione didn't know about the two of them, but he shrugged it off.

"Hospital wing. We need to get to the hospital wing," Neville panted out.

"Why? What's wrong? Who's there?" Hermione asked, standing up in a panic.

Neville just looked at her for a minute before answering. "Ron."

Her eyes got wide and her face paled before she swayed on her feet. Harry immediately shot to her side, supporting Hermione by wrapping an arm around her. Ginny, on the other hand, shot out the portrait hole so fast that Neville barely realized that she had left already.

"Ron is going to be fine now. I'll fill you in on what happened once we get down to the hospital wing. But I only want to tell this story once," Neville reassured them. The three of them made their way down to see Ron.

Ginny was already at his bedside when the trio arrived. With Ron's hand in hers and tears welling in her eyes, Ginny turned to Neville.

"All right, explain, please. What happened to Ron?" Ginny demanded. She looked nervous, yet at the same time, fierce.

Neville shuffled his feet before starting to speak. "I had gone back to the room for a book I needed for my revisions. Ron was sitting in the window seat, looking very strange. He was going on and on about Romilda Vane and how beautiful and perfect she was."

"Do what?" Harry said, spluttering. "After what he did and said to you yesterday?"

"That's it exactly, Harry. I knew that something seriously had to be wrong with Ron. His heart wouldn't have changed that fast—" Neville answered.

"Wait, changed that fast how?" Hermione asked. Both boys looked at each other before Neville caved under her scrutiny.

"Well, it's..."

"It's something that Ron should share if he's going to," Harry said, wisely backing out of Hermione's reach.

Neville cleared his throat. "Anyway, I remembered you, Harry telling me about Hermione warning you that Romilda Vane and some other girls were trying to slip you love potions."

"Excuse me?" Ginny remarked, looking furious. She gazed over at Harry as if to ask silently the veracity of the statement. When he nodded, she started to fume.

"I thought that it might be that Ron had had something with one of those potions in it. That suspicion grew stronger when I saw a box of chocolates with a card written to Harry on the front. Romilda had sent it." Neville looked apologetically toward Ginny.

"Since I'm not in Potions this year, I knew that there was no way that I could brew the antidote. Plus, I had no idea what Ron was planning to do next, but I couldn't let him screw up his chances for happiness any further. So I took him to Professor Slughorn."

"But if he had the antidote, why is he here?" Hermione interjected. "It's a simple potion really."

Neville fidgeted. Taking a deep breath while firmly looking at the ground, he started. "While Professor Slughorn brewed the antidote, he told me some stories about my parents. That led him to offer me some mead, especially when I mentioned that Ron was celebrating his birthday today and what bad luck he had to have for this to happen today of all days.

"The professor and I were toasting when Ron swallowed a gulp down. He had already had the antidote, see, which he had said tasted horrible. I think he wanted whatever he could to get that taste out of his mouth." Neville paused and looked at the three of them. "Something was wrong with the mead. Ron started convulsing. It's the way my grandfather died, the one I saw die. Professor Slughorn panicked, I guess. He just stood there in shock. I remembered about bezoars and thought that there would be one in the professor's potion stores. I found it quickly and shoved it in Ron's mouth, forcing him to swallow. Then I brought him up here, told Madame Pomfrey what happened and left to get you three."

By this point, Hermione had taken up vigil on the other side of Ron from Ginny. Holding his hand much like Ginny, she asked without looking at Neville. "But how did you remember the bezoar?"

"Hermione, I understand the theory and ingredients behind potions since that's for the most part a matter of revision. It's the brewing part that kept me from doing well on my O.W.L. I have problems remembering the directions while I'm brewing and it's not like the professor's attitude toward us Gryffindors helped." He took a deep breath before breathing out, "Snape," here he grimaced, "spoke about bezoars on the very first day of Potions in the questions he asked Harry. I made sure to revise everything in the first year over and over until I could quote it." He shrugged.

Neville was saved from having to answer any other questions by the return of Madam Pomfrey with Professors Dumbledore, Slughorn and Snape. They discussed the possibilities of who might have done this and why.

Hermione held Ron's hand in both of hers, holding it close to her cheek. She was still holding vigil at Ron's bedside. Regardless of whatever he had done or how small or mad he had made her feel, Hermione knew that she couldn't leave Ron alone in that hospital bed. It didn't matter to her that Ginny had stayed until the evening meal. She resolutely stayed by his bed, even to the point of eschewing her revision work. Early in the vigil, Madam Pomfrey had told the two girls that Ron was to rest as much as possible, which meant that they weren't to bother him. The potions that the matron had given Ron kept him under to the point that Hermione had not even seen him awake yet.

"Oh, Ron, why can you never eat chocolate in moderation? Why did you eat those chocolates? Why didn't you read who they were from? You could have figured it out if only you had bothered to read." She closed her eyes and brought his hand to her lips. "What am I saying? It's not your fault that Romilda Vane is an egotistical, psychotic, insane witch."

Opening her eyes, one hand released his to brush his hair back from his face. A slight smile crossed her face. "If I know your sister, she'll have something planned as payback before tomorrow. Romilda deserves it so even if I see it, I'll deliberately turn a blind eye. In fact, I might offer my services to Ginny tonight."

Gently cupping his cheek, tears welled up in her eyes as she thought about how close she came to losing him today. "Oh, this is all my fault. If only I had talked to you at breakfast, instead of storming away, then you would never have been there to eat those darn chocolates." Wiping her eyes with her free hand, she continued. "I just couldn't sit there and talk to you without wanting to tell you everything. We haven't talked in so long, but even before Lavender came into the picture, I never talked to you like I should have. I was too scared to let you know how much I care about you. I knew that it would scare you off and then I wouldn't even have your friendship anymore. I didn't think that I could survive here without at least your friendship. But having been without you these past months, I can't keep it inside." She let a small grunt at herself. "Even though I can only say this while you're asleep, Ron," her voice reduced to a whisper. "I love you."

She tucked his hand against her cheek, revelling in the rough feel of it. At that moment, Madame Pomfrey entered the hospital wing back from her evening meal.

"Miss Granger, it's time for you to go. You need to eat something before bed. Mr. Weasley will be fine. You can come see him in the morning," the nurse told the young witch gently, yet firmly.

Hermione nodded before lowering Ron's hand to the bed softly. She leaned over to drop a kiss on Ron's cheek before leaving the room. Since she didn't bother to look back, she didn't see two bright blue eyes pop open and Ron's hand reach up to the spot where she kissed him.

Ginny carefully slipped Harry's Invisibility Cloak over her head. Her wand firmly gripped in her hand, she whispered "Lumos" before unfolding the Marauder's Map. Harry was in his bed asleep, completely unaware of what she was about to do and that's exactly how she wanted it to stay. Glancing at the map reassuring herself that he was still there, she crept down the Gryffindor girls' stairs to the room one below hers.

Knowing that Romilda would have kept more of the potion in case her first attempt didn't work, Ginny searched her room while under Harry's cloak. The occupants of the room were all asleep and did not hear Ginny's exploring of everything in the vicinity of Romilda's bed. It wasn't until Ginny investigated the other girl's wardrobe that she found what she was looking for. Disgusted by the fact that the younger witch kept the potion vial in her lingerie drawer of her wardrobe, Ginny gingerly picked up the vial. Even though she thought about casting a Cleaning Charm, she slipped the vial into her robe pocket.

Ginny quickly scampered down the stairs, thinking that everyone was surely upstairs in their rooms asleep. Yet, when she went to open the portrait hole, a voice behind her spoke up.

"You know, you really should cast a Muffliato on your feet when you go down the stairs under that cloak, Ginny," Hermione said, rising from the couch in front of the fire. "If I know you, you're on your way to do something to get Romilda Vane back." Without waiting for confirmation, Hermione trudged on. "Would you like some help?"

Ginny was completely taken aback. "Are you sure you're Hermione Granger? Gryffindor prefect? Are you sure that you want to help?"

Hermione's face hardened as she answered. "Absolutely. That egotistical witch deserves to be taken down a peg or two. She needs to learn not to mess with our brothers."

"Hermione, you don't really think of Ron as your brother, do you?" Ginny asked warily.

"No, I do think of Harry that way," Hermione responded with a lift of an eyebrow.

"Well, then, absolutely I would love help," Ginny asserted. She went on to explain her plan. Hermione offered a minor tweak to it before the two made their way to the kitchens to ask Dobby for help.

It was rather late when the two fell into their beds, but not before setting their alarms to go off very early. They didn't want to miss the show that they were sure would occur at breakfast the next morning.