~Chapter Five~
Ginny blushed. This was her chance. "Do you want a closer look?" She leaned forward into his lap and kissed him. Her nose brushed against his and she melted again when his tongue connected with hers. Harry moved his arms around Ginny's back. His hands weren't rough and controlling like Dean's. They were gentle and comfortable, like the just-right puzzle piece. Ginny wrapped her arms around Harry's shoulders and deepened the kiss. Ginny had no idea how far it would've gone if Ron and Hermione hadn't entered the common room at the same time.
For once, Ron kept his mouth shut. Ginny and Harry broke apart when he cleared his throat. Hermione stepped down seconds after. She took a huge step back and gasped.
Harry broke the ice. Still wrapped with Ginny he said to Ron, "Hey, mate."
Ron was oddly quiet. Hermione's brown eyes jumped nervously between her silent boyfriend and her best friends. Harry and Ginny were still wrapped around each other in an awkward position. Ron's jaw was tightened and the whites of his eyes were visible. His freckled face was tomato red. Hermione was now worried. Coming downstairs to see her best friends whom she knew liked each other was great. She was so proud of Harry. He'd been denying his feelings for so long and now he was strong enough to act out on them. As much as she sympathized with him, Hermione really hoped that Ron would at least give them a chance.
Hermione clasped her fingers behind her back. She sort of felt the way she did when she'd walked in on her parents being intimate. In one sense, she felt completely embarrassed for them. In another she was angry that they were being so open and just weird. And in one more sense, she was happy that were together and in love. The only thing that made this different was having Ron here. It was like watching her parents but having her parents'parents standing their and watching as well. The situation was awkward and strange. And in both scenarios Hermione just wanted to disappear.
Ginny's fingers fidgeted nervously behind Harry's neck. Harry scratched his messy hair. Hermione could see that Harry was incredibly tense. Hermione couldn't tell if Ginny was upset or mad. Ginny's brown eyes focused on Harry's plain gray T-shit. Hermione wished she herself had something to stare at and distract herself with. She comforted herself with watching an owl fly past a window. Of course, the owl was there for only a moment, but thankfully Ron spoke and Hermione had an excuse to look at him.
Ron's jaw loosened for just a moment. "What are you doing?" Hermione could have smacked him for asking such a stupid question. It was the sort of question that didn't exactly require an answer. All four of them knew exactly what Harry and Ginny were doing. All four of them knew exactly was could've happened if Hermione and Ron had not showed up. Hermione focused her gaze on Harry. His green eyes were looking around the room as if searching for something to say.
"I was just returning Arnold to his rightful owner," Harry said. His sentence started out with a stammer but finished slowly and surely. As if on cue, the little purple pygmy puff hopped off of Ginny's shoulder and into the palm of Harry's shaking hand.
"Oh yeah, he's been our bedroom for ages," Ron said. He paused for a moment, his eyebrows lowering and burrowing together. "You didn't have to bring it down here Harry. I'm sure Arnold would be comfortable up in your bed, considering you and Ginny would have been joining him eventually. I mean, that's what it looked like to me." Ron gritted his teeth and stalked slowly up the stairs.
Hermione's mouth opened slightly. "Ron - ?" she called uncertainly. He didn't answer. Hermione suddenly felt very cold and very alone in her light pajamas. She was cold. She needed Ron to hold her. She hadn't been able to kiss him, to be held in two nights. Now she felt just as humiliated as before when he stood her up in the prefects' bathroom. Hermione locked her fingers behind her back and looked up nervously. Harry and Ginny were no longer holding each other. They were at opposite ends of the couch. Hermione could literally taste the awkwardness in the room.
Ginny was curled up with a ferocious expression on her face. Harry's face was pink. Hermione never had seen him blush before. His hands never stopped trying to flatten his hair. Hermione herself felt the urge to touch her own hair.
"Well, uh, goodnight," said Hermione awkwardly. She rubbed her hair and fidgeting the other hand on her back. She gave them a silly grin which she instantly regretted and ran up to her room. Heart racing, she slid under the covers. They weren't warm and cozy as usual. All Hermione could think about was Ron and how she couldn't kiss him for another twenty-four hours. Not to mention she'd stayed up late for no reason, and would be tired all day tomorrow. She knew she was feeling selfish, but right now she was angry at Harry and Ginny.
It was because of them that she wouldn't feel Ron's arm secure her in his embrace. The cotton covers of her bed just weren't the same. Curling onto her side, Hermione stared at the curtains of her four-poster bed. She knew it would be a long time before she finally fell asleep.
Argus Filch knew something was up. And Mrs. Norris knew as well.
"Mrs. Norris, ever since me and Irma met up in the Room of Whatever last night, I've been suspecting something. And I can't just let it go, not this time. I know you feel the same way. I just don't know what to do. No teacher in this school will believe me, not a single one! No matter how many times I tried to show Dumbledore that something's up, I'm told to go back to bed with a cup of tea, like I'm some kind of fool. I'm told to calm down, everything's under control."
"I'm bloody sick of it, I am!" He kicked the table leg and Mrs. Norris yowled in protest.
"Sorry," Argus said gruffly. He reached his hand under the table and rubbed his cat between her large triangular ears. Mrs. Norris purred. "It's just that, everyone treats me like I don't know what I'm talking about just because I'm a Squib. It's not my fault my parents are magical and I'm not! It's not myfault!" Argus put his face in his hands. Mrs. Norris rubbed against him, reminding him that she believed him and that she cared.
"We're going to do something about it, we are! I swear to you, Mrs. Norris, that we are going to take down the students, one by one, and I am going to be proved right." Argus bent down and lifted Mrs. Norris onto his desk. She bared her teeth, as if saying, "Let's do this."
The next morning, Harry shoulders slumped in his seat in History of Magic. Under the table, his wand emitted gold sparks. He sighed shallowly and sneaked a glance at Ron. Ron was staring at his piece of parchment, his beat-up quill immobile in his hand. On any other occasion Harry would have laughed; it was amusing to see Ron struggle to pay attention and [not] write notes on his expectant piece of paper.
Ron's red hair was getting in his eyelashes and he blinked several times. Harry realized that Ron's hair would probably need cutting soon. He noticed weird things when he was nervous. Harry looked away quickly before Ron gave him a dirty look. He found himself face-to-face with Hermione, who clearly had been staring at him. Giving a little jump, Hermione quickly began writing again with a sense of urgency. Her normally laughing light brown eyes looked heavy with fatigue. Gray bags weighed down her lower eyelid.
Harry was having a horrible day, and so were his friends. He was so disappointed in himself. He was Ron's best friend! How could he harbor a crush against Ginny, and deceive Ron the way he did? All right, Ron did overreact, but it was partly Harry's fault. If he had just been honest with his friend, maybe this wouldn't have happened. Besides, Ginny kissed him. Of course, it had taken every ounce of Harry's self-control not to kiss her himself. But at least he wasn't lying to himself like Ron was. It was so obvious he had feelings for Hermione but all Ron did was grunt and blink whenever the subject of a romantic relationship with the former was brought up.
Harry squeezed his wand and tilted his head back. He bit his lower lip and focused on chip in the ceiling. He just wished that Ron could be more understanding. It was so hard to look at Ginny the beginning of this year and realize she had grown up into a beautiful and confident girl. Harry had found himself wanting her every day, wanting to talk to her and hold her and get to know the girl who, in previous years, had wanted so badly to know him as well.
"Come on, Harry," Hermione said, tugging Harry's robe sleeve. He jumped violently. The bell had rung and he had not even noticed.
"Maybe you should spend less time dreaming about my sister and a little more time paying attention," Ron spat. He grabbed his books and stomped out of the room.
Harry was overcome with a sense of anger and of guilt. His wand arm flexed quickly, and he looked down to prevent an expression of shock to show up on his face.
"Harry -" Hermione said. Harry just looked at her and felt his lower lip shiver. He was so stressed out with all of the pressure building up on him. Dumbledore was feeding him all this information about Voldemort and ways to defeat him. The day that Harry would have to kill Voldemort or die himself was drawing nearer with every breath he took. He had held himself together all this time with the knowledge and care of Hermione and the lightheartedness of Ron. Not only them but all the friends he had at Hogwarts. Now it felt like everything was falling apart. Harry shocked himself with tears filling his eyes. He hurried quickly out of Professor Binns' classroom before anyone spotted him. If he was seen by another boy, he'd never hear the end of it. If a girl saw him, God forbid, they'd love him even more because of his "sensitivity" or some rubbish.
Harry ran a hand through his incorrigible hair and ran straight into the wide corridor. Startled, he stopped to look around himself. Students were meandering around and gossiping. It was their free period of the day now and he had some time to himself. Harry knew he should be spending this time studying, but it was just too hard to concentrate right now.
Feeling tears coming, he ducked his head down and pushed open the door of a closet. It was filled with some of Filch's cleaning tools, some confiscated brooms, old pieces of parchment, and some magical cleaning liquids. Harry leaned up against the wall and let out a dry sob, biting his lip. He freed the tears and just cried. He didn't know exactly the reasons why he was crying, he just knew he needed to cry and so he did.
That evening, after Ron had done all he could possibly do of his homework (which wasn't much) he left early for his meeting with Hermione in the prefects' bathroom. Not only did he want some peace and quiet, he just couldn't bear to look at Harry right now. He was upset because of what he'd seen last night. He was also upset with himself because of how much he'd hurt Harry. He didn't understand that he could possibly make Harry so sad. But Harry couldn't ever understand how Ron felt. Harry didn't have a sister or a brother or a mother or a father. He didn't know how it felt to be betrayed the way Ron had been betrayed.
With all of these feelings Ron also was embarrassed. Embarrassed for himself and the childish way he had been acting. Seeing Harry snogging his baby sister was enraging. He remembered the day Gin was born. He remembered holding her and once even feeding her when she was a baby. He remembered holding her hand while he and his parents traveled by Floo powder. He remembered the day she was seven and showed her first signs of magic; when she lit her own hair on fire in a fit of rage. He remembered the summer before second year when Ginny harbored a crush on Harry. He remembered Harry saving Ginny from the Chamber of Secrets. Ron remembered all of this. Seeing Harry and Ginny kiss made Ron think of all of these memories as a lie. All the times this year he joked with Harry, Harry could have been thinking about Ginny's lips or Ginny's hair or - ugh.
Ron knew he was being childish but he didn't want to admit it. He was upset and that was that. Right now he had no idea whatsoever with how to deal with his feelings. He didn't know whether to be mad at Harry, or to ignore Harry, or to just stay away from Harry. He hoped that he hadn't caused a problem between him and Hermione. He had come here, to the prefects' bathroom, at just quarter to midnight, because he knew that Hermione's embrace, her kiss, her touch would calm him down and just let him empty his thoughts for a little while.
Ron wiggled his large toes in the hot bathwater. Breathing in the calming scent of the pink soap, he pulled off his long flannel pajama pants. He was left in only his white T-shirt and blue-and-white plaid boxers. Ron momentarily considered slipping into the water, but decided he wanted to climb in with Hermione instead.
He heard the tall prefects' bathroom door creak open. It wasn't until he heard it quietly shut again did Ron turn around.
Hermione's back was facing him. Her small hands were holding the door handle as though she couldn't bring herself to let go. He admired her brown curls as they bounced around her shoulders. She was wearing pale pink top and blue-and-white shorts. Ron smiled. Their bottoms matched.
Ron saw tension leave Hermione's shoulders as she let go of the door handle and spin to face him.
Words were not necessary, as always. Ron opened his arms just slightly and Hermione sank into him. He enveloped her in a freckly embrace. She buried her face in his chest and he breathed in the scent of her shampoo. The sound of his sniffing of her hair was louder than Ron intended and Hermione pulled away from him slowly.
"Did you just smell my hair?" Hermione asked him, her lips twitching.
Ron opened his mouth nervously and shrugged his shoulders. He just wanted to hold Hermione again but as she stared at him he felt a red blush traveling across his skin.
Hermione giggled and then burst out laughing. Ron quickly cast a Muffliato charm. When Hermione stopped laughing her face became serious and she hugged Ron again.
"Are you okay?" Ron whispered into her hair. It was a strange question; they'd seen each other all day today and yesterday since they last met in secret. But it felt as though they didn't really communicate unless they were alone, like this.
"I don't know," Hermione said, and Ron let out a sigh when she let go of him. His gaze became concerned when he saw her bite her lip. "I'm just sort of worried about everything, you know? I'm worried about you and about me and about this. I'm worried about Harry and about Ginny and about Dumbledore and about everyone, really. I'm worried about the war and about Voldemort and about the Horcruxes. I'm worried about my schoolwork as well; because I'm so distracted by everything else my grades are dropping. I just really feel overwhelmed and I don't know what to do." Hermione pulled one of her curls and sank beside the bathtub, arms crossed.
Ron rubbed Hermione's shoulder and sat down next to her. His expression had gone blank when Hermione brought up Harry and Ginny, but she didn't want to focus on that part of her worries right now. It was hardly important. Now she was even more worried about him and about how he was doing. When he sat next to her Hermione looked at him with trembling lips. She began to cry again for the second time in forty-eight hours. She felt so stupid to be crying. What was there to cry about? Nothing, really. It was just stupid to break down like this and have no way of controlling her feelings. It was all the time she felt like this, it was! It had started when she was about thirteen. All the time she grumpy or sad or mean for no reason. Whenever she asked her parents they said it was because her hormones were changing. Now she knew she was putting too much on her own shoulders and was stressing herself out too much.
Hermione had expected herself to be angry at Ron for how he had acted last night but when she saw him, when they were alone like this, she forgot everything. He literally took her breath away. She still felt, somewhere deep down, angry at Ron for yelling at Ginny and treating Harry so cruelly. After Harry had left History of Magic quickly Hermione had gone to her own refuge: the library. But nothing could've helped her more than what Ron was doing for Hermione now.
Ron breathed against Hermione's neck and held her close. Hermione could tell he was concerned but also sad that this meeting that was supposed to be fun and romantic was turning into a sob story. Hermione breathed in a shuddering breath and gave Ron a watery smile.
"Thanks," she said, and she knew that that word was more than just a thank-you for holding her, it was a thank-you for everything, for everything Ron had done for her, all his jokes, all his goofy grins, all the times he gave her butterflies, all the times he cheered her up, and even all the times he brought her down. She cupped his face and kissed his cheek gratefully. Ron gave her a goofy grin. This time she knew it was just for her.
Hermione's arms wrapped urgently around Ron's neck as she kissed him. Struggling to keep comfortable with her around him, Ron stood up and wrapped Hermione's legs around his waist. He smiled against her lips and then pulled away. Holding just her hand he launched them both into the bathtub.
Ron sank deep under the water and blinked against the heavy soap suds. He saw Hermione and grabbed her as he brought them both up to the surface. Ron heard Hermione inhale deeply for air. She gasped in startled shock. He blinked his heavy eyelids and laughed at her. She gave him a little smirk. Ron just took her face and kissed her again. Bushy hair was plastered against the back of her head, she kissed him back.
Ron swam away and climbed on the edge of the pool, spitting soap out of his mouth and shaking the water out of his hair. He pulled his wet shirt of his body, gasping in the sudden cold. By the time Hermione climbed out he was shivering. Hermione muttered something and suddenly they were both dry. Ron looked up at Hermione and saw that her hair was fluffy and sticking up in some places. When Hermione noticed his gaze she gasped and pulled her shirt up over her head. This revealed a little stretch of her stomach. Ron took this opportunity to tickle her. Hermione let out a loud giggle and fell on her back, breathing heavily.
Ron wondered how he deserved moments of such ridiculous happiness. After he tickled her Ron held Hermione by the waist and trapped her in his grasp. Both giggling, Ron started kissing Hermione's neck and her giggles softened into a happy sigh. Ron stopped squeezing and she stopped wiggling. Ron closed his eyes and rested his head against the back of Hermione's. She turned around and swung her arm behind Ron's head. He kept his eyes closed. She reached forward and Ron felt her lips kiss his forehead softly. Sighing in quiet bliss, Ron closed his eyes. As their breathing slowed neither of them realized they were falling asleep.
Early the next morning, Ginny immediately began scanning the common room for Hermione. The night before last had been so awkward and just so awful. Ginny had called in sick and stayed in Gryffindor Tower all day. After Ron and Hermione had left she'd stomped upstairs, extremely angry. She felt bad because she might have given Harry the wrong idea; that maybe she'd communicated to him that she didn't like him anymore. She wished she could just do everything in the past few days over. Not only had she hurt Harry, she'd hurt Hermione by bringing up Lavender.
It was barely dawn, but no doubt Hermione was up, already dressed in her robes, getting some extra work done before her morning classes. Ginny could've discussed her predicament with other Gryffindor girls in her year, but none of them really understood her situation. Most of them were squeaking nightmares anyway. If she just said that she'd kissed Harry she'd never here the end of it. None of them would give her any worthwhile advice. The only other girl her age whose opinion she respected was in Ravenclaw - Luna Lovegood. So she wasn't an option. Ginny knew she needed some girl talk with Hermione, no matter how much she tried to convince herself she didn't.
Despite her assumptions, Hermione was not downstairs. Ginny gave a "humph" of surprise. Some other early birds like Hermione were up already and chatting. Ginny came to the conclusion that the events of last night had the same effect on Hermione as it did Ginny; which was to stay in bed for as long as possible and hope that all was forgotten.
Sighing, Ginny was about to turn around and go up to change out of her pajamas when she saw Harry step down from the boys' dormitory staircase. She immediately flipped her hair so that the fiery locks would cover her face. She focused on her yellow toenails.
"Um, hey," Harry said. Ginny could tell by his voice that he hadn't had a good day while she was gone. Ron had probably given him a bloody hard time. She gritted her teeth. She really wished Harry hadn't approached her right now. She didn't know how to treat him before she spoke with Hermione. Whether to lead him on or not Ginny did not know. Of course, she herself had kissed Harry, and already had led him on.
Ginny took in a deep breath. "I've got to go change," she said. Walking away guiltily she could feel sad green eyes watching her as she went.
Protesting, tired eyelids made it difficult to wake up. Hermione's brain told her that she needed to get up, but her eyes told her just five more minutes. Hermione, of course, listened to her brains, because they'd gotten her quite far already. As she tried to rise to her feet she realized she couldn't because strong freckly arms held her in place. She opened her eyes and found herself face-to-face with a slightly snoring Ron. Hermione realized what had happened. She'd fallen asleep and she couldn't even remember the events of last night - Oh, God! Had they done anything? Thinking fast, she remembered that nothing like that had happened, but considering how late they'd fallen asleep, she was terrified that she might be missing her class.
Hermione unlocked Ron's fingers and got up. She examined her disheveled appearance in the mirrored wall across the room. "Jesus," she whispered, running her hands through her messy brown hair. The clock on the wall told her that she thirty minutes late for Arithmancy! Professor Vector was going to destroy her. Hermione could not afford a detention or points taken from Gryffindor! And she certainly could not afford missing this class. In a fast frenzy, she gathered all of her things in a bundle and kicked Ron.
While Ron groaned in lethargy, Hermione shouted at him. "Get up! Get up! We're going to get caught, and I'm late, and you're late, and we're going to be in so much trouble!"
"What?" Ron jumped into a sitting position. "What happened?" Swaying dangerously, he rubbed his forehead and then checked his watch.
"What happened? What happened? We fell asleep, you great lump! I'm late for Arithmancy! We had an in-class assignment due today! And I - and I had the perfect essay and it's all going to be ruined because I'm late!" Hermione shrieked at Ron. She had no time for sympathy for him. Yes, he'd just woken up, but this was a crisis. Cry-sis.
"Hermione, calm down," Ron said softly jumping to his feet and gathering his own stuff. "The -"
"Calm down? Calm down? You want me to calm down? I'm late!" Hermione's scream turned into a stricken cry. She had never been late for class and now that she had she had no idea she would react this way. Until now, studies were everything to her. Ron had made her late. What was she going to do?
"Hermione, please. My magic isn't as good as yours, you know that, and I can sense that my Muffliato charm has worn off because I'm not good enough to hold it permanently, and if anyone's out in the hallway, they've heard everything."
Hermione's pale and angry face was emptied of emotion. Her mouth remained slightly ajar and she lifted a hand gingerly to her chin. Her bundle fell out of her hands and onto the floor. All thoughts of lateness had emptied her mind. Being late for one Arithmancy class was nothing compared to getting caught in the hallways right now.
"Right you are, boy!" The doors flew open. A pale tabby cat rushed in followed by a tall psycho-looking man. It was Filch. He had a quite ugly grin on his face. "Students out of bed!" he roared.
Hello, all! I really am quite sorry for the delay of Chapter 5; I've attempted to make it longer so as to make up for it. The first time I began writing Chapter 5 and accidentally pressed a shortcut that made the page reload to the last saved draft. Unfortunately that meant I lost all of my work. This as you can imagine was just devastating and I left the story for a long time because I was really sad. I was motivated to continue writing it again, ready for a new start, yesterday. Then I accidentally left the page without saving it and lost a huge chunk of my work again! This, of course, was heartbreaking. I literally broke down crying.
I returned to the document again yesterday and saw that I hadn't looked properly and I in fact had not deleted a huge chunk of my chapter, just a small part of it. Refreshed and relieved, I worked to finish it as fast as I could. I am happy with the result. I am a firm believer in "everything happens for a reason" so I believe this happened so my work could be the best it can be. I'm quite happy with this finished result and cannot wait to continue writing in Chapter 6.
I now finish my super-long author's note with a request from you, the reader. I would really appreciate a review. It would make me feel better after all the problems concerning this particular chapter. Thanks again for reading my story, and I hope for a long and detailed review from you all.
P.S. Yeah, yeah. I made Hermione freak out a little dramatically when she found out she was late for Arithmancy. But considering how important her studies are to her and how rarely she has missed class, I guessed that Hermione would more or less lose her mind. And she would take it out on the only living thing in the room with her.