A bushy-haired girl was sitting in the Room of Requirement. She was sitting in front of a huge pile of books, each written about the same subject: maths. The room of requirement was lined with bookcases, each filled with books about numbers, formula's, algebra or other maths-related subjects. Deeply concentrated, she flipped the pages of a big volume of advanced mathematics. The book's pages described complicated formula's, none of which Hermione would probably ever understand.
It was only a week before Gryffindor's last match against Ravenclaw, and the school was buzzing with excitement. Every person with a voice seemed to be talking about the upcoming match. This had several implications. One of them was that every class Hermione took part in was harder to follow, because people around her were whispering discussions under their breaths. Another was that no place, not even the library, was safe from these discussions. People would be reading books about quidditch, whisper about the players or even looking up historical plays in the library's quidditch section.
The buzz had really gone to Ron's head. He was as insecure as he had ever been about his abilities as a keeper. Hermione had told him that he had played in matches like this before. That he was a good keeper, and a valuable asset to the team. He had shrugged this off, noting that his performance had been horrible at times, and he was only able to keep half the quaffles at practice that week. Still, Ron seemed marginally more relaxed than she'd expected him to be. He hadn't offered his resignation yet, which she had expected him to do.
Hermione focused on the books in front of her. In order to find Ron's latest riddle, she had been sent to the room of requirement. She had decided to work on the riddle there, knowing that even the library wasn't safe from quidditch any more. Apart from being the only room in Hogwarts that wasn't humming with the words "quaffle" or "bludger", it also provided more than enough help to complete the riddle. She had never realized that the room of requirement could also house a huge library, with more books than the school library would ever be able to hold. Apart from the books, the room of requirement also provided comfortable chairs (as ever), pencils and paper. She had chosen a selection of books, each of which related to geometry, algebra or complex functions.
Hermione focused on the books, flipping the pages of "Choice Axioms" by Zermelo in an absent-minded way. It was a heavy book, with a big 'Z' on the front. Something was bothering her. If Ron had been equally interested in maths as her (and she was sure he wasn't) he would probably not have understood any more of this than her. She had flipped through hundreds of pages of mathematical formulas, but it could just as well have been written in dog latin. She understood nothing of it. How on earth could Ron have ever made a riddle if he understood just as much of this as her?
"It just doesn't seem to fit," Hermione said angrily, "How on earth am I supposed to solve this, if I don't know where to start?"
Hermione shoved the books off the table in one hard push. She hadn't had much sleep today, going to bed well after hours and getting up early to start working on the riddle. It had left her with a short temper and a grumpy mood, especially after hours of reading nonsense. Hermione sighed.
"Relax," she said to herself, "Don't let your mood get the best of you."
She bent down to pick up the books she had just shoved off the table. They were all piled on each other, with crumpled pages and open covers. One by one, Hermione picked them up and put them back on the table. When she picked up the last one, she noticed it was the book she had been reading. It was lying with its back towards her, making the big 'Z' on the top look like an 'N'.
Hermione put the book back on the table and checked the riddle, trying to find something to look up in the books.
(1-3w)90o \_\/ (w)90o
Hermione only recognized the 90o as something familiar, probably relating to something being a straight angle. She had tried all the geometry books that might have been useful, but unfortunately, angles were never used in formula's. Hermione looked hard at the riddle, trying to find the answer.
"If it's not a maths formula, then what is it?"
Hermione glanced back at the book. For some reason, the big 'Z' on the page was starting to draw her attention. She tilted the book, turning it back ninety degrees to form the 'N' again.
"Could it be that simple?" Hermione thought.
She picked up the riddle and turned it ninety degrees to the left.
"(1-3w)90o must mean that I have to read it differently!"
Immediately, she realized the obviousness of the riddle. Turning '1-' left meant making a 'T', the '3' became a 'W', and the 'W' became an 'E'. It was so simple. 'w' suddenly became 've'.
"So now, I've got "TWE" \_\/ "E". The "\_" must mean 'L'. The answer is TWELVE!"
Quickly, Hermione gathered her stuff together. She knew Ron would be in the common room around this hour, so she put everything in her bag and ran towards the door. She pushed it open slowly, knowing that the room of requirement was best left unknown to the general public in Hogwarts. Hermione peered through the narrow opening of the door and, upon finding an empty corridor, pushed it open completely. She was about to step out of the room when Ginny suddenly came striding around the corner. Hermione let out a sigh of relief. For a moment, she was afraid that it might have been a Slytherin or Hufflepuf coming around the corner. The whole school would know about the room of requirement by then.
Ginny waved at her, and marched out to meet her. Before Hermione had opened the door wide enough to get out, Ginny pushed her back in. She walked in after her, closing the door behind her.
"Hey Ginny," Hermione said, not completely sure about why Ginny had entered the room too, "what's up?"
Ginny looked into Hermione's eyes.
"I want to talk about Harry." Ginny said in a slightly nervous tone, "I mean, he keeps looking at me in such a.. He laughs about every joke I make.. Looked so happy when Dean and I split.. When is he.."
"Ginny!" Hermione said, "Slow down. Complete one sentence before you say another."
"I don't know how much longer I'm going to be able to hide my crush on him."
Hermione sat down her bag and sat down at the table. Ginny did the same, and before long, both girls were animatedly talking about Ginny's crush. Hermione loved to have these conversations. She had always felt that she didn't have any real girlfriends at school. Talking to Ginny made her feel like there was more to them than just the sister of her (soon to be) boyfriend.
"So how are you and Ron?"
Hermione smiled secretly.
"You two haven't been hiding something from us, have you?"
"Us?" Hermione said in her most innocent voice, "From you? Never..."
Ginny looked into Hermione's eyes. "So if word had reached me that you two were found kissing behind the castle, that information would not be correct?"
Hermione smiled. Ron and her had tried to keep as hidden as possible. They had not seen anyone walking past them when they were kissing.
"For someone who hasn't been kissing my brother, you do seem to be blushing quite a lot, Hermione Granger..."
Ginny smiled.
"It's good to see someone is making progress," she said suddenly while getting up.
"Don't worry Ginny, Harry will act on his emotions soon enough."
The girls slipped out of the room of requirement quickly, quickly closing the door behind them. Ginny was headed for the library, so after a quick hug, both girls went their separate ways. Hermione was going to visit Ron, to tell him she'd solved his riddle. She assumed Ron would be sitting in the common room now, as he always did when he was supposed to be studying. When she arrived, she indeed found him there, talking to Harry. They were discussing the match (obviously) and Ron, filled with tension and pre-game nerves, looked paler than ever. When she approached the boys, Ron immediately dropped his conversation with Harry and greeted her happily.
"Hey Hermione! Are you coming with us to dinner?"
"Perhaps later, I want to talk to professor Vector about a mistake I think I've made in my last arithmancy essay. I wasn't sure back then, but I know for sure the answer was 'twelve'."
The effect, like always, was unmistakable. Ron's face broadened into a grin, his eyes looking into hers knowingly.
"In that case, you're probably right."
In a moment shorter than a flash, Hermione saw Ron wink at her. His face immediately went sour and he dashed off to the toilets.
"Off to empty his stomach again? He's been running off to the loo for more than a week now." Harry said.
Hermione smiled as Harry turned and walked off to dinner. She waited for a minute, and when Harry was well out of sight, she sprinted off to the toilets too.
She opened the first cubicle and found Ron, sitting on the bowl.
"You're taking longer and longer, Hermione."
She closed the door and sat down on his lap. Gently, she slid her finger though his hair.
"Do you think Harry is ever going to notice that every time you pretend go to the loo to throw up, you're actually meeting me here?" Hermione asked.
"I think," Ron said, as he pulled her in even closer, "I'm not going to think right now."