GO GRYFFINDOR!" Hermione screamed at the top of her voice, "GO RON!" Deafening roars of enthusiasm and tension boomed over the quidditch pitch. Hermione was standing on her seat in one of the foremost rows of the Quidditch stands. She was wearing Harry's red-and-gold Gryffindor shawls. Her voice, as loud as she could make it without the use of the "Sonorus" charm, was drowned in the waves of sound that emanated from the spectators. Above all other voices, the dreamy voice of Luna Lovegood was loudly echoing. Professor McGonagall's voice kept trying to intrude into her lengthy essay about wasps flying in occult shapes with little success when another wave of cheers and boos flooded the auditory channels.
Gryffindor had scored: it was now 110-90 in favour of the Gryffindors. Ron was bobbing on his broomstick in front of the middle hoop. Ravenclaw had definitely been working on their attacks. One of their chasers packed a fierce curve-ball, and another could throw a marvellous fast-ball. Hermione could see Ron was having a hard time defending the hoops. He was sweating again, and now slowly swaying between the goalposts. Hermione knew Ron had been instructed by Harry to do so, because this way, the Ravenclaw chasers couldn't decide what hoop to throw at beforehand. Hermione noticed the small shift in position in one of the chasers; a tiny hand-movement to ensure the quaffle wouldn't slip out of her hands. The chaser stretched her arm and threw the quaffle at the middle hoop. Ron quickly dove forward, catching the quaffle with a free hand. "THAT'S IT RON. YOU'RE DOING GREAT!" Hermione's voice was starting to become grainy because of all the shouting. Whenever she yelled at him, a rasping, edged voice came from her mouth, a tell tale sign of someone losing their voice. She expected all sound to disappear in a few minutes. "GO RON!" she screamed with what was left of her voice, "WEASLEY IS MY KING!"
Three seconds later, another loud chorus of groans and cheers rose up, as the Ravenclaw keeper managed to block Demelza Robins' latest shot. The group of Slytherins in another stand was merrily chanting a rather insulting chorus about the Gryffindors that Hermione was certainly not going to repeat. They were beginning to get a bit anxious though. Gryffindor only needed to score forty more points and get the snitch in order to take the lead in the house tournament. The Hufflepufs that had come to see the game were certainly not amused, as their house had already been overtaken. In the course of another five minutes and five goals, Hermione's voice became more and more edgy, Ravenclaw had overtaken Gryffindor by ten points to 120-130 and Ron had made several great saves.
The match was currently paused, as the Ravenclaw beater Johnson had received a bludger to the head and had fallen off his broom. Hermione was looking at Madam Hooch as she examined the Ravenclaw keeper, when she suddenly felt like she was being watched. She looked at the goal hoops and found Ron there, waving at her merrily. She returned his wave, feeling happy about the fact that Ron had finally overcome his nerves. He was instructing Demelza and Katie to 'give more man-to-man coverage and use Tapenough-passes', whatever that meant. In ten minutes, everything had ended. The Gryffindors had scored another three goals, the Ravenclaws only two. It had been a tie for more than three minutes, wherein both keepers had played crucial parts. Ron managed a superb save that even Luna, who hadn't said anything remotely related to the match, had commented on. The Ravenclaw keeper had made a wrong judgement, causing Gryffindor to retake the lead in the match.
Ginny, who had been practically invisible all match long, suddenly dived down towards the stands. The Ravenclaw seeker dived in after her immediately, knowing she'd seen the snitch. Her Cleansweep Twelve was beginning to overtake Ginny's school broom, a Shooting Star Mark Nine. They plunged down from the air, and the Ravenclaw seeker was speeding away from Ginny rapidly. Ginny lurched her Shooting Star up as soon as he had lost sight of her and started to divert her path to the commentary stands. The Ravenclaw seeker was desperately searching for the snitch that she thought had to be there, while Ginny was closing her fingers on the tiny, winged, golden ball. And with that, the match was over, house-competition had been won, and Hermione's voice finally broke.
The post-match chaos had been enormous. Gryffindors came running up the field, hoisting their champions on their shoulders. Slytherins made their way back to their common room by punching and pounding the disappointed (and now last) Hufflepufs out of the way, and the Ravenclaws were still sitting in the benches, working out their defeat in silent mourning. Hermione had been one of the first that had rushed out onto the field, running up to Ron as fast as she could. She was able to give him a firm hug and a soft kiss on the lips before they were torn apart by the ensuing crowd. Ron looked at her in a blissful way before he was hauled up on two shoulders and paraded around the Quidditch Pitch.
It had taken the exuberant Gryffindors more than half an hour before they left the Quidditch pitch, which only happened because Professor McGonagall had told them the house cup would be awarded in the common room, with or without them. Ron was still being carried around, while Ginny and Katie were sipping on a pint of butterbeer that had been conjured up by an experienced NEWT-grader. Ginny plowed her way through the throng of Gryffindors towards Hermione the moment she saw her. "Has Harry been released from Snape's detention yet?" she asked Hermione quickly, while searching for him in the crowd. Hermione shook her head. She tried to say no, but all that passed her lips was a barky grumble. "I can't wait to give him the good news!"
The awarding of the house cup went by in a haze of emotions and joy. Ron had been fiercely waving the trophy around, while Katie was sitting in the corner of the room, weeping with happiness. Demelza was now openly flirting with two seventh-years while Ginny was still waiting for Harry with unyielding patience. She was sitting next to Hermione and had been talking about telling Harry the good news for more than fifteen minutes. The common room was packed, every Gryffindor, save two, chanting victory songs. The former these two was Hermione, unable to even produce any sound now, the latter had just stepped up in front of the portrait of the fat lady, quietly praying for a good result.
It had happened before Hermione fully realized it. Ginny had stormed off to the portrait hole; the common room had exploded into hurrahs and subsequently died out into silence. Colin and Neville wolf whistled while Ron was standing like a statue, the house cup firmly locked into his hands. For a moment, Hermione was afraid Ron would object, but his approving shrug (if it even was one) meant that Harry and Ginny suddenly had a change of plans. They left the common room together, and Hermione knew by experience that little talking would be involved.
After they had left, she turned to Ron, who was now eyeing the portrait hole in a bemused way. His eyes travelled the room until they looked directly into hers. She looked away. There was something about the way Ron could look into her eyes that made her feel completely insecure about herself. It was not something bad, or odd, but there was a sort of private tension that would build up. She could not look into his eye for more than ten seconds in public places. He knew this of course, and had started to abuse it greatly the last couple of weeks.
Hermione returned her focus on his eyes. He smiled at her lovingly, winked at her and went up the stairs. When Colin had whipped out his camera, he allowed him to take one picture, and then told him he was going to take a shower. Hermione was sitting on Harry's bed. She had looked out over the grounds from the window minutes before, but there was no sign of either him or Ginny. She knew they wouldn't be back for hours though, considering the 'catching up' they had to do. Hermione noticed the red envelope under Ron's pillow again. Her hands moved to it automatically, weighing the envelope and feeling it's texture. She could feel several pieces of paper in it, most of them of uneven size. She was about to open it when she heard Ron's voice from outside of the door. He was animatedly talking about one of his saves to a group of first year students. They were hanging on every word he said, while Hermione quickly shoved the envelope back under the pillow and hid behind Harry's four poster. Hermione was hunched down on the floor behind Harry's bed as the dormitory door slowly opened.
Ron's tall silhouette walked through, obviously not realizing the intruder in the room. Hermione could see him from under the bed, looking around the room to see if anybody was there. He closed the door behind him, locking it with the door's heavy lock. Ron had just left the showers, and all he was wearing was a white towel bearing the Hogwarts crest. He slowly crossed the room, and opened his his trunk. He pulled out a pair of old jeans and the maroon jumper he had gotten from his mother last Christmas. Hermione knew what was coming and closed her eyes. She heard the towel slump on the floor. Curiosity and oestrogen immediately flared up. The laws of nature are unbidden and uncontrollable. Knowing full well that it brushed against all her moral standards, Hermione gave in to her hormones.
She slowly opened her eyes and peered from under Harry's bed at the figure standing in front of her. She was glad her voice had left her, for she was sure her lips would have betrayed her if it hadn't. Hermione gasped for air as the hormones in her body started to work overtime. Ron was now putting on his underwear, still unaware of Hermione's presence. He was merrily humming the tunes in the chorus of "The Weasley Song" while getting into his jumper when there came a loud knock on the door. "Who is it?" Ron asked while quickly getting into his jeans. "It's me, Seamus," said the voice behind the door, "I want to get some of my stuff." Ron walked up to the door while Hermione suddenly realized that Seamus' bed was right behind her. If he came in he would see her behind the bed!
Ron opened the door and a smiling Seamus walked in. He patted Ron on the shoulder. "Great match mate," he said happily, "Some really good saves." Ron flushed red. He quickly picked up the towel and pretended to dry his hair. Hermione saw Seamus approaching from behind Harry's four-poster and was at a loss of what to do. Seamus was coming round the bed and if Hermione didn't make herself invisible soon, he would see her. She rolled under the bed, hoping neither of the boys heard the thump of her elbow on the ground or the creak of the loose floorboard under Harry's bunk.
Seamus' feet came round the bed just after Hermione was able to tuck in the hem of her robe. Apparently not noticing her, he went to his trunk, and pulled out some of the products he had bought at Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes. Hermione could see Ron's feet still standing in the doorway, pointing in her direction. Suddenly, he walked over to his bed, put on his socks and trainers, fiddled with something in his hands and said: "Hang on Seamus, I'll join you downstairs." Seamus closed the lid of his trunk, and walked over to the door while Ron put something on his trunk and then joined him.
Just before Ron and him left the dormitory, Ron paused. "Say Seamus, do you like riddles?" Seamus sounded dumbstruck. "Riddles?" "Yeah, riddles." "Sure" "All right, see if you can figure this out: Science for the faithful, that's what I am. Exactly inexact, conclusively inconclusive. Perhaps that's why you think I'm a sham, Never factly, ever illusive."
"If you want to re-read it," Ron's deep voice said, "I wrote it down on a piece of parchment for you. It's on my trunk." Seamus considered it. "I think I might do it later, I don't want to spend the rest of the party thinking about this." And with that, the door closed.
Hermione got up from under Harry's four-poster. She brushed the dust off that had clung to her robes and walked over to Ron's trunk. She found a piece of parchment there, folded neatly in the middle. On it was the riddle, written in writing as neat as Ron's untidy scrawl would ever be. The red envelope under his pillow was gone. So you did know I was here.
Hermione suddenly realized that if Ron knew she was there, then he probably knew she was looking at him...