Author's Note : I have written next two chapters, I'll upadate them soon. After that I may not update this Fic for next few weeks because updating chapters take time. After writing chapters I have to revise and edit them three, four times before they are ready to be uploaded.
Read and Review. Reviews helps me understand if I am writing Fic correctly or not and It's always good to know somebody is reading it or not.
Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling.
Chapter Three
Hermione Granger
October had already started, and in the first week of the month, a notice had been posted on the notice board announcing the dates for the Hogsmeade weekend visit. It was scheduled, as usual, for the weekend before Halloween. Hermione and Ron Weasley had been on friendly terms since their History assignment. It had been over two weeks now, and they only talked during their prefect duties together. She enjoyed talking to him; he was a funny and light-hearted guy. She had never seen this side of Ron Weasley before—it always felt like they could never get along, but these past few weeks had proven her wrong.
On the weekend, she was sitting in the common room doing her homework when her brother came and sat beside her. It was obvious he was tired. He had just finished his practice session for the upcoming Quidditch match against Slytherin.
"How was your practice?" Hermione asked him.
"It was good, except for the MacLaggen part," Harry grumbled, rubbing his eyes under his glasses.
"Why don't you just kick him out?" Hermione said matter-of-factly. She had heard plenty about MacLaggen's behavior by now. Since Harry started practicing, he had always been complaining about how MacLaggen was a right prat during practices, how he was full of himself, acting like he was the captain, and criticizing everyone about everything.
"It's not that simple. He played well enough to be selected. He's just not a team player. Oh God, why couldn't that Weasley have played better than him? I'd choose that nervous wreck over this big-headed bully any day," Harry ranted.
"What about Roxy Timber? She played well and didn't seem that nervous," Hermione suggested. She wanted to suggest Ron and tell Harry that he could improve over time, but she wasn't going to tell Harry. She and Ron were on friendly terms now, and she didn't want to tell her brother that just yet.
"Actually, I did ask her before selecting MacLaggen. I was planning on making her the next Keeper," said Harry, "but she's part of the Gobstones Club, and she said she'd prioritize that over Quidditch if the schedules clashed."
"Oh – then maybe you can talk to Weasley," Hermione advised.
"Yeah, no," Harry replied. "I already have three Weasleys, and I'm not bringing in another. MacLaggen did play better than him at trials, so I'll just have to stick with that jerk."
"It's up to you," Hermione said.
Ron Weasley
Ron actually quite liked talking to Hermione Granger as he got to know her more during the last few weeks. She was not insufferable, bossy, or a know-it-all if you really talked to her. She was smart, intelligent, and, if he was honest, a bit scary—he had seen her dishing out detentions to many students. Their conversations after the library incident had been nice. Whenever they patrolled corridors or performed other duties as prefects, things weren't boring anymore. They talked a lot, their conversations were funny, and their banter was light-hearted. Maybe he had finally made a friend at Hogwarts. Who would have guessed it would be Hermione Granger, though?
He still remembered his first day at Hogwarts. He was impressed, enchanted, and fascinated by the castle. He was excited to make new friends, but he soon found himself with Potter in the dormitory and realized Potter had already made friends with Dean and Seamus. That left only Neville. Ron talked to Neville; he was a kind and sweet guy, a nervous fellow. Maybe more so than Ron. But at the same time, Neville was too different from him—they didn't really get along that well. Neville was the kind of guy who was friends with everybody. Ron wasn't going to make friends with Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil. That left Hermione Granger, who, for some reason, was hell-bent on annoying him. Looking back now, Ron thought maybe she was just genuinely trying to help him but came across as bossy. He had also associated her with Potter, which made him more hostile toward her than necessary.
His breaking point with her was when she corrected him in their Charms class on Halloween; they were partners in that class. After the class ended, he exploded at her, "You are an insufferable know-it-all!" His one statement made her cry, as her brother Potter very kindly told him later while hexing him. That led to nothing but a war between his twin brothers and Potter. They were pranking each other, hexing and cursing. Their little feud almost cost Gryffindor their first Quidditch match against Slytherin that year, but Potter managed to grab the Snitch and became a celebrity in Gryffindor house, at the age of eleven. Professor McGonagall gave them all a lot of detention despite Potter and the twins managing to win the match, in an effort to stop their little war against each other.
Ron, after dinner that evening, decided to take a shower—he was feeling a bit tired and smelly. He was on patrolling duty that evening. They were scheduled to patrol the corridors late that day, just after curfew. When he came out of the shower, he saw Potter changing into his pajamas.
"Keep your distance from my sister, Weasley," he heard Potter say as he was about to go downstairs.
"Or else?" Ron challenged.
"Or I'll hex your bollocks off," Potter replied, smirking. Ron wanted to wipe that smirk off his face. But he just ignored him—there was no point in losing his temper. He found Hermione Granger reading a book on one of the couches near the fireplace. There were only a couple of students in the common room.
"You're here," Hermione said as she saw him, closing her book and putting it in her bag.
"Yes, let's go," Ron said as he made his way to the portrait hole, Hermione following him.
They didn't really speak that much once they started patrolling. Ron was racking his brain to come up with something to talk about. Wait a minute—why was he thinking so hard about it? It's not like he needed to talk with her. He was totally comfortable with the silence between them, right? Right.
Hermione was checking one of the last classrooms on their route when she stood at the entrance for a minute, then looked back at him, as if she was thinking about something.
"Everything's clear, we should get back to our common room," Hermione said hurriedly as she turned around. Ron was suspicious of what she had seen in the supposedly empty classroom.
"Let me check," he said curiously, but she stood in front of him and insisted, "It's all clear, Ron. Let's go."
Ron knew she was lying to him—there was something about that classroom she just didn't want to tell him. If it had been a student or students doing something, she would've already given them detention. It was a common occurrence for them now, finding students out of their common rooms after curfew. They were immune to whatever they saw in empty classrooms—it didn't even surprise them anymore. It had been almost two months since they started patrolling the corridors and looking for rule-breakers and troublemakers, and that list included romantic couples. On their second day of patrolling, they found two third-year Hufflepuffs in a broom closet of all places. Both of them were in an embarrassing situation. They were just kids—two years younger than them. It was embarrassing for Ron and Hermione too. Hermione managed to stutter out a punishment, though. She never forgot to punish rule-breakers, so whatever was happening tonight shouldn't have stopped her either.
Ron turned around with Hermione to walk back to their common room, playing along. After just two steps, Hermione looked relaxed, like her ploy had worked. At that very moment, Ron turned around and ran straight into the classroom to see what had caused Hermione to lose her sense of responsibility as a prefect.
Maybe he should've listened to her, as what he saw just angered him beyond reason. He found his sister there with a bloke, their fingers intertwined. At least they were not kissing, but the way his sister's clothes were disheveled and her hair unkempt... Then he saw the guy—it was Michael Corner, a fifth-year Ravenclaw—with that grin of satisfaction on his face, which irked Ron. Obviously, a couple of minutes ago, both of them had been involved in a heavy session of snogging. His little sister and this pervert. He saw red.
He realized what he had done when two small hands were pulling him up. He saw Michael Corner flat on his back on the floor, clutching his bloody nose. Ginny, with her wand out, looked like their mum, about to spank him. He heard the frantic voice of the person who was holding him.
"Calm down, calm down. Everybody calm down!"
It was Hermione; she was holding him, her arms firmly around his waist.
"YOU STUPID PRAT. WHY DID YOU PUNCH HIM?" Ginny shouted at him. She was angry. He knew it was better to just leave and apologize later, but he was angry too. She was too little to be doing this obscene stuff. She was young, bloody younger than him. If she behaved like this, people would call her some scarlet woman.
"BECAUSE THAT PERVERT PUT HIS HANDS ON YOU. WHY WERE YOU DOING SOMETHING LIKE THAT IN THE FIRST PLACE? ARE YOU SOME SCARLET WOMAN?" Ron roared back at his sister.
"YOU—" Ginny looked like she was too angry to continue, so she just hexed him, and it was not a pretty sight.
Michael was already groaning on the floor; obviously, his nose was broken. That punch must've hurt him. Ron was now leaning on a bench, trying to get control of the situation. He saw Hermione looking at him. She looked horrified. He must be a sight right now. At least it wasn't that painful, except for the bloody bats trying to get out of his nose every effing five seconds.
"Weasley, you just can't hex somebody like this," Hermione admonished his sister. Ginny looked like she was about to explode again and hex Hermione too, but she just helped Corner stand up, who was now glaring at Ron.
"Let's go to the infirmary," Ginny said to Corner, ignoring Ron and Hermione. She took Corner out of the classroom. Hermione just sputtered, asking Ginny to stop and reverse her hex.
"Your sister, I'll make sure to give her detention for this. You'll get one too for behaving this rashly," Hermione said angrily to him, then cringed when she saw a bat struggling to come out of his nose. It was effing humiliating what was happening to him right now.
"Gran-ger—just—go—to—ugh—common—room," Ron managed to say as he turned around so she wouldn't look at him again. He was embarrassed.
"Maybe I can help if you know the reversal spell for this hex," he heard Hermione say.
"Just—go," he shouted. He heard footsteps leaving the classroom a minute later. Now, let's just wait for this hex to wear off.
Hermione Granger
It had been two days since Ron Weasley got hexed. She hadn't even seen Weasley since that night. The next day, he didn't attend any of the classes. Today, as it was a Hogsmeade weekend, she couldn't see him anywhere in the long queue of students who were waiting to get out of Hogwarts. She was beside Harry, who for some reason was not talking. Harry was a guy who always talked around her. She looked at him and realized he was glaring at someone. She followed his gaze and saw that it was Michael Corner, who was standing beside Ginny Weasley, and they were holding hands. They were now dating in public after her brother caught her in the act, and then yesterday, she had a shouting match with her other brothers, the twins to be specific, in the common room. By the end of the fight, which she won, everybody in Gryffindor house knew Ginny Weasley was dating Michael Corner.
Why was Harry glaring at them, though? Another problem between a Weasley and a Potter, or something else? Before she could dwell on it any longer, she heard her brother say cheekily, "Hermy, it's time to go."
"Don't call me that," she scolded him and looked at her brother. He was smiling at her, but his smile didn't quite reach his eyes.
After spending an hour or two in the Magical Read, she went to the Three Broomsticks. To her surprise, she saw Harry sitting with Parvati Patil, drinking butterbeer, and chatting animatedly. She was about to go talk to them when she found two people coming beside her, holding each of her arms.
"Dean? Seamus?" she asked, confused.
"Yes, Miss Granger?" Seamus replied.
"What's the matter?" she inquired, raising an eyebrow.
"Nothing's the matter, Hermione. It's just that we set up Harry and Parvati. Better let them talk," Dean said as he and Seamus frogmarched her out of the Three Broomsticks.
"You set them up?" she asked them.
"Yes, Harry was a bit sulky today," Seamus explained. "We thought, let's do something about it."
"We saw Parvati sulking too," Dean continued. "Why not bring two sulky people together to talk?"
"Why were they sulking, though?" Hermione asked as her eyes lingered on the Three Broomsticks' gate.
"About Harry, we don't know," Seamus said, shrugging.
"And Parvati was ditched by Lavender as Lavender found a guy," Dean added.
"But Parvati... didn't she dislike Harry?" Hermione asked, perplexed, remembering the last year's Yule Ball. Harry took her to the ball but spent the entire night sulking and being jealous. At that time, he was interested in Cho Chang, but she was dating Cedric. That whole night, he was glaring daggers at Cedric Diggory. Wait a minute. He was glaring at Michael Corner too. Don't tell me Harry has a crush on Ginny Weasley now. What's with Harry pining over taken girls?
"Yes, but we told her that he was sorry and that he had a crush on Cho Chang at that time, so that night was hard for him," Seamus said with a cheeky grin.
"He was a lonely boy who craved love but hid it behind his macho-best-seeker personality," Dean added.
"That's all it took?" Hermione asked, still suspicious.
"Oh, Harry apologizing for his behavior last year sealed the deal," Seamus said enthusiastically.
"We are the best matchmakers," Dean said as he high-fived Seamus.
After that very enlightening conversation with both of them, she decided to spend more time in the Magical Read. That was always better than a joke shop, which is where both of them decided to go. She was left with another hour before she had to get back to the castle. She felt nice knowing that at least during this Hogsmeade weekend, she wasn't on prefect duties, making sure students were going back to Hogwarts. She exited the Magical Read and decided to take a walk before heading back to Hogwarts. She saw a glimpse of red hair, turning into an alley behind a shop. Hoping that it was a certain redhead, she followed. When she got out of the alley, she saw him walking alone in the direction of the Shrieking Shack. Why would he go there? She followed him quietly; he didn't realize she was following him until he was looking at the haunted house. The Shrieking Shack was on the outskirts of the village. It was on the route between Hogwarts and Hogsmeade; just a little detour between the route brought you to the shack. He turned around and saw her. From his look, he didn't expect her to follow him. His wand was outstretched, obviously planning on hexing, but as he realized it was her, his shoulders relaxed, and he withdrew his wand, putting it back in his robes.
"What are you doing here?" he asked her, confused by her actions.
"Same as you, to look at one of the most haunted places at Hogwarts," Hermione replied. She knew what the Shrieking Shack really was. One of the perks of growing up around the Marauders was that you heard a lot of stories; one of them included a certain werewolf spending his nights every month here in the shack.
"Okay. It's just, I've never seen you here, and I've always come here every Hogsmeade visit," Ron explained.
"It's my second time. I came here before with my brothers and their friends."
"Okay."
"Why do you come here on every Hogsmeade visit?" she asked, curious.
"Nothing. Reckon I like the solitude," he said while kicking a rock. He was being awkward now. Their last interaction before this was horrid. Bats were coming out of his nose, for Merlin's sake. Hermione was horrified that day and cringed a bit after remembering it. He must've seen her cringing, as his ears turned red and he looked anywhere but at her.
"Sorry."
"For what?"
"Nothing."
"Okay."
"Why didn't you tell the professor what happened that day? I thought you were going to give me detention for punching a student," Ron asked.
"You were already given enough punishment," she answered, "and I didn't want to tell anybody what happened that day."
"Could've surprised me," Ron mumbled.
"What?" she asked.
"Nothing. It's just, I thought you liked following rules, and according to them, you should've given detention to everybody in that room," Ron explained.
"Is following rules bad?" Hermione inquired with a huff.
"No, it's not bad," Ron said. "Never mind, let's skip this, yeah?"
"Alright, Weasley," she said. She never liked things being left unsaid. She was going to walk away when she heard him say, "You can call me Ron."
"What?"
"If you want, you can call me Ron."
"Um... okay," she replied, blushing. Why was she feeling nervous now? "You can call me Hermione."
"Yes. Sure, Hermione," Ron said with a smile.
...
to be continued