Another mixed chapter with J.K.R.'s original works. As always, it's mostly just dialogue. This time there's a snippet from Ch 22 (After The Burial) and the rest comes from Ch 24 (Sectumsempra) HP&tHBP.

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"What were you doing up there with her?"

Ron and Hermione had just descended the stairs that led to the boys' dormitories. Harry was hidden underneath the Invisibility Cloak high on Felix Felicis and on his way to Hagrid's hut, making it seem like they were up there alone… The words were shrieked a second time by Lavender, her face red with rage at the assumed dalliance. "I said… What were you doing up there with her?"

Hermione stepped back from the advancing witch, worried she might actually attack her, but she threw a pointed finger in her face. That way there wasn't any doubt of who she was speaking about. Ron stood there stuttering at the unexpected ambush, "I… We… I…"

"You are the most horrid excuse for a boyfriend, I have ever seen in my whole entire life, Ronald Weasley!" Lavender shouted, moving so that she was in front of the petrified wizard. "I cannot believe you would do this! After everything we have been through!"

"I… We didn't…" Ron looked over to where Hermione stood, his panicked eyes wide and begging for help.

Hermione sighed, "Lavender, We…"

"Don't try to deny it. I'm not blind!" The other witch continued on, aggrandizing the ruinous accusation. "I can see what has been happening behind my back since your stupid accident!"

They looked at each other, both their eyebrows drawn in confusion. The simple act would seem like an admission of guilt, of course, but this was beyond ludicrous and they needed to check with the other that it was really happening. Hermione just shook her head in defeat. There wasn't a single thing either of them could say to convince the raging witch that her presumption was completely false. Without Harry there to back up that they hadn't been alone, it did look incredibly suspicious.

Ron gave it another go though, "Lav, listen…"

"No! I will not listen, Ronald! How? How could you do this to me to with… with HER?!" She wailed, her tears starting to fall down her bright pink cheeks.

"I didn't do anything!" He tried to reason with her weakly and failed miserably.

"Oh, sure you didn't… How do you honestly expect me to believe that after what I saw with my own two eyes?!" Lavender's skepticism was warranted, of course, her shrieked blubbering not so much…

All of the eyes in the common room were now watching the trio with rapt attention at the unfolding drama. Hermione looked down to the floor in an attempt to be as inconspicuous as she could. She didn't want to be there for what she knew was coming…

"We weren't doing anything, I swear!" Ron's voice was starting to rise with his annoyance at not being believed.

She took a slow step back, hoping she could sneak away before either of their attentions were brought back to her. If she was dragged further into it, her presence would only inflame the already heated exchange to explosive proportions.

"You think I'm stupid, right? You cheated on me, Ronald Weasley!" Lavender yelled. Parvati, finally, came over and tried to put a hand on her shoulder, but was quickly shrugged off.

"Nothing happened!"

"Go to Hell! The BOTH of you!" Lavender screamed. She hit an octave that impressed Hermione, despite everything going on, before she turned and ran up the stairs. Her wails could be heard until the slam of the dorm door cut them off. Parvati gave them both a withering glare and quickly followed after her friend.

Hermione stood there, her eyes still trained dutifully to the ground. The silence that hung in the air was deafening and she could feel the twenty pairs of eyes on her and her companion. Each person keen to see how they would react to the row…

"I SAID BUGGER OFF, DEAN!"

"What did I do?!" The exasperated wizard followed behind Ginny who was rushing her own way towards the girls' dormitories.

"You are so nice, it's annoying. I can't stand it another second. We are done." Ginny said evenly, as if she hadn't just been yelling at the top of lungs. Her detachment was quick and final, as if she wasn't speaking to someone she had been dating for nearly a year. She turned around and fled, so fast that she whipped him in the chest with her long hair as she went.

"I don't understand…" Dean mumbled, turning to Hermione and Ron. "I just tried to help her…"

"That was your first mistake, mate." Ron said sympathetically. He walked over to him and clapped him on the shoulder. "My sister doesn't need any wizard's help."

She watched as the solemn pair made their way over to the stairs that led to their dorm. Off to commiserate over their sudden breakups, no doubt.

And then Hermione was left as the only member of the night's bizarre spectacle to be stared at by the still watching eyes. She shifted uncomfortably under their gazes, imagining the debased things her fellow Gryffindors would now think of her… A blush colored her cheeks and she rushed after the other girls. Intent on making sure that Ginny was okay instead of basking in her own self pity.

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The next morning during their Charms lesson, with the skillful use of a silent Muffliato, Harry had managed to regale them on how he managed to get the memory from a drunken Slughorn and the subsequent informative meeting with Dumbledore. Ron was sitting there quite distracted, waving his wand around absentmindedly towards the ceiling, "Wow. You're actually gonna go with Dumbledore… and try and destroy… Wow!"

Hermione was the first to notice the large white flakes that had suddenly started to fall from above them and grabbed his wrist for a second before letting it go. "You're making it snow."

"Oh yeah. Sorry. It looks like we all have bad dandruff now…" He instinctively reached over and brushed some of the fluff from her shoulder.

Lavender burst into loud sobs at the contact and they both looked away guiltily, she felt absolutely vile for the way things had ended between the two of them. The girl's whimpers into the early morning hours had done little to help curb Hermione's unearned feelings of shame.

"We split up last night." Ron explained to a puzzled Harry. "When she saw me comin' out of the dormitory with Hermione. Obviously, she couldn't see you, so she thought it was just the two of us…"

"Ah," Harry responded, sizing up Ron for a second. "Well, you don't mind it's over do you?"

"No." Ron admitted, peaking over at her out of the corner of his eye. "It was pretty bad while she was yellin' but at least I didn't have to finish it."

"Coward." Hermione said, rolling her eyes. He would think that the price of having her wander around as the proverbial other woman was fair… Or more than likely he hadn't taken the time to truly think of the social ramifications this supposed blight could have on her reputation. She turned to Harry, knowing he would want to know about what had happened next. "It was a bad night for romance all around. Ginny and Dean split up too."

She watched him try to reign in the intense flash of interest in his eyes at her words and she smirked as he asked, "How come?"

"Oh, something really silly… She said he was always trying to help her through the portrait hole, like she couldn't climb in herself… But they have been rocky for ages." She expounded. They both glanced over at the poor wizard who was waving his wand dejectedly at the flask in front of him. A weak effort to turn the vinegar inside to wine, like they were supposed to be doing. "Of course, this puts you in a bit of a dilemma, doesn't it?"

Harry looked over at her confused and slightly accusatory, like he thought that she had read his mind or something. So she quickly pointed out the obvious. "The Quidditch team. If Ginny and Dean aren't speaking…"

"Oh… Oh yeah!" Harry said, the unreadable set to his normally animated features told her that he wasn't thinking about how this decision would affect their chances of winning. A testament to just how deep his barely hidden crush on the witch was…

"Flitwick…" Ron warned, blanching at his flask which was filled with an odd sienna colored liquid.

Harry's wasn't in a much better condition and they both were given extra practice as homework.

She had completed the assignment before even casting Muffliato…

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Despite the understandable melancholy that surrounded them, for the first time in way too long, their night had felt like the old times. They had stayed up late, working on assignments, joking around with one another and laughing freely. Each of their moods were lifted for different reasons and those sunny dispositions had only been inflated by the news that Katie Bell would be returning the next day. After six months on the mend she would be back. Healthy, whole and able to answer the questions everyone had about what happened to her... But none of that had mattered in those stolen carefree moments.

It was with reluctance that she had gone up to bed. Worried that the good-natured ease would disappear in the light of a new day. The way that it always seemed to do lately, for one reason or another.

She had quickly gotten into bed and closed her curtains, casting her usual round of protective enchantments, mostly out of habit than thinking the still sniveling witch in the bed across the room would try anything anymore… Plus, the silencing spell had the added benefit of not having to listen to the grief for another night. One self-imposed night of co-misery might have been a short sentence considering the pain she had inadvertently caused, but she needed some sleep.

Especially when the unexpected and hastily laid plans with Draco earlier that morning hinted at another sleepless night tomorrow…

A huge part of her uplifted mood all day…