A/N: Alrighty, I just wanted to thank everybody who has reviewed my story!!!!! You guys are all that and a bag of chips!!!!! When I see your reviews it seriously makes my day! Keep'em comin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Amanda
Still in shock, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny walked slowly up to the Gryffindor Common Room.
“Dumbledore’s lost it,” Ron said after a long silence.
“Ron, don’t be silly. Dumbledore knows exactly what he’s doing,” Hermione said defensively.
“Oh, so now you’re Filch’s biggest fan?” Ron said sharply.
“I didn’t mean that and you know it. Honestly Ron. You’re impossible!” Hermione said, while Ron shrugged.
“I try,” he said, grinning at her and putting his arm gently around her.
“I know,” Hermione said, snorting. Harry and Ginny shared bemused looks.
“What are you two smirking at?” Ron said playfully to Harry and Ginny.
“Well,” Harry explained with a grin, “we want to make sure that when the fist fight breaks out, we’re nowhere near you two.” Hermione laughed, punching Harry on the shoulder.
“How about a game of chess before bed?” Ginny suggested. They all agreed, and Ron went to get his chess set. About an hour later, they were all cracking up with laughter as Ginny’s knight smashed Harry’s pawn into the board. Hermione, however, stopped laughing suddenly and looked down at her watch. Ron looked at her.
“You alright?” he asked concernedly. She quickly recovered her composure.
“Yes, I just forgot something in the Great Hall. I need to go get it,” she said hastily, standing up.
“I’ll go with you,” Ron said, also standing.
“No!” Hermione said, a little harsher than necessary. Ron stopped, looking at her suspiciously.
“Where are you really going?” he said, his brows furrowed.
“Where I go is none of your business Ron,” Hermione said sharply. He reddened angrily.
“Hermione...”
“Ron! Will you quite acting like you own me? I’m out of here. I’ll see you all later,” she said, her face furious. Ron moved to stop her but she ran out the portrait. Nobody moved for a long time. Harry looked at Ginny questioningly, wondering if she knew what was going on with Hermione. She shrugged.
“Come on, Ron. It’s been a long day, she’s just stressed out is all,” Harry said soothingly, coming to stand next to his best friend.
“Do I act like I own her?” Ron said forlornly. Harry shrugged.
“Not that I know of, but then again, I’m not a girl, and I really have no idea what goes on in their heads,” he said, remembering how complicated Cho Chang had been.
“Women, I’ll never understand them,” Ron was saying. “Crazy as...”
“AHEM!” Ginny said loudly. Both boys jumped, and Ron and Harry grinned sheepishly. Ginny glared at them.
“Well, you’re a girl,” Ron said. “Do you think I’m overly possessive of Hermione?” Ginny frowned in thought, and then shook her head slowly.
“No, I just think you care about her,” she said. Harry nodded his agreement. Ron stared at the carpet for a very long time, and then looked up determinedly.
“I’m going after her,” he said walking angrily towards the door. Ginny ran after him.
“Ron! Ron, don’t mess things up further! If you follow her she’ll...” but Ron turned around sharply, glaring at her.
“Stay out of this Ginny! This is none of your damn...” Harry grabbed Ron’s shoulder calmingly.
“Don’t take your anger out on Ginny,” Harry said firmly. “She was only trying to help.” Ron opened his mouth to apologize, and then saw Ginny’s hurt face and closed it, feeling terrible. He left out the door, not knowing what to think.
Ron walked down the long, empty corridor. He tried to be very quite, as he didn’t want to run into Filch or Mrs. Norris. He was just about to turn the corner when he heard a voice. He stopped, listening carefully. It was Malfoy.
“Listen, Granger. If we’re going to patrol the halls you’re going to have to keep your hands off me,” he was saying. “I know how much you crave to be with me, hell, who wouldn’t after dating Weasley?” Ron’s heart thumped loudly. Hermione couldn’t keep her hands off Malfoy? Perhaps he was just jumping to conclusions because he was mad. He had to know.
As quietly as he could, he poked his head around the corner, and his eyes nearly bulged out of his head. They were kissing, rather heatedly it seemed. He turned back around, feeling sick. Was he really that bad of a boyfriend? Was she so desperate that she wanted to kiss Malfoy? He started back, his heart in his shoes.
Hermione struggled, and then brought her knee straight up between his legs. Malfoy grunted and let go of her.
“Don’t you ever touch me again!” Hermione spat, kicking him.
“You bitch!” Malfoy rasped.
“And don’t you EVER talk about Ron like that in front of me again!” she yelled. “Now get up! Before I change your religion!”
“You might be smart Granger, but in the end, Voldemort will triumph, and your big brain won’t mean anything,” Malfoy said, still wincing.
“At least my brain isn’t between my legs,” she said disgustedly. “Now, let’s go, I want this patrol to be over with.”
Harry and Ginny both looked up anxiously as somebody entered. It was Ron. Harry leapt up coming to him. He saw Ron’s face, and knew that something really bad had happened. Ron never got very upset about anything, having the ‘emotional range of a teaspoon’ as Hermione often put it.
“Are you alright?” Ginny asked urgently, coming up to him. Ron said nothing.
“Ron, what the hell happened?” Harry asked. Ron still didn’t speak. Instead, he walked straight past them and up to the boy’s dormitory. Harry looked at Ginny.
“Go up there with him. He won’t talk to me, he’ll talk to you,” she said.
“Right,” Harry said, and he kissed Ginny goodnight before heading up the stairs after Ron. “Ron? Ron!” Harry called. He saw him as soon as he walked into the room. Ron was sitting, fully dressed, on top of the bed. “Come on, mate! What happened? Is Hermione alright? Are you alright?” he went to sit next to him. Ron looked at him, his face quite melancholy.
“No,” was all he said, and Harry noticed that his eyes were beet red. Had he been crying? “I went to find Hermione.” Harry waited for Ron to continue.
“Yes...” he urged after Ron still said nothing.
“She was patrolling with Malfoy,” Ron said disgustedly. Harry shrugged.
“So?”
“They were kissing.” Harry nearly fell off the bed in shock.
“Are...are you sure that was Hermione? I mean, it could be somebody else,” he said. Ron shook his head. Harry couldn’t believe it. He just couldn’t. Hermione and Malfoy? He didn’t know what to think. He wondered if he should ask Hermione about it. He snorted to himself. That would be an interesting chat. ‘So Hermione, how’s the snogging with Malfoy going? Tell me, who is better, him or Ron?’ He turned his attention back to Ron.
“You wanna know what the worst part is though?” Ron said, his voice cracking now.
“What?” Harry said sadly. How could Hermione do this to Ron?
“The honest to god truth is, I did my best. I loved her as much as I could. I was the best boyfriend I could be. It came so easy. I love her Harry. I gave her everything I had.” A tear ran down Ron’s face. “I gave her everything I could give... and it wasn’t enough.”
The next day dawned bright and sunny. Harry got dressed quickly and put on his glasses. He looked around and saw that Ron was gone. He hurried down the steps, and Ginny was waiting for him. She looked very sad, but when she saw him her face brightened. She looked at him quizzically, asking silently what had been wrong with Ron. He took her to one side of the common room and, after making sure that neither Ron nor Hermione were in the room, he began to explain what had happened. When he finished, Ginny was in shock.
“Do you really think Hermione could have done that?” Ginny asked.
“I don’t know...it doesn’t seem like her, but Ron said he was positive it was her...and I believe him. He wouldn’t have been that upset if he wasn’t sure,” Harry said sadly. “I want so bad to see Hermione’s side of it, but if she gets mad at Ron for trying to help her, she’ll definitely chew me out.” Ginny nodded sadly.
“Come on, let’s get some breakfast,” Ginny said. Harry nodded and they went downstairs. Breakfast was a very quite meal, and as soon as Hermione sat down next to Ron, he muttered something about having to go to the bathroom, and left the table. Hermione looked curiously at Harry and Ginny, but they avoided meeting her eyes. Hermione obviously was hurt, seeing that they were keeping something from her. She averted her gaze as Harry, to have something to do with his hands, got out the schedule.
He scanned it, and nearly groaned when he saw that his first class was Care of Magical Creatures, and then Defense Against the Dark Arts. After lunch was Charms and then Transfiguration. He sighed, putting the schedule back in his pocket. Since Harry decided that Ron probably wouldn’t come back to the table, he got up and went to class early. Hermione said that she was going to stay and wait for Ron, and Harry suppressed the urge to explain that Ron wasn’t coming back.
As Harry walked through the crowd of students milling around, he stuffed his hands in his pockets. Hermione had seemed so genuinely confused at breakfast. He had to tell her. Even if she would hate him forever either for spilling her secret, or making a false accusation, her cared about her as a friend too much to let this continue.
He walked to Care of Magical Creatures by himself, feeling very depressed. A class with Filch? A few minutes later the rest of the class started arriving, including Ron and Hermione, both looking very miserable.
“Alright!” Filch called, coming to stand in front of the students. “I am your new teacher! No longer just a care-taker. I now have the ability to take points and give out detentions!” he said, looking around as if expecting applause. A few people raised there eyebrows. “Now then. Today we are going to study Kneazles!” he said triumphantly. Just then Mrs. Norris stepped out from behind a tree. Many of the students let out gasps of disgust. “Who knows what a Kneazle is?” Filch asked. Hermione, of course, raised her hand. Filch grinned evilly. “Just taking a poll,” he said, not allowing her to answer. Hermione glared and put her hand back down. Mrs. Norris purred loudly as she wound around Filch’s legs. “This,” he said, reaching down to pat her on the head, “is a Kneazle!” The class gasped. Even Harry was surprised. Mrs. Norris was a Kneazle? But the more he thought about it, the more it made sense. Filch then took off, telling them all about Kneazles. Harry rolled his eyes. It figures that Filches lessons would be learning about Mrs. Norris. Harry tried the rest of the class to catch Ron’s eye, but Ron seemed very determined not to look at anybody. After Filches class, they went off to Defense Against the Dark Arts.
“This should be interesting,” Harry muttered to himself as he followed the rest of the students back inside. Once inside the room, Harry looked around. Snape had decorated it much like his other classroom. It had bottles of pickled animals and slimy substances. But he had added a few sneak-o-scopes to the shelves, and also had a large snake in a glass container on a high shelf.
“Welcome, class,” Snape said, smiling widely. “In addition to my Potions class, this year, I will also be teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts,” he said, relishing in the sound of his new announcement. A few people sniggered, as everybody knew that Snape had been trying to become Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher or years. Harry thought he knew why Dumbledore had let him on this year. Snape had turned over a new leaf, and wasn’t as horrible to Harry as usual. Last year, Harry had discovered that Snape had loved his mother, and that explained his hate for Harry, being James’ son. Also, when Sirius had come back, Snape had realized how horrible he had been. Sirius and Remus being the only true Marauders left, Snape realized that most of his years at Hogwarts had been spent with them, even if they were always fighting.
“Please put your wands away, as we will be reading this first week,” Snape said. There were some groans. Snape grinned; obviously his love for torturing certain students hadn’t vanished completely. “That does not mean, however, that we will be reading out of a book all year. Just this first week.” Some people nodded in acceptance. Harry got out his book, and opened it. “Please begin chapter one. My method will be as follows; one week we study the spell we are to learn, the next week, we actually perform it.” Harry hated to admit it, but it seemed logical. “Please read chapter one,” Snape said, and went to sit behind the desk, grinning in delight at his new classroom. Harry turned to the first page and began to read.
“Hey! You!” somebody said. Harry leapt a foot in the air.
“What was that, professor?” Harry asked, looking at Snape. Snape glared at Harry.
“I didn’t say anything, Potter,” he said, looking oddly at him. “Did you hear something?” he asked, looking alarmed. Normally, when Harry heard voices, it wasn’t good. Harry shook his head, but it was obvious that Snape didn’t believe him.
“Boy! Are you deaf? Come, on! Up here!” Harry looked up, seeing the shelves and nothing but some sneak-o-scopes and the old snake. Then Harry did a double take...the snake was waving at him with its tail! “There we go,” it said, practically smiling. “Remember me? From the zoo?” Harry’s eyes widened. He looked around to make sure nobody was looking, and nodded.
“How did you get captured again?” Harry hissed quietly. A few people looked at him; obviously they thought his was just making odd noises out of boredom or something.
“Damn zookeeper, he caught me, and was going to kill me! This one bloke though, a huge guy I tell you. Named Hardig, or something. He bought me out of pity.” Harry nodded, not wanting to speak in parsel-tongue again. Harry spent the rest of the class talking to the snake. And when he left the room, he realized that he hadn’t read one word of the chapter. He shrugged, he would read it later.
The rest of the day flew by, and Harry wasn’t able to speak to Ron or Hermione, as they both avoided everybody, including him. Back in the common room, Harry sat alone. Ron was upstairs, and Harry didn’t want to bother him. Hermione still hadn’t come back yet. Maybe she was out ‘patrolling’ with Malfoy again. He decided to stay up and wait for her. He had to approach her. Just as he thought this, she came through the portrait hole, looking very tired. Harry leapt up.
“Hermione, I need to talk to you,” Harry said urgently.
“Oh, NOW you want to talk to me! Well, you and Ron have been avoiding me all day, I don’t think I want to talk to YOU!” she said sharply and walked past him.
“No, Hermione I need to ask you something. Ron is very upset,” Harry said. Hermione stopped.
“Oh, so he’ll tell you why he’s upset, and not me?!” she practically bellowed. Harry grabbed her arm and dragged her over to a couch.
“Ok, I’m going to ask you something, promise you won’t get mad?” She rolled her eyes, but Harry continued on. This had to be done. “Did you kiss Malfoy last night?”
A/N: I hope you didn't mind this chapter focusing a little more on Ron and Hermione! Don't worry, the next one is back on track, and we get to see the Quidditch tryouts! Will Ginny make it on the team? The more reviews I get the faster you'll get the next chapter! SO PLEASE R&R!!