‘Hurry up, Ron, breakfast will be over soon!’ Harry called up the dormitory stairs from the common room. He paced impatiently up and down the empty room, checking the stairs every so often.

Ron came hurrying down the stairs, his tie lopsided and his shoes on the wrong feet. Harry, his stomach rumbling loudly, decided not to point out to Ron that his shoes were on the wrong way round, and quickly rushed his friend out the door.

They arrived at the Great Hall a few minutes later, to find that it was now rather empty and only a few students were left eating at the four tables. Harry and Ron quickly walked over to where Hermione was sitting. Harry noticed that Hermione was sitting with her new boyfriend, Cormac McLaggen. He groaned. Cormac had eaten breakfast with them everyday for the past two weeks, and every day Ron invited his new girlfriend, Lavender Brown, to join them too. Harry was always torn between amusement and annoyance, watching Ron and Hermione try to make the other jealous.

‘My feet feel strange,’ said Ron, his walk resembling that of a duck in his backward shoes. ‘What’s wrong with them? I always wear these shoes.’

‘Ron, perhaps you’ve got them on - ’

‘Oh Merlin’s beard,’ Ron said angrily as they approached the Gryffindor table. ‘That McLaggen git is sitting with us again! Why can’t he just get lost?’

Harry began to tune out Ron’s voice as he often did when Ron started ragging against Cormac.

‘Right, where’s Lavender…’ muttered Ron, wondering off to find his girlfriend. Harry took a seat at the table.

‘Morning, Hermione,’ Harry said gloomily, but just as he greeted Hermione, Ron came along, arm in arm with Lavender Brown, and Hermione suddenly abandoned her toast and embraced Cormac fiercely, causing Ron and Lavender to do the same. Harry picked up a slice of toast and buttered it, wishing he could give Ron a good kick up the –

‘Hi Harry!’

Harry turned to see a familiar face standing next to him.

‘Neville!’ He said with a sigh of relief. He couldn’t be happier to see Neville at that moment. ‘Listen, I’m not that hungry, do you want to go to Charms early?’

‘Yeah, alright,’ said Neville cheerfully. He eyed Ron and Hermione and gave Harry a confused look. ‘What are they -? ’

Harry held up his hand. ‘Don’t ask.’

About fifteen minutes into Charms, when Harry and Neville were concentrating on trying to get their parrots to turn completely yellow, Ron, Hermione and Lavender burst in through the door. They apologised quickly to an irritated Professor Flitwick.

As Lavender sat down with Parvati Patil, Ron and Hermione took their seats at Harry’s table. Harry eyed his friends wearily. They had been continuously bickering under their breaths since they walked in the door.

‘Only a complete idiot would do something like that,’ muttered Hermione savagely at Ron.

‘Oh give it a rest, Hermione,’ Ron said, but he couldn’t seem to take stand taking an insult from Hermione without saying something back. ‘Anyway, who’s the one that cause the mess? Who’s the one that couldn’t keep her hands off that moron, McLaggen?’

‘Cormac is not a moron!’ whispered Hermione furiously, turning red. ‘Your brain-dead girlfriend is the one who managed to spill Pumpkin Juice everywhere anyway - ’

‘Nice to see you,’ said Harry with a sigh. Ron and Hermione seemed to have tuned him out.

‘That was an accident!’ hissed Ron. ‘It was your boyfriend who managed to get butter in my Charms book. Honestly, you call Lavender brain-dead. McLaggen can’t even hold a fork without flinging it halfway across the room.’

‘Yes well,’ said Hermione quietly. She paused, appearing to not know how to reply to this. ‘Well, at least I can put my shoes on the right way round.’

‘What?’ said Ron, confused. He looked down at his feet. A look of understanding dawned on Ron’s face. ‘So that’s why -’

‘You’ve been walking like a duck all morning? Yes,’ said Hermione, smirking.

‘Why don’t you just -’

‘Oh, shut up!’ Harry said loudly, losing his temper.

‘Excuse me, Mr. Potter!’ called Professor Flitwick from the front of the room. ‘Keep your voice down please!’

Harry turned back to his parrot, fuming. Ron and Hermione gave each other an evil look before getting their books out of their bags.

Hermione muttered something under her breath as she turned to page sixty-nine of her textbook.

‘What did you say?’ spat Ron. Harry closed his eyes, having heard Hermione perfectly.

‘Look, I don’t think that needs repeating -’ he began.

‘Lavender is a cow! Lavender is a cow!’ crawed Harry’s parrot suddenly. Mortified, Harry smacked the parrot over the beak with his wand, abandoning all pretence of trying to turn it yellow.

‘You little -’ Ron said furiously, apparently at a loss for an appropriate word.

Harry sighed, picked up his textbook and moved to another table at the back of the classroom, leaving Ron and Hermione to bicker on their own.

***

Harry walked quickly across the Hogwarts grounds, making his way towards the Quidditch pitch. It felt good to feel the wind in his hair, and the smell of his Firebolt was extremely calming. After another day of intense bickering between Ron and Hermione, a Quidditch practice in the cool breeze was more than welcome.

He could already see the players warming up, flying around the pitch in their red and gold Quidditch robes. As he got closer, he could see the lowest spectators stands, and could see people sitting on them, watching and clapping and shouting to their friends.

He could see Ron and Hermione on the stands. They weren’t sitting together, but with two other people. Harry squinted, trying to see who the two people were.

‘Oh no,’ he muttered, realising who the two guests were.

‘Go on Won-Won, you can go faster than that!’ Lavender Brown shrieked with a giggle from the sidelines.

Ron turned on his broom to give Lavender a smile, but he slipped and his broom dropped several feet dramatically. He zoomed to the floor, deciding that was safer, his face burning red.

‘Oh shut up,’ he snapped at Hermione, who was laughing hysterically. ‘At least I’m on the team. Your stupid boyfriend is only a substitute!’

Hermione fumed.

‘Cormac is a million times better than you at Quidditch!’ she shouted at him. ‘At least he can stay on his broom longer than a few seconds. Then again, even a Flobberworm could do that.’

Ron’s ears burned furiously, but as he opened his mouth to shout some witty retort, Harry opened his own mouth, cutting Ron off.

‘Everyone come down here quickly!’ He called. The team all gathered around Harry at the very edge of the stands. As Harry gave them instructions for a warm up game, he couldn’t help but notice that Lavender was whispering things to Ron from the stands, making him chuckle.

‘So you just pass the ball to each other, which will help your coordination and your – will you two shut up!’

Ron and Lavender looked at him, shocked.

‘Seriously!’ Harry shouted. ‘I can’t put up with this for the entire practice! Lavender, if you want to whisper sweet nothing’s in Ron’s ear -’

A few members of the team sniggered at this part.

‘- then go back to the common room and take Ron with you! But Ron, if you want to stay and practice and if Lavender wants to stay and watch then you’d both better keep your mouths shut.’

There was silence among the crowd, except for Hermione who was gloating to Ron.

‘You can hush up too,’ Harry said, causing Hermione to flush and sit back in her seat.

‘Don’t talk to my girlfriend that way!’ Cormac McLaggen shouted at Harry.

‘I’m the captain and I’ll talk to the people on this pitch however I like!’ Harry retorted. ‘Now everyone, in the air, I’ve got the Quaffle.’

He rose into the air with his team. ‘And try not to drop it,’ he added with a groan.

They passed the ball around for a few minutes, throwing and catching quite easily, Lavender applauding everytime Ron caught it, and Hermione clapping everytime Cormac caught it. As they threw and caught, threw and caught, Harry got increasingly irritated by the constant outbreak of cheering and clapping everytime Ron or Cormac caught the ball successfully. Throw, catch, throw, catch – clapping – throw, catch, throw…

‘RIGHT!’ Harry shouted angrily, tucking the Quaffle under his arm. ‘That’s it! I’ve had enough of you lot already. Everyone get to your positions, we’re just going to go straight into a game.’

As they all got into position, Harry passed the Quaffle to the Chasers and watched their technique for a few minutes, checking they were on strategy. Cormac McLaggen seemed to be hogging the ball a lot. But I’ll deal with him later, Harry thought moodily, floating around the sidelines on his broom, watching them, checking they were sticking to the strategy.

But disaster struck again as Cormac tossed the Quaffle into the goal. As Ron swerved spectacularly to save the shot, Lavender started cheering loudly, and Ron got distracted, letting the Quaffle soar into the goal, untouched.

‘For the love of Merlin,’ Harry muttered, flying over to the centre of the game. ‘Can we please try and concentrate?’ He shouted to the group. He flew a bit closer to Ron. ‘Ron, I know you like her and everything, but could you please make her shut up?’

‘Like who?’ Ron said sharply.

‘…Lavender,’ said Harry, surprised.

‘Oh,’ said Ron. ‘Oh. Yes, that’s who I like. Lavender. Yes.’

Just as Harry turned to fly away, Ron grabbed Harry’s arm.

‘Listen, Harry. Hermione didn’t see me miss the Quaffle did she?’ he asked worriedly.

‘No,’ said Harry.

Ron looked relieved.

‘She was too busy snogging McLaggen,’ Harry said.

‘What?’

‘OK everyone! Back to the changing rooms, that’s enough for today,’ Harry called, hoping he caught Ron before he went off on one.

***

Later that night in the common room, Harry sat on his own at a table by the fire, trying to work on his potions essay. He had just got an idea for his opening sentence, when the portrait hole opened, and Hermione stumbled in. She was kissing Cormac McLaggen fiercely, holding him by the collar of his robes.

‘Ron’s not here,’ said Harry without looking up from his work.

‘Oh,’ said Hermione, breaking away from Cormac and walking over to Harry. She sat down and Cormac sat next to her.

‘Get off!’ she said, as Cormac tried to kiss her again.

Harry chuckled under his breath.

‘I’m going to do my homework now, Cormac,’ said Hermione, ‘so I’ll see you later.’

Cormac smiled and leaned in to kiss her.

‘Oh, if you must,’ she said tiresomely. She gave him a quick peck on the lips and then turned her attention to Harry.

‘So you’ve finally made a start on your potions essay,’ she said when Cormac was gone, ‘well it’s about time. That was set as least a week -’

‘What is wrong with you?’ Harry burst out, dropping his quill on the table.

Hermione looked taken-aback.

‘What do you mean?’

‘There’s you going out with Cormac even though you don’t even like him -’

‘I do like him!’ Hermione said shrilly. Harry raised his eyebrows. Hermione flushed. ‘Well, maybe I don’t like him in that way, but he’s a nice…person.’

‘Look Hermione, you and Ron have just got to -’

That moment, the portrait hole opened again and Ron stepped in, hand in hand with Lavender. Harry groaned inwardly. Of all the times for Hermione to see Ron and Lavender together, it had to be when Harry was trying to get Hermione to reveal she liked Ron.

Ron whispered something to Lavender and she giggled hysterically. Hermione rolled her eyes so far back Harry wouldn’t have been surprised if she could see the back of her head.

‘Goodnight Won-Won!’ Lavender called, and walked up to the dormitory.

Ron sat down with a sigh next to Harry, looking quite tired but pleased with himself.

‘Oh, good, you’re doing your potions essay,’ said Ron, leaning forwards to read what Harry had written. ‘Well, you haven’t got very far, have you?’

‘Maybe he would make some progress if people didn’t keep stumbling through the door snogging all night,’ said Hermione nastily.

‘Yes well, at least I have the courtesy to snog people in private, rather than at a Quidditch practice where everyone can see!’ Ron replied.

‘People?’ Hermione said with a derisive laugh. Harry put his head in his hands, knowing his two best friends were about to repeat the same argument they had every night. ‘So you kiss lots of people now, do you, Ron? Because last time I checked you’d only ever kissed one person.’

Ron opened his mouth to argue back but Hermione cut in, with a look of pretend thoughtfulness.

‘I use the word “kiss�, but to be quite honest it looks more like you’re sucking her tongue out when you kiss Lav-Lav.’

Ron’s ears went the darkest shade of red Harry had ever seen them.

‘Oh yes and you would know about kissing, wouldn’t you Hermione,’ spat Ron. ‘Since you’ve kissed every boy in the entire school. And you’ve stuck your tongue down the throat of a nice Bulgarian Quidditch player too! You certainly getting your share of European boys, aren’t you?’

‘Jealousy!’ Shouted Hermione, standing up. Ron got to his feet as well, looking as though he might punch someone. ‘That’s all it is! Jealousy!’

‘Me? Jealous of you?’ said Ron with an evil laugh. ‘What am I jealous of, the fact that you’ve got yourself a reputation as the school tart?’

‘No!’ cried Hermione, ignoring Ron’s comment. 'Jealous of the fact that I have a boyfriend and that my boyfriend isn’t you!’

There was a horrible silence throughout the common room. Harry wished he could be anywhere else. He would rather have splinched himself in every body part than be sitting where he was right now.

Hermione stared furiously at Ron, her hair bushier than ever and panting as though she’d run a mile. Ron’s ears burned as he looked down at the floor, avoiding Hermione’s gaze.

‘I’m going to bed,’ he muttered. He turned sharply on the spot and ran up to the dormitories, not looking anywhere but at his feet as he went.

Hermione remained in exactly the same place, watching after Ron with a look on her face that Harry couldn’t describe. How could an expression contain so many things? There was confusion, anger, sadness and…Harry felt horrible as he saw loneliness deep within Hermione’s face.

After a few more moments of silence, Hermione covered her face with her hands and dropped to the floor, sobbing as though there was nothing left in the world for her.

Aghast, Harry quickly rushed over to Hermione. He put his arm around her and rested his head on her shoulder as she rocked back and forth in his arms. She cried and cried, and Harry waited and listened, knowing she needed this; she needed to confront her sadness.

After what seemed like hours to Harry, Hermione’s sobs subsided, and she looked up, her eyes blotchy, her face tear-stricken, her chest heaving.

‘Why did I do this, Harry?’ she said quietly. Harry had no idea what she meant, so he waited for her to continue.

‘Why am I going out with Cormac? I don’t like Cormac,’ she said the last part with her eyes closed, as though trying to understand it.

Harry still didn’t know what to say. He waited patiently for Hermione to answer her own question, as he knew she would.

‘I was the jealous one,’ she said finally. ‘I went out with Cormac to make Ron jealous. I intended to dump him as soon as Ron told me how he felt! But he never did. Instead, he went out with Lavender Brown, so I carried on with Cormac.’

Harry nodded, trying to understand Hermione’s ways.

She laughed heavily.

‘I have made such a mess of things, haven’t I?’ she said.

Harry was glad Hermione’s question came out rhetorical, because he had no clue how to answer her.

‘I need to fix this,’ she said. She didn’t say it sadly or moodily, but lightly, as though she was quite happy to do so.

‘How?’ Harry asked as Hermione walked up to the girls’ dormitories.

Hermione turned around and looked at Harry with raised eyebrows.

‘You’ll see tomorrow,’ she said. ‘I just hope it’s not too late.’

She climbed the remaining stairs to the dormitory, leaving Harry to his own, very confused thoughts.

***

When Harry woke up the next morning it took him a while to understand why he felt like he had something important to do. Then he remembered what Hermione had said last night.

He sat up and drew back the curtains of his four-poster bed. All of the beds around him of his fellow Gryffindors’ were empty and made. Including Ron’s. Mystified as to why his best friend had left for breakfast without him, Harry quickly dressed and went down to the Great Hall.

Harry entered the Hall on time for once (having not waited half an hour for Ron to get ready) so it took him a while to find his friends at the Gryffindor table, since the room was nearly full of hungry students. He located Ron first – from his bright red hair – and then looked further down the table. He saw Hermione sitting next to Ron. This struck Harry as very strange indeed, considering last night’s argument. He scanned the table quickly and found Lavender sitting at the end of the table with Parvati Patil, looking very moody indeed. As his curiosity grew, Harry quickly walked over to the table.

‘Harry! You’re late!’ said Ron cheerfully.

‘And you’re early,’ said Harry.

‘Yes well,’ said Ron, a smile creeping up onto his face. ‘I came down with Hermione.’

Harry looked between them. Ron seemed to be fighting the urge to smile, whereas Hermione was blushing profusely. What was going on? With a sudden inkling, Harry took a slice of toast off the rack and looked down at his plate.

‘Where’s Cormac, Hermione?’ he asked casually. He sneaked a glance at Ron as he finished asking this question. Ron’s wry smile was replaced with a look of smugness.

‘I – I suppose he’s got no reason to sit with us anymore,’ said Hermione slowly. Now she was trying hard not to smile. ‘Why?’ pressed Harry, beginning to believe that his theory was correct.

‘Because I…Well, we…I told him -’

‘She dumped him,’ said Ron quickly, looking at Harry with a very wide grin.

Harry couldn’t help to smiling himself. He had been right.

‘And why’s that, Hermione?’ he asked in a mocking tone. Hermione looked up at Harry with a look that clearly said you know very well why.

‘Because…’ she seemed to be finding it hard to find the words, which was very amusing to Harry.

Harry, needing final confirmation that his theory was right, lowered his eyes to under the table, where he saw, clasped together tightly, the hands of the two people opposite him.