I still don't own any of the characters/sets/etc and I never will, since they all belong to J.K.Rowling.
Thanks to bobin221 and ky_chick42431 ;)
*** “Have you seen the way she looks at me?” Ron asked Harry, turning over the pages of a book, in the library.
Two or three days had passed and Hermione kept refusing to discuss her visits in Slytherin’s Tower. She occasionally sat with them, but without talking. Every now and then, she looked at Ron and seemed like she was about to cry. However, Harry hadn’t told Ron about the ‘other’ visit that Hermione had done in their dormitory, the night she was staring at Ron and crying.
Hermione approached them and sat.
After a while, Harry spoke.
“Hermione… you‘ve been acting a little…”
“Very,” Ron interjected.
“Very weird lately and-“
“Love can be found everywhere!” Malfoy’s voice interrupted Harry.
He was talking to Crabbe and Goyle, loudly on purpose. “The cow falls in love with the ox! The rooster with the chicken! The mudblood- …Oh, sorry, who did we say you fall in love with, mudblood?”
Hermione left crying.
Malfoy signed to Crabbe and Goyle to follow him, while Harry was trying to restrain Ron from rushing at Malfoy.
“Well, she might be weirder now, but she’s still Hermione!” Ron excused himself.
*** Next morning, when Harry and Ron went down to the common room, they found Ginny, Parvati and Lavender chatting.
“Good morning,” Ginny said.
“’Morning. Er…”
“Hermione won’t come down, don’t wait for her,” Parvati said, while Ginny was brushing Ron’s hair with her hand.
“She won’t? She‘ll come straight to class again?” Harry asked.
“I don’t think she‘ll come down at all today, she’s feeling awful.”
“Why?” Ron said.
“She had been trembling all night, she must've had a fever.”
“She didn’t want me to stay with her, though,” Ginny shrugged.
“Yeah and she didn’t want to call Madam Pomfrey either,” Lavender observed.
“You would not look so well either if quills and books and things were thrown-” Ron mumbled.
“Excuse me?”
“Nothing, just a private joke of ours,” Harry said quickly.
Truly, Hermione didn’t come down all day and Harry with Ron couldn’t go up to the girls’ dormitory’s stairs to see her.
*** “Hey, Ginny, why in a hurry?” Ron asked his sister when she passed quickly in front of them. He and Harry were in the common room, studying “or at least, trying to!
“I have a message for Hermione.”
“From who?” Harry wondered.
“From Malfoy. He asked me to tell her to go fast she-knows-where or else she “knows- what “will- happen. I didn’t make any sense.”
“Don’t you dare speak to Malfoy again!!” Ron yelled, blushing.
“I didn’t, he came to me! Don’t worry, I don’t like him any more than you do,” she said calmly and went to the girls’ dormitory.
*** “Harry… Ron… Wake up…” Ginny was trying to wake them up.
“Geroff me…” mumbled Ron.
“In a minute…” Harry said sleeping.
It was still very early, it had just dawned, why did Ginny want to wake them now?
“Ron… Harry… C’mon… Wake up…”
“WHAT????” Ron yelled harshly. His yell made Harry rose in fear. Fortunately, the rest were in deep sleep. Only Neville mumbled something but didn’t wake up.
“Hermione is in the hospital wing… I thought you should know… Lavender called Madam Pomfrey, an hour ago…”
*** Hermione was lying on a bed of the hospital wing. Lavender had called Madam Pomfrey when, after Hermione shook with ague for many hours, she threw up.
She now was pale but her cheeks were pink. Harry and Ron ran to her.
“Hermione!” Ron said.
Hermione didn’t look at them for she was too ashamed.
“Did you go yesterday?” Harry asked.
He didn’t need to tell where, she understood he meant in Slytherin and shook her head.
Ron wanted to hug her but he didn’t. Hermione wanted Ron to hug her, but he didn’t. Harry wanted to ask more, but he felt it was not the right time to push her on the subject of Malfoy.
And speaking of Malfoy…
“Hey, Granger,” he shouted, approaching with Crabbe and Goyle.
“Now they‘ve done it,” Harry murmured.
“You know when, you know where!” he yelled at her.
“I can’t,” Hermione said without looking at him. “Madam Pomfrey forbade me to set a foot off the bed for today. She said I don’t get much sleep and that I’m very tired and depressed. I’m supposed to get some rest.”
“I don’t care! You didn’t come yesterday either!”
“She was sick!” Ron yelled and his ears went red.
“He knows?” Malfoy asked surprised.
She shook her head.
“Oh. I don’t care if you‘re sick or not! You must come! Otherwise, you-know-who will learn about you-know-what!”
“You-know-who?” Harry said baffled.
“I don’t mean the Dark Lord, Potter!” Malfoy defined annoyed.
“I can’t!” Hermione said in tension.
Malfoy left laughing with Crabbe and Goyle.
Ron stood up. “I’ll beat him.”
“No!” Hermione said.
The rest of the day, Ron and Harry were sitting with her, keeping her company. They didn’t ask her anything about Malfoy and she was not in the mood to say much. She was just hearing them talking about Quidditch or commenting on the teachers (Snape is a git, Binns is so boring, McGonagall gives us a lot of homework lately…)
*** The following day, their first lesson was Transfiguration.
Ron sat with Harry; they were having a discussion on the new Quidditch’s practice plan. Hermione was throwing worried glances around the class. The students were chatting.
“Hey, guys!”
The whole class turned to look at Malfoy.
“Wanna learn Hogwarts’ news? Who fancies whom?”
Hermione blushed and looked at the floor. Her nightmare was coming to life.
“I have here this little piece of parchment,” Malfoy showed everyone, “that belongs to Granger. It’s full of hearts with a name in them, the name of-“
“Evanesco!!” shouted Hermione and eliminated the parchment.
“Anyway, you all saw it actually existed… The hearts were around the name ‘Ron’.”
Hermione turned purple.
“Front page! Mudblood Granger has a crash on loser Weasley!” Malfoy said loudly.
“WHAT?” Ron shouted, staring surprised at Hermione.
And then… McGonagall came. Silence fell.
“Good morning, class.”
Hermione stood up. “Professor, may I go out?”
“Is there something wrong, Miss Granger?”
”Please, I must go out!”
“All right…”
Hermione left quickly.
“Did you hear what Malfoy said?” Ron whispered to Harry.
“That’s why Hermione must have been doing his homework and that’s why she was letting him to do anything he wanted! He was blackmailing her! He was threatening her that everyone would learn that-“
“She has a crush on me?” Ron interrupted. “I’m not sure if it’s true…”
“Don’t be a prat would sound better! It is true!” said Harry in an undertone.
“But-“
“Mr. Weasley, Mr. Potter, can’t you make an effort to wait and chat after out lesson?”
“Sorry,” Harry said quickly.
“Sorry,” Ron was smiling widely.
*** After classes were over and Hermione had been nowhere to be found, Harry and Ron searched for her in the common room, the Great Hall, and the library. They’d searched everywhere and still could not find her.
“What will you tell her when we find her?” Harry asked.
“Um…” Ron hadn’t really thought of that. “I think I’ll make sure that what the ferret said is true… And… then… Er…”
“You will confess her your love and live together happily ever after,” Harry grinned.
Ron smiled. “Where can she be?”
“Ok, listen. I’ll search outside and you search the castle. If I find her, I’ll bring her to you even if I have to bind her.” He was sure that Hermione wouldn’t be very willing to go to Ron.
*** Hermione had spent all her day at Hagrid’s.
For the time being, she was in the Room of Requirement. Ginny had asked her to meet her there, as it was the only place where no one would interrupt them. She had heard about this ‘little incident’ and thought that she might have been able to help Hermione, in some way.
Ginny arrived some minutes later. Her cheeks were pink. “Wow, that was a run! Filch almost saw me coming here and we wouldn’t want that, would we? So! Will you tell me what’s going on? I mean, I obviously know you like my brother, the whole school does…” she said softly. “But I think you have some more things to explain… Malfoy, for example, and his messages… Or why you are hiding…”
Hermione hesitated. Truth was, she wanted someone to talk to, someone to advise her, someone female whom she could trust.
“Er… Ginny, I don’t know if this is a good idea, I mean you are Ron’s sister and-”
“Oh, come on! You can trust me or don’t you know that already? And I really want to help you if I can, I’m not stupid, I can see that something is wrong!” Ginny said as calmly as she could.
”All right… Well, here it goes…” Hermione sighed and started telling her everything.
While reading, she had drawn some hearts around Ron’s name. When that parchment fell of her books and Malfoy found it, he started to blackmail her. Either she would agree to do his homework or the whole school would learn about her ‘secret love’. She couldn’t say anything to Ron or Harry, because then she would have had to tell them about the parchment as well. She was embarrassed to admit it to Harry. Malfoy started practicing some spells on her… When she got ill and couldn’t do any homework, Malfoy shouted in front of the class that she had a crush on Ron.
Hermione looked at the floor nervously. Her face was scarlet.
“Oh. Er… Right.” Ginny was thinking what Hermione had just told her. “Um… Wow, Malfoy is such a jerk! I would have jinxed him… But then again, I wouldn’t be as shy as you are…”
Hermione thought about the time that Ginny was in love with Harry; she couldn’t exchange not even one single word with him without stammering or reddening. However, Hermione didn’t think it would be very nice to mention this now, especially when all that Ginny wanted was to help.
“I’d really want to know who he fancies, to do the same on him… What an idiot… Anyway, to the point. Don’t get me wrong, but I think you are making your life hard for no reason…”
Hermione looked at her bewildered.
“Well, yeah!! Why did you have to endure that git? Seriously now!! My brother is a good person. Are you ashamed of your feelings or something?”
“No… It’s that I’m afraid that Ron… It’s that I just can’t admit it… And I’m afraid that he won’t feel the same towards me and he‘ll push back…”
“Right, like he is that stupid!! Hermione, Ron knows very well what kind of person you are, he won’t push back! Besides… I think he likes you too.”
“Yeah, right.”
“But I really think he does-“
“Stop it!”
“Ok, ok, even if he doesn’t like you, he won’t push back! You should not be afraid of what you are feeling, go admit it! Talk to him! After all, he has the right to know! Er… just forget that last sentence, he already knows.”
Hermione smiled faintly.
“Come on! Go! Now! You can’t be hiding for ever, can you?” Ginny grinned.
*** Harry and Ron reached Hagrid’s hut on the same time.
“You didn’t find her?” Ron asked.
“Nowhere. Hagrid told me she was here earlier, though. Let’s go back to the castle”, Harry tapped Ron on the shoulder. “She‘ll come, soon or later.”
*** “Oh, no, not again!”
In the common room, Harry was playing wizard chess with Dean and he beat him, again. Ron was pacing.
“Enough for tonight. ’Night Harry, Ron.”
“’Night”.
Dean went to the dormitories.
“Where on earth is she?” Ron yelled impatiently.
*** Hermione was heading to the Gryffindor Tower. She was thinking what Ginny told her. Although Ginny hadn’t been so brave with Harry when she was in love with him, all her advices where right. She had to face Ron; there was no point on hiding. She said the password, the portrait opened…She saw Harry playing with the chessmen and Ron standing, staring at her.
Oh no, I’m not ready for this, she thought and went towards the stairs without talking, when…
“HERMIONE GRANGER! Sit down, now!!” Ron yelled.
Hermione didn’t have much of a choice. She sat slowly at the couch and stared at the fire. She was feeling so embarrassed that falling in the flames didn’t seem such a bad idea.
Harry stopped playing and waited to listen with interest.
“Is it true what Malfoy said?” Ron demanded.
Hermione took a deep breath. “That’s a hard thing to do, Ron, but… Yes. I am in love with you, I suppose you have already figured out how the story with Malfoy goes, please don’t laugh-“
“You‘re in love with me!” Ron smiled widely.
“Don’t make fun of me!” snapped Hermione.
“I’m not making fun of you, it’s just that you should have already told me!!”
“Um…W-why?”
“Because, I would have done this earlier,” he said and kissed her.
“He is in love with you too,” said Harry, who for some strange reason felt the need to put subtitles.
“Wh-wha- Ron!! Why haven’t you told me?” she smiled.
“Because… I was afraid, I guess”, his ears went red. "In any case, tomorrow I'll punch Malfoy. He shouldn't have-"
"Um... He was actually the one who made you two get together," Harry interjected. "Even he didn't intend to."
"Yeah, ok, I'll punch him anyway."
Ron and Hermione started kissing again.
“You guys, get a room,” Harry smiled and left.
THE END
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That last bit (the "I'll punch him tomorrow" thing) was written for Therinian, who wanted Ron to punch Malfoy!!
I hope you all liked the story! Thanks for reading :o)