“Charlie is here every night,” Ellie informed her.
“Why?” Hermione inquired.
“Because we’re married. That’s what married people do; they live together.”
“But where?” Ginny continued the sixth degree.
“In the teachers’ quarters. Only the married professors are allowed to have their spouses live in the castle. Mr. Pomfrey, Mr. Hooch, Mr. Pince, Mrs. Flitwick and Mrs. Reddo all live here with their husbands and wives.”
“Why do we never see them?” Hermione asked. The news that so many more adults could live in the castle unnoticed amazed her.
“Because they all work, Mr. Pomfrey and Mr. Pince are healers in St. Mungo’s, Mr. Hooch works in the Department of Magical Games and Sports. He’s very important at the British and Irish Quidditch League Headquarters. While Mrs. Flitwick runs a shop in Diagon Alley and Mrs Reddo works as a curse breaker at Gringotts, she tends to be away for long periods of time. Because of the work that they do, they tend to be away before breakfast and back after dinner, so no one really sees them. Mr. Hooch Floos in and out, while the others take secure Portkeys. I wouldn’t have expected you to be surprised, Hermione; after all you’re the one that’s always telling the others that just because they don’t see something, doesn’t mean that it’s not there.”
“I can’t help it, it’s like a whole other community exists here!”
“You know better than anybody else that a lot exists in this castle that people never see, the corridors have a life of their own. But look at the time, you lot had better be getting back to the common room. Thanks for your help and don’t go shouting about how easy this detention was I don’t want people thinking that I’m soft!”
When they had got back to the common room Ron was nowhere to be found. They hadn’t been able to find him in the common room or the boy’s dormitory and Hermione suggested that he might have been on his rounds as Head Boy. Harry was dubious about this suggestion. As much as Harry loved Ron, he had to admit that his best friend was rather lazy. He only was ever really self motivated when it came food or Quidditch and without Hermione present to nag him into making the rounds he would have sat in front of the fire engaged in his favourite past time; sleeping. Nevertheless, they chose not to worry about his absence too much and settled in to get some of their homework done; yet another of Hermione’s suggestions. Unfortunately for Harry, his girlfriend was more academic than he was and had supported this idea. It was quarter past ten when Ron eventually returned to Gryffindor tower, he looked exhausted and his cheeks were flushed red. “Where’ve you been?” Harry inquired. Spending several hours with Hermione and Ginny, engaged in a Potions essay, was not his idea of fun.
“About,” he answered shortly.
“About where?” There was something in the evasiveness of Ron’s answer that was making Harry suspicious.
“Here and there,” Ron shrugged. He was looking at his feet and his ears were tinged with pink.
“Are you all right?” Hermione was aware of the strain in her boyfriend’s voice.
“I’m fine. Why do you people ask so many questions?” he yelled. He rose from the seat he had plonked himself in moments before and stormed up the staircase to the dormitory.
By morning his mood wasn’t any better. He and Harry dressed in silence, Ron didn’t even snort when Harry stubbed his toe on the bedpost. The walk to breakfast was filled with awkward conversation and the meal itself was a highly uncomfortable affair. On the way to Defence Against the Dark Arts, Ron charged ahead while Harry and Hermione hung back a bit to whisper their suggestions about what was wrong with him. “Do you think he’s stressed about the work level?” Hermione inquired.
“Hermione, it’s only the second week. How could it be stress?”
“He has a lot of responsibility this year.”
“I know, but it’s not like Ron to let it get to him. How often have you seen him get like this?”
“I know it’s not like him but something must be up.”
“Lets just leave it and see if he comes out of it one his own. We shouldn’t crowd him.” Harry knew only too well that when he was in one of his moods the worse thing people could do was try and wiggle it out of him. Perceptive as she was, Ellie picked up on the atmosphere between the three; her attention was drawn to it when Ron started practising the Eradication Charm she was teaching them, with Neville. As the class drew to a close she addressed him.
“Ron, could I talk to you for a moment?” Ron hurried to her desk with great big strides. “Your detention will start at seven o’clock in my office, okay?”
“Yes, Professor. I wanted to talk to you about something later, will that be all right?” he almost whispered.
“Fine, I’ll see you later.” Harry and Hermione watched as Ron hurriedly picked up his bag and scurried off to his free period. Hermione had to go to Ancient Runes so she left it to Harry to ask Ellie if she knew what was wrong with Ron.
“Professor?” he asked politely as the last of the students left the room.
“Yes, Harry.”
“Do you have any idea what’s up with Ron?”
“I do, yes,” she replied as she pulled a heap of parchment towards her.
“What is it then?” Harry was growing a tad impatient with all the short answers he was getting.
“I’m afraid I can’t tell you that.” She eventually looked up at Harry. “But don’t worry, it’s nothing serious. Well, it is to Ron, obviously, but it’ll all be sorted in a day or two and he’ll be back to his old self.”
“Can’t you give me any clues?”
“I can ask you this, is there anything important happening next week?” she gave him a little smile as she watched his brain work.
“Erm…its Hermione’s birthday on Thursday…” Harry said thoughtfully.
“Precisely,” her smile widened.
“Oh right, I see what you’re saying. Thank Merlin for that, we thought something really bad was going on.”
“Not to worry. I’ll remember to tell him how concerned you were,” she said. “While you’re here on your own I wanted to have a quick word with you.” There was something in the way she said it that told Harry what subject she was about to broach.
“Really, what about?” He didn’t really need to ask. He knew what was coming; it was going to be and awkward attempt at the birds and the bee’s talk.
“Well it’s about you, and Ginny I suppose.” As she paused Harry made a strangled noise in the back of his throat. “Don’t worry I’m not going to go with the Molly and Arthur approach. I just want you to know that even though I’m your cousin and I’m not male I do understand the…urges, shall we say… that you’re probably having and if you need to talk about anything then I’m here and I promise not to blush like Moony,” she smiled.
“Charlie really wasn’t happy about me kissing Ginny was he?”
“No, but as far as he and the rest of her brothers are concerned she’s still that little girl who put her elbow in the butter dish all those years ago.” Harry looked at her with shock, how did she know about that? “Charlie wrote to me and told me all about it. They’re not prepared to accept that she’s a young woman now and that she’s thinking about boys and marriage. For them, accepting that Ginny’s found her special person is like admitting they’re not allowed to take care of her anymore and, despite what they say, they love being protective older brothers. It’s what they live for,” Ellie smiled at him in a knowing way.
“How do you know that Ginny’s found her ‘special person’?” The unspoken understanding that seemed to flow between girls baffled Harry.
“A girl doesn’t let just anybody mess her hair up like that,” she grinned at him before making her way towards her office. Harry just marveled; girls really were very strange.
Later, when Hermione caught up with him in the common room just before dinner, she subjected Harry to an intense series of questions on their way to the Great Hall. Neither of them had seen Ron since Defence Against the Dark Arts.
“So did you speak to Professor Weasley?” Hermione was looking at a group of fourth year boys suspiciously. They were crowded around a suit of armour in an odd way.
“I did, yeah,” Harry watched as one of the boys began waving his wand in an elaborate pattern.
“You five come away from there right now or I’ll be handing out punishments!” Hermione called across the hallway.
“Punishments for what?” the boldest member of the group asked while his counterparts looked on sheepishly.
“For trying to enchant suits of armour, I saw that wand movement and I know what it means. Go to dinner, come on, move along.” She ushered them away from the armour with some dramatic flapping movements and removed the spell from the suit, which gave a grateful sigh. “What did she say?” Hermione asked, once again turning her attention back to Harry.
“She said it was nothing to worry about.” He was trying to keep the details of his chat with his cousin vague for various reasons.
“Is that all?”
“More or less, she said not to worry and he’d be back to his old self in no time.”
“She didn’t give you any clues as to what it is that’s wrong with him?” Hermione was on the verge of panic.
“None at all.”
“Oh, Harry, I think that it’s to do with me!” she suddenly cried.
“What makes you think that?” Harry panicked; surely she hadn’t guessed what was going on?
“He’s been really off with me the last couple of days and…and he hasn’t kissed me in nearly a week! I think he wants to break up with me!” She squeaked, attracting the attention of a group of Slytherins who were on their way to dinner as well. Harry pulled her into a quiet corner of the Entrance Hall to talk to her away from the prying eyes.
“I’m fairly certain that’s not what it is, Hermione. Ron’s nuts about you,” he said encouragingly.
“But then why’s he being so distant with me?”
“I don’t know, but he definitely doesn’t want to break up with you,” he repeated.
“Maybe he’s seeing someone else? That would explain why he’s out and about until strange hours and doesn’t want to talk about where he’s been! I’ll kill her whoever she is! I bet it’s Padma Patil, she’s a lot keener on him since he became Quidditch captain, just wait till I get my hands on her!” Hermione stormed.
“Hermione,” he said in a stern voice. “I thought you were supposed to be the smart one? Ron is not seeing Padma Patil, he went with her to the Yule Ball and he hated it. In a couple of days this will all blow over and you’ll realise how stupid you were to even think about that.”
“You’re probably right, Harry, thank you.” She straightened herself up to her full height and strode back into the crowd that was bustling through the doors to the Great Hall. Harry followed her shaking his head, he hated to see her like this and he hated himself even more for not being able to give her a straight answer. Just as they were about to settle themselves in at the table, Ron appeared looking far more jovial than he had in a week.
“How are you, Hermione, my sweet?” he asked her as he pulled her in to a very passionate kiss.
“I’m fine, you?” she asked giving Harry a questioning sideways glance.
“I’m happy as Larry,” Ron chirped as he pulled Hermione into the seat next to him. “How about you, Harry?”
“I’m okay, better now,” he grinned as Ginny parked herself on the bench next to him.
“Why are you grinning like that?” she asked him guardedly.
“Because my girlfriend is quite possibly the most beautiful girl at Hogwarts,” Harry shrugged his shoulders and kissed her nose tenderly.
“I’m afraid I would have to disagree with you there, mate.” Ron looped his arm around Hermione’s shoulders and gave them a tight squeeze.
“Have I walked in to some alternate universe? Should I come in again?” Ginny was sharing odd looks with Hermione. “What’s got into the pair of you?”
“Is it so wrong to be in love?” Ron asked with fake pain in his voice.
“What he said,” Harry affirmed, shoving a forkful of spaghetti in his mouth.
“It’s just a little bit strange,” Hermione said.
“See, Harry, you try and be romantic and they throw it right back in your face. Typical!” Ron threw his hands in the air. The only problem was that his fork was in his hand and it had remnants of his last mouthful of steak pie on it, remnants that promptly landed in the lap of a Hufflepuff girl who was not impressed. “Sorry!” he called cheerfully over his shoulder.
Later that night after Ron had served his detention with Ellie; he came scuttling back into the tower to whisk Hermione away. They were gone for hours and when they came back, just minutes before curfew, they were both looking rather flustered.
“You all right?” Harry asked with a knowing smile.
“Um…yeah,” Ron said quietly but his ears spoke louder than any words could.
“Ginny, could I talk to you upstairs?” Hermione asked the carpet. Ginny naturally obliged, the two girls disappeared up the stairs and were gone quite some time.
“So…you seem better these days,” Harry said casually.
“Things are going pretty well. I wanted…I think…I’m sorry for biting your nose off the other day, mate,” Ron mumbled. Harry appreciated the fact that Ron sometimes found it hard to say sorry, he did too.
“That’s okay, you’ve been trying to plan things for Hermione, I get it.”
“Who told you?” Ron asked furiously.
“Ellie mentioned what was wrong with you but she didn’t give me any details, just that it was to do with Hermione’s birthday,” Harry said in a defensive rush.
“Oh right, sorry. I’ve made a few plans, I just want everything to go well,” he admitted. “I think I’ll go on up to bed now, I’m quite tired.”
“You must be after all your strenuous activities.” Harry raised his eyebrows but it was lost on Ron who just nodded and headed for the stairs. Not long after he disappeared Ginny came back down.
“Where’s Ron?”
“He went up to bed already, is something wrong with Hermione?” There was something very intriguing in Ginny’s expression.
“Well,” she said, giving the almost empty common room a dubious glance. She sat down in Harry’s lap and began to whisper in his ear. “They nearly did it!”
“Did what?” he asked her with bemusement.
“The IT,” she said shaking her head, his confused expression lead her to clarify further. “Sex, Harry.” She couldn’t believe how naïve Harry was sometimes.
“They WHAT?” Harry shouted, startling a fifth year who had been asleep on her Transfiguration textbook.
“They didn’t,” Ginny added hastily. “But from what Hermione said it was quite a close call. Do you still feel bad for what we did?” she smiled.
“How could they? And in school, what were they thinking of?” Harry blustered. He found himself feeling quite indignant and wanted to go and give Ron a good talking to, one that possibly involved cutting off certain parts of his anatomy.
“That’s so cute!” Ginny gushed.
“What is?” Harry was far to annoyed to pussy foot about.
“You’re doing the big brother thing!”
“I am not! I’m too reasonable to do that!” he was feeling even more incensed now.
“You are too. I can see it in your jaw, it’s all set and furious,” she giggled.
“They should not be doing THAT in school! And not yet!” Harry reasoned.
“I agree that school isn’t exactly the ideal place but I mean if they want to, that’s their business.” Ginny watched his face with interest.
“But they’re not married!” he protested.
“You sound just like my mum; she’s stuck in the middle ages too!” Ginny huffed. She scrambled out of his lap and marched up the staircase to her dormitory with a snappy “Goodnight,” thrown over her shoulder. Harry went up to bed not long after her and couldn’t stop himself from throwing a nasty look at Ron’s snoring curtains.
For the next few days Harry was very short tempered when it came to Ron and Hermione. He barely spoke two words to Ron and would eye him angrily whenever he thought no one was looking. He was annoyed at the fact that Ginny appeared to have told Hermione about the things he had said because she kept giving him sisterly little pats on the arm and looks that blatantly said, ‘You’re so sweet.’ The closer it got to Hermione’s birthday the more aggravated he became. He couldn’t stop his mind wandering to what Ron had planned for the event, but he knew there was a feeling deep in the pit of his stomach that told him if he found out that Ron had taken liberties then Harry would have to punch him. He stopped right in the middle of casting a Shield Charm in Defence Against the Dark Arts one afternoon when he came across a horrific realisation. He sounded just like Charlie and Ron when they were lecturing Harry on taking the so-called liberties. Neville caught him with a Boil Hex for his trouble. After that Harry tried to not think about Ron and Hermione and directed his efforts into repairing the damage he had done during his temper tantrum.
When Harry woke up on the Thursday morning Ron had already left the dormitory. He wasn’t in the common room and didn’t make it to breakfast either. But something else did make it to breakfast, an enormous bunch of roses. Instead of being all one colour, there were nearly a dozen different ones; red, yellow, pink, dark pink, light pink, white, lavender, orange, coral and burgundy. A silk white ribbon tied a roll of parchment to them affectionately. Hermione tugged it away from captivity gently and began to read, her eyes welled up the further down the scroll they travelled.
“My Dearest Hermione,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I hope you like your roses; each one has a special meaning.
Light Pink for the grace in everything you do.
Dark Pink because I’m thankful to have you in my life,
White because you’re heavenly and I’d like you for my wife.
Pink for the happiness that flows from me to you,
Lavender for the enchantment you’ve placed on my heart too.
Coral for the desire that burns within my heart,
Burgundy for the beauty you’ve had from the very start.
Orange for the enthusiasm I have about what’s to come,
And red because I love you and I want us to be one.
Meet me in the Entrance Hall at 6.00pm.
All my love Ron x
Hermione sat with her bottom jaw hanging loosely away from her upper one; she passed the letter to Ginny silently. The younger girl gasped several times before finally commenting. “Who knew that Ron could be so romantic?” The tears were starting to gather in the corner of her eyes. Harry suddenly felt very awkward sitting with the two girls, he felt like he was invading some private girly space.
When they saw Ron in classes that day he did his best to stay away from Hermione and spoke very little. He skipped lunch and dinner, and at six o’clock he was found waiting for Hermione at the castle’s front doors. He took her hand in his and led her out on to the grounds, for Hermione, her boyfriend’s sudden romantic streak was the biggest and best birthday surprise of all.
Harry was not impressed when he caught them sneaking back through the portrait hole early the next morning. “I think you two had best explain yourselves right now,” he said harshly.
“Well…we…then…and…but…” Ron babbled but before he could continue Hermione stepped in.
“In case you’ve forgotten, Harry, we are the Head Boy and Girl, and we don’t have to explain ourselves to anyone but teachers,” she snapped superiorly.
“We didn’t you know,” Ron filled in the horrible silence.
“That’s none of my business, go and get changed before anyone sees you,” Harry instructed. He was beginning to sound like a typical Weasley brother again and it was bothering him. Ron had to rush off and finish his Potions essay in the library, and Harry didn’t feel much like being left with the girls, so he went with his friend. “So what did you and Hermione do last night?” Now that the girls weren’t here Harry felt his sense of curiosity coming back.
“We started off with a walk around the lake and then the grounds, after that we went to the Room of Requirement for some Butterbeer and we talked. In the end we curled up on a couch by the fire while I read a Muggle book that’s one of Hermione’s favourites, we fell asleep like that.” Ron had a strange look on his face.
“What did you talk about?”
“All sorts really, mostly the future and what we’re going to do when all this is over. We think we might get married,” there was something in the tone of Ron’s voice that made Harry’s heart fill with delight.
“That’s great, Ron, really brilliant.” Harry was so happy that his friends were planning their futures together; it meant that they believed they were going to have something to look forward to.
“D’you really think so?”
“Yeah, I can just see you and Hermione being an old married couple!” Harry laughed at the image of seventy year old Ron and Hermione bickering about the length of his beard. Strange though it was, Hermione’s birthday had provided hope and joy for all, and suddenly things looked so much brighter.
A/N: Another chapter whizzes away.
The next chapter to be submitted for your approval is….Career’s Advice