I don't own anything from the Harry Potter universe.
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The week following Harry’s sojourn into the Ravenclaw common room was one of the worst he could remember. Monday morning, the Prophet reported a series of Death Eater attacks throughout England. Most of the attacks were centred on Wizarding families, and nearly everyone in the school had been affected in some way or another.
Tuesday brought news from Mr. Weasley, which the Prophet didn’t include, that the Ministry of Magic had been attacked as well, and that both Lucius and Draco Malfoy had escaped.
Wednesday, Harry was training with Hermione. She was having no luck throwing off the Imperius Curse, and her frustration was beginning to show. Finally, after two hours of work with little actual success, they called it a night.
They walked back to the common room, and Harry could tell Hermione was in an extremely foul temper. She entered the room and sulkily plopped down at a table, pulling out her Arithmancy homework. Ron was playing a game of wizard chess with Seamus and didn’t immediately notice her sitting there.
“Ron, aren’t you going to study? Or are you just going to waste your time?” Hermione grumbled with a glare.
“I’m all finished, Hermione,” Ron responded, sending his knight to attack Seamus’s bishop. “I’m all caught up on everything that’s due for the rest of the week.” There was a faint gleam of pride in his eyes as he went back to his game. The truth was that both Ron and Harry had managed to stay caught up with the N.E.W.T. level work much better than they had during their O.W.L. year.
Hermione simply grunted and went back to her studying. After several more minutes, Ron had defeated Seamus soundly, and turned to Harry. “So, you want to go for a swim?”
Harry, who had been watching the chess match, thought this was a grand idea. Ginny was on patrol, and would be for the next couple of hours, and since he had no work to finish, a trip to the Prefects’ bathroom seemed perfectly sensible. “Great idea, let’s go.”
Both young men jumped up to leave. Harry heard a soft growl coming from behind him and immediately knew that Hermione was not pleased. A minute later, they came down from their dorm, dressing gowns on, with towels over their shoulders.
Ron stepped over to Hermione and moved to kiss her on top of her head. “We’ll be back in an hour or two.” She moved away from him. “Hey, what’s that for?”
“Just go, Ron, I have work to do,” she proclaimed and slammed her Transfiguration book open.
“What’s going on, Hermione?” Ron asked incredulously. He had started turning red, and Harry could see both his confusion and anger building at the same time.
“Nothing’s wrong. I’m fine, Ron. Just let me get to work.”
“No, you’re not fine. You’re mad about something. What’s the matter?” Ron’s voice was raised now, and the last question was said a little too harshly.
Hermione threw down her quill and sprang from her chair. “Ronald Weasley, if I say nothing is the matter, then nothing’s the matter. Why can’t you just go and have your fun and leave me alone? Go to your stupid bathroom and have a wonderful time.” She was standing toe to toe with him now, although he was a good head and a half taller than she was.
Ron was crimson; however, Harry could tell it was not anger but confusion that had brought colour to his face. “Okay, sorry,” he said, holding his hands up in surrender and backing away slightly.
She grunted again and quickly grabbed her books. “I’m going upstairs to get some work done.” She stormed towards the stairs.
Ron, it seemed to Harry, was finally fed up with this little show. “What, no good night kiss?” he bellowed cheekily after her.
“I’d rather kiss a Hippogriff,” she announced back, refusing to turn around.
“That can be arranged.” And with that, Ron stormed out of the common room. Hermione stormed upstairs and Harry simply stood there, not really sure what to do.
“You coming?” Ron shouted back at Harry through the open portrait hole.
Harry turned and followed Ron out. They walked in silence for a few minutes, making their way to the Prefects’ bathroom. Harry looked out one of the windows and noticed that the moon was almost full. Probably another day or two and Remus will be transforming again. I’m glad he has the potion from Slughorn now, he thought.
Ron finally broke the silence. “How was training?”
Harry was somewhat surprised by the question. “Not bad, but not really good either. The session throwing off the Imperius didn’t go well, which highly frustrated Hermione.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“Don’t you think you should talk to her?”
“No, she’ll calm down and we can talk later. If I try now, it will just make her angrier,” Ron answered.
Harry was stunned by the insight of his friend. He thought about it for a second and decided that Ron was a hundred percent right about letting Hermione cool down.
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An hour and half later, they entered the common room. Harry noticed a contrite looking Hermione sitting in one of their usual chairs by the fire. Ron immediately walked over to her. “I’m sorry for blowing up at you like that,” Hermione stated meekly. “It’s just that I sort of thought you were rubbing it in, that you didn’t have any homework and I did.”
Ron picked her up in a hug and whispered in her ear something Harry didn’t quite catch. Hermione grinned, slapped him on the arm, and then kissed him soundly. This led to whistles and catcalls throughout the common room.
“Prefects should set a better example!” called a rather disgruntled Lavender Brown from the couch, where she was almost sitting on top of Dean Thomas.
“Head Girl’s prerogative,” Hermione announced after breaking the kiss. She placed her head on Ron’s chest. “You’ll do, I guess,” she remarked and then bid good night and walked up the stairs.
“What did you tell her?” Harry asked as Ron walked back towards their own stairs.
“Told her I couldn’t get hold of a Hippogriff, but that Grawp might be interested.” They both laughed and Ron headed upstairs while Harry settled down to wait for Ginny to get back from her patrol.
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Thursday morning dawned overcast and dreary. Harry and Ron went to breakfast and met Hermione and Ginny, who had already made it down. Ron sat next to Hermione, placing a kiss on top of her head as Harry sat next to Ginny. He leaned over and kissed her cheek.
“Hem hem,” Hermione coughed, doing a passable impression of Dolores Umbridge. “Prefects should set a better example,” she declared with a smile.
“You’re one to talk,” Ginny fired back in mock anger. “I heard you nearly sucked my brother’s face off last night.”
Hermione looked about ready for a snappy response, but the post owls had arrived and once again her copy of the Daily Prophet, along with the owl it was attached to, dropped directly into her porridge. “You silly bird!” she shouted, wiping her breakfast off her robes. “If I didn’t know better, I would say that Fred and George had got a hold of you or something.”
Harry, Ron and Ginny all stifled their sniggers as Hermione paid the owl. It flapped its wings, knocking over her orange juice, and took flight.
Moments later, a second, statelier looking, silver and brown Eagle owl swooped down and landed gracefully in front of Hermione. It stood there, waiting patiently for her to remove the small roll of parchment from its leg.
“Good morning, Sergei,” Hermione said, pulling the envelope from the owl’s leg. She then gave him a piece of toast, which the bird took gratefully, and he was off.
“Who’s Sergei?” Ginny asked.
“That’s Vicky’s owl,” Ron commented flatly.
“Ron, I asked you not to call him that,” Hermione admonished. She opened the note and began to read.
“So, Viktor Krum is writing you?” Harry questioned.
“Not very often; in fact, this is the first letter I’ve got from him since before Halloween,” Hermione explained looking at the letter. Her face seemed to cloud over in confusion the longer she read.
“And you’re okay with this, Ron?” Harry asked, somewhat surprised that Ron was acting so mature about this whole thing.
“Why shouldn’t I be?” Ron replied. “I won; she’s marrying me, not him.”
“Hmmm,” Hermione sounded, with a quizzical look on her face.
“What’s it say?” Ron asked nonchalantly.
“He is coming here this weekend and wants me to have dinner with him.”
“HE WHAT?!” Ron exclaimed, slamming his hand on the table and twisting violently in his seat to face Hermione.
“He said he had something important to discuss with me about the future,” Hermione stated, taking a sip of orange juice. “Wonder what he’s talking about?”
“Ron, so, you’re okay with this?” Ginny inquired tentatively.
“Yeah, sure,” Ron stated a little too quickly. “I mean, dinner here in the Great Hall, no problem.” He shifted in his seat and put his arm around Hermione. “Well, we had better get to class, don’t you think?”
As they got up to leave, Harry noticed that Ron’s ears were red and realized that he probably was not taking the news of Viktor Krum appearing in Hermione’s life again nearly as well as he wanted everyone to believe.
Harry thought Hermione felt the same way he did, but for the next day and a half, every time either of them attempted to talk about it with Ron, he would just dismiss them and quickly change the subject.
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Saturday morning, Ron was up and out of the room before Harry. This was the day Krum was coming to visit Hermione and also the day of the Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff match.
When Harry got down to the Great Hall for breakfast, Ginny, Ron and the rest of the Gryffindor Quidditch team were almost finished eating. Ron looked paler than usual.
Harry actually felt glad he didn’t have to play. He was exhausted from training that week. The effort of trying to help his friends with the Imperius Curse, combined with all his other responsibilities, was really beginning to weigh him down. He felt glad that he had given up Quidditch at least for the time being.
“Morning, sleepy head,” Ginny smiled as he took a seat next to her. “I have to go and get ready for the match, and since you were late, you don’t get to have breakfast with me.” She got up to leave.
“Sorry, I overslept,” Harry apologized.
She bent down and kissed him. “That’s all right, you’ll make it up to me later,” she whispered in his ear.
Shivers went down Harry’s spine and his arms got goose bumps, which seemed to be exactly what Ginny had in mind. She smiled broadly and strode out along with the rest of the team.
Harry sat there for a moment, thinking about Ginny, when he noticed Hermione walking in with Krum in tow. Krum looked bigger and stronger than the last time Harry had seen him. He was still duck-footed and seemed a bit awkward as he walked next to Hermione.
For her part, Hermione looked distressed as they made their way over to Harry. “Did I miss Ron?”
“He just left a second ago. He didn’t look good, but that is probably just nerves before the match,” Harry replied coolly. He was a little put out with Hermione for not being there to see Ron off to the pitch.
“Harry Potter, it is a pleasure to see you again. I hope the you are vell” Krum said through his thick accent. “Herm-own-ninny tells me that you are not playing Quidditch this year.”
“No, I decided that I had more important things to do,” Harry remarked, getting up to leave. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get down to the pitch to support our team.” He shot a pointed looked at Hermione. She blushed but did not respond.
“Great, ve vill come too,” Krum announced.
They made their way to the pitch and took their usual seats in the top section of the stands. Harry scanned the crowd and noticed that once again Coach White, dressed in robes of green and orange, was sitting in the faculty box. He was talking earnestly with Professor McGonagall.
The match started and two things became very clear. First was that while Ernie Macmillan may have had the talent to become Head Boy, he was certainly nowhere near as good a flyer as Ginny. She literally was able to fly rings around him as they both searched for the Snitch.
The second thing to become clear was that Ron was not at all on his game. As he sat atop his broom, he seemed to drift to the left and then overcorrect and move too far to the right. His concentration was completely off.
After thirty minutes, Hufflepuff was ahead 40-20. Ron had allowed three easy goals and a penalty shot. The Gryffindor Chasers and Beaters were doing their best to keep pressure off of Ron, but they couldn’t intercept every pass. The longer the game went on, the more confidence Hufflepuff gained, and the lower Ron’s seemed to get.
Harry noticed Krum gesturing at Ron, and Hermione began talking, although he couldn’t hear over the noise of the crowd. He noticed Hermione holding her hand out and showing Krum the engagement ring on her finger. Krum smiled and gave the thumbs-up to Ron.
Ron must have missed the gesture, because his play did not improve. When the score reached 120-60, the Slytherins began a new rendition of “Weasley is our King.”
Harry had had enough. He raised his mental barriers and focused on Ron. He could immediately feel the tension and lack of confidence filling his best friend. Ron, snap out of it. You’re being stupid and childish. Hermione is in love with you. She just showed Krum her ring and he is happy for you both. Now, would you please get your head out of your”
“And a great save by Weasley,” came the announcer’s voice.
Thank you! Harry thought as he watched Ron visibly change in his attitude.
The rest of the match, Ron was much better. He was still not on his game like he had been in other matches, but he was playing more up to scratch than before. As the second hour of play began, the score was 160-150 and the momentum was clearly on the side of the Gryffindors, although they still trailed.
Harry had seen the Snitch on three occasions, but lost it before either Ginny or Macmillan had noticed it. Tempting as it was to point it out the last time, he did not allow himself to do so, as it would be cheating. The last time he helped Ginny in a match, it was completely by accident.
Ginny was circling on the Hufflepuff side of the pitch when Harry noticed a glint of gold, directly in front of the faculty box. Ernie was on the other side of the pitch, and they both were about the same distance from the Snitch.
Both Seekers saw it at the same time. They rocketed towards the little golden ball, and directly towards each other. Harry watched and knew they would collide if one of them didn’t pull up soon. The Snitch seemed unable to decide which direction to move and hung in the air, waiting for the Seekers to arrive.
Ginny was just ahead and reached out for the Snitch, grasping it firmly in her right hand. She then twisted her broom to the right, narrowly missing Macmillan’s broom, causing the crowd to gasp and then whoop in amazement.
Ginny extended her hand to present the Snitch to Madam Hooch, who seemed genuinely impressed by her flying. The crowd went wild, with even the Hufflepuffs clapping and cheering Ginny’s maneuver. Harry beamed as he raced down to the pitch to embrace Ginny and congratulate his housemates. Ron seemed happy about the win, but also disappointed about something.
The crowd began to disperse, and the Gryffindor team went to the locker room to change. Krum bid Hermione farewell until later. They planned on meeting in the Great Hall for dinner, along with Ron, Harry and Ginny that evening. Harry watched as Viktor walked over to Coach White and the two began talking.
Ron exited the locker room shortly, still looking pleased, but not as happy as he should have been.
“What’s up, Ron? Why aren’t you thrilled? We won!” Hermione asked, beaming at him and kissing him on the cheek.
“I know, I just didn’t play well today and the game was a lot closer than it should have been,” Ron explained.
“So you had a bad game, it isn’t the end of the world,” Hermione consoled him. “By the way, I’m sorry I wasn’t there this morning before the match. Viktor showed up and he had to go check in with Professor McGonagall and we just didn’t make it back before you left.”
“It’s all right, Hermione,” Ron said sincerely. “I owe you an apology too. I was really jealous about you seeing him today. I know that I shouldn’t have been, but I was. I’m sorry.”
Hermione smiled and kissed him again.
“Ugh, would you two stop that in public!” Ginny exclaimed, leaving the locker room with a smile.
Both Ron and Hermione made a show of kissing each other again, making loud slurping noises, which caused Harry and Ginny to turn red with embarrassment.
“SO, this is why you didn’t play well today, Mr. Weasley?” Coach White announced, walking up behind the group.
Hermione and Ron looked legitimately mortified as they broke apart. Harry and Ginny attempted to keep from erupting in laughter.
“No, sir, well actually, I guess I just had a bad day, sir,” Ron stammered.
“I see,” White stated with a grin. “So, are we going to be having any more bad days like today in the future, young man?”
“Sir?”
Coach White shook his head, the grin remaining in place. “First, don’t call me sir; it makes me feel old. All Jenny’s friends call me that and I hate it. Secondly, I said I hope you don’t have any more bad days like this in the future.”
Ron nodded, still not sure what the coach of the English National Quidditch team was getting at. Harry was trying to hide his smile, since he knew what was coming next.
Coach White pressed his lips together and ran his fingers through the little hair he had left. “Your friend,” he motioned to Ron, “not too quick on the uptake, is he?” he said with a grin to Harry.
“Bit dull, yes, sir”I mean, Coach,” Harry smiled back.
“Mr. Weasley, I am offering you a chance to try out this summer for the English Quidditch team. We have a test match set up with Bulgaria in early August, so if you make the team, that would be your first game. I would hate for Krum and his boys to beat us in my first match as coach.”
Hermione squealed and jumped into Ron’s arms, completely covering his head with her hair. Ginny bounced on the balls of her feet, the excitement for her brother clearly evident on her face. Harry smiled broadly and waited for the only answer he believed that Ron could give.
Hermione finally released her grip on her fiancé and allowed him to breathe and speak. The look on his face stunned Harry. It was not joy or happiness. It was disappointment.
“Coach White, that’s a real honour, but I’m afraid I have to say no.” Everyone was too surprised to speak. Hermione’s eyes were wide with shock. Ginny’s mouth gaped open. Harry held a very puzzled look, completely at a loss as to why Ron would turn down his dream offer.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Weasley, this is my trick ear,” White pointed at his right ear. “I thought you just said no.”
Ron slowly shook his head. “That’s what I said, sir. I have some--some more important things to be doing right now.”
Coach White looked dumbstruck. “That’s the same thing Mr. Potter said after the last match. I don’t know what’s going on with you folks here, but if that’s what you want…Tryouts aren’t until after the end of the school year, so if you change your mind, Mr. Weasley, let Madam Hooch know. She can contact me.” He turned and walked off shaking his head, muttering, “No wonder they haven’t had a winning team for so long.”
Harry quickly rounded on Ron, “What do you mean you have more important things to do?”
“I have to help you, Harry. More important than playing Quidditch, remember?” Ron retorted.
“Oh, Ron,” Hermione gasped and then flung herself into his arms again. Harry slapped him on the back and Ginny also hugged her brother. Then the four of them walked back to the castle to enjoy yet another Gryffindor victory party.
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Hermione excused herself from the party around five in the afternoon. She had received a note asking her to meet Viktor early before dinner. Ron, still feeling guilty about his earlier jealousy, said he had no problem with her going early. They still planned on meeting at six in the Great Hall.
Harry relaxed on the couch as Ginny leaned against him. The party was in full swing, so talking was next to impossible. They just enjoyed being near each other. After about ten minutes, Harry closed his eyes and raised his mental walls. He felt a little sleepy despite the noise, so he had actually just raised them out of habit. As soon as the walls were in place, his eyes snapped back open. Hermione was terrified and was being taken out of the castle.
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A/N: I hope you liked this one. Krum come back and Ron fall to pieces for a while at least. At least he comes off right in the end. Sorry for the cliff hanger but they are just so much fun.
Thanks as always to my darling pre betas Kerrbear and Cableguysmom, and to my wonderful betas Ginny Guerra and JenC. With out you ladies, this would a good story in my head but in reality.
Just to let everyone know, I am going to try and get chapter 27 up before the DH dead line. I was hoping to finish posting before it came out but just couldn’t pull it off.
Up next, we will see what has happened to Hermione, and someone requested a little more Snape, so here you go.