Oh no. This is bad. No, it’s beyond bad. Hermione just saw me talking with Avril. I think that she got the completely wrong idea! She just flew off when she saw us. I suppose it didn’t help that I ignored her when she looked at me. All Avril was talking about was the Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw Quidditch match last week. I really, really hope that Hermione isn’t mad. I better go find her.
***
“Hey, Harry,” I said, taking a seat next to him on the couch in the Common Room.
“Hi, Ron.”
“Err… You haven’t seen Hermione, have you?” I asked.
“Oh yeah. She was in here a couple minutes ago. She told me not to mention it. I think she’s pretty irked,” replied Harry, looking uncomfortable. I guess he didn’t want to betray Hermione’s secrets to me or something.
“Yeah… I figured that… She saw me talking to that sixth year girl, Avril, in the hallway.”
“Did she cry?” Harry asked, sighing.
“Probably,” I replied.
“Ron, you always mess everything up, mate,” Harry chuckled, patting me on the back.
“Yes, he does,” scowled Hermione, popping up behind us.
Hermione never misses a trick does she?
“Ronald Weasley! You complete arse!” Hermione ranted, her expression furious.
I don't understand why Hermione gets so worked up about little things like this.
Harry gave me a sympathetic look that read “good luck”, and left for somewhere outside the Common Room.
“Sorry, Hermione. I didn’t mean to upset you by talking to Avril or anything,” I apologized solemnly.
“Oh. I didn’t know that that thing had a name,” muttered Hermione, sounding hurt.
“Look, Hermione... I’m sorry.”
She didn't reply.
Was she jealous?
*
I hate this whole situation. I hate that Ron doesn't fancy me, just some Ravenclaw girl. I hate the fact that I can’t tell him why I’m mad. I hate that “Avril” is trying to steal him from me.
***
The next day, (three more days until my unofficial date with Ron) everyone took their seats in Charms. Another class with the Slytherins. Great.
Ron chose to sit next to me. I gave him a questioning look.
“What?” he asked, “Can’t two friends sit together?”
“Err… Yeah… I’ll move my books…” I pushed my bag over with unintentional force and it slid off the desk.
“I’ll get it!” Ron said, enthusiastically, causing several heads to turn in our direction.
“Ron, what’s gotten into you?” I hissed.
“’Dunno what you’re talking about,” he replied casually.
I glared at him, and I couldn’t concentrate on the work we were supposed to be doing. I finally got to work on the charm we were supposed to be doing, but Ron appeared to be struggling with making socks appear out of thin air.
“Ron. You’ve been staring at the same page in the book for about ten minutes and you haven’t made a single sock!”
“Oh! Err… Yeah… I got this one””
“Don’t be ridiculous, Ron. What kind of world would this be if you actually did your own work?” I sighed, and then smiled. I pointed my wand at a spot on Ron’s desk. “Videor Pestela!,” I said, performing the charm for Ron.
“Thanks, Hermione,” he beamed, putting his hands behind his head and leaning back on the chair.
He closed his eyes, satisfied with himself, and I watched him smile at something I couldn’t see.
“Granger’s staring at you, Weaselbee,” smirked Malfoy. “I guess you’d want to seize this opportunity.”
Ron’s eyes flew open, and he toppled over backwards off his chair.
The Slytherins laughed hysterically, while Harry and Neville pulled a red-faced Ron off the ground.
“Calm down, calm down,” squeaked Flitwick. “If all of you are going to make such a ruckus, I’m going to assume that you need more work.”
This comment was greeted by silence from the rest of the room. We all sat quietly, finishing our work until the bell rang. I rushed out of the room to meet Ginny.
***
Ginny and I sat in the library discussing Harry and Ron.
“Ginny, if Ron doesn’t pick up interest or send me a signal soon then I’m giving up.”
She laughed. “Hermione, that’s just Ron. He doesn’t send signals! He acts like a stupid prat until he grabs someone’s attention.”
“I don’t know. Sometimes, I think he really isn’t interested. Why can’t he just ask me out on a real date already?”
“Beats me. But I have to go with Seamus.” She made a face.
“Well if you didn’t want to go with him, why’d you say yes?”
“I don’t know. To make Harry jealous?” she admitted sheepishly.
I laughed. “It’s okay. He probably will be jealous. Especially if Seamus tries anything. I doubt Ron would be too happy about that, though.”
“Just another reason. Maybe Harry will punch Seamus,” she put in hopefully. “Not that I want him hurt, but..."
As soon as Ginny and I started laughing, Avril approached us.
“Keep laughing, Granger,” she said.
Ginny gave her a dark glare. “And who are you?”
“Avril Gâté,” she answered, in an annoying, fake, French accent.
“Um, April, or whatever your name is? Are you a model?” sniggered Ginny.
Avril took this seriously. “Well, actually, I almost got signed by a French company in””
“Because you’re acting like a real poser!” interrupted Ginny, referring to either her fake accent or her love for Ron.
Avril looked taken aback that someone was actually insulting her, not the other way around.
“Cute.” She gave us a fake smile and walked away.
*
After dinner, Hermione and I walked down to the dungeons for our next detention with Snape.
Before we even entered, we heard his voice issuing our instructions for tonight. We peeked around the doorframe to see him scribbling furiously on a piece or parchment.
“Tonight, you will both be helping Madam Pomfrey in the Hospital Wing.” Without looking up for his paper, a cruel smile crossed his face. “Enjoy yourselves,” he said slowly, as we backed out of the room.
***
In the Hospital wing, Hermione and I were directed to take care of the five patients staying there. Not so bad, right? Wrong.
There were these two blokes in the corner who were joined at the hip and had to be fed a thick, pink potion every hour, which smelled like glue.
There was a second year girl who’s feet were shrunken down to about a third of the size they’re supposed to be, and Hermione and I had to hold her down while Madam Pomfrey performed an enlarging charm.
The last girl seemed to have a sort of magnetizing charm on her, because she attracted everything in the room toward her, and it stuck. We were still looking up a cure for this one.
But the last patient, the worst of all for this situation, was Avril.
She sat there in a bed covered in nasty blisters that looked like they had been jinxed on, just so she could come follow me around to the Hospital. She caught my eye, and winked. When Hermione caught sight of her, they glared at each other.
“Ronnie, can you please come help me?” she batted her eyelashes innocently.
“Err. Maybe Hermione should””
“No. I insist,” she growled, still with a phony smile on her face.
I threw an apologetic glance at Hermione and I asked Avril what I needed to do.
“Oh. Madam Pomfrey just said that you needed to perform the counter-curse for the jinx,” she said.
“What spell?” I sighed.
“It’s Defluo Immunda” I mean. Erm. I forget what she said.” She smiled, her eyes gloating at Hermione.
“I s’pose I’ll just have to look it up,” I grimaced.
“Aw, Ronnie, I’m sorry. But at least we get to spend more time together, right?” Avril tried.
I watched as Hermione muttered something under her breath, and rolled her eyes.
“I guess...” I said, not wanting Hermione to be mad at me again.
“Bring the spell book over here, Ron. I’ll help you look for it!” called Hermione, still looking at Avril menacingly.
“Will do,” I said, walking across the room.
Hermione scanned the pages quickly until she found what she was looking for, in the section of the book entitled ‘Burns, Blisters, and Bruises.’
“Here we are, Ron. Right here, it says that the spell is Defluo Immunda. Easy enough.” Hermione pointed her wand viciously at Avril and performed the spell. The blisters evaporated, and Avril was free to go.
Avril got up from the bed, walked up to Hermione, and whispered something in her ear that made her eyes bug out. I wonder what she said. Anyway, I'm glad she's left now. I can't stand her following me around. But, hey, I can't help it that I'm so attractive!
I Think This Love is Altering my Brain by MadEyeMaddy
Chapter Notes: I'm sorry for the long wait! I know it's been forever, but I promise I'll try to get Chapter 4 up faster. That chapter's a lot better than this one, too. As far as thank-you's go, I'd like to thank all of my reviewers, and especially my beta, ginnygirl16, for looking over this multiple times. The line Hermione never misses a trick, does she? was originally one of her comments the first time she beta-ed for me, but I thought it fit nicely in with this chapter! Enjoy!
Chapter Endnotes: Thanks for reading. Please review to keep me sane :D.