Ancient Runes in the Modern World - 5/? - Teen - Blaise/Hermione
Title: Ancient Runes in the Modern World (5/?)
Author: silvernatasha
Rating: Teen
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Summary: Sixth year continues in the sequel to The Importance of Ancient Runes. Of course, nothing ever runs smoothly, especially when you're at Hogwarts. The Sorting Hat wanted unity between the houses - this probably is not what it had in mind.
Word Count: 2973.
Chapter Five: In Which Yet More Kissing Occurs
Ron had left his watch in the Room of Requirement, and had been returning to get it when he was nearly knocked over as someone ran past him. Surprised to see Hermione stood in the corridor, he stopped, staring at her instead of reprimanding whoever it was that had knocked him.
“You alright, Hermione?” he asked, concerned. Something clearly was not quite right and it just wasn’t like Hermione to get flustered like this. As she straightened her ponytail, she looked completely out of her depth, completely bewildered.
She looked at him with wide eyes, then nodded shakily, taking a deep breath in attempt to calm herself down. She could barely register what had just happened.
Ron glanced over his shoulder, trying to work out who it was that had run into him. “Was that Zabini? What was chasing him? He looked like there were a dozen Dementors hot on his heels.”
Hermione nodded again. “Yeah. It was Blaise.” She looked rather pale and Ron was a little worried.
As he moved closer, Ron narrowed his eyes. He hadn’t hurt Hermione or anything, had he? Ron was perfectly prepared to go after him and exact some revenge if he had. “Are you sure you’re alright?” he demanded. “You look a bit… ruffled. Do you need to go to the Hospital Wing? You didn’t get hit with a stray spell or anything, did you?” Hermione did not say anything, but even Ron could see the tears that were threatening to spill; he wrapped his arms around her, her head resting against his shoulder.
“He kissed me.” Hermione’s words were muffled by Ron’s robes, but her voice was still choked. Ron hugged her closer, gently stroking her hair and more than a bit surprised that this didn’t feel as awkward as he thought it would. Still, he wasn’t sure why Hermione was so upset about this. But, if Hermione was upset about what had happened, then so was he. It was as simple as that.
“Let me just go get my watch,” he said softly, “then we can go back to Gryffindor Tower and moan about our Slytherins, okay?” Ron felt rather than saw her nod.
“Okay,” she mumbled.
The Room of Requirement had turned into a very small space, barely big enough for one person to stand in; there was no reason for it to be any bigger. Ron stooped down and picked up his watch, his other hand clasping around a box of tissues that had also appeared. He turned to a sombre-looking Hermione. “We’re going to need these, are we?”
She stared at the tissues for a moment. “Probably,” she agreed in a small voice, trying not to cry. She hated being so emotional like this. Why didn’t the boys ever cry? All they did was shout and storm off. They were strangers to blotchy eyes and runny noses.
Ron slung a friendly arm around her shoulders. “Come on, then. I happen to know that Ginny has a stash of chocolate we can raid.” He grinned at her. “There’s nothing that chocolate can fix.”
“I feel a bit sick.”
“Except that.”
Back in the Gryffindor common room, they found Harry on a couch in the corner. After Ron had garnered as much chocolate as possible, he started handing it out. Hermione smiled, finding Harry’s arm slipping around her shoulder. She sighed, breaking off a square of chocolate; the slight queasiness that she had felt had quickly subsided once she had reached the security of the common room. “Do we attract trouble and bad luck?” she asked.
Harry nodded. “We’re like magnets for those sorts of things.”
“We must like punishment,” Ron agreed with a nod. “Falling for Slytherins like this.” He eyed Harry carefully. “You haven’t fallen for one too, have you? I think bad luck is suppose to happen in threes.”
“I haven’t fallen for him!” Hermione protested through a mouthful of chocolate. Honestly. It was just some sort of animal attraction and sleep deprivation or something. There was no ‘falling’ involved whatsoever.
A blush rose on Harry’s cheeks, but he shook his head.
Ron sighed. “All this secrecy is doing my head in.” He lowered his voice. “Pansy wants to… she wants to have a ‘serious chat’ about our relationship.”
“About what?” Harry asked, breaking off a piece of chocolate.
Shrugging, Ron admitted that he wasn’t quite sure. “I think I might have been neglecting her a bit,” he said after a moment of consideration. “You know, since we started up the DA again. I’ve had a lot of things to do.” He popped a square of chocolate into his mouth, chewing. “I don’t want it to end. I really like her.”
“Ron,” Hermione said slowly. “If you’re so worried about your relationship, why are you up here eating chocolate with us when you could be spending time with Pansy?”
His eyes widened and he thrust the bar of chocolate at Hermione, nearly dropping it in her lap. “I should go.” Ron scrambled for his shoes, which he had kicked off earlier. “Um, don’t wait up for me or anything like that.”
Harry laughed. “We won’t. No need to worry about that.”
As Ron all but fell out of the portrait hole, Hermione dissolved into laughter. Harry looked at her curiously. “Are you okay now?”
Hermione held up the bar of chocolate. “This helps.” Harry gave her a quick squeeze.
“What are you going to do about Blaise?”
“Ignore him and hope that he goes away?” Hermione suggested, wiping her eyes with one of the tissues with which the Room of requirement had provided them.
Harry shook his head, pushing up his glasses. “I don’t think that’s going to happen. Slytherins have a tendency to stick around like bad stains - they work their way into the fabric of our lives and, once they do, they’re impossible to get out.”
*****
When Blaise barrelled into the Slytherin common room, Millicent cast a crafty Tripping Jinx. Simple spells like that could be highly effective, not to mention rather amusing. It was quite funny to see the normally graceful Blaise Zabini sprawled out on the common room floor.
“Hey. Where’s the fire?”
Blaise glared at her. “I don’t want to talk about it.” He pushed his hair out of his eyes, then scrambled up from the floor.
“Talk about what?” She raised her eyebrows, pointing her wand at him. Millicent was fully prepared to hex him if he didn’t start talking. Blaise didn’t like to run, so his speedy entrance into the common room was giving her concern.
He huffed, straightening his robes and brushing them down. First, he had actually run, which wasn’t like him at all, and then he had been knocked to the floor. Added to The Thing that had just happened, things really weren’t going his way. Blaise narrowed his eyes at the sight of Millicent’s wand, knowing perfectly well how quick she was with it. “Fine. I kissed Granger.”
“About bloody time.” She grinned, preparing to tease him about it.
“Don’t say that,” Blaise growled, running a hand through his hair.
Millicent frowned in confusion. This wasn’t the reaction that she’d expected Blaise to have after he finally kissed Granger. “You’re not pleased?”
“Do I look pleased?”
“Not particularly.”
Slowly and somewhat hesitantly, Millicent lowered her wand. “Are you sure you don’t want to talk about it?”
“Positive.”
*****
As Pansy sat down on the bench, Delilah hopped up onto her lap. Pansy idly started rubbing her cat’s pregnant belly, looking up expectantly at Ron. “So, are you going to sit down or what?”
“Er, yeah.” Ron sat down next to her, scratching his nose and feeling uncomfortable around her for the first time in quite a while. Since they had been together, there had always been a sort of calming influence on him when she was around. The threat of possibly losing that was worrying him. Ron didn’t like being worried.
“Is there any particular reason why you dragged me out of my nice warm common room?”
Ron frowned at Pansy’s disgruntled tone. “I… I thought you wanted to talk. You know, about… us. And stuff.”
She sighed, scratching Delilah’s ears; the cat purred contentedly. “Do we have to do this now, Ron? I’m exhausted. I just want to curl up in bed with a book.”
“Now’s as good a time as any, isn’t it?” He shifted closer to her, slipping his arm around her shoulders when he saw her shiver.
Pansy’s eyes widened. “Ron!” she hissed, squirming away from him. “Anyone could see us. Take your arm off me.” Sitting in the courtyard like this, anyone could walk through on their way back to their common room.
Ron closed his eyes and then reluctantly removed his arm, hoping that neither of them would start shouting or anything like that. “That,” he said finally, “is what is killing our relationship. Everything has to be in secret. And I hate it.”
Pansy was silent, gently stroking Delilah’s white fur. She chewed on her lip, thinking about the situation. Giving Delilah a gentle push, she said, “Go on, Delilah. Go back to the common room. Mummy wants to talk to Ron in private.” The cat jumped from her lap, turning to give them what could only be described as a look of disdain, if it were possible for a cat to do such a thing. Pansy cautiously put her hand on Ron’s knee.
“I think you’re right,” she admitted after a moment.
Ron covered her hand with his, nodding. It wasn’t often that a member of the opposite sex told him that he was right; for a moment, he allowed himself to wallow in the novelty of it before turning his attention back to Pansy.
“In public, you can only spend time with people like Potter and Granger. I know you don’t fancy either of them or anything, but… I get a bit jealous. We can’t spend time together like other couples.”
Nodding in agreement, Ron said, “And it’s not just us, is it? All these stupid house divides are keeping people apart.” He laughed humourlessly. “Never thought I’d hear myself saying that.”
“It’s definitely not just us, either,” Pansy continued. “For a start, I think we all know that Granger and Blaise would be permanently attached if they weren’t in Gryffindor and Slytherin. I would have thought that Granger would be brave enough to cross the divide.” Pansy sighed. “You’re a bad influence on me, Ron. You’ve got me wanting to help people.” She scowled at him. “Next thing you know, I’ll be wanting to do charity work or something.”
Ron grinned. He took her hand in his, entwining their fingers and squeezing gently. “You’ve got a plan?”
She nodded, warily. “I think so. Just… you might end up getting hexed.”
“Okay.”
Pansy blinked in surprised, gaping at him. “You’d get hexed for me?”
“Yeah.”
Her arms flew round him in a tight hug. “That’s the sweetest thing anyone’s ever said to me!”
*****
Deciding to leave the crossword until later, Hermione flipped over the page of her copy of the Daily Prophet. There wasn’t anything particularly newsworthy at the moment and they seemed to be dragging out a load of personal interest stories about sick pets. Failing that, they stuffed in a load of articles on sordid celebrity affairs, detailing the sex lives of the rich and brainless.
“Can you pass the pumpkin juice?”
Hermione looked up at Harry’s request and nodded, reaching for the jug. She gave a grunt of annoyance as Ron knocked her arm as he jumped up from the table. “Careful, Ron,” she warned sharply, glaring as she passed the jug to Harry.
Ron didn’t reply, though, obviously heading somewhere important. He had the same look of grim determination on his face as he did when he was playing chess. Hermione frowned, looking at Harry. “Where’s he going?”
Shrugging, Harry poured his drink. “Dunno. Looks like he’s in a bit of a rush, though.”
Hermione swivelled in her seat to watch Ron. It looked like he was… “Oh, no,” she breathed. Following Hermione’s line of sight, Harry echoed her sentiment with an added profanity.
As she had entered the Great Hall, Ron had intercepted Pansy on her way to the Slytherin table. They seemed to be talking; Pansy nodded and Ron lowered his head, kissing her. Hermione cringed, watching in horror. The Great Hall went strangely quiet. No-one quite seemed to know what to do or say. The Hufflepuffs were looking from the couple to each other, clearly stunned. The Slytherins were blatantly staring. The Ravenclaws were all politely trying to ignore them. All expect Luna Lovegood, who was obviously engrossed in a copy of The Quibbler - she probably wouldn’t have noticed if her magazine caught fire, so engrossed was she in what she was reading.
Hermione could see Millicent physically restraining Daphne from clapping. “Are they ever going to stop?” Harry hissed in a low voice from across the table. The rest of the Gryffindors were starting to murmur among themselves, the rest of the students starting to snap out of their stunned state.
Biting her lip, Hermione wasn’t sure what to say. “Ron… has a very large lung capacity.”
“That’s not helping, Hermione.” Harry sounded quite nervous. “Should we do something?”
“Like what? Stop them? Applaud?”
“Maybe we could stop Malfoy from hexing them?” Harry was right - the blond wizard had drawn his wand, apparently ready to curse Ron and Pansy. The reason for Pansy dumping him was now very obvious.
Hermione sighed. “That might be a good idea.” Seeing Malfoy rise from his seat and start towards the couple, Hermione grabbed her wand, casting a discreet Tripping Jinx. Malfoy went sprawling across the floor with a yell, his wand flying from his hand.
Harry grinned at her. “Nice one.”
“Thank you.” Seeing Ron and Pansy break apart and make a hasty exit, Hermione motioned to Harry, standing up.
“Where are we going.”
“Following them.”
Grabbing a piece of toast, Harry took long strides to catch up with Hermione’s quick pace. “Where are we going?” Ron and Pansy had disappeared from sight. “Where do you think they went? The Room of Requirement?”
She cast a withering glance at Harry over her shoulder. “Ron hasn’t eaten any breakfast yet. Where do you think he’s gone?”
“Ah. The kitchens.”
“Exactly.”
*****
Pulling her along by the hand, Ron led a giggling Pansy into the kitchens. He gave a guffaw of laughter as the door swung shut behind them, nearly tripping over a house elf that was scurrying past with an empty saucepan. This just made him laugh harder, his face turning red with exertion.
“Did you see their faces?”
“Did you see Malfoy?” Pansy’s giggles were somewhat hysterical. “He tripped over his own feet.” She sighed, sobering. “When do you think it’ll be safe for me to go back to my common room?”
Ron shrugged. “I don’t know how popular I’ll be, either. Maybe we could set up another house or something.”
Frowning in thought, Pansy nearly jumped a foot to the left when a house elf appeared beside her, offering up a plate stacked with toast. “Er, thanks.” Pansy took a piece a little nervously. She knew how to deal with the house elves at home, but there was always a certain trepidation about how to treat elves that belonged to other people. The house elf looked slightly taken aback at being thanked, but flashed a toothy smile and left quickly.
Pansy chewed her toast slowly. “Do you think we did the right thing?”
Ron, who had managed to beg a bacon sandwich from a passing elf, shrugged. “I don’t know. I hope so. It was your idea.”
She scowled. “Don’t turn it back on me if this all goes wrong.”
He held up his hands in surrender. “I won’t. Promise.” Ron reached for Pansy’s hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. “It’s all going to be fine. I mean, yeah, we might get hexed. And, yeah, people are probably going to be talking about us for weeks. But… someone will do something and take all the attention off us. They always do in this school.”
“That’s true,” Hermione remarked, having arrived in the kitchens to hear the end of Ron’s speech. “Although this is pretty big news.”
“Yeah,” Harry agreed. “You could have at least warned us that you were going to do that.”
“Hey!” Ron swallowed his mouthful of bacon and bread. “I don’t have to tell you every time I want to kiss my girlfriend.” Pansy blushed furiously at this.
Hermione cleared her throat. “Please don’t start fighting.”
“We’re not,” Harry and Ron retorted.
Shrugging, Hermione glanced at Pansy. “I’m guessing this was your idea?”
“Why wouldn’t Ron have thought of this?” Pansy retorted. The two girls looked at each other for a moment and simultaneously broke into laughter.
Ron huffed in annoyance, glaring at Harry when he saw his friend grin. “Well,” he said. “I suppose you and Zabini don’t have any excuse now.”
Hermione stopped laughing, gaping at Ron. She opened and closed her mouth a few times, trying to find the words to respond to this. Her cheeks flooded with colour. “We’re not talking about that, Ron,” she said stiffly before she turned on her heel and fled the kitchens.
Pansy looked from the door to Ron. “What was that about?”
“I shouldn’t really tell you,” Ron admitted.
Pansy pinched his arm. “Tell me.” She ignored Harry’s bark of laughter, but Ron glanced to his friend for advice. Harry nodded.
“They kissed.”
Copying Hermione’s earlier expression, Pansy gaped for a moment. “Oh. Blaise didn’t tell me that.” Her looked of surprise was replaced by one of cunning. “I suppose we’re going to have to sort them out next.”
One - Two - Three - Four - Five
Author: silvernatasha
Rating: Teen
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Summary: Sixth year continues in the sequel to The Importance of Ancient Runes. Of course, nothing ever runs smoothly, especially when you're at Hogwarts. The Sorting Hat wanted unity between the houses - this probably is not what it had in mind.
Word Count: 2973.
Chapter Five: In Which Yet More Kissing Occurs
Ron had left his watch in the Room of Requirement, and had been returning to get it when he was nearly knocked over as someone ran past him. Surprised to see Hermione stood in the corridor, he stopped, staring at her instead of reprimanding whoever it was that had knocked him.
“You alright, Hermione?” he asked, concerned. Something clearly was not quite right and it just wasn’t like Hermione to get flustered like this. As she straightened her ponytail, she looked completely out of her depth, completely bewildered.
She looked at him with wide eyes, then nodded shakily, taking a deep breath in attempt to calm herself down. She could barely register what had just happened.
Ron glanced over his shoulder, trying to work out who it was that had run into him. “Was that Zabini? What was chasing him? He looked like there were a dozen Dementors hot on his heels.”
Hermione nodded again. “Yeah. It was Blaise.” She looked rather pale and Ron was a little worried.
As he moved closer, Ron narrowed his eyes. He hadn’t hurt Hermione or anything, had he? Ron was perfectly prepared to go after him and exact some revenge if he had. “Are you sure you’re alright?” he demanded. “You look a bit… ruffled. Do you need to go to the Hospital Wing? You didn’t get hit with a stray spell or anything, did you?” Hermione did not say anything, but even Ron could see the tears that were threatening to spill; he wrapped his arms around her, her head resting against his shoulder.
“He kissed me.” Hermione’s words were muffled by Ron’s robes, but her voice was still choked. Ron hugged her closer, gently stroking her hair and more than a bit surprised that this didn’t feel as awkward as he thought it would. Still, he wasn’t sure why Hermione was so upset about this. But, if Hermione was upset about what had happened, then so was he. It was as simple as that.
“Let me just go get my watch,” he said softly, “then we can go back to Gryffindor Tower and moan about our Slytherins, okay?” Ron felt rather than saw her nod.
“Okay,” she mumbled.
The Room of Requirement had turned into a very small space, barely big enough for one person to stand in; there was no reason for it to be any bigger. Ron stooped down and picked up his watch, his other hand clasping around a box of tissues that had also appeared. He turned to a sombre-looking Hermione. “We’re going to need these, are we?”
She stared at the tissues for a moment. “Probably,” she agreed in a small voice, trying not to cry. She hated being so emotional like this. Why didn’t the boys ever cry? All they did was shout and storm off. They were strangers to blotchy eyes and runny noses.
Ron slung a friendly arm around her shoulders. “Come on, then. I happen to know that Ginny has a stash of chocolate we can raid.” He grinned at her. “There’s nothing that chocolate can fix.”
“I feel a bit sick.”
“Except that.”
Back in the Gryffindor common room, they found Harry on a couch in the corner. After Ron had garnered as much chocolate as possible, he started handing it out. Hermione smiled, finding Harry’s arm slipping around her shoulder. She sighed, breaking off a square of chocolate; the slight queasiness that she had felt had quickly subsided once she had reached the security of the common room. “Do we attract trouble and bad luck?” she asked.
Harry nodded. “We’re like magnets for those sorts of things.”
“We must like punishment,” Ron agreed with a nod. “Falling for Slytherins like this.” He eyed Harry carefully. “You haven’t fallen for one too, have you? I think bad luck is suppose to happen in threes.”
“I haven’t fallen for him!” Hermione protested through a mouthful of chocolate. Honestly. It was just some sort of animal attraction and sleep deprivation or something. There was no ‘falling’ involved whatsoever.
A blush rose on Harry’s cheeks, but he shook his head.
Ron sighed. “All this secrecy is doing my head in.” He lowered his voice. “Pansy wants to… she wants to have a ‘serious chat’ about our relationship.”
“About what?” Harry asked, breaking off a piece of chocolate.
Shrugging, Ron admitted that he wasn’t quite sure. “I think I might have been neglecting her a bit,” he said after a moment of consideration. “You know, since we started up the DA again. I’ve had a lot of things to do.” He popped a square of chocolate into his mouth, chewing. “I don’t want it to end. I really like her.”
“Ron,” Hermione said slowly. “If you’re so worried about your relationship, why are you up here eating chocolate with us when you could be spending time with Pansy?”
His eyes widened and he thrust the bar of chocolate at Hermione, nearly dropping it in her lap. “I should go.” Ron scrambled for his shoes, which he had kicked off earlier. “Um, don’t wait up for me or anything like that.”
Harry laughed. “We won’t. No need to worry about that.”
As Ron all but fell out of the portrait hole, Hermione dissolved into laughter. Harry looked at her curiously. “Are you okay now?”
Hermione held up the bar of chocolate. “This helps.” Harry gave her a quick squeeze.
“What are you going to do about Blaise?”
“Ignore him and hope that he goes away?” Hermione suggested, wiping her eyes with one of the tissues with which the Room of requirement had provided them.
Harry shook his head, pushing up his glasses. “I don’t think that’s going to happen. Slytherins have a tendency to stick around like bad stains - they work their way into the fabric of our lives and, once they do, they’re impossible to get out.”
*****
When Blaise barrelled into the Slytherin common room, Millicent cast a crafty Tripping Jinx. Simple spells like that could be highly effective, not to mention rather amusing. It was quite funny to see the normally graceful Blaise Zabini sprawled out on the common room floor.
“Hey. Where’s the fire?”
Blaise glared at her. “I don’t want to talk about it.” He pushed his hair out of his eyes, then scrambled up from the floor.
“Talk about what?” She raised her eyebrows, pointing her wand at him. Millicent was fully prepared to hex him if he didn’t start talking. Blaise didn’t like to run, so his speedy entrance into the common room was giving her concern.
He huffed, straightening his robes and brushing them down. First, he had actually run, which wasn’t like him at all, and then he had been knocked to the floor. Added to The Thing that had just happened, things really weren’t going his way. Blaise narrowed his eyes at the sight of Millicent’s wand, knowing perfectly well how quick she was with it. “Fine. I kissed Granger.”
“About bloody time.” She grinned, preparing to tease him about it.
“Don’t say that,” Blaise growled, running a hand through his hair.
Millicent frowned in confusion. This wasn’t the reaction that she’d expected Blaise to have after he finally kissed Granger. “You’re not pleased?”
“Do I look pleased?”
“Not particularly.”
Slowly and somewhat hesitantly, Millicent lowered her wand. “Are you sure you don’t want to talk about it?”
“Positive.”
*****
As Pansy sat down on the bench, Delilah hopped up onto her lap. Pansy idly started rubbing her cat’s pregnant belly, looking up expectantly at Ron. “So, are you going to sit down or what?”
“Er, yeah.” Ron sat down next to her, scratching his nose and feeling uncomfortable around her for the first time in quite a while. Since they had been together, there had always been a sort of calming influence on him when she was around. The threat of possibly losing that was worrying him. Ron didn’t like being worried.
“Is there any particular reason why you dragged me out of my nice warm common room?”
Ron frowned at Pansy’s disgruntled tone. “I… I thought you wanted to talk. You know, about… us. And stuff.”
She sighed, scratching Delilah’s ears; the cat purred contentedly. “Do we have to do this now, Ron? I’m exhausted. I just want to curl up in bed with a book.”
“Now’s as good a time as any, isn’t it?” He shifted closer to her, slipping his arm around her shoulders when he saw her shiver.
Pansy’s eyes widened. “Ron!” she hissed, squirming away from him. “Anyone could see us. Take your arm off me.” Sitting in the courtyard like this, anyone could walk through on their way back to their common room.
Ron closed his eyes and then reluctantly removed his arm, hoping that neither of them would start shouting or anything like that. “That,” he said finally, “is what is killing our relationship. Everything has to be in secret. And I hate it.”
Pansy was silent, gently stroking Delilah’s white fur. She chewed on her lip, thinking about the situation. Giving Delilah a gentle push, she said, “Go on, Delilah. Go back to the common room. Mummy wants to talk to Ron in private.” The cat jumped from her lap, turning to give them what could only be described as a look of disdain, if it were possible for a cat to do such a thing. Pansy cautiously put her hand on Ron’s knee.
“I think you’re right,” she admitted after a moment.
Ron covered her hand with his, nodding. It wasn’t often that a member of the opposite sex told him that he was right; for a moment, he allowed himself to wallow in the novelty of it before turning his attention back to Pansy.
“In public, you can only spend time with people like Potter and Granger. I know you don’t fancy either of them or anything, but… I get a bit jealous. We can’t spend time together like other couples.”
Nodding in agreement, Ron said, “And it’s not just us, is it? All these stupid house divides are keeping people apart.” He laughed humourlessly. “Never thought I’d hear myself saying that.”
“It’s definitely not just us, either,” Pansy continued. “For a start, I think we all know that Granger and Blaise would be permanently attached if they weren’t in Gryffindor and Slytherin. I would have thought that Granger would be brave enough to cross the divide.” Pansy sighed. “You’re a bad influence on me, Ron. You’ve got me wanting to help people.” She scowled at him. “Next thing you know, I’ll be wanting to do charity work or something.”
Ron grinned. He took her hand in his, entwining their fingers and squeezing gently. “You’ve got a plan?”
She nodded, warily. “I think so. Just… you might end up getting hexed.”
“Okay.”
Pansy blinked in surprised, gaping at him. “You’d get hexed for me?”
“Yeah.”
Her arms flew round him in a tight hug. “That’s the sweetest thing anyone’s ever said to me!”
*****
Deciding to leave the crossword until later, Hermione flipped over the page of her copy of the Daily Prophet. There wasn’t anything particularly newsworthy at the moment and they seemed to be dragging out a load of personal interest stories about sick pets. Failing that, they stuffed in a load of articles on sordid celebrity affairs, detailing the sex lives of the rich and brainless.
“Can you pass the pumpkin juice?”
Hermione looked up at Harry’s request and nodded, reaching for the jug. She gave a grunt of annoyance as Ron knocked her arm as he jumped up from the table. “Careful, Ron,” she warned sharply, glaring as she passed the jug to Harry.
Ron didn’t reply, though, obviously heading somewhere important. He had the same look of grim determination on his face as he did when he was playing chess. Hermione frowned, looking at Harry. “Where’s he going?”
Shrugging, Harry poured his drink. “Dunno. Looks like he’s in a bit of a rush, though.”
Hermione swivelled in her seat to watch Ron. It looked like he was… “Oh, no,” she breathed. Following Hermione’s line of sight, Harry echoed her sentiment with an added profanity.
As she had entered the Great Hall, Ron had intercepted Pansy on her way to the Slytherin table. They seemed to be talking; Pansy nodded and Ron lowered his head, kissing her. Hermione cringed, watching in horror. The Great Hall went strangely quiet. No-one quite seemed to know what to do or say. The Hufflepuffs were looking from the couple to each other, clearly stunned. The Slytherins were blatantly staring. The Ravenclaws were all politely trying to ignore them. All expect Luna Lovegood, who was obviously engrossed in a copy of The Quibbler - she probably wouldn’t have noticed if her magazine caught fire, so engrossed was she in what she was reading.
Hermione could see Millicent physically restraining Daphne from clapping. “Are they ever going to stop?” Harry hissed in a low voice from across the table. The rest of the Gryffindors were starting to murmur among themselves, the rest of the students starting to snap out of their stunned state.
Biting her lip, Hermione wasn’t sure what to say. “Ron… has a very large lung capacity.”
“That’s not helping, Hermione.” Harry sounded quite nervous. “Should we do something?”
“Like what? Stop them? Applaud?”
“Maybe we could stop Malfoy from hexing them?” Harry was right - the blond wizard had drawn his wand, apparently ready to curse Ron and Pansy. The reason for Pansy dumping him was now very obvious.
Hermione sighed. “That might be a good idea.” Seeing Malfoy rise from his seat and start towards the couple, Hermione grabbed her wand, casting a discreet Tripping Jinx. Malfoy went sprawling across the floor with a yell, his wand flying from his hand.
Harry grinned at her. “Nice one.”
“Thank you.” Seeing Ron and Pansy break apart and make a hasty exit, Hermione motioned to Harry, standing up.
“Where are we going.”
“Following them.”
Grabbing a piece of toast, Harry took long strides to catch up with Hermione’s quick pace. “Where are we going?” Ron and Pansy had disappeared from sight. “Where do you think they went? The Room of Requirement?”
She cast a withering glance at Harry over her shoulder. “Ron hasn’t eaten any breakfast yet. Where do you think he’s gone?”
“Ah. The kitchens.”
“Exactly.”
*****
Pulling her along by the hand, Ron led a giggling Pansy into the kitchens. He gave a guffaw of laughter as the door swung shut behind them, nearly tripping over a house elf that was scurrying past with an empty saucepan. This just made him laugh harder, his face turning red with exertion.
“Did you see their faces?”
“Did you see Malfoy?” Pansy’s giggles were somewhat hysterical. “He tripped over his own feet.” She sighed, sobering. “When do you think it’ll be safe for me to go back to my common room?”
Ron shrugged. “I don’t know how popular I’ll be, either. Maybe we could set up another house or something.”
Frowning in thought, Pansy nearly jumped a foot to the left when a house elf appeared beside her, offering up a plate stacked with toast. “Er, thanks.” Pansy took a piece a little nervously. She knew how to deal with the house elves at home, but there was always a certain trepidation about how to treat elves that belonged to other people. The house elf looked slightly taken aback at being thanked, but flashed a toothy smile and left quickly.
Pansy chewed her toast slowly. “Do you think we did the right thing?”
Ron, who had managed to beg a bacon sandwich from a passing elf, shrugged. “I don’t know. I hope so. It was your idea.”
She scowled. “Don’t turn it back on me if this all goes wrong.”
He held up his hands in surrender. “I won’t. Promise.” Ron reached for Pansy’s hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. “It’s all going to be fine. I mean, yeah, we might get hexed. And, yeah, people are probably going to be talking about us for weeks. But… someone will do something and take all the attention off us. They always do in this school.”
“That’s true,” Hermione remarked, having arrived in the kitchens to hear the end of Ron’s speech. “Although this is pretty big news.”
“Yeah,” Harry agreed. “You could have at least warned us that you were going to do that.”
“Hey!” Ron swallowed his mouthful of bacon and bread. “I don’t have to tell you every time I want to kiss my girlfriend.” Pansy blushed furiously at this.
Hermione cleared her throat. “Please don’t start fighting.”
“We’re not,” Harry and Ron retorted.
Shrugging, Hermione glanced at Pansy. “I’m guessing this was your idea?”
“Why wouldn’t Ron have thought of this?” Pansy retorted. The two girls looked at each other for a moment and simultaneously broke into laughter.
Ron huffed in annoyance, glaring at Harry when he saw his friend grin. “Well,” he said. “I suppose you and Zabini don’t have any excuse now.”
Hermione stopped laughing, gaping at Ron. She opened and closed her mouth a few times, trying to find the words to respond to this. Her cheeks flooded with colour. “We’re not talking about that, Ron,” she said stiffly before she turned on her heel and fled the kitchens.
Pansy looked from the door to Ron. “What was that about?”
“I shouldn’t really tell you,” Ron admitted.
Pansy pinched his arm. “Tell me.” She ignored Harry’s bark of laughter, but Ron glanced to his friend for advice. Harry nodded.
“They kissed.”
Copying Hermione’s earlier expression, Pansy gaped for a moment. “Oh. Blaise didn’t tell me that.” Her looked of surprise was replaced by one of cunning. “I suppose we’re going to have to sort them out next.”
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