Trapped in the Wake of a Dream

Hermione sat on her bed, silently pondering her options. Rationality was one of her best assets - except for matters of the heart, obviously, or her rationality would have had her ask out Ron long ago. 'Why hadn't I?' she thought. 'Now he must think I don't want anything to do with him anymore, and he's going to hate me, and he's going to go out with Lavender and everything will be ruined...' she was about to cry. Just then, Lavender herself walked in the room.

"Hermione, are you okay?" asked Lavender. She sat down on Hermione's bed. "Is this like, a boy thing? Ooooh, Professor Trelawney said sixth years would have trouble with relationships this month. I heard -"

"No, Lavender, it's nothing. Just go away." Hermione wasn't in the mood to deal with the shallow, gossipy girl.

"Oh come on! I heard you were going to Hogsmeade with Dean! Why? I thought you liked Ron!" Lavender was talking a million miles a minute.

"Fine," replied Hermione resignedly, "yes, I like Ron. That's the problem, I mean... okay. We had this big row last night.. and this morning."

"What was said?" asked Lavender excitedly.

Just as Hermione opened her mouth to reply, Parvati walked in. She looked positively delighted to see them.

"Girl talk! Just what I need!" squealed Parvati.

"Hermione had a row with Ron," Lavender piped up.

"Oooh! What did he say?" asked Parvati.

Hermione sighed. She really didn't want to tell them, but they were the closest she had to girlfriends, girls to confide in, etc. Other than maybe Susan Bones. Her and Hermione had ran into each other over the summer and spent some time together. 'Wait a second,' she thought, 'Susan is just the person to tell! And she isn't a makeup happy gossip freak.' With a distasteful look at the two girls, Hermione jumped off her bed and ran out of the room.

Parvati and Lavender looked at each other.

"Okay, she is SO weird! I can't believe we have to share a dorm with her." Lavender said, standing up.

"Oh, she is weird, but she's not so bad," Parvati replied, flopping down on her own bed.

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Hermione ran into the Great Hall just as lunch was ending. She looked up and down the Hufflepuff table, found Susan, and told her she needed to talk. Susan smiled at her.

"No problem, 'Mione," said Susan, "I'm done with my breakfast anyway."

Together they walked out of the Great Hall and off to Susan's dorms.

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Ron was munching heartily on his toast when Hermione marched into the Great Hall. He dropped it quickly and stared at her, open-mouthed. Lucky for him, she didn't even look at the Gryffindor table, but rather, walked up the Hufflepuff table to talk to a girl Ron barely recognized. They promptly left the Hall together.

"Uh..." was all Ron could say.

"Wow, wonder what that was all about," Harry said between bites.

"Uh..." repeated Ron. He shook his head quickly, to clear it. "I'm glad she didn't come over, I'm not ready to talk to her yet. I need to apologize and give her something... show her I'm ready to make a move."

"I tell you what, Ron," replied Harry. "After lunch, we'll take the cloak and the map, and we'll go to Hogsmeade, and you'll get something really nice for her. While we're walking, you can think of what to say to her."

"Okay!" said Ron excitedly. "And I'll bewitch a pad and pen to take down what I'm going to say, and..." his face fell. "Idon'thaveanymoney," he mumbled.

"What?"

"Idon'thaveanymoney."

"You..."

"Don't have any money," Ron finished gloomily. "So much for that plan."

"I'll give you money, and don't bother refusing, deal's done now. Let's go," Harry said quickly. He got up and, just as he was about to start walking away, Ginny entered the Hall. She ran up to Harry and hugged him so fiercely he was afraid for his own health.

"Harry thank you so much, ever since last night I've just been..." she sighed dreamily.

"Oh, that!" he replied, turning red. "I'm glad I made you happy. Besides, you really ... I mean, it was only right. You deserved it, you earned it."

"Well, you have no idea how happy I am now."

"Hold on, hold on, HOLD ON!" Ron interjected angrily. "I thought you were gay!"

The entire Hall fell silent. Half the students of the school were still there. They all stared.

Suprisingly, instead of getting mad, Harry giggled. Or as close to giggling as a 16 year old boy gets.

"Yep, I sure am."

"Then why you... and my sister.. and you!"

"She's talking about making the Quidditch team, Ron."

Ron had never, ever been more red in his entire life. He kicked the ground with his shoes and watched the floor closely.

"I am so sorry."

"Make it up to me then."

"What?!?"

Harry didn't wait for a reply. He grabbed Ron's hand.

"Don't worry Ron, how could I ever dote upon your sister, when my heart truly lies with you? Oh, how I love thee!" Under his breath, Harry whispered, "just go along with it."

Lucky for Harry, his friend may be many things, but he knew he owed Harry for letting out his secret, and he was a goodguy. He conjured up a bunch of flowers.

"For you, Harry dearest," Ron snickered, but kept a straight face for their very quiet audience.

Harry grabbed Ginny by the other hand and walked them out of the Hall. They all fell apart in laughter. Doubled up, they were quite a sight. When the laughter died down, Ginny turned to Harry seriously. She hiccupped from her laughing fit.

"Harry, you never told me you were gay!" she said, putting her hands on her hips. Right as she said this, a large group of Ravenclaw seventh years walked by. They all stared as they passed, and Ginny stared right back.

"Thanks Gin, you definitely told anyone who might not know yet." Harry, though, was smiling. "I didn't tell Ron or Hermione 'til last night, so I wasn't keeping it from you or anything."

"Why aren't you mad that your secret is out in the open?" asked Ron. "And for the record, I'm sorry, I really am."

"Nah, its okay," Harry grinned. "one, now I don't have to come out to anyone, two, they can all deal with it at once, and three, any elligible gay males will know just where I stand." He winked. "But oh man, the press is going to have a field day with that one. Your mum will know soon, as well as the whole wizarding world. Ah well, had to happen someday."

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When Hermione and Susan reached Susan's dorm, they walked in to find Hannah Abbott and Justin Finch-Fletchley on Hannah's bed. Together. They seemed very busy, snogging each other senseless.

"Uh..." Hermione said, looking very uncomfortable.

Hannah and Justin looked up, their cheeks bright red. They mumbled some half-hearted excuses and rushed out the door, no doubt avoiding a reprimand from Hermione. She was a school prefect, after all, but that was the last thing on her mind.

"Hermione," giggled Susan as soon as Hannah had left, noticing Hermione's discomfort, "They've been going out together for ages."

"How come I don't know anything about this?" Hermione asked indignantly. For all her reading, studying and memorizing, she could be sometimes detached from the world around her. She didn't even notice that people had started getting together, not hardly at all.

"Well, no one in Gryffindor are dating, now are they?" Susan replied, still giggling. "Except Seamus..."

"Seamus? Are you -"

"Shhh, shh. It's a secret. I promised I wouldn't tell anyone."

Hermione was still shocked, but she absorbed it.

"Well, at least we have the dorm empty," she said, trying to laugh it off. Susan, Hannah and Ginny all had boyfriends. But here she was, older than Ginny, without even being close to dating the one she wanted. Her stomach flopped thinking of Ron and their argument. Susan broke her out of her thoughts.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" she asked.

"Ron and I had a row," replied Hermione. "He doesn't like me writing back and forth to Viktor, anyway, and I told him where he could go. The next morning, I told him that I wasn't going to wait forever for him to realize his feelings for me, and he said he KNEW he had feelings for me -"

"He didn't!"

"Yeah, seriously! He said that! I was like, well that's worse!"

"Of course it is, if he knows how come he never did anything about it?"

"Honestly, I think he just needed to realize what the feelings meant, but still..." Hermione finished.

"I hear you're going to Hogsmeade with Dean Thomas," said Susan, winking.

"How do you know that? How does EVERYONE know that?" Hermione threw up her hands, exasperated.

"I'm dating his best mate, Hermione. How wouldn't I know that?"

"Uh, oh yeah, that's true, I suppose." she yawned. "Well Susan, I ought to be going, thanks for listening to me." Honestly, she just didn't feel like talking anymore. She sort of felt like a nap, or maybe a trip to the library. She decided on the latter.

"No problem, 'Mione, anytime. I'll come by tomorrow, alright? Maybe you could help with our Herbology assignment?"

"Yea, no problem Susan. See you then," replied Hermione, walking out of her dorm and through the Hufflepuff common room. She got mostly smiles and a couple odd looks from the people occupying the room.

From there, she headed to the Library.


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Ron and Harry were in the passageway between Hogwarts and Honeydukes. They were most of the way there and talking quietly while a quill and parchment took notes of their conversation. Neither were sure how to stop it, so they were just waiting for it to run out of parchment.

"We're lucky that invisibility cloak is big, honestly if my foot had slipped out, someone in the common room would have had to see the hospital wing," Ron laughed.

"Haha, or if McGonagall had seen my hand when she walked by?" Harry replied, chuckling. "Anyway, what are you going to buy Hermione?"

"God, I still don't know. I know what I'm going to say - that's all written out now - but what will I buy her?"

"You could get her -"

"No, sorry Harry, but whatever I get her has to be from me, and no one else. This needs to come from me."

Harry admired his friend. Whatever he was, silly or oblivious, sometimes quick to anger and jealousy, he was a great guy with his heart in the right place.

"You're right. Why don't we look in that old bookstore at the end of the road first, you might definitely find something in there," Harry suggested.

"Good idea, but we should get butterbeers when we get there first, I'm freezing!" Ron replied, shivering.

"Do you think Madam Rosmerta would report us? To the school, I mean," Harry said, more to himself than anything. Ron had an answer, however.

"Nah, Fred and George went in there lots when they weren't supposed to. They said a few half-hearted reprimands were all they got."

"Cool, sounds good then," said Harry, as they reached the trapdoor.

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Hermione dragged herself sleepily to the library. Her lack of sleep was catching up to her, rapidly, and once she got to there, she collapsed at one of the back tables. She wasn't there long before she had an unwelcome visitor.

"Not right now, Zabini, I'm not in the mood," Hermione said, eyes dragging from exhaustion.

"I was just going to say, perhaps we should meet now, so you can eat some dinner and get to sleep early?" he said politely.

"What? Uh, okay, sure, do you know the long route to the Come and Go Room?" she asked.

"Er, the Room of Requirement?" he inquired.

"Yes, that," she replied hastily. "Do you?"

"Yeah, but it'll take about 10 minutes to get there," Blaise replied.

"Okay, well, good, we can't walk together, and I'll get it all set up. It'll be ready when you get there," Hermione said, not catching his eyes as she spoke this, and walked past him.

'Why,' wondered Hermione silently, 'Does he know about the Come and Go Room? and why is he so anxious to meet with me? A few questions I hope to get answered soon, I suppose.' She yawned, and walked quicker.

Arriving at the tapestry, she turned and faced the empty wall. Walking back and forth, she repeated,

"I need a place for me and one other to study, where people won't find us. Something comfortable, with lots of books and space to write."

A door of heavy mahogany wood and a silver door-handle appeared. Walking in, she found the most comfortable room she'd ever seen. Soft velvet furniture and desks at the perfect height, all surrounded by tall bookshelves with fascinating-looking books in them. She sat down on the couch, central in the room, taking it all in, when Blaise walked in.

"Wow, good job, Hermione," he commented sincerely. However, the use of her first name made her remember who she was with, and why. She narrowed her eyes.

"Sit down, Zabini," she sighed, "and tell me why you're here."