Beautiful Day

***

Valentine´s day. Hermione couldn´t believe it has already been a year and she was there again. The worst day of the year. First of all she had never received a single Valentine´s car din her life, except for the one from Ginny last year. But Hermione thought she only gave it to her because she felt sorry for her. She was used to Ginny getting loads of cards. She was gorgeous so why shouldn´t she get cards?

Harry nearly drowned in his Valentine cards. She really wanted a card this year.

Why? Why didn´t she ever get any cards? Or any attention at all for that matter. She didn´t think she was ugly, but she wasn´t pretty either.

Hermione stood up from her bed and headed to the bathroom trying to push away her thoughts. It was hard, though, as she scanned herself in the mirror. She ran her fingers through her hair. It felt all frizzy and not nice at all. Oh god I hate my hair, she thought. She released herself from her thought as someone banged on the door.

"Open up, quick! I really got to go!" someone shouted.

Hermione recognized the voice as Lavender´s. "Hold on," she shouted, "I was just going to wash my face."

Hermione covered herself in water and washed away the tiredness in eyes. When she was done she opened the door and let Lavender in.

***

Down in the common room Harry and Ron were waiting for Hermione to come down. They were supposed to go to breakfast together. Hermione was late and Harry who hadn´t slept much last night was sitting in one of the scarlet armchairs flicking his eyes as though almost falling asleep.

"What`s she doing up there?" Ron asked in an annoyed sort of voice as he looked up at the stairs to the girl´s dormitories, hoping that Hermione would come down any second.

Harry mumbled something in reply as his head dropped backwards. But it shot back up when he heard Hermione rush down the stairs. She looked like she might beat the crap out of the first one that made her more annoying than she already seemed to be.

"You don´t look very happy," Ron said looking at Hermione.

"Yeah, well," Hermione said looking dangerously at Ron, "it´s Valentine´s day." Hermione tried not to sound annoyed but failed.

"Oh, right," Ron, said grinning, "your favourite day of the year." He grabbed Hermione´s arm. "I´m sure you get at least one card this year," he said still grinning. Hermione didn´t look amused.

"Shut up," she said as she and Ron walked out of the common room, but they stopped in the hallway.

"Where´s Harry?" Hermione said looking around not seeing Harry.

"Oh shit!" Ron exclaimed as Hermione started laughing. Ron went back to the common room where Harry was fast asleep in the scarlet armchair.

"HARRY!" Ron yelled and Harry shot up standing.

"What?" he said tiredly, flicking his eyes. "I wasn´t sleeping." Harry tried to look awake.

"Yeah, you didn´t," Ron said smirking and shoved Harry away from the armchair. "Now come on, we got to eat breakfast and you better start sleeping at nights and not sneak around with Hannah up to the Astronomy Tower."

Harry looked offended. "No way have I been sneaking around with Hannah!" he said trying to keep a straight face. "I mean, I would tell you, right? Don´t you trust me?" Ron burst out laughing as he said this.

"Yeah whatever," he said and they went to Hermione who had been standing the doorway listening to the conversation.

***

Hermione looked around in the great hall and saw girls getting giggly over red roses and valentine cards.

"Honestly!" Hermione said a little more loudly than she intended to as Parvati ran from the Ravenclaw table to Lavender who was sitting at the Gryffindor table, shrieking, "Oh my god! Oh my god! Terry Boot gave me flowers!"

"Bitter, are we?" Ron said trying to hide a smile. Hermione just glared back, but soon got busy looking at Harry. He was looking at a blonde girl at the Hufflepuff table.

He had been very distant lately. She knew he and Hannah had something `going on´. She hadn´t dared to ask anything, because she really didn´t want to know details about Harry´s love life, but if it made him unhappy, then she might need to do something about it.

"Harry," Hermione said but Harry didn´t react. "Harry," she said again. This time Harry turned around to face Hermione.

"Huh?" he said looking lost.

"Are you alright?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah," Harry replied, though Hermione was not convinced. "I´m alright."

Hermione didn´t get a chance to push it more, because the mail was arriving. Hundreds of owls were now hooting in the great hall. Hermione didn´t even bother to look up to see if she had received anything because she knew she hadn´t. Hermione was surprised when a letter dropped into her lap. At first she just stared at the red envelope.
"Open it," Ron said from across the table. Hermione picked the envelope up and saw that someone had drawn little hearts all over the envelope. Hermione opened it and inside she found a single piece of parchment with the letter `B´ written on it. This made no sense to Hermione. She looked at Harry and then at Ron. By the looks on their faces it obviously didn´t mean a thing to them either. This is some sort of clue, Hermione thought. But who sent it? And is this some kind of valentine´s card? If it is then it´s my first, Hermione thought and a smile crept on face. She looked up and saw that Ron was smiling at her too.

***

The first lesson of the day was History of Magic. Hermione walked into the room with her two friends at each side. She went and sat in her usual place. Ron took out his History of Magic book which he had put a spell on to be as soft as a pillow so that he could sleep the lessons.

Hermione had been telling Ron off but then she had realized that it was no use telling Ron to do anything, he wouldn´t listen anyway.
Harry didn´t need any pillow to sleep. Instantly as he had sat down, his head dropped onto the desk and he started snoring.

Hermione rolled her eyes and turned to her left were Lavender and Parvati were gossiping. Lavender started telling Hermione the whole Terry-Blaise-Parvati triangle. Obviously Terry had gone out with Parvati just to get his ex-girlfriend Blaise jealous. It had worked and Blaise had gone to Terry this morning that she really wanted him back, that she couldn´t stand seeing him around other girls and that she had made a mistake. And then Terry had told Blaise that he didn´t love her anymore that she was in love with somebody else. As Lavender said ´somebody else´ she winked at Parvati and they both drowned in giggles. Hermione just smiled to be polite but, honestly, she didn´t give a damn if Terry had an affair with the giant squid. Ok, that would be kind of interesting, Hermione thought after a while and smiled.

"So!" Lavender almost yelled when she noticed Hermione wasn´t paying attention to what they were saying. "Me and Seamus are having our nine month anniversary next week and he said that he would do something special." After ´special´ Lavender and Parvati giggled again.

"How nice," Hermione said trying to sound interested. Lavender and Parvati stopped giggling instead they were smiling like too mad women.

"So, Hermione," Lavender began, "how is your love life?" Oh my god, Hermione thought. Can´t they just give it up? Lavender and Parvati asked that question at least two times a week. And Hermione always replied with "Huh, you know... Nothing special going on." Hermione stared in the air for a moment thinking what she would reply. She saw that Lavender and Parvati were getting impatient and that soon they would come with an insult. She knew that she had to say something fast to avoid an insult. Think fast, Hermione thought as she was Lavender open her mouth to say something.

"Haha," Hermione burst out quickly to stop Lavender from saying anything. "What love life?" Hermione laughed awkwardly.

"Honestly, Hermione," Parvati began, "you are best friends with two of the most gorgeous guys at school. How do you keep your hands off them?" Hermione tried not to laugh.

"You know," Hermione replied, "I can´t honestly. Me and Ron have been secret lovers for ages. I tried to get Harry too but he had that whole Hannah thing, you know. But I don´t know. I think Hannah and Harry has some off-season right now, so now might be the right time to strike." This is the best moment ever, Hermione thought as she saw Lavender´s and Parvati´s widening eyes. Hermione couldn´t keep a straight face anymore. She started laughing. At first Lavender and Parvati looked at each other puzzled but then they started laugh too, though very uncertainly.

"You should have seen your faces!" Hermione said between laughs. Suddenly someone poked Hermione in the shoulder. She turned around to see that it was Ron.
"What´s so funny?" he asked.

"I told them about us," she said trying to hide a smile. Ron looked puzzled. "You know, me and you, being secret lovers and all that." Ron now look even more puzzled. First he looked at Lavender and Parvati who were giggling and then at Hermione who had a grin on her face.

"What," he managed to get out. Hermione burst out laughing.

"Honestly, Ron," she said, "don´t you have any humor at all? You, with your always so smart comments." Ron was about the reply but Hermione didn´t pay attention because she had suddenly started browsing through her History of Magic book. Suddenly she stopped and saw that there was a parchment inside pages 23 and 24 similar to the one she had gotten at breakfast.

Hermione looked at it and saw that it had the letter `R´ written on it. Weird, Hermione thought, very weird. She turned to Ron to ask if the parchment rang a bell but she saw that he was asleep on his History of Magic book. At least he was pretending too. She looked at Harry who was asleep too. Honestly, she thought, why don´t they sleep at night? Ok, she could understand Harry. He had black under his eyes and looked like he hadn´t had a proper meal in days. Ron on the other hand was grinning. Dreaming of something pleasant I see, she thought. She had the urge to poke at Ron but resisted, instead she looked at the parchment she had received. She tried to find clues on the parchment but it seemed that it was just a regular parchment with the letter `R´ written on it with regular ink. She came up with an idea and rummaged after the other parchment in her bag. She found the envelope and reviewed it. There was nothing unusual with the envelope. She opened it and took out the parchment and stretched it out. Hermione jumped in surprise. It had the letter `M´ written on it. I am positively sure that it had the letter `B´ when I was at breakfast, she thought and felt a little annoyed. Who was playing with her like that? Hermione looked in the envelope again and found the parchment with the ´B´ on that she had received at breakfast. She took placed them all on the table. It made no sense to her whatsoever.

***

Later Hermione felt a little guilty about not doing anything in History of Magic class. Harry had disappeared mysteriously right after class. Herbology was up next so Ron and Hermione headed down to the greenhouses.

When they reached the greenhouses they saw that Parvati was down on her knees on the ground, shaking. She was obviously crying. Lavender was standing beside her and then went down on her knees as well and put a comforting hand on her shoulder and started whispering something to her. This obviously calmed her down because she stopped shaking. Hermione looked at Ron with a questioning look. Ron just shrugged and walked past Parvati and Lavender.

Hermione had seen Parvati cry before but usually not like this. The last time she had cried like this was when Ron had broken up with her after their little fling. Parvati had thought it would be something serious but Hermione had heard Ron talking to Harry. He had just been playing with her. Hermione had gotten very angry and had a big argument with Ron. Later he had promised her that he would never play with a girls feelings, ever. This time it couldn´t be anything Ron related. After all he had promised.

Hermione walked to Parvati, who was still sobbing, and Lavender as softly as she could, not to make Parvati more upset.

"Hey," she said softly, "what´s going on?" Hermione had expected a nice reply.

Well, she didn´t get one. When Lavender and Parvati saw that Hermione was standing there they both shot dangerous glares at her.

"Ask that best friend of yours," Lavender snapped. At first Hermione looked offended, then she though Ron! Hermione ran towards Ron who was chatting with Seamus and Neville outside the greenhouse.

"RON!" Hermione yelled, although he was just a few metres before her. "I need to speak with you alone, please." Neville and Seamus backed quickly away when they saw that Hermione was in an angry mood, and disappeared to the grounds.

"What is it?" Ron said nicely.

"I thought I told to stop playing with Parvati! So stop it! Right now!" Hermione yelled in Ron´s face. Ron´s mouth fell open.
"What?" he said raising one eyebrow. "I haven´t been playing with Parvati! I haven´t even spoken with her for months! You know she hates me!" Ron was about to continue but stopped as Harry came over to them.

"What´s with the yelling?" he said as though saying `How´s the weather?´. Hermione and Ron didn´t get the chance to reply as Lavender joined them.

"Hello Ron," she said looking at him. "Hello Hermione." Lavender looked at Hermione and then turned to Harry saying, "Harry," in a strained voice. Hermione and Ron looked at each other with the same question in mind. What the hell is going on? Lavender and Harry stared at each other for a moment then Lavender raised her hand and slapped Harry in the face. Both Hermione´s and Ron´s mouth´s dropped open. Harry, on the other hand, hadn´t changed expression. He looked at Lavender walking down to Parvati with the same look as before.

"Harry!" Hermione managed to say after a moment of silence. "What the bloody hell was that? What´s going on?" Harry seemed eager not to answer and tried to find words to explain the recent events but failed. Ron´s patient ran out as he waited for Harry´s reply.

"What - is - going - on?" he said calmly. "Someone cut your tongue?"

Harry saw Professor Sprout walking towards the greenhouses and said quickly, "Oh, it´s nothing. Really."

***

There was definitely something going on. Hannah ignored Harry during the whole Herbology class and Harry kept looking miserably at her. Usually Hannah would throw flirty looks at Harry and Harry would just smile teasingly at her.

Hermione and Ron didn´t get the chance to talk to him during class but right after Professor Sprout had let them out Ron grabbed Harry´s arm and dragged him away from the castle. Hermione followed them.

"Ok," Ron said in a demanding voice, "speak."

There was a short silence then Harry spoke. "Ok, ok," he said, "I´ll tell, but it´s just nothing, really. Me and Hannah just had a little argument. That`s all." Both Ron and Hermione raised their eyebrows.

"A little argument, huh?" Ron said and folded his arms. "Then what was the thing with Lavender and Parvati?" Harry mumbled something in reply but neither Ron or Hermione heard him.

"What?" Hermione said. "I didn´t hear you."

"Hannah caught me making out with Parvati," Harry said. Ron´s and Hermione´s mouth´s dropped open for the fourth time that day.

"What? How? When?" said Ron, "and may I repeat, What?"

"Well, yesterday when I came from Hannah´s I felt little miserable `cause she wants to keep sneaking around and all that, she doesn´t want people to know about us and, well, I do. And then when I was about to come back to the tower I met Parvati and she sort of threw herself at me. It´s all sort of a blur. And then we suddenly we were kissing and then Hannah came back and she saw us. She ran away quickly, so I didn´t get the chance explain things. And now she is ignoring me." Harry stopped playing with his fingers and looked at Ron and Hermione for some response.

"Well, what is there to explain?" Hermione said dryly. "You cheated. Period." Harry blinked at Hermione.

"You´re accusing me?" he said, "it was Parvati who threw herself at me,"

Hermione looked outraged and said, "Oh my god! I can`t believe you are saying that!" Harry was about to reply when Ron interrupted.

"Stop it!" Ron said, waving his hands. "Harry, if I may ask, why was Parvati crying and why did Lavender slap you?"

Harry shrugged. "Well, Terry Boot found out about it somehow today and broke up with Parvati or something. I don´t know if you can break up with someone who you aren´t really dating, but, anyway, I think Parvati and Lavender think that it was me who spilled it out to Terry but it wasn´t. I don´t know how he found out. And just before I went to Herbology I saw Terry and Blaise walking very close to each other in the corridors. So I don`t think Parvati is in any good position right now."

When Harry was done Hermione crossed her arms, still thinking the whole thing was Harry´s fault.

Ron just nodded and said, "Ok. So now we know. Let´s go to Lunch. I`m hungry from all these confusing love triangles."

Harry and Ron started walking towards the castle. Hermione was about to follow them when she noticed a black owl hooting above her head.

"Oh no!" she shouted when she saw what the owl had come to deliver to her. It was the same kind of envelope she had gotten at breakfast. "Not those bloody messages again!"

The owl dropped the envelope on Hermione´s head and disappeared. Hermione took the envelope and took out a parchment with a big `O´ and then `times two´ scribbled on it.

"Huh," she said to herself and hurried after Ron and Harry, who were by the castle already. She would eat lunch and worry about the letters later.

***

"So what are you going to do then?" Ron asked Harry and sipped little water. Harry, Ron and Hermione were sitting in the Great Hall eating lunch. Nobody had said much. Hermione was still angry at Harry for being insensitive.

Harry shrugged. "Dunno," he said, "I was thinking `nothing`. But I don´t think that´s an option right now, so it´s `dunno´." Hermione fought back a frown.

"You got to apologize," Ron said in a professor-like-voice, "It´s not getting any better if you just ignore it."

Harry picked his food without eating any of and then said, "Yeah, I guess so." Sigh. "But Hannah can be really scary sometimes. I don´t think I want to be alone with her after what happened." Harry looked up and saw that Ron was on the verge to a laugh.
"What?" he asked Ron.

"You are afraid of a girl," he said and let out a small laugh.

Harry raised his eyebrows and then grinned, "Who´s afraid of Hermione?"

Ron stopped laughing and looked outraged instead. "I´m not afraid of Hermione!" he said rather loudly.

"BO!" Hermione screamed in Ron´s ear so that he jumped up in the air. Both Harry and Hermione burst out laughing. Later Ron joined the laughing as well. A little redder in the face than Hermione and Harry, though.

"Your face," Hermione said between laughs. Harry was laughing so hard he had disappeared under the table.
When they had stopped laughing Hermione placed her hand on Ron´s shoulder. "Ron," she said, "there´s nothing to be afraid of. You´ve got Harry to support you if I get too scary." Hermione and Harry laughed at this. Ron´s mouth just curved into a little smile.

Harry stopped laughing when Ron kicked him under the table.

"What?" he said a little annoyed and Hermione stopped laughing too.

"Hannah left Great Hall alone. Go catch her. Explain," he said. Harry hesitated but when Ron kicked him under the table again he got up and ran from the Great Hall to get Hannah.

Hermione grabbed her last piece of potato with her fork and placed it in her mouth. As she chewed it she realised that her plate wasn´t white as the others. There was a square drawn with black ink. Hermione touched in spot in the middle of the square and suddenly the square disappeared. Instead it now read "Meet me in the cupboard 7 pm." Hermione looked at Ron who was busy looking elsewhere. "Ron," she said and Ron turned to look at her. "What´s th.." The ink had disappeared. Hermione looked astonished.

"What?" Ron asked with his mouth full of food. Hermione snapped out of her astonishment.

"The.." Hermione had permanently lost the ability to speak. Ron placed his fork and knife beside his plate and started to get up.

"Look, Hermione," he said as he had stood up, "I have to go to the library, so, umm, talk to you later." And with those words he disappeared out of sight.

Hermione´s mind was spinning. She had to find out what that meant. And she would. Just not now. They had double Charms and she had forgotten her Charms essay in her dormitory that was supposed to be handed in today. Hermione scribbled the exact words that she had seen on her plate on a piece of parchment and placed it in her pocket as she stood up and left the Great Hall.

***

Harry saw Hannah´s blonde hair move far in the Charms corridor. Harry started to run and soon caught up with her. Harry walked now right behind her.

"Hannah," he said getting no reaction from her. "Hannah," he said again and this time he grabbed her arm and pulled her into the nearest classroom.

"Harry, let go of me!" she said trying to escape Harry´s grip but he was too strong for her.
"Calm down," Harry said and she did as she was told to. "Ok, I just want to say that I´m sorry for what happened last night. I didn´t want to hurt anyone. I just want to know where we stand. Are you breaking up with me or what?"

Hannah rubbed her arm were Harry had gripped her. "Well, we´ve been a little off for a while," she said and stopped rubbing her arm. "Ok, look I´m going to be honest. This isn´t going to work, so, yes, I guess we better break up," she said looking sad.

"Okay," Harry said looking around. They had nothing to say to each other anymore. When they were sneaking around or whatever they hadn´t really talked to each other. It was more like a little snogging, How was your day?, snogging, Fine, yours?, snogging. They stood silent for a moment, both unable to find decent words to say.

"I guess I´ll go," he said barely moving a muscle on his face. Harry turned to leave but then turned around to look at Hannah for the last time. He looked at her for a moment. It felt weird. He felt sad. Like they would never see each other again. Of course they would. Everyday.

Hannah stepped forward ready to hug Harry but he had turned around again and now he was gone.

***

Double Charms would have been the perfect lesson to gossip or talk about the next visit to Hogsmeade but Harry wasn´t in the mood to talk. Neither seemed Hermione. She looked like she was thinking really hard and didn´t want to be disturbed. Ron tried to make conversation but only got one worded answers from both of them.

Harry was thinking about Hannah. He just couldn´t get the image of the look on her face when he left after their talk earlier. He shouldn´t be feeling this way. They hadn´t been in love. And they sure weren´t now. They hadn´t even been friends, they weren´t friends now. Harry knew nothing about Hannah and Hannah knew... well, Hannah probably knew everything about him because he was Harry Potter. Still he felt something, he felt sorry for her. She had liked him more than he had liked her. It had been her who had come to him and not the other way around. And when they had been together they had done everything the way she had liked it. And Harry had accidentally heard Hannah speak to her girlfriends how lovely he was. He hadn´t thought those things about her. So he guessed it was pity he felt. Nothing more. Or maybe he was just confused.

Harry banged his head on to the desk. He would have banged it again if it wasn´t for Ron who stopped him.

"Woah," he said, holding Harry´s head back, "easy there, tiger."

Harry looked at Ron with a tormenting look. "Everything´s just so confusing! I hate it!" he said frustrated and was about to lean forward with his head but Ron stopped him.

"I´m not going to bang my head against the desk again, you know," Harry said, "I´m just going to rest a little." Ron nodded and took away his hand from Harry´s forehead.

Harry didn´t get much rest as his head shot back up when the class room door opened revealing a healthy looking Ginny Weasley.

Harry´s insides turned around. Ginny looked at Harry and smiled weakly. Then she turned to Professor Flitwick, who was looking at her with a questioning look. It seemed like Professor Flitwick was annoyed that Ginny had interrupted class. It surprised Harry because normally he didn´t care much if people disturbed his class.

"Umm..., Professor Flitwick," Ginny began, "Professor McGonagall asked me to come here and say that you should see her in the Transfiguration classroom immediately." Professor Flitwick nodded and turned to the class to tell them to continue working, and that he would be back in a few minutes. Lastly he added that everyone should behave while he was gone. Everyone nodded.

"We promise, Professor," Dean said and then turned to grin at Seamus. Professor Flitwick missed the sarcasm, he just nodded at Dean´s comment.

The door was left open when Professor Flitwick and Ginny walked out of the classroom. Harry followed Ginny´s movements in the hallway until her flaming red hair wasn´t visible anymore.

***

Hermione threw her school bag on her bed and took out a parchment she had been doodling on during Charms class. She still hadn´t worked out what the messages meant.

And it annoyed her like hell.

She knew that she was supposed meet up with someone in a cupboard. What cupboard? There were probably hundreds of cupboards at Hogwarts. The letter´s probably spelled out the answer to that question but so far all she could work out was ROOMB. And that was not a word. She didn´t know where to put the B. She looked at her doodling for the thousandth time. Sigh. She really needed to figure it out before 7 pm. That´s when she was supposed to meet the person. Hermione went to laying position on her bed and stared at the ceiling. Who could it be? She knew who she would like it to be. She dreamed away to were it was just him and her. But soon reality caught up with her and she sighed.

And then it hit her. She knew where the B should be. She had solved it.

Hermione´s face brightened. She collected her notes and threw it in her bag to head to the Great Hall for some diner. This would be an interesting night.

***

Harry walked in hurry towards the common room. He had been at diner, hoping to see Ginny and talk to her a bit. But she hadn´t been there, so he decided to go look in the common room instead.

He said the password quickly and waited impatiently as the portrait hole slid open. He looked around the crowded room for a girl with flaming red hair. And he found her sitting in the corner by the window with a transfiguration book in her lap.

"Ginny!" he called and walked over to her.

Ginny looked up. "What´s up?" she said. Harry suddenly felt very nervous. He had worked out in his head all the things he was supposed to tell her but somehow his mind had gone blank.

"Er..." he started and then paused. "I just wanted to thank you," he continued after seeing Ginny´s questioning look. He tried not to stare much at her. But it was hard as Ginny had just started to smile. I love that smile, he thought, how come I hadn´t realised it before? She was really nice last night... Harry forced himself to reality.

"You´re welcome," she said smiling, "it was nothing, really. What are friends for?" When she said this Harry forced a smile. Right, he thought, what are friends for?

Ginny suddenly jumped up from sitting position, startling Harry. "I just remembered!" she said a in a excited sort of voice. "You forgot your charms books in our room last night. I´ll go and get it," she said slamming the transfiguration book shut and started to walk towards the girls dormitories.

Harry felt silly being left alone in the corner. "I´ll - I´ll go with you," he blurted out. Ginny turned around, looking at him in surprise.

"Oh - kay," she said uncertainly and waited for Harry to catch up with her to go up to the dormitories.

***

Harry looked around in the scarlet room he had been in the night before. It looked more welcoming than it had looked last night. Well, it had been dark then. How welcoming can a dark room be? But somehow it looked nicer now. Harry went and sat on Ginny´s bed and looked around the room. The room didn´t look very girly, comparing to Hermione´s room. But on the other hand Lavender and Parvati lived in Hermione`s room. Their over-girliness probably effected the whole room.

Harry looked at Ginny rummaging through her trunk. "Finding anything?" he said.

"Yup," Ginny said, turning around with Harry´s charms books in her arms. She walked over to Harry and sat on the bed. "Here," she said, giving Harry the books. "I put them away so that people who are not supposed to have these wouldn´t be able to take them. That means anybody but you." Ginny smiled, but with a little more nervousness than down in the common room.

"Thanks," Harry said looking down at his feet, "And thanks again for last night. I mean it felt kind of awkward talking to you about my girl problems. I mean I usually talk to the boys but with you being a girl it gave me another perspective."

Ginny too looked down at her feet. But then she raised her head, to look at Harry, with all the bravery she had left. "Glad to help you out." Her voice sounded like she really strained to get the words out.

As she said that Harry decided to look up. Their eyes locked and they stared at each other for a few minutes. Then Harry moved his head slowly forward so that their noses were almost touching, but Ginny backed away quickly.

"We should go down," she said and started walking out of the room.

***

Hermione had solved it. She was walking through the deserted hall ways looking for the place she was asked to meet in. She still didn´t know for sure who the person who had sent the messages was, but she had her ideas and her hopes. Finally she reached her destination.

The door to the broom cupboard stood ajar. Hermione pushed the door carefully, a little afraid of what she might see. It was dark but there was definitely a person sitting in the corner. Snore. The someone was obviously sleeping. Hermione peeked in a little more and saw now that the person had flaming red hair.

"Ron," she whispered. Suddenly Ron´s eyes shot open.

"Hermione," he said standing up, "what are you doing here?" He was obviously not awake yet, Hermione thought as she raised her eyebrows.

"What am I doing her?" she said pointing at herself. "What are you doing here?"

It seemed that Ron had returned back to reality as he suddenly started playing with his fingers and mumbled something that Hermione didn´t really catch.

"What did you say?" she said and Ron stopped playing with his fingers.

Instead he looked up at Hermione and said, "It was me who sent all those weird messages you´ve been getting." Ron paused and looked at Hermione. She really felt nervous now. She had hoped it would be Ron, but now that it really was him she didn´t know how to react or what to say. Hermione noticed her mouth was open so she closed it quickly.

"Oh, don´t be surprised. You knew it was me all a long. Don´t act stupid. You know I like you. I mean I really like you," He said like it didn´t matter. But Hermione guessed that it was the it-doesn´t-matter-tone in his voice that made him say the words.

He took a step forward so that she could feel his breath. Hermione flushed. No one has ever said they like me, she thought and felt her body become warm. Suddenly she realised how close they were and felt panic strike her. Oh my god! He´s going to kiss me! she thought and was going to move back but her body wouldn´t take orders. What are you afraid of? Let him kiss you. It´s what you´ve been wanting since fourth year, said another voice in her head. They´ve been standing like that for minutes. Ron gazing in Hermione´s eyes and Hermione trying to avoid staring at him. Hermione thought she would die of the tension but Ron suddenly decided to pick something up from the floor. Hermione saw that it was a card.

"Here," he said giving it to Hermione and she took it. "Because, you know, those messages weren´t really Valentine cards so here´s a real one."

The whole card was pink with little red hears all over it. Hermione opened the card and saw that there was a text written that said `Would you like to be my Valentine?´ in nice letters.

"Thanks," she said without looking at Ron. She still felt a little uncomfortable with Ron, standing there giving her an Valentine card that obviously meant more than `I like having you as a friend`.

Ron had his hands in his pockets and was moving up and down, obviously nervous too. "So," he said running his hand through his hair. "Umm.. I had one more thing to show you." He grabbed rope that was hanging from somewhere up. Hermione didn´t really see where it was hanging from because it was so dark. The only light came from outside the hall way, through the door that stood ajar, but it didn´t really lighten things up.

As Ron grabbed the rope and pulled it down, dust came falling down. Hermione thought the whole roof was going to fall down but then she realised that it had opened a little oval opening to a tunnel. Hermione could see fading daylight somewhere far in the tunnel.

"Come," said Ron and grabbed Hermione´s hand.

***

Harry walked down the stairs from the girls dormitories. As he walked down he cursed himself. Why did he have to scare Ginny away like that? He didn´t mean to go forward like that. It had just happened. Damn teenage hormones.

He was now in the common room and saw Ginny sitting by the fire. He didn´t see her face but she was probably staring in the fire. She looked like she didn´t want to be disturbed.

Harry had the urge to go talk to her, explain things. Apologize. However, he didn´t want to mess thing up more. He had experience of doing that a lot so he just walked past her to his own dormitory.

***

"Where are we going?" Hermione asked for the third time, as she was dragged by Ron in the tunnel. However, the answer she now wanted answered was "Why are we going here?". She saw that the small light that she had seen in the cupboard came from the Quiddith pitch.

"You´ll see," answered Ron for the third time, a little annoyed. There was a long silence but then Ron spoke, "Here," he said.

"What?" Hermione said looking at Ron.

"We are here," he repeated and Hermione looked puzzled, The Quidditch Pitch? He brought me here through a tunnel that took 30 minutes to walk to the Quidditch Pitch. Hmm. "Where we were supposed to go. Now you first." Ron shoved Hermione trough the tunnel opening to the Quidditch pitch, but it wasn´t the Quidditch Pitch.

The second Hermione stepped trough the opening the image she had been seeing in the tunnel disappeared and was replaced by the most beautiful garden she had ever seen.

Lilacs, roses, violets... The most beautiful flowers in every colour imaginable. Little cute trees with small red berries. Soft greens grass. Hermione gasped. Her eyes focused on a glowing pink lilac. She touched it softly with her fingers just to make sure it was real. It was real. She felt the softness of the flower on her finger tips. It was really beautiful. It felt beautiful.

"Wow," was the only word Hermione could say.

"You like it?" Ron asked with his hands in his pockets.

"Do I?" Hermione laughed. "Ron, it´s beautiful. How did you know?"

"Well," said Ron, tipping his head a little to the right, "Fred and Georges explore trips pay off."

They stood in silence again. Ron walked to on of the tiny trees and picked a small red berry.

"Come and taste," he said, "they tickle on your tongue." Ron threw the berry in the air and caught it in his mouth.

Hermione´s mouth curved into a smile as she walked over to one of the trees that only reached her mouth level and picked up a red berry.

"It´s not poisoned, you know," Ron grinned. Hermione smiled at him and placed the berry on her tongue without taking her eyes off him. She giggled.

"The berries do tickle your tongue," she said and giggled again.

"Now I want to tickle your tongue," he said and kissed her. Hermione made no move to stop him, she just smiled to his lips. He is really lovely.

Hermione was holding Ron´s hand. They were outside the portrait hole, both a little red lipped from all the making out they had done in the garden.

"Ok, we don´t tell anyone just yet," Hermione was saying.

"Ok," Ron replied and let go of Hermione´s hand. He heard her take a deep breath as they entered the common room. There were a few people studying by the armchairs. It was unusually deserted at this time of hour. Ron and Hermione caught Ginny sitting by the fire and walked over to her.

"Hey, Ginny," Ron said cheerfully with a smile but the smile faded as he saw Ginny´s face. Her eyes were red, it looked like she had been crying.

"Ginny! What happened?" Hermione said and put a comforting hand around Ginny. Ron went to sit beside her.

"Nothing," Ginny said and rubbed her eyes. Hermione and Ron exchanged doubtful looks. Ginny saw their looks and then said, "Ok, it´s something but I don´t want to talk about it."

Hermione rubbed her arm. "Maybe you should go to sleep and we`ll see if you want to talk about it tomorrow. You look tired," she said.

Ginny looked into the fire. "No," she said, "I want to stay here. The fire makes me think better. And it keeps you warm."

Hermione stood up and yawned. "Well, I´m tired. I think I got to sleep now," she said and then looked at Ginny. "Are you sure you don´t want to go up?"

Ginny didn´t look up at her when she said, "no. I´m ok, really."

"Ok, I´ll go. Good night," Hermione said and started walking up to the girls dormitories but Ron caught her arm.
"You know, I think I say good night to you upstairs," he said grinning.

Hermione grinned back. "Ok," she said trying to sound as though Ron did this every night. Hermione stepped aside and let Ron walk up to the girls dormitories before her.

***

"Mmm..."

Hermione moaned to his lips. They had been kissing fiercely for god knows how long. Hermione couldn´t get enough of him. He tasted so good. Suddenly she broke away.

"What?" Ron said with uneven breath. They were lying in Hermione´s bed. Parvati and Lavender were gone and were probably not coming anytime soon so they had plenty of time in privacy. She looked at her clock. They had been lying there for over an hour.

"I really have to go to sleep now," she said. Ron made a face that said Are you nuts? Not now!

"Now go away," she said teasingly, "I will see you tomorrow." She leaned and kissed him quickly on the lips. When he did not move Hermione shoved him off her bed and he fell on the floor with a loud noise.

Hermione put her head on her pillow and disappeared under the covers. She knew she wouldn´t be able to sleep but she pretended to do it anyway. And she couldn´t help but giggle when he heard Ron say, "that wasn´t very nice," as he got up and left the room.

This had been the best Valentine´s day.

Ever.

And she would never forget it.