Lovers Lane

"Yea Harry, the Chudly Cannons definitely have the greatest chance in all history to....win...the..." Ron said, trailing off, his mouth full wide and full of the chicken he was chewing.

Who is she? Ron thought hopelessly, looking toward the doors of the Great Hall, I've never seen her before. Is she new? What's her name? Where is she from? Is she in Gryffindor? She's so beautiful. I've never seen anyone as beautiful as her before. All of these questions assailed Ron's mind, needing to be answered.

His questions were soon answered as Hermione, noticing Ron's mouth wide open, and his eyes fixed on the doors, followed his gaze to the girl that just entered the Great Hall.

"Stop your drooling Ron! Her name is Ellicia, and she's in my Arithmancy class. She's an exchange student from Spain, and when she transferred here, she was placed in Gryffindor. We actually became pretty good friends, and I've only known her for a few days," Hermione explained, "and she absolutely adores redheads." She noticed Ron's eyes getting bigger.

Harry looked confused; his mouth was slightly open, showing the remnants of his mashed potatoes he had yet to swallow.

"Oi, Ron what were you saying about the Chudly Cannons and their nonexistent chance at the cup this year?" Harry asked trying to initiate the conversation back to its original state.

"Oh Harry please, can't you see that Ron has been dumbstruck by the transfer students beauty. You just said the Chudly Cannons had no chance at the cup and he didn't bat an eye. And don't talk with you mouth full!" Hermione said. Harry just looked at her. He hadn't even looked at Ellicia, and didn't know what Hermione was talking about. Eventually, he followed Ron's gaze towards Ellicia. Ron kept staring as she walked over to the Gryffindor table and sat down next to Hermione, right in front of Ron. She noticed Ron starting at her, and blushed slightly, then smiled.

"Hermione. You're so rude," she said, laughing. "Why don't you introduce me?"

"Oh, right. Sorry Ellicia," Hermione said. "This is Ron Weasley," pointing at Ron, "and Harry Potter," nodding in Harry's direction. "This is Ellicia."

Ellicia shook Ron's hand, and then Harry's.

"You can call me Elli. I hate being named so formally," she said.

She's so beautiful, Ron thought as he watched her fill up a plate of food. He felt his ears turn pink at the thought of it. I don't think I've ever seen such dazzling hazel eyes and mahogany toned hair in my entire life. And I should know, I've seen red hair LITERALLY my entire life. And I've seen brown eyes for six years now.

"Well, I really need to be going. I'm not sure of where my next class is," said Elli looking around the Great Hall, accidentally interrupting Hermione's explanation of how muggle artifacts could come in much use with the wizarding world.

"I could help you find it," Ron said, jumping up. He rushed over to Elli, and asked her which class she had. They continued they're conversation, while walking toward the doors. They left the Great Hall and all Harry and Hermione could hear were faint giggles and Ron's nervous laughter.

"Well, I have to go to the library. Would you like to come Harry?" Hermione asked.

"No thanks, Herm. I think I'll take a walk."

"Ok. See you in Potions then."

"See you."

Hermione gave Harry a small, kiss on the cheek, as she did whenever one of the trio left. Ron left so quickly; Hermione didn't get a chance to give him one. Harry watched as she walked out of the Great Hall, wondering why she had kissed him after the happenings of last night. He quickly dismissed the thought.

*§*

"Well Harry, I'm going to go up to bed. Are you going up, too?"

"No, Ron. I'm going to stay down here. I need to finish."

"Ok. Catch you later."

"Later Ron."

Ron went over to Hermione and bent down in an expectant sort of way. She kissed his cheek, and he went up the stairs to the boy's dorm leaving only Harry and Hermione working by the dim light of the embers glowing in the dying fire.

After a few moments, Harry heard Hermione shut her book and arranger her notes. "Well, I guess I should go, too. 'Night Harry."

"'Night Herm," he said quietly, too wrapped up in his Potions essay on affects of Morsewood in certain love-binding potions.

Hermione walked over to give Harry a goodnight kiss, just as she had Ron. Harry didn't notice her walking over to him, and had bent down to pick up his quill. Somehow, instead of Hermione kissing Harry on the cheek as intended, Harry chose that moment to come back up and they ended up with their lips together just as Ginny walked through the portrait hole.

Harry can still remember Ginny's face at that dreadful moment. She looked as if a train was coming straight for her, and quickly changed to looking as though someone had killed her goldfish. She ran off crying, without giving time for Harry to explain what had happened, and he hadn't seen her since.

*§*

Harry hurriedly finished his lunch and ran outside towards the lake where he saw her. He desperately wanted to go up to her and just kiss her and hope she would understand. Hope that she would feel the same way for him as he did for her. Hope that everything could be fixed with just one kiss. But he knew her well, knew that he had to do more than hope, and knew that she would not give in to one kiss.

He slowly approached her, and she obviously heard him because she turned around.

"Oh, it's you. What do you want?" Ginny snapped.

"You know, it's very hard to keep up with you lately," Harry replied. "Look, I just want to talk."

"Well, I don't want to talk to you."

"Ginny, look I'm sorry, I really am!" Harry exclaimed. "I'm sorry about what happened with Hermione! There was no meaning of it! Not to mention that it was more of a sisterly like goodnight kiss on the cheek! Well, it was supposed to be. We weren't snogging or anything!"

He paused to see if Ginny was going to add anything, but she just stared; anger rising. He continued, "Ginny, I, er. Ginny," he said, calming down to a serious tone that made Ginny just want to forgive him. "I would never do anything purposely hurt you. I would rather die a thousand deaths, or be Malfoy's sex slave for all of eternity, than see you hurt. I love you Ginny Weasley, more than I love anyone in the entire world. If you don't believe me then send me away and I'll never bother..."

Before Harry could say anything else, Ginny burst out laughing. She just couldn't hold it in anymore. Harry was startled by this, but began laughing too, after thinking about what he had originally said. Ginny lifted her head up and kissed him.

"So this means we're okay?" Harry asked.

"This means we're okay," Ginny replied, smiling.

*§*

"Well, thank you, Mr. Weasley, for being my escort for the day. You really didn't have to show me to ALL my classes. I'm sure I could have managed," Elli said, her hand on Ron's shoulder.

"Not a problem," Ron squeaked, his ears turning a light tint of red, and silently cursed his genes.

Elli went up to the girl's dormitory where she found Hermione, whimpering as if she'd just finished crying. Elli gently placed a hand on her new friend's shoulder. Hermione looked up at Elli with her wide, brown, tear-filled eyes.

"What's wrong Hermione?" she asked.

Hermione shoved a tattered piece of parchment into Elli's hands. It read:

Dear Hermione,

You're last letter filled me with happiness and guilt. I feel bad for doing this, but I think it is best for the both of us. I do not think we should see each other any longer. I fear that I might hurt you, and I would not be able to bare that. I am truly sorry my dear Hermione.

With love,

~Viktor Krum~

"Oh. Hermione! I'm so sorry! I wish there was something I could do. I suppose all the advice I can give you is there will be someone new, because I haven't been in many relationships myself."

With this, Hermione ran out of the Gryfindor tower, leaving a puzzled Ron and Harry to their homework, straight to the Room of Requirement. I just want a place where I can be alone and think about what's happened, she thought. A place where I can talk to someone I love, and someone that loves me in return. Viktor may not be the last person I love, but he certainly was the first. She kept thinking about this until the door showed up. She went in, and found, not to her surprise, that the room was empty except for a bed. Obviously I have no intentions of crying on the floor. And it's very clear that no one loves me, no one is here waiting with open arms. She thought to herself as she lay on the bed and tears trickled down her face.