What Goes Bump In the Night?

What Goes Bump In the Night?

"What are you two up to at this hour?" Harry asked, as he came up the steps, his Firebolt grasped in his sweaty palm.

It was very late one Friday night, and Harry had just come back from a vigorous Quidditch practice that had lasted much longer than he would have liked. He had been looking forward to a little rest in the boy's dormitory and was surprised to see his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, sitting wide-awake in front of a roaring fire in the Gryffindor Common Room.

Hermione, a Muggle-born he had met on the train to Hogwarts five years earlier, was reading her usual thick textbook. Her long, bushy brown hair (Which she tried so hard to tame nowadays,) was covering her face from view. Harry wouldn't have bothered to look twice, had the book not been upside-down.

Ron looked over in his direction and nodded, acknowledging Harry's presence, but he didn't bother to answer Harry's initial question. Hermione still continued to scan the pages of her book, a look of deep concentration on her face.

Did he miss something?

"Practicing reading upside-down are we?" Harry said, with a hint of amusement in his voice.

He walked over to a spot between two armchairs, letting the fire warm his body.

"Hmmm?" Hermione said, looking up at Harry and then glancing at the front cover.

Noticing her mistake, she quickly turned the book back upright, flushing furiously.

Seconds later, Ron stood up, distracting Harry's attention from a speechless Hermione. (Whose face now rivaled the scarlet that surrounded the Gryffindor common room.)

"Harry, how about a game of Wizard's Chess?" Ron said hopefully.

"Sorry Ron," Harry sighed, putting a hand to his forehead and massaging his temple. "I wouldn't stand a chance, I'm exhausted. Fred and George had us fighting winds for hours!"

Ron's mind went elsewhere when Harry mentioned this. He was still enraged about the argument he had with his brothers after they had refused to let their ' nosy little git' of a brother play on the team. They claimed he'd take away their 'little bit of fame.'

*****

"Leave us alone little Veronica," George said, not bothering to look sincere.

"You've got all those good marks to keep you in the game."

"Except potions of course," Fred pointed out.

"Thank you for that observation, Fred." Ron spat, but was interrupted by George again.

"And you've got Harry too," George continued.

"What are you going on about now?" Ron said, trying to sound as threatening as possible. "What game? ... Harry? This had better not be another one of your jokes...."

"Look, all we've got that keeps mum from disowning us is that we might just be as good as Charlie in Quidditch! You know, she never really got over it when we never got as many O.W.Ls as she expected," Fred tried to explain to his furious sibling.

Just when Ron would have liked to end that particular conversation, George went on to say, "Yeah, mum was so happy when you told her you had made friends with Harry Potter. It gave her something to tell her friends, you know. Something other than apologizing for poor little Timmy's run-in with a Mouth-Watering Mint!"

"That was great, wasn't it? He couldn't stop drooling for a week!" Fred said, half laughing.

"I can't believe you two!"

"Oh, Ron, don't make that face, you look like Ginny did when we told her Harry had a thing for a certain black-haired girl...." said George.

"Yeah, suck it up brother, maybe you'll get a chance after we graduate. "

...And they had laughed about that fond little memory while Ron secretly wished he were an only child.

Ron forced a smile, "Oh, yeah.... Right then, see you in the morning."

"Sure everything's all right? " Harry asked, slinging his broomstick over his shoulder. It was unusually heavy.

"Oh, um, yes." Hermione replied. "I'm just tired, that's all. Got to keep reading though, I thought I'd add an extra foot to my Vampire essay."

"All right, don't work too hard. Goodnight." Harry eagerly climbed another set of stairs to his four-poster.

"Night," they called after him.

"Well that was close!" Ron said, letting out an enormous sigh that must have carried up the stairs. He walked over to Hermione and sat down again.

"I thought you said that he was in bed!" she said, sounding terribly aggravated. She was wearing her signature look that strongly (and most unfortunately) resembled Professor McGonagall's.

"Well it was dark up there! There was a lump in his sheets; he must have put his robes in there before practice so that pesky cat of yours couldn't get hair all over them

She looked slightly hurt, but quickly hid it. "Do you think he'll come down again?

Or anyone else for that matter?"

"Don' fink so," Ron said. He had just finished cramming a chocolate frog from his pocket into his mouth, probably to avoid apologizing for his comment against 'the wild thing'. When he had finished, he straightened up, as if summoning his courage and said (although rather quietly,)

"Why can't we tell Harry any ways?"

"I already told you why, Ron. I don't think he'd like me snogging his best friend."

"But you're his best friend too! Honestly, Hermione... The way your mind works...."

"He won't like it, I'm telling you!" she insisted, desperate to get her point across.

"Well he'll like it a lot less if he finds out from someone else. Imagine if Mal- "

"Oh shut up, will you? He won't find out until we think he's ready. And don't say that prat's name." she said sternly.

She turned to him and gave him an entirely different look. "Besides, it's more fun when we do it in secret."

Hermione pulled him close to her so that they were an inch from each other's faces. Ron looked at her for a moment and smiled, but she took him by surprise when she suddenly planted her lips on his. Within seconds, Ron had slid his arms around her thin waist and returned the kiss. His lips were more familiar than they had ever been, especially the first time she had kissed him.

Phew,

Control yourself Hermione. Imagine what he'd think if all of a sudden you burst out laughing. Way to ruin the moment. Just keep kissing him....

Ron's arms were secure around her body, not shaky and unsure of where they were supposed to go. It was almost like she wasn't really kissing Ron, her best friend since first year. Of course, it had taken a while to get their relationship off the ground but now she was sure she liked having Ron as a boyfriend just as much, if not more.

At this moment, he took his lips from hers and aimed at her neck, but before he could go any further, they heard a crash from the opposite side of the room.

They flew off each other's like a dog pissing on an electric fence. Ron looked over the back of the couch cautiously, trying to remain calm and looking casual.

Hermione looked around for her textbook again.

Okay, find the textbook.

What do we say?

Okay, um, 'We were just, uh, doing some late-night studying?'

Right, now, make sure book IS NOT upside down. God, what was I thinking?

Ron had looked up and expected to see Ginny standing there wide-eyed with her mouth hanging open. When Hermione looked up she instead saw a glimpse of a bottlebrush tail sneaking up the staircase to the girl's dormitories at a fast pace. He must have been terribly embarrassed. After all, what kind of cat wasn't capable of walking through a carefully - arranged table of breakables gracefully enough so as not to knock them all over?

"Well, who was it?" Ron asked in a hushed voice. He craned his neck in an attempt to see what was around the corner but gave up and went back to straightening his shirt.

"Relax," she said back, "it was only Crookshanks."

"Of course."

Ron let out what must have been his tenth sigh this evening and sunk back down onto the couch.

"Fine, I won't say anything to him. But, we have got to find a better place for this."