The Things We Do For Love

The Things We Do For Love

It was an ordinary day at Hogwarts and the sun was shining brightly in the sky. Or at least it was as normal as Hogwarts usually is. It was in the afternoon and Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, and the rest of the Gryffindor sixth years were having Potions class withthe Slytherins. Professor Snape was standing over Ron's cauldron, lookingat him disapprovingly. Today, they were brewing a toothpaste potion thatwas supposed to turn white and thick. Harry shook his head at Ron's potion.It had turned blue and was awfully runny.

"Mr. Weasley!" Snape yelled at Ron. "Did you put in the Forget-Me-Nots before or after you added the mints?"

"After," Ron muttered quietly. It was no use to fight with Snape. They would lose points that way.

Snape mumbled something unintelligible and then turned to Draco Malfoy who was standing behind him, smirking. "Mr. Malfoy, do tell Weasley when you add the Forget-Me-Nots!"

"Before, Weasley," Malfoy said, still smirking at Ron who had turned bright red matching his hair.

Harry shook his head and turned back to his own potion which was slowly turning white. Snape had given the class the toothpaste potion as a break from more complicated potions like the Polyjuice Potion they had to do last week. The Slytherins had been complaining that they had too much work and Snape had obliged, much to the pleasure of the Gryffindors, which Snape pained at. Harry sat back, relaxing, while his potion finished boiling.

"Do the potion over again, Weasley," Snape commmanded.

Furiously, Ron obeyed. On the other side of Ron, Harry could see Hermione busily preventing a disaster with Neville Longbottom'spotion. Neville was quite frightened by Snape and often his fear cameout in destroying his potion. Hermione clucked disapprovingly at Ronas he passed her and he went even more redder. Harry knew that Ron woulddo anything for Hermione to look at him approvingly. That had startedin their fifth year when Ron and Hermione had danced together at the'Welcome Back to Hogwarts' dance which was new to the school.

Potions went by more slowly than Harry would have liked. He was so bored now that he was finished his potion that he set to watching Ron make his potion over again. Every now and then, he saw Ron glance over at Hermione, she would catch his eye and they would both look away at the same time like it never happened. Harry chuckled as Ron looked at Hermione again. She was already looking at him and when their eyes locked, they both turned away abruptly and both stared straight ahead at nothing in particular.

The bell rang and all the students quickly gathered their books. Ron waited for Hermione to finish helping Neville before he and Harry joined her on the way up to the Great Hall for dinner. As they walked,Ron thought about Hermione watching him during Potions. Was she in lovewith him? If yes, then he would be super happy. Ron thought about theway she looked when she smiled, and the way she looked when she was overladenwith books. She was absolutely adorable to Ron but he had never gottenup the courage to ask Hermione out to the 'End of the Year' dance whichwas coming up in two weeks. It would certainly clear his mind if he suspectedthat she might be in love with him and he might be able to ask her outwithout any disasters.

Sighing, Ron sat down at Gryffindor table next to Harry with Hermione across from him. He stole a glance at her. She had a book propped open and was reading it while she ate. Maybe this was the only chance Ron had to ask her out. Summoning his courage, Ron cleared his throat.

"Erm, Hermione?" Ron began slowly.

Hermione looked up from the book. "What is it?"

Looking into Hermione's eyes, Ron felt his courage slowly drain away. Turning slightly pink, he looked down at his plate and asked, "Can I talk to you after dinner?" He looked up, waiting for her response and desperately wanting it to be a positive response.

And Hermione shook her head. "I have to go talk to Professor McGonagall after dinner," she told him. "Maybe at eight o'clock in the common room?"

Ron nodded and Hermione finished eating. She got up and gathered her books and said "See you later" to Ron and Harry before leaving.

When she left, Ron relaxed so much that he could have sworn he was melting into jelly. He looked over at Harry who was doing his homework to let Ron talk to Hermione in private.

"I did it!" Ron announced.

"That's great!" Harry said looking up from his work and grinning.

"Well, at least the first part," Ron said thoughtfully. "The hard part comes later." He groaned and wished this could be more easy.

"You have an hour to prep," Harry pointed out.

"Oy, that's right!" Ron said, beginning to get his books. "The seventh years are having that party tonight so if I can get away at seven, I'll have plenty of time to prepare. So, I'll meet you later?"

Harry nodded. "I have to finish this before the party. Good luck if I don't see you before you meet up with Hermione!"

Ron nodded and ran out of the Great Hall and was halfway up the stairs when he heard a drawling voice behind him.

"Think you're going to get that mudblood, Weasley?" Malfoy asked as Ron turned around to face him. Malfoy's cronies Crabbe and Goyle were with him so there was no point in trying to tackle Malfoy. "You honestlythink that she would love you?" He gestured to Ron's clothes and smirkedas Ron turned bright red. "She thinks you are just as stupid as youlook and that you are below her. And those looks that she was sneaking you in class, those were just to make sure that you didn't blow up yourcauldron."

Ron stood stock still, shaking with anger, as Malfoy and his bodyguards passed him on the stairs with smirks on their faces. Ron would love to punch Malfoy's smirk off his face but his mind was too busy reeling with what Malfoy had just said. It couldn't have been true because Malfoy always loved to toy with his feelings. But the look Hermione had givenhim after Snape had told him to redo his potion fit in perfectly withMalfoy's explanation.

Ron stormed the rest of the way to Gryffindor Tower, earning nervous glances from anyone he passed. He ran up to the boys' dormitory and slammed the door which shook the paintings on the wall.

Ron made sure nobody was in the dorm before proceeding to tear up his part of the room. By now, he was an ugly shade of purple andif anybody had happened to walk in on him then, they would have thought he was a grape with red hair and black robes. He looked in the mirror and saw this shade of purple and tried to calm down so he looked like a beet, not a grape, when he was struck with an idea.

Over the summer, his father, who worked at the Ministry of Magic for the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts department, had been collecting old books from Muggles about Muggle magic, something called Wicca. Out of boredom and curiousity, Ron had looked through some of the books and found some interesting spells so he brought the books to Hogwarts. Hermione would have been proud if she had known that he was reading something likethis out of school, but she didn't know about it and Ron was happy becauseof that.

Flipping through an old book with no name on the cover, Ron found the page he was looking for. "How to Make the Object of Your Desire Love You" was the title and it included a list of ingredients Ron would need for the potion and the spell he must say.

Taking the Invisibility Cloak, Ron raided Snape's storeroom for the potions ingredients and brought them back to his dorm. Thenhe used the Cloak to steal a necklace from Hermione to use as an object of his lover's and ran back to his dorm and locked the door. He read thepage over again and discovered that the spell should be done at midnight for best effect and he unlocked the door and put all the stuff under hisbed, setting his alarm clock for 11:45 pm. Then he jumped into bed andpulled the covers over him, trying to sleep. He tried to think of happymemories but his mind kept going back to Hermione and soon he was fitfullysleeping.

Eight o'clock came and went and Hermione sat at a table in the corner of the common room still waiting for Ron. She had just finished her homework when someone walked up and Hermione looked up, thinking thatit was Ron, but it wasn't. It was Harry.

"Where's Ron?" Hermione asked, hopeful that Harry knew where he was and why he wasn't there.

"I thought he'd be with you," Harry told her, sitting down in the seat where Ron should have been sitting in. "He didn't come at eight?"

Hermione shook her head. "I haven't seen him since dinner."

"That's odd," Harry said, worried. "He should have been here waiting for you."

"Maybe he's in the dorm," Hermione suggested. "Maybe hejust forgot the time."

"Let's go see," Harry said and they ran up the stairs to the boys' dormitory. Hermione stuck her head into the room and looked over at Ron's bed, spotting his sleeping form.

"He's sleeping," Hermione said, relieved. She didn't wantto have been stood up. A loud crash came from downstairs and several people cheered. "What's going on?"

Harry shook his head and the pair went downstairs and found that several people were dancing on the tables. The party lasted until late in the morning which meant that Ron had the whole dorm to himself.

The alarm clock on Ron's bedside table began to beep furiously at 11:45 pm. Ron woke up, although not happily, and began to make the potion. He drew a circle in red crayon around himself and dipped Hermione's necklace into the potion and chanted the spell. Then he picked up a candle and lit it and took the necklace out of the potion and held it over the flame, then put it back it back into the potion and chanted the spell again. Then he blew out the candle and gathered everything up, he stored them under the bed and went to sleep, not bothering to see if the spell had worked as he was too tired from doing the spell.

The next morning dawned bright and clear. There wasn't a sound in the dorm except the snores of late-night party-goers when Ron awoke.It felt like nothing had changed and Ron dressed quickly and went downfor breakfast.

As he passed groups in the halls, he could hear them whispering and he could feel the stares and this unnerved him. As he neared the Great Hall, the amount of whispering increased. Then, he opened one of the double doors into the Great Hall and all the early morning people hushed.

Feeling more unnerved than ever, he walked down the aisle to the Gryffindor table. He saw many girls smiling at him and everybody watched him sit down. As soon as he sat down however, every girl nearby, younger or older than Ron, eagerly ran over to him.

Girls sat beside him and in front of him. Girls played with his hair and girls fawned over him. They were all gathered around him, batting their eyelashes and smoothing their hair. Boys at other tables looked furious at Ron who, instead of turning red, turned pale and left the table hurriedly and ran out of the Great Hall with every girl following him. By now he had figured out that the spell had went very, very wrong. In some respects, he wasn't complaining, but in others, like getting beatento a pulp for stealing someone's girlfriend, he was complaining.

Ron ran past a very confused Malfoy which he basked in the glory of having confused Malfoy in the first place but didn't stop to gloat as he had to run away from a mob of girls at the moment. He ran up the stairs and nearly crashed head-on into Hermione, who looked startled at the mob of girls chasing him.

"Ron, what's going on?" Hermione asked, as Ron stepped behind her to hide from the wave of girls running to him. The note of impatience in her voice told Ron that nothing had changed with Hermione.

"I don't know," Ron replied, trying to pull off an angelic smile. "They all just seem to like me this morning."

"Ron!" Hermione yelled, wringing her hands.

"I did a spell!" Ron yelled back, startling even him.

Suddenly, a few screams erupted from the mob of girls and Ron and Hermione looked on horrified as many of the girls at the head of the mob drew out their wands and came closer.

"You don't deserve him!" one girl shouted at Hermione, pointeing her wand.

"He needs a better girl than you!" another shouted with tears streaming down her face.

"Get away from him, you filth!" another shouted and she held up her wand. "We must get her away from him! Who's with me?"

The rest of the mob of girls raised their wands in reply and shouted and they started up the stairs. Ron and Hermione looked at eachother in alarm and yelled "Run!" at the same time, before running like madmen up the stairs. They ran down the hallways to Gryffindor Tower where they met the painting of the Fat Lady.

"Serpentine!" Hermione shouted the password to the Fat Lady. "And change the password!"

The Fat Lady opened the door and the pair ran in, where they found Harry, Seamus Finnigan, and Dean Thomas coming down the stairs and Ron's sister, Ginny, in a chair by the fire talking to Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil.

"Ron!" Hermione yelled, pulling him to a wardrobe. "Help me pull this to the door to block it!"

When they had accomplished this, Harry asked, "Okay now, what's going on?"

Ron had hardly started to answer when Lavender and Parvati stood up and ran over to Ron and started to pull him towards the couch.

"Have a rough day, Ronnie?" Lavender asked, pouting with her brown eyes full with concern.

"Actually-" Ron began but Parvati cut him off.

"Does this feel good?" Parvati asked, massaging his shoulders and giving him a smile.

"Ohhh, that really feels good," Ron said, closing his eyes and smiling.

"What's happened?" Ginny asked Hermione, a little freaked.

"Your brother, Ronnie, did a spell," Hermione toldher and the other boys who turned to Ron and their eyes widened. By now, Lavender and Parvati were exercising the use of their tongues. "Okay, that's it!" Hermione yelled and she pulled Ron off the couch away from the other two girls and buttoned up his shirt which had somehow come open.

"You disgusting little twit!" Lavender yelled, her eyes flashing. "You have no right to keep Ronnie away from us! How dare you take him away from us!"

"You don't deserve him!" Parvati yelled. "I would rather squish you than see you with him!"

"I would rather see Ron dead than see you with him!" Lavenderadded with tears coming to her eyes. "So he won't have to be with disgustinggarbage like you!"

At that point, both girls whipped out their wands and began to walk closer to Ron and Hermione, who backed away and, with Ron pulling on Hermione's, ran and hid behind Ginny and the boys. A scream could be heard outside and the portrait was flung open and the wardrobe was blasted to smithereens. Dozens upon dozens of girls poured into the Gryffindor common room, most carrying axes.

"Harry!" Ron shouted and gave Harry a book. "On pg. 357 is the spell I did and here's Herm's necklace. Go to Snape or just go to the Potions lab and reverse the spell."

Ron handed Hermione's necklace to Harry who ran through the crowd with Ginny on his heels. Ron took Hermione's hand and pulled her up to the boys' dormitory with Seamus and Dean following and they locked the door and barricaded themselves in with many objects and hexes against the door.

"Ron! How could you be so stupid?" Hermione yelled. By now, her voice was pretty hoarse and so was Ron's from them yelling at each other.

Ron mouthed wordlessly at Hermione, apparently very mad. When he did speak, he was fighting to remain calm. "It doesn't matter okay? The spell didn't work and you still don't love me, so can we drop thesubject?"

"I don't love you?" Hermione asked, calmer than she was before for some odd reason. "Why do you think I don't love you?"

"From Malfoy!" Ron shouted, losing his temper.

Hermione just stared at him, apparently too stunned to speak. Then she said, "Don't ever trust what that jerk has to say!"

Seamus and Dean looked at each other, raising their eyebrows. Why would Ron believe whatever Malfoy had to say?

The two boys didn't have time to think about that as the door suddenly burst open and girls poured in. Ron pulled Hermione away fromthe girls and they looked for possible ways to get away.

Meanwhile, Harry and Ginny had rushed to the Potions lab and had gathered the ingredients for the spell when who should walk in butMalfoy and Co. and Snape leading them. Harry and Ginny stopped in theirtracks, stunned, as Snape glided furiously over to them. Over his shoulder,Malfoy and Co. were busy smirking at them.

"What gives you the right, Potter, to use my private collection of potions ingredients so early in the morning?" Snape yelled.

"Keep working," Harry whispered to Ginny over his shoulder. She obeyed and this made Snape even more furious.

"20 points from each of you!" Snape yelled. He started to turn, but stopped. "By the way, pack up and leave."

This made Harry very angry and he knew he was going to have to get angry at Snape sometime so it may as well be now. In steady,measured tones, he asked, "Do you wish to have a couple of deaths onyour hands, Snape?"

Snape just stood and stared at Harry with his mouth open. Realizing his mouth was open, he closed it and said, "Fine then, Potter. Do what you like at your own expense." He turned on his heel and passing by the Slytherins, said, "It's on my desk."

Snape slammed the door behind him leaving three very amused Slytherins and two very angry Gryffindors. Malfoy glided over with his usual smirk on his face. "Better have a good reason, Potter," he drawled, standing centimetres away from Harry, who stared back at him evenly.

"None of your business," Harry said, icily.

"Harry," Ginny said and Harry and Malfoy turned to look at her, making her blush slightly. "It's ready."

Ginny held up the necklace which Harry took and he moved the cauldron to the red circle he had drawn on the floor. Ginny handed himthe book that held the reversal spell and Harry dipped the necklace intothe potion which emitted little fireworks. Then he chanted, still holdingonto the necklace.

"Oh Diana!" Harry chanted. "Reverse what has been done! Oh Diana! Reverse what has been done!"

Harry pulled the necklace out of the potion and Ginny handed him a black candle that was already lit. Harry held the necklace over the flame and chanted the spell again and the flame turned white, before Harry put the necklace back into the potion and blew the candle out.

Waves of red erupted from the cauldron and stretched far and wide before receding back into the cauldron, leaving Harry feeling alittle light-headed. He stood up somewhat awkwardly and had to grab holdof a desk to steady himslef.

"What's the matter, Potter?" Malfoy drawled, smirking. "Feeling a little queasy, are we?"

Harry ignored Malfoy and hoped to God the reversal spell was just in time and that Ron and Hermione were alright.

The stream of girls steadily approached Ron and Hermione with their axes held up, ready to bring them swinging down. The pair was backed into a corner while Seamus and Dean looked on, horrified, with bindingspells on their arms and legs.

Suddenly, red waves ran through the walls and then receded. Pansy Parkinson, who had raised her axe and was bringing it down, suddenly stopped and looked around. All other girls did the same and the ones who were yelling and shouting, stopped.

"What happened?" Pansy asked uncertainly.

Ron looked at Hermione, then back to all the girls before answering. "Treasure hunt," he said simply, smiling at the girls. "Apparently we found all the candy and you guys were screaming bloody murder!"

"Okay," Pansy said, believing it for some reason Ron couldnot understand.

The other girls started to file out, still confused. Hermione undid the binding spells on Seamus and Dean and by lunchtime, the whole school knew two versions of what happened. The treasure hunt version andthe love spell version. Harry and Ginny sat beside each other while acrossfrom them sat Ron and Hermione.

Hermione suddenly looked up from her plate, curious. "Ron, why did you believe Malfoy in the first place?"

Ron considered this and then shrugged. "Nervous energy, I guess. His explanation made a lot of sense at the time so I went with it."

Hermione nodded before asking, "Ron, will you go to the dance with me?"

Harry and Ginny looked up from eating to see what Ron's expression was. He didn't even looked surprised.

"Oh Hermione," Ron said, with fake sadness. "I'm so sorry. I'm already going out with-" At Hermione's expression, Ron stopped and laughed, saying, "Oh, after all this time, what with the love spell and all, I would have at least thought that you would have figured out that my answer will always be yes!"

Hermione smiled and kissed him, fiercly at first, but then their kiss melted and finally they broke away, holding hands. Ron sighed and sat back, thinking Ah! The things we do for love!