Disclaimer: The characters and the world of Harry Potter came out of the brilliant mind of JK Rowling. I'm just an admirer.
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1. Halloween
It was a nice Saturday morning at Hogsmeade. Even though the wind was a little chilly, the little village was packed with students from Hogwarts on their first visit of the school year. On that autumn day, the students' energy was at one of its highest levels. It was Halloween. Not only they were all speeding from shop to shop enjoying sweets from Honeydukes, but they also had the prospect of the fabulous feast that night at the Great Hall.
Besides the sweet shop and the joke shop, the other place that was full to its capacity was The Three Broomsticks. In there, noisy students, mingled with a few villagers brave enough to go in with all that commotion, talk with each other over bottles of butterbeer, pleasantly enjoying their weekend. In a table close to one of the windows, eighteen-year old Hermione Granger was perhaps the only one not enjoying herself.
"I can't believe this!" she said while looking angrily at a couple sitting at a table across the room to where she was.
"Would you let it go, Hermione?" asked Ron impatiently for what seemed like the tenth time. Then after taking another sip to his butterbeer, he added, "I just don't see what's wrong with her?"
"Of course you don't, you're a guy!" responded Hermione as if that was reason enough.
"Precisely 'cause I'm a guy I can tell you this: nothing is wrong with her. Actually, I wouldn't mind spending some quality time with her meself, if you know what I mean."
Hermione let out an exasperated gasp and rolled her eyes to her redhead friend. "I always know what you mean. Honestly Ron, don't you ever think about anything else but snogging? There are other important things, you know?"
"Like what? Shagging?"
Hermione mumbled something under her breath that sounded like "boys..." and then went back to staring at the couple, or actually at the girl, while deeply wishing she could be able to jinx someone (meaning that girl) without using her wand.
The girl in question had long black hair, white shiny skin, pretty big gray eyes, was wearing soft pink robes, and her name was Angie Bluewater. It seemed that every piece of clothing in Angie's wardrobe was in some shade of pink, with the only exception of her school uniform. Still, she would manage to add some pink to it here and there.
"It's obvious that any idiot would be willing to do anything with her, but I never thought Harry'd fall for that."
Ron, without paying much attention to the insult in Hermione's words, took his drink in his hand and once again raised it to his mouth. Then placing it back on the wooden table, he looked at the place where Angie was animatedly talking to Harry Potter.
"So, what is it that really bothers you, the fact that Harry is talking to this particular girl, or the fact that he's talking to a girl, period?" Ron asked while searching for an answer in Hermione's face.
Yes, seeing Harry dating or even talking to a girl, whoever this girl may be, was painful for her, but she didn't feel like confessing this to Ron just yet.
Ever since the time Hermione and Ron, along with some other of their friends, had followed Harry into the Department of Mysteries in the Ministry of Magic looking for Sirius, she knew her feelings for one of her best friends had totally changed. Even when she had been quite sure that it wasn't the best idea, she stayed by Harry's side and helped him get into the Ministry until she was put out of the game.
After that day and all through their sixth year at Hogwarts, Hermione's feelings for Harry had grown deep and profound, but Hermione had always been sure that he didn't feel the same way about her. Now that he had gathered the courage to ask out the fifth-year Hufflepuff, she was totally sure of it.
"What bothers me..." she finally said looking away from Ron's intensive gaze, "is the fact that she's just using him. She's only interested in the famous boy who lived. She only wants to show him around as if he were a trophy, but has no real interest in Harry for who he really is."
"Do you?" asked Ron, even when he was pretty sure what the answer was. He had suspected for a while that Hermione had feelings for Harry, but now that he saw her so upset about Harry's new date, his suspicion had been confirmed.
For all answer Hermione rolled her eyes on him and looked again at the couple precisely at the moment when Angie passed one of her small white hands over Harry's messy hair. That was the breaking point for Hermione. "I can't take this anymore," she said, and right after that she stood up and stormed out of the pub.
"Wait up!" called Ron and run after her not before drinking the rest of his butterbeer in one gulp. Ron reached the door as quickly as the crowd allowed him to, and had to run a little more to catch up with Hermione, who was already taking the road back to the castle.
The wind was stronger than when they had arrived at Hogsmeade earlier that morning. Of course, the fact that they were almost running made the wind that was hitting their faces feel even colder. Ron's nose was beginning to get red from the cold wind. He sure was glad he had grabbed his cloak that morning before leaving his room.
Hermione wasn't aware of the cold wind in her face. On the contrary, her face was hot out of anger and frustration. It wasn't until they reached the castle's stone steps that she realized they had arrived there in half the time it'd usually take them.
Ron tried a couple of times to tell her to slow down, but since he was out of breath, he hadn't been able to say a word. When they got inside the castle, Hermione didn't slow down until they were standing in front of the Fat Lady's portrait. After giving her the password (Blue fairies) they climbed inside the Common Room.
The Common Room was almost deserted. Just a few second and first years were there since all the older kids were still in the village. Without much ceremony, Ron sank into an armchair by the fire, trying to catch his breath. Hermione stood by the window for a few minutes, lost in her thoughts, looking out to the grounds. A few minutes later, she came to the fire and sat in the floor next to where Ron laid.
"If it really bothers you that much, why don't you talk to him?"
"Honestly Ron, you think he's going to listen to me?" asked Hermione. She was quite sure that nothing she'll say would get through to Harry, especially after she saw his dreamy expression when he was at the Three Broomsticks with Angie.
"Probably not." In a way Ron agreed with Hermione, but still he wouldn't mind being as lucky as Harry in the dating zone.
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Later that day, after Ron begged Hermione for about ten minutes, he convinced her to go to the Halloween feast. She wasn't in the mood for it, but her empty stomach reminded her she hadn't eaten anything since lunchtime. Reluctantly, she allowed Ron to drag her to the Great Hall.
The Hall was so noisy with all the students that had just come back from the village talking loudly over the four long tables about their day at Hogsmeade. Ron led the way and sat next to Seamus, who was showing Dean some of the things he bought at the joke shop. They had just sat down when Harry arrived and took a seat at the other side of the table right in front of Ron and Hermione.
"Hey, where were you? I was looking for you."
"Ah, we… came back soon." Ron said while looking at Hermione, but she didn't say a word. Instead, she grabbed a spoon and started serving herself some food without even looking at what she was putting in her plate. "So, how did it go?" asked Ron, but as soon as he said this Hermione gave him a menacingly look that told him he had asked the wrong question. The last thing she wanted to hear was about Harry's date.
"It was… fine," said Harry with a grin in his face.
Immediately after seeing Harry's triumphant look, Ron anxious to know all the details, tried to make him keep talking. "So, did you two…" but suddenly a sharp pain in his right leg, where Hermione just kicked him, reminded him that she was still there. "… go to Honeydukes?"
Harry noticed that something was going on. He looked at Ron, then at Hermione, but both of them avoided his eyes. "It's everything okay?" asked Harry.
"Yeah," responded Ron quickly looking at Hermione.
Hermione realized that even though she was hungry, she wasn't going to be able to swallow anything. So, she pushed her plate away, full of food she hadn't even touched. She decided to go to bed early. After all, she had already missed a Halloween feast before, she very well could do it again. She stood up and left the Great Hall leaving Harry wondering what was wrong.
Harry knew her too well to know that something was bothering her, but he also knew that it was better to leave her alone for a while and talk to her later when she had calmed down. "I'll talk to her tomorrow," Harry thought. "I'll find out what's wrong."
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But Harry couldn't talk to Hermione the following day. He had arrived late for breakfast, Hermione was nowhere to be seen by then, and Angie had kept him quite busy all day long.
On Monday morning, the three of them were very busy with double advanced potions, nobody's favourite subject. They were more than anxious to get out of the dungeons when it was time to go to lunch.
During most of the first half of their lunchtime, all Harry and Hermione could hear was Ron's complain over the mountain of homework Snape had left for them. Since the teachers wanted them to get ready for their NEWTs, their workload had increased considerably.
"I don't think I'm ever going to be able to finish those essays," complained Ron. "Plus, I also have to work on that boring assignment from Professor Binns, and I still have to go to quidditch practice, as if that wasn't enough."
"We could reschedule this week's practice to the weekend," suggested Harry. He was now the new quidditch captain, and even when he'd hate to reschedule practice, since they needed to get ready for their upcoming match, he also had some work to catch up.
However, Ron didn't get a chance to reply as when he was about to open his mouth, Angie stood right behind him to face Harry.
"Hello Harry," she said in a very soft voice, perhaps just a little too sweet. That tone of voice reminded Hermione terribly of Dolores Umbrige. Angie didn't even bother to say hello to either Ron or Hermione, as if none of them were present. Without even paying attention to what she was doing, Angie placed one of her white hands on Ron's shoulder while she was talking to Harry about meeting him after classes.
Ron froze. He could not believe Angie was touching him. Fortunately, she was standing behind him and could not see his expression or the change of color of his face, a deep crimson. Hermione, who obviously saw the whole thing, tighten her grip on the fork she was holding, secretly wishing she'd be holding Angie's neck instead.
"Okay, see you then," said Harry. He didn't pay any attention to either Ron or Hermione's faces as he was following Angie with his eyes as she left the Great Hall.
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Harry couldn't believe his luck. He was pretty sure that every single guy in all of Hogwarts envied him. He was dating the most beautiful girl that had set foot in Hogwarts in probably the last hundred years, according to Ron of course.
Harry had been so afraid that his first date with Angie would turn out to be another fiasco as his one date with Cho was. He felt really pleased with himself to see that on the contrary, everything had gone as planned. He had been able to talk, walk and behave as a normal guy and not as the idiot he felt like.
He was indeed proud for he hadn't made a fool of himself in front of Angie. He had even kissed her and she hadn't cried or run away or anything like that. He definitely was a lucky guy.
However, something was not right, but he couldn't exactly tell what it was. To make matter worse, he sensed something was wrong with Hermione. All through the week she had been quiet and distant. He hoped she wasn't mad at him. "But why would she?" Harry asked himself. "I haven't done anything wrong, have I?"
No, he was almost completely sure that she wasn't mad at him. "It must be something else. But what?" He also felt a little guilty 'cause even when he had planned to make some time to talk to her, he hadn't been able to. With homework, quidditch, classes, and Angie, he had been very busy.