Polyjuice

I do not own these characters; they are the property of JK Rowling.

POLYJUICE

Chapter 1

Ron climbed through the portrait hole and looked around the Gryffindor common room. He stopped and sighed when he spotted an all too familiar sight.

“Of course,” he thought bitterly. His two best friends were where they always were, sitting on the couch near the fireplace, shoulder to shoulder. This time they were looking down at a book on Hermione’s lap. Ron felt the pangs of jealousy again.

“Hermione looks pretty today,” he thought. She had on her black jeans and an emerald green sweater that she got for Christmas two years ago. It was her favorite; she continued to wear it even though it was now a tad too tight and showed off just how curvy she was getting to be. She probably didn’t even notice, but Ron certainly did.

He noticed a lot more than people gave him credit for. Sure, he almost always forgot her birthday, but he could recall what she had worn on each train ride since fourth year and how she had worn her hair. He noticed things about her!

Like how she and Harry’s legs and shoulders were touching as they leaned into each other to see the book on her lap. Or how they were happily smiling at each other as they flipped the pages. To anyone else in the common room it was a normal scene.

To Ron it was a constant reminder about how Harry always seemed to come first with Hermione.

He put on a brave face, smiled, and ambled over to his friends.

“Hey guys. What’s with the book?”

Harry and Hermione jumped slightly and looked up, obviously startled by the sound of his voice.

“Of course…they hadn’t even noticed me; all they ever notice is each other,” he thought bitterly. He instantly felt guilty, and he forced himself to smile.

“Hello Ron,” they happily said in unison.

“We’re looking at one of Colin’s muggle photo albums. There are a lot of great pictures of us in here,” Hermione informed him. Since there was no room on the couch for him, he walked around behind it and leaned over the back to see the pictures.

He could smell her shampoo, and a hint of vanilla from where he was. He closed his eyes for a few seconds to breathe in her smell and let it wash over him.

“Earth to Ron,” Harry chuckled as Ron snapped back and rejoined the real world.

"I can’t even have two seconds," Ron thought, but he shared a slightly uncomfortable laugh with his friends. The page they were looking at was indeed filled with pictures of the trio. There was one on the left side of the photo album. Harry and Hermione sat on the same couch while Ron sat on the floor. The only reason he knew it was him was because of the red hair, which was the only part of him that was showing in the photo.

“They look great,” he thought sarcastically and frowned slightly.

There was another photo of the trio. Well, sort of.

Ron, Harry, and Hermione were standing in the middle of the common room with their arms over each other’s shoulders, smiling for the camera. It looked like it was taken in third year. The only problem was that the whole right side of Ron’s body was missing.

The tall redhead boy frowned more deeply this time but kept looking.

“They can’t all be that bad,” he thought with a false sense of hope.

He scanned the page and found one more picture of the three of them. His blood began to boil.

It was the day they won the house cup last year. The three of them were in the Great Hall, standing side by side.

Harry was smiling Hermione was smiling…and Colin’s thumb obliterated Ron almost completely from the picture.

“Bloody hell,” Ron exploded, startling everyone in the room.

“What?” Harry asked, sounding surprised as he turned to face Ron.

“What do you mean 'what'?” Ron fumed as his face turned crimson with anger. “Just look at the pictures!” he shouted, pointing at the album.

“I’m just a bloody red headed thumb!”

Harry and Hermione turned and lowered their eyes to the page. Their smiles faded; they now saw exactly what Ron was rattling on about.

Ron continued his tirade as he paced around the common room.

“How did we not notice that before?” Both Harry and Hermione wondered to themselves.

Hermione stood up and walked towards Ron, but he backed away as she approached. Noticing his retreat, Hermione stopped. She had seen Ron angry before and an angry Ron was to be handled cautiously.

“Ron, I’m sorry,” she said with sympathy shining in her eyes.

“They can’t all be like that, mate; I’m sure it just happened to be this page,” Harry added.

Ron knew better. He grumbled angrily and turned to leave. Harry began to frantically flip through the photo album, looking for good pictures of all three of them.

“Ron, please don’t go,” Hermione pleaded.

“Here's a great one of all of us,” Harry said, looking up. But it was too late. The portrait door swung open, and Ron was gone.

“Oh, that was not good,” Hermione said, looking back at Harry who nodded in agreement.

“Why would Colin put those in there?”

“I feel so bad for him; did you see his face?” she said as Harry joined her.

“We should talk to him," Harry said.

“Yes, you should,” Hermione agreed, as she pushed him towards the portrait.

“Hey, how did we go from 'we' to 'you' so fast?” he asked.

Hermione sighed, “You’re his best mate; he needs you.”

Harry grudgingly nodded in agreement and reluctantly set off to find Ron.

---

His first destination was the kitchen. Perhaps Ron was soothing his hurt feelings by having a little snack…

Nope, he wasn’t there.

Harry’s frustration level rose as he searched the entire castle. Suddenly, he realized that Ron might not even be inside.

Harry finally located Ron at the lake.

“Are you alright?” Harry said to his obviously still upset friend.

No response.

“I’m sorry Ron. You know how Colin has always been, you know, around me," he trailed off.

How do you tell your best friend, that the reason he’s cut out of every picture is because the kid who took the pictures worships you?

“It’s not just about Colin,” Ron said barely above a whisper.

“Oh man, I really don’t want to go there!” Harry thought to himself.

But he knew he had to.

“What else is it?”

Ron turned to face him, suddenly seeming nervous.

“It’s just….you know…you always…and I never ….it’s just that, ahh…forget it--”

“Ron,” Harry said as sympathetically as he could. Of course, he knew what was bothering Ron. “I don’t think of Hermione like that.”

He sighed and finished, “We’re just friends…just like you and I are friends.”

Ron began to pick at the grass, thoroughly troubled. “I know, but I see what I see and I can’t help that. Just because you don’t see doesn’t mean it’s not there.”

Harry sighed again with exasperation and was about to interrupt, but Ron began again.

“It’s just…when you two are together, there seems to be some sort of a closeness that's there. And it makes me feel—well, it makes me feel like there's something going on. It's like I'm an outsider.”

…And as jealous as hell, Ron mentally added.

“I think she feels differently for you than she does for me, is all,” he added instead.

“Ron," Harry said firmly, "we’ve been over this before. I don’t know what else to tell you, but there is nothing going on between Hermione and me! She’s my friend. We’ve known each other since first year so, of course, we're close. She’s my family—just like you are and that’s all there is to that. If you have questions about what Hermione thinks or feels, then you’re really going to have to speak to her about it.”

“All I can tell you mate is, we’re just friends!”

“I hope that’s the end of that,” Harry thought as he plopped down onto the grass beside Ron. He was unexpectedly so tired.

Ron just slowly nodded his head and turned to stare out over the lake. They sat that way for quite a while, each lost in their own thoughts.

Finally, Harry stood up and clapped his friend on the back and said quietly, "I'm hungry.”

The redhead stood and nodded, knowing that his friend was giving him an invitation.

The two of them walked back to the castle together.

---

The next morning at breakfast life was pretty much back to normal. Harry and Hermione chatted about the morning ahead while Ron was busy eating his weight in pancakes.

“I hate the idea of Snape’s double potions this morning,” Harry voiced, sounding thoroughly disgusted.

“What do you mean double potions?” Ron asked spewing bits of his breakfast from his mouth. “I didn’t know we're gonna have double potions today!”

“Yes, Ronald, two full hours of Professor Snape. You do remember that he cancelled class last week?” Hermione chimed in. Her friend rolled his eyes.

The three of them finished up with breakfast and headed off towards the dungeons. On the way, Ron snacked on some cookies his mother had sent him and offered one to Harry while Hermione walked besides them and chatted with Neville.

“How can you possibly still be hungry?” Harry asked in amazement after declining his friend’s offer.

“Always am, mate,” Ron replied with a smile as they reached the classroom.

As they filed into Snape’s class, the bane of their academic existence announced, “For today’s lesson, all partners must be of the same sex, and there will be no exceptions.”

Harry partnered with Ron while Hermione worked with Lavender.

“Today, class, we will be making a Polyjuice Potion."

“Professor, doesn’t Polyjuice Potion take weeks to make?”

“Incredible as it may seem, there is something that Miss Granger is unaware of.”

“Not that I’m surprised, seeing as this potion was mentioned in the most recent issue of Potions Monthly, which arrived on my desk only yesterday,” Snape sneered.

“Nonetheless, ten points from Gryffindor for speaking out of turn.” Hermione folded her arms over her chest, obviously peeved. Malfoy smiled happily from his seat.

“As I was about to say, before I was so rudely interrupted…this particular form of Polyjuice Potion will not only enable you to replicate your subject’s appearance but their voice as well.”

Over the murmurs that erupted among the class, he continued. "You will be using your small cauldron for this exercise in futility. The list of ingredients for today’s potion is on the board. You have one hour.”

Everyone got to work as quickly as possible. Snape, walked around, checking the contents of each of their cauldrons for the proper color. He frowned at Harry’s aqua colored contents as well as Ron’s green mess. He barely stopped to look over Hermione’s shoulder at her perfect light blue potion and instead proceeded to smack Neville on the back of his head for his orange nightmare.

As they were finishing up, Snape explained, “When you are instructed to do so, you will extract a hair from your partner and place it at the bottom of your cup. You will then scoop out a generous amount of your potion, pour it on top of the hair, let it soak in for a moment, and drink the potion down.”

“I trust that these instructions were easily comprehended by even the most challenged of students,” he said glaring in Harry and Ron’s direction.

Harry let out a cough that sounded decidedly like ‘wanker’ and then coughed two more times as Hermione smiled slightly and clapped him in the back before changing her expression to one of worry for Snape’s benefit.

“Did you say something, Potter?” Snape growled.

“No, professor, just a little congestion, is all.”

Snape sneered. “Then, Mr. Potter, we will discuss your congestion in detention.”

“This keeps getting better and better.” Malfoy beamed, talking to his fellow Slytherins. "First the Mudblood and now Potter…if we can get Weaslebee thrown in, I could die a happy man.”

“Don’t wait for us, Malfoy. Kill yourself now and do us all a favor,” Harry retorted.

“I’ll get you, Potter, and your little dog too,” he spat, nodding towards Hermione and then bursting into laughter.

Both Harry and Ron rose from their chairs to head in Malfoy’s direction, but Hermione raised her hand and pleaded.

“No…that’s just what he wants.”

They both stared at her and then at Malfoy. Finally, they realized Hermione was right and returned to their seats as a smug Malfoy smiled.

“If you’re finished,” Snape growled again, looking in the general direction of the commotion, “then if, Mr.Weasley, would be so kind as to grace us with his failure.”

Ron gulped.

Then he reached over and unceremoniously yanked a hair from Harry’s head.

“Ow…. you could have warned me first, you git,” he said, rubbing his injured head.

“Sorry mate…just wanted it to be quick and clean,” Ron replied.

“I’ll remember you said that when it’s my turn.” Harry scowled.

Ron took a deep breath as he poured the contents of his cauldron into his cup that contained Harry's strand of hair.

The entire class held their breaths as they stared at Ron and waited.

Suddenly Ron's expression changed to one of utter disgust. The skin of his face began to bubble and a truly repulsive gurgling sound came from his throat as Ron began to change. The class waited with wide eyes. When he was done, the room was so quiet that you could have heard a pin drop.

Then an explosion of laughter filled the room. The transfigured Ron stood in the middle of the class with Harry’s face and body type, but with flaming red Weasley hair and freckles galore. The laughing continued as Ron asked, completely oblivious, "What?"

He turned to Harry who could not hide the smirk on his face.

“Close but no cigar there, Ron,” he said smiling. Ron glared at his friend.

“That is just too perfect for words,” was all Malfoy could manage as he howled with laughter along with his fellow Slytherins.

Snape, looking a bit too smug, said, “As I predicted, a disaster. Now sit down, Mr. Weasley.”

“Next, we shall see if Miss Brown is more capable than Mr. Weasley.”

After Hermione handed her a piece of her hair, Lavender stood and proceeded with her potion. Her change was not nearly as dramatic as Ron’s had been because she had brewed the potion properly, therefore causing the transformation to go much smoother. Thirty seconds later a nearly perfect double of Hermione stood before them. There were oohs and ahhs all around and Lavender did a little curtsy for all of them before looking to Snape for approval.

“Well done, Miss Brown, you have graced, or perhaps burdened us with a second Miss Granger.”

Harry was leaning forward in his chair and staring intently at the clone of Hermione. Lavender, who soon noticed his gaze, walked slowly in his direction, swinging her hips.

“Like what you see Mr. Potter?” she cooed with a seductive smile.

“Close, but not right,” he said matter of factly.

“Yeah right, Harry. My potion was perfect!”

“The eyes are wrong. Hermione’s eyes are a shade lighter than that,” he said without a trace of doubt and sat back in his chair.

Hermione looked over at Harry, genuinely startled by what he had just said.

That look did not go unnoticed by a certain redhead.

Lavender merely crinkled her nose and walked away, fussing with her outfit.

“You know, Hermione, you ought to work this a little bit,” she said, looking over Hermione’s body. She then reached down and took the top of her skirt and folded it over three times so that it shortened to mid-thigh level. Lavender proceeded to unbutton two extra buttons on Hermione's blouse and flattened the collar to reveal a great deal of cleavage even as her partner strenuously objected.

Hermione was still pleading with Lavender in an attempt to get her to re-adjust her outfit when Snape called out her name.

“Miss Granger, if you please.”

“I can’t yet professor, she's still me," Hermione said.

“My sympathies Miss Brown …Potter… you’re next.”

Harry stood up and looked over at Ron who was already holding a red hair between his fingers and smiling.

“Better luck next time, mate.”

Harry grudgingly took the red hair from his smiling friend and followed the necessary steps and began his change.

When the potion took full effect the new Ron stood before the class, but he wasn’t quite right. Harry's potion had been better than Ron’s but not nearly as good as Lavender’s.

Harry managed to achieve the red hair but the shade was quite a bit darker than it should have been. Also, Harry’s eye color had not changed at all. His startling green eyes remained for all to see.

Snape looked him over and commented:

“Perhaps on a particularly dark night, or if your pursuer was unfamiliar with Weasley red, you might be able to squeak by.”

Harry blinked; had Snape actually complimented him?

Snape turned from Harry and announced the class, "Now, if Miss Granger is finally ready, we shall move forward.”

Hermione stood and she accepted a hair from Lavender.

Her transformation was as smooth as silk. No gurgling noises, no strange contortions—just a sliding readjustment of her body. When she was done, she stood before the class as the perfect twin of Lavender.

There was, however, one tiny issue.

Well, tiny was not actually the right word.

It appeared as though Hermione’s blouse was not quite large enough to house Lavender’s…endowments. Hermione stood in the middle of the room, staring down at her new chest as it strained the fabric of her blouse.

Lavender smiled at the wolf whistles and catcalls she—actually—Hermione was receiving. Snape strode over to where Hermione stood.

“Despite the obvious clothing issue, which I want you all to take particular note of,” he began as Hermione’s face flushed beet red with embarrassment. "Miss Granger, seems to have successfully reproduced….all of, Miss Brown.”

“Clothing is an issue that should not be overlooked when choosing a subject for the use of a Polyjuice Potion," the professor said as he strode away from her.

“Take your seat, Miss Granger, and try not to poke anyone’s—"

Before the last words were out of his mouth, there was a pop and a scream of pain. Apparently, one of the buttons on Hermione's blouse had succumbed to the strain and rocketed off Ron’s face just below his right eye.

“Bloody hell, Hermione, you almost took my eye out!” Ron wailed, grabbing at his eye.

“I did no such thing, Ronald Weasley!” she said angrily, walking over to him and prying his hands away from his face so that she could get a better look.

“You just have a little red mark below your eye," she finally said. "Stop being a baby.”

“For Merlin’s sake, if you can’t control those…things,” he complained, waggling his finger in the general vicinity of her chest, "then give them back!”

Hermione let his hands drop roughly and returned to her chair in a huff.

The class continued on without further incident.

Harry had returned to his normal state and looked over at Ron, who for the most part had stopped grumbling, and Harry asked, "Are you all right?"

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Ron replied unhappily.

“Bloody button,” he then mumbled under his breath as Hermione glared at him.

“What about you, you okay?” Harry asked as he turned to his right to face Hermione.

Harry froze.

“I’m fine, but HE can be such a git sometimes,” she said loud enough to be sure Ron heard her.

The whole time she spoke Harry could do nothing but stare at her blouse. With the button gone and the left side of her blouse flat against her body, the right side bowed out just enough so that he could see the swell of her breast.

“Bloody hell!” he thought to himself. He could actually see all the way down to where her breast disappeared under the lace at the top of her bra, which, he noticed, was a fairly low cut one.

He forced himself to look away...for about five seconds. And then he was back, staring.

Hermione glanced over at him and smiled, and then looked back to the front of the room where students continued to change with varying degrees of success.

Harry hoped she didn’t see the blush on his face when she looked over, but when she looked away, he assumed she hadn’t.

Harry’s inner voice screamed at him, “Stop looking at her breast, you git!"

But he couldn’t force himself to listen to the voice.

It only got worse when she bounced up and down in her chair, trying to answer a question. When she bounced, everything bounced, and it was driving him crazy. He was feeling very uncomfortable, in more ways than one. Was it just hormones or was it because it was Hermione? He wasn’t sure; Lavender had been bursting out of Hermione’s blouse, and that hadn’t affected him, but this was definitely affecting him. He had never thought of Hermione that way before, but he was thinking of her that way now.

“I’m such a pervert,” he thought miserably and buried his head in his hands. Ron had looked back at him once and caught him staring at her, but then he just frowned and turned away.

“Damn it, I knew it,” Ron mentally said.

“I don’t think of her that way,” he thought mockingly, remembering Harry’s denial. “Yeah right… I need to know if she has feelings for him…. but how?"

“You could just ask her,” Ron’s inner voice suggested. “I don’t think so!” was his reply back to the voice.

Ron turned his attention back to the lesson, and after a few seconds of watching, he smiled.

“I know what I need!” he exclaimed to himself.

“I need one of these Polyjuice Potions… but not just any one … I need Hermione’s potion! What can I put it in? Think, Weasley, think; class is almost over! I can’t pour it in my pocket?”

Ron made a face.

“I could transfigure something…wait, never mind. Only Hermione can do that. All I have with me is a couple of cookies.”

His face suddenly lit up and he reached into his pocket.

“No… what I have…are a couple of cookies in a plastic bag!”

Ron then shook his head.

“Nah, that’s no good. Merlin knows what cookie crumbs would do to the potion! No….I’d rather not transform into the Keebler elf! Hey, what if I turned the bag inside out? That might work Now, how do I get her potion?” he wondered.

Ron was having clarity of thought like never before; unfortunately, he was using this rare moment for something he would probably regret later on.

Ron looked back over at his friends, and of course, Harry was staring at Hermione again.

“I need to do this!” he thought determinedly.

---

Class ended, and Snape instructed everyone to dump their potions into the large cauldron at the front of the room.

“I need to hurry,” Hermione said packing up her things quickly. At the confusion that appeared on her friends' faces, she furthered explained, "I need to speak to Professor McGonagall before class.”

“You go ahead; I’ll dump your cauldron for you,” Ron offered. Hermione looked at him in shock; never had Ron ever offered to do something so…well, nice.

“Sorry, I was a bit of a git, but that button really hurt,” he added, smiling.

“Thank you, Ron…I-I appreciate it. I guess I’m sorry too.” She smiled as she picked up her bag.

Ron glanced at Harry and nodded towards his things. “I’ll dump yours too, if you'd like.”

“Okay.” Harry shrugged. “I’ll meet you in Transfiguration then.”

Ron nodded and picked up their cauldrons as Harry and Hermione set off to class.

Chapter 2

AUTHORS NOTE: A quick thanks to everyone who read and reviewed chapter 1. I hope you enjoy chapter 2 as well. Oh yeah, I don’t own these characters, they are the property of JK Rowling despite the fact that she screwed up the ending.

Ron arrived late to Transfigurations. He told his friends that Snape held him back, but didn't elaborate. Luckily, McGonagall launched into her lecture before Harry or Hermione could question him.

Harry was having issues of his own. When he and Hermione settled into Transfiguration, she chose the seat to Harry’s right, which allowed him a crystal clear view inside her blouse again. That missing button, as well as everything else he was feeling concerning Hermione, was going to make concentrating on the lesson extremely difficult.

Overall, it was a weird day. Ron seemed lost in his own world and barely paid any attention in their morning classes. Harry, on the other hand, had spent his morning trying not to look down Hermione’s shirt, but it was a battle he was losing badly. It even reached a dangerous level while they were eating lunch. A thirsty Hermione had stretched across the table to reach for the pitcher of pumpkin juice, and Harry got such an eyeful of her cleavage, he choked on his sandwich.

“I deserve this,” he thought as Ron pounded him on the back as he struggled for breath. Hermione tilted her head and gave Harry a questioning look. He raised his hand towards her in an ‘I’m okay’ gesture as Ron continued pounding.

“I survived when the most evil wizard in history was out to get me, and now I'm gonna die because Hermione’s missing a button.” That thought made him laugh through the choking at the absurdity of his present situation. Hermione, who looked extremely worried now, came over and cradled his face in her hands.

That did not help his recovery whatsoever.

As for Hermione, she was extremely confused about her friends’ behaviors. Every once in a while, Ron would look over at her with a quizzical expression on his face and then look away. Harry kept looking at her as well, but with an entirely different kind of look, a look that made Hermione's cheeks turn pink.

After Harry had recovered from his choking episode, Hermione had had enough.

“What is wrong with the two of you today?” She finally snapped at both of them.

“Huh…What?” Harry asked while Ron said at the same time, “Sorry, what did you say?”

She repeated her question only now she had her hands on her hips and she looked rather cross.

Ron looked at Harry, and they both looked at Hermione, shrugging simultaneously.

“Nothing.”

“Damn, she even looks cute when she’s angry,” Harry thought.

“Hey, cut that out,” he then scolded himself.

But the very next second, he was betrayed by his thoughts again.

“I wonder if her knickers match that bra?”

Harry's eyes widened. “Oh my God! I can’t believe I just thought that way about Hermione.”

“Somebody help me; I can’t stop!” He squeezed his eyes shut, futilely trying to resist the picture of her in her underwear that had just formed in his head

“I think I’m having a hormonal breakdown,” he mistakenly said out loud.

Oops.

“Harry?”

He vaguely heard someone say his name, but he was still busy fighting his image of a half naked Hermione.

“Harry!”

That time, he heard it for sure.

“Huh?”

“What did you just say?” Hermione asked, staring at him at him with an inquiring look on her face.

“Who, me?” Harry tried to think of something quick. "Nothing… I think?”

“See, that’s what I’m talking about!" Hermione exclaimed. "What’s wrong with you today?”

“I’m sorry,” Harry said though he did not know what he was exactly apologizing for—his thoughts about her or the way he had been acting. “There’s nothing wrong; I’m just distracted today, is all….honestly.”

She contemplated what he had said for what seemed like a very long time but finally nodded her head and sighed, “All right, Harry.”

Ron, for once, was very glad that all of Hermione’s attention seemed to be focused on Harry.

“So then, what’s with you?” she suddenly inquired, putting her other male friend in the spotlight.

Ron hadn’t expected her to turn to him so quickly.

“Uh what? Oh--er—um…well, I'm just distracted.”

Harry frowned and thought, “Hey, think up your own bloody excuse… that one was taken!"

By this point, Hermione was in no mood for another bizarre or evasive explanation, so she let it go. Besides, she desperately wanted to get to the library for a quick second. Harry had Snape’s detention waiting for him, and he knew what that meant—three nonstop hours of fun.

Ron, on the other hand, had some serious planning to do so he started to head back to the dorms to think.

“I wonder how long the Polyjuice is good for," he asked himself, as he watched his feet and shuffled down the hallway.

“Oh man, I hope Pig doesn’t find it; bloody owl gets into everything” he said as he began running toward his dorm.

His progress was slowed significantly by the staircases that were shifting all over the place.

“Every time I’m in a hurry this happens," Ron screamed as the stairs shifted him in the wrong direction for the third time.

“What-- does Peeves control you guys?” he bellowed angrily when the staircases finally lead him to the Fat Lady who, as his frustration mounted, took her sweet time opening the portrait because she 'didn’t like his attitude'.

“Bloody castle… stupid paintings,” he muttered under his breath as he sprinted across the common room and up the stairs. He let out a huge sigh of relief when he found the bag under his bed, safe and sound.

“Now what?” He asked himself as he sat on his bed.

Think.

---

“Hermione, can I talk to you for a minute?”

Hermione, who was talking to Neville in the Common Room, turned towards him and smiled.

“Sure, Harry.”

“Where?” he asked, looking around with a slightly panicked expression on his face.

“On the couch,” she replied very slowly, pointing in that direction.

“Oh yeah… sure, the couch.” They both walked over and sat down.

“What did you want to talk about?” she began brightly.

“Well…I--uh, wanted to talk to you about...um…er…" then nothing else was said for what seemed like minutes. Hermione just stared at him and waited, but his mind was a total blank.

“Harry? Can I ask you something?” Hermione asked tentatively.

“Er, yeah,” he managed.

“How did you know about my eyes?”

“What? W-What about your eyes?” Her friend said as his anxiety level started to rise.

“With Lavender in class today…how did you know the color was wrong?

“The color was wrong?” he repeated.

Hermione nearly laughed at his dumbfounded expression. “Yes. How come you said that?”

“Uh…because yours are darker?” he guessed.

“What?”

“I like your hair?” he threw out in a panic.

“My hair?” she repeated, taken aback.

“Do you fancy Ron?” he blurted out.

Hermione's expression took on a mask of shock. “What?”

“Are you in love with Har…me?

“What are you talking about?” Hermione was utterly confused.

“Uh…I gotta go,” he said, and he bolted off the couch and sprinted towards the portrait.

Hermione stood from her seat on the couch and watched dumbstruck as her best friend ran away from her.

---

Ron was presently locked in a stall in the boy's loo located down the hall from the Common Room. Breathing deeply, he replayed the events that had just transpired with Hermione while waiting for the potion to wear off.

Everything had been going great. He was sitting on the couch next to her, trying to talk to her about what was on his mind. It was cool to just get some alone time with her. He may have been a little tongue-tied, but he was still composed.

That is, until she asked him about her eyes. He hadn’t seen that question coming, and he panicked a little.

“If you don’t know the answer, just repeat the question,” he had heard someone say before. It was probably George. He gave it a try, but it didn’t really work; she just looked confused, which only made him panic more.

“Think of something else!” He had thought.

So…he complimented her on her hair.

But that didn’t work either!

And then….he turned into a babbling idiot just like with Fleur before the Yule Ball.

"I can't believe that I actually had the nerve to say, ugh," Ron dropping his head in defeat, whispered, "'Do you fancy Ron?'”

"Next, in a brilliant move, I asked her, “’Do you love Harry?'”

The look of shock and surprise on her face had scared him into action, and he just bolted. He rushed across the room only to bump into Luna. “What was she even doing in our common room?” he thought.

She had smiled, looked him straight in the eyes, and greeted him with a, "Hello, Ronald.”

That had only intensified the panic he felt.

Nevertheless, he pulled himself together to say as he patted his chest for emphasis, “No, Luna, it’s me…Harry."

Her smile had widened and she merely replied, “If you say so.”

“You’re killing me, Luna,” Ron had thought to himself.

He looked back at Hermione, hoping she hadn’t heard their exchange. He didn’t think she did because she had turned and hadn’t stopped, and also because she wasn’t chasing him with her wand drawn, hurling hexes at him.

So, he felt he was safe from Hermione but he had still chosen to run for his life.

"Close call," Ron breathed as he stood in the stall.

---

Hermione had taken two steps towards the stairs before she stopped. She turned and looked back at Harry and Luna. Luna was still there, but Harry was no longer in sight.

“I have to at least ask,” she thought to herself as she caught up to Luna.

“Luna?”

“Yes, Hermione,” she replied in her usual dreamy manner. “How can I help you?”

“Well…why did you call Harry 'Ron'?”

“Oh, that wasn’t Harry” Luna answered obviously.

Hermione wasn’t really sure if she wanted to get into this with Luna, but if she wanted to know, she’d have to ask.

“What makes you say that?”

Luna just looked at Hermione and said, “Why, his aura of course!”

Hermione digested this information and then with a sigh probed, “What aura, Luna?”

“The aura that surrounds everyone, of course.”

Her statement was said in such an obvious manner that it nearly infuriated Hermione.

She took a deep breath; this was way too much like Professor Trelawney’s class, but she couldn’t stop now.

“And you can see this aura?” she prodded.

“Certainly,” the blond girl replied and nodded.

“Can you explain it to me?”

“Of course," but she didn't say anything more. Hermione gestured with her hands, urging her on.

Luna blinked, finally understanding.

“You see… everyone has an aura around them. It's sort of a colorful glow that is always surrounding you--and the color can lighten or darken based on your emotions or moods—but your color is, for the most part, your color.”

Hermione nodded.

“Harry’s aura is green, Ronald’s is red, mine is yellow, and yours is blue…normally.”

“Okay…” Hermione thought.

“So, in regards to this aura thingy, what you’re saying is…everyone has their own distinct colored glow and—”

“—the Harry that just left here had an aura that wasn’t green. It was red," Luna finished.

“But you said that Ron’s is red,” Hermione said, perplexed.

Luna smiled.

“So, Luna, if I understand you correctly, what you’re saying is that if Harry can’t be red… then Ron would have to look like Har—”

Hermione stopped in the middle of her sentence.

She clenched her fists.

“I’m gonna kill him,” she thought murderously.

“Wow, Hermione,” Luna said in awe as her eyes scanned her friend's body. “Your aura just got VERY dark!”

“That I don’t doubt for a second,” Hermione replied.

“And it’s going to get a lot darker…for one red aura’d Weasley!” she muttered darkly.

“Excuse me?” said Luna, cocking her head.

‘Nothing,” she said as she tried to manage a smile for the other girl. “Thank you, Luna.”

“You’re welcome, Hermione. Glad I could help.”

Hermione started to walk away but stopped and looking back, she asked, “Luna?”

“Yes, Hermione?”

“Normally…you said that my aura was blue normally…what is it now?”

“Recently, you have started to take on more of a greenish hue,” Luna said mysteriously.

“Green?” Hermione wondered, remembering what the Ravenclaw had said earlier. “But doesn’t that color belong to Harry?”

“Yes...yes it does,” Luna replied and she skipped away, smiling all the while.

---

Although getting even with Ron was at the very top of her list of things to do at the moment, Hermione found her thoughts drifting to what Luna had said about her aura color changing to green—Harry's color.

Hermione sat Indian-style on her bed, pondering her latest findings. “First, do I even believe this whole aura thing?”

“Luna can be rather strange at times, but she can also be quite intuitive as well.”

“There are far too many coincidences for me to just dismiss this,” she reasoned.

To help her gauge these new discoveries, Hermione wrote all of her ideas down.

· Ron had volunteered to dump my cauldron.

· Harry didn’t seem to know the details of what he had told Lavender about my eyes in Snape’s class …and he would remember it, right?

· Harry asked me if I fancied Ron and then, if I loved him in that bizarre conversation a few moments ago.

· Luna calling Harry ‘Ron’.

"Now that I think about it," said Hermione out loud as pieces of the puzzle began to fall into place, "Harry should still be in Snape’s detention for at least another hour. And…. if I’m really honest about that blue to green aura thing, I have been thinking about Harry in a ‘more than just friends’ way a lot more lately than I have in a long time.”

She had all the information she needed, but…

“So….what do I do first?”

“Hex Ron’s bollocks off,” her inner voice answered simply.

"Agreed," she said out loud. Then she shook her head. "No, I have to be reasonable."

“Violence is not appropriate…but...getting even in some other way….that will work.”

A smirk slowly began to form.

---

Harry sat in Snape’s detention, staring at the clock while he completed his assignment.

“Okay, one hour and 15 minutes down. One hour and 44 minutes and 44, 43, 42, 41, 48 seconds to go.”

He straightened up. “48? What the--

Harry then noticed a satisfied looking Professor Snape returning to his desk as he stowed away his wand.

“Don't get so hopeful, Potter," he sneered.

“Ahhhh…..I have to get out of here!" Harry desperately thought as he dropped his head onto the desk in frustration. Just then, as if Harry had willed it, the classroom door opened and in strode Dumbledore.

“Excuse me, Severus…may I have a word with you? It is most urgent.”

Snape's eyes briefly touched Harry's head before he bowed slightly at the Headmaster. “Of course, Headmaster…as you wish.”

“Harry, dear boy, would you mind leaving us?” asked Dumbledore.

“No, of course not, Professor,” Harry said fighting the urge to smile as he packed up his belongings, trying to look as if he was not rushing. He did, however, manage a mental fist pump as he made his way past Snape, but he was very careful not to make eye contact. He could feel an icy chill on the back of his neck as Snape’s glare followed him all the way to the door, but he didn’t care.

Dumbledore winked as Harry passed.

“I’m free… he may get me later, but I’m free now,” Harry thought as he happily climbed the stairs out of the dungeons.

With his detention behind him, his thoughts were once again free to returned to where they had been all day…Hermione.

---

At present, all three members of the trio were lost in their own little worlds.

Harry was wandering the castle while trying to sort out his newly emerging feelings for his female best friend.

Ron was doing what he usually did when he was sad, happy, or confused…well, actually, he was doing what he always did; he was heading to the kitchen to get something to eat.

Hermione sat in the common room, trying to formulate a plan of revenge—or, erm, reasonable course of action.

---

Ron was sitting in the kitchen, eating an entire plate of baked goods given to him by Dobby. As he ate, he thought to himself, “Okay….that didn’t go well, but I do have enough Polyjuice for another try. This time she won’t get me with any unexpected questions.”

At least, that was what he hoped would happen.

“I’ll be calm and ready, now that I know what to expect,” he thought, mentally preparing himself for Round 2. He felt better about things now. It was probably the full stomach that made him feel that way, but oh, well. After dinner, Ron would find a way to send Harry on some wild goose chase and try again.

“Yeah…things are looking up and damn, these cakes are delicious!”

---

Hermione sat on the couch, deep in thought and extremely indignant.

As she did so, she would sporadically vent out loud. Good thing the Common Room was quite empty.

“How dare he do such a thing…to attempt to trick me into revealing my feelings about Harry by impersonating him?”

She gave a small growl. “That was low….I’m surprised he didn’t just hide under the invisibility cloak in Ginny’s room when I slept over.”

“Oh my God,” she shuddered, eyes widening, “I’ve showered at the Burrow!”

“How do I know he hasn’t--” she thought. Hermione drew her robes and hugged herself to stop the chill that passed through her as she contemplated the possibilities.

“No…Ronald would never--”

“Well… I would have thought he would never… right up until today.”

Hermione shook her head. “No, he would never do that.”

Still…she made a mental note to make sure she swept any room she planned to disrobe in with a privacy charm from now on.

“Fine!” she decided as she settled on a course of action. “If he wants to know how I feel about Harry, I’ll just have to show him then.”

---

Harry wandered the castle, aimlessly thinking things through.

“Is this just a hormone thing—this sudden attraction to Hermione?”

“Nah…I kind of dismissed that in Potions class, Lavender did nothing for me, but Hermione sure did.”

“Okay then….what is it?”

“She’s pretty….that’s obvious,” he said to himself.

Harry stopped for a moment, tilting his head in thought, “Actually… much prettier than I had ever realized.”

“That’s because you’re an idiot!” his inner voice scolded.

“Shut up,” Harry said out loud.

“How dare you speak to me in such a manner, young man!” A stuffy, old wizard in the painting that Harry had just passed snapped.

“What?” Harry looked around. “Who said that?”

“Disgraceful…the manners of the wizards today,” the same wizard bellowed.

“I wasn’t talking to you,” Harry said, now facing the painting, slightly annoyed.

“Be off with you, you rude little scamp!” the old wizard ordered.

With a crinkled brow, Harry walked away, looking back with annoyance.

“Crabby old dinosaur…wasn’t even talking to you….where was I?”

“Oh yeah….Hermione,” he said as a slight smile appeared on his face.

“What is it about her? Well, she’s probably the best friend I’ve ever had,” he said matter of factly. Hermione is loyal… like no one I’ve ever met. She’s always there for me, no matter what I get myself into. I can’t even always say that about Ron, but her…nope, she never even hesitates. I mean, if I go somewhere, she goes with me every time.”

“But why? What’s in it for her?” Harry though looking puzzled. “She doesn’t care that I’m famous or anything--never has.”

“Maybe she just cares about you, you damn fool,” piped up his inner voice again.

“You think?” Harry answered the voice.

“Duh,” the voice replied, “Man, your dense!”

“Hey!”

Harry was seriously affronted.

“Well...maybe a little,” Harry said once he thought about it for a second.

“It’s time that I showed some Gryffindor courage and did something about it,” he decided, nodding in agreement with his inner voice.

“Yeah…I think I will,” he said as he strode off towards the common room with a sense of purpose.

Chapter 3

Harry made it to the Gryffindor Common Room in no time and stepped through the portrait, scanning the area for Hermione.

“There she is,” he thought and took a deep breath.

Hermione stood up when she saw ‘Harry’ enter the room. The common room wasn’t very crowded…nothing but a few stragglers.

“Good…that will make this a bit easier,” she thought with relief.

Harry walked over to where she stood and asked, “Hey, Hermione…Can I talk to you for a minute?”

“Sure… let's try again,” she answered.

Harry didn’t understand her reply but decided to just go with it.

“Can we sit on the couch?” he asked.

“Of course, where else?” she said with a smile and headed towards the couch.

Harry followed her with a confused look on his face.

“She’s acting a little weird,” he thought.

Hermione sat on the couch and patted the cushion right next to her with her hand to let him know exactly where she wanted him to sit.

He hesitated for a second as he looked at her. She was smiling up at him, but the space she wanted him to sit in was about ten inches wide and would sandwich him tightly between her and the arm of the couch, despite the fact that the whole rest of the couch was empty.

He looked at her and asked as he pointed to the spot, “There?”

‘‘Harry,’” Hermione said, playfully rolling her eyes at him. To his surprise, she then grabbed him by the arm and pulled him down into the tiny space.

“Don’t be silly,” she said taking one of his hands into hers as soon as he was seated.

“Hermione...are you okay?” he asked this time. Not that he minded the sudden contact…

“Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“I don’t know,” Harry said unsurely. Sitting so close to her was going to make this much, much harder.

Hermione asked, “Now, what was it you wanted to talk about?”

Harry stared at her. ‘Wow. This is going to be difficult,” he thought.

He was definitely unnerved. The closeness to her, the smell of her perfume, and the way she was holding his hand had driven all coherent thought right out of his head. ‘Well…I--uh, wanted to talk to you about...um….ah…” and then nothing.

She smiled to herself. She knew Ron. He would not have tried this again unless he was confident that he could do a better job this time, but her plan had worked; Ron was acting like the same stammering and stuttering goof he was the first time.

“Oh, ‘Harry’," she breathed as she hugged his arm and leaned her head on his shoulder.

“Merlin, she’s making me nuts.” He could feel the softness of her breast against his arm and wow…

When she looked up at him, her face was inches from his. He was starting to sweat; he didn’t know how much more of this he could take.

Hermione started twirling his hair with her finger and blowing it around with very soft breaths… right by his ear.

“That’s it…limit reached!” Harry wildly thought as he shot up off the couch and out of her grasp. He just stood in front of her, looking down with wide eyes.

She tilted her head and smiled at him, a fairly evil smile if anyone wanted his opinion. Hermione stood up very slowly, not taking her eyes off him for a second. Harry actually put his hands up in front of him to protect himself and took a step back.

“Oh my God, she looks like she’s stalking me!” he thought in a panic.

She walked slowly to him and stopped. Harry believed that Hermione was going to stay where she was so, he lowered his hands. Suddenly, she took an extra step closer to him. Harry actually let out a small startled manly squeak.

“Harry…let's not beat around the bush; we both know what we want to happen here,” she said seductively.

“WHAT?”

Harry mouth dropped wide open.

This was not easy for Hermione, of course. Her heart was racing, but thank Merlin this was only Ron. It was still incredibly unnerving, but she knew she could never have done this to Harry—feeling the way she did about him.

“What the hell is going on?” Harry thought. He was almost scared of this vixen in front of him who just happened to look like Hermione Granger. But he knew that this was not his Hermione. He didn’t know what to do or what to think.

Hermione took a deep breath.

“Here we go,” she actually said aloud and she reached forward with both hands, grabbed the front of Harry's shirt, yanked him forcefully to her, and kissed him.

Hermione thought desperately as she felt her lips meet his, “Two seconds and let him go… then we’ll be even, Ronald.”

Harry’s head was swimming; this was exactly what he wanted, but never in a million years could he have predicted the path that would lead him to this.

He was kissing Hermione—Hermione Granger, his best friend. Wow, her lips were so soft, her perfume was intoxicating, and the closeness of her was overwhelmingly stimulating. That was it…he just let go and embraced the moment.

Harry wrapped his arms around her, and for some reason, she actually struggled slightly for a second.

Then she relented.

He kissed her back, hard, and the kiss deepened, becoming much hungrier for the both of them.

Hermione was still holding onto his shirt, but she let go and slid her arms up until they were around Harry's neck. She was now running her fingers through his soft, unruly hair. His hands were caressing her back as he held her. Harry was utterly lost; he couldn’t stop or get near enough to her. He pulled her even closer as he used his tongue to gently open her mouth and then, the explosion of sweetness as their tongues met almost made his knees buckle.

Hermione’s mind had gone blank, she was no longer thinking about Ron or getting even, or that this wasn’t actually Harry she was kissing. She was absolutely gone. She had daydreamed about a moment like this for more years than she cared to admit, but it was so much better for real. Better than she had ever imagined it could be. She was kissing Harry, well….actually they were snogging each other senseless!

And then suddenly, they both broke the kiss as their need for air had made it necessary.

They stood perfectly still for a moment, both of them blown away by what had just happened.

Finally, Hermione found her voice.

“Oh my God, Harry," she said collapsing into his chest. Harry's arms wrapped around her once more.

“Harry?” Her brain started to work again.

“RON!” Her mind screamed at her.

Hermione's eyes grew to the size of saucers, and she forced herself away from Harry as anger rose inside her. She pushed him away with all her might; he was propelled backwards over a chair and crashed to the floor.

“HOW DARE YOU, RONALD WEASLEY!” she screamed as her fury got the best of her.

Harry lay on the floor, stunned. One second, the girl he had spent the entire day dreaming about was wrapped in his arms after the most amazing kiss ever and then….she pulled away from him with a look of utter disgust on her face and threw him back with such force that he ended up on the floor. Next, Hermione screamed at him and called him.... Ron?

He had no idea what to think. But….he panicked and tried to scramble to his feet when he realized that she was looking around for her wand.

A second later, Hermione froze.

Harry stayed perfectly still, only turning his head to follow her gaze.

There with his mouth hanging open and a splattered cake on the floor next to each foot…was none other than Ronald Weasley.

Hermione's head turned from Ron to Harry then back to Ron… and finally, she broke the silence with a deafening scream.

---

Hermione was angry with herself.

“I can’t believe I let myself get caught up like that. It was supposed to be a two second kiss...just to really drive it home to Ron that he should mind his own business. But then..."

“He looked like Harry…. and then when he drew me close, all I could smell was Harry’s smell and the feel of Harry’s arms around me and well….I guess.... My feelings for Harry took over.”

“I’m such an idiot,” she thought.

Then Ron came into her mind.

When Hermione realized who she had actually kissed, that’s when she got upset. She had pushed him because she felt he had taken advantage of the situation. Yes, she may have started the kiss, but he was the one who had escalated it into a snogging session.

“Where’s my wand!” she had wondered. She saw ‘Harry” trying to get to his feet. “Oh no, you don’t… you’re not getting away from me, Ronald Weasley.”

While looking for her wand, she had seen Ron standing by the portrait. He was not on the floor where she thought she had just pushed him. He was standing twenty feet away, frozen and with a look of horror on his face. She looked back at ‘Harry’ on the floor, and then back to Ron by the door, and screamed.

---

Ron had to give the Fat Lady the password three times before she would let him in.

“I can to talk with cake in my mouth,” he grumpily retorted as he stepped into the common room. Ron glanced up…

…And his world shattered.

Standing in full sight were Harry and Hermione ….and they were snogging each other.

Big time.

That was probably the only sight in the world that could have made him drop his cakes…well, other than Voldemort wearing a grass skirt and doing the hula.

He couldn’t move or speak or think. The two of them seemed to be lost in their own world.

At last, they stopped kissing, and then she pushed Harry to the floor and she screamed at him, “HOW DARE YOU, RONALD WEASLEY!”

“Oh crap,” he thought. “She knows about the Polyjuice.”

Now he was frozen in fear because she was looking for her wand, and he had only snapped out of his frozen state because of her bloodcurdling scream. It had actually made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

He had no other choice, no other option. Ron Weasley ran for his life for the second time in one day.

---

Hermione stared at the spot where the real Ronald Weasley had stood. She realized that she had made a mistake—a very, very BIG mistake. The Harry she had just kissed—snogged for Merlin's sake—was actually the real Harry.

Hermione was mortified; she couldn’t even look at him. She whipped around and ran up to her dorm as fast as her legs could carry her. Harry called after her, but there was no way she was stopping. She burst through her bedroom, bolted straight into the loo, and locked the door.

---

“Oh my God…Oh my God, I can’t believe I just did that….with Harry!” she muttered mortifyingly, trying desperately to keep herself from hyperventilating.

There was a knock on the door.

“If that’s Harry, please go away,” she said miserably through the door.

“It’s me; Lavender…what’s going on?”

“Nothing…I’m fine, thank you,” Hermione said as she paced back and forth in the small loo.

Lavender turned to Parvati who was standing next to her.

“I don’t know what happened, but it must have been really good,” she smiled despite the fact that Hermione was cooped up in the small room and was obviously not thinking the same thing. “I have to go find out!”

Lavender ran down the stairs to see if anyone knew what had happened to her roommate.

Hermione was staying put in the loo, and at present, she couldn’t think of anything that would make her come out.

Harry still stood in the center of the room, staring at the spot on the stairs where Hermione had last been. He was at a complete loss.

He had just lived through probably the weirdest five minutes of his life, and for him to be able to say that…well, that was saying something. He had no idea what to think about what had just transpired. He looked around the common room; there were a pair of fourth years in the corner and fifth year girl whose name he couldn’t remember. Unsurprisingly, they were staring unabashed at him.

Harry groaned. His lips still tingled from their kiss; he could smell her perfume on his shirt. He heard footsteps on the stairs to the girl’s dorm, and he looked up hopefully, but it was only Lavender. She saw him and made a beeline right for him.

“Harry, what happened?” she asked when she reached him.

“I have no clue,” he admitted as he shrugged and shook his head. He dropped, numbly, onto the couch.

Lavender reached out and gently touched his arm.

“Harry…maybe I can help?”

He just sat and watched the stairs. “Where is she?’

“She’s locked herself in our loo. If you want me to try to help…please, Harry, what happened?”

“I don’t know…I honestly don't,” Harry repeated as he pulled away from her and headed for the portrait exit.

“Wow, this must have been either really good…or really, really bad,” Lavender muttered to herself.

She looked around and noticed the fifth year girl. She shrugged, and went over, hopefully, to get the scoop.

---

Lavender came back up into the girls’ dorm, blew right past Parvati, and went straight to the loo door.

“Hermione, please let me in; I want to help you.”

Her plea met silence. Parvati gestured to her best friend, trying to get her to spill the details. Lavender waved a hand at her; there were more important matters to discuss.

“I heard what happened…I think?" she tried again.

Again, silence.

“Come on," Lavender begged, sounding desperate, "Hermione, you need to talk to someone!"

Now, out of all the capable people to talk to, Lavender was not at the very top of the list but....

After about thirty seconds, there was a click and the door opened a crack.

Lavender slid into the room and closed the door.

“Lock it, please,” she heard Hermione say.

“Okay…sure.” Lavender wanted Hermione to feel comfortable so she did as she was told.

Hermione sat on the edge of the tub, her face as white as a ghost.

“One of the girls downstairs told me what she saw, but it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense," Lavender immediately said. She saw that Hermione was trying not to listen.

“By the way, Harry asked about you.”

“He did?” Hermione asked with a slight twinge of hope. Then she added quickly, "Is he okay?”

“He didn’t look too good when I saw him. Should I tell you what I heard?” Lavender asked.

“I would really rather you didn’t… but go ahead,” Hermione sighed, defeated.

Lavender went over and sat across from Hermione. “You ready?”

“No,” Hermione whispered with her hands over her face as she shook her head.

“Okay…what’s her name said that to her, it looked like you were coming on to Harry big-time…and then he got up and you walked over to him and grabbed him and kissed him….by the way she said it was a really hot kiss.”

Hermione whimpered through her fingers.

“No….I mean like really hot….like ‘if no one was around, you two would have been shagging on the common room floor' hot!”

“Oh my God…Is that supposed to make me feel better?! I’m going to have to transfer to Beauxbaton. I can’t stay here; there is no way I can face him!” Hermione cried when she finally took her hands away from her face. Then she was quiet for a moment, only looking up to say, in barely above a whisper:

“It was my first real kiss.”

“What?” Lavender exclaimed with a shocked expression.

“What about Krum?” she asked, but Hermione just shook her head.

“Wow,” Lavender remarked. “First kiss huh….It’s always the quiet ones.”

Lavender regrouped and continued.

“Okay….here is where it gets confusing. So, you guys had this amazing kiss, and then you knocked him down and called him Ron. Then you screamed and ran away? That part I don’t get. Is there any truth in that?”

Hermione looked up at Lavender.

“Actually…..in a weird way, it’s all sort of true.” Seeing her roommate's shocked expression, Hermione took a deep breath and slowly began to tell the tale.

She started with Snape’s class and with Ron offering to dump their cauldrons, continuing on to the weird talk with Harry. She then recounted her odd conversation with Luna and told Lavender all the specifics about what had just happened in the common room.

When Hermione was completely finished, Lavender finally spoke, choosing her words carefully.

“So…the bottom line in of all that craziness is that you’re in love with Harry!”

“What? No…that’s not it at all—well, maybe I am, but that’s irrelevant!" Hermione looked as if she was about to burst into tears. “How can I ever face him? I threw myself at him; I’ve totally embarrassed myself! I’ve probably ruined our friendship. I'm sure he thinks I'm totally bonkers. Why would he ever speak to me again—let alone ever even consider dating me?” Hermione said in one long breath as she ranted her way around the room.

“I think you’re wrong,” Lavender simply said. “I think fancies you too.” Then she added quickly, “Not that I believed him, but he did mention that thing about your eyes in Snape’s class.”

“That’s a very subtle thing, you know; that isn’t something you notice about someone if you’re not interested!” she reasoned.

“Do you really think so?” Hermione asked tentatively.

Lavender nodded confidently. “You need to talk to Harry.”

---

Ron was by the lake again, essentially for the same reason as yesterday. But this time he felt worse. He felt really bad-- about his best friends kissing, about his part in it, about trying to trick Hermione—just about…. everything.

He felt a tiny hand on his shoulder and turned to see Luna standing beside him.

He sighed.

“You told her, didn’t you?” he finally asked as he turned and looked back out over the lake.

“What, Ron?” The blond Ravenclaw answered.

“You told her it was me…and not Harry.”

“Yes Ron….I didn’t know I shouldn’t. Besides, not telling the truth is no way to start a relationship—if that’s what you were trying to do.”

“I’d tell you the truth if you asked me,” she added smiling at him.

Luna waited.

“May I sit down?”

“Sure, go ahead,” he replied with a sigh.

“You know, Ronald… if what they are saying in the castle about Harry and Hermione is true, there was nothing you could have done to stop it. Auras don’t lie; any Nargle could tell you that.”

He took a deep breath and then turned to her and asked, trying not to sound annoyed, “What are you doing here, Luna?”

“Well…I thought you’d be upset so I wanted to try to cheer you up.” She replied, giving him a genuine and sweet smile.

He looked at her and shook his head, but he couldn't help himself.

He smiled back.

The two of them just continued to sit together, not saying a word as they looked out at the lake. Every time Ron looked over at her, she'd smile back at him and…. it did make him feel better.

---

Harry sat in the bleachers that surrounded the Quidditch pitch.

“What now?” he thought. "I kissed Hermione…Ron will never forgive me for that. Not after I swore to him yesterday that there was nothing between us. And Hermione…man, what can I do about her. She must hate me; she looked so angry."

Never, in all the years he’d known her, had Hermione directed such a look towards him. It made him feel as if he had betrayed her trust somehow, as if he’d done something totally unforgivable.

Harry suddenly frowned, tilting his head to the side. “Why did she call me Ron? Did she want to kiss Ron?”

He shook his head, frustrated.

“The kiss…Merlin, that was an awesome kiss,” he thought as he allowed himself to smile a little. “Did it not mean anything to her? She seemed to be into it too…well, right up until she knocked me down.”

“Who am I supposed to talk to? I can’t talk to Ron…or Hermione,” Harry finally whispered out loud. He sat for a minute, quietly thinking.

“Yes, you can you idiot!”

“What?" The damn voice in his head was back.

“Talk to Hermione,” urged the voice, "pretend like nothing happened, and do it now.”

“I don’t know if I can!” Harry told the voice.

He continued, “You were there….you saw her knock me down and call me Ron, didn’t you?”

“Yeah….I also saw her give you a tonsillectomy!”

“Hey!” Harry expressed angrily.

“Okay, okay….but you plucked up the courage once…. so….do it again.”

“This voice is maddening,” Harry thought, but it did have a point.

“Fine," he sighed out loud, "I’ll do it….I’m scared… but I’ll do it.”

“Do what?” asked a familiar voice from behind him.

Harry turned, and there stood Hermione.

---

Two months had passed since Snape's Potions class, and all had been forgiven. The friends were sitting in the common room together. Harry sat on the couch with one arm on the arm rest and his other arm draped casually over his girlfriend's shoulder. Hermione smiled up at her boyfriend, tucked in tight against him. She had her legs up on the couch beside her and was listening carefully to Ron.

"No, really....something about the Nargles saying the symmetry of the cosmic aura convergence of red and yellow," he said waving his finger back and forth between himself and Luna, his girlfriend. "Making orange," he added lifting a few hairs on his head to show them the color.

"Supposed to be a good sign or something," Ron finished with a shrug.

Harry and Hermione looked at each other and then burst into laughter, and after a look towards Luna, Ron joined in. Luna wasn't quite sure what they all found so funny, but her boyfriend was happy, so she was happy.

As the friend continued talking, a question concerning the castle came up to which Hermione replied, "No, it's definitely in there. I'll just go get Hogwarts, A History and be right back," and she got up off the couch to do just that. Harry grabbed her hand before she could get away and pulled her down onto his lap.

"Oh, no you don’t! You need to stay right here,” he said. “I’d like to see the Hermione who attacked me on ‘Polyjuice Day’".

“But Harry, I just--” Before she could finish her protest, he was kissing her. When they had finally finished their mind-blowing snog, she said to him, “Harry, will you please stop calling it that?”

“What?” he questioned.

“Polyjuice Day,” Hermione replied and crinkled her nose.

“Are you kidding? I’m lobbying to make it a national holiday! The best day in the life of ’The Boy Who Lived,” Harry said, smiling sweetly at her. “I think it has a real chance.”

“You’re such an idiot, you know that?”

“Can I see that girl again?” he asked with a shy smile.

“Well...she may be around later,” she said, throwing her arms around his neck. Giving him a mischievous smirk, Hermione leaned forward and whispered in his ear, “When we’re alone.”

“But for right now, you’ll have to settle for me.”

“If I must,” Harry replied, sighing with mock disappointment. Hermione smacked his shoulder and feigned outrage. But then Harry leaned over and kissed her and after a second of pouting, she responded enthusiastically.

“Bloody hell…can you give it a rest? Please…For Merlin’s sake, I’m happy for you guys, but you’re making me sick,” Ron complained. “And--I agree with her,” he said, pointing at Hermione and then crossing his arms. “No Polyjuice Day!”

“Because of that damn potion,” Ron continued, “I’m subjected to this mush nonstop.” He then held his hands out to show Luna the intertwined Harry and Hermione.

“Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it,” Harry mumbled as he nuzzled Hermione’s neck, making her giggle. He then winked at Luna who blushed deeply.

“That potion changed my life for the better,” Harry said as he hugged his girlfriend tightly while kissing her neck some more.

“Yours too, you stupid git,” he added and nodded towards Luna.

“Personally, Ronald, I think Harry and Hermione make a very sweet couple," Luna commented as she finally entered the conversation.

“Thank you, Luna,” Harry and Hermione said in unison.

Ron just rolled his eyes before draping his arm over his girlfriend's shoulder.