Unspoken Love {Romione}

~15~

The whole school was buzzing about Harry and Ginny after their kiss. Whenever Ron walked through the halls with Harry now, they were accompanied by his sister and he was the one who felt like the odd ball out.

So he started walking with Hermione more. Of course him, Harry and her always were together, but things seemed to have change. Not their friendship, just the amount of time spent with each other. It seemed they got less and less time with Harry.

The time they did get with him was fun though. Times where Ron, Hermione, Harry and Ginny would hang around in the common room helped them feel like normal teenagers for just a moment. It was almost like there wasn't a major war going on at that moment when they joked around together. Ron loved these times and hoped they wouldn't be so rare for much longer.

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Hermione had her nose in a book (what's new). But it was Ginny's book actually, she was helping her prepare for her OWLs, which were only weeks away for Ginny. She asked Hermione to help her one night when she wasn't snogging Harry.

They had been there for what felt like hours, but was probably only one, when Ron and Harry decided to join them at the square table in the library.

They walked in looking like they were seeking attention. "Hey." Harry said, smiling sown at his girlfriend.

Ginny replied to him by planting a kiss on his cheek. Hermione thought she most likely did that to annoy Ron, which worked. Ron made a face and sat down across from his sister.

"Hey I told you, not in front of me." He said.

"Hypocrite." Ginny snapped. Ron made a grumbling sound at her, which Harry found pretty amusing and laughed. "It's true! You and Lavender were disgusting! Weren't they?"

Hermione nodded, so did Harry. It was almost funny to watch Ron's expression. He was upset, yet you could tell he wanted to laugh too.

While Hermione wasn't studying, she spent her time (still) trying to figure out who the half-blood Prince could possibly be. And in her research, she found some interesting information about one 'Eileen Prince'.

When she mentioned it to Harry though, he was ridiculous. "It's not a girl Hermione."

"It's not a girl?" She repeated his words. "Why can't it be a girl?"

"It's just not, I know it." He was smilling like this was some sort of joke.

"What do you think? That a girl can't possibly be clever enough to make up spells and such like that? Is that it?"

"No, obviously Hermione. You're the most clever person I know and you're a girl. I just know the Prince isn't, the things he wrote...a bloke had to have written it."

"That's completely sexist." And that was the end of their discussion of the Prince's gender, for a few hours, at least.

****

Hermione was sitting with Ron in the common room doing some homework one night while Harry was off at detention or with Dumbledore somewhere. He always seemed to be somewhere lately, and now that he was dating Ginny, it meant even less time spent with them all together.

Hermione sat on the couch cross-legged with a book in her lap, while Ron was sitting on the floor below her, using the coffee table as a surface to write his essay on the "affects of the Ignore Cruciatus curse". Snape was really getting lazy with their homework lately. He gave them topics that could only be answered simply. And that was coming from Hermione Granger.

Ron moaned. "I've got an introduction and one sentence, what the bloody hell else am I supposed to write about?"

Hermione sighed and asked the real question he probably meant to ask. "Do you want to see mine?"

"No, it's fine." He said. "If I see yours, then I'm just going to think about what you wrote and not come up with my own ideas, you know?"

She nodded lazily and yawned with exhaustion.

"Tired?" Ron asked. He seemed to be taking a break from his essay and sat beside her with his arms outstretched on the back of the couch.

"It's been a long week." She said. She noticed that Ron was full of energy and smiling unnecessarily wide. She wondered why. "Why are you so cheerful?"

"Dunno." He shrugged. "I just...have a good feeling I guess."

Hermione raised an eyebrow at Ron's smiling face, then turned back towards her book, grinning.

Harry came barging through the portrait hole not even a minute later, scanning the room until their eyes met. He walked over to them quickly.

"Harry are you okay?" Hermione asked, starting to get worried. "What did Dumbledore want?"

"He thinks I'm getting my cloak." Harry said, then he ran up the steps to the boy's dorms, taking them three at a time.

Ron's smile and happy mood had faded by now. He looked confused.

Harry came back from his dorm a minute later carrying the Invisibility Cloak, the map, and what looked like a rolled up sock. He fumbled around with it, and revealed that inside the sock was a small vial. Hermione immediately knew what it was.

"The Liquid Luck." She said, but she wondered why Harry would be needing luck right now. "Harry what's going on?" She insisted.

Harry explained that he was leaving the castle with Dumbledore to find one of the Horcruxes. Hermione gasped in horror numerous times, Ron was asking a thousand questions.

"Listen, do you know what this means?" Harry asked. Hermione stared in reply for him to further explain. "It means Dumbledore won't be in the castle tonight, that's the perfect chance for Malfoy to do something."

Harry shoved the Marauder's map into Hermione's hands. He was completely scaring her, her eyes wide with fear, almost identical to Ron's expression. "Harry-"

"I know he's up to something, and I know it's got something to do with the Room of Requirement. I need you guys to keep an eye out for him, and Snape too."

"Harry-" She tried to start again.

"I haven't got time to argue. Here take this." Harry shoved the vial of Felix Felicis into Ron's empty hands. "Split it between you two and Ginny. Tell her goodbye for me."

"Harry, no you'll be needing this." Hermione's mind was scrambling now. Harry had no idea what he was about to face, and she was terrified for him.

"No I won't, I'll be with Dumbledore." Harry said it with a small grin and left the room so quickly, Hermione didn't even have the chance to hug him goodbye.

For a moment her and Ron stood there staring at each other with worried complexions, then Ginny came down the stairs from her dorm. "Harry back yet?" She asked, then she saw them with the map and the vial, her smile flipped into a frown. "Where is he?"

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Hi friends! I know it's been nearly two months(!) since I've updated this chapter, that's wayyy to long and I apologize, I've just had so much going on with school and work and all that boring stuff that's been piled onto me lately. But I finally wrote this chapter, and sorry it's a cliffhanger :( I hope the next chapter will be sooner.

Thank you all for being so patient, and thanks for reading, it really means a lot to me!

xoxo

~Christie