Hey everyone! Thanks to our reviewers, now you must leave a review for this chapter, cause it is our second last for this story! Enjoy!
By the way, pashed means kissed (heavily), snogged etc, for anyone who doesn't know.
Disclaimer: All characters belong to J.K Rowling.
On the Friday evening of the twelfth of February, Ron, Hermione, Harry and Ginny were all found to be sitting in the Gryffindor common room attempting to get some homework done, and failing miserably due to the fact that Dean and Seamus were getting very loudly drunk off firewhisky. Eventually they gave up and sat around talking about what they were going to do at Hogsmeade the following day.
"Ron, I'm afraid I can't go," Hermione said briskly, as Dean and Seamus waltzed past, singing the National Anthem. "I have so much work to do."
Ron silently cheered in his head. Yes! Now he wouldn't have to think up a reason for meeting Parvati and Lavender.
"Ron?"
Ron quickly came back to earth. "Yeah?"
"I asked if you were still going to go."
"Um," Ron said slowly, "Yeah, I'll probably go with Harry, you know."
"What?" Harry looked around. "No way, mate, Ginny and I are going together. Alone."
"Ah, well maybe I'll go with those two," Ron said motioning towards Dean and Seamus.
Hermione stared at Ron for a couple of seconds, and then turned slowly towards Dean and Seamus, who were at that moment trying to hoist each other up to touch the ceiling.
"I did it!" Shouted Seamus happily, balancing on Dean's shoulders, before falling heavily on two passing first years.
"Those two," Hermione said, raising an eyebrow.
"Uh, yeah," said Ron. He could hear Harry and Ginny stifling their laughter behind him.
"Okay," Hermione said, frowning slightly. "I'm going to go to bed, before Dean and Seamus start doing a lap-dance. Good night." She kissed Ron, waved goodbye to Harry and Ginny, and exited the portrait hole to go to her common room.
"So Ron," Ginny grinned, "What are you really doing tomorrow?"
"What? I was telling the truth!"
"Yeah. Right."
"Exactly. Goodnight," Ron said hastily and ran upstairs.
The next morning Ron ate breakfast quickly by himself and then went to the library to avoid Harry, Hermione or Ginny before he left.
At eleven o'clock, he went down to the entrance hall to meet the Parvati and Lavender. They were standing next to the door, wearing ridiculously small clothing for such cold weather.
"Okay, let's go," he said, glancing around nervously before ushering them out the door. Once they had past Filch, they headed towards the village.
"You girls are so lucky that Hermione is to busy to come today," Ron said, shivering in the cold wind. There weren't many people around the grounds at all, only a few others heading towards Hogsmeade.
"Aw, poor Ronnie, are you cold?" crooned Lavender.
"Don't you worry darwing, we'll keep you warm," Lavender said kindly, and the both wrapped their arms around him.
Ron groaned, annoyed. "Fine," he said, "let's go, before someone sees us."
"Oh, don't worry Ronnie," Parvati giggled, "No one can see us here."
Ron rolled his eyes, grinned slightly. "You girls crack me up," he said, putting his arms around them.
But someone did see them. Someone watching silently from the Head Common Room window. Her face tightened, her brown eyes watched. She pushed her brown hair from her face, and turned away. Who else could that red hair belong to? And who else but Parvati and Lavender would wear clothes like that? And what explanation could they have for this?
Three hours later Lavender, Parvati and a very tired looking Ron emerged from 'Damien's Décor,' Lavender and Parvati talking quickly and excitedly, Ron dragging about twenty large bags.
"All right, Ron," Parvati said, turning to him. "You take all that stuff back to the shack, Lav and I still have a couple of things to do."
"Not more stuff for the shack, is it? Because I don't think we'll be able to fit anything else in it. I mean, we already have three shrunk couches in these bags! I still can't believe I'm doing this." He added as an afterthought. "This is really not me…"
"Oh stop grumbling," Lavender said brightly. "Now off you run." She gave him a small poke in the back and Ron staggered in the other direction. "Wait!" he called after them. "I can't go, I'll be seen!"
"Don't worry," Lavender said, and pulled an invisibility cloak from her bag. She threw it over to Ron, who managed to catch it. "Harry leant it to us."
"I don't want to know," said Ron through gritted teeth. He flung the cloak over himself, turned around and stomped through the snow and sleet. He made his way through the cold wind towards the shrieking shack, hoping that the cloak wouldn't be blown off. He arrived at the tree. Its branches whipped around, even more then usual thanks to the strong wind. Ron dropped all the bags with a sigh of relief, and started searching around for a long stick. He soon found one and after prodding the knot on the trunk, proceeded down the tunnel, dragging the bags with him. He exited the tunnel and stepped into the shrieking shack.
"Oh great," he groaned. It was even worse then he remembered. Everything in the room had gathered at least another inch of dust since he had last been here. Hundreds of spider webs spread across the ceiling wall, several of them inhabited. Ron shuddered in spite of himself. Furniture lay pell-mell across the floor, chairs had legs ripped off, and sofas were torn and had the stuffing spilling out of them. The old striped wallpaper on the walls was peeling off, and the windows and door were boarded off, thought the wood looked like it was rotting away. Indeed, the whole place had a faint smell of dirt and decay.
Ron sat down on an upside down sofa. How had he ever thought this was possible? Oh well, he'd got this far.
He rolled up his sleeves and began to work.
Half an hour later the room looked exactly the same, except that Ron had managed to vanish the mangy old couch he'd been sitting on. But, unless some miracle happened, he'd still be here at Christmas. Just then, two miracles by the names of Parvati and Lavender entered the room by the tunnel. They were both holding huge bundles of flowers in their arms, but promptly dropped them on the floor of the shack in surprise as they entered.
"Argh!" Lavender shrieked. Parvati seemed to be lost for words.
"I warned you," Ron said grimly. "Don't say I didn't warn you!"
"Well, this is alright," Parvati said in a voice quite a bit higher then her usual. "Don't you think, Lav?"
"Uh, yes! Of course!"
Ron shook his head bleakly. "So what are you two going to do first?"
"Well," said Parvati, her voice gradually returning to normal. "I think the first thing to do is get rid of these cobwebs and dust. Also, I reckon we ought to only use this room, because it's going to be too difficult to clean up the upstairs rooms as well. But first the dust and cobwebs…"
"Oh," said Ron quietly. "And how do you girls propose we do this?"
"Why, cleaning spells of course!" said Lavender happily. "Come on, Pav!"
"Pav and Lav," Ron muttered under his breath. "How sweet."
Parvati and Lavender didn't notice him. They were walking around the room, swishing their wands as they went. To Ron's amazement, and utter irritation, the dust and cobwebs started to siphon off. Within two minutes the entire room was almost dust free.
"There," beamed Lavender. "That's a bit better."
"What about all the furniture? It took my ages just to get rid of one couch, how are you guys going to get rid of all this other junk?"
"The only reason it took you thirty minutes to get rid of a couch is because you have no cleaning talents at all," Parvati snapped.
"Oh boo-hoo," Ron mumbled under his breath.
"Vanishing charms just aren't your strength."
"Okay, okay," Ron snapped. "I get it! Come on!"
"Say the magic word," taunted Lavender.
"Thankyou. Now please work your womanly magic."
"Are you saying that you expect women to do this type of domestic work? Because if you are, I will have you know that there are plenty of women in the workforce, and domestic men, for that matter, and just because we are feminine, does not mean we aren't feminists," Parvati lectured, scowling at Ron.
"Okay, Okay, I get it? Lay off. Actually don't. Can you please finish this, for the sake of Hermione?"
"Fine." said Lavender. "You just go sit in the corner and stay out of our way."
This is going to be a long afternoon, thought Ron.
It was seven p.m. The crescent moon was hanging in the dark sky, surrounded by a twinkle of stars, and shining down upon the shrieking shack.
Inside the shack, Ron was still sitting in the corner of the room, shivering, as it was quite chilly, and he hadn't moved in about three hours.
Parvati and Lavender walked up to him.
"Come on, get up!" Lavender said excitedly.
"What, have you finished?" Ron said hopefully, getting up and feeling his aching muscles.
"Yes," said Parvati.
"No, wait!" cried Lavender dramatically, and plucking a single red rose from a vase, placed it, with the air of someone dismantling a bomb, on a small round table.
"Perfect," Parvati breathed.
Ron rolled his eyes. "Anyway, you guys have done a really good job."
It was true. The room was unrecognisable from what it had been earlier that day.
The wooden floorboards were gleaming, the walls and wallpaper untarnished and whole, the windows and door, though still boarded up, looked presentable. A huge chandelier, which had previously lay amid the dust and debris on the floor, now hung from the ceiling. All the old furniture had been removed and the new purchased furniture had been set up around the room, all the small tables had huge vases of red roses set on them. The room smelt better as well, there was a fresh, flowery scent in the air. And then there was the bed. A huge king-sized four-poster was positioned in the middle of the room. It was a beautiful piece of furniture: Dark wood carved into a large four-poster, and the quilt was crimson trimmed with gold.
Ron turned to the girls. "I don't know how to thank you," he said.
"Well, you could start with changing your robes, they're covered with dust and are just completely ruining the beautiful, clean atmosphere," Lavender said critically.
"Yes," Parvati nodded, "I'm thinking, a deep royal… violet."
"I am not wearing purple," Ron said, looking at them in revolt.
They both stared at him, scandalised.
"Are you joking?" Parvati glared. "Purple and violet are two entirely different shades."
"After the few seconds it took Ron to catch up with the conversation, he shook his head and said, "Okay then, but I'm still not wearing… it. I'll just wear clean clothes tomorrow, when uh…" he trailed off and his ears burned red. "I still can't believe I'm doing this," he mumbled.
"Oh come on," Lavender said, slapping him lightly on the back. "You should express your individualities!"
"Um, yeah. Well, thanks for everything."
"It's fine, it was fun, and seriously even if you do become a multi-millionaire, you honestly don't have to pay me back for all the furniture, my parents won't even notice it's gone," Lavender said reassuringly.
"Anyway, do you want to go up to the castle?" Parvati said.
"Yeah, but you guys go up, I just want to make sure everything's perfect for tomorrow," Ron said, glancing about the room.
"Okay, see you!" The two girls left the shack.
Hermione sat in a corner of the Gryffindor Common room, waiting. Ron, Parvati and Lavender had been away for ages, where were they and what were they doing? No- she didn't want to ask herself that. But Ron… he'd never… But what was happening? Hermione hadn't felt this confused in a long time. So she sat silently in a corner, while everyone else talked and chatted around her, waiting.
The portrait swung open and Hermione looked up. It was Parvati and Lavender, and they were smiling.
Hermione stood and walked over to them. They both saw her and seemed to try and melt into the crowd, but Hermione was too quick for them. She blocked them, and stood there, glowering at them. "I need to talk to you." She motioned to the portrait hall. Lavender and Parvati looked at each other and meekly followed her outside the common room and around the corner away from the Fat Lady.
Hermione stood facing them, but then looked away, her eyes were stinging with tears.
"Hermione? What's wrong?" she heard Lavender ask softly. Hermione put her hand to her face to try and stifle a sob, but both girls heard it.
"Hermione…"
"Don't try and act as if you don't know what's wrong!" Hermione hissed, turning back to face them. "I saw you, with him, with Ron, walking up to Hogsmeade! Know a nice place there, do you?" Her fists were clenched; her cheeks pink and eyes flashing while tears welled there.
"No, Hermione you don't understand!"
"Don't 'don't understand' me!" Hermione yelled. "I can't believe this!"
But then Lavender stepped forward. "I can't believe you don't trust Ron!"
"What are you talking about?" Hermione cried, tears now flowing down her cheeks. "I saw you! I saw you! You were going down with Ron to Hogsmeade!"
Parvati half smirked, but seemed to contain herself. But Hermione saw. "See! You're smirking!"
"Yeah, we were doing stuff with Ron," she said slyly. Hermione gave a cry of horror.
But Parvati wasn't finished. "In fact, why don't you go and ask him about it! He's in the shrieking shack."
Hermione stood there for a moment, looking from Parvati to Lavenders' face, and then turned and ran through the castle, on her way to the grounds. Thoughts were flashing through her head at a million miles per hour. She didn't know what to think, how could he? How could Ron do this to her! She had thought that he…
She ran down the grand staircase. Amazingly she hadn't seen anyone on her way, and as she reached the bottom of the staircase she paused and looked around at the side of it. She could still remember when Ron had shown her the secret room in the side of the stairs. She could still remember where they had had their first kiss…
She turned away from the staircase and ran out of the Entrance Hall out into the grounds. It was dark, and she couldn't see very well.
"Lumos!" she murmured, then continued down towards the huge tree set at the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest. She came to the huge tree and paused to wipe tears from her eyes, but then picked up a stick from the ground and angrily poked the knot on the trunk. She slid down the hole and getting up, started to run down the tunnel. Eventually the tunnel opened up and Hermione entered the Shrieking Shack. What she saw shocked her.
The room was completely unrecognisable. The walls were a creamy white and untarnished, the skirting board and a line at the top were magenta, there were flowers of all types around the room, though all were either white, pink or red. There were sofas, carpets and in the centre an enormous bed. And by the bed he stood, facing the other way and uncertainly poking some flowers from a vase into another position. But as Hermione entered, Ron turned around. His face turned from interest to shock.
"Hermione! What are you doing here- why are you crying? What's wrong?" he ran up to her and tried to take her face in his hands but she pushed him off.
SLAP
Ron blinked, mouth slightly open, his cheek burning. "Wha..?
"How could you?" Hermione sobbed. "Parvati… Lavender… I can't believe you. It thought you… I thought you…"
"Hermione!" He grabbed her wrist as she swung her hand again, stopping it a few inches from his face. "You've got it all wrong! I don't like Parvati and Lavender like that!"
"Yeah, whatever!" Hermione cried, trying to shake his hand from her own. "I saw you with your arms around them! And all those times you've been 'busy!' And that note in Potions! And anyway, Parvati just told me! And let go of my arm!"
But Ron didn't let go.
"Hermione," he said hoarsely. "Don't you see? This," he motioned to the room, "It's all for you. They've just been helping me, the girls, but, I mean it's all for you! It was going to be a surprise! Valentine's Day!"
"But…" Hermione muttered, confused. "Why would you do that?"
Ron sighed and removed his hand, but then placed both of his around her.
"Because, Hermione," he said, looking at her face. "I love you."
And then he kissed her.
So, hope you enjoyed this chapter, but please, please, please, please, please review! And this is your last chance to before this story is finished because this is our second last
chapter! So please! Even if you havn't reviewed before, you don't have to log in, you can just click the review button in the corner of the page and leave one anonymously if you want
to! Reviews really do make us write faster, we're not just saying that, we don't know when the next chapter will be up, but it should be up sooner then this one was. However one of
th reasons this was so late is that our computer broke down, and we lost all our files, including the half done chapter 11! So it wasn't entirely our fault.
Love,
Mkanda.