Hogwarts Online - The Sequel
Better Title Pending…Maybe
By Liz and Rita
Disclaimer: JK Rowling is the mastermind - not us….and I'm not putting another disclaimer in this story so please take time to fully comprehend the meaning of 'Harry Potter and other related characters and places are owned solely by JK Rowling, Scholastic, Warner Bros, and their respective owners.' Because the only way you would see another disclaimer is if Liz suddenly felt like adding them to random chapters because I certainly am not.
Spoilers: Don't worry - this is pre HBP
Ron glared as his two best friends kissed each other goodbye since he and Hermione had a prefects meeting to attend.
"Hurry up all ready, Hermione, we're going to be late." Ron growled.
"Don't use that tone with me, Ronald!" Hermione said waspishly as she broke away from Harry.
Ron rolled his eyes. "I know its really hard to survive without each other for 30 minutes, but how about you stop slobbering over each other long enough to give it a try?"
Hermione tapped her foot and glared at him. "If you had a girlfriend, Ronald, you'd be doing this too, so shut up!" Then she turned to Harry. "See you later, Harry!"
"Bye Hermione," Harry whispered, still somewhat red from kissing in front of their best friend, and then added, "Oh- bye Ron!"
"Yeah, yeah..." Ron grumbled as he and Hermione made their way to the meeting.
When they arrived in the prefect meeting room most were already there. Once the remaining prefects entered and took their seats the head boy and girl rose to begin.
"Teasing and taunting which we have to deal with has been on a rise since people started discovery who others were on Hogwarts Online." The head girl, Marie Elle, said with a sympathetic frown.
"We have been brainstorming several ideas on how to decrease this growing problem before some of our peers turn from simple name calling to using jinxes and curses." Robert Dahl continued.
"To solve this problem we have decided - along with Professor Dumbledore - that we will delete all user accounts on the database so everyone will have to make new ones...so things can be anonymous again. Professor Dumbledore is alerting the teachers to this change as we speak." Marie said seriously.
"Furthermore it will be up to us as prefects to enforce these new rules and make sure we pin announcements to this change on every school and house bulletin board. Any questions?" Robert asked.
Ron raised his hand, "Yeah...did you two practice that little speech or did it just happen that way?"
Hermione glared at him as Marie replied with, "Um... we brainstormed what we wanted to say, if that's what you..."
"Any other questions?" Robert asked, completely ignoring Ron.
A girl named Ellie raised her hand. "Are we allowed to tell our friends our screen names?"
Marie glanced at Robert and let him answer. "No. - I know, I know, it's annoying... but if they're really your friends they'll know its you, right? Any more questions?"
"I think that whole secret screen name business is ridiculous!" Hermione sighed as they walked out of the meeting. "I mean, it took Harry and I forever to figure out it was us! What's going to happen now!"
Ron was silent for a moment before replying, "Maybe this will be a test of your relationship...if you guys are really as close as you think you are you guys will know each other instantly, won't you?"
Hermione glared at Ron, but then her expression turned starry-eyed. "Maybe... Maybe if we're really meant for each other..."
"Okay, okay, don't tell me the details, please."
Hermione grinned. "Hey, Ron, maybe you'll meet a girlfriend in the new chats!"
"Maybe..." he said slowly, not truly believing it would ever happen. They walked to the Gryffindor common room and found Harry and Ginny in the middle of a heated argument.
"You've got to be kidding, Harry, there is no way that Viktor is a better Quidditch player then John Sterben!" Ginny screeched. Hermione felt herself get somewhat jealous at the way she was sitting: facing Harry on the couch, right by his chest.
"John Sterben doesn't know his right from his left!"
"Yes he does!" she grumbled.
"Hi, Harry -" Hermione started.
Harry laughed. "You wouldn't be able to tell with the way he's been playing! I mean honestly, he went left right after the announcer said, 'and to his right - there's the snitch!'"
"...Hi, Harry," Hermione tried again.
Ginny chortled. "BECAUSE HIS TEAMMATE WAS HURT AND HE WAS TRYING TO HELP!"
"Yeah, what a vigilant-"
"HI, HARRY!" Hermione shouted, practically waving her arms in Harry's face.
Harry and Ginny were immediately shut up, and Ginny looked somewhat embarrassed and flushed. "Hi, Hermione! Well, it's best if I, y'know, get going - get my homework done early and all, you know, stuff like that, because if I don't get it done now... I never will! You taught me that Hermione!" she babbled, walking backwards towards the stairs to the girl's dorms. "And what a good lesson it was, eh? Well- I should go get...y'know...started! KBYE!"
"What. Was that. About?" Ron asked slowly.
"Um, I don't know, hi guys! Well, I should go - I'm sort of tired, and Ginny was right about that homework thing!" With a quick - very quick- peck on the cheek, he practically ran up the stairs to the boy's dorms.
"You don't think - no no why would they?" Hermione laughed nervously, her eyes darting around the common room.
"I have no clue what your on about...er...but you...seem edgy...you haven't been smok-"
"Ronald Weasley!"
"Sorry! ..Want to go get a bite to eat?"
"Okay...I didn't eat dinner and -"
"I know you didn't eat dinner, I was there."
"Right. Anyway when we get back would you ask Harry what all that was about?"
"Sure sure, let's just go...I'm in the mood for a bowl of rice pudding"
Hermione gave him a look, and then glanced back at the dorms. "Shouldn't we see if he wants to eat, at least?"
Ron was looking at the ceiling, deep in thought. "Do you know if they even have pudding anymore? They haven't had it in a few days... Maybe they -"
"Ron."
"Yes?"
"I don't care about rice pudding. I care about whether my boyfriend and your little sister are having an affair. Not about pudding."
Ron rolled his eyes. "I doubt he's hungry, he probably ate already. When we come back, I'll ask, okay?"
"Oh, thank you, Ron!" Hermione smiled, hugging Ron. Ron blushed and muttered, "dontmentionit" as they began walking to the kitchens.
Ron and Hermione walked through the halls, Ron with a stony look and Hermione with a nervous one as she occasionally wrung (is that right?) her hands nervously.
"Will you stop that Hermione? We won't get in trouble...we're prefects!"
"Are you sure? Your brother Percy used to stop prefects in the halls after hours when he was Head Boy...who's to say Robert isn't the same way?"
Ron rolled his eyes. "I saw him and Marie getting cozy in the prefect's bathroom, I don't think they're in any position to yell at us."
"Cozy?" Hermione asked, "You don't - oh you do...I don't think I want to bathe in their anymore."
Ron stifled a chuckle as he tickled the pear in the painting of the bowl of fruit that lead to the kitchens. Inside dozens of house elves were cleaning the kitchen for the night.
"Ah hem." Ron coughed loudly to get their attention. Every house elf in the kitchen stopped and turned to look at the two prefects in the doorway, bowing so low their noses brushed the floor.
"Erm...we're hungry," he said, and quickly the house elves went running around the kitchens in a desperate search for food.
"Ron, they don't look as happy as you made them sound," Hermione sighed, bending down to look at a small house elf struggling with what seemed to be a large pitcher of water. "Do you need help?"
"Oh, no miss! I'm fine, miss!" the house elf said as large amounts of water splashed on the top of her head.
"I don't know, Ron, I'm not that hungry..." she said slowly, as her stomach betrayed her and let out a deafening roar.
Ron smirked. "You were saying?"
Hermione looked around, as if someone might catch her, and then said, "I'd like a pudding too, please... with... some whipped cream? Maybe?"
"Yes, miss!" the house elf smiled before she ran off to get their food.
"I see you've abandoned spew, eh?" he said rather smugly, grinning ear-to-ear.
"I have not!" Hermione said defensively, "It's...just I can't get much support...and the elves make it really hard for me to help them...and its S.P.E.W, not spew."
"Right - why can't you just face the fact that most house elves don't want to be freed...it's like one of their instincts."
"It's not their instinct, it's a -"
"Miss? Your pudding with whipped cream?" The house elf said, coming back with a large bowl filled with cascading whipped cream.
"Oh. My. God," Hermione whispered to herself, earning a grin from Ron. "Thank-you."
"Yes, miss," she replied, disappearing into another room, leaving she and Ron alone. Hermione took a bite into the pudding and could have screamed; it was most definitely the best tasting pudding she had ever tasted, and she 'mm!'-ed for effect.
"I take it you like it, then?" Ron asked with a chuckle as he dug into his own pudding.
Hermione nodded - unable to speak due to the large about of pudding and whipped cream in her mouth.
"Oi - Dobby - what are you doin' nosin' around like that?" Ron asked suddenly, spotting the elf peeking at the pair from around a stove.
"OH!" The elf exclaimed at being caught, "Dobby is sorry, very sorry to have bothered Harry Potter's Wheezy."
"...Dobby...it's...Weasley."
"Right, right, Wheezy - Dobby isn't supposed to be here... Dobby was told not to get caught! BAD DOBBY! BAD, BAD, DOBBY!" He yelled, grabbing a knife.
"OH MY - Dobby, stop this instant!" Hermione exclaimed while taking the knife from Dobby.
"Who told you not to get caught?"
"Ohhh, Miss! Please don't make Dobby tell, please don't!"
"Why? What'll happen to you?" Ron asked as he spooned more pudding into his mouth and watched Hermione continue to wrestle the knife from the elf.
"Ohhh! He'll get so mad and Dobby doesn't want to make Harry Potter mad - ohhh! I told! No! No! Dobby is bad! So bad!" Dobby screamed as he struggled out of Hermione's grasp and ran towards the nearest stove.
Ron yelled, "DOBBY! STOP!" as he picked the tiny elf up, legs still kicking in motion
"Harry? What do you mean - oh, he's got some nerve! Getting a poor, innocent house elf to do his bidding because he thinks I'm - with Ron, honestly -"
"Hey! What's that supposed to mean? I'm not good enough for you to cheat with?" Ron asked, a tone of hurt in his voice.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "- And he's one to talk, considering he was fighting - play fighting - with a girl who's had a crush on him for ages! What's he trying to gain?" Hermione mumbled, stabbing her pudding.
"He's jealous," Ron replied, looking at her to see her expression, which was shock.
"Of what!"
Ron couldn't deny it; her words stung him. It was not only that she called what they had - which Ron viewed as flirting and more then just friendly behavior - as nothing, but that she also couldn't see how anyone could even think of putting she and Ron's name in the same sentence if they were talking about dating.
"I...don't know." Ron said in a defeated tone.
Ron struggled to keep up with the furious Hermione. She had only grown angrier as she ate her pudding and thought about what her boyfriend had done. Now she was rather like an out-of-control train which was at full speed - if one were to get in front of her they would be severely injured and have several points deducted in the process.
As soon as she had entered the common room, which was still rather full since they didn't have classes in the morning, everyone stopped talking.
Hermione ignored the stares as she stomped over to the boys staircase, "HARRY JAMES POTTER! You gets your sorry arse down here right this moment before I come up there and kick it down the stairs for you!"
"Bloody hell, Hermione - did you say arse?" Dean Thomas asked with a slight smirk. Hermione simply shot him a glare the instantly wiped all traces of said smirk off his face.
"I'd move if I were you," Ron said quietly to Dean, who was standing in between Hermione and the stairs. Dean simply nodded and ran up, meeting Harry in the doorway.
"What the bloody -"
"Your girlfriend's gone mad!" Dean whispered. "Good luck, mate."
The scene completely changed when Harry met Hermione's eyes. It was like a shootout in those old country movies; everyone was either seated or out of the line of fire, and Ron could have sworn he saw a tumbleweed roll by.
"Er, Herms -"
"DON'T YOU 'ER, HERMS' ME, POTTER!"
Ron cringed; last-name-bases was never a good sign. He couldn't decide whether to feel for Harry for being put in such an uncomfortable situation, or to be overwhelmed with happiness at the fact that if she was single, he had a chance.
"What'd I do, Herms?" Harry asked cautiously, shooting Ron a rather pitiful 'Help me' look.
Ron mouthed, 'She's your girlfriend', back at him.
"Don't act like you don't know!" Hermione hissed dangerously, her eyes flashing.
"But Hermione, I don't." Harry insisted on his innocence.
"Maybe I should refresh your memory. YOU SENT DOBBY TO SPY ON RON AND I! As if you didn't TRUST me! WHAT DID YOU THINK I WAS GOING TO DO! SNOG HIM?"
Ron cringed. He was just not getting a very good reputation, and now every girl in the room seemed to be wondering, 'is he that bad of a kisser?'
Harry's eyes turned wide. "Well, no - it's not like that, you see -"
"I'm listening."
Harry cleared his voice. "Okay, well, er -"
Soon, a very disgruntled and tired-looking Ginny Weasley stumbled out of the girl's dorms, a 'I'm going to kill someone right now' look in her eye. "WHAT'S GOING ON OUT HERE, AND WHY ARE YOU SO BLOODY oh, hi, guys..."
Ron shot his little sister both an amused and sympathetic look as a hysterical Hermione turned on her, "Oh, hi, guys? Hi, guys? IS THAT ALL YOU CAN SAY FOR YOURSELF?"
Ginny just stared at the older girl as if she had gone nutters.
"What? Nothing to say for yourself?" Hermione asked angrily, on the verge of hyperventilating.
"Hermione -" Ron said carefully, trying hard not to cringe as she stared daggers at him, "You need to calm down - you're going to get sick acting like this."
"Only that you're a scarlet woman!" Hermione cried, her anger seeming to have vanished and replaced by sobs, "And you, Harry! I can't believe you! Making a poor innocent house elf spy on me like that! We're- we're through."
Hermione suddenly turned on heel and rushed out of the common room. As soon as the portrait swung shut behind her the common room erupted into a buzz of hushed whispers. Harry and Ginny looked at one another, and then at Ron, each looking confused - and Harry a tad guilty.
Ron shook his head with a sigh before following after Hermione - who he assumed had gone back to the kitchens for a nice bit of chocolate.
"...Did I miss something?" Ginny asked, not hurt at all by Hermione's...antics (She had gotten in more then one screaming match with Hermione and found that Hermione was easily beaten.)
Ginny turned to Harry, "You sent Dobby to spy - on - HERMIONE!"
"Er, well - no... okay, well, maybe, but -"
"You're an idiot!" she cried, scratching her head. "SHE JUST BROKE UP WITH YOU."
"Thanks for repeating it for the late arrivers," he cringed, watching two unknowing first years climb through the portrait hole.
Ginny grumbled. "You're an idiot!"
"I got that, thanks!"
"Whatcha gonna do now, mate?" Seamus Finnigan asked, slapping Harry on the back.
"What do you mean, what is he gonna do? He's going to go outside and tell Hermione he's sorry!"
Harry nearly choked; all the girls in his life seemed to be sending him mixed messages. He had been under the impression that Ginny still liked him... yet here she was, trying to put them back together!
"What?" Seamus laughed. "Harry didn't do anything! Merlin, a guy can't care about if his girlfriend is snogging someone else?"
Ginny crossed her arms. "You can care - but you can't spy."
Dean, appeared from behind Ginny and put his arm around her, causing Harry to feel his dinner churn uncomfortably. "So how do you know if your girlfriend's lying or not?"
Ginny made a disgusted face and moved her boyfriend's arm. "It's a little thing called trust," she said, keeping eye contact with Harry, "and I think you all need to learn it before you even think about getting girlfriends!" With that, she walked back into the dorms room.
"Is it me -" Harry asked tiredly, "Or am I having a spot of bad luck with girls today?"