I said I'd post today! It might be 3 hours later than I planned, but it's here!
And you don't see Harry's reaction in this chapter, but there's an awesome chapter after this with a chase scene, fight scene... yeah, that's the next chapter. You'll see in the next few days (but definitely before September 4th, which is when my school starts)
Oh yeah, bit of a cliffie at the end
And I have a prewritten message I wrote... awhile back. Here it is:

I had a little (ok, a lot) of trouble with this chapter cause I wrote it after getting D.H and during reading so it’s kinda weird to write about a year that’s already been written but w/e! Hopefully it’s ok
And I finished D.H today (July 23, 2007) a few hours before writing this (2 hours before – finished at 7:44pm)
Enjoy!
~Sarah

--
P.S: Yes, I wrote this chapter back in July. I'm working on chapter 25 now actually. The story is coming to an end soon, so probably no more than 30 chapters, and there WILL be a sequel most likely, I have the plot all done out (it was done out in the beginning of August thanks to a song).
Anyways...



Chapter 14
Ron Finds Out

Hermione slowly woke the next morning. She puttered around her dormitory, changing and brushing her hair. When she finished brushing her curly, yet somewhat bushy, brown hair, she looked in the mirror and thought, I should try something new today. She didn’t know why, but she felt like doing a bit of straightening to her hair. After using a series of different spells, her hair was straight underneath, but curled lightly on top.

I should do this more often...

Hermione smiled at her reflection and fixed her clothes. She had finished her homework on Friday, so she had the entire Sunday off. She left her dormitory and ran into Ginny.

“Did you straighten your hair?” Ginny asked as she held Hermione’s hair and scrutinized it.

“I tried; this is the best I got it to be.”

“It’s better than fully straightening it, I think,” Ginny responded with a smile as she dropped the section of Hermione’s hair. “So what’re you going to do today? Anything?”

“I’m not sure yet – I don’t plan anything on weekends,” Hermione responded as she walked down the stairs, Ginny following close behind. They were stopped by Ron, who stood as a barrier in front of the last stair, arms crossed and appearing rather angry.

“Ron, you’re kind of standing in our way,” Ginny said with an obvious tone.

Ron glared at her, and then Hermione.

“What?” Hermione asked, confused.

“You and Malfoy?” he growled deeply, obviously attempting to control his anger.

“Well... yeah, I suppose...”

“What the bloody hell is wrong with you? It’s MALFOY!”

“Look, I should’ve told you about this, but...”

“But you decided to go and romp around in a closet, didn’t you?” Ron cut in. “How sick can you get?”

“Look, Ron...”

“Decided not to tell your friend about any of this, did you? Keep it from him, only making it obvious to Harry...”

“RON!” Hermione and Ginny yelled, cutting him off.

“WHAT?!”

“Look... I need to tell you something very important, but you can’t tell anyone...”

“That you’re with Malfoy? Everyone knows that, Hermione.”

“Just listen to me for one second, Ronald!” Hermione snapped, finally using his full name. Ron backed off slightly, knowing full well she was now furious. “Can I bring you, and Gin, somewhere else to talk about this?”

“No, we’ll talk about it right here,” Ron responded stubbornly. Hermione glared warningly. “Fine, fine... it better not take long though!”

Ron backed away and let Hermione through. She pulled him out of the common room and down the hall, Ginny watching Ron from behind to make sure he didn’t make a fuss. Hermione stopped in front of a tapestry, thinking for a moment.

Screw Harry and him telling me not telling anyone she thought as she pushed it out of the way. “Now be careful because it gets dark fast...”

“Why here?” Ron practically squeaked.

“It leads to a lighted opening. Now come on!”

Hermione led the other two down the hall and up the cold, hard stairs. She felt her way up, and then saw the light get brighter. After a few minutes, they finally made it up. She peered around; checking to make sure Harry wasn’t hiding anywhere.

“Ok, look,” Hermione started.

“Why here?”

“Well... only Harry knows about this place, and he showed me...”

“He showed you but not me?”

“ANYWAYS!” Ginny cut in loudly. She looked at Hermione and said, still knowing full well what was about to happen, “What is this about?”

“Ok, Gin, you don’t need to play, it’s just Ron that needs to know,” Hermione responded flatly.

Ron glared at his sister. “You knew about the two but didn’t tell me?”

“Well she’s telling you know!” Ginny snapped back. “But you’re not letting Hermione talk, now shut up and listen for once.”

Ron was silent and turned back to Hermione.

“Ok, look... ever since that French b... girl,” Hermione corrected herself. “Has been hanging around Harry... Well, when Harry showed me this place, he indicated I should keep it secret, but in a sense that started a fight... it was only a fight, but I kind of made him think we were broken up – he went to Jaimie, they talked and... kissed. I’m assuming after their first snog session a few weeks ago that they’re together.

“Anyways, I went down to the lake and took my anger out on seeing them kiss, and a shadow of a person I kept on seeing appeared again. I chased the person through the forest and tackled them to the ground – it was Malfoy.”

Hermione saw Ron’s anger building, but he was still listening. “He came up with a plan to help me get back at Harry... we appear as though we’re a couple in front of Harry.”

“What about the closet? Why the hell were you two... you know...”

“Ok, so when Harry wasn’t mad enough, he, gin, and I had to come up with some plans to make him jealous and angry. First it was an innocent kiss...”

“WHAT?!” Ron exploded. “YOU... YOU... YOU ACTUALLY KISSED THE FERRET?!”

“RONALD BILIUS WEASLEY! SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO HERMIONE!” Ginny shouted at him. Ron jumped away at the use of his entire name, and by his sister at that.

“C-c-continue,” Ron stammered.

“Small things like that is what Draco...”

“D-D-Dr... why the hell are you using the ferret’s first... never mind,” Ron added with a squeaky, high pitched voice when Ginny started to advance on him with an angered expression.

“Is what Draco and I did,” Hermione repeated with a hard tone. “To try and make Harry jealous. So, when our first idea wasn’t good enough, and when Harry got back at me by snogging in the common room with Jaimie, Draco came up with a better plan to get back at Harry – we go into the closet, ruffle up our clothes and when Ginny said a specific sentence, we come out and appear like we’ve done something.”

“So you... and him... never did... anything?”

“Well... not really.”

Ron looked suspicious.

“Nothing else happened, Ron. Give it a rest,” Ginny snapped, knowing Hermione would get herself into trouble if she tried to lie.

Ron rolled his eyes. He then sighed and said to Hermione, “You know what? If you have to resort to this to get Harry’s attention, what’s the point?”

“If he has to resort to using another girl to get me jealous, what’s the point?” Hermione pointed out. “Don’t try to blame this on me – Harry started it.”

“And how did he start it exactly?” Ron asked as he leaned against the stone banister, looking at Hermione with a hard curiosity in his eyes.

“He was... oh no, you don’t!” Hermione realized what Ron was trying to do.

“Don’t what?”

Hermione’s eyes widened at the new, male voice that had joined the conversation. She slowly turned to the opening that led back into the castle and saw...

“Harry? What’re you doing here?”