Unlikely Beginnings

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Chapter Twelve

There weren\'t that many people in the common room, and Harry had to look at
a clock above the fire place to find out what time it was. Nine twenty four,
it read, and Harry was a bit shocked that he\'d been gone so long. There was
a group of students from several years playing wizard\'s chess, and as he
looked around, he saw his friends still down. They were watching him
expectantly as he neared them, and he frowned. \"What?\"

He looked to Hermione, who had a concerned frown on her face, and looked at
him suspiciously. He reached up to pat his hair down again, and realized it
felt a little damp, and still messy. He hadn\'t wet it down when he stopped
to clean himself up, and he realized it might not look like it was wetted
with water, either. When she didn\'t say anything, but shook her head to
indicate she had nothing to say at the moment, Harry moved to sit down
beside Ron at the other side of the table.

Ron had looked up when Harry came in the room, and didn\'t say anything until
Harry sat down beside him. \"What took you so long?\" he asked, setting aside
a Transfiguration assignment that Harry noticed was supposed to be handed in
earlier that day.

\"Stopped in the library,\" Harry lied, averting his eyes and focusing on
opening his bag which he\'d set on the table. \"Guess I lost track of time,
huh?\" he said, giving a weak chuckle, looking to Hermione. He hoped she
would understand completely what he was using as an excuse, knowing that
she\'d actually done what he was pretending to have done many times in the
past. Hermione didn\'t buy it for one second, and Harry saw she was obviously
looking for any new book he\'d signed out, and he clearly didn\'t have one.

Harry pulled the strings open on his bag and reached in to pull out his
Divination homework, and Ron\'s as well. \"Here\'s your work, Ron,\" Harry said,
bringing the papers out, and hearing a small thud against the table as he
did. He froze, staring at the jar as it rolled carelessly for a few inches
before running out of momentum. It rocked back and forth for a moment, and
all three of them stared at it.

Almost as if they\'d planned it, in unison, Hermione and Ron both looked at
Harry questioningly. Harry looked back at them and immediately blushed. He
coughed, embarrassed, as he reached for the jar. He picked it up and shoved
it hastily back into his bag, and began to shuffle the papers and sort out
Ron\'s from his own.

Hermione really didn\'t think Trelawney was right, and that Harry suddenly
developed a rash; in unseen places, indeed. What on earth would he have used
the half of the purple oil for, then? Ron stared at the spot where the jar
fell, and then at Harry\'s bag, then up to Harry, and then quickly back to
stare blankly at his Transfiguration paper. Hermione cleared her throat
barely audibly and was flipping pages in her book, feigning looking
something up.

Harry glanced between the two of them, wondering what was going on. They
seemed to be themselves until he\'d come and sat down with them. What was
going on? Ron had barely written half a sentence on his parchment, and
Hermione had a few pairs of new hats she\'d knitted for the house elves
sitting beside her in a pile. Oh, no, Harry thought. Neither he nor Draco
had spared any thought to clean up the mess they\'d made. It must reek of
sex, and clearly look like it as well. Harry\'s eyes widened, still staring
at the little hats, and trying to fight back another blush. He hoped the
elves wouldn\'t know who it was.

None of them spoke, and the tension between the three of them hovered
ominously until Harry cleared his throat, much louder than Hermione did.
\"I\'m gonna head off,\" Harry said, a bit uncomfortably. He felt like he was
trying to escape. These were his friends, though, and he wasn\'t running away
from them. How was he supposed to tell them where he\'d really been? He
shoved his own papers back into his bag, leaving the ones he\'d picked out as
Ron\'s on the table. He lifted his pack over his shoulder, saying goodnight
to his friends as he left. Hermione and Ron looked at each other, and Ron
shrugged. She sighed and they both started packing up their own books and
going up to bed themselves.

@>*~

Hermione Granger wasn\'t quite a morning person, but she had her days. Today
she\'d woken up before the sun had barely poked its rim over the horizon.
First, she\'d simply rolled over and tried to go back to sleep. Then, about
an hour later, she woke up again, and this time decided to get out of bed.
It was seven thirty by the time she\'d finished in the bathroom, and she put
her toiletries back in her trunk and grabbed her book bag.

She headed downstairs, intent on giving her homework another once over
before going to class. She supposed she could do it during breakfast, but
she did feel hungry, and wouldn\'t have time to go over both her
Transfiguration homework and read the Daily Prophet while trying to eat in
the meantime. No, she\'d do it now and read the news during breakfast. As she
reached the bottom of the stairs, she made her way over to her and her
friends\' usual table. It was off to one of the corners of the large room,
because she liked to have privacy and as quiet of a space as she could in a
public room to do her homework.

It was a good place, she thought. Over the years and through the many
adventures they\'d been caught up in, they could always come to their table
and taboutbout it. Hermione set her bag down on the bench beside her and
pulled out her Transfiguration text book. She flipped it open to the page
she\'d stuck her homework in. Reaching over to her pile of knitting, she
picked up her latest project. She\'d progressed from socks and hats to
starting to make half decent sweaters for the house elves.

It must not have been five minutes later when Hermione looked up to see what
was making such a racket on one of the stair wells. She chuckled when a very
disheveled looking Ron stumbled off the bottom step of the boys\' stairs. He
groaned as he made his way over to the corner, scratching his head as he
went. Ron was clearly not awake, and he had no idea why he\'d actually gotten
out of bed yet. He supposed it could have been because he couldn\'t get a few
things out of his head, specifically things concerning his friends.

He\'d been rather confused last night when Harry had come back to the common
room. He really didn\'t look like he had been in the library and that was a
bit of an unsettling thought for Ron. Hermione had looked about the same as
him, though he knew she probably had a better hypothesis about Harry\'s
appearance than Ron had. \"Morning,\" he said, followed by a yawn, as he sat
down across from Hermione.

\"You look rested,\" she quipped, smiling at him as she continued her
knitting. Ron would have rolled his eyes at her if he didn\'t think that
would over exert them and slam them shut again, which was exactly what they
wanted to do anyway. He brought a hand up to rub the sleep out of his eyes,
and was glad that it woke him up some. He groaned again and took a deep
breath before folding his arms over the table and unceremoniously thumping
his head down on them.

He wished he could go back to bed, but he\'d never get up in time for his
first class if he did. Not to mention he didn\'t want to stir up any more
thoughts like the ones that had permeated his dreams. The other day when he
and Hermione had been in the library, their brief conversation had really
stuck with him. Really, how could you tell if someone was a virgin or not?
She wouldn\'t have been trying to tell him something. Would she?

He heard the knitting needles clink softly against each other in an almost
hypnotizing rhythm, trying to lull him back to sleep. Then they\'d stop, a
page would be shuffled, and they\'d resume. When they stopped and didn\'t pick
up again, Ron frowned into his arm.

\"Ron,\" she started, looking down at her knitting. Ron liftes hes head from
its rest on his forearms and looked at her, glad for the distraction, and
hopefully it\'d wake him up a bit more before breakfast. She knew he was
looking at her now, wondering what she was about to say, and she made
herself look up and meet his eyes. \"There\'s something I have to tell you.\"

Ron looked back at her, suddenly not as sleepy as he thought. In his
experience, when someone used e woe words, it was bound to not be good. A
silence grew between them as Ron waited for her to speak. A few muffled
thumps from above barely cut into the quiet, and Ron dimly recalled seeing
Seamus teetering very near the edge of his bed. He began to worry if
something was wrong, if Hermione really had something serious to tell him.

He was about to ask her if she was okay when she finally spoke. \"I\'m not a
virgin.\"

Ron\'s lower lip drooped open, and he stared back at her, almost not thinking
he\'d heard her. She looked as if a great weight had been lifted from her
shoulders, but as the silence returned, seemingly so did the weight. \"Okay,\"
Ron said. He wanted to smack himself on the head when he heard his own voice
saying such a stupid thing in response. Was that the best he could think of?

He supposed it was when he\'d never have guessed that was what she was about
to say. He would have thought she would say something like, \'Oh, Ron, do you
think I got a P on that Transfiguration quiz?\'. Or, maybe, \'I hope the elves
like these colors\'. But, no; she\'d answered the exact question he was trying
to get his mind to stop thinking about. Hermione sighed and shifted
uncomfortably, and he realized he\'d simply been staring off into space for a
moment. \"Uhm,\" Ron scrambled for something else to say. \"Do you want to talk
about it?\"

Hermione nodded and took a steadying breath. \"It wasn\'t bad, or anything
like that,\" she began, not wanting Ron to jump to conclusions. She knew that
Ron had been jealous of her relationship with Viktor, and she had never told
them why they\'d broken up. Hermione knew Ron well enough to know he\'d think
this might have been a reason they broke up, if Viktor had hurt her in any
way. \"It was in Hogsmeade, last year. A few months before we broke up during
the sr, wr, we... had a moment, and it just happened.\"

Ron listened, a little well of anger towards Viktor Krum started to form
inside of his chest, but he wanted to let Hermione tell him what happened.
He needed to know whether or not he had to go kick some Bulgarian butt.
First, he\'d have to find out where Bulgaria was, though. \"I guess I don\'t
really have much to say about our sexual experience, but more so on why we
broke up.\" She sighed, \"I know it\'s silly, but I suppose I never thought I\'d
break up with someone I\'d slept with. You know, that I\'d sleep with someone,
and they\'d be my first and last type deal.

\"I feel bad that there wasn\'t a strong enough foundation for us to work on
as a couple. We didn\'t have much in common, not to mention being from
different countries. He was always more into his work, playing professional
Quidditch. He never really spared much time to pay enough attention to me.
Not that I didn\'t want him to partake in something he enjoyed, but it just
got to be too much. We were too different, and I think that when we had sex,
it was a last attempt to see if the relationship was going to work, or not.\"

She never thought Ron or Harry would make fun of her and stop being her
friend if she told them, but she didn\'t think it right to overemphasize
about her sexual exploits. Mentioning it in a conversation that led up to it
was one thing, but just coming over right after and telling them all about
it was another. In some ways, this had been building up between them, and
she thought they had a right to know; they were her best friends after all.

\"I would have told you all of this before now, but...\" Hermione sighed. Men
had it a lot easier than women when it came to confessing they\'d slept with
someone. That was something universal between Muggles and Wizards both;
she\'d have to bring that up in Muggle Studies some day. Of course, she
didn\'t want people speculating about who she might have slept with to think
of this subject. Maybe if she was in another relationship, with someone she
really cared about, then she wouldn\'t mind if people thought what they
wanted to think. \"You don\'t think I\'m shallow, do you?\" she asked, looking
at him hopefully.

\"No!\" Ron said quickly. \"I mean, just because you didn\'t share the same
interests that doesn\'t make you shallow. It just means,\" he paused, trying
to think of how to proceed. He waved his hand a bit, trying to wave the
right words out of his mouth. \"That maybe it was just boring for you. You
can\'t expect to stay with someone who bores you, right?\"

Hermione shrugged, not looking too convinced. \"I do like sitting and having
a chat, but I\'m just not that interested in professional Quidditch.\"
Hermione sighed. She did like Quidditch, but her interest lied mainly in
simply watching the game, not debating its strategy. There was also only so
many matches she could watch, but she didn\'t want to tell Ron that. His mind
might boggle over how someone couldn\'t watch Quidditch day in, day out. He\'d
probably say she was no fun. \"I\'m dull,\" she said quietly, looking down at
her knitting still in her lap.

Ron didn\'t know what else he could say to reassure her that she wasn\'t
boring herself. He knew she would be trying to tell herself that the reason
why she broke up with Viktor was because she thought she was boring. With
Krum\'s accent, Ron didn\'t think he could listen to him talk about anything,
even Quidditch. \"Hermione!\" Ron said, aghast, making her look a bit alarmed.
\"You\'re not dull! How many times have you up and ran around with me and
Harry? That was great fun.\" She perked up a bit at that, and one side of her
lips twitched into half a smile.

\"I wouldn\'t want someone like Cho,\" he contin \"H \"Harry has complained
enough times about that whole deal to turn me off that kind of girl. Too
emotional.\" Ron shook his head, looking a bit disgusted. Hermione nodded,
knowing full well that Ron wasn\'t the mushy romantic type; though he had his
moments. \"Or someone that couldn\'t bend a few rules, or who wasn\'t up for a
spot of adventure. I\'d want someone like... like you!\" He couldn\'t believe
he\'d said that, but he had been on a roll. Hermione looked up at him, and he
wished he knew what she was thinking. He felt his cheeks start to flush, and
he looked away for a moment, trying to will the blush away.

\"Thanks, Ron,\" she smiled, a whole smile this time. \"Maybe you\'re right,\"
she admitted. She wasn\'t quite sure why Viktor had asked her out to begin
with, but looking back, they really weren\'t suited for each other. She
should look for someone that she shared more interests with, someone she
could share things with. Someone like Ron.

She looked at the boy across from her. They already knew they had lots of
things in common, yet still many things that were unique to each of them.
Hermione accepted that Ron had more of an interest in sports and chess than
she did, and Ron felt the same way about Hermione and her books upon mounds
of books she claimed as light reading. Even if he could never do it himself,
and sometimes teased her about it, he wouldn\'t want her to change a thing.

Ron was still trying to sort out all the newfound information. Classes were
by far worse for trying to remember things than this was, though this had
the advantage of being much more important than Transfiguration. He didn\'t
feel right about the whole idea of Hermione having slept with Krum, but he
supposed she would have had sex sometime. She couldn\'t wait for him forever,
could she? The moment that thought dawned on him, he knew his eyes widened.

How could he have missed this? He felt almost cheated out of something he\'d
wanted for a long time, only to have it snatched away by someone else. He
had always thought he\'d be her first, and that was enough to make him a
little peeved. There was no way he could be mad at her for it, though. She
had a life and could make her own decisions. Ron supposed he did sort of
have his head up his arse when it came to seeing how much of a pretty girl
Hermione was.

Another lull between them, though it wasn\'t so silent, as more people were
starting to get up and at them. Hermione had done a few more stitches into
the sweater as she thought about things, and she stopped, looking back up to
Ron. He looked like he was staring at a particularly interesting knot in the
smooth wooden surface of the table, but she knew he was thinking. Ron,
feeling her eyes on him, looked up to meet them. They were still as their
eyes met, and Hermione almost forgot what she was going to say.

\"There\'s a Hogsmeade weekend coming up,\" Hermione said quickly, not quite
able to keep her eyes on Ron\'s. She stuck her knitting needles through the
ball of yarn she was working off, and set the half finished sweater on the
table. \"Do you, uhm,\" she coughed, \"want to go?\"

Ron smiled automatically, not able to help himself. He knew she wasn\'t just
asking if he was going to go because he could if he wanted to; she was
asking him to go *with* her. \"Sure.\" There was no other answer to that, he
thought. He almost couldn\'t believe it. He\'d been so blind to how wonderful
a girl that Hermione was, his best friend! Ron had had a little crush on her
since about Fourth Year, but he\'d never given much thought to it until
lately.

Any thoughts along these lines in the previous years had never gone away,
only backed off into his mind and strengthened themselves. He could never
say he didn\'t have feelings for Hermione now, and he was almost sure she
felt the same way. Ron almost wanted to smack himself when he realized that
she had probably known he liked her long before he was ready to acknowledge
it. All the times she could have ditched him, and she didn\'t. She likes me,
Ron thought, and found that there was no way to make himself smile any
bigger than he was already.

\"Great.\" Hermione brushed some hair behind her ear and smiled at Ron before
moving to put her books back into her bag.

\"Great,\" he repeated, still smiling. He watched her fasten the ties on her
bag before realizing that he needed to grab his books as well. He hadn\'t
been able to get much done on them last night, but oh well. He never wanted
to take advantage of Hermione, but her marks were so much better than his;
since they were best friends, she had to let him copy a little, right?

There was more movement on the stairs, and they looked around the room to
see that a few more people had come down already. \"Good Morning, Lavender,\"
Hermione called out happily to her room mate. Lavender waved and covered a
yawn with the back of her hand, smiling back at Hermione. Ron couldn\'t wipe
the smile off his face, and was glad he didn\'t have to force it away during
Potions. Snape would be sure to call him a cheeky little prat if he came in
grinning like he was now; but Ron didn\'t have to worry about Snape until
Monday, due to their afternoon classes being cancelled for Quidditch.

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