Hermione's POV

The week after my argument with (Y/N) was rather difficult to handle. The day after it happened, I felt like an idiot, like this whole situation was my fault for feeling the way I did about Ron.

I tried to push the thought out of my head, but I couldn't do so without crying. This was noticed by the others of course and soon rumours were circulating the school of our explosive break up. It wasn't untrue, but not the whole truth either.

Nobody saw (Y/N) that day, according to Harry he was sick, but I knew better. This made me feel worse, guilt welling up in my chest.

This of course inspired a few incidents, like (Y/N) being approached by some Hufflepuff fourth years on the way to Charms a few days later, much to Ron's amusement, not that I payed attention to it.

On top of that, Cormac McLaggen doubled his efforts to talk to me any chance he got. Apparently emboldened by my supposed break up with (Y/N), so much so that he asked me to attend Slughorn's Christmas Party with him.

The only person who I explained the truth to was Ginny, who was quick to offer her support with the situation. Honestly a part of me went to her to get an outside opinion to reassure myself that I had done the right thing.

She said that she didn't know and admitted her and Dean had been fighting recently, but reassured me that If I thought this was for the best then it couldn't hurt and if we truly loved each other it would be nothing in the long run and we'd jut have to see how it goes.

Despite her support, I couldn't help but think about what would have happened if I had just kept my feelings to myself. Was our break for better or worse? I honestly wasn't sure.

I had so many complex emotions about the subject it was hard to even deal with them all. I was upset that everything had happened the way it did, angry at myself that it even came to this and angry at him that he wouldn't trust me around Ron.

All of this was on top of the frustration, embarrassment, resentment, grief and every other emotion I couldn't help but feel when I thought of the whole situation

I didn't regret it though. It was the right choice, I was sure of it. It gave us time to breathe, to think. I needed time to process my feelings for Ron, he needed time to relax, so neither of us would have to worry about something like this again.

At least, that's how I justified it. After everything we said there was a tension on our relationship that needed time to heal. At the end of the day, we were both right, admittedly I tend to get jealous very easily, but he always overreacts when something happens.

But I'm sure this was the right thing to do. We needed time apart, otherwise we would just fight again and I don't know if we could handle this happening again. I can't believe I thought that Ron kissing Lavender was a heartbreak, it was like comparing a lit candle to Feindfyre.

Watching Ron and Lavender made it worse, it was like they were taunting me, showing me what life should have been like. Being in a room with the two of them was almost unbearable, I tried to avoid them to the best of my ability.

They must have been grating on (Y/N) too, a suspicion confirmed when Ron came into the common room complaining because of a significant bruise on the bridge of his nose and Lavender treated it like he was attacked by a squad of Death Eaters.

The only comfort I had for this whole scenario was the thought that this wouldn't be forever, that when we were both ready, everything would be set right again. He knew I loved him, and I knew he loved me, we would get through this. I was certain of it.

For the first week, we both avoided one another, any time I saw him felt strange, almost wrong to just ignore him. But I honestly just couldn't face him, partly because I was mad at him, partly because every bit of me wanted to go ever there and kiss him and forget all about this.

The first time one of us spoke to the other afterwards was in the library, he spoke to me as I was trying to find a book on any Wizarding Royalty.

"The Room of Requirement's on the seventh floor by that weird tapestry right?" he asked. A bit shocked by the moment, I didn't speak and instead just nodded.

"Weird, couldn't find it, thanks anyway" he said a little stiffly, turning away from me rather quickly, so much so, he ran into a bookshelf, twice, he looked very confused, as if he had been confunded and quickly darted out of the room.

I hoped that the awkwardness between us would end soon, but It didn't happen overnight. Every time I saw him, the same feelings welled up in my chest. I tried to distract myself with studying, hoping the feelings would pass.

Harry was sticking pretty close to me since it happened, I know it was just to avoid Ron, who was quickly becoming unbearable, but I appreciated the company.

After hearing some concerning plans in the girls toilets, I went to the library to warn Harry about the dangers of Slughorn's Christmas Party and the topic somehow managed to fall on who (Y/N) was going with. This ended up doing more harm then good.

Harry's POV

Snow was swirling against the icy windows once more; Christmas was approaching fast. Ron and Lavender were basically inseparable at this point. Hermione and (Y/N) were back on speaking terms, but any conversation between them was still awkward and felt sort of charged.

Hermione's schedule was so full that I could only talk to her properly in the evenings, when Ron was, in any case, so tightly wrapped around Lavender that he did not notice what I was doing.

(Y/N), true to his nature, was much more overt about his discomfort with the constant displays. Making comments any time he thought they were being inappropriate.

"Normally I would say get a room...but for you two...Can you please just get a new school?" This of course meant Ron refused to talk to him and Lavender generally avoided him.

Hermione refused to sit in the common room while Ron was there, so I generally joined her in the library, which meant that our conversations were held in whispers.

"I don't care who he takes, its none of my business. He can take Lavender Brown again for all I care!" she said unconvincingly, in a very bitter tone, quickly burying her head in a book and checked her notes again.

"He's at perfect liberty to go with whoever he likes," said Hermione, while the librarian, Madam Pince, prowled the shelves behind us. "I really couldn't care less."

She raised her quill and dotted an 'i' so ferociously that she punctured a hole in her parchment. "She doesn't care at all, can't you tell?" (Y/N) announced himself in the room. Making her jump in shock.

"What you talking about?" he asked as he reached for a Charms book. After I explained his eyes darted to Hermione and he was clearly trying very hard not to smile.

"For the record, I'm not going, I've almost figured out this spell so wasting time at a party now is a bit pointless." He gestured to his charms book.

"Plus, I should really stop going to parties and balls, they are a bad luck charm or something." He chuckled weakly, "Why, who are you lot going with?" he asked, clearly less concerned with my date and more with Hermione's.

She suddenly flushed, she began muttering something under her breath. When she realised we couldn't hear her, she sighed heavily and said, "...McLaggen. He's the only person who asked me." she explained

When I asked her why she would go with that maniac she shrugged, "Well, I just didn't want to go alone" I nodded, "And I suppose Ron was busy?" (Y/N) said bitterly.

To stop them fighting I offered "Why didn't we just go together then" (Y/N) gave me a weird look, "As mates" I clarified. "That's clever, why didn't I think of that?" pondered Hermione.

"Idiots, the two of you" (Y/N) chuckled heartily, Hermione took more offence then she should have and glared at him. "And as for you, I can go with who I like, it's not any of your business."

I expected (Y/N) to start shouting back angrily, but he shocked me, he started laughing. "You're right. It's your funeral." She frowned at him, but did look as shocked as I did that he was taking this so well.

"You're the one who's gonna have to deal with McLaggen for an entire afternoon" he chuckled, "I mean, I suppose as long as you keep him away from any doxy eggs you'll have a right laugh. Life of the party McLaggen is, when he's not being insufferable."

She huffed and said, "Remind you of anyone?" turning and storming off to put away some books. "Don't start comparing Hermione, you'll just make the poor bloke feel inadequate" he called after her.

The second she was around the corner (Y/N) waved his hands about and shuffled about in an odd dance of frustration but made no noise. Clasping his face and groaning. Muttering to me.

"If he tries anything, I'm snapping his neck" he said with a huff, "Not that it's any of my business, I just don't like the bloke." I did my best to stifle a chuckle at the momentary return of the status quo as he stormed off.

He turned around to get another book and made his way over to a table, "Want to join him?" I asked, hoping this would be the first step to everything going back to normal.

Hermione looked really torn by this but nodded, clearly taking interest in his research more then his company, she asked to see his theories about the charm. He passed her some scrawled notes and said "Fighting fire with fire might work"

I was utterly lost. "What shield charm?" I asked, racking my brain to see if I had forgotten some homework that was due. He shrugged and explained that he was trying to make his own.

When I asked him why he shrugged again and said "Knowing how to stop Dolohov's curse might help with others, maybe one day I could find a way to stop the Killing Curse, no way to know without trying" He smiled.

Feeling a little guilty for not realising the purpose behind his ambition, I quickly moved the subject back to Slughorns Party. (Y/N) made a comment about taking the book as my date. Hermione burst into laughter at it and then we fell into uncomfortable silence.

"Incidentally," said Hermione, after a few moments, "you need to be careful." "For the last time," I groaned, speaking in a slightly hoarse tone after three-quarters of an hour of silence.

"I am not giving back this book. I've learned more from the Half-blood prince than Snape or Slughorn have taught me in —" "I'm not talking about your stupid so-called prince," said Hermione, giving the book a nasty look as though it had been rude to her.

"I'm talking about earlier. I went into the girl's bathroom just before I came in here and there are about a dozen girls, including that Romilda Vane, trying to decide how to slip you a love potion." (Y/N) giggled. "I can't wait, you should hire a taste tester mate"

Hermione continued "They're all hoping they're going to get you to take them to Slughorn's party, and they all seem to have bought Fred and George's love potions, which I'm afraid to say probably work —"

"Why didn't you confiscate them then?" I demanded, it seemed extraordinary that Hermione's mania for upholding the rules could have abandoned her at this crucial juncture.

"They didn't have the potions with them in the bathroom," said Hermione scornfully. "They were just discussing tactics." (Y/N) laughed, "Girls are scary sometimes" he commented.

"As I doubt the Half-Blood prince" she gave the book another scornful look "could dream up an antidote for a dozen different love potions at once, I'd just invite someone to go with you, that'll stop all the others thinking they've still got a chance. It's tomorrow night, they're getting desperate."

"There isn't anyone I want to invite," mumbled Harry, "Well, just be careful what you drink, because Romilda Vane looked like she meant business." said Hermione grimly.

"Dinner's gonna be brilliant, I could test your food for you if you pay me, a galleon for a sip. " (Y/N) winked at me, Hermione snapped at his teasing, falling into old habits, she scornfully said "You will not!" he laughed at first, but then both of them stopped abruptly, looking rather upset.

She then explained how the girls were able to sneak the potions in despite the mail being checked for any contraband, (Y/N) nodded along, "Well how do you think I've managed all these years?"

I tried to put across my point that if they could smuggle in love potions, Malfoy could smuggle something cursed, they both sighed and rolled their eyes.

"The point is, Filch is being fooled isn't he? These girls are getting stuff into the school disguised as something else! So why couldn't Malfoy have brought the necklace into the school —?"

"Oh, Harry...not that again..." "Come on, why not?" I had to basically beg. "'Coz it's boring..." (Y/N) said, yawning as he thumbed through a charms book

"Look," sighed Hermione, "Secrecy Sensors detect jinxes, curses, and concealment charms, don't they? They're used to find dark magic and dark objects. They'd have picked up a powerful curse, like the one in the necklace, within seconds."

"But something that's just been put in the wrong bottle wouldn't register — anyway Love potions aren't dark or dangerous -" "Easy for you to say," I muttered, (Y/N) heard me and laughed.

"— so it would be down to Filch to realise it wasn't a cough potion, and he's not a very good wizard, I doubt he can tell one potion from —" "Or any type of wiz-" (Y/N) started, chuckling, only stopping as Hermione stopped dead; I had heard it too.

Madam Pince escorted us out of the library as she saw the state the Prince's book was in, she took great offence and basically berated me until we left. "She'll ban you from the library if you're not careful. Why did you have to bring that stupid book?"

"It's not my fault she's barking mad, Hermione. Or d'you think she overheard you being rude about Filch? I've always thought there might be something between them..." "Oh, ha ha..." "Good for them" (Y/N) mused.

Enjoying the fact that we could speak normally again, we made our way along the deserted lamp-lit corridors back to the common room, arguing whether or not Filch and Madam Pince were secretly in love with each other.

"Baubles" I said to the Fat Lady, this being the new, festive password. "Same to you," said the fat lady with a roguish grin, and she swung forward to admit us.

"Hi, Harry!" said Romilda Vane, the moment I had climbed through the portrait hole. "Fancy a gillywater?" Hermione gave me a "what-did-I-tell-you?" look over her shoulder. "No thanks," I answered quickly. "I don't like it much."

"I'll take one," (Y/N) said, a glint in his eyes told me he was just playing devils advocate to see what she'd do, she looked at me with a raised eyebrow, looked to Hermione, then let out a small scoff.

"Well, take these anyway," said Romilda, thrusting a box into his hands. "Chocolate Cauldrons, they've got firewhiskey in them. My gran sent them to me, but I don't like them."

"Oh — right — thanks a lot." I couldn't think what else to say. "Er — I ' m just going over here with..." I hurried off behind Hermione, my voice tailing away feebly. "Told you," said Hermione succinctly, (Y/N) smiled, "But seriously though, I'm pretty thirsty"

But her face suddenly turned blank; she had just spotted Ron and Lavender, who were intertwined on a sofa. "Well, that's one way to stay limber." (Y/N) commented, following her eyeline.

Hermione made a very strange face, apparently, (Y/N) knew what this meant, he pursed his lips and let out a little groan, I tried not to feel awkward as I watched her stand up abruptly "Well, good night" said Hermione, though it was only seven o'clock in the evening.

She left for the girls' dormitory without another word. (Y/N) sighed, "Why is this punishing me more than anyone else?" he asked me, I shrugged.

The only reason I got to sleep that night was the reminder there was only one more day of lessons to struggle through, plus Slughorn's party, after which Ron and I would depart together for the Burrow.

Transfiguration the next day was a nightmare, we had just embarked upon the immensely difficult topic of human transfiguration; working in front of mirrors, we were supposed to be changing the colour of our eyebrows.

(Y/N) apparently found this lesson very lacklustre and was instead attempting to get McGonagall to teach him how spells are made, she recommended he focus on the lesson and that he ask Flitwick or Snape, he sighed.

Almost instantly, he began changing every hair on his body a vibrant purple colour, then blue and back again, then transfiguring his hair to match McGonagall's tight bun, a trick she did not find amusing.

"I got really jealous of a friend of mine who could do this whenever she wanted so I started practising over the summer so I could do it too" he explained "I do this a lot when I get bored."

McGonagall sighed and said, "Excellent, now try without a wand, as you are expected to in my N.E.W.T classes" she said sternly, he blushed and there were a few chuckles from around the room, Hermione being one of the culprits.

He turned to her and stuck out a rainbow coloured tongue, this distracted her from what she was doing and caused both her eyebrows and her hair to become bright red, making her look a bit like a clown, she was nearly in tears from embarrassment.

She was quickly able to reverse the effects and ignored him for the rest of the lesson, he sighed and went back to posing in the mirror.

The lesson took a turn when Hermione laughed unkindly at Ron's disastrous first attempt, during which he somehow managed to give himself a spectacular handlebar moustache.

Ron retaliated by doing a cruel but accurate impression of Hermione jumping up and down in her seat every time Professor McGonagall asked a question, which Lavender and Parvati found deeply amusing and which reduced Hermione to the verge of tears again.

(Y/N) hid an incantation in a cough and took it upon himself to make sure Ron regretted his joke and made his nose hair grow to match his moustache. So much so in fact, Ron had to be taken to Madam Pomfrey to restore it and looked to be in quite a lot of pain.

A wailing Lavender followed after him. Hermione raced out of the classroom on the bell, leaving half her things behind; (Y/N) was being stopped by a lecture from McGonagall. "Honest professor, it was just a cough," he giggled.

He was entirely unable to keep a straight face. She was not impressed, "Oh come on, it was hilarious, just admit it. I thought it might cheer her up." Deciding that Hermione's need was greater than Ron's just now, I scooped up her remaining possessions and followed after her.

I finally tracked her down as she emerged from a girl's bathroom on the floor below. She was accompanied by Luna Lovegood, who was patting her vaguely on the back. "Oh, hello Harry," said Luna.

She turned to me, "Did you know one of your eyebrows is bright yellow?" "Hi, Luna. Hermione, you left your stuff..." I held out her books. "Oh, yes," said Hermione in a choked voice, taking her things and turning away quickly to hide the fact she was wiping her eyes with her pencil case.

"Thank you, Harry. Well, I'd better get going..." And she hurried off, without ever giving me any time to offer words of comfort, though admittedly I could not think of any. "She's a bit upset," said Luna. "I thought at first it was Moaning Myrtle in there, but it turned out to be Hermione. She said something about Ron Weasley and (Y/N)..."

"Yeah, they've had a row," said Harry. "He says funny things sometimes, doesn't he?" said Luna as they set off down the corridor together. "But he can be a bit unkind. I noticed that last year." "I s'pose," I shrugged.

"So have you had a good term?" "Oh, it's been all right," said Luna. "A bit lonely without the D.A. Ginny's been nice, though." "She stopped two boys in our Transfiguration class calling me 'Loony' the other day —" "(Y/N) feeds the thestrals with me sometimes, though he's stopped coming recently."

After a few more seconds of chatting, I had an idea "How would you like to come to Slughorn's party with me tonight?" The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them; it was as though it were a stranger speaking. Luna turned her protuberant eyes to me in surprise.

"Slughorn's party? With you?" "Yeah," I confirmed, "We're supposed to bring guests, so I thought you might like...I mean..." I was keen to make my intentions perfectly clear. "I mean, just as friends, you know. But if you don't want to..." I stammered, already half hoping that she didn't want to.

"Oh no, I'd love to go with you as friends!" said Luna, beaming as I had never seen her beam before. "Nobody's ever asked me to a party before, as a friend! Although, I suppose there was the time with (Y/N)..." she trailed off vaguely, putting a finger to her chin.

"Is that why you dyed your eyebrow, for the party? Should I dye mine too?" she said, getting back on topic and beaming again. "No" I said firmly, "That was a mistake. I'll get Hermione to put it right for me. So I'll meet you in the entrance hall at eight o'clock then."

"AHA!" screamed a voice from overhead and we both jumped; unnoticed by either of us, we had just passed underneath Peeves, who was hanging upside down from a chandelier and grinning maliciously at us.

"Potty asked Loony to go to the party! Potty lurves Loony! Potty luuuuuurves Looooony!" And he zoomed away cackling and shrieking, "Potty loves Loony!" "Nice to keep these things private," I chuckled.

And sure enough, in no time at all the whole school seemed to know that Harry Potter was taking Luna Lovegood to Slughorn's party. "You could've taken anyone!" said Ron in disbelief over dinner. "Anyone! And you chose Loony Lovegood?"

"Don't call her that, Ron!" snapped Ginny, pausing behind Harry on her way to join friends. "I'm really glad you're taking her Harry, she's so excited." And she moved on down the table to sit with Dean.

A long way along the table Hermione was sitting alone, playing with her food as she read a book, I noticed Ron looking at her furtively. "You could say sorry," I suggested bluntly. "What, and get attacked by another flock of canaries?" muttered Ron.

"Or her raving lunatic of an ex-boyfriend?" he said, pointing (Y/N) who was joking around with Seamus across the table. "He's not a lunatic...you know what he's like" I said trying to find the words, "It wasn't even that bad" Ron scoffed. "What did you have to imitate her for?"

"She laughed at my moustache!" "So did I, it was the stupidest thing I've ever seen." But Ron did not seem to have heard; Lavender had just arrived with Parvati. Squeezing herself in between us, Lavender flung her arms around Ron's neck.

"Hi, Harry," said Parvati who, like me, looked faintly embarrassed and bored by the behaviour of our two friends. "Hi," I said, happy for the distraction, "How're you? You're staying at Hogwarts, then? I heard your parents wanted you to leave."

"I managed to talk them out of it for the time being," said Parvati. "That Katie thing really freaked them out, but as there hasn't been anything since...Oh, hi, Hermione!" Parvati positively beamed.

I could tell that she was feeling guilty for having laughed at Hermione in Transfiguration. I looked around and saw that Hermione was beaming back, if possible, even more brightly. Girls were very strange sometimes.

(Y/N) looked between them as well, had a confused look cross his face, then shrugged and went back to arm wrestling Seamus. "Hi, Parvati!" said Hermione, ignoring Ron and Lavender completely. "Are you going to Slughorn's party tonight?" "No invite," said Parvati gloomily.

Suddenly a voice called from down the table, approaching us "Wanna go with me?" said (Y/N) before they continued, not paying any mind to Seamus, who was howling in pain and holding his wrist in discomfort.

Parvati stammered a bit and looked to Hermione who seemed equally in shock. He walked up to her, smiled, then said, "Well, if you want to go, why not with me? I wasn't planning on going, but It might be a laugh I s'pose" he said cheerily, cocking his head.

She considered it for a second, and then nodded, agreeing on a time to meet she darted off to chat with her sister. Hermione didn't seem pleased and said, "What'd you do that for?" He shrugged. "I was just trying to be nice"

With that (Y/N) stood up and began to walk off, looking rather pleased with himself. This led to a rather interesting conversation in Potions. I found it oddly satisfying to watch them bicker like an old married couple again.

(Y/N)'s POV

We were reviewing the Draught of Living Death we had learnt earlier in the year and I was not looking forward to being outdone by the Prince again, but I decided I would try my best anyway.

It was coming along nicely until Hermione, who was at the cauldron across from me, started interrogating me again. "I thought you weren't going to Slughorn's Party" she said as her hair began to frizz up. I shrugged, "Changed my mind" I said, more focused on my scales.

"Figured I'd be bored If I didn't go, and I would rather sit through a thousand posh parties then have to watch Ron and Lavender maul each other for an afternoon" I said truthfully. Hermione furrowed her brow at me, looking unconvinced and Ron chucked some ingredients at me.

Harry snickered and said, "If you were so eager to go with someone you could have sent an owl to Alicia S-" he started, "Finish that sentence and I'm pouring this down your throat" I said, pointing to my draught of living death. He and Ron still found it very funny.

"Is this about me going with McLaggen?" Hermione accused me. I sighed, "It's not 'about' anything. And despite what he may think, the world doesn't revolve around Cormac McLaggen, and that would imply that I cared enough about him to give him any thought."

"Well why did you 'change your mind' then?" she pouted as if she expected me to have some sort of master plan. Sighing, I shrugged, "Because Parvati is nice, she's my friend and she wanted to go. I don't have an ulterior motive, unlike some" I spat.

"She's not your friend! I've seen you talk to her maybe twice since we started Hogwarts" she countered, "Yeah, well I barely ever talk to Ernie either, but he's still a mate of mine" I reasoned, she scoffed as Ernie Macmillan beamed at me.

"Plus she was my best option, the only other people who asked me scare me" "Who else asked you?" She asked, her facade of it being just curiosity fading as she bit her lip angrily.

I got a little annoyed at this point, "Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot you need to know everything I ever do." I pretended to think, "I woke up, had a stretch, yawned, fed Bones, brushed my teeth, got dressed..." I rambled, frowning at her.

She went quiet after that, but apparently Harry wanted to know too so I mumbled the answer to him, he cackled, this peaked Hermione's interest, she huffed and she raised an eyebrow, and pouted, asking me more politely afterwards.

I smiled at her proudly "The Carrows" I said, she almost choked. Harry was loving this, watching intently like it was a performance. "The Carrows, as in the Slytherin twins?" I nodded. "As in, related to Death Eaters Carrows?"

I nodded "Just because they are related to them doesn't make them mental" Hermione got over her shock. "Which one? Hestia or Flora?" I smirked, "Both. At the same time...it was quite odd, they cornered me after Transfiguration. Literally, I was backed into a corner."

Harry couldn't contain himself and let out something between a gasp and a giggle as Ron continued to try his best to ignore us. "You pulled them both?How'd you manage that? Aren't they Slytherin purists, you're a half blood Gryffindor" Said Harry curiousness in his tone.

"Do you have to ask?" I smirked "Look at me, I'm flawless" I said very dramatically. Hermione huffed, her eyebrow twitching as she said "And he hasn't 'pulled' anyone. It's not like he said yes."

I smirked, echoing her words back at her "I could have though, after all, I can go with who I like, it's not any of your business." Hermione stomped her foot. "It's not a competition!" she demanded.

I scoffed, "Lucky for you, because if it was you'd be losing three-one" I added another stir to my potion and muttered, "and that's being generous and considering McLaggen a point on your side" I teased.

Suddenly the prospect of going to Slughorn's party just got a lot better. Winding up Hermione was always fun and I was starting to develop an ulterior motive. Watching Hermione trying to stand McLaggen for a few hours might be fun.

It definitely wasn't so I could spy on them and make sure he didn't make any moves. That wasn't any of my business.