A Rainbow of Romances

Riktur?!?

 By the time the Fred and Hermione realized the time, it was already almost 1:30 the next morning. They figured that it was about time to head back to the common room. The Yule Ball ended at 2:00, so that left them with a little bit of wiggle room. As they snuck back (it was perfectly okay to be out of the dorms at that hour considering the ball, but just regularly walking there would be no fun) they came across something interesting.

To make things more interesting and explore the castle a bit they had decided to take a not-so-secret passageway that Harry had told Hermione about many times. Just beyond the Room of Requirement was a remarkable painting of a rather tall wizard with a beaky nose. As he resembled Headmaster Dumbledore quite a bit, Harry had reasoned that he was some sort of an ancestor. Looking at the painting now Hermione could see why he thought that. The man in the painting and their headmaster had the same long beaky nose (the wizard in the painting's nose wasn't broken though), chest length silvery-white hair, and tall pointed hat. The wizard in the painting's outfit was gray, and he carried a long, wooden staff.  In his other hand was his wand.

Harry had told Hermione that to move beyond the portrait and into the secret tunnel they would have to draw in the air with their wands "Gandalf the Grey". Then the portrait would swing away to reveal a passageway that would take them directly to the Gryffindor common room. Hermione took out her wand and did what Harry had instructed her to do, and as promised the portrait swung open to reveal a passageway.

After walking for about 5 minutes the passageway split, with the way on the right going upwards and the way on the left going downwards. Harry had told Hermione about this, so she knew that the path on the left would lead you to the Slytherin common room, while the left would lead to the Gryffindor. As they turned to head up to Gryffindor they heard some noises that sounded a lot like giggling. Hermione looked at Fred in confusion, but when she saw his face it had a weird look on it. He said quietly, "I know that giggle anywhere. It's Ron!"

Despite having Fred who picked up the pieces, Hermione wasn't ready to face the boy who first broke her heart. She quickly performed a disillusionment charm on herself and Fred. She was thankful seconds later when not only Ron, but someone else came around the corner. Hermione's jaw dropped and so did Fred's. The other person was the one and only Viktor Krum. To add to their confusion and shock, they were snogging. Viktor had Ron passionately pinned to the wall but if anything Ron seemed to be enjoying it.

Hermione and Fred suddenly saw the absurdity of it all and could barely keep in their laughter. It was hard to be mad at a person who was snogging the "enemy" as he put it. Plus it was such a ridiculous turn of events that it just made the whole thing that much funnier. It being almost 2 AM wasn't helping either.

After a few more minutes of this their laughter died down and they realised that they really should be getting back. As soon as they started to think of a way to get around the couple in the narrow path their need for that diminished. Ron and Viktor had finally broken up. As they separated in the dim lighting, Viktur called out, "And don't forget to vrite!" Ron blushed massively at this, and even more so when Viktur added a little wink to the message.

Ron dreamily made his way to the common room, with Hermione and Fred cautiously following him. Soon they reached the door. Ron went in first. Hermione figured that it would take Ron about 2 minutes to reach his dorm, so they had a bit of time to kill.

Fred was the first to break the silence. "Well now we know why Ron never liked you Hermione."

"It makes sense now looking back. Whenever I saw him checking out Harry I figured it was just him having another jealousy complex or something. I'm kind of glad that Harry's oblivious now."

"Agreed."

"We can probably go in now."

Fred moved closer to Hermione, almost towering over her. She hated being short. "Or we could have a replay of about 5 minutes ago."

"In your dreams Weasley," Hermione said as she sashayed through the doorway. Fred just smirked and followed her.

They would deal with the problem of how to understand Ron and Viktor tomorrow. For now, sleep was on their minds.