Mrs. Weasley called Ron and Hermione over when they entered the kitchen. She plunged right in to what their individual tasks would be. "Fred and George I want you to sweep and wash the entire floor and most of the wall. And watch how you use your wands! Don't overdo it just because you're of age "

The twins began their task sullenly, but Hermione noticed discontentedly that they seemed to be doing a lot of whispering while shooting glances toward her and Ron. They were planning something, and it probably wasn't pleasant.

"Ginny, I'd like you to polish the table and benches and take a look at the silverware when you're done," Mrs. Weasley continued without taking a breath, "Ron you can work on cleaning out the stove and cupboards, Hermione, dear, you can work on cleaning out the pantry, and I will be decontaminating the display cases."

She cast one satisfied look around to make sure everyone was beginning work on their assigned tasks, before striding toward several large display cases at the end of the hall.

Hermione headed towards the grubby pantry tucked away in the corner of the hall. Although it was a fairly large pantry, it was stuffed so full of food that Hermione had to squeeze inside carefully to avoid knocking anything over.

The shelves were covered with numerous jars, cans, boxes, and crates, some of which were admitting a foul odor or had a thin layer of mold covering them. With a sigh at the sight of the task that lay before her, Hermione began to sort through a load of apples throwing them into a crate.

An hour later she was still hard at work. When she was finally done organizing everything, she planned to throw away all the rotten and molded items, which there was an overabundance of. Just as Hermione finished organizing the onions, Ron, to her surprise, stuck his head through the door.

"I just finished, do you need any help?"

"Sure, Thanks." Hermione smiled and watched as Ron struggled to fit his way into the pantry. "I still have to finish organizing everything, but you can start throwing out anything that's, well, un-eatable." She gestured vaguely toward some molded tomatoes.

"Right." Ron narrowly avoided tripping over a large stack of flour sacks lying on the floor. After a few moments of concentrated silence, Ron presented what was clearly on his mind, "There's one thing I forgot to mention while we were upstairs."

Hermione nodded to show she was listening.

"I don't think we should mention anything about what happened last year with Cedric, or the maze, or the tournament." He tossed some fungus covered apples into a nearby waste basket.

"Defiantly." agreed Hermione, "If Harry wants to talk about it, we'll let him bring it up."

Just then an almightily 'SLAM' rent the air as the pantry door was forcefully shut, and she and Ron were plunged into total darkness.

"Ron?"

"Hermione?"

"Did you shut the door?"

"No, did you?"

"No."

"Then who did?"

"I don't know."

A loud 'ouch' was heard from Ron as his toe slammed into a crate on the floor. Hermione slowly slide to the floor as she listened to Ron trying to force open the door. This was great, just great. All she wanted was a nice, simple day of cleaning. And what did she get? Stuck in a cramped, pitch-black pantry with the one person in the world who made her, well, she had to admit, slightly uncomfortable. After a few minutes of unsuccessful banging she heard Ron pant, "I think its jammed." He gave the door one more solid thud before giving up.

"Wonderful." Hermione replied sighing. She heard Ron make his way toward her, he swore silently as he smashed his foot again.

"Where are you?"

"Down here." Hermione squinted into the darkness trying to see something, anything. Someone had apparently blocked up the crack under the door to ensure that they were in absolute darkness. "Ouch! Careful Ron, that's my foot."

She felt him sit down on her right. A stretched out moment of intensely awkward silence followed when she heard a small grunt of pain. "Ron, are you ok?"

"Yeah, it's nothing, just splinters from that door." His voice came from the darkness next to her. All of a sudden he burst out angrily. "I'm going to kill Fred and George when we get out of here!"

"You think they did this then?" She asked. Although she too highly suspected the twins of imposing this prank on them. It helped to voice the question aloud.

"Of course it was them. Who else would do this!" fumed Ron from the darkness above her right ear.

"Even if it was them, what I can't understand is why did nobody heard you pounding on the door. Surly your mum is still out there cleaning?" Hermione questioned.

Ron nodded and then remembering that it was dark spoke, "Yeah."

Hermione heard more fidgeting accompanied by another exclamation of pain. "Oh Ron, give me your hand, maybe I can get some of them out."

"How? It's too dark to see anything." retorted Ron, sounding skeptical.

"I can feel them if there as big as you're making them sound." She felt him stick his hand toward hers. She took it and felt around his palm. Sure enough, there was a fairly large piece of wood firmly lodged in bottom of his palm near the wrist. Her fingers brushed against something wet and sticky. "You're bleeding!"

"Not much, I told you it's not a big deal." He made to pull his hand away but she held on. "I can get it out but then we need to put something on it."

"Good luck with that." He said grumpily.

"Well if you don't want it out fine! Suffer for all I care." Hermione pushed his hand away and glared into the darkness where she thought he was.

To her surprise, she felt him gently place his hand back in hers. In the silence that followed she carefully began to dislodge the gigantic splinter. She felt Ron's hand twitch as she worked on the splinter and realized that he must be in a great deal of pain but was bravely making no sound.

"I think I just about have it. I'm going to see if I can pull it straight out. Are you ok?" She was concerned at thought of how painful the pull might be.

"I'm fine, just do it." Ron grunted through clenched teeth. Hermione closed her eyes, although she couldn't see anything anyways, and in one swift movement pulled the hunk of wood out of Ron's bloody palm. The moment the splinter was free from his hand Ron jerked it upward under the pain and Hermione felt it brush across her right cheek leaving a smear of blood.

"Careful Ron, you're getting blood on my face." Hermione reached up to try and wipe some of it off when she felt his other, none-bloody hand, pass over her cheek in an attempt to wipe off the blood, accompanied by a mumbled apology.

Suddenly, as if giant strobe lights had been flicked on, the door to the pantry was flung open, bathing everything in the blinding light from the kitchen.

The identical outlines of Fred and George stood in the door frame looking down with glee at the sight that met their eyes. Ron's hand was in mid-swipe on Hermione's blood-smeared cheek, he removed it and stood up quickly. To quickly perhaps, for in his haste he knocked over a crate of mushy tomatoes, slipped on the juice they admitted, and fell back onto Hermione's lap with a yell of alarm. The twins roared with laughter as Ron attempted to stand upright once more. Hermione got up behind him, blushing crimson, and swiping bits of tomatoes off her pants.

"I'm sorry Ron, but the kitchen pantry is no better a setting for a date then your bedroom." spoke Fred through his attempts to stop laughing.

Ron's face had turned the same color as the squashed tomatoes. The figure of Mrs. Wesley appeared in the doorway.

"What is going on here?"

"Fred and George thought it would be funny to lock us in the pantry." Ron spoke indignantly.

"We didn't do it." said George, smiling. "But whoever did was a genius."

"Yes, we thank you mysterious door shutter!" said Fred, grinning widely.

Mrs. Wesley ignored them, "Are you alright dear?" she examined Hermione and gasped when she saw her bloody cheek. "What happened to your cheek?"

"Oh, it's nothing." Hermione hastily wiped off the blood. "Ron's hand was bleeding and it hit my cheek."

In an instant Mrs. Wesley had mended Ron's hand and vanished the squashed tomatoes. A short lunch was had, followed by a full afternoon of cleaning the front hall, a quick supper with a tired Mr. Wesley, and then bed.

Ron said a hasty 'goodnight' to Hermione, refusing all the while to make eye contact, before they departed for their bedrooms. Hermione and Ginny slipped into their nightgowns and crawled into bed. They lay silently for awhile, each lost in their own thoughts, before Hermione spoke, "You closed the door, didn't you?"

"Yeah, I did." Ginny sounded slightly embarrassed.

"Why?"

"You and Ron both needed a push and I thought that would help."

"It didn't help anything." Hermione sighed, frustrated, "Things are just more awkward."

"Sorry." Ginny whispered, "He'll come around some day, you know. Just be patient. That's what you keep telling me about Harry."

"Yes. I suppose you're right." Hermione whispered back tiredly. They lay in silence for a good twenty minutes before Ginny drifted off to sleep.

Hermione suddenly felt the urge to get a glass of water. She slid on her slippers and quietly left the room. The house was always scarier at night. She shivered as she padded down the darkly shadowed hall. The bottom stair creaked loudly causing her to jump. After she had gotten her glass of water she started back toward her bedroom.

She had reached the top landing, when she heard sounds of movement from the end of the hall. After a few tense moments, Ron's sleepy figure came into view. He rubbed his eyes and stared at her.

"'mione whatd ew doing up?" He spoke through a huge yawn.

"I just needed a glass of water. What are you doing?" Hermione surveyed his faded orange pajamas in the gloomy darkness.

"I needed some water too." They stared awkwardly at each other for a few moments before Ron broke the silence, "Well, 'night then."

"Goodnight." Hermione turned to go when Ron called her back. "Hermione, wait a minute."

"Yes?" She came back, looking puzzled.

"Well, about today, with the twins...and the pantry...I just want to apologize." Ron looked highly uncomfortable.

Hermione felt surprised. Ron rarely ever apologized. She recovered quickly however, "It's not your fault you know."

"Yeah, I know." Ron looked down at the dirty floorboards, "I was just embarrassed."

Hermione smiled at him. "Well, thanks for apologizing then."

She didn't know what made her do it. Maybe it was the darkness that made everything feel dreamlike, and therefore gave her confidence; or maybe it was the sudden rush of affection she felt toward him; or maybe it was because they were finally without the twins around to laugh at them. But whatever the case, Hermione stepped forward and gave Ron a heartfelt hug, which, after a few seconds of surprise, he returned.

Although it was brief, Hermione couldn't help noticing how safe and warm he smelled. There was also a hint of chocolate. They broke apart grinning widely at each other.

"You'd better get your water." Hermione spoke after a moment when Ron did nothing but stand and smile at her.

"What? Oh, yeah, water." Ron shook his head dazedly, grinned once more at Hermione, and started down the stairs.

Hermione made her way back to her room and lay down, all the while wondering why she suddenly felt so content. A ray of moonlight found it's way into the pitch black room, illuminating Hermione's bedside table on which was stationed a picture of her, Harry, and sporting a large, freckle-faced smile, Ron.