I don't own any of the characters of course. They all belong to the wonderful JKR.

"Bloody hell!" cried Ron, "I'll never be able to finish this. Ever!"

Harry and Hermione looked up.

"I wish I could help, mate" said Harry, eyeing Hermione.

"Hermione, please can't you…" began Ron.

"No." said Hermione firmly and returned to her own work.

It was Saturday afternoon and Harry, Ron and Hermione were sitting by the lake, Harry and Hermione studying and Ron struggling with his Potions homework. After receiving a detention from Snape for his poor work, Ron had been given extra homework and this time Hermione had put her foot down. "You're not allowed to help him, Harry" she said bossily. "That's the only way he'll learn."

Ron scowled at Hermione.

"Look Hermione," said Harry, "He's almost finished. If I could just—"

He shut up as Hermione glared at him.

Harry and Ron exchanged pitiful looks.

"And what have you studied so far?" Hermione snapped at Harry.

"Me?" said Harry, startled. "I…well…" He looked into the open book and realized that he hadn't taken in a single word.

"Yes?"

"Er, well, I learnt the mechanism of the…er..." He looked into the book once more. "Banishing Charm." He finished, knowing Hermione wasn't fooled.

"Have you, now?" she asked dryly.

"Sure…"

Hermione narrowed her eyes. "Well, then it shouldn't be difficult for you to tell me exactly—"

"Yeah, okay fine!" said Harry. "I was dreaming. I didn't learn anything yet."

"Harry, honestly, you'll end up like Ron one of these days…" she glanced at Ron and stopped. "Ron!" she screeched.

Ron, who had been staring at few older girls, jumped and said, "What?"

"What're you looking at?"

Ron looked sheepish as he said, "Nothing."

Hermione glowered at him.

"I was just staring into space" said Ron, quickly, "you know… thinking" he added. He looked into his essay to avoid Hermione's eyes. He looked sideways at Harry, who gave him a sympathetic smile.

"Ron—" began Hermione.

"Look, it's almost done; I'm just a few lines short." Ron gave Hermione a feeble smile.

"Oh Ronald…" Hermione sighed and pulled her hair into a messy bun, holding it up with a pencil. After shaking her head thoroughly at Ron's lack of sincerity, she returned to her work.

But Ron continued to look at her like he'd never seen her before. Harry raised his eyebrows. Hermione felt Ron's gaze and looked up at him, perplexed.

"What did you do to your hair?"asked Ron, weakly.

Hermione's hand instinctively reached her hair. "What?" she sounded confused.

"It's…you look…you look…" he seemed to be struggling as he turned crimson. Harry started sniggering. Ron glared at him and said, "You look so cute…" his voice turned into a squeak as he said 'cute'.

Hermione looked at him closely to make sure he was serious. She decided he was. Finally, she repeated, "Cute?"

Ron nodded silently. Hermione, still perplexed, turned pink and said, "Um…th-thanks…"

Both of them looked fairly uncomfortable; there was an awkward silence which was broken by Harry's snort of laughter. Hermione giggled and Ron said, "What're you laughing at?" but then started grinning himself.

"Oh, give me that essay already," said Hermione and snatched it from Ron.

Ron, who seemed to have lost all his shyness, said, "I love you; you know that right?"

"Sure I do" said Hermione and started working on his essay.

I wrote this one last night when I couldn't sleep. It's kind of stupid but I thought I'd post it anyway. Let me know if you liked it! :D