"Hermione, you really need to eat more," Ron said, pushing a plate of toast closer to her. The May sky was bright above them, but Hermione wasn't taking any time to enjoy the beautiful day—or to enjoy anything else, for that matter.

"I told you Ron, I don't have time," she said, sounding flustered. She tucked a piece of hair that had fallen in her face back behind her ear and continued shoveling scrambled eggs into her mouth.

"I think Ron's right, Hermione," Harry said hesitantly, seeming afraid of the slender young woman. "It's bad enough you're hardly getting any sleep, you need to at least feed yourself properly." Harry shoved a plate of sausages toward her and glanced sideways at Ron, who was watching Hermione with a look of worry etched onto his face.

Scraping her plate clean Hermione said, "I have to hurry to the library. There's not two weeks left until our NEWTs, I can't waste any time." Ron caught one of her hands, holding it down on top of her books.

"Hermione!" he shouted. "You need to relax. You could learn everything you have in the past seven years in the next two weeks and still get top marks on the NEWTs. You're half-way to insane, though," he gave her a puppy-like look of sympathy.

"Well, what's wrong with that?" she asked, gathering her books. "All the cool, sleep deprived, hypothermic, hungry, near crazy kids sing and laugh about it!" she then gave a high-pitched, hysteric-sounding giggle. Ron watched her hurry out of the Great Hall and caught a glimpse of Marcus Flint nudge others at the Slytherin table and point to the tall witch.

Ron always knew Hermione would cause a scene before Seventh Year was up.


So, it's not exactly romance, but it's underlying, and I hope it's noticeable. I've strayed off-canon here—Ron and Harry return for Seventh Year with Hermione. Written for Konsui's Little Brother's Quotes with a Twist Challenge. My quote is "All the cool, sleep deprived, hypothermic, hungry, near crazy kids sing and laugh about it!" and I had to include Marcus Flint. Just a little note—the month of September has come and gone, with just under 25 hours left until October. And in the month of September, I'd like to share (read: gloat) that all of my stories have gotten a cumulative 3,258 hits and 2,357 visitors. That is freaking amazing and I want to thank each and every one of you who have taken the time to read my crazy brain-farts of stories. I'm trying my absolute hardest to finish up the next—and last—chapter of Holiday Ball so it'll be up for tomorrow. I'm aiming for thirty-five hundred hits and/or twenty-five hundred visitors, I'm greedy :3 But a bighugegiant thank you to everyone. Especially you. Yes, you ;)

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