"I'm totally serious," Parvarti declared with a no-nonsense tone. "He is definitely into you."

Lavender beamed at the assurance, flopping back onto the bed to release a trilling squeal. "I knew it! Yesterday in Potions he asked me to pass him the jellied eels—when he knew very well that Pansy Parkinson had them too!"

Hermione scoffed, flinching back at the outraged reactions.

"What's got you in a snit?" Parvarti demanded hotly.

Rolling her eyes, but attempting to play along—as she was duty bound during these 'roommate bonding sessions' they held in the Girl's Dormitory—Hermione waved a casual hand in the air.

"Malfoy probably asked Lavender for the eel because she was right next to him," she explained calmly. "Parkinson was all the way in the back."

"Jealous bitch," was Lavender's only response.

Hermione huffed and stood from her place on the floor. "This is stupid—I could be studying! It's not like any of these signs you believe in are true!"

"What do you mean?" Parvarti crossed her arms defensively. "Of course the signs are right. It's merely another form of Divination—telling who likes who—because of their auras."

"It's silly hogwash, and that's all there is to it."

"It's not so silly if I can tell who likes you, is it?"

Hermione faltered on her way to the door and more sensible company. "What-? No one likes me, Parvarti, you know that."

Parvarti hummed and exchanged secret smiles with Lavender. "Wanna bet?"

"No," Hermione grumbled. Regardless of how utterly absurd Parvarti's claims seemed to be, her track record for matchmaking was unparalleled in the school. The Gryffindor sixth year had successfully matched eight couples, five of which seemed destined for marriage following graduation.

"How about if I show you," Parvarti was saying, a greedy gleam in her eyes. "If I show you who likes you—if I prove that they do—will you finally admit to being hopeless at anything related to Divination?"

Biting her lip, Hermione cursed at being backed into a corner metaphorically. She couldn't back down now! "Fine," she ground out, "show me."

"Glad to," Parvarti returned with a slick smile.

You are utterly barmy, Hermione wanted to say. In the interest of keeping peace, she limited herself to two words: "Absolutely not."

"Why?" Lavender crooned whilst batting her eyes in the direction of the boy in question. "Won-Won is quite a catch."

"He's my friend," Hermione stressed emphatically. "You are off your rocker if you think that he would ever-"

"Careful, dear," Parvarti chided, I wouldn't want you to have to eat those words…"

It was official: her roommates were utterly insane.

"Now," Parvarti was saying to her with a somewhat condescending air, "just watch and be enlightened as to Ron's head-over-heels-love for you."

Hermione scoffed irritably, but pressed herself into the corner behind the potted plant more securely. She didn't want to be spotted spying in her own common room after all.

Giving her an approving nod, Parvarti flounced off to join her partner in crime, Lavender near the boys on the sofa. Harry and Ron were currently locked in a competitive chess match (though the competitiveness had more to do with the fact that Harry was refusing to resign and maintain his dignity), but their attention was acquired easily enough as Lavender trilled in loud laughter.

"He really did that?" Lavender shrieked at Parvarti's whispered comment.

"Shh," Parvarti stressed emphatically (and melodramatically in Hermione's opinion). "It's a secret, Lavender- Hermione doesn't want people to know!"

There was something to be said for Parvarti's acting, Hermione reflected. For one thing- no one expected the dark-haired gossip monger to be anything but… well, a silly nitwit really. She sighed, Ron and Harry didn't stand a chance against her deviousness.

'What about Hermione?' Harry could be seen to mouth to Ron over the chess board. Ron shrugged, his eyes fastened on the conversation between the two girls on the sofa.

Lavender was still giggling, but she managed to stutter out: "He must really love her! What a sap!"

At this point, Ron couldn't take anymore. "Hey- what're you two yapping about? We're trying to play a game over here," he ground out irritably.

Parvarti winked in the direction of the potted plant hiding Hermione (Harry blinked in confusion at the shrubbery). "Nothing much. Have either of you heard from Victor Krum lately?"

"No," Harry said with a shake of his head, "Why?" What did Krum have to do with anything?

"No reason." Parvarti snickered before pulling Lavender up by the hand. "Enjoy your game, boys."

"What do you think that way about?" Harry asked Ron with a discerning frown.

Ron grunted, slamming one of his pawns a space forward. "Don't care. Checkmate."

"What?" Harry looked over the board with a pained groan. "Bollocks."

"Did you see? Did you see?" Lavender jumped up in excitement, clasping Hermione's hands in an attempt to get her to join.

"You interrupting their game and making Ron angry? Yes, I did see," Hermione replied, uselessly tugging at her hands.

"You are being deliberately obtuse," Parvarti said with a frown. "Ron was jealous. Can you still say he doesn't like you?" As Hermione began to respond, Parvarti added: "Think about it."

Hermione humored her, but only for a moment. "I don't see it because it isn't there. Face it, no one likes me like that, especially not Ron."

"Gah! You are so… infuriating!" Parvarti screeched in frustration. "What do I have to do to prove it?"

Lavender, who had long since ceased jumping in excitement, raised her hand timidly. "I think I may have an idea."

This was never going to work, Hermione knew. She thought about humoring her roommates for the sake of bonding, but thought better of it a moment later: "This is never going to work, you know."

"Shut it."

"I'm just-"

"I said: shut it."

Rolling her eyes, Hermione leaned against the wall to get a good view of her impending doom.

Lavender's plan was simple, but remarkably brilliant, Hermione had to admit. If only it wasn't so humiliating…

The plan itself involved, for lack of better words, stalking Ron. To determine what he wants in a girl and prove that what he wants is you, Parvarti had protested with Lavender nodding cheerily in time.

Hermione resisted the urge to remind them that they had been Ron's housemates and friends for six years now… if they hadn't figured out already what Ron wanted, how were they going to start now?

Nevertheless, they had gone a-stalking the day before and predictably come away with no new information, let alone proof that Ron was apparently in love with her. Ridiculous, Hermione scoffed.

Parvarti and Lavender weren't content with their failure, however, and had devised a means of determining once-and-for-all where Ron's heart lay.

It would be like the first task of the Triwizard Tournament, they claimed. Ron would be forced to choose between Hermione and some other desirable thing. Then they would know for sure how he felt!

Using the knowledge they had gained through stalking Ron (Hermione shuddered to think what worthless intel they were using), they would offer him the choice of a lifetime. And pray to Merlin that he chose correctly.

It was because of this that Hermione found herself disoriented from a dizzying spell and a knock to the head (for appearance's sake she hoped) and trussed up in the Room of Requirement alongside Ron's chess board. Her redheaded friend was staring in shock, gaze constantly twitching from Hermione to the chess set to the gleeful pair of girls forcing him to make a choice.

"Bloody hell- you both are mad!"

With a scowl, Ron muttered a spell to untie Hermione, helping her up and leading her back to the common room, though not before shrinking his chess set to store in his robes.

"Don't know what the fuck they're thinking doing that kind of thing," he was muttering, while making sure Hermione didn't walk into any walls.

"I stopped understanding them a long time ago," Hermione admitted with an exaggerated shrug that tipped her balance and forced Ron to sling her arm over his shoulders to keep her upright.

"Did you ever understand them?" Ron asked with a sardonic smile.

"Well… no," Hermione said with a frown.

"I didn't think so."

Hermione laughed at the slight, jabbing him in the side as best as she could manage. "Thanks for saving me."

"Anytime," Ron replied with an easy smile that caused her heart to contract in an odd way. She brushed it off as an after-effect of the spell used by Parvarti.

"You're a good friend, Ron."

"I try." Ron's smile was a little dimmer than before, but that was natural, Hermione reflected—he was focusing on guiding her back to the common room after all.

"No really," she insisted, trying to make the smile reappear on her friend's face. "Not everyone would come running to my rescue."

"True," Ron said with a touch of darkness in his tone. Hermione inwardly balked at the tone—this conversation was rather quickly getting out of hand. In her anxiousness, she began to babble platitudes about their friendship.

"-and you put up with my nagging… join me in the library for hours without…always make sure I'm happy…"

Hermione paused to glance consideringly at Ron. "Hmm…"

They stopped abruptly at the portrait of the fat lady where Ron muttered out the password and thrust Hermione through the portal. "I have to go to the library," he said without looking at her and then turned on his heel and fled down the corridor.

Curious, Hermione noted as she stared after him. Ron really was cute when he blushed.

It was foolproof. Hermione nodded to herself resolutely.

"What are you doing?" Parvarti was reading over her shoulder, being a busybody as always.

"Research," Hermione squeaked before diving to cover her notes.

Parvarti was not to be stopped however. Tickling Hermione's side (curse her for taking advantage of Hermione's weakness!) until the brunette threw her hands up in surrender, Parvarti slid the notebook off the table to peruse over.

"It's a pros and cons list," Parvarti noted with boredom.

"It," Hermione corrected, "is a record of the arguments for and against Ron's interest in me."

"That's what I said," Parvarti grumbled less than good-naturedly. "What will you do with it?"

"You'll see."

"What's this?" Ron asked as Hermione handed him the painstakingly-crafted notes.

"Read it and find out."

Ron huffed, but skimmed over the page which seemed to contain a laundry list of… his behavior. At the bottom of the page was a circled conclusion:

It would appear that Ron Weasley has vaguely-romantic feelings for me. Requires further investigation.

"Well?" Hermione prompted.

"Ah-"

"You can't dispute my findings, Ronald."

"I don't think-"

"This would be your cue to ask me out."

"Um… ok?"

"Brilliant. We'll go to Hogsmeade together then. I'll be in the library if you need me."

With that observation, Hermione swept down the corridor, leaving Ron gaping at her back, his face and ears flushing to reach a cherry red hue.

Glancing down at the list, he smiled and rubbed at his heated cheeks irritably, willing the flush to go away. He broke off into a run to catch Hermione before she turned the corner.

Taking her hand and entwining their fingers while studiously avoiding her gaze, he grumbled as he felt his blush grow. "I'll come with you."

"Of course," Hermione said and beamed at him. There was a moment of stillness as they stood in the corridor, hands clasped until Hermione tugged him down to deposit a soft kiss on his flushed cheek.

Parvarti, from her hiding place behind a suit of armor, desperately held back an ecstatic giggle at the sight. As the couple walked away and turned the corner, she broke down into a happy fit.

"I knew it!"

She picked herself up from the floor and raced to tell Lavender that their plan to make Hermione realize that she liked Ron had finally succeeded.