Ron had been going to see Hermione in the hospital wing more often than Harry had known. At spare hours on the weekend, in between classes and late at night. Every time he went, Hermione was still lying there, petrified. He stared at her frozen face.
'Hey Mione. How are you?' He asked. Like every other time she did not reply.
He shouldn't be here anyway. If Madam Pomfrey found out he was here at 12:40 he would get a detention.
Or worse, be expelled.
He laughed at this reminder of something Hermione said last year. The laugh turned into a sob. Not Here, he thought, I will not break down here. She would have wanted me to be strong. Anyway, if he was too loud he'd get caught by a teacher.
As well as feeling sad because of his petrified friend, his anger was fuelled by the thought someone did this to Hermione. Under his breath he whispered 'I swear I will find whoever did this. I'll make them pay for hurting you, Mione.' At that exact moment, a familiar Slytherin strutted into the hospital wing.
'Weasley. Here with your Mudblood friend Granger? I see-'
'Don't you dare call her that again! You unworthy, pathetic coward!' Ron interrupted Draco. Malfoy was startled for a moment but regained his composure.
'Are those tears Weasley? Are you crying over your Mudblood girlfriend?'
'SHUT UP! IF YOU EVER CALL HER THAT AGAIN I WILL HEX YOU!' He yelled, pointing his snapped wand at him.
'With that thing? Weasley, you'd kill us both!' This was accompanied by a long silence only broken by Ron's slowing breath and the sound of his wand being placed back in his pocket.
'Why are you here anyway?' Ron asked slowly.
'Same reason as you. I'm here to see Hermione.' An even longer silence followed this as Ron tried to comprehend what he just heard.
'Here... to... see... Hermione? But y-you h-hate her! D-don't you?' He was beginning to doubt the cold front that Draco seemed to hold up.
'It's not me you know. I'm not the heir of Slytherin. I would never do something like this to her. I would never-'
'Yeah, I know you're the heir!' Ron threw back at him.
'But how?' Draco was confused.
'Funny story actually. Involved some polyjuice potion.' Malfoy seemed intrigued by this.
'Polyjuice? But how? It's so complicated! Surely it would take an incredible wizard-'
'Well yeah, actually. Mione made it.' Draco did not mind being interrupted yet again.
'Of course, she is the best witch in the whole class.' He looked down on her smiling. After saying this he looked deep into Ron's eyes and at the same time they said
'I think I love her.'