Chapter One

The Truth

As Harry, Hermione and Ron sat around the table in the corner of the common room, Harry and Ron were playing chess and Hermione, as usual, was surrounded by her many piles of books.

Ron and Harry knew quite obviously that Hermione was working furiously on her Ancient Runes essay, but for once she wasn't concentrated on her homework, which would have come to a shock for anyone else. No, actually her mind was on something else, something that had been on her mind for as long as she could remember.

She had arranged her books as to leave a small space were, any time she got the chance, she would peer between them and stare at Ron.

She hadn't really understood fully why she had this strange attraction to Ron, but it had always been there, ever since the first time she saw him on the Hogwarts Express with that smudge of dirt on his nose, but lately it has become more pronounced than ever.

Every so often she would catch herself staring at him for moments at a time and she would force herself to look away. But she always argued with him and it seemed like they never got along, she would only do this mainly because of Harry, and also because of Ron. To think of telling him that she had feelings for him when she didn't even know if he felt the same way towards her, is just like suicide.

Ron, of course, had no idea that any of these thoughts were going through Hermione's mind. In fact he didn't even know that she had the same feelings towards him as he had for her, and he had the same fears as Hermione.

Over the next few weeks everything had been the way it always was, everyone's week was filled with classes and homework, and for some people Quidditch practice.

At times Ron wasn't sure whether he was seeing things or not, but every now and then when he would look over at Hermione, he would notice her just sitting there staring at him, but the moment they made eye contact she would jump slightly and look away hurriedly.

He wasn't sure what to think but he knew that he sure as hell wasn't going to go up and ask her about it.

But as time progressed, it seemed that Hermione was pushing it in Ron's face, trying to get him to understand. She was much to shy to just walk up to him and start talking freely about her feelings towards him.

Ron noticed how much it seemed that Hermione was flirting with him but he tried to act as if he didn't know, and this was definitely frustrating Hermione. But Ron wasn't the only one who noticed Hermione's sudden attraction to Ron, Ginny wasn't blind nor stupid. She could tell right off the bat that Hermione had a thing for her brother, yet she didn't want to say anything to him because she wasn't sure whether Hermione wanted him to know or not. Well now Ginny could tell that it was a completely different story.

After several days of watching Hermione try to get Ron to notice her and Ron not responding, Ginny decided that it was time to help out a little bit.

So that night in the common room Ginny went straight up to Ron.

"Ron, I need to talk to you."

"About what?" he asked.

"About something that you'll find out when you come and talk to me," she replied.

"Alright fine, but it better be quick because I need to finish my Potions homework and I'm nowhere near done." said Ron, getting huffy.

"Oh just get up and come on, you're wasting your own time." she said, rolling her eyes, as Harry snickered. As Ron stood up, he turned and glared at Harry, but Harry didn't seem to have noticed. On the contrary, he was more worried about Hermione.

He noticed that she was off sitting in front of the fireplace all by herself, and not just that, but she seemed really perturbed about something, like something was bothering her.

Harry walked over to the armchair by the fireplace and sat down facing Hermione. Seeing her up close like this, Harry could now tell that she seemed extremely depressed.

"Are you alright Hermione?" he asked.

She jumped slightly at the sound of his voice, she hadn't even noticed that Harry walked up. Her mind was still on Ron, she was more confused than she had ever been. She knew that she liked him and it seemed to her that he liked her too, and yet even when she was flirting with him, he showed no sign of liking her. She didn't know what to do anymore.

As she looked up at Harry, she tried to manage the most convincing smile that she could muster at a time like this.

"Oh nothing, I'm just exhausted from all my homework." she lied.

"Are you sure? because it seems like there is something else that's bothering you." he said, as he searched her face for an answer.

"Well,…" she wasn't sure whether she should tell Harry about her problems with Ron. I mean how would Harry react if she were to tell him about her feelings towards Ron and how much she likes him. They had all been really good friends for a long time now.

"Well, what?" urged Harry.

As she looked up at Harry, there was no holding herself back any longer. She had to get this off her chest, she needed to tell someone, maybe that would help with everything that has been going wrong lately.

"Well actually it's about R…"

"Ron?" said Harry.

Hermione looked at him dumbstruck.

"How did you know?" she asked, completely shocked.

"Well, I mean, it was getting pretty obvious. In fact if Ron didn't notice himself, which I'm pretty sure that he has, than there must be something really wrong with him." he said, chuckling

"Was I really that obvious?" she asked, feeling embarrassed.

"Well not really in the way that you are thinking, you were doing well on trying to get his attention. It's just,…well, you know Ron, he's not much of a 'show your feelings' person. If you know what I mean." Harry said.

"Yea, I guess so. But I mean what am I supposed to do about this if he won't take the initiative to even talk to me about it?" she asked desperately.

"I'm not too sure about that, personally I think that if he doesn't get up the nerve to come and talk to you by Monday, then I think that you should do it instead." he said, hoping that his advice would help.

While Harry and Hermione continued talking, Ron and Ginny were having a conversation all of their own.

"Ron, what has gotten into you?" Ginny asked as soon as they were out of earshot.

"I don't know what you mean," said Ron, trying to sound innocent, but having a faint idea of what Ginny was talking about.

"You know full well what I mean Ron. Why are you ignoring her so much, I know you like her." said Ginny.

"Like who? I don't know what you're talking about." Ron said, but knowing that out of everyone, his own sister would know that he was lying.

"Would you just stop being so naive, for god's sake. It's obvious that you like Hermione, you're just not man enough to admit it," Ginny said, getting fully irritated.

"I am man enough to admit my feelings towards Hermione, it's just that I'm scared shiftless of having a relationship with anyone." Ron snapped.

Ginny just stared at him, mouth hanging slightly open.

"I just…I don't know how I would act around her, it would be really awkward, ya know. I wouldn't know what to do." he said, barely audible looking at the ground, feeling ashamed.

It was completely quite for several minutes between them except for the noise being made by the first and second years in the common room.

Then Ginny said quietly, "That's the thing Ron, you're too caught up in how weird you think it would be. That shouldn't matter, not if you really like her the way that I know you do. And to answer your question on how you wouldn't know how to act around her, you just need to act like yourself because if you didn't then that would be the thing that would cause it to be awkward. Just stop being so paranoid about everything and just go and talk to her and let her know how you really feel."

"Alright, I'll talk to her soon, just don't keep bugging me about it, okay?" said Ron sheepishly.

"Fine. Just don't wait too long because you never know what could happen." Ginny added as she walked away towards the girls dormitory.

Ron looked over and saw Harry and Hermione sitting over by the fireplace, and decided that it was time to take some sort of action no matter how small it would be. So, he walked over to where they were and dropped down onto the couch with a huge sigh.

"Wow, what a night. I'm exhausted, I think I'm going to head up to bed." Harry said, stifling a fake yawn and eyeing Hermione purposefully.

Hermione knew for a fact that Harry wasn't tired at all and it was much earlier than it usually was when he went to bed, but she appreciated it all the same.

After Harry walked up to the boys dormitory, Hermione and Ron were the only two left by the fireplace.

"Uh, Hermione?" Ron said.

"Yes?" she said, quickly looking at him.

"I,…I-I was wondering…" he broke off as soon as they made eye contact.

"Yes…" she urged.

"Um, I…" he shifted uncomfortably in his seat, "I was wondering if you could help me with the rest of my potions homework?" he said finally.

"Oh, yea sure," she said, sounding slightly disappointed. She thought that he was actually going to acknowledge the fact that he liked her.

As they stood up to go back to the table to finish their homework, Hermione walked in front of him and he caught a scent of her freshly washed hair that smelled of strawberries and creme.

Stupid, you just blew your chance to let her know how you really feel for her, but no, you just had to go and screw it up for yourself. Bravo Ron.

"So, what was it that you needed help with?" Hermione asked, breaking Ron's train of thought.

Author's Note: Please read and review! This is my very first fanfic and I'm not that well known, but I am planning on writing a lot more stories, you just have to give me some time. Thanks!