Title: Explosive

Summary: Harry tells Ron that only something "explosive" would be able to bring Hermione and Draco together, Ron takes matters into his own hands.

Rating: K+. talk of romantic feeling, but nothing graphic.

Disclaimer: I don't own the Harry Potter universe or the characters. I merely own the plot of this story.

Harry Potter sat in the Gryffindor common room, playing with his girlfriend's hair. Ron Weasley, brother of said girlfriend, sat across from them trying not to scowl, he had given his best friend permission to date Ginny, but it was still hard to see anyone being so "touchy-feely" with his baby sister. At the same time, he knew that if Ginny heard his complaints, he'd get a bat-bogey hex. Thinking this actually made him feel a little better, as he knew that if Harry was to try something Ginny wasn't ready for, then the boy who lived would become the boy who was hexed.

His thoughts were unpleasantly disrupted by the slamming of the portrait entrance to the room. He looked up sharply to see his friend Hermione Granger come stomping into the room and sit down on the wing backed chair across from them in a huff, her arms crossed in front of her chest and her cheeks red.

"What's the matter, Mione?" Harry asked quietly.

"Malfoy."

The word explained it all, even though the pre-mentioned students were all in seventh year, with the boys and Hermione having come back after a year away hunting Voldemort's horcruxes, Draco Malfoy was still giving Hermione a hard time for being a muggleborn. Ron shuddered just thinking of the word that Draco used instead of muggleborn. Malfoy was also back, although as teacher not student. He was teaching Potions, and being surprisingly fair to all houses. But when no other teachers were around and he thought he could get used to it, he would

"I think he likes you, Mione," Ginny spoke up from her spot with Harry on the couch.

"What? Ew, that's just….ew!" Hermione sputtered, shaking her head furiously. "How could you even…ew!" Not even bothering to hide her uncomfortable feelings, Hermione slowly got up from the chair she'd just sat in and left the room going towards her dorm.

"Do you really think that, Ginny?" Harry asked, softly so that Hermione would not be able to overhear.

"I do. And I think she likes him back."

The trio sat in silence for a couple minutes, as everyone thought about the implications of Ginny's words. After the war, when Draco had tried to save Harry at the manor, and his mother had saved Harry in the forest, the dislike between Harry, Ron, and Draco had wavered. They weren't fast friends, but there was an undertone of respect between the group. Draco no longer teased and ridiculed the male part of the Golden Trio, but still sometimes called them "Potty" and "Weasel", always with a small smirk on his face to show he was joking. He did, however, still pick on Hermione's hair, and her know-it-all attitude, and her blood status.

Which made no sense to Ron, now that he thought of it, as he knew that Draco had become friends with a couple muggleborn wizards in the school, and that he had stated earlier this year that he knew that he had been wrong, that he was sorry, and that blood status no longer mattered to him.

"But he's so mean to her, Gin, and not to anyone else, why would you think that?" Ron asked, puzzled after trying to see what his sister thought she saw. Ginny shook her head, but answered quickly.

"That's my point. He's picking on her, because that's the only way to show that he's passionate about her, and she rises to the occasion nicely, doesn't she?"

Ron thought about it for a minute, but if this was a simple math equation he didn't see it adding up. In this occasion, 1+1 was still equaling 1. "Do you think it's possible Ginny's right, Harry?"

"You know, I wouldn't be surprised, but it would take something explosive to get them to admit their feelings for each other."

"Something explosive, eh?" Ron thought about George sitting in Weasley's Wizard Weases. If there was anyone who know anything about explosive it was the remaining twin. But would he really be willing to do something like set up his best friend, who he had liked for so long, and Draco Malfoy of all people? He thought about it in silence, while his sister and her boyfriend went back to being touchy-feely, obviously thinking he had shrugged off the conversation as nothing more than Ginny's overactive imagination. But Ron truly thought about it. If being with Draco Malfoy is what it would take to make Hermione happy, than Ron was willing to be matchmaker. He pretended to be tired and stealthily, for him, made his way up to his dorm, unaware of the two sets of eyes that followed him.

Upstairs he took out a quill and a piece of parchment writing a quick note to George inquiring if the older wizard would be willing to help start a little mayhem and explaining his brilliant, for him, plan. He then snuck to Harry's trunk grabbing the invisibility cloak and Maurader's Map sneaking back downstairs, out the portrait hole, and to the owlery. He tied his letter to Pig and watched as the tiny owl became an even tinier dot in the sky.

His answer was luckily quick to come, arriving two days later at breakfast along with a small vial of a clear looking liquid. George wrote back saying he wouldn't tell Ron what he was providing, so that he couldn't get in trouble later, but to pay attention in potions, next time they were making something with either belladonna or dittany that did not have fluxweed, or sneezewort to pour it into Hermione's caldron when Malfoy was passing by. If anyone was to ask him if he knew what happened, he was to act clueless and say he had enough trouble with his own potions, how was he supposed to pay attention to what went into Hermione's.

He smiled to himself as he went back to the common room to burn the note. He couldn't very well keep incriminating evidence. He then rushed to Potions to make it on time. They may have been nicer towards each other, but Malfoy would still remove points if they were late. He would also, though, give points when Hermione answered a question correctly, so Ron couldn't complain too much.

He was pleasantly surprised when he checked the ingrediants to today's potion, the Babbling Beverage, that it included dittany, but not fluxweed or sneezewort. He started his potion with a smile on his face, gazing next to him at Hermione who was just finished adding her dittany to the potion. Now all he needed was the opportune moment to poor in his little vial.

It came towards the end of class, luckily, just after Hermione had bottled some of her potion for Malfoy to grade, but before she had banished the remaining potion. Malfoy was walking past to answer one of Harry's questions, as Harry was sitting behind Ron and Hermione, when Ron pretended to slip, bumping into Hermione and setting her off guard as he quickly dumped the water like liquid into her cauldron. He quickly sat up straight, muttering a fake apology, and nearly laughing when her potion exploded. It just went up with a loud bang, Hermione jumped and screeched, falling straight into Malfoy's arms.

The potion then went back to his original state, but Hermione and Malfoy didn't seem to notice. He was staring at her, a strange warm look in his eyes. Hermione was staring at the man whose arms she was in, looking shocked, her eyes were wide, and she bit her lip.

"Oh hellkite," Draco muttered to her, though still loud enough for Ron to hear, "how you drive me crazy when he bite your lip like that." He then surprised the class, except for Ron, by lightly bringing his lips to cover hers. Hermione squeaked again, but she still kissed back.

Later that night, Ginny, Harry, and Ron again sat in the common room. Hermione was out with Draco, supposedly discussing what happened, though Ron figured they were snogging.

"So what happened?" Ginny asked.

"Her caldron went up in smoke, and she just fell into him. It was crazy." Harry answered, amusement on his face.

"Wow."

"Yeah."

Ron decided he wanted it known, at least to these two he was the one who did it, so he grumbled loud enough to hear. "Well, you did say something explosive would have to happen for them to get together."

"Yeah, I did, but I thought they'd be in the middle of an explosive yelling match and he'd just grab her for a kiss. I didn't think an actual explosion."

"Oh. Well it worked, and I wasn't going to wait that long."

Harry and Ginny just gave him a blank look. "You mean you…." Ginny whispered. Ron nodded his head yes slightly. "Wow."

The trio lapsed into a comfortable silence, thinking of what had happened that day. Ron decided that as long as Malfoy made Hermione happy, he was happy, but he still would wait a while to make sure she was. He also decided that he liked pranking, it was exhilarating. No wonder the twins had always done it. Maybe he'd work for George when he left Hogwarts, life would never be boring, and he did like his brother.