Draco Malfoy

He didn't have a crush on her. He couldn't have a crush on her. I mean how could it even be possible that he, Draco Malfoy, had developed a feeling other then hatred for Hermione Granger, a good - for - nothing Mudblood? But he couldn't deny the truth any longer. He liked Hermione. He liked her a lot. But he shouldn't be entertaining these kinds of feelings for someone like Hermione. She was so far below him on the Wizarding World society chain that it wasn't even funny. He being a Pureblood and she being a lowly Muggleborn, or Mudblood ,as his father called them.

Thinking about his father, Draco knew that he could never let Lucius know about his feelings for Hermione. Lucius would kill him if he knew. In his father's mind Purebloods could only marry other Purebloods. Anything less would mean that their bloodline would be tainted and forevermore inferior with blood not worthy to be mingled with their own.

Draco had to come up with a plan and fast to keep these feelings from becoming stronger, and he would do anything to make sure she never had feelings for him as well.

Hermione Granger
~

She knew she shouldn't like him. She knew he was a Slytherin bad boy,but something about the white-blond bomb shell drew her to him like a magnetic force. He was the complete opposite of what she knew she should be attracted to, but knowing that still didn't change the way that she had started to feel. She knew he was so far out of her league that it wasn't even funny. He was a Pureblood while she was just a Muggleborn. On top of all that, he didn't seem to know she existed, and if he did know, he never showed it.

She didn't even know if he knew her name. She knew his: Draco Malfoy. His name ran through her mind night and day. She found herself writing her name alongside his in the margins of her notebook when she was actually supposed to be studying.

This is silly, Hermione, get a grip for Merlin's sake! You're a smart, sensible girl with a bright future ahead of you! You don't need the distraction of a boyfriend. He would only slow you down and keep you from getting where you want to go, Hermione thought to herself. But no matter how logical her thoughts were, Hermione Granger couldn't stop a small part of herself from wondering if Draco might one day see her as someone he might love.
~

Astoria Greengrass

Astoria gazed out her bedroom window one dreary afternoon. She was to lost in thought though to notice anything that might be happening outside. She was thinking back to the time when she was ten years old when she had written to The Daily Prophet requesting an owl pal. She had been sent a slip of paper with a name on it. A boy her age, Ron Weasley, was to be her owl pal.
She was so excited by this that she told her parents and older sister Daphne that night as the family was eating dinner. She was not ready for the negative reaction she was to receive.

How on earth was she supposed to know that the Weasley family were blood traitors and accepting of everyone including Muggles. Her parents forbade any contact with Ron, but that only made her want to write to him more. So she did. At night while her family was sleeping, Astoria would write to Ron and send them to him secretly. She would use the family owl, Ignatius, to do so.

One time in one of her letters, she requested a picture of Ron because she wanted to know what he looked like. When she received his picture a few hours later, she couldn't quit staring at it. The ginger-haired and freckle-faced boy was the cutest wizard she had ever seen! She kept his picture along with his letters in a keepsake box under her bed so her family wouldn't find them. She would take out his picture when she was sure her family wasn't around, and she would stare at his picture for hours.

I'm going to marry that boy someday, she thought to herself. She had no idea that her parents had a very different plan for her in mind. A plan that could make or break her. A plan that would cause her to choose between what her family expected and what she wanted.

As Astoria continued to gaze out the window, the corners of her mouth turned up in a smile at the happy childhood memories that played across her mind like a movie that she never wanted to end.
~

Ron Weasley
~

Ron Weasley caught himself staring into space instead of staring at his Hogwarts: A History textbook. He looked back down and tried to get back to studying, but it wasn't long before he lost his focus. He just couldn't keep his mind off her. His brain kept insisting on replaying memories of her.

It had all started when he was ten years old. His mother had forced him to send in his name to The Daily Prophet to be paired with an owl pal. The name he'd received had been that of a girl named Astoria Greengrass. He was dismayed at the thought of having to write to a girl. He had resolved not to even write to her. This lasted for about 2 weeks before his mother had caught on to him. She had him sit down and pen a letter to Astoria to be sent straightaway by their owl, Errol. Ron thought if he were lucky, Errol would croak mid-flight, and the letter wouldn't be delivered. But as luck would have it, Errol survived, and a few hours later, returned with a reply from Astoria.

Ugh! This means I'm gonna have to write to her again, he thought.

They had been writing back and forth for a little while when Astoria had requested that they send a picture of themselves to each other. So that when they wrote, they would have a face to put with the name. Ron had no desire to send his picture to a girl, and again resolved not to do what this girl wanted. His mother soon found out about Astoria's request and made Ron include a photo of himself in his next letter.

When he received Astoria's photo, he turned the photo upside down so that he could toss it in the trash bin without having to look at it. But when he tossed it in the bin, the photo flipped right- side- up and he came face to face with Astoria Greengrass. She had bright hazel eyes, hair the same shade of brown as a chocolate frog, and a smile that captivate even a ten-year-old boy.

She's not half bad looking, Ron thought begrudgingly, for a girl anyway.

Ron caught himself grinning stupidly at the memory. Who knew that through a series of letters, he would meet his best friend? Or that his best friend was starting to mean more to him then just a friend. He was trying very hard to fight his feelings because he didn't want to screw up their friendship. Besides a romantic relationship between them would never work anyway. Not with him being a blood traitor and her being a Pureblood. And as they both knew, blood traitors and Purebloods were like oil and water,
The two didn't mix. With this final thought, Ron sighed and got back to studying.