Disclaimer: This story does not deal with the events that took place in Half Blood Prince and therefore the sixth year is completely made up.
The most precious possession that ever comes
To a man in this world
Is a woman's heart.
by Josiah G. Holland
"Hermione!" Ron and Harry called, waving their arms to catch her attention. She waved and then held up a finger before turning back to her parents and giving them a hug. She then picked up her stuff and began to drag her trunk over to the boys. Carefully placing the crate with an annoyed Crookshanks down, she gasped at what she saw. Both boys had grown, though Ron was obviously the tallest at a 6' 3" to Harry's 6' 1". They both towered over Hermione's short 5' 5" frame. Quiddich had done a lot for both of them, Ron growing out of his lanky stature. Hermione grinned as she gave each a hug, holding onto Ron for an extra second before Harry coughed and she pulled away, blushing.
"How are you?" she asked as they made there way towards the train. Harry shrugged.
"Interesting. The Burrow was full of activity this summer," he said. Hermione stuck out her lip.
"I am so sorry I couldn't com over this summer, Ron. I wanted to so much, but seeing as it is our last year, my parents wanted to spend the summer with me, so we toured Europe. It was actually quite exciting," she explained as they boarded after Ron waved his family goodbye. As they found a compartment, Hermione looked back out.
"Is Ginny here?" she asked. Ron nodded as he helped put their trunks up.
"She's probably with that friend of hers. She won't tell me his name," he grumbled. Harry's cheeks reddened slightly.
"She's dating?" he asked. Not catching the look, Ron nodded in disgust.
"Yeah, some seventh year bloke as far as I know. I tried owling you, Hermione, to see if you knew anything," Ron muttered darkly, turning to Hermione, who was sitting next to him. She, however, had noticed the look on Harry's face. She couldn't help but smile as she slowly shook her head.
"No... she didn't say anything to me about a boyfriend," she responded, giving Harry a curious glance. Harry shifted uneasily, glancing over at Ron's grumpy yet intimidating figure. She grinned.
"You know, Ron. Even if she does have a boyfriend, I don't think you have to worry about it," she suggested. Harry's red tinge deepened as he kept glancing over to Ron, hoping he wouldn't catch the meaning, in the mean time trying to silently get Hermione to stop. Just then, Ginny found it appropriate to appear, sliding open the door and coming in. Neville and Luna were with her.
"Hello," she greeted, sitting across from Hermione. Luna sat next to Ginny as Neville took a seat beside Hermione. Hermione grinned, glancing over to a now tomato like Harry, who was doing his best not to look at Ginny. Hermione then turned to her friend.
"Hey, Gin. Where were you?" she asked. Ginny grinned.
"I had to get something back from Lavander. I then ran into these two," she said, motioning to Luna and Neville. Hermione nodded and turned back to her book, but everyone could tell she wasn't reading it. Just like everyone could tell that Ron wasn't really looking out the window, but rather looking at the reflection of Hermione in the window. Growing tired of the two's sneaked glances, Harry threw up his arms.
"Oh, why don't you two just find a room to snog?" he asked. Hermione opened her mouth in objection, but was silenced by Ron standing up and grabbing her hand and pulling her out the compartment.
"That's a good idea," he commented as they disappeared out into the hall.
"Ron!" Hermione squeaked as she was pulled into an empty compartment and pushed up against the window, Ron's lips on her neck. She gasped as he bit down on her exposed skin.
"I missed you," he mumbled, trailing kisses up her jaw and the corner of her mouth. She groaned as he pressed himself against her, their lips finally meeting in a heated exchange, tongues brushing against each other, trying to taste as much as possible.
"I missed you too," she managed before letting out a moan of pleasure when his fingers met her burning skin, running up and down her back, causing wonderful shockwaves to cascade down her spine.
"Oh God, Weasley. It's bad enough you're friends with the thing, do you actually have to lower yourself to shagging the mudblood?" came the familiar and hated drawl of Draco Malfoy. Ron pulled away and turned around immediately, wand out, but at his side. Hermione remained frozen at the window.
"What do you want, Ferret?" Ron growled, noticing the four other hulking figures behind Malfoy. Malfoy sneered.
"Nothing you could possibly afford." He then turned to Hermione, eyes roving over her body appraisingly. "My, my, you've grown up, haven't you?" Ron lunged at the blonde, only to be held back by Hermione who had finally moved from her spot at the window.
"Go away!" She screamed at Malfoy while trying to hold back the raging Weasley. Malfoy just smirked.
"What? You going to listen to your little mudblood shagtoy?" That did it. Ron pushed Hermione out of the way and his fist connected with Malfoy's jaw before any of his cronies could move.
"Ron!" Hermione screamed as the two boys rolled around on the ground. Several people came out of their compartments, wanting to know what the noise was about. Soon people were egging Ron on while Slytherins extoled their leader. Harry had managed to force his way through the crowd.
"What the hell?" he gaped, watching the two fight. He looked up to see a pale Hermione trying to contact Ron.
"Ron stop! Stop before-"
BANG!
Everyone covered their heads as smoke rose. Malfoy and Ron broke apart, gulping in air and glaring daggers at each other.
"What the hell is going on here?!" Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody yelled, shoving his way through the now very queit crowd. He glared down at the two boys, his one eye twisting around wildly.
"Get up," he barked. Hermione and Harry helped Ron up while his cronies helped Malfoy up. Moody pointed his smoking wand at the both of them.
"Now I can't give you detention of take point off or crap like that, but I will be telling Dumbledore about this bullshit." He whirled around on the crowd.
"There's nothing to see here," he growled. Immediately the crowd began to disappear. Malfoy was about to leave when he stopped and turned to Hermione.
"I'd watch my back if I were you, Granger," he muttered. Harry took a step forward and Malfoy left. They both then turned to Ron, who lowered himself into a chair, touching his bleeding lip tenderly. Hermione kneeled down in front of him.
"I told you to stop," she whispered, taking the corner of her shirt and dabbing Ron's lip. Harry couldn't help but grin.
"Well, at least I'm not the first one to get in trouble this year," he sniggered.
Hermione and Harry took their seats with the other seventh years as Professor McGonagall did the Sorting. Strangely, the Sorting Hat kept quiet this year, making no omens or suggestions. It did however, glance over towards the Gryffindor table with an sad look. Hogwarts actually got three more seventh year students and one fourth year. Two of them were sorted into Gryffindor while the other one was placed into Slytherin. There was a fourth year girl and a seventh year boy. No relation. Gryffindor welcomed him with a polite applause, but Hermione wasn't paying much attention, her mind focused on what was going on in Dumbledore's office. However, by the time the Sorting was over, Dumbledore had returned, but the two boys had not, making the Gryffindors and Slytherins extremely anxious and Hermione frightened. Harry took her hand as they both turned to listen to Dumbledore and his regular speech. However at the end, he managed to get the whole Hall in an uproar, except for the Slytherins when he reminded everyone of Voldemort's defeat in the past year. Hermione gave Harry a quick hug and her mood lightened slightly as they turned to eat. Once excused, the two ran all the way to Gryffindor House. Hermione, being Head Girl, knew the password and got them in easily. She looked around and then went to the bottom of the boy's dormitory stairs.
"Ron!" she called.
"Yeah!" came his reply. He appeared at the top and Harry and Hermione let out a sigh of relief.
"We thought you had been expelled," Harry said as the two scaled the stairs and entered the seventh year dormitory. Hermione touched Ron's face.
"You went to the Infirmary?" she asked. Ron nodded, sitting down on his bed.
"We had to go after Dumbledore talked to us," he grumbled.
"What happened mate?" Harry asked. Ron shrugged.
"Two weeks detention and we have to miss the first Hogsmeade trip. Of course my mum's getting an owl, so I'll be getting a howler in the morning," he muttered.
"What about Malfoy?" Harry asked. Ron's disposition darkened.
"He got the same," he said. Hermione's eyes flamed up.
"WHAT?! He... he started the whole thing!"
"Yeah well, Dumbledore said it wasn't a good idea to bring witnesses into the whole thing seeing as most of them are friends of Malfoy's," Ron explained. Harry nodded.
"That makes sense... I guess," he said, deep in thought. Ron shrugged and got up, going to his trunk and shuffling through it for his night clothes.
"Well, I guess you and Harry will have to go to Hogsmeade without me," he said as he looked around, head in trunk. Harry's eyes met Hermione's and he colored slightly.
"Well... I was planning to... well, you see Ron-"
"Ronald Weasley what the hell did you do?" Ginny demanded storming into the dormitory. Harry went complety red while Hermione grinned. Ron jumped, and swore, hitting his foot on the side of the trunk.
"Dammit, Ginny. I didn't do anything!" he muttered, sitting down on the bed and holding his foot in pain. Ginny placed her hands on her hips and shifted her weight to one foot, looking frighteningly like Mrs. Weasley.
"Then why is the whole common room saying that you sent Malfoy to the hospital wing?" she asked.
"He called Hermione... well you know..." he stuttered, looking disgusted at the thought of the word. Hermione couldn't help but feel her heart flutter at the look. He actually cared enough not to repeat the word. Ginny's eyes widened and she glanced over at Hermione.
"Oh," she said and then her mood changed as if nothing had ever happened. She walked over and sat herself down next to Harry. Harry glanced over at Ron, who had gone back to searching through his trunk.
"What ever," he said. "Hey Harry, what were you saying about planning to do something for Hogsmeade," he called over the trunk lid. Ginny's head turned to Harry with raised eyebrows. By now, Harry had gone tomato red with embarrassment.
"You were planning something?" Ginny asked pointedly. Harry's eyes widened and he pointed to Ron. He then pointed to him and to her and then shook his head. Her eyes widened and mouthed, You haven't told him?
Harry shook his head and then pointed to Ron again and then to himself and then made a fist and slammed it into his other hand. Ginny shook her head.
He wouldn't hit you, she mouthed. Harry raised an eyebrow.
What about Michal? he asked silently. Michal was a Ravenclaw seventh year Ginny had dated last year. He was also a beater for the team and was a huge boy. Somehow, Ron had managed to land the boy in the hospital wing for two days without anyone figuring out how it had happened. All they knew was that now, whenever Michal saw Ron, he fled down the hall with a slight limp. Ron never said what he did and just smiled wickedly when asked.
Ginny rolled her eyes.
That's only because I didn't tell him, she tried to convince him.
Ginny, we've been together since January! What do you think he'd do to me if he found out we've been together that long, Harry asked, glancing over at Ron. Hermione held up her hand, gaining the couple's attention.
Don't worry about Ron. I'll deal with him, she said, watching as Ron finally stood, holding a orange shirt and some plaid pajama pants. He looked between the three and frowned.
"What?" he asked suspiciously. Hermione stood, beckoning Ginny to do the same.
"Nothing!" She gave him a peck on the lips and then ushered Ginny out the door, giggling. Ron looked completely confused.
"What's wrong with those two?" he asked Harry. The boy just shrugged and began his own search for night clothes, trying to conceal a wry smile.
"I haven't the foggiest."
A/N: This is also something I've been thinking about for a while.