Author's Note: This story was written by me, horcrux happy, and my friend Paddy, ibelieveintruelove. It's still in progress, but don't worry, we won't take forever! This is a Ron/Hermione story, mainly canon-compliant, that is supposed to be a more detailed look on their relationship during Half-Blood Prince. Please read and review!
Herbology. Hermione sighed. It's not that she disliked it, but she would much rather be decoding runes or drawing star charts for Professor Sinistra. Neville was probably the only one who was really interested in the class. It was never the most fascinating subject, but it wasn't boring, either. Especially today's lesson.
The sixth years were harvesting Snargaluff pods, and it wasn't an easy task. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were not making a good enough attempt to get one out of the dead-looking stump in front of them, as they were discussing Professor Slughorn's latest party, and this earned them a scolding from Professor Sprout, who walked briskly towards them and gave them a stern look. "Quite enough chat over here! You're lagging behind, everybody else has started, and Neville's already got his first pod!" Hermione looked at Neville, not wholly surprised that he was clutching an unpleasantly pulsating green object about the size of a grapefruit while sustaining scratches along his face and a bloody lip. Startled that the three of them had not even started, she turned to Ron and Harry, waiting for them to help her.
"Should've used Muffliato, Harry." Ron murmured. Hermione gave the two boys a cross look.
"No, we shouldn't!" She immediately exclaimed, almost angrily. "Well, come on… we'd better get going…"
The three of them dived at the gnarled stump between them. For a lump of wood, it sure knows how to put up a fight. Hermione thought briefly as one of the thorny vines caught in her hair and Ron beat it back with a pair of secateurs; Harry trapped several vines and knotted them together, causing a hole to open up in the middle of the branches. Hermione sank her arm into the hole, and it attempted to swallow her arm, closing in and causing her arm to go slightly numb. Harry and Ron forced the hole open again, wrenching at the vines and she withdrew her hand from the plant, clutching a pod identical to Neville's. Panting, she dropped it in the bowl that Harry held out to her, her face twisted in disgust; Harry passed the bowl to Ron, who started a valiant attempt to burst the pod.
"Anyway, Slughorn's going to have a Christmas party, Harry, and there's no way you'll be able to wriggle out of this one because he actually asked me to check your free evenings, so he could be sure to have it on a night you can come." She continued, acting as though a lump of dead wood had not just attacked the three of them. Ron, who was squashing the pod with all his strength, suddenly looked furious.
"And this is another party just for Slughorn's favorites, is it?" He sputtered angrily.
"Just for the Slug Club, yes," Hermione replied coolly, acting as though he was not being jealous. Why did he insist on saying he doesn't care about these parties and then he turns around and gets jealous about it?
The pod slipped out of Ron's fingers and hit the glass of the greenhouse, bouncing off and hitting Professor Sprout in the head, and while Harry went to retrieve it, Ron turned to Hermione with an uncharacteristically ugly sneer on his face. "Slug Club? Blimey, it's even more stupid than I thought!"
"Look, I didn't make up the name 'Slug Club'—" she started, just as Harry returned, clutching the pod.
"'Slug Club,'" Ron repeated, the sneer still pasted on his face. "It's pathetic. Well, I hope you enjoy your party. Why don't you try hooking up with McLaggen, then Slughorn can make you King and Queen Slug—"
Hermione blinked furiously, almost bursting into tears. Why did Ron always have to lose his temper at such inopportune moments?
"We're allowed to bring guests," Hermione was now a bright, boiling scarlet, infuriated beyond belief, "and I was going to ask you to come, but if you think it's that stupid then I won't bother!"
Ron shut up immediately. "You were going to ask me?" he asked, in a completely different tone of voice. Hermione was oblivious, trying not to blow up, her temper almost past its threshold.
"Yes, but obviously if you'd rather I hooked up with McLaggen…"
"No, I wouldn't," Ron responded, in a very quiet voice.
The shattering of glass brought Hermione back to her senses. Had Harry been listening to that whole conversation? She flipped through her book with more gusto than intended, and while Ron and Harry retrieved another pod, Hermione burst the first one, filling the bowl with tubers wriggling like pale green worms.
Did Ron mean he would rather go with me than have Cormac go with me?