A/N – This chapter is mainly a set up for the rest of the story, so don't worry if the relationships don't seem to match up yet. Also…Hermione seems rather OOC by the end of this chapter but it's just to make a point. She will become much more in character.

Disclaimer: Don't own Harry Potter or any affiliated characters. (heh…I just wanted to say affiliated XD)

"Mmm," Ron moaned as a well endowed fifth year girl with a mass of amber curls pushed herself against him, "Twenty points for Ravenclaw." He muttered against her lips, moving his hands downwards to rest on her waist. The girl giggled flirtatiously and Ron allowed himself a moment to count his lucky snitches.

He wasn't sure when exactly it had happened but somehow, through no work or effort of his own, Ronald Weasley had suddenly and inexplicably become extremely popular with the witches of Hogwarts. He couldn't recall a change. He couldn't think of anything that could have attracted them to him, but they were swarming to him nonetheless and he was not complaining.

When it first started happening, sometime around February, Ron had thoroughly embarrassed himself by accusing a blonde, goddess-like Ravenclaw of 'pulling his leg' and asking him out as a dare. It wasn't until Harry had mentioned, sometime later, how outrageously the seventh year had been flirting with him that Ron had realised his mistake and sprinted whole-heartedly to the Ravenclaw Dormitories, running over a few more girls on his way.

That first conquest had lasted a grand total of twenty-seven hours before Ron had been introduced to her older, very attractive Hufflepuff cousin. Since then, he had maintained a steady stream of female companions ranging from the fifth to the seventh year from every house but Slytherin.

And now, as he pawed his fourth catch of the week (Jenny? Jenna? It really didn't matter...) Ron took the time to appreciate this sporadic, but welcome, twist of fate. This strange new obsession the girls seemed to have with him had put Ronald Weasley almost on par with Draco Malfoy as far as desirability went, for which every Gryffindor, even the jealous males, were thankful.

Malfoy, on the other hand, along with his Slytherin cronies, seemed to find the whole situation laughable, much to the annoyance of one redheaded, self-deemed 'sex-God', who got rather annoyed every time Malfoy walked past smirking and thanking Weasley for "cleaning up his leftovers".

In an attempt to explain his sudden popularity, Ron had come up with many hypotheses on the matter, all of which centred around his 'insane good looks', 'irresistible charm' and 'sharp wit'. Hermione, however, saw the situation for what it was (a domino reaction stemming from that first encounter…although Hermione was still working on why that first encounter had happened to begin with) and was rather disgruntled, if not disgusted, to stumble across Ron engaging in such activities (again) when he was supposed to be on patrol.

"Ronald Weasley, unhand that girl this instant or I'll owl your mother." A furious Hermione Granger snarled, her wand pressed to his temple. Ron lifted his hands in surrender as the girl scarpered off, hurrying to do up her top three shirt buttons. Hermione watched her go and rolled her eyes, what did the girls suddenly see in Ron? Was being a prefect really that attractive? It attracted you didn't it? A voice in the back of her mind answered before being mentally shushed.

Ron gulped. Try as she might, Hermione seemed to have fallen victim to the 'Weasley Charm'. The Hogwarts Prodigy found herself occupying precious lesson time staring at the back of Ron's head, or his profile whilst idly chewing on her quill nib, a bad habit she had picked up only recently. She really couldn't put her finger on what exactly she liked about the red-haired moron, although, she stubbornly told herself, she wasn't like those mindless girls trying to boost their reputation by bedding the Ron Weasley. No. She had liked him as a friend first. And somehow, in her head, this made her claim more legitimate.

"Um...Hermione?" Ron muttered, his voice trembling, "Could you possibly lower your wand? You're scaring me..." Hermione took a moment to enjoy Ron's reaction before reluctantly sliding her wand into her robe pocket.

"How dare you abuse your prefect responsibilities like that!" She began as Ron settled in for another 'Hermiorant' (Ron had to hold back a giggle at what he thought was the genius combination of the words Hermione and Rant which seemed to grace the same sentences more frequently than he liked). It was only at this moment that Hermione truly took in Ron's appearance. His hair was dishevelled, his shirt buttons half ripped from the cotton and there was a glistening trail of what Hermione hoped was lip gloss running from the corner of his mouth down his neck, Ron saw her looking, wiped at it and chuckled.

Hermione stumbled back slightly, looking Ron up and down before pulling herself together and focussing on his face. He was smirking at her. The twat.

"What are you smirking at Ronald?" she said in a monotone, rolling her eyes the way she always used to when Ron did something stupid, before this ridiculous 'attraction' thing had overtaken her waking (not to mention resting) mind. The whole thing seemed peculiar to her. Hermione had never had a 'type', never been one for those silly quizzes in Witch Weekly describing your 'Perfect Wizard' (and to be honest she disapproved fundamentally – the perfect man didn't have to be a wizard – what was wrong with muggle men?) yet somehow, through a complete change in character, Ronald of all people had caught her attention.

Ron chuckled again in what could be considered a 'sexy' kind of way. Not that the word was even in the vocabulary of a witch as sensible as Hermione Jean Granger.

"Jealous again, are we Granger?" Ron smirked as he did up his remaining shirt buttons. Hermione couldn't speak for a moment. How was she supposed to respond? On the one hand – the way he smirked and the drawl in his voice were extremely attractive, on the other he was a git, and of course she was jealous. But the way he called her Granger reminded her of someone…

"Don't be so arrogant Weasley, and don't call me Granger, you sound like Malfoy." She snapped, trying to remind him that he was not quite the 'most-desired' in Hogwarts yet, Draco Malfoy had been working on the 'bad boy' act for years and, according to the witches of Hogwarts, Ron still had some catching up to do. To be honest, Hermione had to admit that everything about Ron was becoming more and more like the blond Slytherin, and the thought that she liked someone with anything in common with that snake was enough to make her stomach turn, (personally she didn't understand what the other girls saw in Malfoy…) but she put the thoughts aside as Ron began to walk towards her.

She backed away slightly as he approached, but unusually her brain wasn't working very quickly and she accidentally backed herself into the corridor wall.

"Is that a no?" Ron muttered into her ear, placing one arm on the wall above her head as he ran his finger down her cheek in a highly inappropriate manner.

"Yes" Hermione breathed, trying to ignore the sensation of his fingers drifting down her neck…

"Yes?" Ron chucked darkly, snaking his remaining arm around her waist.

"No!" Hermione yelped attempting to slip away from him and trying to calm herself before his pea-sized brain could register how flustered she was.

"Got yourself a bit confused there Granger," Ron said, smirking once again, "but don't worry, you're not my type." And with that, and a flick of his wand to straighten his clothes and hair, he turned on his heel and swept down the corridor leaving Hermione shocked, and rather angry, gazing after him.

She felt…ashamed by the way she reacted to him, and to be honest, embarrassed. A few weeks ago his actions would have sickened her but now he seemed to have all the power in their (somewhat dysfunctional) relationship. She'd caught him abusing his authority as a prefect, but in the end he'd been the one leaving her with a lot to think about.

For some reason, she was highly offended by the fact that he didn't seem to find her attractive. It was strange, as she replayed their encounter in her mind Ron himself didn't stand out all that much, but his words had sparked her competitive nature. How dare someone suggest that she wasn't good enough? What, did he think that just because girls were suddenly interested in him he was better than her? Was she just a stupid Mudblood now?

Hermione, angry and with a lot to think about, made her way to the Gryffindor common room, where she climbed the stairs to the room she shared with Lavender and the Patil twins, flopped down onto her bed, flung her arm over her eyes and began to think.

For once Ronald Weasley attended a lesson Hermione Granger did not.

Over the next few months, a great many changes overcame Hermione Granger. So what if Ronald didn't find her attractive? There were plenty more Grindylows in the lake, and although she admitted that the sudden changes (or 'improvement') in her appearance did have something to do with the red-haired git, it was most definitely not for his sake. Or so she told herself.

So far, Ron hadn't noticed anything different about Hermione, and continued to prance around as if he were Harry-freaking-Potter or something, but it was only a matter of time. Her hair, although still characteristically bushy, fell in more gentle waves. Her eyelashes were slightly longer, her eyes slightly brighter, and her bust (thanks to a sneaky and extremely awkward visit to Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes) was a cup size or two larger.

It wasn't that Hermione was particularly vain, on the contrary most of her recent additions were suggestions from Ginny, Lavender, or other meddling Gryffindor girls who thought it a fun challenge to 'transform' the dowdy prefect into someone worthy of the (oh so dreamy…) Ron Weasley. The real surprise had come when Miss Granger discovered that she rather enjoyed being pampered and looking…well…good. In fact, Ron seemed to be the only boy at Hogwarts who hadn't begun to pay more attention to her.

Even Harry, who didn't seem to notice anything anymore other than Ginny and Voldemort, had become awkward around her, looking at her curiously when he thought she couldn't see. She hadn't thought he would have been at all affected but as long as they stayed good friends she was rather glad he was finally seeing her as a girl and not a floating library.

Throughout this time, Ronald's attitude towards the witches of Hogwarts hadn't changed much, except that he now accepted the occasional heartbroken Slytherin girl seeking a rebound from Draco Malfoy. This had made him rather unpopular with the Slytherin boys who already hated him for being the lapdog of The Boy Who Lived, and an increasing number of dragon dung bombs were mysteriously finding their way into Ron's bag during potions classes.

Hermione really didn't care.

Ron's actions around Hermione were completely inexplicable. It seemed that now he was a 'Sex God' he could no longer keep Hermione as just a friend, and as he had made it rather clear that he wasn't planning on making her any more than a friend, they were left in the awkward situation where they interacted in class but outside of it…completely ignored each other. It was driving poor Harry insane, and he had enough to worry about.

The Gryffindor girls often gossiped about Hermione's 'crush' on Ron (Harry may have been a little naïve when he told Ginny and assumed it would stay between them…) but what no one knew or dared to speculate about was how Ron felt about her.

For the sake of her pride, Hermione hadn't told anyone that he'd said she wasn't his type. It was only Harry, who had become the only person both prefects could talk to, who knew what Ron's feelings were, and he had stubbornly decided not to get involved. Privately, Harry wasn't sure that Hermione's 'feelings' for Ron didn't have more to do with her need to prove herself than any actual affection for the redhead, and for this very reason, he kept his mouth firmly shut around them, watching silently to see how things would turn out.

Hermione continued to strive to better herself and her appearance, much in the way she had dedicated years to achieving academic excellence. Her grades were still at the top of the school, they hadn't dropped a single percent, but she had realised that the amount of time she had previously spent tagging along on Ron and Harry's foolish adventures (their most recent being 'try and trick Peeves into knocking over Snape's potions bottles') could be much better spent on other things. She was still there whenever Harry needed to talk to her, but she found herself spending less time even with him and rather a lot more with his girlfriend and the other Gryffindor girls.

Hermione Granger was relatively happy with her new circumstances, and it was just as she came to realise that maybe it was time to move on, that Ron Weasley decided to notice her again.

A/N – Thanks for reading :3 I don't really have too much of a plan for how this story is going to go…so I'm quite excited haha.