Fweee! XD This is the prologue to a new fic I've started writing... Muahahahahaha! Please don't be positively horrified if I don't update regularly, but I'm going to try. Really I am. And I'll finish it. I promise. (Which means even if this gets painful I'll finish it. ) Anyway. XD

This is going to wind up being a Ron/Hermione fic (if you can't tell from the description :)) and...umm... it'll be fluffy. Everything I write is extremely fluffy. But I think this'll be a pretty good story actually. Better than Into Their Own Hands. :O lol... Ummm...Harry might be a wee bit out of character...but Ron and Hermione should be all right. I always have trouble with Harry... Ah well. By the way, in the end, this fic should be approximately 23-27 chapters long. One-ish for every day in the fic... You'll understand better once you read it. Which I should let you do. So on with the disclaimer and the story!

As with all Harry Potter fics, the characters and junk don't belong to me, but the plot does :D Wait, this plot; I should clarify that just in case for any sue-happy lawyers out there... :P

Ron sighed, already bored five minutes into his and Harry's Divination homework. They'd once again been assigned to predict their futures for the next month and it was getting harder and harder to come up with horrible things that could happen to him. His thoughts began to wander, drifting briefly over Quidditch practices, the enormous amount of Transfiguration and Potions homework he'd received, and the ball Dumbledore had planned for the end of the year, before finally coming to rest on Hermione. Who happened to be conveniently sitting not ten feet away. Who also happened to have her nose conveniently buried in a book. Who also happened to be the one thing that Ron could gaze at, enthralled, for hours.

"Ron!"

He snapped out of his reverie abruptly, looking around in a dazed sort of way. "Huh? What?"

Harry was giving him a very suspicious look and his voice matched it when he spoke. "What are you daydreaming about now Ron?"

Ron stared at him, swallowing nervously. "I-er-"

Harry's eyes narrowed and he said accusingly, "You've been thinking about her again haven't you?"

Ron's ears immediately turned red and he stammered, "Wh-what? No! I'm not thinking about any girl!" Inside a little voice was screaming, 'How the hell does he know! Is he talking about who I think he is! Oh Merlin…'

"You're a terrible liar Ron. You've been thinking about Hermione again haven't you?" he asked, though it was more of a statement than a question.

Ron's face began to color as well and his mouth opened and closed wordlessly, stunned. Inside he was panicking. 'He knows! How the hell did he find out! I haven't been that obvious, have I! Bloody hell… Oh bloody hell The look Harry was giving him wasn't very comforting either. What in the world was he up to?

"Bloody hell, Ron. Just ask her already," Harry berated him.

"Ask her what?" Ron asked bewilderedly, though he had a creeping idea as to what he meant and he didn't like it one bit.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Don't be a prat. You know bloody well what I'm talking about. Ask her out."

At these words, Ron blanched. "A-ask…ask… Hermione…out!" he hissed, keeping his voice low enough that he could be sure Hermione, who hadn't looked up from her book, wouldn't hear. "Are you mad!"

Harry gave him a look. "Don't be ridiculous Ron. You've wanted to for ages now."

"I-yeah-but-" he spluttered, glancing back and forth from Hermione frantically, afraid she would look up any minute now and shoot him a look of disgust before stomping off up the stairs to the girl's dormitory to never speak to him again so long as he lived.

Harry growled slightly and said fiercely, "Fine then Ron. I'm going to give you a reason to ask her."

Ron paused in the middle of one of the furtive glances and turned his head slowly to stare at Harry. His tone was beginning to frighten him. "Er…what do you mean?"

"Ron, either you're going to ask Hermione out by the next Hogsmeade weekend, meaning thirty days not including today, or I'm going to ask her for you. In front of everyone. Very loudly, and very dramatically. As embarrassingly to you as humanly possible. Understand?" Harry said, his tone very serious.

Ron gaped at him, his face quite pale. "Y-you wouldn't, Harry…" he muttered, his voice betraying the tiny bit of mercy he was praying for.

Harry sighed. "Look Ron. I don't want to do this to you, honest. But you're driving me absolutely nutters. Every time we start doing something, you get distracted and wind up gawping at her. You talk about her incessantly and even though it's only to say how furious she makes you, it's obvious that's not the real reason. So either you're going to do yourself the favor, or I am. Whichever you find more pleasant, mate. Now I'm going to bed. Remember, thirty days."

And with those cryptic words, Harry stood and shuffled out of the common room and up to their dormitory. Ron stared after him, shocked, horrified, and unsure of whether he should hate Harry for the rest of his life, or be overwhelmingly glad he was his best friend. He then glanced over at Hermione, who seemed to be entirely oblivious to the earth shattering event that had just taken place, and decided that if Hermione rejected him, Harry was going to die. And an excruciatingly slow and painful death at that.

That night, Ron didn't sleep. He went to bed briefly after the encounter with Harry, completely ignoring Hermione and not even saying 'good night' out of sheer terror. He spent the night restlessly thrashing about in his bed, worrying and debating over how he would ever gather up the courage to ask Hermione on a date. By morning, he was exhausted, frustrated, and terrified at the very thought of seeing Hermione. Merlin, he was going to murder Harry if this didn't work out.