Disclaimer: You know the drill. Obviously I don't own Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Harry Potter, and company. They all belong to the lovely and talented J.K. Rowling. I did, however, create Juliana Greenwald and Steven Blake. They're mine. Don't take them, because I love them so! Oh, and sadly the "cool" dialogue isn't entirely mine. I so wish it was. But that was inspired by Joss Whedon and the awesome writers on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." (More specifically, the episode entitled "The Zeppo"…and, yes. I really am that much of a geek.)

Chapter 1/Dreamers

It was a beautiful day and they were sitting by the lake, deep in conversation and laughing.

Juliana threw her head back and laughed.

"No, no, no, no, no!" said Ron, holding up his hands as if saying, "Wait for it." He continued. "And THEN the stupid git says he's going to tell Snape on me. What bloody good is that gonna do?!" He resumed laughing. They were, of course, talking about Draco Malfoy's latest blunder to his title of Fearless School Bully. Malfoy is extremely egotistical and is all talk, but when faced with…well, anything… he screams and runs away like the little girl that he is.

"Oh, but that hex was brilliant! Raising the pitch of his voice? Madame Pomfrey still hasn't been able to bring his voice back down!" Juliana laughed.

Ron leaned closer to her. "I love your laugh."

Juliana smirked. "Well, thanks."

"You know…you're…er. You're quite pretty."

She blushed slightly and looked down. "Thanks but, not really."

He leaned even closer still, his face inches away. "But you are. I've always thought so."

Just as their lips were about to meet, Ron said, "Juliana, wake up."

"What?"

Everything started to turn fuzzy.

"Jule. Wake. Up."

Her world was fading away.

"Juliana! The bell rang! Wake up!"

She felt a nudge and bolted up right, her hair falling in her eyes. She was surprised to find herself in the History of Magic classroom. She looked to the source of the nudge and saw the bright red hair, freckles, and blue eyes. Her heart flew up in her mouth. Her eyes widened in shock and she gasped.

"Uh. I…um. H-hi, Ron!" she tried to smile and her stomach lurched. She suddenly realized she could have been sleeping with her mouth open and quickly brought her hand up to her mouth, praying that she hadn't been sleeping in a puddle of her own drool.

"Welcome back to the Land of the Conscious. You better hurry or you'll be late for Charms."

"Uh-uh huh." She fumbled around with her books and watched him leave and begin walking to Charms with his best friends Harry and Hermione. Juliana groaned and slammed her head down on her desk.

"Ow."


"I had the dream again," Juliana said to her best friend Steven Blake as he sat across from her at lunch. She stared at her food as she blurted it out.

"Romantic conversation by the lake?" he replied instantly.

"Yep."

"Oh, hunny, this is getting you nowhere! Just talk to him!" Steven was wearing a black turtleneck under his robes. Juliana wondered how he couldn't be burning up.

"I do talk to him!"

"Oh, and I'm sure he finds your stuttering and 'uh's very sexy indeed," Steven remarked sarcastically.

"I do NOT stutt—Oh Merlin. I...I do. When I'm n-nervous—"

"Oh, stop. You're turning me on," he said blandly as he stabbed a leaf of his salad.

"NO," she hissed. "He's...he's looking over here!" Juliana dove for her schoolbag and looked around frantically for something to hide herself with.

"Jules, you're bloody hopeless, you know that?" Steven said leaning over the table to talk to her as she rummaged through her bag on the floor.

Juliana peered up over the table. "I know."

"Hun, come back up. He's not looking. You're safe."

She sat back at the table.

"…I need a thing," she said after a long silence.

Steven blinked. "A what-now?"

"A thing. I don't have a thing. Something that makes me cool. Maybe if I had a thing, Ron would notice me…. And, regardless, it's been bugging me. This whole 'cool' issue. What is it? How does one get it? Who doesn't have it? And who decides who doesn't have it? What…is the essence of cool?"

"Not sure. Hey, are you going to eat that? Screw this diet," Steven said shoving his plate of salad away from him and grabbing Juliana's plate.

"I mean, you, Steven. You're considered more or less cool."

"…Ah 'm?" Steven asked with his mouth full of food.

"Well…you're…you're gay! So you have that going for you. And you're in the Richard Harris Memorial Toad Choir! I bet you get a lot of boyfriends from that!"

Steven stared at her and tried to catch the food from falling out of his mouth.

"Okay. Never mind. But my point is…everyone needs a thing. A quirk. Anything! Just something no one else has. …What do I have?"

Steven quickly swallowed his mouthful of food and put his hands on hers. "An exciting new obsession. Which I feel makes you very special."


"RON! PAY. ATTENTION. Do you want to pass Astronomy or not?" Hermione said sharply. Harry tried to hide his snickering behind a goblet of pumpkin juice.

"What? Oh! Sorry. …What?"

Hermione raised her eyebrows. "You with me?"

"Er—yes," he said uncertainly.

"Name Jupiter's moons."

Ron stared at her dumbfounded for a few moments and then got a look of someone who had just figured out something clever. "I see where you're going…we didn't study Jupiter's moons yet! You're trying to trick me!" Harry, who had been gulping down his pumpkin juice, spit it back out as Ron said this and looked at him in disbelief.

"Ron, we just studied them an HOUR ago," Hermione said tartly.

"Yeah, even I knew that, mate," Harry said. "You alright?"

"I don't know. I've just been thinking—"

"Wow," interrupted both Harry and Hermione.

"Oh, hah. Hah. You guys are a bloody riot."

"Well, go on. Tell us. What's up?" Hermione said.

"Now…don't read into this. I'm just curious is all. That girl, over there. With the short red hair? Her name's…Juliana? Right?"

"Juliana Greenwald, yeah," replied Harry as Hermione turned her head as fast as she could when she heard Ron mention Juliana's name.

"Whatabouther?" Hermione said shrilly, snapping her head back to Ron.

"…How is she?"

"Well, you could go ask her yourself, I suppose," Harry said, craning his neck to look at her. "Seems she's doing fine."

"No! I mean, what's she like?"

"She's nice. She's really nice. Very talkative. She'll find anything to talk to people about," Hermione answered and then, as if she had come to a realization, asked, "Why?!"

Ron frowned a bit, looking puzzled. "…She doesn't talk to me."

Harry noticed that Hermione looked somewhat relieved.

"Well, Ron. Not everyone can like you. Fact of life. Sorry to break it to you. Now, Jupiter's moons…"