I will still be referring to Ron as a male. Just for everyone to know. Oh, and sorry, I didn't explain the title… no, I didn't mean to have the same name as myself (Opal) but well; rubies are referring to Ron, obviously. It was difficult to find a gemstone for Draco. See, because it had to be something mysterious and 'cold'. No offense, Opal. If anyone has any other ideas for a stone, please say so!!! No moonstones please, I don't want Drac



Disclaimer: Everyone belongs to J.K.Rowling, with the exception of Veronica, because she's half yaddee yaddee yah





"Ron!" Hermione exclaimed.

"You let him kiss your hand!" Harry said, disgusted.

"Mm"

"Are you out of your MIND?" Hermione yelled.

"Mm"

"He's in shock" Harry said, clicking his fingers in front of Ron's face.

"Harry…"Hermione warned. Harry looked around him to see a small bunch of first years.

"Harry Potter?" one of them gasped.

"Why did you call her a he?" another asked, pointing at Ron. Harry's mouth opened and closed like a goldfish.

"Move aside everyone, Harry's services are needed elsewhere" Hermione said importantly. Eager to help the famous Harry Potter, the first years scrambled aside, letting Hermione and Harry walk Ron briskly back to the room.

"Harry's services" Harry snorted once inside. Hermione shrugged.

"Whatever works. Those first years are as eager as house elves"

"Speaking of house elves…"

"Don't worry, no SPEW this year" Hermione grinned. "I've learned my lesson!"

"Phew" Harry said thankfully.

"It wasn't THAT bad!" Hermione said, hurt.

"House elves are HAPPY working Herm!" Harry said. Hermione held up a hand.

"I know, I know, don't have to tell me again, I heard enough of THAT last year" she said. Harry turned his attention back to Ron.

"He kissed my hand" Ron murmured dreamily.

"Keep murmuring that and people will think you're falling in love with the git" Harry joked. Ron snapped out of his trance.

"Hm? Oh, yeah. Hehe. Heh" he laughed weakly. Hermione suddenly jumped.

"What?" Harry asked.

"Harry! Oh no!" Hermione cried and charged around the room, collecting her books.

"What? What?"

"Isn't it time for our Potions class?"

Harry jerked out of bed.

"Oh no! Another chance for Snape to take off points! C'mon Ron, you're books are still in the boys' dorm!"





"Late again, Potter? What happened, too busy with your fans?" Snape asked sarcastically, practically spitting out the word fans. "Or maybe, you're so FAMOUS you don't think attending Potions is important?"

"Sir, we had to go talk to-" Hermione started.

"I wasn't asking for you to talk Ms. Granger! Fifteen points, EACH, from Gryffindor!" he barked. Knowing better than to say anything the three walked in, Ron trying to avoid all eye contact. Snape looked at her and raised an eyebrow slightly. Ron and Harry sat together, as usual.

"You'll have to move, Ms. Weasley" the man said. Ron jumped slightly. Ms. Weasley? Dumbledore must have told all the teachers.

"Since you're late, you won't be able to sit next to your girlfriend Potter" Snape said maliciously, seeming to exaggerate and take pleasure in saying the word girlfriend. Ron's face burned. Harry, remembering that Snape had once also been turned into a girl, could see the teacher with his oily black hair in two pigtails and snorted.

"What was that?" Snape snapped.

"Nothing" Harry said.

"Ten points from Gryffindor for talking back! Weasley, swap places with Crabbe" Snape commanded. Crabbe picked up his books and bag and sat next to Harry with a sulky and obviously unhappy face. Ron took the boy's place, next to Draco, who smiled slightly at him.

"Today we'll be learning to make an avolare potion. If done correctly, after drunk, you should be able to float about a foot in the air. Let's hope that no one does it incorrectly" he said, shooting a scathing glare at Neville, who shrank into his seat. Hermione, who was his partner, nudged his arm reassuringly.

"First, chop up the slugs. Make sure that they are sliced into even bits" Snape instructed. Crabbe pushed the dead slugs to Harry.

"Here" he grunted lazily. Harry, knowing that it was better not to argue, seeing as how if he argued Snape would probably take off more points, plus he could do it better anyway, started to chop slowly and carefully. Ron took the slugs and the knife and started to slice, trembling slightly. A pale hand reached out and took most of the slugs.

"I'll cut them" Draco said. Ron smiled nervously.

"No, it's alright, I'll cut them…" he said. Draco, ignoring him, took the knife gently out of his shaking hand and began to cut the slugs neatly. Ron stared at the blonde's pale hand, jerking and moving the knife quickly in and out of the insects. He suddenly realized that Draco had finished and was smirking at him. He blushed and looked away quickly. He could see Hermione, helping Neville chop up the slugs slowly. He looked at Harry, chopping up the insects, and Crabbe, sitting to one side lazily. Harry looked up and caught Ron's look. He rolled his eyes, grinned, then got back to work.

"So you're Weasley's sister" Draco commented. Startled, Ron whipped around and found himself staring into Draco's intense ice-blue eyes. He tried to break the gaze but found he couldn't.

"Y…yeah" he said, finding he also seemed to have somehow lost the sense of speech.

"Where is your brother, by the way?" Draco asked. Ron thought he was going to have a heart attack.

"He, uh, he…"

"You stammer a lot" Draco remarked. Ron bit his lip.

"He left" Ron lied.

"Left?"

"Yeah, he uh, left for Romania. To see his brother Charlie. He looks after dragons" Ron added with a hint of pride in his voice.

"'His brother Charlie'. Isn't 'his brother' your brother too?" Draco asked smoothly.

"I,I,I…Uh, we don't see each other often"

"So?" Draco seemed to enjoy making the redhead nervous.

"So… so we hardly refer to each other as brother and sister!"

"But everyone else in your family refers to him as Charlie, while you refer to him as 'his brother'"

"Uh, that's because…"

"Good. I'm glad to see that everyone's potions are alright. So far. Now, take the dragon blood. Add in three drops to the wolf claws, I repeat, three drops ONLY then put them in the cauldron and stir ten times clockwise" Snape barked. Ron sighed in relief. No more lying. He reached for the flask of dragon blood the same time Draco did. The blonde's hand closed over Ron's. Ron jerked as he felt a jolt of electricity run up his hand. Doing so, he accidentally knocked over the flask. The dragon blood spilled and poured over the floor and shards of glass.

"Clumsy girl!" Snape roared. He stormed over.

"Now how do you suppose that you're going to get some more dragon blood? It is hard enough to obtain even a drop of it! A hundred points from-"

"Sorry sir. I must have knocked it over while chopping the slugs" Draco interjected. Snape blinked.

"Oh. Well then… good thing I have more dragon blood in here" he took out another flask from a cabinet.

"And twenty points from Gryffindor" he added. Ron muttered something unintelligible and censored under his breath.

"Pardon?" Draco smirked. Ron felt himself wanting to once again lose himself in the Slytherin's mysterious blue eyes, but jerked his head away.

~What's coming over me? I can't be… be falling for MALFOY! ~ He thought, horrified. He glanced up at Draco, who was smiling a lazy half-smile at him.

~And why is he being so NICE to me? ~ He wondered. ~It's not like he likes me too~. He snorted at the ridiculous idea. But he wondered why a slight part of him hoped so.





"Hermione! I've got to talk to you" Ron waved to the girl. She turned around.

"Hi R… Veronica!" she corrected herself in time. Confused, Ron looked at who was around. Harry was standing on Hermione's right. And on her left…

"Hi Harry, Fred, George" he greeted weakly. Fred grinned.

"Well well! A new Gryffindor, and we didn't know?"

"What's your name?" George asked. Harry tried to push him away.

"Uh, I'm sure you don't want to know" he muttered.

"Harry! A new student, and WE wouldn't want to know?" Fred tutted. Harry was about to protest further when he caught a small grin from Ron. He shrugged.

"Alright then, don't say I didn't warn you" he grinned. Slightly suspicious now, the twins stared at Ron's face. Ron stared right back.

"You know what? You remind me of someone," Fred said.

"Hey Fred, don't you think she resembles our dear little brother Ron? Just a bit, and if she were a boy…" George said. Fred blinked and stared harder at Ron, who grinned mischievously back, eyes sparkling with fun and laughter. He then looked at them, hand on chin.

"And you know what? I could swear you looked like my older sisters Frederica and Georgette," he said.

"Really?" the twins asked.

"Yeah, and you know, they used to get SOOO mad when I was a baby when I pulled this face" Ron pulled his chin down and rolled his eyes up. Then twins stared at him again.

"Ron?" they asked faintly. Ron winked.

"Oh my GOD!" they yelled and fell in a heap on the floor. Ron looked down at them.

"I seem to have that effect on people, don't I?" he sighed.





"So, let me get this straight, after you ate one of our cupcakes you turned into… like this?" Fred asked. Ron nodded.

"But you can't tell ANYONE, alright?" he asked.

"Yeah, yeah, sure" George said.

"Wow! Can you imagine the money we could make? It would be a terrific addition to our joke shop!" Fred said to his twin, who nodded, excited. Then he turned glum.

"But I don't know how I made it. I just threw in some old rubbish, mixed it up, then poured it in to the cupcake mixture" he sighed. Fred's face dropped, then brightened.

"Never mind! As long as you can remember what you put in it, it'll still work!" he said excitedly. He grabbed his twin.

"C'mon, let's try it out!" he said excitedly and ran off. Ron sighed.

"Now that they're gone, I need to talk"

"Not to you Harry, only Hermione" he added. Harry looked at him, an eyebrow quirked.

"Girl stuff" he said. He grinned as Harry zoomed out of the room.





"So… that's it" Ron finished. Hermione looked at him with a quirked eyebrow.

"So whenever you see Malfoy, your heart starts beating really fast and you lose the ability to speak"

"That's about it. Do you think it's a side-effect of the potion?"

"It's definitely got to be a side effect…"

"Great! Just perfect!" Ron stood up and started pacing. "First I get turned into a girl. Then, whenever I see Malfoy, I feel like I'm about to die". He looked up.

"Someone up there hates me!" he hollered. Hermione drummed her fingers against her lap.

"Ron, you're not going to die. It's a perfectly normal feeling. For a girl"

Ron looked at her. "It is?" he asked in disbelief. "What is it?"

Hermione looked uncomfortable. "Well, uh… promise you won't get mad at me"

"Yes"

"Because it's not my fault"

"Yes"

"It's just a side effect of the potion, feeling the same a girl would"

"For goodness sakes Hermione would you just tell me?" Ron yelled. Hermione winced and walked for the door.

"Ron… you're in love" she said. There was silence as she walked out of the door and closed it. Then…

"I DO NOT LIKE MALFOY!!!"

There was a loud thud as something very hard hit the door.



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