A/N: I'd like to apologize for the slow update. I know I haven't been very good at it lately, but I hope I can get back to a regular schedule finally.

. . .

Part III - February 4, 1996

Ron ran out of the common room hurriedly, clutching his bag in one hand with his wand in the other, and ran right into Hermione as she was approaching the portrait hole.

"Oh, Ron! Good, I was just looking for you."

"I know, I know—patrols, right?"

Hermione's eyebrows rose in surprise, and Ron felt a rush of satisfaction at putting that expression on her face. "Exactly. I'm surprised you remembered. You hardly ever do." She tried to sound stern but a smile was fighting itself onto her lips.

"Don't worry, I remembered. Come on, let's go."

Together, they made their way through the halls together, working side-by-side in a type of silence that was only mildly unsettling. Hermione thought she ought to say something, but she didn't know what to start with. Ron wanted to ask her how her day had been but he had been with her for the majority of it. It was very frustrating to stay friends with a person of the opposite sex when everything suddenly becomes so very awkward.

After a few minutes of uncomfortable silence, Hermione decided to break the silence. "How was your day?" she asked hesitantly.

Ron cast a sidelong glance at her and shrugged casually. "Typical classes. Managed not to get detention today. I'd say it was a pretty successful day, to be honest."

Hermione smiled slightly, shaking her head. She knew she should have said something about him improving his behavior or working harder in school, but she couldn't bring herself to damage the already fragile peace that was settling over them right now.

They worked in silence for the next half hour, both of them not daring to say anything to keep the peace. Their tempers with each other were remarkably short and neither wanted to set the other off.

In the end, when they had cleared more than half the castle, Ron asked, "So what do you think about Umbridge?" Immediately, he wanted to kick himself. It was February! They'd spent the entire year with that troll! And he was asking her now, especially when Hermione made her thoughts about her very clear.

Hermione raised one eyebrow. "I think she's awful," Hermione said as if it was obvious. Which it really was. "You know that."

Ron nodded quickly, hastily trying to fix it. "Right, right. The whole DA thing. Right."

Hermione paused in her walking and waited for Ron to stop too. When he did, she leaned against the wall and crossed her arms. "Ron," she started, "are you alright? You seem on edge tonight."

Ron shook his head. "No, no, just very tired."

She looked around their surroundings and shrugged. "Well, we have already gone through most of the floors. We only have one more to go. If you'd like, you can go on up to bed and I'll finish up over here."

Inside, Ron was jumping at the chance to go back to the common room, pile himself under his blankets, and go to sleep. But he couldn't leave Hermione here to do prefect work all by herself. And he didn't even want to. He wanted to take the time to spend some time with her, without Harry, because whenever he was around, the threat of Voldemort always seemed to come up, or the DA, or Umbridge. "No, it's fine. Like you said, one more floor. I think I'll manage."

Hermione nodded, but Ron could have sworn he saw some kind of relief or pleasure sparkling in her eyes. Smiling to himself at the possibility that maybe she wanted to spend some time alone with him, too, he finished their patrols with her with a little bounce in his step.

On their way back to the common room, they ran into trouble.

Draco Malfoy seemed to be doing patrols late at night as well, and at the sight of them, he got a sickly glint in his pale and pointy face.

"Weasel," he said nastily as a way of greeting. He purposely ignored Hermione, something that didn't go lost on either Ron nor Hermione, but both chose not to say anything.

"Move, Malfoy." Ron tried to shove his way past him, but Malfoy pushed him back.

"And where are you going right now. Off to finish patrols? Or going to find some empty classroom to spend some real quality time together?" he mocked. Hermione turned bright red and Ron began to stutter about something ridiculous, something involving cake and bed.

"We're going back to our common room, where we plan on going to separate beds in our separate rooms, and going to sleep," Hermione said.

"Well, fine then. If that's what you think everyone is going to believe."

Malfoy didn't try to stop them when they hurried past him this time, and once they rounded the corner, Hermione collapsed against the wall, covering her mouth to hide her laughter.

Ron was shocked. Why would she even be laughing? Was it because Malfoy made a crack at them being together? It couldn't be that bad of a thought, could it? He looked around confusedly. "Hermione," he said. "What's so funny. Are you getting overtired? Because I get hyper then, too. Is it what Malfoy said? I mean, it can't be that revolting to you, really."

At his words, Hermione stopped laughing. She looked up at him with wide eyes. "God, Ron, no, of course not. I would never laugh at that."

Once again, Ron felt the undying urge to kick himself. "Then why are you laughing?"

"Because it's such an obvious remark to make. He couldn't even think of anything better. I was expecting something nasty and foul, but it wasn't so bad." Hermione shrugged. "Not something to fall into hysterics about, but I couldn't help it. It was pathetic."

Ron let a smile of his own grace his lips and he nodded. "Well, we always knew Malfoy was rather pathetic."

Together, they made the rest of the way to the common room and stopped outside the portrait hole. The Fat Lady was watching them, waiting for them to say the password.

Hermione pressed her back to the wall and Ron stood in front of her, waiting to see if she had anything else to say. And she did.

"Thank you for tonight."

Ron scrunched up his eyebrows in confusion. Apparently that's all he could feel tonight. "For what?"

Hermione shrugged. "For staying. Not leaving me to do the rest of the patrols by myself. If you had, I would have seen Malfoy by myself, and. . .well, I don't know what could have happened if I did."

Ron felt a sudden urge to hug her and he would have if Hermione didn't stand up on her toes to kiss him on the cheek.

"I'll see you in class tomorrow, Ron," she said, blushing slightly as she made her way to the portrait hole. She said the password and stepped in, glancing back and smiling at him once more before she went up the stairs.

Ron began to follow her, and had one foot through the hole when he heard the Fat Lady speaking behind him.

"She has gotten very pretty, hasn't she?" she said in a singsong voice.

"Oh, shut it," Ron replied before he closed the hole and went up to bed.