Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter… I, Psionic Knight, would be much older… well, older than I am at least… well, let's just say I'm too young to have written book 1 and leave it at that, m'kay?

Authors Note: Well, if the reviews are anything to go by, my last chapter was a hit despite the fact that it was rushed a bit at the end. I guess I'm a better writer than I thought /inflates ego a bit/ Well, anyway, I've read the reviews, and I must say that somebody hit the mark, while a few, though it was a logical conclusion, missed it a bit. Still, I'll let the story do the rest of the talking.

Author's Note 2.0: Also, check out my Author's Page, as it has a poll to determine my next fanfic for the Harry Potter Universe. I know I said I knew what it was, but then I decided 'Let's make this more democratic and let them decide for me'. So, have at it; the fate of my work rests in your hands.


"Talking"

'Thinking'

"Speaking entirely in French"

Narrative


At A Glance

Chapter 7: Ron at a glance


Hermione had no idea what hour it was that she returned from her private time with Fleur, but she honestly didn't care. She was utterly elated; she couldn't imagine a time in which she felt better. She could still feel Fleur's soft, warm lips, and there remained a bit of her taste when she licked them every once in a while. Needless to say, Hermione had probably found the memory that would most certainly produce a potent patronus no matter what. Now all she wanted to do was go to sleep; it was probably some ungodly hour of the morning by now, judging by the fact that there was absolutely nobody wandering the halls back to the commons.

The Fat Lady was barely awake herself, so Hermione happily gave her the password and stepped into the commons. To her surprise, there was still an occupant in there, though said occupant was asleep and looked to have done so while reading a book on famous quidditch players.

'Ron must have wanted to talk to me.' Hermione reasoned as she slowly crept to the stairs leading to her dorm 'Honestly though, this has been the best evening of my life, and I really don't want him to ruin it by yelling at me over this.'

She managed to pass by him without a hitch, and silently hoped he'd be a bit less of his normally irrational self in the morning. She needed to talk to him and make sure things were good between them, as he did have a tendency to not realize things about her… and other girls in general. In her thoughts, which seemed to be perpetually drifting back to Fleur for reasons that would be obvious for even Ron at his worst, Hermione did not notice that the light to her room was still on before she actually opened the door.

"Where have you been, Missy?" a clearly tired Ginny mustered from her spot on her bed.

"None of your business, mum." Hermione replied with a smile "…Have you gained weight, mum?"

Ginny simply rolled her eyes as two of the other members of the room woke up from positions that signified that they had attempted to wait up for Hermione.

"Hm? Oh! Hermy! You're back!" Lavender said after a moment, her usual goofy smile appearing on her face.

"Uh… hey Hermione…" Parvati managed as she lifted her face from her pillow "You're back… early… really early… breakfast is in several hours still…"

"Sorry, I just lost track of time." Hermione admitted with a blush "I'd have been back sooner but…"

"Doesn't matter. How'd things go?" Ginny asked in anticipation "You two left early after you were done dancing. That upset many of the boys you know."

"Ginny!" Hermione exclaimed, blushing but still smiling "I really don't want to think about that!"

'But what the hell were you expecting Hermione? You're a lesbian around a bunch of straight, pubescent and adolescent males!' Hermione's mind shouted at her, but she more or less ignored it.

"Anyway, how was it?"

"Better yet, why didn't you tell us you played for the other team?" Lavender cut in "I mean, I heard the rumors and all but-"

"Please… do you honestly think she'd sleep with that Slytherin whore?" Parvati also cut in "Besides… I get the feeling those were just based on speculation…"

"Parvati's right; those were made up before I even, well, knew." Hermione answered as she made to sit down on her bed "I mean… it's only been a month since I figured it out. I was... well I was worried what everyone would think."

"Oh come on! It's not like you've been groping us or anything, why the hell would we care?" Lavender said in her normal, ditsy and goofy way.

"Well, it wasn't you all that I was worried about…" Hermione admitted after a moment "I mean, everyone in the school has their own opinion after all…"

"Yeah… good point, but look how they reacted today." Parvati pointed out as she shifted to get more comfortable in her bed "You're a hit."

"Yes, yes she is, now can you answer my question?" Ginny interrupted a bit bitterly "How did it go?"

Hermione rolled her eyes, then smirked evilly.

"Well, we kissed for quite a while, and she is now officially my girlfriend." Hermione replied in French, though she hadn't quite mastered the accent... or most of the words exactly "Everything was perfect."

"…what?" Ginny replied in confusion.

"Wow… you can speak French too?" Parvati asked, clearly impressed.

"What the bloody hell did she say?" Lavender asked the other two girls before rounding on Hermione "Can we try English this time?"

"Nope, I answered Ginny's question, and I'm not repeating myself in any language." Hermione replied with a smirk as she headed to her trunk to grab some clothing to change into "You can ask my girlfriend tomorrow at breakfast if you-"

"So it's official?!" Ginny asked, somewhat rhetorically "Oh that's bloody hilarious!"

"…care to explain?" Hermione asked, her smile faltering a bit.

"Oh, nothing bad, don't worry!" Lavender explained hurriedly.

"We were just saying about… an hour ago how funny it would be if you had a girlfriend before Ron and Harry did…" Parvati explained amidst a yawn "That's all…"

Hermione simply laughed after a moment, then proceeded to head to the bathroom to change into something more comfortable for sleeping in.


Later…


She was still happy as can be as she made her way down to the Great Hall for breakfast. As she had stayed up unusually late, she had awoken unusually late as well. As it was the day after Christmas, there would still be very little people, comparably, at the school for a couple more days, which meant that she and Fleur still had plenty of free time to enjoy together. Of course, then she'd have to experience another round of opinions, congratulations, affirmations, and possibly a few spurnings again, but she figured that she'd be okay after going through the first one.

Once she entered the dining hall, she noticed two things. First off, she attracted a lot of attention from the tables, the professors included. Even the Slytherin table was staring at her, but most of them were glaring as opposed to staring in admiration, curiosity, or otherwise. The second thing she noticed was that Fleur was not in her normal spot at the Ravenclaw table. Rather, she found Fleur at the Gryffindor table, near Harry, Ginny, and, by the looks of it, a disgruntled Ron. Hermione didn't bother to focus on much else as she headed to her spot, catching Fleur's eye and smile as she approached.

"Bonjour, mon cheri." Fleur said happily in her same melodic voice "You are late, though."

"Well, in case you forgot, I wasn't able to head to bed till early this morning." Hermione replied as she took her seat between Fleur and Ginny "And it's good to see you too Fleur."

"I didn't get the chance to mention it yesterday," Harry began, taking a break from his meal to do so "but you two were quite impressive yesterday on the dance floor."

"Yeah, you're the reason Harry irked Parvati into leaving to flirt with a Beauxbatons boy." Ginny explained with a grin "He couldn't keep his eyes off you!"

"Oh come off it, Neville did the same thing!" Harry replied in his defense "So did you as a matter of fact."

"Ginny?" Hermione repeated, giving the younger girl a quizzical look.

"What? Everyone who wasn't dancing was staring at you!" Ginny explained "Hell, you'd have to be blind not to want to; you two were absolutely stunning out there!"

"Merci, Mademoiselle Ginny. That was what I was going for." Fleur said proudly.

"You were intending to draw the crowd like that?" Hermione teased with a smirk "I thought you just wanted my attention."

"But of course, mon cheri! I can't help that I wanted to show you off though; you are, what's the phrase?"

"'Quite the catch'?" Ginny offered with a smirk, though what she had said is what brought a blush to Hermione's cheeks.

"Oui, that is it. You are quite the catch, mon cheri." Fleur finally finished.

"Oh stop, and quit giving her ideas Ginerva!" Hermione exclaimed, making sure to emphasize Ginny's given name quite strongly.

"Don't call me that." Ginny stated with a look of disgust "I hate the sound of my name."

"I've told you before: it's not a bad…" Hermione began, but a glance at Ron beheld his look of barely constrained fury "…what's wrong? Not talking to me now Ron?"

"Um… it's not that he doesn't want to." Harry began nervously "Fleur silenced him; he can't talk at the moment."

"What? Why?"

"He felt the need to begin to yell at me about 'corrupting' you." Fleur explained casually, though her normally pleasant smile was absent "I did not wish to start an argument here, so I silenced him. He is much more pleasant at the moment this way."

"'Corrupting me'?" Hermione repeated as she glared back at Ron "I made this 'decision' myself, Ron; I wasn't 'corrupted'."

As Fleur's hand slid into hers beneath the table unseen, Ron's face turned a bright red in anger, his teeth gritting since he wasn't able to vent via talking, screaming, or yelling. Hermione didn't want to press it further though, so she opted to simply ignore him.

"So, what's for breakfast?"


Later…


At her urging, Fleur had managed to get Ron and herself alone in one of the unused classrooms. It hadn't been too hard to arrange, as Harry and Ginny seemed willing to keep Hermione and Ron from fighting any more than they had to. As for Ron, well, it took a bit of her thrall, but she managed to calm him down enough to get him to follow her. She retracted her thrall after she was sure the door was shut and locked. Luckily, Ron was still silenced from earlier, so he wasn't immediately able to voice his current state of fury at the moment.

"Well, Monsieur Weasley, here is what is going to happen." Fleur said, her normally bemused smile gone and replaced with a taught, calm and composed expression "I am going to release the silencing charm. After that, you and I are going to solve the 'problem' in an orderly mission… do you understand?"

Though he appeared to be about ready to tear Fleur's head off with his bare hands, Ron slowly nodded in agreement. Fleur drew her wand from the folds of her robe once more, and then proceeded to counter her previous charm.

"Now, what is-" Fleur began, but was cut off as Ron finally was able to let his anger loose.

"What in the bloody hell is going on between you and Hermione?!" Ron shouted, almost at the top of his lungs "What did you do to her?!"

"I did nothing to her; she figured out she liked me on her own." Fleur said, her voice level and composed as opposed to Ron's emotionally fueled tirade "After all, she's the one who asked if I wouldn't mind being her girlfriend."

'Well, not so much asked verbally, but he doesn't need to know that.' Fleur thought as she gauged Ron's reaction.

"Girlfriend?! The two of you must be out of your bloody minds!"

"Oh, the way I see it, Monsieur Weasley, it is you who has fled your mind."

"Me?! I'm not the one entrancing a girl into thinking-"

"Is that what you believe me to be doing?!" Fleur cut in, her voice slowly growing in anger "Enchanting her? Controlling her?! Forcing her?!"

This was a rather sore nerve for Fleur. She had been accused of such things before due to her veela heritage, which was grossly misunderstood by a good deal many. She hated, no, loathed it when people thought such things of her. Unfortunately, this tended to also bring out her ugly side. Her face, in her anger, began to shift and twist a bit, becoming more avian in nature as she closed the distance between her and the red headed boy.

"You think, just because I could have any boy in this school with but a thought, that I would actually stoop so low as to do it?!" Fleur was shouting, her voice slowly becoming harsher and more bestial in nature.

Ron seemed to have the sense to back up from the enraged part-veela, and also had the sense to not say anything to provoke the girl in front of her.

"I have never forced anyone to like me in that fashion! My thrall doesn't even work on girls!" Fleur continued to shout as she and Ron continued to move deeper into the room "She decided she liked me, and she's the one who agreed to go to the ball! She's the one who kissed me first, and she's the one who suggested a longer term relationship!"

By this point, Ron had found out he had no more space to back up to, so he attempted to flatten into the wall as the enraged veela girl got close enough for Ron's eyes to cross to see her.

"You will never suggest to me or anyone else that I'm controlling, manipulating, or doing any such revolting things to her!" Fleur seethed, glaring as a now clawed hand gripped the front of Ron's robes "Do I make myself clear, Monsieur Weasley?"

Ron, once more in a bout of insight, decided to simply nod his head cautiously. It was several moments before Fleur backed away from Ron and released him. Her features began to, slowly, revert to normal.

"…good." Fleur finally said after giving Ron a bit of space, her voice it's normal melodic tone "Now, tell me what the real problem is."

Ron, after swallowing and stepping away from the wall a bit, couldn't find the urge to be angry at the girl before her. Maybe it was fear, or maybe Fleur was exercising her magical influence on him, but he wasn't sure. He also knew that he didn't really have a reason to be so upset, or at least he didn't think he did. He didn't have a problem with that type of relationship, and it's not like the two of them dating really had an effect on him... right?

"I… I don't think I have a reason." Ron admitted, glancing away from the blonde girl before him.

It was silent for a bit, not even the sounds from the rest of the castle made themselves noticed.

"You weren't angry." Fleur said, seemingly out of the blue "You were hurt, and you were venting it as anger."

Ron simply looked at her, confused as to what she meant, or how she would know. Fleur, on the other hand, turned to leave, pausing at the door before she opened it.

"She's your friend; you should support her no matter who she 'fancies'." Fleur said, somewhat cryptically for the younger redhead before she finally left, leaving Ron to think about a couple of things he really needed to.


Authors Note: Well, it took a bit longer than I had originally planned, but I had to redo the entire deal with Ron and cut a bit of the chapter out to save for the next one. Anyway, let me explain: I didn't want to do a 'Ron and Hermione fight, then don't speak to each other for a month or so only to fight again about a similar thing the next month' scenario. This is a bit more original I think; Fleur handles the situation, possibly better than Hermione could. For those of you who expected major Ron-bashing: sorry to disappoint, but he's (in my opinion) no more flawed than any other character, and it's only a matter of where his flaws lay. Anyway, it's like 2 am when I'm doing the final edit on this thing, so please excuse any major screw ups, and I'll edit it in the morning if it's really bad.

Anyway, reviews, criticisms, suggestions, et al are appreciated, so please leave them!