Here's part 2! This chapter, like the previous one, is basically an introduction; everything interesting starts happening from chapter three onward, when Ron is more hands on about his involvement in Harry and Hermione's love life.

Enjoy, and I'd love to hear your thoughts!

part ii: make sure they are compatible

Harry hadn't written all summer. It was about one week before September First, and Harry hadn't written him or Hermione nor had he answered any of the letters they had sent him.

Hermione wrote to Ron, concerned; what if something had happened to him? Was he okay? Why wasn't he writing to them?

Ron had told her to wait, that he'd do something, and he did; he tasked Fred and George on his loose rescue plan, and the three brothers were off into the night, driving in the sky towards Privet Drive.

It took them about four hours to arrive to the suburban area, and about twenty minutes to leave with Harry and his things safely, as the whale of a man stood on his backyard, swinging his fist and screaming profanities.

"Ron," Harry whispered. "Thanks, mate, that was—"

"Don't mention it," Ron said, slightly out of breath. "Your uncle's barking mad, mate."

"He's like that." Harry answered, sighing.

"How is little Harry doing?" Fred interjected, looking at them from the rearview mirror.

"I'm better now, thanks." Harry grinned.

It was morning by the time they made it back to the Burrow, praying that their mother wouldn't be awake enough to realize that they had taken the car and flown across the sky to rescue their friend.

It was too good to be true; Ron spied his mother as she made their way to them, on the front yard of the Burrow. She looked livid; her face red and a scowl fixed on her face, and Ron gulped, giving Harry a scared look.

"Where have you been?! Do you realize what I felt when I couldn't find you?!" Molly bellowed, and all of the boys winced. "Beds empty and the car gone! What do you think I thought when I saw that?!"

"That we were gone—"

"That you were GONE!" Molly shouted at George, who had gathered the courage to answer her. "What were you thinking?! You could have died! What possess you to do something so moronic?!"

"It was Harry, Mum!" Ron intervened, his voice higher than usual. "They were starving him! And there were bars on his window!"

"Bars on his—?!" Molly huffed angrily, ad her eyes changed from her own kids to the boy standing behind them, shuffling his feet. She stared; he looked thin, underfed, but perhaps his family just had a tight budget. His clothes were too big for his small frame, and he was down one shoe.

"Bars on his window?" She asked, calming down. The twins nodded eagerly, and Ron managed to squeak out a 'yes!'. She sighed heavily, rubbing her face with her left palm, and addressed them once more.

"Get inside, now, I'll talk to your father about this—and Harry!" Her tone changed, from strict to warm in a matter of seconds. "Welcome to the Burrow! I'll be starting breakfast right now, anything you'd like?"

"Huh," Harry mumbled. "N-no, whatever you're having is fine, thank you."

"Very well," She smiled at him once more before throwing another look at her children. "Get him set up in Ron's room then. Be down in twenty."

"That wasn't so bad," Ron said, now sitting on his bed and facing Harry, who was sitting a chair close to the bed.

"Are you sure about that?" Harry asked. "She seemed beside herself with worry."

Ron shrugged, going over to his small desk and pulling out some parchment, ink and two chocolate frogs. "I've seen worse, usually where the twins are involved. Here, you better write to Hermione, she's been worrying all summer about you not answering. And have one of these—" he handed Harry a chocolate frog. "—I'm thinking you missed them."

"Oh, yeah, thanks," Harry whispered, taking the writing supplies. "Sorry about not answering, Uncle Vernon wouldn't let Hedwig out of her cage and—"

"And?"

Harry looked over towards the bedroom door, going over and closing it softly before returning to his previous space. Ron raised his eyebrows slightly, munching on his chocolate snack.

"There was this House Elf, his name was Dobby, and he was withholding all of your letters," Harry explained. "I thought you guys hadn't written me at all until I caught him with a bunch of letter from you and Hermione."

"A House Elf?" Ron spluttered. "What was the House Elf doing with you anyway? I didn't think you'd own one."

"I don't," Harry sighed. "He came by to try and stop me from going to Hogwarts this year. Apparently, I'm in mortal danger or something like that." The black haired boy finally picked up the quill and scribbled a quick not to his other friend, calling Hedwig and attaching the letter to her legs.

"To be fair, you did had that run in with You-Know-Who last year," Ron watched as Hedwig took flight and disappeared into the horizon.

"Yeah, well, I assure you I want nothing like that again."

"Boys! Breakfast is ready!"

Ron had managed to completely put the book out of his mind for all of his summer vacation, up until he saw Harry and Hermione interacting on their visit to Diagon Alley. When he saw them hug and catch up to each other, he raised an eyebrow as the words from the first chapter swirled around his head. Absently, he decided to read further; maybe if he did, he'd realized that he was crazy about this.

The whole mess with Gilderoy Lockhart was over quickly, fortunately. The run in with the Malfoys and the subsequent fight made Hermione's parents flee the Alley, and his mother had spent the last fifteen minutes berating his father while he, Harry and Hermione were standing along with the other Weasley children.

Since it was the day before catching the Hogwarts Express, Hermione's parent had no problem letting her stay at the Burrow for the night. They had all come back tired, slightly on edge but otherwise in good spirits. They had a great dinner and the trio found themselves in Ron's bedroom, talking.

"So he didn't tell you exactly what the danger entailed?" Hermione asked Harry, sitting to his right.

"Not really," He answered. "He kept hitting himself on the head whenever I asked."

"How awful." She said.

"He probably was there against orders or something," Ron said. "I heard from Charlie that if they disobey orders they get punished, or they punish themselves."

"That's barbaric!" Hermione shrieked, and Ron held up his hands in surrender; it was too late into the night to get into a fight.

"We should get some sleep." Harry yawned, and the three said their good nights. Ron's eyes were glued to the way Hermione's hand lingered on the black haired boy's shoulder, and the way Harry smiled at her.

After making sure his best friend was asleep, Ron threw his blankets off and searched beneath his bed for the book. He lit a small candle, turning away from Harry so as to not wake him.

He skipped the pages he had already read, and came face to face with the second chapter.

Part II: make sure they are compatible

If you've applied the advice on the first chapter and got a positive response, then congratulations! You are on the road to becoming a matchmaker!

"Ugh," Ron groaned and whispered to himself.

You might wonder now: they know each other, what else? Well…just knowing each other is not enough. Your target have to be compatible: they have to be able to enjoy each other's company, do activities together, believe in the same things and/or support each other.

If you are a third person trying to match others, then this step is slightly more difficult but otherwise doable with almost to no effort:

-Listen, once more, to their interactions; now that you know they know each other, it's easier to pay attention to their behavior. Are they using words, or is a look enough for them to understand?

-Leave them alone completely; have an excuse ready to bolt out of there, and leave them be. Later, ask them both or one of your targets how it went. You don't have to be so straightforward, just asking about the activity will be enough.

-Pay attention to how they behave when the other is not around. Do they act the same? Are they more outgoing, or subdued? Do they space out often or speak of your other target? Missing people is human nature, but you have to be able to measure just how much they're missing each other.

This step is really just a companion step to the previous one. From here on out, if this step of your match making process is successful, everything becomes more hands on and interesting. Good luck, matchmaker!

Ron sighed, rubbing his chin and staring at the words of the book. He closed it, put it back beneath his bed, and laid down to try and sleep, all the while berating himself for falling into the book's clutches once more.

All in all, the year started off on a good note. And then the messages in blood started to appear, along with Harry's parseltongue being discovered.

Ron, by sheer determination, ignored the steps of the book completely and was set to ignore its existence from now on…until Hermione got petrified close to the end of the year.

He and Harry were extremely worried, of course; she looked so pale and so still, which was very un-Hermione like, and her presence was missed during class.

They had taken to visiting her frequently, though Ron knew for a fact that Harry went even more than he did, judging by the way Hermione's bedside table was always with fresh flowers and class notes in his best friend's chicken scratch.

Ron succumbed once more to the book, rereading the chapter once more and being as attentive as he could about Harry's actions regarding Hermione's absence. He was a little more subdued; probably thinking it was his fault, the noble prat, and he was making sure his class notes were the best they could be so Hermione wouldn't fall behind.

He, also, was constantly asking either Madam Pomfrey, McGongall or Sprout how long the Mandrakes would take to mature. Hermione wasn't the only one petrified, and the school was now under the pressure of closure if even one more student was put in harm's way.

"Ron!"

Harry shout snapped the redhead out his own thoughts, and turned around to face the entrance of the dorm room, seeing his best friend standing there with a crumpled piece of parchment on his hand.

"Yeah? You okay?"

"Look," Harry said urgently. "Look! This was on Hermione's hand—it's a basilisk! And she scribbled pipes on here, that must me how it moves to attack!"

Ron gasped, and grabbed the parchment to inspect it closer. "I can't believe we didn't see this before!"

"Well, her hand was wrapped around it, they must have missed it or something." Harry shrugged, still looking out of breath.

"Oh? How did you find it then?"

Harry blushed, and Ron raised an eyebrow.

"I…I was talking to her, alright? And it felt weird because she wasn't talking back, so I just…grabbed her hand." Harry answered, bashfully.

Ron snickered slightly and his friends embarrassment, but stopped when Harry glared, still red faced but scowling.

"We need to tell someone," Harry continued. "A professor! They need to know this, c'mon."

From there on, everything that happened was fast and messy. Finding the latest blood message on their way to search McGonagall, they both instead sprinted towards Lockhart's chambers and, after discovering his fraud, forced him to come with them.

Ron, unfortunately, had gotten stuck with the fool thanks to an avalanche, and the idiot had managed to obliviate himself of all of his memories. Harry took about an hour to come back: he was bloody and dirty and tired, but he was dragging both Ginny and a sword with him. After Fawkes arrived, Ron finally allowed himself to lower his guard and all of the exhaustion finally caught up to him.

By the time Ron had regained consciousness, everything was back to order. He woke up in the Hospital Wing, along with Harry and all of the petrified students, and immediately tried to ask questions.

Nobody was telling him anything; not until Harry, who had come back from his meeting with Dumbledore still looking as if the basilisk had died on him—which it had, hadn't it?—sat him down just as the redhead was about to leave and told him everything.

Harry told him, with details, his battle against the basilisk, his meeting with Tom Riddle and how he destroyed the dairy. All of this left Ron slightly lightheaded, and extremely relieved that Ginny had come out of this with only scratches.

After asking one more time when the draught would be ready, both boys left the Hospital Wing and set course towards the Gryffindor Common Room; Harry desperately needed a shower or two and Ron just needed to check in with his sister and collapse on a sofa and wait for the feast.

It was a merry atmosphere that night at the Great Hall; news had gone around that he thing that had been attacking students had been dealt with, though nobody was sure how or who had done the deed. Ron snickered slightly at hearing some Hufflepuff's story about how the spirits of the founders had come together to destroy the mysterious beast.

He and Harry were sitting with Neville, Seamus and Dean. They were both doing their best to enjoy the food, but were also aware of something: any minute now, Hermione would walk through those huge doors now fully recovered. Ron, for the sixth time in about an hour, nudged his best friend on the shoulder.

"You should finish eating, Harry," Ron sighed, and took a bite of his food before addressing the other boy again. "She'll be here soon, and I doubt you'll manage to eat much after she starts asking questions."

Harry hummed, and resumed his eating slowly, still stealing glances to the Great Hall entrance. Moments passed, laughs were exchanged between all of the boys sitting together and the chatter around the Great Hall was brimming with positivity. After the dangerous incidents of the school year, this seemed like a pretty good and safe ending to it.

"Harry, look!" Neville whispered. "It's Hermione!"

It took both boys only a second to turn their heads towards the entrance, but Hermione was already halfway to their spot on the Gryffindor table, sprinting as fast as she could while trying not to disrupt the other students.

She reached them just before they tried to stand up to greet her—she threw her arms around both of them, squeezing.

"You solved it!" Hermione beamed, letting them go. Both boys grinned and stood up to greet her properly. "You solved it!"

Harry grinned at her, surging forwards and hugging her; Hermione, of course, reciprocated. "We wouldn't have solved it without you! We found the parchment."

They let go of each other, and Ron stepped up to welcome her with a hug; he noticed that her hands didn't quite gripped him as they had gripped Harry, and that the hug didn't last as long as the other one.

"Next time, leave it somewhere easy to find, won't you?" Ron said, smacking Harry on the shoulder. "Took us ages to find it."

"Well, I wasn't expecting to get petrified, Ron, but sure." Hermione huffed, but her smile gave away that she wasn't truly annoyed.

"Come, Hermione, dinner's not over yet, have you eaten?" Harry gestured to the table, making space for her to sit.

"Not really," She answered, sitting between the two boys and grabbing a plate. "I came her as fast as I could to see if I could catch you guys. I'm glad I did."

Harry smiled at her, Ron went for seconds, and Hermione started to question them about everything that had happened while she was indisposed.

"So…"

"Hmm?" Hermione snapped her attention out of her book and towards Ron, who was sitting opposite her in the train compartment that they had grabbed on their way to King's Cross.

"Can I ask you something?" Ron said.

"Yeah, sure," She mumbled.

"But you'll be honest with me?"

"I'll try," She said, confused.

"Good," Ron sat up, coming closer to her and throwing a look at the door. "Before he gets back: do you fancy Harry?"

Hermione choked on her spit, and let go of her book. She bent down to pick it up and played with the pages; Ron, absently, realized that this situation was very similar to the one last year when he had asked Harry the same question.

"What makes you think that?" She asked, blushing.

Ron shrugged. "Let's just say I have…knowledge."

"Knowledge?"

"Yeah, and I'm not explaining that," Ron said, his voice slightly higher. "So? Do you? Fancy him, I mean."

"I—I don't know." She answered.

"How do you not know?"

"Well, it isn't that easy," She huffed. "Besides, it's complicated."

"It isn't," Ron disagreed. "You fancy him or you don't. If you do, you tell him…You'd do me a favor, to be honest." He mumbled the last part.

"What was that?"

"Nothing!"

The compartment door suddenly opened, and Ron jumped back to his previous position; leaning against the window with his feet up on Hermione's right. The girl, on the other hand, tensed slightly before opening her book again and reading where she had left off.

"What were you two talking about?" Asked Harry, closing the door and sitting down besides Ron.

"Well—" Ron started.

"Nothing!" Hermione intervened, glaring at him. "Nothing, really, he was just asking me a silly question. Nothing of importance."

"You didn't answer me, though." Ron said.

"I didn't have to, did I?" Hermione scoffed, and went back to her book, pointedly ignoring the other two occupants of the compartment.

Ron gave Harry an baffled look, but the black haired boy just shrugged, smirking.

"What was the question?" Harry asked.

Ron threw a look towards Hermione, debating on whether or not to reveal his interrogation. Something in the back of his mind told him that it wasn't the right time yet, that subtlety was a necessity in this context, and so he acted nonchalantly and answered his best friend. "I wanted to see how many book she had read on the entire school year. I guess it was silly to ask that."

"Yeah," Harry chuckled. "I don't think she keeps a score…Do you?" He directed that last question to the girl.

"Not really," Hermione answered bashfully. "I read so many of them at the same tie I just gave up trying to count them."

"Well, there's my answer, then." Ron said, and all three of them laughed.

"You'll write to us now, right?" Hermione asked Harry just after giving him her signature goodbye hug. Ron stood close to them, wondering the same.

"I'll try my very best, I promise." Harry answered, smiling.

"That better mean you're actually going to. I don't think I can pull off another rescue mission, mate…" Ron joked.

"You won't have to," Harry said. "I'll take care, promise."

The three of them gave each other a hug before they parted ways for the summer.

Ron, back at his room at the Burrow with a full belly and happily tired, stared at the book on his hands while he was laying on his bed. If Hermione had outright said no to his question, it would have been easier to ignore the existence of the book, of the possibilities between his two best friends…but she hadn't. She just said it was complicated.

In those few minutes before sleep took him, he realized that he had to make a choice: as much as he wanted to, the book had some sort of hold on him; it always came back to his mind sporadically. He could either read it, finish it and then ignore that he had ever read it at all, or he could put into practice everything that the book said.

Ron sighed and rubbed his face with both of his hands. He didn't thin ignoring it would suffice; he already did that, and it never worked. He was twelve, for Merlin's sake! He didn't need this before Fourth Year…but he was stuck with the book now.

He could put it into practice; Hermione and Harry practically did all the work themselves, he was just here to observe and to…guide. He could get them together and then that would be it, job done!

With a renew sense of duty, Ron nodded to himself and finally made his choice; there was something brewing between his two best friends, and he had a lot of information on how to go about helping whatever that was. He'd have to do something about it, and he will.