Set in an AU at university.

All characters belong to J.K. Rowling

"Wow, you look absolutely horrifying!"

His best friend looked at him with eyebrows raised so high, they almost disappeared under the light brown hair covering her brow. He put his hand near his hand in mock exasperation.

"Why Miss Granger – do you greet all your friends this warmly?" That elicited a small smile from the girl in front of him, who was now in the process of unwinding the mustard-colored wool scarf from her neck and sat herself in the plushy little armchair opposite Harry. She instantly grabbed the ridiculously large mug of steaming coffee before her and took a deep gulp, closing her eyes reverently. Apart from their profound addiction for caffeine, he and Hermione Granger shared a lot of things. One of them being their common difficulties in making new friends and getting along with other people than each other.

So, instead of being offended at his little joke, Hermione set down her now significantly emptied mug, and offered him a smug grin.

"Well, it must be one of your many lady friends who kept you up all night. Am I right?" This time it was Harry's turn to smile at her ironic comment.

Having been inseparable since secondary school, they knew each other fairly well – including most of their dating life. Their admission to Oxford had been the cause of much excitement and relief, since it meant that they would get to study at the same university, even if they aimed for different degrees. But, of course, this came with a prize.

Being already considerably more interested in achieving good grades, Hermione had always had trouble at implementing social time in her life, whereas Harry found it hard to be around other people because of the drama surrounding his parents. Needless to say, the requirements and course load of an elite college like Oxford lowered their priority of dating others even more.

"Yeah right. Glad to see you already so bright and early." he said in feigned affront and took a sip from his coffee mug as well. He watched her expression turn serious.

"Honestly Harry. Don't you think you should talk to someone about this? This can't go on any longer – this zombie look doesn't suit you."

Defeated, Harry sighed and rubbed a hand through his unkempt raven hair, making it look more unruly than before. "I know… but…"

The chatter of a newly entered little group of students made him stop and raise his eyes from the face of his best friend. High-pitched laughter trailed after them as they gathered in front of the counter.

In the next instant, Harry cursed himself for letting his own gaze wander as it met that of one of the three boys with ginger hair, who stood out amongst the group of young, chattering girls. The boy froze right away, his eyes rounding almost comically into two big O's.

"Harry? What's wrong?" Hermione tried to regain his attention. With a barely suppressed groan, he quickly averted his eyes from the group of students and gave a minute shake of his head – desperately hoping that Hermione would remain inconspicuous. But it was too late, the redhead's friends had already followed his line of sight and were now murmuring excitedly with each other, while trying to hide their curious glances towards them. Seeing Harry pick up his round glasses from his nose to rub tiredly over his eyes, Hermione turned around to see what the commotion behind her was about. She let out a soft curse, right as one of the students started to come towards their table.

"Hiya! The name's Ron."

Flinching, Harry snapped his eyes back open and stared up at the lanky form of the boy before him. It was the redhead from before, now reaching his hand expectantly out to him, a self-confident smile on his freckled face.

Slightly hesitating, Harry gripped his outstretched hand but before he could open his mouth in answer, the boy named Ron continued: "You must be Harry Potter, right? Seen your face in the telly before."

The raven-haired boy cleared his throat self-consciously, glancing around nervously before answering. "Ehm yes… nice to meet you."

Hermione watched their exchange in silence until the newcomer turned away from Harry and seemed to take notice of her for the first time.

"And you must be… his girlfriend?" he asked, a mischievous glint in his light-brown eyes.

Harry, who had been taking another sip of his coffee, was now almost choking on it and tried to hide his bewilderment.

Only sparing him a short glance, Hermione looked up at Ron, eyebrows rising in confusion.

"Not that it's any of your business, but actually no… we're just friends." she said hesitantly.

At this, Ron started to smile triumphantly and looked alternately from her to Harry, who, although he had by now recovered himself, felt colour rising to his cheeks and his pulse quickening. What was going on here? And why did it bother him so much?

"That so?" The redhead said grinning. "In that case, would you like to get down for a pint or so with me tonight?"

Suddenly feeling somewhat nauseated, Harry glanced quickly at his best friend, dreading her answer. Watching Hermione as she stared into the eyes of this stranger, Harry felt strangely irritated at the thought of Hermione dating anyone.

Well…., he thought in slowly growing realization, anyone but me for that matter.