The Missing Piece
By: Taylor Bathel

A/N: I am not sure if this has been done before. If it has, it was in no way intended, and if I have used the idea, you used...it was completely coincidental and was not meant to be. After what happened to poor Cassandra Claire, I am not taking any chances. This is a story about Hermione and the missing part in her life. R/Hr' ish

Disclaimer: Harry Potter and company belong to J.K. Rowling, Warner Brothers, Scholastic, Bloomsbury, and others. I am not claiming them nor making money off them so do not sue me...trust me you would not get much.

Hermione sat doing her Arithmany homework. She had just noticed that she had been staring into space while her quill dangled loosely from her fingers. Hermione was thinking about her life, her life at Hogwarts, her muggle life with her parents, her love life.

Everything was fine, perfect really, at school, she had top marks and great friends. At home with her parents, she blended in perfectly with the muggle community while doing her homework away from the neighbor's eye.

Her love life, OK so Hermione did have a flaw. Her love life was dead, sure she had that that fling with Viktor Krum but he was loads older than she was, anyway she had found that Viktor had cheated on her with a Bulgarian women.

Hermione took a deeper look at her life, a look from inside the head...

True Hermione made top marks and had the famous Harry Potter and his noble sidekick Ron Weasley for best friends but she had no one to confide in. She secretly envied Lavender Brown and Pavarti Patil, they were best friends, and they could tell each other everything. Sure, she could tell Ron and Harry most things, but not everything. She could not tell them that she secretly had a crush on Ron. She could not talk about PMS or about her period.

So many times Hermione wanted to brake down into Ron's arms and spill out everything she had been holding for 4 years. Her true love for him and how everytime someone mentioned the name Ron or Weasley even Weasel from Malfoy her heart fluttered and her face flushed.

It had started in her first year, young and naïve, little Hermione had, had a crush on tall gangly Ron. It had started has most crushes do, noticing him on the train, not talking to him, talking to him, and eventually becoming his best friend.

In their second year things were about the same as the first, I still had my deep crush for Ron, but he was now starting to fill out, get some muscle tone. When I went to his house for the summer, the few days before Harry came was like a 7th heaven. Every waking minute of the day was pointed at me; we ate lunch together, de-gnomed together, talked together while we walked around his house. I thought for sure that night he was going to spill his heart into mine. It was the night he went to pick up Harry, he knocked on the Ginny's door (the room I was staying in) and beckoned me out. He took me on the lawn of the Burrow and started telling me all about how much Harry meant to him but he hated being in the shadow of him. He told me that he was so glad that I was his friend because he could just be my friend and not have to worry about people thinking he was just "tagging along." I talked for a long time to him about how I felt that same way about Harry, I loved him as a friend but felt as if Ron and I were pushed into the shadows to often. We than talked about how our friendship was going and how we had come a long way since when we had first met. He than embraced me in a tight hug, I had thought for sure I had died and gone to heaven. He told me that I was one of his best friends that I must not ever forget that. So that was all I was, just his best friend, nothing more, nothing less.
My third year at Hogwarts was the worst. I hated the time-turner. I also hated the fact that Ron was mad at me for half the year because of broomsticks and rats. I spent a lot of time with Hagrid and told him everything. He was comforting but not the same as Ron, my peer. I wrote Ron many notes reminding him of what he had told me in our second year, he only returned one note. All it said was:
Things Change.
That is when my heart ripped in half, I felt abandoned and alone. I subjected my self to long hours in the library, using the time turner so that I could read over time, and grueling study sessions lasting 6-8 hours. It was all that I could do to not think about Ron, yet he still managed to creep into my brain among the numbers and facts that were constantly swimming in my head. The night we made up, I burst into tears, as I did so I felt the huge balloon of misery that acted like a tumor in my heart burst. I was lighter than air and up on top again. My studying became easier because Ron was not always shooting evil glares at me but now helping me and being there with me.

Our forth year my little crush started to turn into something more, I felt alive when with Ron, I felt I could conquer Voldemort if Ron would support me and stand up for me. When Harry and Ron had the fight of the century, I was mixed with emotions. For once I had Ron along to myself we spent a lot of time together talking about everything but Harry, he apologized immensely for being so mad at me and kept telling me how he could have ever been mad at me. However, when I spent time with Harry conversations we short and forced, he was so mad about Ron yet anxious for the first task to present its self. He often looked as if he could burst into tears at anytime, but he would not, not noble and proud Harry Potter. He held his head up high and took everything shot at him. When Harry and Ron made up, I felt a huge pressure taken off my shoulders; I no longer had to run back and forth between the two. However, I felt sad, Ron and my little study sessions would no longer take place, instead Harry would be there to talk about Quidditch with, and I again would be pushed to the side.

So, there it is, my immensely complicated love life with Ron. I know I should tell him how I feel. The way I feel as if nothing could hurt me as long as I was there with him, in his strong-arms. I know that he would say that he loved me as a friend and that I was his best friend but not his girl friend.

A/N Ok so there it is my story. Ok I am sure Hermione was a little OOC (out of character) but I do not care, it is my story and that is how I perceive Hermione and her feelings for Ron. Please do not tell me facts in the real stories were wrong, I am sure some were but that is just how it fit in. Hope you liked it please take a few seconds to review. Thanks! Happy reading! :D