A/N: WOW!!!! I was COMPLETELY overwhelmed by the response to chapter one, and I want to thank everyone who left feedback! You guys are the best!!!!!!

Disclaimer: I don't own them!

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So, there I was, sitting all alone by the lake and paying absolutely no attention whatsoever to my surroundings. It wasn't until I felt something heavy drop behind me and a pair of hands close over my eyes that I was jerked back to reality.

Jumping at first, I immediately gave an extremely involuntary shiver when a voice whispered in my ear.

"Guess who." It was a familiar voice, and hot breath tickled my neck at its words.

"Hmm… The most annoying prat I've ever met," I said sarcastically, deftly ducking out of the grasp his hands had on my face.

I heard laughter behind me and then on my right side as the offending person leaned around my shoulder to look at me. "Oh, 'Mione," Ron said, grinning stupidly, "you really hurt me when you say stuff like that."

Stop smiling at me like that. "I'm going to physically hurt you in just a minute." Good one, Granger. Threaten him with physical harm… This is supposed to be 'Operation Make Ron Beg' not 'Operation Kill Ron Painfully.' Actually, both sounded sort of pleasant in their own respects.

But Ron didn't take me seriously, of course. Instead he just shot me a rather suggestive look and said, "Don't do that. I might enjoy it too much."

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. But this was the perfect opportunity. Putting on my most flirtatious smile, I said, "Oh, I'm sure you would."

And to my great pleasure, Ron's face took on the exact look I wanted it to. He looked completely flabbergasted, though I'm not sure if it was because of my actual words or the fact that I didn't hit him straight across the nose. On either account, he looked rather nervous and unsure of what to do.

"What's the matter?" I asked in my most nonchalant voice. "At a loss of words because you're trying to imagine just how much you would enjoy it?" I flashed him another smile, trying my best to copy the stupid, cocky one he always gives me.

But now, to my great displeasure, the same smile I was attempting to copy covered Ron's lips, and he looked at me curiously. "Oh, that's cute."

"What's cute?" I challenged, all the while praying he hadn't caught onto what I was trying to pull.

"Well, you for one," he told me seriously. "But I tell you that every single day." As he said this, he moved his body so that he was sitting beside me but facing the opposite direction, though we could still see each other's faces perfectly well. "And yet," he said, reaching for one of my curls and twirling it between his fingers, "you never quite believe me." With this, he dropped the strand of hair into my face and reached to move it away, purposely letting the back of his fingers brush over my lips and the side of my cheek as he pushed it back into its original position.

I just rolled my eyes briefly, and he continued.

"You just keep shooting me down."

Ugh. Could he be more obvious? "Yes, I suppose I do," I said briskly. "What a horror it must be for there to be a girl who would shoot down the infamous Don Juan of Hogwarts, Ron Weasley himself." I knew my voice was dripping with sarcasm, but I couldn't help but smile a little at Ron's confused expression when I mentioned Don Juan. He brushed it off, though, and continued his own flirting.

"No, it's not that. I'm just terribly upset that my very best friend keeps missing the chance of a lifetime." I snorted at his words. The chance of a lifetime only comes once usually- not four times a day. But anyway. "I mean, she keeps passing up what would undoubtedly be a very, very wonderful opportunity. And she's so smart, too. Head Girl, even."

I started to remark, but Ron obviously thought of something he fancied to be quite brilliant because a huge grin covered his face, and he spoke again.

"Head Girl, eh? Wow, I never thought about that before, but that title certainly leaves a lot to the imagination, doesn't it?"

My face burned red, and I wanted to crawl into a hole and die at his implications. "Oh, shut up," I managed.

Ron obviously enjoyed seeing me blush, though, because he proceeded to ask a very suggestive question. "You don't reckon I might get a chance to see how well you perform your duties as Head Girl, do you?"

Well, honestly! But still, I had a plan to carry out. And I might have been the smartest girl in the year and… Head Girl… but that didn't mean I wasn't a normal seventeen year old. I was, and I could definitely keep up this naughty little banter. Forcing myself to smirk, I said, "Only if you're really as cocky as you act." I put major emphasis on the word 'cocky,' and it obviously did its job.

Ron turned bright red. But true to his 'I'm master of the universe' image, he quickly recovered. "Do you wanna find out?"

Don't blush. Don't blush. Yeah right, like that one was gonna happen. I was embarrassed, but I'd always prided myself on quick comebacks. "There's probably no point. There's probably nothing to find out."

Insult a man's penis and ruin his whole world, right? No such luck. Ron laughed- he actually laughed- at my comment. "You do realize, Hermione," he said once he calmed down, "that I take complete credit for that quick little wit you've seemed to developed. If you hadn't spent the last seven years with me, there's no way you could have pulled that one off."

How full of himself could he possibly be? I decided to ask him. "How full of yourself are you anyway?"

Ron, following the 'I can turn anything sexual' oath that seventeen year old boys all take said, "Not as full as I'd like you to be of me."

Oh. My. God. "Ronald Taylor Weasley!" I said incredulously, now deeply in shock that he had said something that sexually implicated. "That is utterly disgusting!"

But, of course, Ron just smirked. He must really love doing that. "You wouldn't be saying that if you knew first-hand, Sugar." Sugar? Did he really call me 'Sugar?' With a high falsetto voice, he said, "You'd be saying, 'Oh, Ron! Why have I been so dense all this time?!' That's what you'd be saying."

Not letting on that just the suggestion was getting to me, I reached out to push him slightly. "That's so not true."

Ron grabbed my wrist as it swung his way, and he held onto it. Little shockwaves went passing through my central nervous system as he held my wrist that way, but I forced myself to show no physical sign of the effect. "It is true," he told me adamantly. "Hermione, what would you do if I kissed you right now?"

Die of happiness. "Slap you," I said quickly.

"Would you really do that to me?" Ron asked, feigning hurt. "I'm your best friend."

Realizing that I could use all of this to my advantage, I simply shrugged and said, "Why don't you try it and find out?"

Ron's face turned only slightly darker; he had long ago left the blushing phase. But he didn't back down from my challenge. He, of course, found a way to make him sound perfectly suave. "I'm glad you've finally seen the light, Hermione."

"What light?" I asked, trying very hard to sound annoyed. Of course, as I've said before, I am definitely not stupid, and I knew exactly what light he was talking about. I just wanted to see if he had the guts to say it out loud, but, of course, I knew he did. He was Ron Weasley, after all, and he would say absolutely anything.

"The light of the fact that you and I are destined for each other. I knew it was only a matter of time before you'd be begging me to kiss you." He said all of this quite nonchalantly as though he'd just informed me that we were having smoked sausage for breakfast.

I laughed out loud at his claim. "You call that me begging you to kiss me?! Are you mad?!"

"Only mad about you," he said over-dramatically with a smirk.

I rolled my eyes. "If I was begging you to kiss me, I would certainly do it in a more creative manner than that! Please, Ron," I said, shaking my head, "give me some credit, would you?"

I realized I was talking too much; I really did. But I couldn't help it. Why had I put "Operation Make Ron Beg" into working order in the first place?

"Oh, I forgot," Ron said knowingly. "I'm not just talking about any old girl here. I'm talking about Hermione Granger… Of course, you'd do something much more innovative."

"Exactly," I said with a quick nod of the head.

"Show me."

I looked up with arched eyebrows at the redhead in front of me. "Excuse me?"

Ron raised his own eyebrows. "I want you to show me exactly what incredibly original and unique trick you would use to beg me into kissing your beautiful lips. Not that you'd really need to beg, of course; you know all you have to do is ask."

Why the hell did I have to want him so damn much?

It looked like "Operation Make Ron Beg" might just turn into "Operation Make Hermione Beg."

But maybe that wasn't a bad thing…

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