A/N: Remember I do NOT own Harry Potter, the very talented and awsome J.K. Rowling does...ok? I mean I friggin WISH I did but hey…that's life!

Ch 2: The Arrival

It was not until another hour and a half that Ron heard the beep of the car outside of his house. He ran from his spot on the couch and peered through the window to see his father getting out of the drivers side and opening the trunk. Out of the passengers side Harry climbed out, stretching his arm to the side. Ron saw Hedwig fly down onto it, figuring that the snowy owl must have flown along side of the car. As he took his eyes of his first best friend he saw the other one get out of the back seat. She ran a hand through her long brown hair, which was no longer in its puffy state. She said something to Harry and then looked at the house. Ron saw her eyes travel to the window, spotting Ron's face on the other side of the glass. She smiled at him and waved. He smiled back and withdrew from the curtains. He walked around to the front door, took a deep breath and opened it.

"Ron!" both friends exclaimed in an excited tone.

Ron smiled cheerfully at his friends and walked up to them.

"Hey Harry! Hermione! Glad to see you both!"

They smiled and began walking inside the house, followed by Mr.Weasley lugging the two Trunks behind him. As they all entered the house, they all settled into the living room. The twins appeared and greeted Harry and Hermione, shortly after running up to their room talking excitedly about some random project of theirs. Harry smirked and pointed after them.

"They still secretly do experiments up there?" he asked while smirking.

Ron laughed and shook his head.

"Surprisingly they stopped that. Mum had a huge fit when she found out that they were still doing it behind her back a while ago, so she made them do chores for a while...yatta yatta...blah, blah. So she made a deal with them, that if they would get better grades for this upcoming year, since it is their last one, that she would agree to let them plan to open a shop in Hogsmeade!!"

"Are you serious though Ron? We'd never thought your mum would say that! Why did she even agree to that?" Hermione asked.

Ron leaned against the couch and shrugged nonchalantly.

"Well, she admitted to us that it would be fun to own a shop in Hogsmeade, no matter what kind, plus it would help the family out a bit you know?" he said turning a slight shade of rose.

At that moment, Mrs. Weasley appeared through the front door carrying groceries. She saw her two visitors and smiled brightly.

"Hello dear's, I see Ron's invited you over, and I bet it's for the summer I'm sure. Well...if you'd be nice as to help me put the food away, you can help me make some pudding." She said disappearing into the crowded kitchen.

They all nodded and got up from their spots. As they headed into the kitchen, Ron pulled Harry by his arm towards the staircase. He made sure no one was looking or eavesdropping and faced Harry.

"Ok, remember how I told you I was going to tell you something important when you came here?" he asked in a rush.

Harry stared at Ron oddly but slowly nodded.

"Yea well, what is it mate?" he asked lifting an eyebrow.

Ron took a deep breathe, checked the kitchen again and went back to Harry, who was looking at his best friend curiously.

"Erm, well… I-I don't know if it was obvious to you yet...but if it wasn't...I might as well tell you. I um…I have a huge crush on Hermione. Please, please, PLEASE don't say anything to anyone about it!" Ron finished his sentence, his face flustering by the minute.

Harry stood there for a moment, and then laughed out loud like Ginny had earlier. He put a hand on Ron's shoulder and stared at his friend with amusement.

"Ron...of course I knew that. It was obvious for me to see anyway, I mean you practically stared at every move she made at the Yule Ball. I thought that you went into some crazy trance or something and was possessed. Don't worry about it though, its safe with me." He said while smirking again.

Ron let out a small laugh and shook his head.

"You know…I swear you and Ginny are so alike that it's scary." He mumbled.

As they re-entered the kitchen, Hermione looked up from the refrigerator, where she was putting away some jams and preserves.

"There you two are! Come on and help us with these groceries, we already set up most of the stuff already so it shouldn't be a hassle." She said while pointing to 3 more extra bags on the large wooden table.

The boys soon began storing most of the foods away. Soon after they were done, they had set up all the ingredients for the Butterscotch pudding they were to make. Mrs. Weasley had her wand out and was adding everything to the batter, while the others stirred. It only took two to three minutes for the mixture to be ready. So they placed it inside the refrigerator and waited for it to get a bit chilled and ready for dinner. The trio decided to go to the backyard and practice some minor spells while waiting for the dinner to be made. They all had their wands out and headed for the yard.

"Mobiliarbus!" shouted Hermione, not wasting any time.

She lifted a gnome off of the ground that she spotted near by. She let it go as she placed it over the birdbath. The gnome landed in the bath with a 'thud', and it wasn't very happy looking as it trudged back to its burrow like hole soaking wet, leaving tiny mud prints. Harry was fiddling with apples making them smaller.

"Reducio!" he shouted while looking at the small apple in his hand and gave a laugh.

Ron laughed along at the sight of the oddly small apple. He thought of a spell for a second and then smiled slyly. He cleared his throat and kept his wand at the ready.

"Orchideous!"

Out of the tip of his wand popped up a bunch of wildflowers. Hermione laughed and clapped as she watched the spell.

"Wow, very impressive Ron." She said smiling.

He blushed slightly and took the flowers off of his wand, and shyly handed them to Hermione.

"Here you go, hope you like them." he said while flustering some more.

Hermione paused and looked at Ron weirdly but then smiled at him and smelled the flowers.

"Thanks Ron, they are lovely!"

Ron smiled at Hermione shrugging and twiddled his thumbs.

"Welcome Mione" he mumbled to himself rather to the girl in front of him.

He was red faced as he went back to his spells, and only stopped to hex Harry who couldn't stop sniggering behind Ron's back. Of course when Harry noticed that his ears were growing larger and larger by the moment, he quit his laughing and cursed at Ron making Hermione say "Really Harry."

As they all finished their spell practicing, Harry and Ron decided to fly around the yard for a little while. Hermione went inside the house to talk to Ginny for a while, since she wasn't too fond of flying. As she walked out of sight, Ron let out a huge sigh of relief and leaned on his broom handle. Harry chuckled at the red head.

"What's the matter Ron?" he asked playfully.

Ron just shook his head and flew off into the air. The feeling of cool summer air in his face let him relax just a bit, but he still hadn't fully recovered from his embarrassment.

"I just...can't stay calm every time I'm around her now! I mean, I'm not like this, and you know that! I'm usually all verbal with her in arguments and I'm just...not like THIS!" he said nervously.

Harry just smiled at his friend and continued flying around the air, passing by the trees swiftly. Ron just stared after his friend in amazement.

'Isn't he going to say anything? I mean, give me some advice at least!' Ron thought to himself.

Meanwhile, inside the burrow up in Ginny's room, Hermione wasn't herself as well. She kept pacing Ginny's room, and biting her nails. Hermione Granger did not bite her nails. Ginny was just reading a book on her bed, glancing up at Hermione every once and a while, until she couldn't take it anymore and threw the book down.

"HERMIONE! Why in god's name are you going back and forth like that for? You are driving me insane!" she said with a look of puzzlement and annoyance on her face.

At her name being mentioned, Hermione stopped in her tracks, finally looking at Ginny. She sighed and sat down on Ginny's bed, fiddling with the hem of her blouse.

"I don't know how to explain it, but, it's your brother. He's acting very strange for some reason, and I think…well, I think it's because of me!" she said worriedly.

There was silence for about 5 seconds until Ginny burst out laughing. Which left Hermione feeling pretty confused. Ginny wiped the stray laughing tears at the corner of her eyes and smiled at Hermione.

"Look Mione, don't worry about Ron ok? He's fine; he just hasn't been feeling himself lately. He's not angry at you or anything, but just to make you happy, I'm sure he'll tell you his problem soon enough." She said while staring at Hermione carefully.

Hermione nodded at Ginny, and put her head in her hands. Sighing slowly she finally looked up and gave her a small smile.

"Thanks Ginny, I guess I'm just over reacting; besides I'm sure it's nothing to worry about. I need to think a bit so I'm just going take a quick shower ok?" she said while gathering a few clothes from her trunk.

Ginny nodded and went back to her book, smiling to herself triumphantly.

Back in the yard, Ron and Harry were landing on the ground from their short practice match. Ron had won by a short point, so he was having his small moment of glory.

"No hard feelings, eh Harry?" he said while patting him on the back.

Harry shook his head and shrugged, smiling at Ron.

"No, I guess not. You did win fair and square." He said spinning the handle of his broom over his shoulder.

They continued talking about Quidditch all the way into the house. Harry set down his broom in the living room, and sat down on the couch, running a hand threw his messy hair. Ron set his broom down too, but headed towards the stairs.

"Hey Harry, if you want you can hang around upstairs. I'm just going to go take a quick shower!" he called towards the room as he ran up the steps.

Harry shouted up an ok before dozing off with his arm over his eyes, glasses askew in his hair. Ron first ran into his room and grabbed an orange terry cloth robe, then headed towards the bathroom. He was happily humming loudly as he turned the knob, until a high pitched scream met his ears as he stood in front of the open bathroom door.

a/n: Bloody boys and their guyness, not bothering to knock on bathroom doors. I mean really