Chapter 3
Ron's Plan

Ron didn't sleep that night. He kept thinking, "Why did I now make it! Why couldn't I be Romeo!"

His thoughts were interrupted when Harry yelled in his sleep, "No! I haven't caught the purple horses yet!"

Though his friends words disturbed him, he was at least happy that he had stopped beating himself up about it. Hermione had been VERY upset when she had heard that he was not Romeo. Did that mean that she liked him back? When he was comforting her, it had been the highlight of his whole year. But did she feel the same.

He kept thinking these thoughts until he was asleep.

~**********~

(Dream Sequence)

"Ron!" said Hermione. "The best performance ever on any stage!"

Hermione was holding a Daily Profit in her hands that was titled, "THE BEST OF THE BEST HERMIONE AND RON!" They were on the cover doing the Romeo and Juliet kiss scene.

"Hermione!" said Ron, "will you marry me?"

"Yes!" said Hermione happily, "I would want nothing more!"

Ron took her in his arms dipped her and kissed her.

There we cheers all around. Everyone was there!

"I getting married!" shouted Hermione when she broke the kiss! "To Ronald Weasley!"

Cheers from the crowd!

"I want from now on to be called Mrs. Hermione Weasley!" screamed Hermione and there were cheers.

"Here!" said Ron, he bent on one knee and held out a ring, a very large ring.

Hermione gasped.

"Look on the back," whispered Ron.

She did it read, "I loved even before I saw your face, I loved you when we were friends, I will love when we are old, I will love you when we die."

Hermione started to cry tears of joy.

"Ron!" he heard from far away.

"Hermione my love," said Ron, as a very expensive broom appeared in front of them, "shall we go to the chapel!"

"Anything for you!" said Hermione stepping on the broom.

"Ron!" said the far away voice that was getting closer, it sounded like Harry.

"Ron! Get up!" Harry said and yanked Ron so hard that Ron fell out of bed.

"OOOOOOOWWWWWW!" said Ron who looked out at a very amused Harry.

"Have fun dreaming about Hermione," said Harry laughing.

"What are you talking about?" asked Ron, "I don't dream about her."

"Oh! So you must know a different Hermione because when you yelled, "Hermione will you marry me, shall we go to the chapel, I kinda thought you were talking about our Hermione!" said Harry happily.

"Shut up!" said Ron through gritted teeth and he got up and went to brush his teeth.

"Going to freshen up for Hermione," asked Harry still laughing.

"HARRY! JUST SHOVE OFF!" screamed Ron slamming the bathroom door.

~**********~

Play practice went all that week. It was pretty much the same routine Draco "swooned" over Hermione, while she "flirted" back and Ron wanted to run back to his room put a pillow over his head and scream until kingdom come. He had completely admitted his feelings to Hermione to himself now, because of the dream.

Sunday turned into Monday and the rest of the week followed. The good news was there was no homework in any of the classes because of the play. Even Snape was following the no homework rule!

It was Friday and they were in Herbology when Ron found himself next to the one person that he loathed the most, Draco Malfoy.

"Hey Weasel!" said Draco, "having fun in the play."

"Of course!" said Ron hotly, "you?"

"Why I am having the time of my life flirting with your girlfriend," said Draco and he laughed maliciously.

"She's not my girlfriend," said Ron picking up a root to throw at him.

"Oh please!" said Draco, "I know for a fact that you and Granger love each other!"

"Shut up!" said Ron quietly as Ms. Sprout passed them.

"Or what," said Draco, "you stab me with your pretend sword?"

"Shove off!" hissed Ron.

"Make me!" countered Draco.

"You are so annoying!" said Ron coldly.

"Well!" said Draco matter-of-factly, "so is the mudblood."

With that Ron lost it. He grabbed Draco by the front of the shirt threw him on the door and started punching the daylights out of him. Everyone in the room gasped. Dean tried to get Ron off but Ron pushed him off. He just wanted to kill him. He wanted to kill Draco. Hatred poured through every punch. He could tell that he had broken Draco's nose and probably some ribs but he didn't care. Ms. Sprout finally made it over and pulled Ron off Draco.

"DON'T EVER CALL HER THAT AGAIN!" screamed Ron trying to throw himself at Draco. Draco couldn't stand it took both Crabbe and Goyle to lift him off his feet. Hermione stood there looking shocked, she knew whom Ron was referring too as "her."

"SHE IS NOT A MUDBLOOD," screamed Ron at the top of his lungs, "I HATE YOU! I'M GONNA KILL YOU!"

"Crabbe and Potter," said Ms. Sprout, "take Malfoy to the hospital wing."

Harry looked at her with utter disgust.

"Do I have to?" whined Harry, "she just called my one of my best friend a mudblood."

"Potter," said Ms. Sprout, "Madam Pomfrey will need both sides of the story."

Harry understood and walked in front of Crabbe and Malfoy.

"Weasley," said Ms. Sprout sounding sincerely sorry, "I am afraid that I have no choice but to give you a detention."

"I don't care," said Ron and he went back to his Gefout plant and began chopping it up for stew.

Hermione came up from behind Ron.

"Thank you," said Hermione softly, Ron turned and smiled.

"Anything for you!" said Ron and he went back to the stew.

"It was really sweet of you," said Hermione. "And, well, Harry left and he was my partner and you beat up your partner so I was thinking that we should be partners."

"Okay," said Ron and he handed her some Fasadell to throw into the stew they were making.

~**********~

Ron and Hermione were walking down to the hospital wing to see if Harry was all right when they heard a scream. Harry burst the doors open and ran with Draco close behind.

"I'll kill you," said Draco.

"I didn't anything," said Harry.

"STOP!" screamed Hermione, everyone froze. "What's going on here?"

"Draco's trying to kill me!" cried Harry.

"Why?" asked Hermione.

"Because of your stupid boyfriend!" Draco shouted pointing at Ron.

"But we're not," started Hermione.

"Whatever!" said Draco, and he walked over to Hermione and kissed her cheek, "see you at practice, Juliet."

Hermione froze and watched him walk away.

"What was that!" screamed Ron.

"I don't know!" said Hermione still in a state of shock.

"Is that was happens in your little private sessions?" asked Ron coldly.

"No!" said Hermione.

"Wow! Hermione! I didn't know that you were in love with Draco!" said Ron mocking astonishment, "or do you just take it where you can get it?"

"Ron, you know she's not like that," said Harry softly stepping between him and Hermione.

"Don't get in the middle of this Harry!" said Ron.

"I don't normally get in the middle but this doesn't make sense Ron!" said Harry.

"This doesn't make sense!" Ron retorted, "what doesn't make sense to me is why she lead me on when all the time she was in love with Draco!"

"Ron! I didn't lead you anywhere!" said Hermione, shocked at Ron's behavior.

"So you don't deny your love for your Romeo!" said Ron.

"I don't love him!" said Hermione tearfully.

"I don't have time for lies Hermione!" said Ron and with that he stormed off leaving a crying Hermione and a shocked Harry.

~**********~

Ron went up to the boys' dormitories and started to cry. He knew it was not Hermione's fault Draco had kissed her. Draco was just trying to make him jealous. But he needed to be mad at Hermione; it was easier to watch the kiss scene. He was crying, hard, when he heard the door open. But he didn't care, he kept crying.

"Ron?" he heard Harry's voice.

He didn't answer, but he was still crying hard enough that Harry could hear him.

Harry walked over and pulled back the curtains to his bed.

"Go away Harry," he sobbed, "Leave me alone!"

"Ron," started Harry, "Why did you blow up at Hermione like that?"

"Cause she's in love with Draco!" said Ron.

"Ron, you know she's not," said Harry, "besides even if she was why would that matter."

"Cause its supposed to be me!" cried Ron.

"What is?" asked Harry.

"The one she loves!" said Ron into his pillow.

"You love her?" asked Harry, already knowing the answer.

Ron raised his head off the pillow and nodded.

"Yes," he said quietly.

"Tell her!" said Harry.

"I can't," said Ron into his pillow.

"Why not?" asked Harry trying to pry his friend away from his pillow.

"You don't just walk up to your best friend and say, 'Hermione, I've been in love with you since first year when we met on the train and you told me I had dirt on my nose'," stated Ron.

"Why not?" asked Harry confused.

"Cause what if she doesn't feel the same?" asked Ron, "not only will I make a fool out of myself but I will lose six years of friendship, that's not a risk I'm willing to take!"

"What if you were positive?" asked Harry, "what if you were absolutely sure she loved you back?"

"That'd be cool," said Ron, "why?"

"Because I have proof!" said Harry joyfully.

"What!" said Ron, "How!?"

"When I was snog, I mean, talking with Ginny in her room," started Harry eyeing Ron, "Ginny saw Hermione's diary."

"No way!" said Ron.

"No it gets better," said Harry, "we were talking about how much you two were meant to be together and Ginny agreed to let me take the diary into my dorm and read it."

"So," said Ron, "where is it?"

"Here!" said Harry lifting up a loose floorboard next to his bed.

He pulled out a book that was red with a silver dragon on the cover. The dragon breathed out fire that spelled out "Hermione Granger."

"Whoa!" said Ron as Harry handed him the book.

"Read the last entry," said Harry, "I'll be back I gotta take a shower."

Harry entered the bathroom and closed the door. Ron flipped through the pages and found the last one.

Sixth Year, October 4th, 9:00 pm

Dear Diary,
Right now there are only two words that are special to me. Ronald Weasley. He so sweet. I found out today that my archenemy, Draco Malfoy, is playing Romeo and I Juliet. Can you believe the bad luck? Yuck! Malfoy is putrid. Why not Ron? Hum! Why not have it be him? Oh, I could have kissed him just like in my dream, it would have been beautiful! I would never tell Ron this because he would explode but during a private practice session in Snape's Office, Draco came onto me. He tried to kiss me. I told him no and he tried to corner me but I ran out the door. At first he came after me but I locked the door so it gave me a ten second start, I got into the common room just in time. I don't think he likes me, I think he thinks Ron likes me, and so he's trying to make Ron jealous. It's not working though how could anyone as perfect as Ron love someone as ugly as me.

Hermione Granger
(Hoping someday to be Hermione Weasley!)

Ron was amazed! The love of his life loved him back. He hated Draco. There was no way in heaven or earth that he was going to let Draco kiss Hermione at that play. He read it over and over again, savoring the words.

Harry got out of the shower to find his friend beaming at the book.

"Yep!" said Harry; "if you read other ones before that she describes dreams she has about you! It gets to mushy for my tastes."

Ron laughed. He was happy.

"There has to be a way so that Draco doesn't have to kiss Hermione," said Ron and he bit his bottom lip like he had seen Hermione do when she was thinking.

"What are you doing?" asked Harry as he watched his friend imitate Hermione.

"Hermione always does this right before you comes up with a brilliant plan!" explained Ron, "it has to be some sort of magic gesture."

Harry giggled (yes that's right giggled like a school girl).

"I got it!" said Ron with a evil tint in his eye.

"Great!" said Harry, "No I have two crazy friends. STOP THE MADNESS!"

When he said "STOP THE MADNESS" he tangled his hands in his hair and fell to his knees.

"Oh please!" said Ron, "this is a good idea, but I will need your help."

"Great!" said Harry sarcastically, "so what hex are we placing on Draco?"

"Oh no!" said Ron, "Its much better than that!"

"What?" asked Harry; smiling at how much fun his friend was having at thinking of ways to torment Draco. "Are you going to make it up as you go along?"

"No," said Ron, "I have something in mind!"

He leaned over and whispered into Harry's eye. Each time Ron finished a sentence Harry's eyes got bigger. When Ron finally sat back, Harry's eyes were as big as saucers.

"Do you think that will work?" asked Harry, "it sounds pretty risky to me!"

"If you get everything right," started Ron, "everything will go perfectly."

"Are you sure that "you know" will happen at that scene?" asked Harry.

"Yes!" said Ron, "I looked over the script!"

"You're beginning to sound like Hermione!" said Harry gleefully.

"Yeah well," said Ron, "we have work to do tonight!"

"Doing what?" asked Harry, "the play's not till next week!"

"We are going to stay up and mark this script," said Ron, holding up the script, "about when we do everything."

"Gotcha!" said Harry grinning.

"Now Harry," said Ron, "nobody can know about this not even Ginny alright!"

"Okay!" said Harry putting his hands up like police officers ask you to do before they arrest you, "I'm not tellin'!"

"Great!" said Ron, taking a quill out of his bag.

He motioned for Harry to sit on his bed. He drew the curtains and muttered a silencing spell and a locking spell.

"We can't take any chances," explained Ron, "in case the other boys' come up while we're still working!"

Harry nodded. This was going to be fun! Plotting Draco's doom with his best friend. Maybe they should sell a game like that, at Weasley Wizard Wheezes!

They stayed up until dawn, and when Ron woke up the next morning, he knew everything was going to be perfect!"