Well, here it is! The 4th chapter of Crush. It's not a very eventful chapter though. See, the first one focused on Ron, the second on Harry, and the third on Hermione. So I'm trying to go through the story with each chapter from one of those three's POV, in the same order. So the next one will be from Harry's POV, then the one after that will be from Hermione's. It probably won't be very eventful until I get to Hermione. Heheh, I know what her evil plan is going to be ^_~ Anyway, on with the show…er…story. ^^
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Still half asleep, Ron entered the great hall and shambled down the aisle to his place at the Gryffindor table. As he neared his seat he saw that Hermione and Harry were leaning across the table towards each other, talking quietly. As though sensing his approach they both looked up at him, conversation stopping short. As he sleepily waved good morning to them they didn't resume the conversation, looking slightly…guilty. From the looks on their faces they had been talking about something they didn't want to hear. Maybe they'd been talking about him. Ron frowned to himself, wondering when he's gotten so suspicious of his best friends.
'Probably since everyone is so on edge due to Voldemort being quite for so long' he thought to himself, flinching slightly even though he was only thinking the name.
Sitting down next to Hermione he glanced at Harry, who was on the opposite side of the table, one place to his right. "Morning Harry" he said, giving his best friend a nod.
"Morning," he mumbled back, looking about as awake as Ron felt.
Turning to Hermione on his right as he reached for a piece of buttered toast, he nodded to her too. "Morning Herm."
"Morning," she replied, smiling at him. But her smile didn't seem as bright as it normally was. Usually she was the only one who could seem properly awake at the ungodly hour of 8am. Peering at her over the slice of golden toast he was currently munching on, Ron realised that she also looked tired.
"Hey, you look tired this morning," he commented.
"Yeah, I was studying until quite late last night," she said, glancing at him as she spread marmalade on her own toast
Snorting, Ron turned his attention back to his food. Hermione could be such a swot sometimes, always studying, and lecturing him and Harry that they should be studying too. Her constant attitude that schoolwork was all-important sometimes annoyed him, but she was still one of his best friends. He'd even had a crush on her at one point during his earlier years at Hogwarts. Hermione wouldn't be Hermione if she wasn't constantly obsessing about her work and, once you got to know her, there was far more to her than the goody-goody impression most people had of her.
The three ate their breakfast in comfortable silence, food more important than talk for the moment. As he ate, Ron watched Harry out of the corner of his eye. He loved watching Harry when he had no idea someone was looking at him. For one thing, he smiled a lot more when all the attention wasn't focused on him. Although he did a great job of hiding it Ron knew that, even after so many years of being famous in the wizarding world, Harry was still uncomfortable in the spotlight. When people were watching him he seemed to put on a façade, acting more polite and mature, trying to measure up to what people expected of him.
The more he watched Harry, the more his feelings for the boy grew. And the hotter he seemed to get, he thought to himself, as his eyes roamed over the mussed black hair, past the green eyes, skimmed the high but masculine cheekbones, and came to rest on the luscious, slightly parted red lips. As he watched, Harry's tongue darted out to lick away a crumb that had stuck to the side of his mouth. The sight sent his mind off on a pleasant journey of imagining just what that mouth would feel like on…certain parts of his body. He couldn't really be blamed for his thoughts; after all, he was a healthy, hormonal teenage boy, and no one could deny that Harry was incredibly good looking. But what he felt for Harry didn't feel to him like just lust. He had his fair share of mushy, lovey-dovey thoughts too, although those thoughts tended to scare him slightly. 'Next thing you know I'll wearing pink and calling people 'dahling'' he thought wryly.
"Ow," he exclaimed as a sharp elbow jabbed him squarely in the side. He turned to Hermione in annoyance. "What the hell was that for?" he demanded.
"Mind your language, Ron," she retorted primly. "And that was to bring you back to the present since you seemed like you were off in your own little world, and we have to be going to class soon."
"Well I was off in my own little world, and I didn't want to be disturbed," he muttered back angrily, reaching out for the last blueberry muffin. As he reached out, Hermione was also reaching out, and their hands both grabbed one side of the muffin at the exact same time. He pulled at the muffin, but Hermione refused to let go of it, and tugged back. He turned to face her, to see her staring directly back at him, looking as though she were challenging him.
"Excuse me Hermione, but I believe I was the first to the muffin," he told her, rather icily.
"Uh, I don't think so," she returned, her tone equally icy. "Besides, you've already had one this morning."
"Well, I want this one too!"
"And so do I!"
It suddenly occurred to him that what they were arguing over - a lone blueberry muffin - was quite stupid. Now that he thought about it, they had been bickering quite a lot recently.
"Maybe we could just half it?" he suggested.
"No. I don't settle for halves. If I'm going to have something, I want to have all of it."
Ron was suddenly struck by the strange feeling that they were arguing about something completely different to the muffin clutched between them.
"Well, same here," he declared, glaring at Hermione fiercely.
"Um, guys?" Harry interrupted, looking at them strangely "It's only a muffin you know. Just share it."
Hermione was glaring back at him just as fiercely, but she broke the gaze at Harry's words.
"I guess you're right," she answered sweetly.
In silence, they halved the muffin and chose one half each. And Ron was sure that Hermione chose the slightly larger piece.
"You two argue about the strangest things," Harry commented, obviously trying to ease the tension between them. "Hey Ron, are you up for a game of Wizard Chess tonight?"
"Yeah, sure!" he agreed enthusiastically. "Hey Hermione, you want to watch?" he asked her.
"No thanks," she replied. "I've got a lot of studying to do tonight, so I'm going to go straight to the library after our last lesson, then go on up to my room."
"Fine, fine. You study way too much for your own good."
Hermione just gave him her 'I-know-better-than-you' stare and, finishing her half of muffin, she stood up. "Maybe, but I think that hard work pays off. If you work hard enough, you can do anything."
Ron glanced at Harry, who rolled his eyes skyward, and chuckled. What a typical Hermione thing to say. Although Ron couldn't help thinking that, as with the muffin argument, her words held some sort of deeper meaning.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
As always, thanks for reading, and reviews are appreciated. ^_^ And I would like to say a BIG THANKYOU to all my reviewers so far. You're what keep me going! *hugs*
~ Skye xXx