Disclaimer: Not mine.

A/N: Thanks for all the reviews guys! Y'all are too good to me! Sorry it took me so long to post… No excuses… And sorry for the crappy and pointless chapter, but I figured I'd go ahead and post what I had written and I promise I'll post another chapter this week! Thanks all! R/R!

It was the night before they were all to return to Hogwarts. Things around the Burrow were pretty normal now or at least seemed to be normal. No one said anything about Hermione's parents and she made no attempt to bring up the topic. Ron and Harry were playing chess on the living room floor, whilst Hermione was reading one of her new schoolbooks on the living room sofa.

"Checkmate!" Ron exclaimed as he made his final move on the chessboard.

"Argh!" Harry yelled. "I don't know why I even play with you anymore…" Ron laughed triumphantly at Harry's remark.

"Especially when you should be finishing your homework." Hermione pointed out.

"Oh, it's the last day of summer vacation! Give us a break!" Ron protested.

"Precisely the reason you should be finishing your homework." Hermione added.

"Alright, we'll finish our homework." Ron said, giving in a little too easily.

"What?" Both Harry and Hermione exclaimed, looking at Ron in shock.

"IF you beat me in a game of chess that is." Ron added with a grin.

"Ron, that isn't fair! You know you're unbeatable at chess!" Hermione said with anger in her voice and a glare in her eye.

"What? Perfect little Miss Granger afraid of a game of chess is she?" Ron said tauntingly.

"Fine, I'll play you, but only for your own sake!" Hermione said as she closed her schoolbook and set it aside. She then got off of her spot on the coach and went to lie down on her stomach, where Harry had previously been, in front of the chessboard.

"Oh, for my sake, how honorable of you." Ron said sarcastically, obviously no longer feeling the need to be overly nice to her anymore.

"Just be quiet." Hermione snapped. "I get to be black!"

"Fine, fine." Ron said with a sigh. He was almost always black, it was his lucky color in chess, not that he needed luck, but Hermione seemed to know this and was doing everything she could to throw his game off. Including the way she was laying, or so Ron thought. She was leaning on both of her elbows and was propping her head up with her hands. She was wearing a fitted T-shirt and it draped open ever so slightly. Truth be told, it didn't hang open enough to reveal anything that Hermione would be uncomfortable with Ron seeing, but for some reason, Ron just couldn't stop staring. Not just there though, Ron really wasn't that perverted.

Ron could hardly concentrate on the game of chess, Hermione's face just kept calling his eyes back. She looked the same, and yet so different to him. Her face and features were basically the same as they had always looked, minus the teeth of course. Though, he just noticed how beautiful she must have always looked.

Sure Ron had come to the conclusion that he felt stronger feelings than friendship for her, but with all the chaos that had been going on, he just now had time to actually get a good look at her. He had there-by come to a new conclusion. That he very much liked, maybe even loved, not only the smartest girl at Hogwarts, but also the most beautiful.

Hermione however, was concentrating very hard on the game. She seemed to want to beat him more than ever. That much was apparent on her facial expressions. Why she wanted to beat Ron so much was just as much a mystery to her though, Ron didn't even seem to notice. Certainly she wanted Ron and Harry to study, but that wasn't the most important thing. Maybe she just wanted to impress Ron?

"Check!" Hermione exclaimed, dragging Ron out of his reverie.

"What?!" Ron exclaimed right back. Even if he was a bit… distracted… during the game, he thought, there was no way that Hermione could have beaten him that easily! "How?!"

"I did a little studying over the summer. There are quite a few good books on how to play wizard's chess, did you know that?" Hermione said, smiling broadly at Ron. Ron only answered with a glare. Harry, who had up until now been skimming through Hermione's schoolbook, looked at the chessboard.

"Ohhhhh, you got him trapped Hermione!" Harry said grinning. He had never been able to defeat Ron at chess and had never seen anyone else either. Thus he was quite proud of Hermione for coming close to accomplishing the feat. Harry closed the textbook and joined his friends on the floor to watch how the game turned out.

Ron's eyes darted desperately around the board. Suddenly he shouted, "Ah-hah!" and moved a chess piece with a smirk at Hermione. Hermione looked disappointed at first, but then looked down at the board. Her grin came back full force.

"Check……MATE!" Hermione hesitated on the second syllable and as soon as she shouted it, she jumped up with glee. "CheckMATE! CheckMATE!" Hermione repeated as she danced around the room. Harry jumped up and shouted words of glee as well. Which caused the twins and Ginny to come rushing into the room. Percy only shouted for them to be silent from the top of the staircase and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were not home.

"Lucky move…oh, and very mature Hermione!" Ron said as he tried desperately to keep his glare fixed on Hermione, but when ever he looked at her, he just couldn't seem to help but smile. She seemed truly happy for the first time in weeks and if he had to lose a game of chess to give her that happiness, maybe it was worth it.

"What? Is there some kind of law that I have to be mature all the time, just because I'm Hermione Granger?" Hermione asked, throwing Ron a smile. "You're just mad because I beat you." She concluded as she sat down on the couch.

"I knew if anybody could beat him, you could Hermione." Harry said, sitting next to her.

"Oh, li'l Ronnie got beaten by 'Mione!" Fred and George chorused.

"Really?" Ginny asked, examining the chessboard.

"'Mione?" Hermione asked both Fred and George. They both shrugged.

"Well, we couldn't just add a "nie" to your name like on Ron's, as it already sounds like "nie" at the end. So we just cut it in half." Fred explained.

"Clever, eh?" George added. Hermione was about to respond when Ron spoke up first.

"'Mione… I kinda like the sound of that actually…" Ron said with a smile at no one imperticular.

"Well I don't." Hermione said, crossing her arms. Everyone in the room looked at her questioningly. Ginny however, voiced their question.

"Why not?" Ginny asked.

"Well…" Hermione started, cheeks going a light shade of pink. "It's not that I don't like it…it just sounds like a pet name or something…"

"Ohhhhhhhhh!" Fred said.

"So, that means you only want Ron to call you 'Mione, right 'Mione?" George asked. Both Ron and Hermione went a bit red.

"I won't call you that if you don't like it…" Ron said. Hermione was about to open her mouth in response when Fred butted in, draping his arm heavily around Ron's shoulders.

"Don't worry Ronnie old lad, I'm sure she wouldn't mind if you called her by a pet name." Fred said with a grin as George dropped onto the couch next to Hermione and put his arm around her.

"Of course she doesn't mind, in fact, she'd love it if you called her 'Mione." George answered for Hermione. Hermione pushed George's arm off and stood up abruptly.

"I'm going to bed." Hermione said as she headed up the stairs.

"Good night and sweet dreams 'Mione!" Fred and George said with identical grins.

A/N: Okay, so, either next chapter or the one after they are goin' back to Hogwarts and trust me, I got some good things planned for later chapters. (or at least I think they're good) As for the next chapter, I'm not exactly sure what's going to happen, I'll have to sleep on it. I promise I will have the next chapter up this week though! I never require reviews in order to post the next chapter, but, it certainly makes me want to post faster and it certainly makes my day! Y'all ROCK! ^_^v