A/N: Yay! Ron finally gets a say! For all those Hermione/Ron lovers, your not going to like this chapter very much... Seems Ron has a crush on someone else. ^_^ Hmm... will they end up together or not? That is the question.

BTW have you guys read book 5? Awesome wasn't it? Jo Rowlings has the greatest imagination ever. Very sad about the character who died. :(.

Anyway, on with my fanfiction (which in no way compares to the original books, but hey, read it anyway)!!!


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Chapter 4: And the Plot thickens..... (Ron)

Ron never liked school, it was more of an annoyance then anything. He was only going because his mom wanted him too. Because of Hermione's help we was able to get a few scholarships and grants, so he was practically going to school for free. He was sitting in his last class of the day practically zoning out because of boredom. How was he going to get through the next four years? He didn't even really know what he wanted to do. If Hermione had her way she would probably have him be a scientist or something that actually required work. If Harry had his way, well he would probably do whatever Harry was... he didn't seem to like doing many things alone (unless of course, it was saving the world from Voldemort, which he had done countless times on his own, which was just fine with Ron really). Ron though... Ron never really thought about what he wanted to be. He dreamed, yes, he dreamed a lot about silly things like being on a Quidditch team and becoming an Auror, but he never really sat down and thought about it. Hermione always got so made at him for not doing that too.

Hermione, he smiled when he thought about her and soon after he began to blush. Though he was 18, he still didn't really like dealing with his feelings for her, or any other girl for that matter. He was just naturally shy, it wasn't his fault. He envied Harry a little bit, he was always so cool when talking to girls, of course he never noticed when a girl was trying to date him. Harry was cool, but he was a bit naive. Still, Ron would like to have the ability that Harry had when it came to girls. He was even too shy to talk to Hermione when they were alone. Honestly, it was sad.

The class finally ended and Ron was able to snap out of his daydreams and head back to the dorm to relax. Harry and Hermione should be done with classes also, so he hoped he would catch one of them.

"Weasely-san! Weasely-san!" A female voice with a thick Asian accent said behind Ron, making Ron turn around. He knew who it was and he turned bright red as soon as he saw her.

"H-hi, A-ayumi..." He stuttered. Ayumi, Hermione's roommate... and too pretty to be real. Her hair literally looked like spun gold, same color and same shine as the sun. Her eyes were big, so big they practically took over her face, giving her a childlike quality and an innocence that was almost unmatched. They looked like deep, inviting caves too, with how black they were an all. She was tiny though, she almost looked too fragile to just be walking around. In other words, Ayumi made him very nervous.

"Are you done with class for today?" She asked him in her somewhat husky voice. It wasn't a deep voice, but there was a scratchiness to it that was intriguing.

"Y-yeah... I'm done..." He replied in a slight squeak, making her giggle. He looked down at her robes, they were very odd looking. They looked more like bathrobes made of satin then wizards robes. It was pretty on her though, light purple with white lilacs painted all along the bottom, "Nice robe."

"Oh! Sank you!" She smiled, "Many people were staring at me today because of it though, I should have worn something more Western. In Japan we call this Maho Kimono."

"What does that mean?" Ron asked her.

"Magic Garment." She smiled, "It is different from regular Kimono because we do not have to wear sash or pillow in the middle, and we can wear clothes underneath if we want. Boys have one too, it just go to their waist."

"Oh..." Ron replied, "Do you guys learn the same magic stuff we do in Japan?"

Ayumi thought about the question for awhile before asking, "Yes and No. We learn the same spells and we learn different ones. Alohamora is an unlocking spell there, but you don't have Usui Kiri no Ryu. I think there are some spells I do not know of yours as well."

"What's...." He thought about remembering how to pronounce it, but decided it wasn't a good idea to try, "That one you said."

"It's a spell that transforms a person into a mist... it mean Dragon's Mist." She smiled, "So are you meeting Oni-chan?"

Oni is what Ayumi had begun calling Hermione because she couldn't pronounce her name, "I don't know, depends on if I see her."

"Good, I walk with you then, I want to talk to her too." Ayumi smiled yet agian, she seemed like such a happy girl. Could Ron smile back though? No, he was too busy being embarrassed to smile back at her. He couldn't believe how sad he was.

"We have a class together tomorrow you know." She exclaimed happily, "I am very excited because I did not know anyone in my classes today."

"I-I can't wait either." He said quickly and looked down. Did she have to be so pretty? If she was just a little less attractive maybe he would be able to look her in the eye once in awhile.

Ayumi was very talkative, Ron didn't have to say very much while they made their way to the dorm because she pretty much carried the conversation. That was perfectly okay with Ron, in fact he preferred that to trying to hold the conversation on his own... he could barely talk to her anyway. He was a bit relieved when they got to the dormitory, now at least he could stop embarrassing himself. He couldn't believe how horrible he was around girls, he should have been over this fear a long time ago.

Ayumi said the password slowly (Her accent was a bit thick and the Phoenix painting had a hard time understanding her unless she said it slow) and then they both made their way upstairs to look for the others too. Of course, they didn't have to look too hard, Hermione was standing by the stairs looking a bit on the angry side.

"Oh, there you are!" Hermione squeaked, "Have you seen Harry?"

"No, why?" Ron asked her a bit confused, "Is something the matter?"

"I have Draco in one of my classes! He practically tortured me the whole time!" Hermione began to turn red, "I thought he would have grown up by now."

"Oh, well I guess that isn't good, is it?" Ron shrugged, "You could always slug him."

Hermione rolled her eyes, "I'm not slugging anyone, I just need to vent for awhile."

"I thought he was nice when I saw him again..." Ayumi murmured, making both of them look at her.

"Again?" Hermione asked her.

"He caught up with me while I was walking to one of my classes, he was very nice," Ayumi smiled, "He kept talking about you though Oni."

"Why would he keep talking about me?" Hermione asked with an angry tone.

"Oh you know, Malfoy," Ron told her quickly, "He's always had a strange obsession with making you miserable."

Hermione sighed loudly, "I would like it very much if he just completely forgot about my existence."

"He would never do that, he knows it would make you too happy." Ron smiled at her, making her smile back at him. He blushed a bit and quickly looked down to the floor, "Where is Harry?"He looked around a little over dramatically, making sure neither girl saw his bright red face.

"He probably has another class." Ayumi told him with a big smile, "Do you know what his classes are?"

"No, I'm not his keeper." Ron answered defensively, "Most likely he's flirting with some girl. He's oh-so-popular as the guy who killed Voldemort...twice."

"Yes, that was amazing." Ayumi said excitedly, "And so shocking. I did not expect Potter to be nice and normal. He is a good guy."

Ron sighed, "Yeah, nobody even notices me whenever he's around."

"I notice you." Hermione said with a slight blush. Ayumi smiled wider.

"I notice you too Weasely," Ayumi reached up and ruffled Ron's hair, "You're cute with your pretty red hair."

He couldn't help but notice the angry look that Hermione gave Ayumi in that moment.

"Thanks, but I'm still just Harry Potter's best friend to everyone around here." Ron shrugged.

"I like the Best Friend better," Ayumi said thoughtfully, he looked over to her, "Potter is big star and every girl wants to be with him, that makes it very difficult for the girl who's actually with him. All girls go 'oh, look at her, she doesn't deserve him' or 'That girl ugly, I should be with Harry Potter.' I would be with guy who doesn't get so much attention." Both Hermione and Ron looked at her strangely, "What? Was my English wrong?"

Ron blushed furiously and looked back down to the ground. This girl was being so nice to him and she was so pretty... he felt as though it was wrong to like her though because she was Hermione's roommate after all. Even though him and Hermione really didn't have a thing, something was underneath the so-called Friendship that they had.

The three talked about random things for awhile, waiting for Harry to show up in the dorm room. It was clear that he wasn't going to show when it started getting dark outside, so all of them gave up waiting and headed down to the Eatery for dinner. The Eatery was a huge building that was strictly made for feeding the students. It had all kinds of food from all different countries from around the world, the amount of food in the place seemed incomprehensible to Ron. It was his favorite place to go just because of the sheer size of it all. It didn't have anything like Hogwart's did, like the enchanted ceilings or floating candles, but it had to be at least 10 times as big, although the building looked no bigger than any other building on campus. It was like the spell that was on his parent's car, only much bigger in scale. That was always impressive.

When they got into the huge room all three of them spilt off to get something to it; Hermione went for pasta, Ayumi went straight for the Japanese cuisine, and Ron went to a hamburger stand. He was so hungry he grabbed two burgers among other things, then went and found a place for the three of them to sit.

"Weasely." Ayumi suddenly stood next to him as if coming from no where, "I found us a spot. We go sit there okay?"

"S-sure." He stuttered out, like he was going to say no to her when her big brown eyes were staring at him so innocently like that. He blushed again and looked down. She smiled and lead the way toward the table where Hermione was already sitting. Her hair was so shiny that he couldn't stop staring at the back of her head. He wanted to reach out and touch it. He resisted, of course, but blushed yet again. At this rate he wasn't going to be able to be anywhere around Ayumi without blushing, he really needed to learn how to control it.

"You hungry there Ron?" Hermione asked as he sat down, looking at his plate full of food.

"A little, I missed lunched looking for one of my classes." Ron sighed, "This campus thing is driving me insane."

"Me too." A male voice said behind him, the grin on Hermione's face told Ron who it was instantly.

"Harry!" He exclaimed and turned around, "Where have you been?"

"I spent the last hour trying to find my way back to the dorm rooms. I eventually had to flag down one of those fairy things to help me." He smiled, "Then when I got there, you guys weren't there, so I figured you'd be here."

"Oh! Harry! I have to tell you about Draco." Hermione said, quickly immersing Harry in the same story she had told Ron and Ayumi.

"Why does she let Malfoy get to her so much?" Ayumi leaned over and murmured so Hermione wouldn't hear.

"She doesn't, really... usually she's telling us to ignore him." Ron murmured back, "I think she was just thrown off guard and just needs to vent a little."

"Oh, well, that's good to know." Ayumi scooted a little closer to him, "Malfoy has been very nice to me and I don't know how to act since Hermione is my friend. Also, you don't seem to like him..."

"That's an understatement." Ron told her, then sighed, "If you want to be friends with Malfoy then be friends with him, just don't expect any of us to go along with it."

"Well, I saw him the other day and he ask me to go out with him sometime." Ayumi sighed, "I don't know if I want too. He kept asking me if I was pureblood. I don't even know what that means."

Ron looked at her with a confused glance. He assumed that she didn't know because her English was iffy, but he asked her anyway, "How could you not know?"

Ayumi looked up to the ceiling as though trying to find the right words, "It... is not discussed in my culture. It is known, but never discussed."

"Huh?"

Ayumi's nose crinkled as she tried to think of a better way to explain, "You know about a person's ancestry already where I come from, there is no need to ask. I know that Anami Chie's grandfather was a Muggle born wizard and Eto Eiji has no Muggle in him. But it isn't talked about. No one belittles or praises the other verbally, it's all assumed with motions and actions." Ayumi tried to explain, "That's why when Malfoy asked if I was pureblood I didn't know what he meant. I had never heard the term used in a question before. Do you understand?"

"Kind of." Ron told her, making her laugh a little, "What?"

"You got a funny look on your face." She said, "I thought it was cute."

He blushed again and then decided to cease conversation with her. So the rest of dinner was spent listening to Harry talk about his classes or Hermione talk about hers. Ayumi would chime in, but Ron kept mostly quiet. He was having an internal battle with himself.

After they all finished eating, they began walking back to the dorm room, Ron walked behind the other three slowly. He was still a little embarrassed and a bit guilty, he felt bad for liking Ayumi that way, it didn't seem right. He sighed and shook he head, he was being ridiculous. It was okay for him to like other girls, it's not like his emotions shut off because he liked Hermione. He was just being stupid, so he decided to rejoin the conversation. That's what he did decided, but his feet weren't moving any faster, he just stayed behind them.

"Ron, you okay?" Hermione has slowed down a bit to talk to him. He looked up at her with a slight smile.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Why?" He asked.

"I don't know. How about you trailing behind everyone like something is the matter." Hermione chuckled a bit, "I have a question for you."

"What's that?"

"What do you think of Ayumi and Harry, you know, together." Hermione looked at Ayumi and Harry talking to each other, "They seem to get on well enough and Harry really hasn't had a relationship since...well, for a while."

"I don't know..." Ron shrugged, not letting on that he was jealous, "I think she kind of likes Draco actually."

"Draco!?" Hermione stopped, "Why in the world would she like him?"

"He asked her out or something, I don't know." Ron shrugged.

"Why would he ask her out!?" Hermione asked very loudly.

Ron laughed, "Have you seen her?" Hermione glared at him, "I mean, I have no idea."

"Well, I'll just have to convince her that dating him is a huge mistake." Hermione said with confidence.

Ron sighed, "She doesn't want you to know, if your going to call him a slime ball, do it how you usually do. Don't add 'And you should date him either', okay?"

Hermione looked at him as though what he said were very idiotic, "Like I would ever do that."

"You would." Ron said with a smile, "You just believe no one should be around Draco."

"Yes I do. Do you blame me?" She said simply and they both began to laugh, "Umm.. Where did Harry and Ayumi go?"

Ron looked in front of him and sure enough, Harry and Ayumi were no where to be seen. He didn't even notice that they hadn't started walking again, "Guess they went on without us. You think Harry would have noticed we weren't following."

"Oh well, gives us a chance to be alone." Hermione smiled and blushed a little bit, which in turn made him blush too. That was true, they never got to be alone very much.

"Yeah..." He said and looked down at the pavement.

"Um, I've... been meaning to ask you...something..." Hermione stuttered out, "I was wondering... if... we, that is to say, me and you..."

Ron was afraid of what she was going to say next, but he didn't have time to find out. A girl suddenly burst out of one of the building with a look of pure panic on her face, screaming and waving her arms around wildly.

"Oh my God!" Hermione exclaimed and ran over to the girl. Ron followed with a little bit more hesitation, he didn't want to get involved really. Unfortunately, he realized a long time ago that him and his friends were magnets for mysteries and secrets. So he stayed up step behind Hermione as she ran up to the girl, who was now in the middle of the quad crying. People were gathering around her but not saying anything so Hermione pushed through them to get the girl, Ron right behind her, "Are you okay!?" She asked.

"S-s-something was..." The girl whimpered, "T-t-hey said that... They said that..."

"What did they say?" Hermione asked, "Did someone make fun of you?"

The girl shook her head, "N-no, they said they w-were going to k-k-kill me!" She bawled as big tears began streaming down her face.

"Kill you?" Hermione said and looked at Ron, who shrugged.

"Were they mad at you?" Ron asked, a little uncomfortable.

"I d-dun know!" The girl wailed, "They said they were taking over... the D-dark L-lord purpose!"

The crowd gasped and it was clear why she looked so frightened. Hermione patted the girl's back and said softly, "Did they try to use...?"

The girl nodded. Everyone knew what she meant too. Avada Kedavra, it must have missed her while she was running away.

"Go get one of the Professors! Now!" Hermione yelled to the crowd, a few people quickly went looking for one of the Professors on the grounds, "Do you know what they looked like?"

"N-no, they were wearing... a h-h-hood." The girl stuttered out.

"I don't understand, Harry destroyed Voldemort..." Hermione muttered under her breath. Neither if the two had time to dwell on it, because a Professor appeared to help then girl. Neither Ron or Hermione got to ask anymore questions, the Professor quickly took the girl away into some other building.

Ron looked at Hermione with a paranoid glance. If someone was trying to finish Voldemort's work... did that mean they were in danger again? Even worse, did that mean Hermione wasn't safe? He sighed and looked down to the ground, "I think we had better tell Harry."

"Well, I think it's obvious who it is behind this." Hermione said and started walking toward their dormitory.

"Malfoy?" Ron asked, started to walk with her.

"Exactly! He comes to the school and suddenly there's an attack on a Muggle-born from a Death Eater who seemingly forgot Lord Voldemort wasn't around anymore?" Hermione looked at him, "His dad probably put him up to it. It was probably the back up plan all along."

"Yeah," Ron agreed. It did seem that Malfoy was behind all this, after all, it was Malfoy, "I still think we need to tell Harry."

"And make sure that Ayumi stay's very much away from him," Hermione said, "We don't need for her to end up dead."

By Hermione's tone Ron could tell this was very serious... and that made him very worried....


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A/N: Hmm... Is Draco causing all the trouble? That seems like to easy an answer, although I may just be tricking you. Anyway, next chapter Harry or Hermione... I haven't decided. I'm doing a lot of Hermione's, but she is my favorite character... so just to even it out it will probably be Harry.

BTW, anyone like Ayumi? I like her. I picked her to be from Japan because it was REALLY foreign and I did some research on Japanese customs a while back so I kind of know what I'm talking about. Plus in Japan, they would do things differently than the Western world and I get to make all that up! ^_^