Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to the Harry Potter Universe, I'm afraid. I don't make any money off of this.
A/N: This was not beta-read. I think I wanted to get it out as soon as possible. Please ignore any grammar or spelling mistakes, and please review.
Why Hermione doesn't tell Ron
She can't remember when she started to like him. No, wait - of course she does. It was the first time she saw him. With that ruffled mop of red hair, and a smudge on his chin… Who couldn't help but like him? He just looked so nice and, well… likable.
And then she got to know him (and Harry, of course). Oh, he could be an annoying git, with all his stupid remarks - but he was also so unbelievably sweet, and nice, and… he was Ron.
Of course she didn't tell him. She wasn't stupid. She had the chances all worked out: fifty percent chance that he didn't like her back, and their friendship at its present state would change because at least one of them would start to act differently. She knew she would, if she told him. Then, there was that fifty percent chance that he actually liked her back. But out of these fifty percent, it was at least half likely that they would break up and their friendship would definitely be ruined. So, all in all it was 75 percent chance of failure.
And this was only in theory. God knew what the chance of success would be if she took all the other factors into counting… (She didn't do this, though, because Hermione's Arithmancy was very good, and she liked to live a little in the hope that he liked her back.)
So Hermione didn't tell Ron that she liked him, not even when her feelings became something close to love.
But, as said before, Ron was a likable person. Everybody liked Ron. Who could blame him for experimenting a bit with the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff girls? The Slytherins he wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole, and the Ravenclaws he stayed away from - he said he got enough brainy chickness from her; he didn't need more, thank you very much. And so Hermione watched on the sidelines as Ron flirted with all the girls, and even went to secluded places with some of them. Who was she to say anything about it? She'd never told him, after all.
But sometimes she wished she had.