"Harry, stop it." Hermione wiggled out of Harry's grasp as he kissed her neck in the middle of the Great Hall. "Not here, not now." Harry just growled low in his throat and led her over to the Gryffindor table.
"Hey Harry!" Seamus and Dean called from the head of the table.
"Hey Guys!" Harry let go of Hermione's hand and left without even saying goodbye. He just walked off, leaving her alone. She looked up and down the table, and seeing no one she wanted to sit with, sat at the end alone. A few minutes passed before she felt someone come up behind her.
"Hey Hermione," Ron swung his legs over the bench and sat beside her. "You okay?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm fine. How's your hand?" Hermione snapped her gaze away from Harry and his friends so she could look at Ron. He shrugged and held up a bandaged hand.
"Ronny!" A female voice called from the doors of the Great Hall. Ron looked up and got out of his seat just in time to catch his girlfriend, Amy, flying at him.
"Hey Amy." He grunted as she threw her arms around his neck and kissed his face.
"Whatcha doin?" She said, pulling away and looking at Hermione for the first time. Hermione couldn't help feeling a pang of jealousy at seeing Ron with another girl. Amy's smile flickered for a second, but she broke into a huge fake grin when she saw Hermione stand up.
"Hermione! Hello! I didn't see you there!" She scooted closer to Ron and put her arm around his waist.
"Um, excuse me. Hello Amy, Goodbye Ron." She picked up her bags and walked away from them.
"Herm—Bye." Ron's shoulders slumped as he watched Hermione push open the door to the Great Hall and disappear behind it.
"HELLO—Earth to Ronny." Amy waved her hand in front of his face, making him snap back to attention. "Are you going to sit there and stare after that snobby little bitch or are you going to come sit with me?"
"She's not a snobby little bitch." Ron replied, but shrugged and picked up his books to follow her anyway. She flipped her blonde, straight hair over her shoulder and slipped her hand into Ron's. "C'mon Love, let's go."
Hermione pushed open the door to the Great Hall and walked out. She walked up the stairs into Gryffindor tower and threw her books onto a couch in front of the fire. She flopped down on the couch and pulled her hands up to her knees. What the bloody hell is wrong with me? She thought, sighing and shaking her head. You like Ron, a little voice responded in the back of her mind.
"I do NOT like Ron. We're just friends—just friends!" She said firmly, a little too loud, because the first years playing wizarding chess across the room turned around and stared at her. She sighed and grabbed her books, taking them upstairs to her dormitory. She stopped right outside the doorway as she heard Lavender and Ginny whispering in their room.
"He is so gorgeous!" She heard Lavender squeal.
"I know, Harry has definitely gotten much better looking over the summer…those big eyes…" Padama breathed.
"…that hair…"
"…that body…" They moaned again before Hermione turned the knob and entered the room.
"Now that you're done fantasizing about my boyfriend…" She said, throwing her books onto her dresser and pulling out a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. Lavender and Ginny just stared at her, open mouthed as she went behind a screen and changed out of her school clothes. She grabbed her broomstick, which she'd gotten over the summer from Ron, and ran out the door. As she walked down the hallway, disgusted about walking into a conversation about her boyfriend, she started thinking about Ron. What could he possibly see in that cow he called his girlfriend? She stopped and shook her head before thinking, That was cruel. He sees in her what Harry sees in me. But what did Harry see in her? He'd hardly written to her from the Dursley's over the summer, and on the first day back, he'd gotten a quick snog, then left to go hang out with his friends. She sighed, slumping her shoulders a bit, before heading out to the Quidditch pitch.
After eating a quick dinner with Amy, Ron said he had to go upstairs to catch up on some sleep. He kissed her goodnight by the Ravenclaw portrait hole and saw her inside, but instead of going to Gryffindor tower, he went out to the Quidditch pitch. He was kind of surprised to see somebody was already there, flying around and throwing a Quaffle as far as she could, then zooming after it to catch it.
"You're getting better." He yelled up at the figure. Hermione swung her broom around and laughed when she saw Ron on the field below her.
"Hey, where's Amy?" She said as she landed.
"Common room…" He said awkwardly. "You looked really good up there. I guess giving you that broom was a pretty good idea."
"Yeah, since I left Headquarters, I've been practicing every day." She said, and he noticed, even in the fading sunlight that her face was flushed and her eyes shining.
"Well you look good." Ron said clumsily. There was an awkward silence for a moment or two before Hermione shrugged and threw her leg over the broom once again, hovering about a foot off the field. She hesitated for a moment before reaching her hand down to Ron.
"You want to go for a ride?" He laughed and waved her off, but she stuck her hand out again. "C'mon, it'll be fun." So he shrugged and took her hand, hoisting himself onto the broom behind her. He put his arms around her small waist and held on tight as they zoomed up above the Quidditch field.