"Hermione, c'mon, get up!" a voice said.

I knew it was Mrs. Weasley. I groaned and rolled over then sat up, rubbing my eyes.

"C'mon, dear, it's half past eight. We don't want to be late. When you're ready, breakfast is downstairs."

I nodded and yawned. "All right. I'm coming."

I got up, yawning still, and changed into a pair of jeans and red shirt. I threw my Gryffindor robe over my clothes and pinned my Head Girl badge next to the emblem of Gryffindor. I grabbed a brush and ran it through my hair. I then checked and made sure that I wasn't missing anything and that everything was in my trunk. I wondered where Crookshanks was. I walked out of Ginny's room and knocked on the door of Ron's room.

"Go ahead and come in, Hermione," said Harry.

I let myself in and wondered where Ron was. "Good morning, Harry. Where's Ron?"

"He's in the bathroom. He managed the squish Crookshanks when he woke up and the cat scratched him. Oh, and good morning."

"Well, where's Crookshanks?"

"Probably downstairs. He ran out after he scratched Ron."

I smirked. "Oh. I'll be back. Let me go apologize to Ron for Crookshanks." I walked out of his room and to the bathroom. I knocked on the door. "Ron, can I come in? Harry told me about Crookshanks."

"Your damn cat scratched me."

"Look, I'm sorry. You squished him…he doesn't like that."

"Yeah, I figured that out the hard way." The door opened and there was blood dripping from Ron's left cheek.

I giggled.

Ron was dressed in jeans and a blue sweater. He looked so cute. "What's so funny?"

"You, silly."

"Me?"

"The blood running from your face… C'mere." I took his wrist and led him into Ginny's room. I dug into my trunk and found some disinfectant and some bandages – simple Muggle stuff. "Sit down, Ron. Let me help." Of course I could have used magic but Ron had probably never felt the pain of disinfectant. I smirked.

"What is this stuff?" Ron yelped almost throwing down the bottle of disinfectant.

"It's Muggle stuff. It'll help until we get to Hogwarts… Then maybe Madam Pomfrey can do something with your cut." Crookshanks' cuts were never normal because I discovered over the summer that he wasn't just a cat. He was half Kneazle. (A/N: I think I spelled that right.) I grabbed some tissue from Ginny's desk and dampened it with the disinfectant and then began rubbing it on Ron's cheek.

"Ouch!" he yelled, jumping off the bed. "That stuff hurts."

"Heck, Ron, it's supposed too. That's when you know it is working. C'mon, I'm almost done." After a few more seconds of Ron yelping, I covered his face with three bandages. I giggled. He looked so darn cute like that. Bandages, red face, and all.

"Thanks, 'Mione."

"Oh, you're welcome." I put the things back into my trunk.

"Um…Hermione?"

I looked up. "Yes?"

"I want to apologize…for last night. I didn't think that you were actually being serious about being a professor."

"Apology accepted, Ron… It's okay…by the way."

We were silent until Harry entered the room. "Are you two coming to eat or what?"

"Yeah, we're coming," Ron replied and walked to the door. "You coming, Hermione?"

I nodded. "Yes, I'll be there in a minute." The two of them left and I picked up my sleeping bag and rolled up and put it in the corner. I checked my trunk just as Crookshanks walked into the room. I smiled. "There you are, silly cat." I picked him up. "You need to be careful next time. Ron's really sorry for hurting you." Crookshanks looked at me and meowed. "He's sorry and you should be too." I opened his cage and set him in. "Sorry, Crooshanks, but this is your time out for hurting Ron." I walked out of Ginny's room and down to the kitchen.

As usual, the table was crowded with food that was untouched and with people. Fred and George were sitting with Ginny, talking and laughing hysterically while Mrs. Weasley glared from the other side of the table. Mr. Weasley sat at the end of the table talking to Ron and Harry.

"Come and join us, Hermione," Mrs. Weasley said. "We've been waiting for you to come down."

"We've practically starved waiting," Fred said.

"We thought you got lost," George said.

I glared at them as I sat down between Mrs. Weasley and Harry.

----------------------------------------------

It was half past ten when we reached King's Cross Station. We ran between platform nine and three quarters and found ourselves looking once again at the Hogwarts Express. Ron and I bid Harry a goodbye as we crowded onto the train and into the compartment where the other Head Boys and Head Girls were.

"Hermione!" a voice called my name. I turned around. It was Hannah Abbot. "I see you and Ron got badges too."

I smiled. "Yeah."

"Where is Ron?" she asked.

I shrugged my shoulders. "I don't know… He was right behind me…" Then there was a flash of red light from outside the compartment. Ugh… The other Head Boys and Head Girls rushed out of the compartment and I followed quickly. Gosh… It was Malfoy and his cronies Crabbe and Goyle. Malfoy has his wand out, pointed at Harry and I saw Ron lying on floor, obviously hurt and Harry probably saved him. I pushed my way through the crowd of students coming from the other compartments to Harry and Ron. I looked down at Ron. He seemed okay. "Harry!" I cried in a whisper. "What's going on?"

"That does seem to be the question," a voice said from behind. "What is going on?"

I turned around. It was Professor Lupin. I smiled. What is he doing here?

"Go on, everyone," Lupin said, motioning toward the other kids. "There's nothing to see here."

Malfoy stuffed his wand in his pocket and smirked. "Don't think that he can save you." He walked off with his cronies following him.

Lupin went over and helped Ron up, giving him a huge chunk of chocolate to eat. We moved to an empty compartment and sat down.

"What happened?" I asked when we were finally situated.

"It was Malfoy. I hate it when he starts things," Harry said. He said that—"

Before Harry could finish, the compartment door stood open and it was Hannah. "C'mon, you two, we have to go to a separate compartment until the train leaves."

I looked at Ron who had chocolate in his mouth and some smeared on his face. I smiled. "Coming." I stood up and so did Ron.

"See ya, Harry," Ron said, swallowing his chocolate.

We walked out of the compartment. I looked at Ron and giggled.

"What's so funny?" he asked, taking in the last bit of chocolate.

"C'mere." I took my thumb and rubbed the chocolate away, wiping it on his robe.

"Hey! These are clean robes!"

I smiled. "I know but I just couldn't stand that chocolate on your face. Besides you're already too sweet for chocolate." I hurried off to the compartment and noticed Ron smiling sheepishly. Too sweet…