Hermione quickly walked back inside the casle. She looked around to see if she saw any sight of Ron. No sign.

"Darn," she mumbled to herself. She looked into the Great Hall, didn't see him. She ran up the Entrance Hall steps. No sign. She sighed and continued to walk up the Grand Staircase to find, yet another, no sign of him at all. She scowled and turned the other way when she ran into Malfoy.

"Watch where your going, Mudblood!" he snarled over at her.

"Oh, shove it, Malfoy." she snapped. "I don't have time for your antics..." she mumbled.

Malfoy was about to shoot back a response but he stared at the sweater. "That's Weasley's sweater, isn't it?" he asked.

Hermione looked down and frowned. She had forgotten to take it off. "Your point?" she asked, calmly, looking back up at him.

"You two aren't... Dating are you?" he asked.

"No.." she replied, turning red in the cheeks.

"Hmm... Where is the weasel, anyway?"

"No idea... I'm looking for him," said Hermione.

"Mmm hmm..." said Malfoy, cracking a smile.

"What?" snapped Hermione.

"Oh nothing, good day, Granger." he said, as he departed her company.

Oh no... Thought Hermione. If Malfoy opens his big mouth, I'm done for....

Hermione scowled and continued up the steps. It was no use. She didn't see any sign of Ron anywhere. She decided to walk over to the common room, maybe he was in there.

Hermione entered the common room, her eyes falling. She was rather tired for some reason. She yawned lightly and plopped herself down on the couch.

"Hermione!" said Harry's voice.

"Hmm?" she asked, blinking her eyes open.

"Have you seen... Why are you wearing Ron's sweater?" he asked, curiously.

"Ugh!" she growled. She stood up and stomped up to her dormitory not wanting to be bothered with anyone else.

Harry blinked as he heard the door slam shut from upstairs. "Sorry I asked..." he said, shrugging to himself.

Ron hurried in the common room, and looked around it, frantically. "Seen Hermione?" he asked, looking over at Harry.

"She has your sweater," said Harry.

"That doesn't tell me where she is, though. I looked back outside, and she was gone. I knew I shouldn't have gone into the Great Hall for a snack."

"You know she has your sweater, right?"

"Yes! I gave it to her."

Harry stared blankly at his friend. "Why?" he asked.

"She was cold, Harry... It's rather cold, you said so yourself."

"But... Why'd you give her your sweater?"

"Why not?"

"Because you don't do that..." said Harry.

Ron rolled his eyes. "One nice gesture and everyone thinks I'm in love," he remarked, walking over to the boys dorm.

"Are you?" asked Harry.

"No. Hermione's just a friend," said Ron, matter of factly. "You know that."

"Do I?" questioned Harry, with a smirk.

"Urgh..." groaned Ron, as he walked towards the boy dorm's.

"I feel so left out of the circle," said Harry, shaking his head.

Harry was about to go to the dorms, to join Ron and tease him a little more, but he heard something that grabbed his interest.

Lavender Brown and Pavarti Patil had just walked inside thecommon room.

"I heard it straight from Pansy Parkingson, not that she's a reliable source, but she knows couples, and they are the new couple," said Pavarti, nodding her head.

"I knew they've always liked each other! Granger just always had to hide it. You could see it whenever she had defenses for every little thing!"

"Exactly. Seamus says Ron's that way too whenever him and Dean tease him about it. He gets all defensive and his ears turn pink!"

"Oh that's adorable!" shrieked Lavender.

"Isn't it? Just thinking about it, makes me want Ron for myself!" said Pavarti, giggling.

Harry stared at the girls, with an eyebrow raised. He cleared his throat, and started to walk off when--

"Oh Harry!" called Lavender. "Tell me, has Ron and Hermione been acting weird lately?"

"You can say that," said Harry, shaking his head.

"Oh! Was that whole sweater bidtrue?" asked Pavarti.

"You mean, Ron giving one of his sweaters to Hermione? Yeah..." answered Harry.

"Ooh!" the girls squeeled.

"This is too cute," said Pavarti. "We must talk to Ginny, later."

"Yes!Ask her about Ron.... But for now, let's check the dorms for Hermione!" Lavender suggested.

"Okay! Harry, d'you think you can talk to Ron, for us?"

"Not for you, really. But I'm going to for myself," said Harry, continuing up the steps.

"Party pooper..." scowled Pavarti.

------

"Come on, Hermione! You can tell us!"

"No! I don't!He's a friend, that's all there is to it!" shouted Hermione.

"What's this?" asked Lavender, grabbing the sweater off her bed.

"Give that back!" snapped Hermione, running over to her.

"Nope! This is evidence!" said Pavarti.

Hermione frowned and snatched it from her grasp. "Little twit. Now, snoop through my stuff, I'll have your head."

"No fun!" whined Lavender.

"Well, it's not fair... Your all accusing me of having feelings or someone who's a mere friend."

"That's what you want us to think," said Pavarti, nodding her head.

"Get a life! Just because yours isn't interesting, I see no reason for you to get involved with mine," stated Hermione.

Lavender and Pavarti shrugged.

"But it's what we do," remarked Lavender.

Hermione rolled her eyes and left the Girl's dorm. "I have no time for those two prats." She frowned at the sweater in her left hand. "You are causing me so much trouble, it's not even funny," she said, to herself.

She walked through the common room and decided she would take a much needed trip to the library. Hopefully there was a book on how to get guys off your case.

Just as Hermione departed the common room, Harry and Ron entered it from the boy's dorms.

"For once, Harry, mind your own business!" shouted Ron.

"For once, Harry?" repeated Harry, astounded. "Excuse you, but I think you and Hermione would be the ones who are always in my business."

"Still..." said Ron, sighing. "Why would I lie to you?"

"Because you don't want it out?"

"Really... I don't," said Ron, scowling.

"All right, I won't say another word of it. But I'm not saying that no one else, will."

"What'd you mean?" asked Ron, in a panicked tone.

"Lavender and Pavarti were talking about you and Hermione, not so long ago," said Harry.

"Oh gawd, that means the whole school must know about that damn sweater." said Ron."See? There is a reason to not like maroon!" he shouted.

"Calm down. It's probably going to be a subject for a week, by the time Christmas comes, I'm sure it'll be done."

"Harry, Christmas is in five days..."

"Well, then, you better hurry and prove to them all that you don't like her; She's just a friend."

"My history with me and her is against me, though."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Everyone knows that little quarell we had when she went to the Yule Ball with Krum and I got annoyed and she blew up and made the whole deal that she shouldn't have been a last resort to the ball... Blah, blah, blah..."

"Oh yeah. They do know about that...."

"If it weren't for Neville, who had overheard us recalling that event," said Ron, scowling.

"No worries, I doubt this will be a big deal, nothing to worry about," said Harry.

"Whatever," said Ron. "I'll be back in an hour, I'm going patrolling for a while, it'll give me something to do."

"Right then, see you." said Harry, sitting down in a chair.

"See ya," said Ron, walking out of the common room.

----

Ron was patrolling for about a half an hour so far. He sighed as he strolled the fourth floor. He had seen someone walking over his way and sighed with relief when he realized it was Ginny.

"Ginny, what're you doing here?" he asked.

"Oh, hello, Ron! Nothing, walking... Your patrolling, I assume?"

"Yeah," he answered.

"Sounds exciting. Where's Hermione?"

"Don't want to know," he answered, frowning.

"Got into another fight?" she asked, giggling.

"No, everyone just think's we fancy each other... It's annoying."

Ginny laughed. "Ron! You just realized that people think that?"

"No, it's just now they're making a big deal out of it."

"Oh, sorry. Well,I best be off. See you, then."

"Bye," he said, continuing to walk down the hall.

Ron felt like hitting something. He didn't want Hermione thinking that he had feelings for her. Hell, he didn't even want to think about Hermione having feelings for him. Although, when he had heard that from Seamus, he did feel a little better about himself. But he wasn't sure how he felt about Hermione, anymore. It was complicated. But now, whenever he did something nice, people thought it was because he liked her. This would be hard. If he started to give her a silent treatment then they would be positive that he liked her. Which wasn't true! For the moment at least.

"Hey! Weasley! Spider on your back!"

"WHAT?" he yelled, he dropped himself on the floor and rolled around. "Where's the little bastard?"

Malfoy doubled over from laughing. "Oh my gawd! That was priceless!That will never get old!"

Ron glared and stood up. "Funny, Malfoy. Real funny. If had known it was you, I wouldn't have done this."

"Sure you wouldn't have." said Malfoy, standing up. "Anyway, now that I have gotten your attention... I heard you and Granger are... An item,"

"Who told you that?"

"Granger," said Malfoy.

"What?" Ron asked, raising an eyebrow. "When?"

"In the library about ten minutes ago."

"Well, it isn't true."

"But she wants it to be..." said Malfoy, smirking. He then continued down the corridor and leaving Ron by himself.

"Me and that girl need to have a serious talk..."

Ooh... Beautiful ending. xD

Thank you for all who reviewed! It means a lot to me, thanks!

Well, ish gonna go now, thanks for reading and Merry Christmas and whatnot. xDD ;

Luv yas,

Vikki

Oh yes... Review!