Thank you so much for all the great reviews. I'm glad to see people interested in this story. Enjoy the next part.

Part 1: Routines

"Hermione, I just want to know what you said!"

"Why? Why does it matter?" I ask in frustration.

"Because you're my friend. I want to know what's going on with you."

"What's going on with me does not include you knowing all the ins and outs of my private life! I don't have to tell you everything..."

"But that's what best friends do!" he argues. His face is red from shouting, his hair mussed from the many times he's run his fingers through it in frustration. It actually looks kind of cute... Woah Hermione! Now is not the time to go there.

"Ron, can you honestly say that you tell me everything

Silence is my only answer.

"Maybe I should go talk to Harry..."

"No," he cut me off sharply, and a wry grin took over my face. I knew it!

"See. We all have our secrets. Now if I say it's none of your business, then it's none of your business. Besides, you could go find this one out on your own if you asked the right people."

"Well if I could just figure it out on my own, why don't you just tell me?"

"That's not the point..."

"Right. The point is, as your best friend I think I have the right to know when you're dating someone."

"No, the point is keeping your big nose out of my business. And yes, I will tell you when I start dating someone, but that doesn't mean I have to tell you about every boy that I turn down."

His face suddenly changes tone, the angry expression being replaced with a triumphant grin. "So you did turn him down then?"

I scoff, not believing what I'd let slip. "You're impossible," I say for lack of anything else.

"Good. He wasn't good enough for you anyway."

"Yeah, and who are you to decide that?" I ask in indignation. Where does he get this stuff?

"Your best friend, that's who."

"Yeah, well Harry's my best friend too and I don't see him trying to butt into my private life."

"Well..." he hesitates for a moment, and I almost thought I had him, when, "Harry has other things on his mind."

I can't deny the truth of that statement. But he's still putting his nose where it doesn't belong. Tiredly, I ask. "Why do you care who I go out with anyway?"

He's silent for a while, looking at his feet as if they hold all the answers. "I don't know. I just do."

I sigh. "Well, I just don't think that's good enough." My anger starts getting the better of me once again. "And unless you're ready to spill all your deep dark secrets, don't expect me to be so willing with mine."

"This wasn't a secret. You said so yourself," he replies calmly. "I could have gotten it from anyone."

"They why didn't you?" I ask, infuriated once again. He has such a way of doing that.

"Cause you're gorgeous when you're angry," he says, without hesitation.

"What?" I ask. I must be hearing things.

"I said, you're gorgeous when you're angry," he repeats, a smug smile crossing his lips as he takes a step towards me.

The statement is so unexpected, I feel like the wind is physically knocked out of me. He takes another step closer, and I take a step back, not sure where his comment is leading.

"Your face gets all red and flushed, and your chest heaves with the strength of your shouting...and you get this fire in your eyes. This fire that I love seeing...just like it is whenever you're really passionate about something. It's one of the reasons I love fighting with you."

He continues to take steps toward me, and I continue to step back until I find myself backed up against the wall. I feel like a deer caught in the headlights, as they say. There we were, having one of our normal arguments...this I was unprepared for. I don't know what to do with this.

"That and because I get insanely jealous just thinking about you being with anyone but me," he finishes.

"What...what do you mean?" I found myself asking timidly, and I find it hard to believe that's really my voice coming out. That's not the voice of seventeen year old, head girl Hermione Granger coming out, who's faced nameless enemies from giant snakes to Voldemort. No, this was someone else. Someone who for the first time really didn't know what she was doing. I've lost control.

"I mean, that I like you Hermione. I mean, really like you. You're all I've thought about for years now. All I've dreamed about."

And then his lips descended on mine, in a hard and passionate kiss that leaves my insides tingling. It takes a while for me to respond, but soon I've opened up to him, letting his tongue tangle with mine and kissing him back just as passionately. It's better than all my dreams and so much more.

My hands move to play with the hair at the nape of his neck as his start to wind around my waist, grabbing me tighter. I've waited seven years for this...

Beep...beep...beep

My eyes open, and my hand juts out to shut off my alarm. I take stalk of where I am and find myself sitting up in bed, alone, in my private room.

I flop back down on the bed haphazardly. Sometimes I hate the morning.

Considering it's a Saturday there aren't many people in the Great Hall when I go down for breakfast, which I really don't mind. I like having the time to myself sometimes; especially when I have a lot of things on my mind.

After eating breakfast I go up to the library with the pretense of studying, but even I can admit that mostly I'm just hiding. I really don't feel like seeing Ron right now, or anyone. That dream last night really threw me for a loop. The dream argument was so real...so much like the argument we had last night, though it ended in a much different way.

Being a Saturday, I don't really have to worry about being intruded on until later this afternoon. Both Ron and Harry will be at Quidditch practice until then.

"So this is where you've been hiding."

Looks like I spoke too soon. "Who says I've been hiding?"

"Well, the fact that I haven't seen you all day tells me as much," Harry replies smartly.

"That's not that uncommon..." I start, but he cuts me off.

"And that you and Ron had another row last night."

"Aren't you supposed to be at Quidditch practice?"

"I ended it early. And stop trying to change the subject. Nice try though. So what is it this time?"

"I'm sure Ron has already told you all about it."

"When Ron tells me about your fights, he tends to cut out the part of it that was his fault, which is what usually starts them. All he told me was that you were accusing him of not giving you any privacy."

I laugh. "In a manner of speaking...he found out somewhere that Justin asked me out and he wanted to know what my answer was. And I told him to keep his nose out of my private life."

Harry sighed. "Would it have been so hard to just tell him you said no?"

"No, but that's not the point. The point is it wasn't his business."

"You know why he does this. He just..."

"Yes, I know," I say cutting him off. I've heard this speech too many times before...from all the other times Harry has tried to be the bringer of peace between us. "I know he's just jealous. I know that and you know that, but until he knows that, I'm not just going to feed his troubled mind. It's my life and my business, and until he presents himself to me as more than a friend, it isn't his."

"Listen to yourself!" he says exasperatedly. "Why don't you just tell him how you feel?"

"Because he'll probably just laugh in my face."

"No he won't," Harry says calmly.

"How do you know? Harry, he hasn't made any move to show me that he likes me other than his jealous rampages. He still makes fun of me, he still picks fights with me, and he still purposely tries to annoy the hell out of me, just for fun. He's just...he's not ready to know how I feel."

"Maybe he's not ready, but it will get him ready. It'll make him think, make him realize. He wouldn't laugh...he actually probably wouldn't say much at all. But this is just going to go on forever if you don't say something..."

"No Harry, I'm not telling him," I say adamantly, so he knows that I'm serious.

He sighed, but seemed to drop the subject, at least for now. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay. Ron said that you walked out in the middle of your argument, something you don't usually do until you proved your point, and he found that...odd to say the least."

"So you're checking up on me, because he's worried about me huh?" I say, somewhat bitterly. "Why doesn't he just come check on me himself?"

"Cause he assumed that you didn't want to see him, since you seemed to have disappeared this morning."

A guilty look crosses my face as I realize what he probably thought. He must think I hate him after walking out like that.

"I was just tired of it," I say, the tone of my voice letting known exactly what I'm feeling. "We fight so much that some times it just gets to the point where I can't take it anymore."

It wasn't until Harry had his arms around me that I realized there were tears in my eyes. I cried into his shoulder a little longer then I meant to, the combination of everything of the last few days coming out of me. It wasn't until I had stopped the flow of tears and the quiet sniffling that I even realized someone else was in the room.

"Hermione, are you okay?" Ron asked tentatively, only stepping forward slightly, probably afraid of hearing another one of my tirades. Not a hint of anger or jealousy is in his eyes, only concern. Harry is the only one Ron will let get this close to me without making a scene.

"I'm fine," I reply, rubbing the tears from my eyes frantically. I won't let him see me cry! "Just a little stressed."

He doesn't look convinced, but he doesn't question me either. "I'm sorry for pestering you about Justin. It was none of my business anyway."

I smile, though a part of me knows Harry told him to say that. "So who told you I turned him down?" I ask knowingly. Ron wouldn't let this go unless he'd gotten his answer.

"Harry," he said, giving me that cute little lopsided grin that starts the butterflies in my stomach on a rampage.

I give Harry a glare, though it's only half-hearted. I part of me just wanted this to be over anyway.

"Hey, don't look at me like that. He asked me before I knew you guys were fighting over it."

"Please don't try to tell me you couldn't hear us," I say skeptically. I hate to admit it, but I am well aware of the fact that mine and Ron's arguments tend to resonate throughout Gryffindor tower.

"Oh I could hear it all right. But that doesn't mean that I knew what you were arguing about. I tend not to pay much attention anymore." This, despite everything, causes me to laugh. And it felt so good to feel that...light...like I'm no longer weighted down with everything.

Turning back to Ron, he puts his hand out to mine. "Friends?" he asked, wanting the truce between us as much as I do.

"Friends," I reply, shaking his hand and wishing that hugging him came as easily as hugging Harry did.

But it seems that Ron was already ahead of me as he pulled me into an unexpected hug. He holds me tightly in his arms and all I can think about is how great it is to feel his warmth around me, engulfing me, his strong arms holding me tightly to him, his broad chest under my cheek... Is it getting hot in here, or is it just me?

"I'm sorry about before," he mutters to me quietly.

"I know," I whisper back.

"And I don't know what you were crying about before, but you know you can come to me with anything right? If you need to talk or...whatever."

"Yeah, I know." I say, though inside I know it's not true. I can't come to him with everything...I just can't.

"Good. Cause I hate seeing you cry." I bite my lip trying to keep the next wave of tears from coming. It's the things like this...the little things like this that make me fall head over heels. But they're also the things that make me ache inside...all at the same time.

And that's much how things continued, just as they always had. Ron and I would fight, then make up...we'd fight again, and make up again. Every once and a while we'd have a blazing row, not talk to each other for a day or two...then make up again.

It was normal. It was routine. I like routines. They're something you can depend on, expect. You know that with a routine you won't be surprised with anything that comes along. And in the end, everything will be the same as it always was.

Yeah, I like routines. But I guess everybody needs a change sometimes...