In Which Hermione is Lonely.
Hermione was lonely. She now knew what it was like for Harry when her and Ron first got together at the start of the year, although maybe that was a bit much. Harry had used that time to get closer to Ginny, after all.
Ron was in detention every afternoon, and Harry and Ginny were off falling in love, so that just left Hermione to her studies. The only problem was that she was always on top of her work, and she was running out of books to read, as you're only allowed to check out twenty books per week from the library!
'Oh well, it could have been worse,' as Hermione sat beside the roaring fire in the common room, she thought back to when Snape had caught up with Ron.
After Crabbe and Goyle had found him, and told him what had happened, Snape went down to where Malfoy, or what was barely recognisable as Malfoy, was still laying in shock, and took him to the hospital wing. Then, as fast as he could get away from Madam Pomphrey, he'd rushed to find Ron, eager to be the one to get him expelled.
When Hermione, Ron, Harry and Ginny had come face to face with him in the Entrance Hall, he was white with rage. He shouted at them about thinking they were better than everyone, and thinking they could hex people whenever they felt like it. For an instant, Hermione was afraid that he was about to hex them. Ron stepped forward and admitted it was all him, but that couldn't deter Snape from taking 200 points from Gryffindor.
The shouts of indignation brought out most people from the Great Hall, and Professor McGonnagal down from her office. She almost had to pull rank and order Snape to bring them to her office so she could over see punishment, as "the four of them are all in Gryffindor house."
Once in McGonagall's office, and she had been filled in on what happened, they were shouted at by a new person, a "deeply disappointed" person. "Ronald Weasley, you should think yourself lucky that you're not packing you bags right now," McGonnagal said through a white line barely recognisable a lips. Snape looked startled. Noticing this she elaborated "Mr. Malfoy has never been blameless in situations such as this. You shall have detentions every afternoon until the Christmas break."
Ron looked horrified at this, but at least he wasn't expelled. The others didn't receive detention as they hadn't done any of the hexing. Snape looked disappointed at the fact that Ron wasn't expelled, though they thought he'd cheer up knowing that he'd left Gryffindor with only 35 points.
Luckily Ron's detentions didn't include weekends, though the only time Hermione got to spend with him on those was when she was helping him catch up on his mounds of homework and assignments. When he wasn't doing this, in class, or in detention, he was either at Quidditch practice or sleeping.
Gryffindor's team had to change Quidditch practice to Saturday and Sunday afternoons to accommodate for their keeper's detentions. No one minded too much, as they were still treating Ron as a bit of a hero for giving Malfoy what was coming to him, although they were a bit upset about the house points, but that was mainly directed at Snape.
The constant separation was hard on Hermione, but a thousand times harder on Ron when combined with all the stress he was under.
'Thank goodness that tonight's his last detention,' thought Hermione, as she awaited Ron's return, continually glancing at the portrait hole. The next day was the start of Christmas break, and the first day that the young couple could get their relationship back on track.