Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling is still cooler than me….

Hogwarts Express

Ron sat in a compartment on the Hogwarts Express. He sat with his two best friends, who I'm sure you already know are Harry Potter and Hermione Granger. He was sitting alone on his side of the compartment, and Harry was directly in front of his. Hermione was settled next to Harry.

"How was your holiday, Ron?" came Hermione's voice, breaking the awkward silence.

"Er…it was alright, I s'pose." His ears turned red. "No need to ask how yours was, Harry. By your letters I can guess how dreadful it must've been." Ron hoped that if he kept his attention set on Harry, he wouldn't be so nervous. Hermione wouldn't notice if he ignored her a bit. She already thought that he hated her. Or so Ron thought…

Pigwidgeon fluttered around in his cage joyfully above Ron's head. He was flying in circles as fast as his wings would carry him, and was hooting happily. Hedwig sat perfectly still, and as straight as her back would allow. She glared t the small bird, the turned around so her back was facing him.

Ron looked up and frowned. 'Not now, Pig, please!' He stood up on his seat so he was at eye-level with his owl.

"Pig!" He shouted, "Shut up, you rutty bird! Can't you do anything besides squawk!" Pig stopped flying, sat on his perch and looked at Ron. "Thank you." Pig hooted happily, and tucked his head under his wing. Ron jumped down from his seat and plopped into it. "I hate that thing…" He said.

"Oh, no you don't. If you really hated him, you wouldn't still have him." said Hermione.

"Shut up, 'Mione. You're no help." Ron looked up, noticing the lady with the cart had just rolled by. "Aw, bloody hell!" He stood up, slid open the compartment door, and ran after the lady.

Hermione and Harry looked at each other, shaking their heads.

"He's mad. All he cares about is food. You'd think he would respect us a little more." Hermione stood up and poked her head out of the door. "Ron! I want a cauldron cake! And Harry wants a pumpkin pasty!"

"I never said I wanted anything, Hermione. Ron doesn't have to buy me anything; I've got enough money to buy myself a pumpkin pasty."

"Oh, stop it. He's your best friend. He'll be delighted to get you something."

"What about you? Is he delighted to get you something?"

"…No." Harry raised an eyebrow. Ron had told him in a letter his feelings about Hermione, so he knew he would be more than happy to buy her a cauldron cake.

"Somehow, I think he'll buy you more than what you want."

"Why would he do that?" Harry shrugged. Ron came back into the compartment, sliding it closed with his foot once he was inside. He dropped all his sweets onto the seat across from Hermione. Sitting down in his place, he handed Harry his pumpkin pasty, and Hermione her cauldron cake.

"Thank you, Ron." Hermione said. She looked at Harry and raised her eyebrows. Harry shrugged.

"No problem. Er…you're welcome." He added. He certainly didn't want to start off his year at Hogwarts with Hermione thinking he was rude, as she had always thought.

The three sat there eating, talking, and laughing for about an hour until Harry excused himself, muttering something about the bathroom. Hermione was looking out the window, watching as the mountains rolled by. Ron was absentmindedly staring at Hermione. He opened his mouth to speak when out of the corner of his eye he saw that the lady with the cart had returned, this time serving lunch instead of snacks. Ron insisted on buying Hermione her lunch as well, but she refused and bought herself a sandwich.

By the time Harry returned to the compartment, nearly forty-five minutes had passed. Ron and Hermione had finished eating, and were now talking about Ron's hair. Hermione insisted that he cut it, but Ron refused, defending himself by saying "What's it to you what I look like? I like my hair this length, and if you've got a problem with it, then too bad." He knew this was rude, of course, but he loved the way his hair looked. 'Not exactly starting out good, but why's she so concerned?'

"I just want you to look nice, Ron. This is your sixth year at Hogwarts. You're growing up, you're very handsome, and if some girl were interested in you, she definitely wouldn't want your hair to be as long as hers."

"My hair is not as long as a girl's." At this point, Harry had walked in and taken his seat next to Hermione. "Harry, is my hair as long as a girl's hair?"

"Some of them," Harry pointed out, examining his best mate's shoulder-length hair. Hermione sighed.

"Look, you don't have to get all upset about it, Ron. You're right, it's your hair, and if you like it like that, then keep it that way." Hermione said, noticing the sad look that was shading over Ron's handsome face.

"Yeah, whatever," said the redhead, "It isn't like there's any girl out there that's interested in me, anyway. Unless you know something that I don't, Herms."

"Don't call me that. I don't know of any girls that fancy you, but not many have seen you yet, have they?" She smiled.

"Are you saying that I'm a sexy beast that women can't resist?" Ron said, grinning mischievously. Harry choked on his lunch, laughing, and Hermione frowned at Ron.

"That isn't what I said. I meant that you look far better than you did last year, and now that we're all more mature, girls are going to start thinking differently about you."

Ron opened his mouth to speak, but Harry interrupted. "If you two will stop flirting, then I would be very happy to explain why I was gone so long." The two stopped their bickering, ignored the part about flirting (which made Ron's stomach turn), and drew their attention towards Harry.

"Thank you. Now, first things first, I want the two of you to know that I did not spend three quarters of an hour in the loo." Ron grinned. "Instead, I was having a lovely time lecturing Malfoy on 'Clean and Clear'." Hermione laughed, but Ron looked puzzled.

"What's 'Clean and Clear'?"

"Well, Dudley had to use it on his backside because the fat lard did nothing but sit around, causing his fat arse to get all sweaty, and break out into a horrible case of acne, and also a reasonable amount of pain whenever he did manage to sit down again. Malfoy, however, got the zits all over his face, and looks much like a bee stung him over and over again. He claims he's done everything he can to get rid of them, but being who he is, he refuses to use muggle products, and so he suffers greatly."

By this time Ron was cracking up, and Hermione was stifling her fit of giggles into her robes, which she had pulled out of her trunk. When she had regained sanity, she suggested that they get changed. The other two agreed, and they got their own robes out, headed separate ways, and the rest of the train ride was mostly talking, laughing, visiting with other friends, and of course a little bit of something else.

Flirting.

A/N: I was going to make this longer, which is why I took forever to post this. I wrote it in a composition notebook, and thought I was going to put the Sorting in here as well, but after much contemplating, I realized that there isn't much that can happen during the Sorting, and so it would be rather boring. Sure, they could pull each other into a corner and eat each others faces (not literally), but that's a bit too fast for them, and I want this to go smoothly. Not like some stories in which it's like.

"Nice to see you again, Hermione. I totally want you." ATTACK

No. Not me…Well, sometimes me, but not for this story. ANYWAY, that was it, so review now! Terrible? Okay? Sucked? Desperate for more? I wanna know! hugsluvskisses

Thanks to those who reviewed chapter 1:

The Lady Luthien

Meredith A. Jones

Naska