Contemplating Confusion

by ©SimbiAni™ and SweetieK

Summary: A joint effort between two dream-dazed fans, one who cant get enough sappiness, and one who has a tendency to surround herself in drama. In this episode of our adventures, Hermione realizes she has a crush on both Ron and Harry. How will she come to terms with this new issue, and who will she choose? No specific year, and complete AU.

Warnings: This fic is not to be taken seriously. It is the result of a non-HP-writing fan (well, who admittedly dreams HP though) reluctantly bribed into RP-ing HP with a drama princess. Although this has been edited to fic form (meaning, minus all the zany chat in between each other's posts), you must still expect to encounter lots of randomness, sillyness, grammatical errors, repetitiveness, loss of sense of time, probly OoC-ness too, and extreme lack of plot. Once more, this fic is here purely for your amusement. You have been warned. Enjoy! Hopefully it brings a smile to your face, hehehe...

Chapter One:

An Intriguing Evening

(text missing)

"...ll say that next match when I get the Snitch. Oh, and Weasel, practice flexibility to turn into a hoop," Malfoy muttered, going back to the Slytherin table and sitting down.

Harry and Ron once again were grinning at Hermione's defense.

"Good going, 'Mione, you told him..." congratulated Ron.

She blushed, finding that she rather liked having them be so proud of her...

Harry gave her a nod when she glanced over at him to see his reaction too. "Yea, good show, Hermione..."

Ron was scribbling something on a piece of paper.

Harry peered over and inquired. "What're you doing, Ron?"

"Oh just-" he quickly pocketed the paper. "-Was writing down something so as not to forget it later, um, yeah..."

Harry shrugged. "Ready to go, 'Mione?"

She nodded. "Go where?" she asked, becoming a bit distracted, glaring at Draco. Her attention turned back to the two in front of her.

Harry had caught her gaze and then even as she turned to look at him, he saw Draco looking at her.

Then, Draco noticed Harry noticing, and quickly turned away.

This caused Harry's face to scrinch into one of his (classic) confused looks which Hermione saw right away and paused in her walking to tug at his sleeve.

Ron was already way ahead of them.

Hermione laughed when Harry hadn't replied. "And Ron said I was distracted. What's up with you?" she asked, starting to walk a bit faster.

"What's up with me? Oh nothing; nothing 'Mione, I'm fine.." he nodded quickly to convince her.

She raised an eyebrow at him in suspicion, then laughed. "Well, if you say you are.."

Harry smiled, and put his hand around her shoulders as they walked, and it was all she could do to not faint right there!

Ron looked back at them and called, "Walk quickly, gotta get our fave corner seats in the common room, you know!"

Then he saw the gesture Harry had done, and wondered why he suddenly felt weird about it...

Hermione sped up a bit, going back to biting her bottom lip. She felt about as odd as Ron seemed to about Harry's gesture.

She reached the Common Room with the others and sat down the closest to the fire, suddenly feeling cold.

Harry gave her a questioning look. "Aren't you sitting with us?"

Ron, already over in their corner, and having claimed his personal favorite seat, gave a c'mon wave.

Harry stood next to the chair Hermione had plunked into, and wait for an answer, worriedly.

Hermione nodded. "Yeah.. just warming up a bit." she said. Feeling warmer, she walked over and sat right between Harry and Ron in her usual spot.

Ron gave her a big grin. "Comfy now? Got all the books you need at the moment?"

Harry chuckled, and reached into his bag, eager to at least get his remaining homework out of the way so the weekend would be entirely free.

Hermione, being completely finished with homework (some things never change) got a bit more comfortable in the chair. She yawned softly, and leaned her head to the side.

Ron, also not much for change, just didn't feel like doing his homework at the moment, so he was comfortably laid back in his own seat. He grinned to see Harry frowning over some equation or other in the textbook in Harry's lap. Then Ron noticed Hermione seem to be dozing off! And she was leaning toward Harry's side... so for some odd reason, Ron did the only thing he could think of- he sat up and poked her (gently of course, LoL) with a finger.

"'Mione, you're telling me you're absolutely done every bit of homework we've had this week?"

Hermione sat back up straight and yawned softly. "Yup. Every bit. I did extra on all of them, though." she said, changing direction and her head tilting the opposite way. She was nearly falling asleep in the chair.

Harry paused in his studies, and glanced to her. "Perhaps you want to tuck in early tonight, then? Cuz, I don't think you'd fancy sleeping right there..." he chuckled, and Ron did too.

But Ron also reached over to the opposite couch and nabbed a pillow, slipping it deftly behind Hermione's slowly falling form. "Are you comfy now?"

Harry smiled and shook his head. "We can't possibly leave her like this.."

Ron nodded. "Ah, no prob, mate. We'll just stay down here with her.." he said with amusement in his eyes.

Hermione's eyes fluttered closed but she wasn't asleep yet. She was still a little awake. She snuggled more into the pillow, with a small smile on her face. She murmured a thank you, but in a soft voice.

Harry grinned, as did Ron, and Harry went back to his book, while Ron seemed to get comfortable again.

Then Harry noticed Ron still not doing his own homework. "Ron, do we need to remind you, it's a Hogsmeade weekend and if you don't finish- they won't let you come with."

Ron seemed to jump a little at that thought, and suddenly he was rummaging through his own bookbag, and muttering about how he couldn't miss this trip...

Harry smirked. When would Ron learn?

Ginny walked into the Common Room, muttering to herself. "Hi Ron, Hi Harry," she went a bit red when she addressed Harry but hoped he didn't notice.

Harry saw Ginny pass by as she went up for the night, and didn't notice her blush as she said a quick hello to them, only that she hadn't said hi to Hermione. Well no wonder, the way 'Mione's all curled up now, one could hardly noticed she's in that chair, she blends so well... he thought laughingly to himself. Then he put his books aside for a minute, and tugged the chair's comforter up around Hermione so she was more covered and warm.

Ron noticed this and paused, saying "Good idea, Harry..."

Harry sat back down, and continued with his books, yawning also now..

Ginny raised an eyebrow at Harry yawning, then she noticed Hermione. "Want me to get her to bed?" she asked, knowing she could use a feather light spell, carry Hermione to her bed and then take the spell off.

"Huh?" said Harry, once again distracted from his books.

Ron quickly answered. "Um, no, no, it's fine, she said it was only gonna be quick nap- thanks though." he nodded briskly, and made a shoo-ing motion with his hand. "You go on ahead, I'm sure she'll be up soon."

Ginny sniggered, knowing Ron's exact reason. It was very obvious. Who didn't know? Except.. maybe Hermione... "Alright," Ginny said, fighting a smirk. She walked into the girls' dorm. She laid down on her bed and fell asleep.

A few hours later, Harry triumphantly snapped his last textbook closed, having finally finished what was left of his homework.

Ron looked at him in disbelief. "You know what this means, don't you?"

Harry shrugged.

Ron pouted. "It means, it's so late that even if I stayed up later to finish this work, just so I could go, it wouldn't matter becuz then I'd be too tired to go! Bugger!"

Harry sighed. "It's your own fault, you know. Being such a procrastinator and all that."

Ron pouted again. "A procrasta-what? Ugh, nevermind, you guys can go without me, I'm off to bed!" he stormed off to his part of the dorms.

At this statement, Hermione woke from the noise. She knew she had to give both a fair chance. She sleepily went through his bag he had left and pulled out his homework. She pulled out hers and copied it on Ron's but switched some things around. In about 5 minutes, Ron Weasley's homework was finished completely. She put it back in his bag, grinning.

Harry watched her with wide eyes. "What are you doing?" he asked, incredulous. She had never condoned cheating before and he certainly couldn't see no worthy reason for it now. After all, it was only a trip to Hogsmeade that Ron would be missing out on. What was so important about that?

"Something I usually don't," she replied, curling back up. "Well, don't look at me like that, Harry. You cheated and got into Hogsmeade before, he should have a chance, too."

Harry stifled a snicker, and still remained impressed. "Yes, but, whoa. I guess the New You really is going all out, huh? What next, talking back to a teacher?" Harry grinned again. Hermione looked so cute when she was mischievous.. Where did that thought come from?

Hermione laughed. "I dunno if I'll go that far.. but things are changing," she replied, smiling at him. She stretched out in the chair.

"Changing, huh? How so?" Look at the way her hair is falling gently around her shoulders... Huh? This was Hermione he was thinking about! Was he- no! He was not! She was just a friend... his best friend, sure... besides Ron of course... and... She was smiling at him. "What?"

She shrugged. "I dunno. I haven't been feeling like I did in.. I dunno, say, first year? I mean.. then I was more of a... know-it-all. Everything I knew was from books. Now I know more than books. Do you know that besides schoolbooks, I haven't read any in about two or three months?"

Harry looked bewildered. "Really? How is that possible?" he chuckled lightly. "I mean, you love reading books. Have you really found something else so big and more deserving of your attention and concentration that it is delaying your continual absorption of important and random information of all sorts and forms?" When she gave him a funny look, he seemed to blush, and mumbled something about not thinking clearly enough to be speaking understandably...

She laughed softly. "You know what, Harry? You get weirder by the minute. Well, I'm off to bed. Night, Harry," Before she knew it she was kneeling next to his chair and kissing his cheek. "Night," she repeated, walking into the girls' dorm. She laid down and fell asleep, hoping Harry hadn't taken that the wrong way.

Harry sat there, still in his seat, unmoving. Did she just kiss him on the cheek? Sure, it had happened maybe a few times before, but for some odd reason, it felt so much- more- special- tonight... He covered the cheek with his own hand, and pondered the feelings some more. What could this mean?

RP Disclaimer: Hermione is all SweetieK. Harry and Ron though, are SimbiAni's sappy expressions. Other chars' usage are varied, depending on whose RP turn it was, hehe.

Movie/Book Disclaimer: JKR and WB etc own the books and movies. I make no money off this zany sappiness, none at all. Honestly.