Contemplating Confusion

by ©SimbiAni™ and SweetieK

Summary: A joint effort between two dream-dazed fans, one who can't 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 inbetween 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 Three:

Typical Breakfast

As Harry and Hermione entered the hallway leading to the main hall, they heard a familiar mocking drawl come up behind them.

"Oh look. What do we have here? Dementor-frightened Potty and his Mudblood girlfriend. Where is the Weasel? Or is he with his boyfriend?"

"This is really getting old fast," Hermione muttered, turning on her heel. "You should talk, Malfoy. I honestly don't see any girls surrounding you. Unless you count pug-faced Pansy. And you didn't say 'Dementor-frightened' when you were on your fat arse because of his Patronus. Oh, by the way, I'm not his girlfriend," she added, turning again and walking with Harry, and leaving the stunned Slytherin speechless behind them.

Harry steamed, wondering what reason (besides being a complete arse) would Malfoy have for insinuating Ron would be off with "a boyfriend"... It was so completely asinine and stupid to have been thought of in the first place! Stupid Malfoy... and his ridiculous insults. Then again, Harry realized he should be more worried that Hermione was doing all the talking back lately. Not only was she becoming more (aggressive? assertive? he didn't know which was a safer adjective, heh)- something, but it certainly was making him seem more wimpier in comparison. And altho he usually wouldn't care about appearances and such, it just couldn't stand that Hermione was starting to seem more like his protector, instead of the other way around... No, he'd definitely have to start defending himself when it came to Malfoy and such... Harry followed Hermione, lost in his thoughts.

Hermione always could tell when something was bothering Ron and Harry. They had a certain look on their faces and Harry had that look on his face now. "What's wrong?"

They had arrived at their table.

Harry sat down and shrugged. "Well, um, I don't know how to say this, but..." he sighed. "Could you please stop defending me when it comes to Malfoy? I mean, I can understand wanting to defend your friends, but... it makes me feel so..." he leaned closer to her, so only she would hear. "...weak. And I hate it! I mean, c'mon, me being protected by the cute innocent girl? It's just... weird. Makes me feel all out of sorts... not that I don't appreciate it or anything! Cuz, I do!" he was already babbling like fool- he mentally told his mouth, shut up, shut up, you're sounding worse by the second! It was about five seconds after he went quiet that he realized he'd called her cute. Oops.

Hermione raised an eyebrow then sniggered. "Cute, innocent girl?" she snorted. "I'll let that comment slide, but, Harry, if you hadn't noticed, he said something about Ron and I, too. I can't not stand up for myself. And Ron wasn't even there to defend himself!"

Just then, Ron walked up to them, finally dressed, and constantly checking himself over to make sure he hadn't forgotten anything (nothing like walking in fully dressed and then realizing the one thing you forgot was to take off your bunny slippers... haha). He heard his name mentioned by Hermione, and nodded interestedly. "Oy, what did I not defend myself against?"

Harry nodded towards the Slytherin table. "Who else?"

Ron sat down in a huff. "Pshh, let him say what he wants, there's that 'free speech and all' thing in place, and besides, what's a slimy slug's opinion gonna do to me?" he grinned.

Harry smirked. "You mean, you're not gonna care what he says anymore?"

Hermione was, and looked, truly impressed. "Wow, Ron. Normally you would have said something really mean about him. What's with the change? Oh and just to fill you in, Harry just notified me that he doesn't want to be defended by a 'cute, innocent girl' anymore."

Ron nearly choked on his drink. "You called her cute! What were you thinking? Now she's gonna get all- okay! okay! I won't make a big deal out of that, hehehe... cute... haha... Wait, what exactly did Malicious Malfoy say about me, anyways?"

Harry and Hermione shared a look. Harry squirmed a bit, hesitant to say it. "He insinuated that... you're a poof."

Ron went red for the third time that day. "He said what? Why, I'll ki-" Ron went to stand up from the table and Harry just managed to grab his sleeve and yank him back down.

Hermione stifled giggles. "Oh, Harry, let him!" she said, pure amusement in her eyes. "And if you let him do what he wants I will officially stop defending you." she promised. "And besides, if a fight breaks out, I know great spells. Malfoy won't get out of the Great Hall alive." she grinned. "And another besides, with being a keeper, Ron is much stronger than Malfoy. Seeing all the games Malfoy's missed because of complaining..." she finished, begging Harry to leave Ron alone.

Harry looked at her in shock. "Hermione! I mean, really! Encouraging Ron to get into trouble! What has gotten into you!"

Even Ron look surprised. "You're giving me free reign to beat up Malfoy? Oh yeah, this can only be good..." he went to stand up again, and Harry pulled him down again too.

"No, you don't, Ron! Come to your senses! The trip is in an hour, and we are all going together!"

Ron sat back down and pouted.

Harry shook his head. "Fine, if you run into him in the deserted parts of Hogsmeade, and then he picks a fight with you, then you can have a go at him, okay?"

Ron was cracking up now, for some reason "have a go" didn't sound right at all when they thought about it...

Harry started laughing too.

Hermione, once again, broke into a fit of giggles, drawing Malfoy's attention. For some reason he didn't look as mean, or mad. Especially seeing how, the only time he even addressed her, he called her Mudblood. When her laughter stopped, their gaze met. She rolled her eyes. "I'm gonna go back to the Common Room till its time to go." she suddenly leaned down and whispered in Ron's ear. "Knock him on his arse for me," she said, her breath tickling his ear. She winked and headed back up to the Common Room.

Harry and Ron watched after her dumbfoundedly.

Ron absentmindedly rubbed his ear.

Harry tilted his head. "What did she say?"

Ron looked away from Hermione's retreating figure and to Harry, then mumbled "knockMalfoyonhisarse" briskly, and got up too.

Draco quickly looked back to his food. If he got in a fight (that involved wands, of course) one more time (Professor McGonagall's warning) he would be completely banned from Hogsmeade. But, Weasley on the other hand, would only get a warning. He looked back up to see where the redheaded boy was heading.

Harry jumped up to follow Ron, reaching for his arm to stop him. "Where are you going? You know no one would enjoy it more than I if you were actually scare Malfoy but really, not here! Ron!"

Ron stopped to chuckle at his best friend. Sometimes Harry could get so panicked. "Don't worry, I'm just going to grab my jacket. We're leaving soon right? Besides, its funny enough just seeing Malfoy cowering over there, watching my every move, haha.."

Harry looked in the Slytherin's direction, and chuckled too.

He and Ron headed back to the common room, having finished their breakfast, and wondering where Hermione had run off to.

Hermione walked back from the girls' dorm, grinning. "Sorry, had to find my jacket," she explained, walking down the last step. She sat down with then and placed her jacket in her lap, not putting it on yet.

Ron nodded. "Right then, I got mine, we're all set, eh? Great, let's head off..." he and Harry tugged on their jackets and joined the other students downstairs lining up, homework in hand.

Hermione rolled her eyes. Why carry extra stuff? All the things she took was her wand. Once it was her turn in line, she used Accio to get her homework and handed it to the teacher.

RP Disclaimer: Hermione is all SweetieK, and so is Draco here. 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.

Sweetie13009 : I suck at writing in my opinion LoL

AnyaSimbi : lmao you do not!

Sweetie13009 : thank you.. I guess. but I still don't see what ya mean LoL

AnyaSimbi : haha silly