So, you all probably want to hunt me down with pitch forks for the long wait; but I have a couple good excuses: I got a new job for one, and I've been keeping pretty busy with that. Another one, I've been sucked in by the anime/manga known as Naruto and I love it. It took a long time to watch 126 episodes. On the brighter side, I'm planning a crossover between our beloved Harry Potter and said Naruto (for those who know what I'm talking about, the similarities between Orochimaru and Voldemort are many and pretty obvious. For example: their snake fetish). Anywho, I plan to add more onto this chapter in a few days. And I'm not abandoning this story, I promise! So relax my pretties, and read on. (thanks for the reviews, too)

Hermione jotted notes randomly into her homework planner, her focus on some point on the edge of her parchment. Crookshanks crawled into her lap, obscuring most of her parchment. She abandoned her attempt at homework and settled for petting the fury ginger ball. She doodled over her notes.

The sun was setting brilliantly outside, turning the sky pink, orange and deeper shades of blue. The beauty was lost on her as her thoughts chased each other in circles.

One thought was of nothing unusual; it was of Wizards and Muggles, Voldemort, and Hogwarts.

And thinking of her school and the Dark Lord made her think of Harry, of his duties and his powers…

Naturally, when you got Harry, you got Ron.

Then Hermione had forced herself to admit the whole, devastating truth: she likes Ron Weasley.

The likes kind of likes, as some girls would put it. And the reason why evaded her still. Ron was lazy, sloppy, rash, occasionally dull, insensitive, jealous, shallow…

And she felt this glaring, incredibly strong chemistry towards him. She couldn't explain it. At all.

Still, that didn't make her immune to the butterflies that attacked her stomach when she thought about it, or for the blush to sweep over her cheeks when she thought about the two spare kisses they had shared. Nor did it do anything to stop the feeling of dread, when she thought of what Ron's feeling were towards her.

No matter, she told herself, I can get over something like this little infatuation. But she didn't really want to do that. She still didn't want to do it, when she told herself that they couldn't afford the distraction when a crazed wizard was out to kill them…actually, that just gave her more reasons to have these feelings, and maybe possibly a relationship…

So absorbed in her feelings she didn't notice she had a visitor…

Ron (here she mentally kicked herself for feeling butterflies again) sat down on the other edge of the couch, not meeting her eyes. He looked rather gloomy. Hermione couldn't blame him. She wasn't exactly having a picnic herself. Ron cleared his throat. The oppressive silence made it sound louder than it probably was. "So…" he said gruffly.

"So…" she replied, wanting to make it sound like a question but restraining herself from being impatient with him.

She chanced a glance at him. He was BLUSHING! Her inner voice gave a triumphant hoot. He was as nervous as she was. She realized that she was grinning.

Ron had noticed. "What?" he asked, slightly wary.

Oh Hell, she thought to herself. You only live once. And it's funny to see him blush.

"You're cute." She told him, still grinning. He blinked in a sort of surprised comical way and his blush met up with the roots of his hair. "Oh," he replied in a strangled voice. She leaned back in her chair and resumed her doodles.

A cool pressure on her hand started her a bit. She looked down to see Ron's fingers timidly curling around her own. Her heart and stomach were doing the jumping jacks. She adjusted her fingers so he could hold her hand comfortably.

The silence wasn't so oppressive anymore.

Just a couple days, and I'll finally have the good stuff between Harry and Luna; Snape running around in his dress and Draco angst up. So please don't yell at me:(

And because I'm crazy, I'm writing a (cackles madly) KakashiXSasuke (yesh, its Naruto and you read the coupling right) fic. Won't be on (not fer kiddies), but give me a yell if you want to read it and I'll tell you where it is as soon as I know that.