Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Harry Potter characters or any ides portrayed in the Harry Potter books. I make no money off of this and since it isn't showing up on on any of the searches at the moment anyway it isn't like anyone is going to read it anyway. I'm poor. Please don't sue me.

((AN: Oh my gourd! You know how sour skittles are covered in that sour sugar stuff? Well if you get a bag of those things and you notice all of that sugary sour junk that comes off and sits at the bottom whatever you do, do not decide to eat that stuff like you would if they were sour peaches. Oh my gourd…looks for ginger ale cheeks locking up…))

Stop Staring

Hermione and Ron were sitting at a table alone in the library. Harry was off doing another one of his defense against the dark arts classes. This would have normally drawn his two friends in, but they had no idea what it was that they would be doing in defense against the dark arts this year since they had only been to half of their classes for the day. Next was care for magical creatures, and then they finished off the day with some defense against the dark arts training. Right now they were reading up on more of the medical applications of the liver of any rat, specifically albino ones that had been born during a full moon on a leap year. Snape was always vicious with his work assignments.

Ron sighed as he flipped through the book that he had picked out. Rats really weren't the sort of thing that he wanted to talk about ever since the Scabbers incident. Still, not doing things in one of Snape's classes was a good way to fail. Even if he didn't particularly feel comfortable with the whole rat thing, there wasn't all that much that he could do about it. He needed to keep his marks up or there would be problems. With Fred and George skipping out things had gotten tense back at home, and his parents wouldn't settle to have him fail or drop out like his brothers.

"Hermione…do I really need to learn any of this?" Ron continued flipping through the book. He had expected Hermione to snap back almost instantly with some sort of retort about how learning was important that way he could argue the point of learning being important. That was their thing. They would be studying something that he didn't want to learn and he would ask if it was important, she would reply that everything that they learned at Hogwarts was important, and then he would come up with some witty example of something that wasn't. Instead he was answered with silence.

The red haired wizard-in-training looked up to see that Hermione was looking off in another direction. He followed her gaze and found that the source of her distraction was the scarlet haired Blake Allendale boy that had punched Draco the other day. He was polishing one of the tables while Peeves was blowing a raspberry at him. Ron felt a pang of what was probably jealousy burst up within him, but he wasn't quite sure why.

"Hey, Hermione. I think Harry might be making out with Cho at his lessons today." Ron smirked, that was sure to get a reaction out of her.

Hermione stared glassy eyed at Blake, "That's nice Ron…" He had put up with enough of this. He waved his hand in front of her face effectively bringing her back to reality, "I'm sorry, Ron. Were you saying something?"

Ron smirked softly at Hermione, "Stop staring Hermione. I know that it is hard for you to not ogle over the new boy, but we were trying to study here if you remember."

Hermione blushed and frowned as she glared at Ron, "I wasn't ogling over him, Ron! I was just thinking and happened to be looking in his direction."

"Yeah, and that is why you didn't make a fast dash to Harry when I suggested that he could be making out with Cho rather than teaching her how to defend herself against the dark arts." Ron scoffed.

Hermione almost gasped, "Ronald Weasley! I can't believe that you would suggest such an atrocious thing! Harry would never do something like that!"

Ron chuckled softly, "He is only human. I'm only shocked that you didn't defend him when I said it earlier. Kind of proves that you were zoning out while you were ogling Blake over there."

Hermione picked up her book. She was about to throw it at Ron, but he would have somehow interpreted that as to meaning that she really was ogling over the new boy, and she didn't need that kind of talk from Ron. She was already more than a little confused about how she felt about everything that was going on, she didn't need someone else to be second guessing her. She was already second guessing herself enough about what she felt for Harry. This new stranger wasn't helping anything.

"It is just his hair. It gives me the willies." She spoke in a calm voice as she put her book back down on the desk.

"He's just as normal as anyone else that we've met, 'Mione." Ron shrugged softly as he looked over to the guy, "Well with the exception of that sword of his…"

Hermione blushed furiously, "Ron! I don't need to hear about that sort of thing!"

Ron frowned and glared at Hermione, "Hermione, get your mind out of the gutter for a moment. He has this sword, the kind that you hack people in half with…or maybe it's just a sheath or some sort of stick or something, I don't know I've never seen him use it. I don't know if we are allowed to have that kind of thing in the school, but considering the kind of creatures and spells that we work with on a daily basis I don't think it is really that dangerous in comparison."

Hermione frowned slightly. It definitely didn't sound like the sort of thing that someone should have at school, but then again it wasn't like he would actually use it. He was here to learn magic. Then again, why would he bring it to a place like a school unless he had some sort of odd plan to use it. This was very strange indeed. Hermione caught herself staring at him again and quickly averted her gaze back to Ron. She stared at him for a moment like she was waiting for there to be more to the story.

Ron stared back at her. This was the most right that he had felt since he got off the train. Staring into the eyes of Hermione as she stared back into his. He didn't mind staying like that for a nice long time. Harry had absolutely no idea what it was that he was missing. He may have been the boy who lived, but when it came to realizing that there was an amazing girl just waiting in front of his eyes he was a little bit clueless. Ron sighed as he looked down to his books again a light blush creeping into his cheeks.

There was a moment of silence as both of them stared at their books, feeling a little silly about what had just gone on, "Look Hermione. I'll just leave you here to stare at Blake. It isn't like you have any remaining interest in studying for classes."

Hermione stood up suddenly, "Of course I want to study for classes! That is why we came here. Why are you leaving, Ron? You need to get some studying done too!"

Ron stopped walking and looked over his shoulder at Hermione as she stood there almost pleading for him to stay. It made him feel a little better to know that Hermione wanted him to stay, not Harry, not Blake, but him, no matter what the reason was. It was just nice to know that someone wanted him around, especially Hermione. Harry really had no idea what it was that was waiting for him in Hermione…and that was why he had to walk away from her. Hermione was always going to be waiting for Harry, no matter was happened, there would always be that part of her that was waiting to be realized by him.

Chances were that Harry was never going to notice that Hermione was waiting, and that it was him that she was waiting for though. It was better for everyone that he just hang around to keep her out of trouble until Harry made his decision. That was what friends did for each other, they keep all of the options open incase something happens later that makes everything a whole lot more clear, and then they didn't say 'I told you so' when the dust settled. That was how Ron rationalized that he was helping everyone to be happy by not walking away, and part of what made him sit back down.

He opened his book and looked at Hermione as she smiled softly at him for doing what it was that she had asked. That was the great thing about Ron. He always did whatever anyone asked him to do. Even if he wasn't quite sure about it he would do it because he had been asked to by one of his friends. She smiled softly and felt a shiver of happiness run through her. Ron was always someone that she could lean on no matter what problems she was having and no matter what problems he was having. He was always there to be a shoulder to cry on, or to be that person who would help you walk to class if you had broken your leg. He was like a rock.

That made her smile. He was always a stable person to lean on and was always there. He was the kind of person that you could run up to after a hard exam, scream out your frustrations to, explain why it didn't go well, and he would not only pretend that he cared, but he would also try to comfort you. He was amazing like that. She smiled softly as she flipped through her book. Even the way that he was helping to make sure that she studied right now was amazing. This was the sort of thing that best friends were supposed to do for each other.

Yet somehow, deep inside she had that lingering to be with Harry and help him through the problems that he was going through at the moment. Harry had lost all of his family and yet he was still going strong. He might not have been the same rock that Ron was, but he was trying to be a good friend, and after everything that he had been through that couldn't be easy. There were times when she just wanted to curl up in a corner and never see anyone ever again, and she had never lost family to people like Voldemort. She admired the way that he kept going on strong and wanted to be close to him so that some of that strength might just rub off on her. It was stupid she knew, but Harry was just a different kind of rock.

"Hermione. You're staring again. I swear, people are going to start to think that you've got a crush on him if you keep ogling him like that." Ron said chuckling to himself as he watched Hermione turn a deep shade of red.

"Ron! I'm not ogling! I'm thinking!" Hermione almost screamed at the freckled boy in front of her.

Ron laughed softly, "Whatever you say, 'Mione, whatever you say…"

((AN: Omigourd! I finished it on time to post it tonight! Go me! Not that anyone is ever going to be able to read this, but still, yay! I'm so happy!))