Author's Note: Ah, here is chapter eight. You'll finally find out who that "mystery boyfriend" is. Hee hee. This is where things will get a lot more interesting, trust me. So, if you thought this was crazy before, that was just the beginning. I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it.
As always, thanks for the reviews, guys.

Since detention, Harry and Ron weren't speaking. Officially. Now Ron would just hang around Dean and Seamus, like the last time they stopped talking. Harry stayed around Hermione, never giving Ron more than a second glance. Ron didn't really care though, well, except for the whole Hermione thing. A week passed by and Ron's detention time was finally done. He was finally done with cleaning the halls and the outer walls. Done with having Filch sneering at him from a few feet away. But by this time, he was so behind in homework, he had to use every second he wasn't in class to work. It didn't help that exams were growing closer, either. In about two months they'd be taking the O.W.L.s again. Hermione did sneak behind Harry's back here and there to help Ron study, which he was grateful for. Why did she have to sneak? Because whenever she saw her with Ron, he had a little weird spasm that ended in him yelling at Hermione and stomping off. You could tell she was getting annoyed with it. She wasn't very happy with Ron either, whom wasn't making it any easier.

"Sorry," Ron said, sucking on the end of his quill, looking down at his Charms homework.

"Hmmph," Hermione replied, crossing something out on his paper for him. He leaned back in his chair and looked at her.

"Hey, it's not my fault he's acting like that," He said.

"Actually, it is. And I am getting sick of you two. Why can't you just make up for whatever you are on about and get over it?" She asked, looking up at him. "Then I don't have to deal with it."

"Sorry, 'Mione, but I won't talk to him until he has some proof..."

"Proof of what?"

"Nothing," He said quickly. He hadn't discussed any of this with her, and he guessed Harry hadn't either. She sighed heavily and scribbled something in her notes from a book. Not much was said after that, though Ron would glance at Hermione occasionally. Every time he did this, he would get butterflies in his stomach and look back down at his work, ears burning. He liked this, but he couldn't concentrate as much with her around. He started sucking on the end of his quill again when he got stuck on a certain part of his essay. He scanned a few pages of his book, but couldn't find the next part of what he had to write.

"Um, Hermione?"

"Hmm?" She replied, not looking up from her notes.

"Where am I supposed to find the long term side-effects of the Lulling Charm if not used correctly?" He asked, squinting back into the book.

"Oh, that's tricky, because that's not listed in the book Professor Flitwick suggested to us. You were supposed to research that one a little more, but it's hard to find the book." She got up and sat in the same chair as Ron, making him scoot over. She reached back over to her bag and pulled out a small gold-colored book. She opened it and thumbed through the pages. "Here we go..." She stopped and laid the book in front of Ron. She tapped the page with her index finger.

"Thanks..." He looked over the page and found what he needed, beginning to write it in his essay. It took about three minutes to realize Hermione was still sitting by him, their legs touching. His ears were suddenly flaming and his hand began to shake, making him mess up on one of his words. He crossed it out, trying to think about his assignment and not her. She reached over to grab another book, making her arm brush against his. He didn't know if he could take this anymore, he was shaking so hard, the butterflies in his stomach threatening to go up his throat. When she pulled back her hand from the table, her hand touched his lightly. He felt an odd melting, sliding feeling go through his body.

"I, uh... I'm hungry... I think I'm... just going to... um... go eat supper... th-thanks for the help..." Ron let out, his whole face reddening to full extent.

"Oh, alright, see you later!" Hermione said happily, smiling at him. He stumbled out of the chair and stuffed everything back in his bag. He rushed up the dormitory stairs, tripping over a few of them, and then threw his bag onto his bed. His heart was hammering in his chest wildly as he strode out of the common room, trying hard not to look back at Hermione as he passed her.

He sighed with relief when he was finally out in the corridor, which was almost deserted. The only other people that were around were a few third years that were prodding a toad with their wands, making it croak loudly. Ron walked over to them. "Excuse me, what exactly are you doing?" He asked, easily towering over them. He got a better look at the toad to see that it was Trevor. He leaned over and picked Trevor up, giving the third years a dirty look. They all gave him innocent smiles, seeing the prefect badge on his robes. Before Ron could say anything, they all scurried away. "Yeah, that's what I thought," Ron mumbled, walking toward the Great Hall, Trevor still in his hands. On his way there, he almost ran into Harry, whom gave Ron a look of utmost disgust and pushed his way past. Ron ignored this and went on with his little journey to food.

Ron entered the Great Hall and walked over to the Gryffindor table. He spotted Neville and sat Trevor in front of him. "Trevor!" Neville let out happily, picking the toad up. Ron collapsed onto the bench by Seamus.

"Hey, Seamus," Ron greeted him, but didn't get a reply. Seamus was concentrated on some pepper on his plate, holding his wand out.

"He's trying to turn the pepper into sugar..." Dean explained to Ron, watching Seamus.

"Ah..." Ron grabbed a bunch of food, biting into a fried chicken leg, watching Seamus's plate.

"Sugar to pepper, pepper to sugar, flepus ronan karper..." He finally spoke, flicking his wand at the pepper. Nothing happened.

"What kind of spell is that?" Hermione suddenly appeared, making Seamus jump. Everyone else that had been watching started laughing. Seamus let his head fall onto the table, only making him sneeze because of the pepper. Hermione giggled. "Anyway, Harry seemed to be in a bad mood, so I decided to come eat supper early."

"Fighting with your boyfriend?" Seamus asked, lifting his head up. She looked at him blankly.

"Boyfriend?" She said slowly.

"Yeah, you know,Harry, don't play dumb. Just about everyone knows." Hermione shook her head to this as if she was confused. Which angered Ron a little, but he didn't really know why. Hermione sat next to Neville and didn't say anything after that. She ate slowly, Ron was done way before her. When she got up to leave, he did too.

They walked side-by-side in silence. They went out into the Entrance Hall where many students were gathered, looking up at something. Ron stopped and looked up too, but Hermione kept walking. The crowd was thinning, making it so Hermione could walk right through them. Curious, Ron moved closer to the group. Peeves was above the group, juggling ink that was a hideous yellow color. It seemed he had thrown one of the bottles at a second year, whom was huddled in a ball on the floor. It looked like a Hufflepuff girl. Peeves was cackling in his odd little way. Hermione walked into the center of the group and stopped.

"Alright, alright, show is over. Go back to your dormitories," She said. Obviously she wasn't going to abandon her prefect duties any time soon. People groaned and walked off, giving last glances at Peeves and the girl. Hermione helped the girl up and told another Hufflepuff to take care of her. Then she looked up at Peeves. "Peeves, stop it, do you want me to get the Bloody Baron?"

"Hee hee! The Bloody Baron wouldn't answer to the likes of a Gryffindor such as yourself," He replied, continuing to juggle the bottles of ink. Then without warning, he chucked a bottle of the yellow ink down at Hermione.

"Hermione!" Ron yelled, but there was no way he could push her out of the way in time. But someone shot out of the smaller group that was still surrounding the scene and pulled her out of the way, knocking both of them to the floor. There was the tinkling sound of breaking glass and the ink spilled all over the floor, splattering the robes of whoever had pulled Hermione out of the way. Ron jogged over to make sure she was okay, and to see who had saved her from the ink. He stopped dead when he caught a glimpse of the person. He thought his heart would almost stop in shock. The person that had pushed Hermione out of the way, the person who's robes were now covered in yellow ink, and the person that was on top of Hermione was none other than... Draco Malfoy.

Ron's eyes bulged and his mouth hung open. Why would Malfoy do that for Hermione. It didn't make sense. But the thing that happened next was what really made Ron question his sanity. They smiled at each other and they kissed. Ron felt like he could have died... or just explode from a mix of shock, anger, sorrow, and jealousy. Malfoy got up and straightened his robes, then he offered his hand to pull Hermione up. When she waspulled to her feet,though, she didn't release his hand. She looked at him fondly and said, "My savior."

Ron spotted Harry a few feet away, whomlooking at Malfoy and Hermione, too. Ron caught Harry's eye and they exchanged a look, knowing what each other was thinking. Ron was immediately sorry for ever accusing his best mate. But he had worse things to cope with right now. He looked back at the two and heard Hermione's voice and words echo through his head, along with a complete picture of how she looked at him.

My savior.

It made Ron sick.