A/N: Lets just pretend that they are having a dance, okay. I know they're not and never will but I wanted it to be more casual then a ball. This is written in first person and Hermione is looking back and talking like she's telling a story. This chapter is a bit longer, but still fairly short.

Disclaimer: As you know, I do not own Harry Potter.

Chapter Two: I Saw You Three Weeks Ago

I never asked to fall in love with Ron. I never asked for my girlish hormones. I curse my stupid, stupid hormones. (Really, what is the formula for attraction? Does hormone A + hormone BLove?) I wish I could just live life with out so many complications. This is coming from the girl who can solve advanced Arithmancy problems but can't tell a guy "I am secretly in utterly, mad, insane love with you". It has already happened though, he already knows, but the problems don't stop there. I feel so confused, uplifted and furious! Where does he get off sending off such mixed signals? It is like he wants to take my heart and wrench it until I yell 'mercy' and finally break.

Do you want to know why I feel like this? It is all because of that moment three weeks ago. I can't classify it. At the time being it was wonderful but it has morphed into the evil subject of my being.

Flashback
"Ron, what are you doing up? You can't just come waltzing into the common room after hours!" I was sitting on the common room's couch flipping through my Charms textbook frantically when I was interrupted by the sound Ron creeping(though not quietly enough) through the Fat Lady's portrait hole.

"I could ask the same of you," he retorted as he tried to slide out of view into the shadows as if he were hiding something.

"Well, I woke up and started testing myself for the test in Charms and then realized I didn't know one of the answers. I'm still trying to find it," I explained while fingering the well worn pages of my textbook.

"We don't have a test in Charms, Flitwick postponed it until Thursday. That was the announcement that he made while we were practicing magnifying our voices with "Sonorus". But you do have a test in Ancient Runes on the homework you did in the past month," he said nonchalantly.

"How do you know when I don't? You're not even taking the class!"

"I just …do," he spoke in a slight whisper and picked lint off the sweater that he had obviously thrown over his nightclothes. I realized he was avoiding my eyes.

"Are you certain? I mean are you positive, are you absolutely sure. Because that means that I just spent all this time studying the wrong subject. Oh! I'm going to fail. I know the material to a certain degree, but not well enough. Here is what I'll do. I'll study for a few more hours, go to sleep, study during breakfast and then again during lunch. Of course I'll have to skip lunch, but only then is there any hope," It was at this point that I started to freak out and had jumped up from my spot on the sofa. I waving my hands and emphasizing certain points.

"Hermione, would you like to just sit down for a moment. All this," he mimicked the motions of my hands, "can't be good for your health, or for those around you. You could poke out my eye, for instance."

"Fine, I'll stop, but I need to go study; what with there being a test I'm not prepared for," I was pacing now, and then set off in a rampant search for my Ancient Runes book.

"You pay attention in class and do your homework; that is more then most people do. You will do fine," he coaxed me.

"I can't do fine! I need to do better then that!" I turned around abruptly and snapped at him. I swear he was stifling bouts of laughter.

"I'll help you. I could use the extra studying too."

"For a subject you don't take? No, go to sleep. I think your lack of it is affecting your brain. I'm fine, I'm a self-sufficient individual. I've always studied by myself. It will all work out in the end, hopefully."

"No, just get your book and…"

"There is no point; someone left their copy on the couch. I'm just going to be reading the material over. I don't think there is anything you can do. Yawn." He had already fallen asleep. I started reading but as I found myself reading lines repeatedly and squinting at a mixture of blocky black figures I drifted off into dreamland.

Two hours later I woke up but kept my eyes shut not wanting to face the day. It was only three o'clock in the morning, but I knew I had to study. However, before I opened my eyes I realized that I was in the most comfortable position of being right in the arms of Ron. He was so close I trace his heartbeats and feel his warm breath hitting my skin.

In a low whisper he began as he stroked my hair, "Hermione Jane Granger, a name that gives me the chills… in a good way of course." He paused and then started again in a volume barely recognizable as a whisper, "Too bad. Too bad she doesn't know how much I enjoy her presence, how much I want to console her when she's angry or sad. How much she means to me."

I took my possibly only chance to express myself. There was only about three seconds between his last word and my first, "Ron, I like you too. It feels odd saying that, but it also feels right."

"You're awake?" Ron said in a shocked voice with red creeping up on his face. (But he was still running his fingers through my hair.)

"I'm awake." I said with a slight smile while looking up at him, "Do you think that perhaps in our awake-ness we could do something together, alone?"

"Definitely, wait, no I can't. I can't. I'm, I…It's just… goodnight." He stopped touching my hair, sat upright, pushed me off him and walked in a fast pace up the staircase to the boy's dormitory. With each pounding up the steps, my heart and head broke out into gut wrenching sadness and confusion.

But I could still feel the comforting heat of his hand leaving traces of the truth in my hair.

End Flashback

So here I am. It is 7:38 and another day of a dance. Time sure flies when you are telling stories of heartbreak. Well, I have to go now. I'm being forced into this by Harry. I'll go and sulk. Maybe I'll get asked to dance. I hate fast songs but slow songs are so, sigh. Not that I've been asked to dance to one, the only dance I've done is the waltz. Okay, is not very likely that I'll get asked to dance, but the hopeless romantic in me can dream... After all, who would want to dance with Hermione Granger, girl extraordinaire?

Right now I'm wishing that in some alternate universe Ron sweeps me off my feet and asks me to dance and so ends the horrible tension forced onto Harry and this stress placed upon me that have nothing to do with NEWT's. I mean, he's not even acting like himself. Ron hasn't been my friend or my enemy and he hasn't even ignored me. He's been civil which the worst possible thing because I can't even be mad at him; I have to be polite back. And I really don't want to be polite to the guy who turned me down.