Chapter Two

A/N: Wow. Okay now I know why there are so many people on this website, getting reviews is great! Thank you to everyone who reviewed. They were much appreciated, and in fact it was angelofboox's review which put new ideas into my mind and made me decide to continue on with this story. So here we go. . .

Disclaimer: Nada. Zip. Goose egg. That is how many of these characters I own.

            Ron awoke the next morning to find himself feeling pleasantly at ease, despite the fact that he had nearly been caught out of bed after hours by Filch. He let his mind wander for a moment, trying to recapture what could have made him feel this way when he knew well that there should be things weighing down on his mind, like his Potions essay for example. "We ran back here. . . we couldn't find Harry. . . but then he showed up and. . ." Ron retraced the past night's events and the stumbled upon his reason for seeming so chipper.

            He felt his face heat up slightly while thinking of holding Hermione's hand. Then he felt his face's temperature double as he thought back to how nice it had been . . .

            "No, that's impossible. I must have been very tired." Ron surmised aloud.

            "Well we're very tired so stop making noise, you nutter." came a muffled reply from the direction of Dean's bed. Ron quickly realized that he had just been speaking to himself, which in the wizarding world was not really a good sign. "Maybe I'm ill. . ." he thought. Yes that must have been it. He wasn't feeling well, that was a perfectly logical explanation. Maybe he should go visit Madam Pomfrey.

            Ron pulled back the hangings of his four poster to reveal the other four beds occupying the dormitory. Dean and Seamus's beds appeared to still have Dean and Seamus in them, while Harry and Neville's beds were both vacant. The clock on Ron's bedside table told him that it was half past nine as he clamored out of bed and made his way to the bathroom for a quick shower.

            Ron pushed all thoughts of last night out of his mind as he entered the Great Hall on that fine Saturday morning. He really was being rather silly. Hermione Granger was his best friend. His very annoying, know-it-all, bushy haired best friend, who just so happened to have very lovely eyes. . . Ron resolved to go to the hospital wing after breakfast. The way his stomach had lurched at the thought of his best friend was surely not normal.

            "Hey Harry." Ron plopped down beside his best male friend and began to dish himself a hearty amount of egg, bacon, and toast to his plate.

            "Hum…" was Harry's reply from behind that days issue of the Daily Prophet. Ron peaked over his shoulder to see what article he was reading. It was not pertaining to the ministry as he had assumed, but rather a small article on a new up and coming Quidditch player.

            "Where's Hermione?" he asked nonchalantly, knowing full well that Harry would not have gotten a subscription to the paper himself.

            "Library." Harry said as though it were obvious while rolling up the paper.

            "Anything worth reading?" Ron asked as offhandedly as he could, motioning toward the paper.

            "No, not really." Harry replied now tucking into his own breakfast. They had gone through this exchange nearly every morning since they had arrived back at school.

            Last June the ministry had finally acknowledged the return of Lord Voldermort. Harry was certain that now the ministry was seeing things clearly that the Daily Prophet would print any new happenings. So far this year, there hadn't been so much as an attempted break-in of a shop in Diagon Alley, let alone Death Eaters running a rampage. Everything was very quiet. . . a little too quiet if you asked him.

            "You up for a game of Snap?" Ron asked as the sixth years made their way out of the Great Hall a little while later.

            "Can't. I've got Occlumency with Lupin."

            Professor Lupin had returned to the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Dumbledore thought it would be best to have at least one more Order member at the school. Also, because Snape had given up on teaching Harry Occlumency last year, Lupin had offered to step in. Occlumency was still not something Harry looked forward to, but it did help to have the person prying into your brain be one of your father's best friends verses one the people who hates you most.

            "Oh, all right then. I'll see you later?"

            "All right." Harry made his way down the corridor to Professor Lupin's office and Ron went the opposite direction, heading back toward Gryffindor tower, all thoughts of visiting the nurse out of his mind.

            Ron wandered aimlessly down the corridor, and was about to turn a corner when he realized that he was just outside the library. "Well, I might as well do my Potions essay. . . It's not like I've got anything better to do." Ron, somewhat reluctantly pushed open the door to the library and stepped inside. As he did so he noticed his bushy haired best friend sitting at one of the tables, all of her stuff spread out as to allow no room for others to sit by and bother her. The familiar lurching sensation rose in Ron's stomach, and he quickly willed it away and made his way to the table Hermione occupied.

            "Fancy seeing you here." he joked.

            "What are you doing here? Have you got lost on the way to the Quidditch pitch?" she replied, not bothering to take her eyes from the book she was reading.

            "Well if you must know, I've decided to work on my Potions essay."

            This caused Hermione's head to turn his direction. Ron held his stomach. "Is that so?"

            "You think I'd lie to you?" Ron mustered up the best shocked face that he could manage at the present point and time, "That hurts Hermione."

            She raised an eyebrow, "Then where is your book? An your quills, and parchment, and notes?"

            Ron realized at that moment that he had walked into the library empty handed. "Oh, well I must have forgotten them."

            "You forgot to bring the homework you were planning on doing?" Hermione was looking quite skeptical.

            "Like you've never done it?" as soon as the question left his mouth, Ron knew it had been a stupid one. This was Hermione bloody Granger. She may have forgotten to comb her hair, or to tuck in her shirt, but she never forgot anything in the matter of school. "Okay stupid question." Ron leaned back in his chair and scowled at the desk. He hated losing these small arguments to her.

            Hermione smiled in a satisfied sort of way and turned her attention back to the book in her hands. "If you go and get your bag, I might just help you out, Ron." she said airily.

            It was now Ron's turn to be skeptical. "Really?"

            "Sure."

            Ron bit back a comment he was about to make, and instead got up and went to gather his things from the common room.

            "Two feet of parchment on truth potions." Ron grumbled near to an hour later in the library while Hermione set another stack of books down beside him.

            "Honestly Ron, it's not that hard to do, and you're nearly finished."

            Ron turned his gaze up to her and glared, "If it weren't for you, I wouldn't be stuck here working on this stupid thing."

            "Me?! You're the one who came in here with the plan to work on it."

            "Do you really think I would have done homework on a Saturday by my own free will? If you hadn't offered to help I wouldn't be here."

            "Don't you think you're looking a gift horse in the mouth?"

            "What's a horse got to do with anything?"

            Hermione shoved all of her things into her bag, slung it over her shoulder, and made her way out of the library, muttering something very similar to "Insufferable!"

            Ron packed his own bag and slumped out of the library. He hated fighting with Hermione. It always made him feel awful. Now he'd have to go and find some way to make her speak to him again.

            "Why so glum, Ron?" Ron looked up to see Lupin standing in front of him. Without knowing it Ron seemed to have walked all the way to Lupin's office door.

            Ron shrugged and looked away from

            "You had a fight with Hermione, didn't you?"

            Ron's head snapped to look at his teacher in the face. "What?" he said in a strangled sort of voice.

            Professor Lupin just gave him a knowing smile. "Why don't you come in and have a cup of tea?" He steered Ron into his office and closed the door.

            Ron settled down on one of the chairs in Lupin's office and looked around. Although the furnishings of the room were by no means new or extravagant, they were definitely an improvement from last year. Ron mentally flinched when he thought of the plates with kittens happily playing on them.

            Lupin set down a cup of tea in front of him. "So what happened?"

            Ron just gave him a blank look and mumbled something about what a know-it-all Hermione was.

            Lupin chuckled. "You know, Hermione does remind me of someone I used to go to school with."

            "Really?"

            "Sure, there's a Hermione in every year. Oh, but this one, she took the cake." Lupin smiled as he reminisced about times past.

            "I bet she wasn't obsessed with elf rights."

            Lupin let out a hearty laugh at this. "This girl was Hermione Granger to a tee. She was the first to raise her hand in class, the first to tell you that you did something wrong, the first to finish her homework, and the first to suck the fun out of everything. As I recall she got James and I into quite a bit of trouble in those days. She was also the first to go running to McGonagall."

            "She sounds like a right brat."

            "Oh she was. It never mattered what she did to anyone else though. . . Whatever she did, James got it ten times worse. Those two would fight like they only had one day to do it."

            This perked Ron's interest. "What happened?"

            "Their arguments were infamous. Everyone in the castle could hear them shouting at one another, but it was all commonplace. The only people it ever bothered were new first years; they never learned quick enough to get out of the way."

            "What about James? What did he do about this girl?"

            "He tried to be friendly to her, and for the most part it worked. Why, when those two weren't arguing I'd have to say I was a little jealous. They looked as if they were best friends, but best friends who were on constant guard if the other was ever to start up something. I remember how James would look after he had upset her. . . He'd look just like you do now, except shorter and without the red hair."

            "How did he stop feeling miserable?" Ron was now so far involved into the story that he didn't care about the questions he asked, as long as he got them answered.

            "Well, James didn't always feel this way after a fight. No, before he would just brush it off, and call her a know-it-all."

            Ron didn't have to bother asking "before what". . . He already knew the answer to that.

            "But after. . . James would come in angry at the world and moping. All he wanted to do was to get on this girls good side and stay there. He worked hard at it for a very long time, but finally he got the hang of it."

            "But, how? How did he do it?"

            Lupin smiled, "He listened, and waited, and mostly kept his mouth shut."

A/N: I LOVE Lupin! And, coincidentally, I LOVE reviews too. (hint hint)