"Hermione?" Ron asked timidly.

Ron was sitting across from Hermione in the busy Gryffindor common room. He had been staring absently at the numerous pages of charm notes Hermione had laid out for far too long in his opinion. He liked spending time with her; but he was really tired of studying. At the moment Hermione was in the middle of a particularly in-depth explanation of how to execute different charm to heal miner blisters and cuts. She seemed to be too far into her rambling lesson to hear him.

Quite a bit louder Ron repeated, "Hermione?"

She looked rather annoyed to be interrupted. "Yes, what?" she replied sharply. Ron looked up at her shyly, he now felt bad for interrupting her, she looked so pretty with her hair falling in soft curls in front of her clear, clever eyes.

"Err, I was wondering if we could study a little later, I kind of told Seamus I'd play some chess with him."

"But Ron! There's only three days until the test, and you haven't even studied!"

"What were we doing right then?"

"You seriously can't expect to call ten minutes of me explaining the mechanics of about three spells to be studying!" Hermione sounded thoroughly annoyed now.

"Come on Hermione, that HAD to be at least twenty minutes, and anyway there's plenty of time!" Now Ron was mad, 'I only want to play a little chess for Merlin's sake!' he thought to himself, 'Where does she get off ordering me to be a slave to books, that's her job, isn't it!' He knew he didn't mean what he had just thought but still, she should lighten up!

Hermione stood up abruptly, knocking some of the notes off the table. She was furious now. 'What the hell is he playing at? She thought angrily. Chess? How dare he! He was the one who asked for her help!'

"You always say that and you know what happens don't you?

She didn't give him a chance to answer, and blazed on, her voice was quite loud and screechy now.

"I end up having to stay up with you till three in the morning to cram the information into your head, or to help you write a paper, or finish your homework, Or…"

Ron cut her off. "That's not fair! I do not do that all the time, and is it such a torture to help me?" His cheeks were so red now that it looked he was wearing face paint.

"You know I don't mean it that way!" Hermione retaliated. 'How dare he, who's the one who is always there for him when he needs help? Me! Not Harry, not Dean, not bloody Seamus with his bloody chess!'

"Do you know what Ron? If you are daft enough not to appreciate my help then you can just deal without me then, I know I can deal without you, you insufferable prat!" 'If he doesn't want to spend time with me then I don't want to spend time with him!' She knew that thought was a lie, she would always want to spend time with him, but she was too upset at his words to care.

She had viciously screamed the last bit and now every single person in the common room was alerted to their blazing row. Seamus who had been watching sheepishly for a while just couldn't take it anymore. Had Hermione actually just called Ron a prat for all the common room to hear?

"Oi Ron, it's okay really, we can play tomorrow or something." But Seamus' words fell on deaf ears.

Ron was bellowing at Hermione now, "That's fine, it's not like I need some prissy, stuck-up, know-it-all, bitch anyway!"

The second the words came out of his mouth he knew he had gone way too far, he had no idea what made him say things like that, he was just so angry at her, she had called him a prat!.'

Ron looked up at Hermione's hurt face, tears beginning to run down her cheeks and felt absolutely horrible "How can I be such a bloody git? What is wrong with me, why do I have to go around completely insulting the girl I…"

Ron was suddenly snapped back to reality as Hermione grabbed the table and violently pushed it over in Ron's direction. All of her carefully written charm notes fluttered around Ron's legs and he had to dodge an inkwell as it fell and shattered, staining the bottom of his robes and pants.

Hermione gave Ron one last ice-cold look, glaring at him past her tears with a fierce determination. The she suddenly spun around and ran from the common room up to the dormitories.

Left in her wake, still standing in the midst of the spilt ink and papers Ron felt tears come to his own eyes. 'I've really done it now, haven't I? What the hell was wrong with him anyway? He liked Hermione, really liked her! However much he wanted to deny that he had fallen for his best friend, he couldn't any more. But somehow every time they seemed to be getting on well, Ron managed to get it all messed up. But never had he screwed it up this bad. Had he actually called her a bitch? He had ruined everything for what, a bloody chess game with bloody Seamus?

His thoughts swirled around in his head not seeming to make any sense. He dazedly walked through the common room heading to the boys dormitories. As he passed Seamus he heard him and Dean chuckling.

"What a fight! I think you may have won though mate." Piped Seamus from behind him.

"Think that was funny do you? Think Hermione bloody crying was funny? Ron turned and slammed his fist into the chessboard causing all the little knights, pawns, bishops, queens, and kings, to fly about the table. One bishop flew off the board with such force that it hit Dean in the eye.

"What's wrong mate, she'll get over it." Dean said as he rubbed his eye.

'I made her cry, that's what's wrong!' Ron thought as he turned and stormed up the stairs.