Summary: Hermione and Ron find themselves stuck in a Labyrinth. If they're going to get out, they'll have to learn to work together. But once they do, what will happen when they discover much more than meets the eye?

Rating: PG

Pairing: Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger

Disclaimer: I do not, did not and never will own Harry Potter.

The Labyrinth of Love

Chapter 1: The Prefects Compartment

Hermione Granger was running late.

"God, Muggles are slow!" she thought, being wise not to say that out loud. Her mother was sitting next to her in the car, with her father in the driver's seat, on the way to King's Cross.

Her parents have always admired her, for being the best in everything (well, almost), for being the most polite daughter any parent could have, for being Hermione. What her parents didn't know was that every year, she was involved in countless adventures, with Hermione's two best friends, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley. As far as they knew, she was a responsible prefect who had many friends, and whom everyone respected; which was sort of true. They hadn't a clue about the brewing rivalry between Slytherin and Gryffindor, and Hermione was not as thick as to tell them about that.

As they pulled up to the station, there were only three minutes left until the Hogwart's Express would leave Platform 9 ¾ . Hermione hurried out of the car and her dad took the trunk out of the rear quickly.

"Bye mum, bye dad. I'll write to you", she said, as she pulled her trunk onto a trolley. She pushed herself through the barrier, and found the train just about to leave. Parents and children were saying their last goodbyes. Hermione couldn't help but hear about what they were saying.

"Are you wearing the clean underwear—"

"I've packed some extra gum just in case—"

"—your owl dear...please make sure that she doesn't peck your eyes out—"

Hermione couldn't help but giggle as she got onto the train. She immediately went around looking for Harry and Ron. She passed a few of her acquaintances and said her "hello, how are you?" to them, and almost every time she got the ever-so-tiring reply of "yes I had loads of fun, and you?"

"Okay then I'll see you—", she told Hannah Abbot, a Hufflepuff in their year, and she set off for Harry and Ron again.

She spotted them in one of the compartments near the drivers.

"Hermione!" said Ron in exasperation, "I'd thought you weren't here"

"Well yes Ron, of course I'm here. A bit late, that's all"

"Good. 'Coz we have to get to the prefects compartment soon"

"Hermione, what happened to your hair?" Harry asked, looking up from the latest copy of the Daily Prophet.

Hermione blushed and smoothed down her hair in the front. It wasn't as bushy as before. She had it fixed up so that it was in a messy bun tied tight with a maroon hair scrunchie. To tell the truth, she was sort of tired of her old bushy hair, and at the same time, she didn't want to look as prissy as Lavender or Parvati.

"I was in a hurry", she said quickly, "Come on Ron—bye Harry"

"Bye Hermione, Ron," Harry said grumpily. He still didn't like the idea of going on a train ride without them.

"So long", Ron said, and pocketed a chocolate frog along with his wand.

"Hurry", Hermione said, already far off. She was a little annoyed at Ron for not taking this prefect thing seriously. Honestly, Fred and George haven't done much for Ron's improvement either. According to Ron's letters over the summer, the twins sent him new prank items weekly. "Business is booming"...Hermione had remembered what the twins had said when they had met at Diagon Alley. For the sake of it, Hermione purchased a fake wand, which had amused her parents greatly when it turned into a rubber chicken.

"I'm coming, I'm coming", an irritated Ron called from a few meters away. He hated it when Hermione took things too seriously. He was just happy to be a prefect. He hated being overshadowed by his brothers all the time...well; actually, he hated a lot of things.

He hated his mother's corned beef sandwiches...having second hand things. Somehow, he always found a way to laugh about it. It was no secret that his family was poor, but it was also well-known that they were a respectable family, a good pureblood family, with well brought-up children. But Ronald Weasley, who had five older brothers and one younger sister and lived in an old house kept up by magic, was sick of it all.

And Hermione Granger was making it worse.

"Please Hermione, hold on...hold—"

"Oh we're going to be late—Ron, your shirt...it's all crumpled"

They quickly entered the prefects' compartment. They were supposed to be there about five minutes earlier.

"It's about time", Draco Malfoy sneered from one of the seats. The prefects' compartment was a bit bigger than all the others and nearly as huge as the compartment that the head boy and girl shared.

"Brooding about having no gold, are you?" Pansy Parkinson taunted from beside Draco, who smirked.

Ron opened his mouth to argue, but Hermione squeezed his hand and he quieted down, clearly not satisfied as to how the insult was handled.

"Well, we're all here. That's what counts. Sit, sit, sit", a Hufflepuff prefect said, and he gave a very wide smile, as if he had slept with a hanger in his mouth.

Hermione forced a smile, and sat down, fixing her hair behind her ear. Ron, on the other hand, furiously tried to smooth down his clothes and did not look twice at the Hufflepuff who spoke to them.

"So, what's this?" Draco said, looking down at a piece of paper.

"List of projects, activities, shifts, duties etc, etc", a fifth year prefect piped up.

"Pass it around then", said Ron irritably, "so we can all have a look"

"Oh Ron," Hermione said, "we could just duplicate it or something"

"Right", the Hufflepuff said, muttering a spell, and sixteen copies of the paper appeared. He passed it around, and they discovered nothing new from last year—except for one thing.

"The end-of-year ball", Hermione breathed, "Great. All work"

"Honestly Hermione, you take things way too seriously", Ron said grinning, "I'll bet you're more worried about preparing all this than getting a date for it"

"Oh honestly—I don't care if I get one or not"

"Vicky not here, is he?"

"Shut up—"

"You shut up, the two of you", Ginny Weasley said from her seat. Ron had forgotten that she was in the fifth year, and a prefect.

"I agree, we should get on about more serious matters"

"We can talk later—or next week"

"We can't, even if we wanted to", a Ravenclaw prefect said, "Now, for the fifth years, shifts should be observed properly, and don't be late—"

"Oh who made you boss?" Draco said loudly.

"Nobody else is acting as mature, so I suppose—"

"You suppose that?"

"Nothing"

Hermione had enough. She took a deep breath and shouted loudly, "Stop it"

At once, there was silence, and everyone looked at her in awe. "Please continue with what you were saying", she motioned to the Ravenclaw sixth year.

"Please don't be late. Meetings shall be announced by post, and activities should be up on the information board. Do make sure that you check it everyday, because we usually have meetings a week earlier before school-wide activities. That's all. Please, please remember"

The fifth years nodded, and looked once again at the schedules.

"Should I get the head boy and girl?" Ron said, getting up.

"Yeah I guess"

"Okay then, hold on"

Hermione shifted in her seat, and Ron left the compartment for the one beside it.

--

Ron found the head boy and girl making out in their compartment.

"Quit it", he told them uneasily.

The girl rolled her eyes and twirled her hair, trying to escape the red that was flooding her cheeks. The head boy got up as if nothing had happened and accompanied Ron and the head girl back to the prefects' compartment.

--

"Okay then, you got everything?" the head boy said about ten minutes later full of explaining and describing the duties.

They all nodded, not wanting to contradict anything that he said, and the lady with the pushcart came, asking if they wanted anything off it.

Ron mumbled something about sandwiches. He had spent all his money on prank items that Fred and George sold to him. Sure, they sent him free stuff, but they weren't as thick as to send him the good tricks. Even with the discounts, Ron still managed to spend a good lot of his pocket money on prank kits.

Hermione smiled cheerily, happy to have something to eat. She purchased a few pumpkin pasties, chocolate frogs and a bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavored Beans. She offered the bag of beans to everyone in the compartment, save for the Slytherins, who smugly devoured to huge pile of treats that they had spread before themselves.

"Thanks", Ginny said, and pointed to Ron, who was pouting at his sandwiches.

"Here Ron, take some", she offered.

"Er—yeah, thanks Hermione", Ron said gratefully, and he took a handful of beans, and a pumpkin pasty. For the first time that day, he felt happy that Hermione was there.

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A/N: Please, please review this chapter, or I shan't make the next one. Thank you.