"Okay Ron. What's wrong?" she asked with nothing but worry in her voice. She wondered what he could have to tell her. She was worried about what he had to tell her. Their friendship was more fragile than ever, due to the current events.

"I don't want us to have any secrets from each other. I want to tell you everything. I want to know everything. I want to be able to tell you things that I cant tell Harry. I want you to tell me things that you cant tell Ginny. I want that kind of relationship, just a better version of our friendship. Do you know what I mean?" he asked. She just laughed at him and nodded. Then she scrunched up her nose.

"Do you mean that you don't want things to get complicated if this doesn't work out?" she asked, knowing what he meant. He nodded. "So that means that we're friends first. I should be able to tell you if some man flirts with me, without you getting jealous, right?" she asked just for her own entertainment. "And you should be able to tell me if Lavenders after you again. It should be cake. No complexities or jealous fits of anger if I just happen to snog another bloke in a broom closet, right?" he looked at her with mock loathing. She reciprocated the look. He then kissed her nose. She blushed a great red.

"Aw, you're blushing. You must have it bad for me, huh?" asked Ron with a smirk. She nodded, then leaned down to kiss his forehead, his eyelids, his nose his chin, his cheeks, then she traced kisses down his jaw and down to his neck as his breathing quickened. He pulled away.

"Hermione, hold up. That isn't all that I wanted to tell you." he said. She caught his gaze, and he looked down as if he was guilty for something. She nodded the got off him and went to her draw.

"Talk and turn around." she said twirling her finger motioning for him to turn around. He turned around. She started changing into a pair of black cotton pajamas with gold snitches, red bludgers and brooms zooming around. Her make up was off but she looked the same, just a little less glossy. When she sat on the bed he finally started talking.

"Okay, so I don't want you to be mad at me, because I thought that you would never speak to me again, let alone go out with me ever. So in sixth year , when it became a little more obvious to Harry, that I kind I fancied you, he told me that, we might end up together. But when Lavender and I started going out, you stopped talking to me and I thought that you'd never talk to me. And, believe me I wanted to apologize, but I was always kind of frightened by you. But anyway, I was miserable without you, but I thought our friendship boat sailed and su-"

"Ron, what are you trying to say?" interrupted Hermione with a serious look in here eyes. He gulped.

"Well, when Harry said that we would probably end up together. I decided to save myself for you- however stupid that sounds. But when you stopped talking to me, Lavender and I didn't stop at snogging." Ron said nervously. A light drizzle started outside and the lights began to flicker a little. Hermione stood up. She glared at him, she was on the verge of tears. She knew what he meant, but she had to ask.

"You had sex with her didn't you?" she asked in a whisper tears gushing down her face. As soon as the tears started to gush, the rain hardened in torrential downpour. He nodded and tried to hug her. She pushed him away. She just looked at him, nothing but hurt and depression in her eyes. She finally spoke again, the whisper drenched in sadness, depression, and the tiniest twinge of harshness. "Um, Ronald, whatever we had isn't going to work. I can't be around you anymore." she said simply. Lying down on her bed and facing away from him.

"Hermione please don't do this." he said in something more than a whisper. "I love you so much and if you say that you don't want to be with me, I can live with that, but I need to have you in my life, even if its as my enemy. Please." he was now begging. He went to the side that she was facing and he was now on his knees, begging her. "Please just forgive me. Please." She couldn't look at him without crying. She just closed her eyes and let the tears drop. "Hermione, it didn't mean anything to me, just please, forgive me." Obviously this was the wrong thing to say, because, she punched him right in the eye.

"REALLY RON, BECAUSE I REALLY DON'T SEE HOW YOU CAN LOVE ME AND THEN GO SHAG LAVENDER IN THE SODDING BROOM CLOSET, WITHOUT IT MEANING SOMETHING! YOU DON'T LOVE ME, THIS IS JUST SOME SICK FANTASY, THAT YOU WANTED TO FULFILL, BECAUSE YOU KNEW THAT I LOVED YOU. YOU BELONG TO LAVENDER, NOW GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY ROOM!" By this time there was a thunderstorm, the lights were flickering and the entire house was shaking, because of Hermione's anger. Ron's eye was turning, black, because of the force that Hermione put in it. Also she turned around to see four frightened faces looking at her. But she didn't calm down so neither did her voice, but she was no longer crying. "WHO HERE ISN'T A VIRGIN?" Fred and George raised their hands, Ron didn't. "RON RAISE YOUR HAND. LOSING IT TO A SLUT COUNTS ALSO." Everyone but Harry looked at him in shock. Ron raised his hand. "NOW WHO HERE LOST THEIR INNOCENCE TO SOMEONE THAT THEY LOVED OR LOVE?" No one raised their hands. The light bulb in Hermione's room blew up. She walked over to Fred. "Who did you lose it to?" she asked in a normal , but hoarse voice. He looked slightly ashamed.

"I don't know her name. But that's why Angelina dumped me. It was a really drunken night." he said in a whisper. She looked like she felt sorry for him. She moved to George.

"Who did you lose it to?" she asked in a more calm voice. He looked down and mumbled something. "What?"

"I don't know who she was. I woke up and didn't remember a thing. But I found Alicia sitting on the floor asking me why I did it. I didn't know what she was on about until I found a note saying that I was a really good shag, that she always wanted to get back at Alicia and that I helped her with her plan for revenge. I don't know who she was, I don't remember any bit from that night. But Alicia left me and I can only assume she knows what happened, but she wont talk to me to confirm any of it. Bloody fire whiskey." Hermione gave him a sympathetic pat on the shoulder.

She then moved on to Ron.

"What happened?" she said in a harsh cold voice. He looked at her, she noticed the tear in his eye. He looked down before he spoke.

"It was after right after Christmas Holiday. The day that we got back. She dragged me to the room of requirement, and then she gave me something to drink it looked like pumpkin juice, but it didn't smell like pumpkin juice. And it certainly didn't taste like pumpkin-"

"Hold on, Ron what did it taste like? And what feeling did you get when you drank it?"

"Well it smelled like coconut-" he started. A look of realization dawned on her face and the lights fixed themselves and it stopped raining. She ran to her draw and sprayed something. As soon as he smelled it he looked mesmerized.

"Yeah it smelled like that, I love that smell." he said in a lazy voice. Hermione smiled. Everyone seemed to realize something that he didn't.

"What else did it smell like?" He snapped out of it.

"It also smelled like Vanilla." he said. Hermione looked at something and laughed. All but Ron laughed when they realized why she was laughing. Hermione had nothing but Vanilla scented shampoos. "And it tasted like coconut, peppermint and vanilla. That's when I started to feel good and dizzy, I only remember the next morning getting d- Ohhh. That slut slipped me a love potion." They all laughed at how long it took him to figure out.

"Oh, and Fred. I think that you should think about letting me use a selective pensieve, so that we can look around your memory and find out what happened, before the icky sex parts. Same with you George. Lets do it now." said Hermione. With a wave of her hand a pensieve came out. She held her hands on Fred and George's heads and pulled something silvery out of both. Then she put them into the stone goblet. She sent Fred and George into Fred's. Ten minutes later they both came back with glum looks on their faces, she didn't bother to ask she just sent them into George's. Again they came back with even worse shocked looks on their faces. She finally decided to ask.

"What happened?" she asked tentatively. They looked at each other then her.

"I don't know why they did it to both of them or us. But we did something to them. I don't know what happened. I don't know what we did, but we also got slipped love potions. By the same sisters. Twin sisters.

They were their friends. I cant believe that Mary and Carrie would do this to us." They all looked confused all except Ginny, she spoke for them.

"They were Fred and Georges first girlfriends. The whole lot of them were friends. Mary and Carrie knew that Alicia and Angelina liked Fred and George. They went out with them for that reason. But they didn't let that stop them from being friends, neither Fred or George liked Mary or Carrie, they liked Alicia and Angelina. Then Mary and Carrie dumped Fred and George, for these other boys with money. They stopped their group. Then it was just Fred, George, Angelina and Alicia. The next year the boys finally got the nerve to ask the girls out and they said yes. They year after that when the boys left the school, they still owled each other and were still going out even though they weren't together. But hold on- The plot thickens. This year when the boys opened their joke shop, Mary and Carrie went their talking about a reconciliation. That's when Alicia and Angelina came to the shop and instead of telling Mary and Carrie that they'd been going out for the past two years they just listened to what they were saying and waited for the boys to say what they were going to say. When they told them they put on phony smiles and hugged the girlfriends. That's when they 'forgave' each other. I'll bet that's who they were, weren't the Fred? George?" said Ginny with a smile. They all looked at her. "What?" she asked.

"Gin, how'd you know all of that?" Ginny just smiled.

"Well, the first time I went shopping with Hermione I saw them while she got her hair done and Ron watched. I saw Alicia and Angelina talking while getting their nails done. Then I asked them what happened between you guys last year. They told me about Mary and Carrie. I told them that you guys loved them and that you didn't do it to hurt them. They said whatever, and I said that they should talk to you. You should probably show them what you saw." They all just looked at her.

"What?"

"Did they say anything about us?" the twins asked in unison. Ginny looked down.

"No, but they did say something about having dates, and thinking about it." said Ginny nervously.

"We were going to propose the next day. Did you know that?" they again said in unison. Ginny shook her head.

"No, but I told them about how you guys never did stop talking about them. And how miserable you've been. And how you're not really that funny anymore. They just said that they had to go, but they did both have tears in their eyes. I don't think they want to go out with these other guys. But when they left they both shouted something about 'seven years' 'deceitfulness' and 'twin bitches'. Sorry." they both looked depressed and unhappy. They both left with a small 'pop'. As soon as they did, Ginny and Hermione squealed. Harry and Ron looked at them in confusion.

Two minutes later four people popped in. There in the middle of Hermione's room stood Fred, George, Angelina and Alicia.

"You said you wanted to show me something, Fred. Where in the bloody hell is it? And where is Hermione?" asked Angelina. Hermione raised her hand. Angelina and Alicia rushed towards her and Ginny hugging all of they younger group. Fred and George pried them both off of Harry and Ron. "You know, if I wasn't sure that him and Hermione would be marrying each other, I definitely would have went for your younger brother!" Angelina shouted to Fred.

"And if, I didn't know that Harry was in love with Ginny, I would've went for the youngest seeker of the century!" yelled Alicia to George. They both pulled the girls to their pensieve and went in. Ten minutes later they both came out hugging. Thy left right after that.

"So, I'm tired are you Harry?" asked Ginny with a huge fake yawn. She didn't wait for him to answer she just pulled him out of the room. As soon as they left Ron laughed. Hermione looked at him.

"You hit really hard." he said with mock hurt in his voice. Hermione laughed.

"Um, yeah. I'm sorry. I overreacted, a little bit." she said. He looked at her like he was crazy.

"Yeah, just a smidgen. You only hit me once, and made the weather change, blew up a light bulb. Just a little. But, you know, that just makes you even more perfect for me right?" Hermione smiled, but it soon faded and she looked down before she spoke to him.

"Ron. I still can't be with you." He looked at her with nothing but love and hurt in his eyes, and she knew that she was breaking his heart. But she couldn't bare it. She wasn't going to be his first, Lavender shared a special part of him that she would never share. And she didn't even know why he loved her, she wasn't pretty, she wasn't smart and she wasn't worth it, everyone was right. She was just a mud blood. It was killing her, but she couldn't do it. "We set rules for our relationship, and in the first ten minutes, they were broken. I cant do anything that can alter my life with you, knowing that Lavender beat me to it." She looked at him. He had tears in his eyes. She started to cry also. It started to rain hard again.

"Why are you doing this?" he asked. His voice starting to crack. "I love you. I didn't love her. I want to be with you. I didn't want to be with her. You have my heart, and I can never get it back. Please don't do this. I love you. And I'll never love anyone else the way that I love you. Please, I want to be with you and you only. Please, believe me." She could hear in his voice that his heart was breaking. She wanted to be with him, but she knew she wasn't good enough for him.

"Ron, I'm not even worth it. I'm not pretty, I'm not smart and I'm not worth it. I am just a mud blood. You need to be with at least a half and half, I am no good for you. If we- Can we just be friends, please? You still have your chance at Lavender, take it." she said, tears running down her face." He looked hurt, and depressed, but livid.

"Hermione, how do you go from, kissing me and wanting to be with me to a sappy, sorry ass, 'it's not you it's me type speech'. Where the fuck is all of this coming from. Why now? And no, we cant be friends. We're too deep in. I could understand you telling me that you love me as a brother and nothing else, but you told me you loved me, you kissed me back, you punched me in the face for something that I didn't have any control over, and then you just broke my heart. So if you're wondering if we can just be friends, the answer is no." his voice was now harsh and cold.

"Why are you doing this to me?" she asked, in a whisper.

"Are you fucking kidding me? I just spent about two weeks alone with you and each day all we've done is flirt. You just caused a thunderstorm because I had sex with some girl, who I couldn't even-. I cant believe you. What the hell is this all about? I just poured my heart out to you and I do remember one thing from that night with Lavender. She wanted to be with me so bad before I was a 'hero', that she slipped me a potion that made her give me the same feeling as you give me. I just want you to know this, 'when you take a love potion, the person that gives it to you to take becomes the person that you want to be with'. So in my mind, (as sick as it sounds)

my first time was with you." There was a silence for a while, both of them looking at the floor sneaking glances at one another. "I don't get it, what do you want?" he asked, breaking the silence.

"I want to go back to the way things were." she said simply in something more than a whisper.

He laughed harshly.

"You mean, you want me to pine after you some more. Steal glances at you and follow you around. You don't want a person, you want a pet. I already know I'm not good enough for you, but this is a really harsh way to tell me. You shouldn't have played along with it Hermione, I'm a big boy, if you didn't love me, you could've just said so." With that he disapparated out of the room. She just lied on the bed and cried herself to sleep. In two days they were going to have to go to the Burrow for Harry's birthday. She woke instantly as she heard a knock on her door.

"What?" she said in cross between a whisper and a sigh. The door pushed in. There stood Harry, Ginny and VERONICA! "What?" she asked in the same voice. Veronica brought out Hermione's favorite cookies and juice as Hermione scooted over to make room for her. Ginny and Harry looked at them surprised. They snuggled up to each other. Harry and Ginny looked utterly shocked.

"Okay, I don't know what to think. I thought you two hated each other." Hermione and Veronica looked at Harry as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"We do and we don't." said Hermione. Harry and Ginny looked confused. Veronica sighed.

"Hermie your friends are beautiful, but ugh. Okay, I love Hermione, she is the younger sister I never had. That's why we don't get along. All the boyfriends that I don't think deserve her, I steal. And she does and doesn't understand that I do it because I love her." Hermione looked at her in shock and anger.

"What about Brandis? He was great. And you were then and are now disgusting" Veronica looked disgusted, and hurt.

"No, no. He wasn't. That's why I dumped him, like that. He was going to dump you for someone else, so I dated then dumped him. And just so you know, I'm not as disgusting as I seem. It just looks that way, because I make it look that way, and what type of disgusting do you mean. Sluttish or evil?" Hermione gave a dry chuckle.

"Both." Veronica gave a mock hurt look.

"I am not. I am technically still a virgin. And as for evil, I did that to him because of what he was going to do to you." Hermione looked pleased, until Veronica spoke again. "So, what happened?"

"He left." Veronica, Harry and Ginny looked livid. Harry's fists balled up. "No, guys. It was my fault. I told him that I didn't think we should be together." she said quietly. They all looked at her confused. "He had sex with Lavender. I'll never get to share that with - ill that sounded really disgusting. Then he asked why I was doing this, Then he told me that I shouldn't have played with him like that. Now he think's that I don't love him. I love him." she said all in a little more than a whisper. They all looked at her like she was stupid, Ginny was the only one that had the guts to speak up.

"Well that was really stupid Hermione! Is it that he's not good enough for you, because if that's it I'll leave too." and with that she walked down the stairs and left, not listening to the protests from Hermione. Then there were three.

"Listen, Veronica. Can I talk to Hermione for a second, please?" asked Harry. Veronica got up and left the room. "Hermione, Ginny was right. That was really stupid, especially since you have to see him in the next two days for my birthday party. And in the next week you'll honestly be seeing him for the next year. What was it? Why don't you want to be with him?" asked Harry in a soft voice. Hermione sighed.

"Harry, I love him. I do want to be with him, I'm just not good enough for him. I'm not pretty enough, I'm not smart enough and I'm not worth the sneering and trouble. The truth is, I am just a mud blood. Ron deserves better than that. He deserves better than me." Harry scoffed at her reasons.

"You're right he does." said Harry. Hermione glared daggers at him. "If you honestly believe that Ron that of that of you, then you are completely right, you don't deserve him. It's times like this that I need Sirius. If my dad gave up the first time my mom gave him this pureblood muggleborn speech, I wouldn't be here right now. Sirius says that my mom was in love with my dad, but was going to leave him alone because of blood status. Where would the world be if she did. This is the last thing that I'm going to say to you." he took a deep breath, while she looked him in the eye. "You are being so, so, so, so stupid. If you love him and he loves you, what should it matter? If you cant stop what you're doing now, then I think they're right. You don't think he's good enough for you." Hermione jumped up.

"I'm not good enough for him. He's perfect. Look at me, I'm a bloody, frumpy, 'cousin it' looking thing. I'm not pretty and I never will be. No matter how many times I dye or straighten my hair. I'm not smart. No one in this world should love me, why does he? I cant do this Harry, I'm not girlfriend material. And he deserves someone perfect, I'm barely adequate. Harry, it'll be better for him. Just, please tell him that I want to be friends, like he said we could be, after the whole Lavender thing. Pleas tell him, I want him to talk to me, please? Just tell him that, and that I miss him. I'll see you next week on the train." she said with tears in her eyes and a weak smile.

"You're not coming to my birthday?" he asked. She nodded.

"I don't think I' on the Weasley Christmas card list. Can you tell Ginny that I miss her? And can you shut off the lights. I'm tired." she said in a depressed voice. Harry tucked her in and kissed her forehead, doing everything she asked as soon as he got to the Burrow.

AT THE BURROW

Ron wanted nothing more than to be with Hermione, but obviously she didn't want to be with him. The same question uttered in his head over and over again. 'Why is she doing this?' he thought. 'If she wants me to be with Lavender, then that's what I'll do. I'll be with someone who wants me', he thought. He went to sleep that night with the same two thoughts running through his head. 'If she wants to be friends, we can be friends.' and 'why is she doing this?'

TO BE CONTINUED……

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