Harry and Co. Belong to J.K. Rowling

I do Own a plush Ron!!

One more to go...

Enjoy!!

Hermione Granger was staring in extreme displeasure at Ron Weasley. He was asleep. Again!

Normally this did not bother her. She would spend several blissful moments admiring his freckled face, before waking him for whatever activity was planned for the day.

Not today. He had promised to teach her to swim this afternoon. Of course, this had been before he had eaten a family size lunch and fallen asleep. Realizing that glaring at his slumbering form would do nothing to spur him into consciousness, she got up.

She must have been sitting longer than she thought. Hermione clenched her teeth, as she tried to work through the painful charlie horse in her calf. She frowned at the irony, she was angry at him for falling asleep but she was trying not to make noise and wake him.

Once she had stopped hobbling, she made her way towards the backdoor.

She glanced once more wistfully at the oblivious redhead snoring on the couch. Resigned, she grabbed her book and headed to the willow tree at the edge of the lake on the Weasley's vast property.

She passed a rather competitive game of Quidditch. Harry was certainly distracted, since the twins were mocking him quite severely. She turned to better see what he was looking at, Hermione laughed and shook her head. 'If only Ginny knew'. She made her way to the lovely willow tree and comfortably settled herself for a nice read.

Hermione was engrossed in her book for a good half hour, until she grew exasperated and gave up. She had read the same sentence at least four times and she couldn't seem to shake the gangly boy from her mind. She pushed back her bushy hair and was surprised to find Harry standing before her.

He had his back to her and was shading his eyes from the descending sun. "A little too hot to be enjoying a book." he observed. "Or are you perhaps thinking of something else?" he asked, his head cocked to the side.

Hermione was momentarily speechless. 'Harry insightful?' Figuring out her reaction, he looked momentarily offended. "What? I'm not Ron, Herm give me some credit." he replied sitting down beside her. "No, you're not." she said studying the colors of the water mixing with the fiery orange sun dipping into them.

Harry chose not to comment and instead began unlacing his shoes. "Fancy a dip?" he motioned towards the lake as he got up and stepped out of his pants. Hermione turned her head quickly and was greeted with an amused chuckle. "I'm wearing trunks. You can look." he laughed and slowly made his way into the water.

Once waist deep he removed his shirt and tossing it at her, disappeared below the surface. Hermione pulled the shirt off her and placed it next to his other discarded clothes. She removed her shoes and socks, cautiously scooting closer to the bank to dip her toes.

"Come on, the waters not too cold." he shouted encouragingly. His hair plastered to his glasses, Harry shoved it off his face. He was surprised to see the normally composed Hermione staring at the water as if it was a Hippogriff. "Hermione, do you know how to swim?" he asked gently.

Hermione pulled her feet from the water, curling her knees up to her chest. She shook her head solemnly. Harry waded closer to her and looked at her bent head, he knew how much she hated to admit she didn't know something.

Not out of pride but simply because, him and Ron depended on her for answers. Hermione always felt like she was letting them down, if she didn't know. "Want me to teach you?" he inquired gently tugging her foot. She raised her head, wiping tears from her eyes, "Sure."

Harry didn't notice the half-hearted answer. Hermione stripped down to her modest swimsuit, suddenly feeling shy in front of Harry. She waded carefully into the cold water, determined to teach Ron a lesson.

Harry immediately took command of the situation, he briefly flashed back to his days in the D.A.

"Do you know how to float?" Hermione mutely shook her head, she felt very nervous this close to Harry.

She had always seen Harry as a brother but she feared if Ron found them, he would not see the situation as kindly.

Harry made her lie on her back, the water gently lapping at her. She could feel his arms just barely on her back forcing her to not sink. He kept encouraging her to straighten her legs and relax, "Let the water carry you. Pretend you're lighter than the water, don't fight it." he commanded.

Hermione felt her apprehension leave her and she loosened. The water was lapping at the edges of her body, she could barely feel Harry's arms. She closed her eyes and pictured, a redhead boy with smiling blue eyes leaning down and kissing her as gently as the water. "Hermione, wake up." Harry was urgently hissing into her face.

Hermione gave a surprised shriek at the suddenly too close glasses of her best friend. His dark hair was dripping right into her eyes but she could see the green eyes widened in panic behind the round frames.

She lost her buoyancy and sank like a stone.

Disoriented, she grabbed onto the nearest solid object. Much to his surprise, Harry was violently pulled under. Hermione was struggling and had basically wrapped her arms frantically around Harry's neck. Harry had to fight her off, and finally untangling her from him, they resurfaced.

Hermione holding onto Harry's arm was still sputtering and gagging but she noticed Harry was strangely silent. She turned questioningly, his face was rather pale and he looked like he wanted to duck back under the water, air be damned.

She followed his agonized gaze and looked towards the bank.

In the darkening afternoon, she spied the figure. A tall, thin boy with a fiery mop of hair that seemed to match his murderous face. Hermione hid behind Harry and saw Ron's hands fisted at his side. He was glaring at Harry with eyes normally reserved for Malfoy and his ilk.

"Hey, Ron" Harry's voice came out quieter that he expected. Hermione instantly saw something that made his face lose the rest of its color. Behind Ron was a smaller figure with wavy red hair, her look of hurt even more obvious in the darkness. "Mum says, that dinner's ready. If you lot are ready to come in." she said evenly and with great composure made her way back to the burrow.

Hermione watched the war going on in Harry's features. "Go," she whispered and pushed him towards the bank. Harry smiled gratefully and just barely slipping his pants and shirt on, ran full tilt to the house. Ignoring Ron and heading after the other redhead he cared about.

Hermione hoisted herself up and moved towards her clothing not daring to spare a glance at Ron. "Have a nice time, did you?" his tone one of deceptive calm. "Yeah, Harry was trying to teach me how to swim." she replied putting her hair into a messy bun.

In the distance, shouts of "Leave me alone" and "but we didn't do anything." echoed through the evening sky. "I thought…" Ron was having a very difficult time controlling his anger. He knew that he had no reason to be jealous. Him and Hermione were friends as was Harry. 'He didn't care if they had a go together, right?'

"Why Harry? Ginny knows how to swim too." he snapped. "Because Ginny was busy, I guess." Hermione responded. She was starting to get angry, 'Who did Ron think he was? He was the one who fell asleep, leaving her bored and alone.'

"Why not, Harry?" she asked rounding on him. Ron was momentarily startled by her outburst. "He's my best mate, that's why." Ron shouted back, using his full height to tower over her. Hermione tilted her head up, jabbing his chest with her finger. "So, he my best friend too. He can teach me all sorts of things if I want him too."

Ron's anger faded, his face crestfallen. "So that's it."

Hermione realized that this was not about a swimming lesson, "Ron, you can't expect me to wait forever. I was looking forward to you teaching me but you fell asleep and…" she didn't finish her sentence.

Ron stared at her, his blue eyes tortured, "You could have told me you wanted him…". Ron trailed off the pain of that statement too much for him to speak out loud.

Hermione buried her face in his sweater. The stitched R pressed against her nose. He smelled like Ron.

A smell unique and unable to be described almost like clothes left to dry in the sunshine, or a warm buttery smell but not quite.

Ron didn't move, he savored the moment as best as possible. He moved away from her, and taking off his sweater slipped it over her damp clothes. "You'll catch a cold." pulling her hair softly out of the sweater to flow down her back.

"Mum's probably having kittens." he said helping her pick up the rest of her's and Harry's discarded clothes. "Harry only taught me how to float." Hermione mentioned, "I still don't know how to swim."

Ron turned and beamed at her, his eyes looked at her in awe but dimmed quickly. "I don't deserve to teach you." he replied shuffling his feet. "Ron, I'm asking you to teach me." Hermione smiled at his hopeful expression.

"On one condition." Ron looked at her suspiciously. "I have to apologize to Harry?" he inquired. "Yeah but can I keep your sweater? I've outgrown mine." she responded. Ron nodded, too surprised to say anything.

They made their way to the burrow. After dinner and a brief but heartfelt apology to Harry, who seemed awful cozy with Ginny in front of the fireplace, Ron said goodnight.

"Mione, I'm always here if you need me and not just for lessons." he whispered before heading up to his room. Hermione stood in amazement in the hallway, watching Ron's tall form run up the stairs. "Herm?" Hermione turned to Harry who was standing behind her. "You gonna give back Ron's sweater?" he teased her good-naturedly.

Hermione headed to her and Ginny's room, "No, if Ginny doesn't have to give you yours back, why should I? Night Harry." she closed the door on her best friend's stunned face.

Hermione slipped into bed, curling her arm around the maroon sweater with the lovely scent even she couldn't describe. After all, it was so Ron…

Not the end yet…