Ron had no idea what happened. He had been talking to Seamus and Dean as they walked across the green about the Cannons game, when he spotted a crowd of students by the lake. Poor Seamus, short thing that he was, couldn't see over the heads like his sasquatch friends Dean and Ron could, but he put the pieces together fairly quickly. Dean had muttered, "Damn, looks like Malfoy is causing trouble," and Ron had cursed, "Merlin's beard, it's Harry and Hermione." That was the only prompting the boys needed to push their way through the throng of students to where Draco and his goons faced off with Ron's best friends.

Before Ron could get a word out, Hermione had scoffed at Draco and yanked on Harry's arm, saying, "Let's go Harry, come on, this is so beneath us."

Draco, who had been sneering at Harry, turned his glare to Hermione and spat at her, "That's rich coming from you, mudblood." The crowd went deathly silent, and the only sounds Ron could hear were the angry swishes of his and Harry's robes as they whipped their wands out. Malfoy and his minions had their wands out a second later, and Ron was absolutely itching to hex them off their feet, but Hermione interrupted again and the look on her face was so excited that he didn't even attempt to stop her.

She inserted herself between the two sets of boys, almost daring the Slytherins to hit her while she was unarmed. Hermione took a deep breath and glanced around at the students surrounding them. Whatever she saw there seemed to satisfy her, and so she squared her shoulders and stared confidently at Malfoy. Ron thought that perhaps she was going to punch him again when she started to raise her arm, but instead she brought her hand to her mouth and licked her palm very slowly and deliberately. Ron was baffled, frankly, and had just opened his mouth to tell Harry that she'd finally lost it when – SMACK! Hermione had slapped that hand across Malfoy's cheek, and Ron was almost proud enough to forget that she had licked her own hand.

Before anyone could respond in any sort of way, Hermione started to speak in a strange sort of chant voice, "You got mud on your face, you big disgrace, somebody better put you back in your place."

Personally, Ron didn't think this was the time for her to be practicing her poetry skills, but Harry, Dean, Seamus, and quite a few members of the crowd went wild for it, laughing and whooping. Confused as all hell, Ron and the other purebloods watched in bewilderment as the group of excited classmates began stomping their feet and clapping their hands all together. Stomp, stomp, clap. Stomp, stomp, clap.

Hermione spun around, obviously delighted at the response, and joined them. Following the lead of Harry and Seamus, the others began slowly closing in on Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle, still stomping and clapping, but now also lowly chanting, "We will, we will, ROCK YOU!"

If Ron had not been so thoroughly confused that all he could think of was one giant red question mark, he would have pissed himself laughing at the sheer terror on Malfoy's face.

"Draco, come on, let's go, let's go!" Goyle yelled as he and Crabbe pulled Malfoy back, scrambling away from their classmates. Ron and the other silent students stared around at each other in blank shock amidst the uproar.

"Granger that was brilliant!"

"Lord above, did you see Malfoy's face?!"

"Hermione, have I ever told you? You're my Queen."

Eventually the crowd dispersed, still-laughing kids being led away by their puzzled pureblood friends. "Oh, Ron," Hermione said, "I just don't think I can explain it to you," her face torn between joy and pity.

"Yeah, sorry mate," Harry continued, chuckling and leaning on Dean for support, "you grew up in the wizarding world, it's a Muggle thing."

Throwing in his two cents, Seamus add, "Blimey though, I do feel bad for ya. Sometimes I really love bein' half-blood!"