Merlin's beard! Is she ever going to say something intelligent?, Ron thought irritably.
"So Padma told Parvati, that Pansy told Neville he was...", Lavender continued. She had been talking gossip for only five minutes now, and Ron had already zoned out. He hated gossip. Before Hogwarts, he didn't really have any interest in it. But ever since Harry had been the constant target of gossip and back-talk, he had grown quite irritated by it. Lavender on the other hand loved to discuss the intricacies of other peoples's lives. Sometimes, she would bore him for hours on end without interruptions.
"Is this story actually leading anywhere?", Ron asked.
"I've just told you! Pansy called Neville an idiot in front of Padma, who told Parvati. It's just like last time, with..."
Ron decided to fill his mouth with some food, so he didn't have to respond to anything she said. Lavender promptly responded by talking to her other neighbour. The bacon and eggs were excellent today, and so was the orange juice. He wondered if people in other countries envied the British for their excellent breakfasts.

Deciding to take seconds, Ron lifted his plate up to put some sausages on it. He had only lifted it half a foot when he noticed a small, folded piece of parchment underneath it. It hadn't been there before, he was quite certain of it.
One of the house elves must have put it there. I wonder what it says.
As his plate lifted up further, he noticed the parchment held his name, written in a very pretty, curly and neat handwriting. He immediately pushed the plate back onto it, afraid that Lavender would see it. The remaining pieces of eggs and bacon immediately flew into the air, hitting several people.
"RON!" Lavender exploded, "Now there's eggs in my hair! Why don't you ever pay any attention, you dumb git?"
Fuming with rage, Lavender left the great hall, to shower her hair and change her clothes. People were laughing about him, making him feel uncomfortable. He hated it when people called him dumb. It wasn't like he was daft or anything. Sure, he wasn't Hermione, but he wasn't Neville either.

Gently, Ron slid his plate towards him, until the parchment fell out from under it and onto his lap. He put some sausages on his plate (he was still hungry after all) and quickly read it quickly under the table.

"Ponder over me a while,
Or have you not the time?
The thing you want to know
Is hidden in this rhyme!
Obvious I might not be,
Not easily to see.
Somehow you must find me."

- Hermione

A challenge! I accept, Ron thought, and I'll make you realize I'm not as dumb as everyone thinks.
At that moment, Harry entered the great hall. They had a free period before Defence against the Dark Arts, so they had some time to kill. Harry had only yesterday found out Malfoy had been going to the Room of Requirement. He had been keen to try and enter it during his free period. Hermione had Ancient Runes, and tried to grab a quick breakfast before going to class. Ron eyed her suspiciously. He knew she had given him the parchment, but she had no intention of showing it. She remained her normal self even when telling them Mundungus had been arrested.

After finishing both breakfast and an essay on how the fight Dementors for Snape (it was due in an hour, so he could not go any deeper into the riddle), Ron entered the Defence against the dark arts classroom. He sat down quickly, expecting Harry and Hermione to arrive soon. Hermione entered the classroom just before class started. She sat down next to him, opening her bags and stalling out her book. Harry was late, and his lateness costed Gryffindor ten points.

It wasn't going to be an easy class today, as would soon be apparent. Ron had not been able to resist a snear to Snape, costing Gryffindor another ten points. Snape's retort had been a rather vicious jibe about his inability to apparate.
The words kept repeating in his head all period long. He hated it that apparation hadn't come as easily as with others. At least he might recieve some positive remarks from Hermione, to ease the wounds a bit. He was mistaken. Lavender caught up with him immediately after class and started ranting about Snape's jibe. Hermione had obviously split the moment she saw her coming.
Merlin, Ron thought, this is not my day.
He quickly went into the boys's lavatories to escape her.

As Ron walked back from his last class that afternoon, he felt quite a lot better. The apparation practice would be in Hogsmeade this weekend. Hermione and he would be going together, something he had been looking forward to ever since he had realized it was the best moment to give her the solution to the riddle. He had read it over and over again in history of magic, which was unusually more boring than it normally was.
Another little riddle, is it, Hermione?, Ron thought, I swear I'll break it before dawn.

He headed to the dormitories to try and find some logic in it. On his way over, he came across a group of second year boys, teasing a first year Hufflepuf. They were pushing him over, causing him to trip on his robes. His backpack tore open at the bottom, causing his books to spill over the ground.
"Hey, you three!" Ron yelled, "You want to tell me what you're doing?"
Ron saw three faces turn pale at the sight of him. He was three heads taller than each of them, and infinitely bigger.
"I'll teach you why teasing isn't allowed here!", Ron bellowed as he repaired the boy's bag with a quick spell, "Each of you bullies will rapport to your heads of house before next period starts."

"Thanks," said the kid, "When I get older, I hope I can do everything with a wand that you can do. Could you help me with my books?"
"Sure," said Ron, picking up a few books for him. They were Japanese, and written with odd markings.
"Looks difficult, doesn't it?", said the boy. He told Ron you had to read them downwards, from right to left, but Ron couldn't even make any sense out of it then.

Suddenly, one of the suits of armour began toppling over, heading straight towards them. It crashed down heavily onto them, causing Ron and the kid to be pinned down under it. Ron saw the Hufflepuf boy was wounded and reached for his wand.
"Whomever did this better not still be around!", Ron threatened, "Teasing someone is one thing, but wounding him is a completely different thing. If I get you, you're in for a world of trouble."
"I'm sooo scared, Weasle King," Malfoy spat, "I've been dying to teach you a lesson, you filthy blood traitor."
Malfoy only barely finished his sentence before Ron began sending curses in his direction. After trying a stunning spell, Malfoy made the mistake of shooting the jelly-legs curse. Ron had been expecting it. Malfoy always did the jelly-legs curse in duels, and always left his left side unattended while doing it. He rebounded to the side and fired off a particularly powerful spell, blasting Draco off his feet and into the wall. He fell down, unconscious.

"MISTER WEASLEY," boomed a voice from behind, "NEVER IN MY YEARS AT HOGWARTS DID I EVER SEE SUCH A DISGRACEFUL ACT OF VIOLENCE!"
Professor McGonagall disarmed Ron immediately. She walked up to him, almost the same colour as his hair.
"I think a detention will be in order Weasley, a very long detention."
She revived Malfoy with a flick of her wand.
"Did he attack you, mister Malfoy?" she asked him urgently.
"Yes madam," Draco lied, "I was just walking here, when I saw him push that suit of armour onto that boy. I tried to stop him, but he cursed me first."
"Liar!," Ron bellowed, "You pushed that suit of armour onto me, and now you're pushing the blame on me too!"
McGonagall shook her head. "One of you is lying. Go to the headmasters office and tell him I sent you. He'll give you both punishments. You'd better hope this boy doesn't suffer any long-term damage."
She picked the boy up magically and transported him to the hospital wing. Meanwhile Draco and Ron walked to Dumbledore's office in stony silence, knowing one more fight would get them expelled.

Dumbledore had been his usual self: mysterious, eccentric and vague. Draco had been given the benefit of the doubt, seeing as Ron had rendered him unconscious. Grinning with satisfaction, he left the headmasters office quickly. Ron though, would have been given a far more severe punishment. He would not have been allowed to go to Hogsmeade that weekend if McGonagall hadn't informed Dumbledore at the last minute that the Hufflepuf's testimony cleared him from all charges.
"So Malfoy is going to get punished?" Ron asked hopefully.
"No," Dumbledore replied, "The boy passed out before the culprit had revealed himself. Based on this evidence, I cannot conclude that mister Malfoy did any of this. And neither should you from now on."

Damnit!, Ron thought, as he walked back to his dormitory, I can't believe he actually got away with this! I thought there would be enough evidence to get him. He had lied to McGonagall for one thing, and he was at the scene of the crime. He even had a motive in revenge for last time. Bollocks!
Hermione and Harry spent all evening trying to cheer him up, but nothing worked. He had failed at being a prefect again, he was still no better at apparating and he still hadn't been able to look further into Hermione's riddle.
"I'm tired," he said, "I'm going to bed. See you guys later. Good night, Hermione."
"Good night, Ron."
Harry noticed this small, yet obvious, hint that they were getting on better terms again. He wasn't the only one. Lavender stood up from her seat by the fire.
"Aren't you even going to wish me a good night?", she asked irritably.
"Good night, Lavender," Ron said, trying to sound as bored as he could.

"Ponder over me a while,
Or have you not the time?
The thing you want to know
Is hidden in this rhyme!
Obvious I might not be,
Not easily to see.
Somehow you must find me."

Ron sat on his bed, holding the small piece of parchment in his hands.
"What is it this time, Hermione?" he wondered, "Another thing with numbers? Nah, you did that last time." He looked at the rhyme, trying to get the hints in it to add up.
"Somehow you must find me", he read, "So I'm looking for something. Probably something that Is hidden in this rhyme."

He looked over the lines again and again until his head started to pound. What was he looking for? A word? Some sentence that meant something? The longer he kept looking at the riddle, the more the letters began swimming in front of his eyes, like in the book he picked up for that kid.
"Bollocks!" he groaned, "How could I have missed something so obvious?" Ron read the first letters of each sentence and quickly noted it down. "Potions". It was so simple, it was brilliant.

Ron quickly went downstairs. The common room was starting to empty out; after all, it was past eleven. Hermione and Harry were still downstairs. Ron noticed that Hermione seemed rather bored. He wondered if Harry had been talking about Malfoy again. As he walked up to them, he noticed Hermione instantly began to smile, and beaconed him over.
"Done feeling gloomy?" Harry asked.
After Ron had told them about this afternoon, Harry immediately began questioning him about the room of requirement. (Did he say anything? Did he have something with him? Was he hiding something?) Ron had dismissed it and didn't want to talk about it any more, but Harry seemed renewed in his faith about Malfoy being a Death Eater.
"Say, Hermione, I suddenly remembered I was meaning to ask you something about potions..."
Hermione's reacted instantly. She sat up straight and looked into his eyes. Their eyes met and a red glow crept upon their cheeks immediately afterwards.
"So? What did you want to ask?" Harry asked Ron after a short pause, making him feel rather embarrassed.
"Uhmm," Ron stammered. He hadn't really thought of anything to ask yet.
"I guess I forgot. Sorry. I'm sure it was about potions though."

They were up for a long time, talking and laughing. Harry had left around half passed twelve, leaving Ron and Hermione alone together again.
"So you figured it out all by yourself, huh?" she asked.
For a moment, Ron thought that she meant that he couldn't have done it alone. He looked at her oddly. Normally, she never called him dumb (unless they were fighting).
"No, I didn't mean that you needed help!" Hermione suddenly said, figuring out how he had taken her compliment, "I just meant that I was impressed by the way you solved it so fast."
Ron looked at her playfully. He loved the way her brown eyes became watery when she was sleepy. But his favourite part on her was her hair. It was bushy, wild and often disarranged, but he thought it made her look cute and sexy. They stared at each other for minutes without talking.

"So when can I expect my next assignment?" Ron asked.
Hermione smiled mysteriously. "Some day soon. You'll notice when it's time."
Hermione got up to get to bed. She bent down over Ron and kissed his brow. She wanted to kiss his cheek, but it ended up somewhere between his cheek and his lips. She left the room smiling broadly, leaving a mesmerized Ron behind.