Several days had passed since Hermione had given Ron the answer to his first riddle. She was now lying on her back in bed, realizing she wasn't going to finish reading "Magic from the Ground Up" about the magical properties of Sapient Pearwood today. Every time she'd read three lines, her mind immediately started thinking about Ron and what riddle he might come up with next. She imagined him sitting alone in the library, thinking hard to create an imaginative and difficult puzzle.

She put the book under her pillow and pulled the sheets over her head. It was late again, like every day since he had given her the first riddle. Hermione had spent hours, fantasizing about living a life with Ron. She imagined herself living in a house like the Burrow. Ron could be obnoxious, rude and self-centred sometimes, but that didn't matter to her. She knew him as the gentle, caring guy he mostly was. Ron didn't have to be perfect, to be perfect for her. Hermione wasn't perfect either, carrying a deep-seated insecurity about herself.

Her insecurities sometimes seemed to dominate her life; Hermione would constantly find herself insecure about her appearance and her abilities. Doing hours of studying, handing in twice as much homework as was requested and answering as much questions in class as she could soothed her insecurities greatly, but they never really left. Hermione had found only one thing that made her insecurities disappear completely. She had grown to love it more than she could ever have imagined herself loving it. It was Ron. Ron made her feel like she was cute, but above all, smart. Talking to him made her feel smart, not because Ron was dumb, but because he asked the right questions. He challenged her. Slowly, Hermione fell asleep. Her mind had been racing with thoughts for hours, causing her to fall asleep well after two o'clock. It was a peaceful, dreamless sleep that felt like it passed within seconds.

She woke up oddly refreshed. Bright sunlight was streaming in from the windows, flooding the dormitories with warmth and colours. Hermione realized she had overslept again. She jumped out of bed, fished some clothes from her trunk and ran into the bathroom. It was deserted.
"If it's empty," Hermione thought, "I must be seriously late!"
Hermione feverishly pulled on her clothes, smoothed her hair and stared at her reflection in the mirror.
Still boring old Hermione, she thought bluely, still the same stupid hairdo, the same freckles on my nose, the same thin lips. What does he see in me anyway?

She ran back to the dormitories and picked up her alarm clock. Two years ago, she had bewitched it, so that it would always be on the correct time. She had felt quite content with her handy spell work. A few months later, she had charmed it to set itself automatically. She hadn't needed to touch the 'set' button for more than a year now. For some stupid reason, the clock hadn't gone off today.
Did I charm it wrong? Hermione speculated while examining the clock. In the end, she decided she would look at it in the evening, when she'd have more time to find out why it wasn't working.

She pointed at her bag, using a non-verbal spell to fill it with her books for today. Oddly enough, her bag remained completely still. The books that normally flew out of her trunk remained completely still, refusing to move even an inch. Surprised, she pointed her wand again, expecting her bag to open and her books to zoom to it. Again, the desired result was not achieved.
What's wrong with me? Hermione thought desperately, Why isn't my magic working?
She pointed again, saying the spell aloud this time for better results. Again, nothing moved.
I've done this a million times, Hermione thought despairingly, why won't it fill up?
For a second, Hermione had a glimpse of the unthinkable. She saw herself expelled from school, cast away because she couldn't do magic any more. She saw, in her mind's eye, professor McGonagall telling her she was a big disappointment to her. Then, she saw something even worse. Ron holding hands with Lavender, telling her how 'swell' he thought she was.

Hermione slumped to her knees, tears forming in her eyes. She kept pointing her wand at her bag, trying to get the stupid thing to fill up. It didn't. Big watery tears fell down on her lap as she saw her world collapse in front of her eyes. This was it. The end of Hogwarts for the 'brilliant' Hermione. All those hours of studying, all those feet of parchment of homework, all the spells she'd remembered, all of it had been for nothing. Magic, it seemed, had been taken from her.

"What on earth are you doing," Lavender said coolly, "it's Saturday today, you daft cow."
Suddenly, everything fell into place. If it was Saturday, her alarm clock would be working excellently, because it wouldn't have needed to ring. That would also mean her books wouldn't have to be put into her bag, because she had no classes on Saturday. Slowly, she relaxed. She wiped the tears from her eyes and for barely a moment, she sighed with relief. She closed her eyes. She could still see Ron, holding Lavender's hands. It had been horrible, thinking he wasn't interested in her after all.

Hermione stormed out of the girl's dormitories and ran into the common room. She noticed it was only ten o'clock, so most students were still in bed. Hermione ran up the stairs, into Harry and Ron's dormitories. Ron's bed was empty, just like Harry's. Immediately, she noticed a big, red envelope stuffed under Ron's pillow. She picked it up. It was heavy. On it was written, in a scrawl as neat as Ron could muster, Hermione's name.
"Should I read it?" Hermione said to herself, "Maybe he wants me to read it here."
On the other hand, it was hidden under his pillow, so he probably doesn't want me to read it.
"But he won't find out I've read it."
So? It would still feel like cheating.
"I just want to know what the next riddle will be. Nothing big, just a.. heads-up."
So wait for him to give it to you.

In the end, Hermione's better half won out. She had almost opened it when she realized she was being stupid.
If Ron wanted me to read it, she reasoned, he would have given it to me.
Hermione walked up to the window, after putting the envelope back under his pillow. She looked out, over the school grounds towards the quidditch pitch. Seven brightly coloured, red and gold dots were zooming fast between the hoops. By the looks of it, Harry was training them in passing the quaffle around, as the small black speck she assumed to be the quaffle was being tossed around fast. Hermione decided to pay them a visit.

Before she did, she decided to fetch the book she had wanted to finish reading last night and put on some make up. She opened her trunk and delved deep to find her make up. She never used them, so they had been lying discarded on the bottom of her trunk for months now. All she owned was some eyeliner, some rouge and some mascara.
"Lavender?" Hermione asked in a singsong voice, "can I borrow some make-up from you?"
"And watch you steal some other poor girl's boyfriend?" Lavender retorted heatedly, "Have you grown bored with Ron already?"
"For your information," Hermione said, "I am still deeply in love with him, but I guess I shouldn't have asked you."
Hermione closed her trunk, got up and left the room, leaving a scolding Lavender behind. She applied what little make up she owned as skilfully as she could and tried to comb her bushy hair. She wasn't really pleased with the results. Her hair was now even more voluminous than before. She sighed deeply and gave up brushing it, knowing it would only get worse.

Hermione sat down on one of the seats near the quidditch pitch. Ron was sweating profusely and was breathing heavily. His eyes were focused on the quaffle, while he moved his broom slowly left and right to keep the hoops covered. Harry was bellowing orders to Katie. When he noticed her at the tribunes, he waved at her, quickly followed by more bellowing at his team mates. Ginny yelled 'Hi' quickly when she flew overhead, chased by a bludger. Katie was about to throw the quaffle when Ron noticed Hermione. Immediately, he fumbled his save, nearly losing grip on his broom and receiving a big speech from Harry afterwards. Absent-mindedly, he nodded along as he kept stealing glances towards Hermione. Hermione waved back secretly, knowing Harry would not like her to encourage Ron's growing self-doubt. She grabbed the book from her bag and started reading it.

When the quidditch practice was over, Ron came up to her immediately. He seemed very happy about something.
"Did you see that last save?" he stated enthusiastically, "Even Harry thought it was good!"
"I'm sorry Ron," Hermione said, "I was reading my book. I didn't see much of the practice."
"I guess I'm not totally surprised," Ron said, "You've never really had much interest in Quidditch. Actually, I don't think you have any other interests other than reading."
"I have other interests."
"Name one."
"Ronald Weasley..." Hermione said with a secretive grin on her face.
Ron flushed scarlet. Hermione liked this new approach of direct communication. No longer needing to hide their feelings for each other, Hermione and Ron had found themselves in a whole new area of flirting. Ron whispered sweet little nothings in her ears during classes, when nobody seemed to pay them any attention. Hermione liked to be more cryptic, like when she had told Ron the answer to the first riddle.
"Listen," Ron muttered, "I've got to go change and take a shower, but would you like to play a game of chess with me afterwards?"
"Sure, it's a date!" Hermione answered enthusiastically. Ron smiled and turned back to the castle. He had crossed several feet when Hermione suddenly grabbed his shoulder.
"Ron?" she asked quietly, "If I would become horrible at magic overnight, would you still love me?"
Ron turned around and looked at her puzzlingly.
"What do you mean?" Ron said, "Horrible at magic? Where's this all coming from?"
"If I woke up tomorrow and I couldn't do magic, would you still love me? Would you love with me if I was a muggle?"
Ron cupped her right cheek in his left hand and closed the gap between his lips and hers.

"Was that a sufficiently accurate answer?" Ron whispered softly after several minutes.
Hermione nodded in silence.
"Good," Ron said as he walked back to Hogwarts. Before he got far, he looked back one more time and said:
"I believe a mutual friend of ours left something for you on your bed."

Back in the castle, Hermione walked straight up to the dormitories and towards her bed. She pulled the hangings away quickly, hoping to find the big, red envelope there. Instead, she found a small, folded piece of paper, which contained the following message, written in Ron's usual scrawl:

Dear Hermione,

I suppose giving you the riddles on
a Saturday would be better for your
career at school.

"I'm only one away from a flock.
you should call on me if you have the time,
because I've got lots of that in stock,
and with that, I end this rhyme.

- Ron"