A/N: Thanks so much for the continued support for this story - I'm glad you're enjoying reading so far! If you like what you see, please leave feedback at the bottom…we love hearing from our readers!

Special thanks to adenei for all of your help whipping this into shape!

Let's move on in the story and see what Hermione thought about their first meeting :)

Chapter 4: "He wasn't…unhandsome."

Hermione braced herself against the chilly night air as she stepped out of the undergraduate library. Glancing at her watch, she couldn't believe that it was only eight o'clock. Trying to help Ron Weasley understand biology for one hour had felt like an eternity.

"Well, I'm going this way," she said, nodding towards the north end of campus.

Ron, on the other hand, turned west. "Got it, I'm over here."

"I'll see you next week, then?"

"Sounds good."

Without another word, she turned and marched away from the central quad as fast as she could, eager to get back to her apartment. All she wanted was her pajamas, a hot cup of tea, and to sit down and finish her reading before going to bed. That would help her get her mind off the disastrous session.

Back in high school she had mentored younger students, and it had always gone fine. Tutoring kids for the SAT and ACT earned her a nice addition to her savings account over the last few summers and prepared her well for this role. She'd even helped a classmate who was struggling in physiology earlier in the school year. So why was this particular situation so annoying to her?

Because he just doesn't care.

Ron Weasley personified everything she despised about life at a major university. The frat boy mentality, the failure to accept responsibility, the inability to take anything seriously except some inane sport or another. His kitchen floor was probably covered with beer cans and pizza boxes, and his apartment was probably filthy. He was probably more concerned with how to procure alcohol and girls than his grades or his future.

By the time she arrived back home, she was still fuming, slamming the apartment door a little harder than she'd intended and startling her roommate.

"Hermione?" Parvati called, dashing out of her bedroom. "Is everything okay?"

"Ugh! He's impossible!"

"Don't do that! You scared me. I thought something was seriously wrong!"

"I'm sorry." Hermione sighed heavily. "It's just…I don't think I can do this. I told you it would be a disaster and, lo and behold, disaster. Complete and total disaster."

"Okay, okay, slow down." Parvati placed her hands on her roommate's shoulders and came into her line of sight.

"Right. Sorry. Tell you what, let me get changed and heat up some water, then I'll tell you again why I knew this would be a bad idea and proved myself right."

Parvati laughed and gave her friend a pat on the back. "I'll do you one better, I'll make us both tea."

A few minutes later, they each sat in their normal spots in the living room and turned on the small electric fireplace. Hermione sipped her tea, closing her eyes and inhaling the bergamot aromas before Parvati interrupted the peacefulness.

"Okay, spill it."

"Where do I even begin? First of all, he was late."

"How late?"

"He was exactly on time, but everyone knows that on time is actually late and early is on time."

"If you say so," Parvati chuckled, prompting a frustrated huff from Hermione.

"And then, as soon as we got settled in our study room, the first thing out of his mouth was, 'Hey, how about you tell me all about yourself so we can avoid studying.' So annoying."

Parvati's lip twitched in response. "He actually said, 'So we can avoid studying'?"

With a wince, Hermione looked away, taking another deep swig of the warm drink. "Well, no, of course he didn't. But that was the goal. He clearly figured that if he could get me talking about what food I liked or what movies I'd seen recently or other asinine topics such as those that it would be one less minute he had to actually buckle down and do the work. It was transparent and pathetic."

"Or, and hear me out here, perhaps he was just trying to get to know you."

"I'm not there to make friends, I'm there to tutor a struggling student."

"Sure, but what's the harm? If you're going to be meeting up all semester, wouldn't it be nice to at least have a friendly, cordial relationship? Wouldn't it be nice to try to enjoy his company even if he's not a biology nerd like you?"

"First of all, I'm not a nerd, I'm just passionate. Second of all, I don't disagree with you in theory, but…I mean, trust me, it was obvious what he was trying to do," Hermione said, growing more animated by the minute. "Ron Weasley is a jock, and jocks don't care about getting to know their tutors or making friends with people smarter than them. They have plenty of friends to go drinking with whenever they want. As far as academics are concerned, they only care about using their tutors so that they're just barely able to scrape by and keep playing their sportsball things. It's a fact of life."

The conversation stalled as Parvati dropped her head into her hands, massaging her temples in frustration. But Hermione didn't care. She knew she was right! Helping Ron was an obligation, not a privilege. Why should she feel the need to become all buddy-buddy with him? Why couldn't Parvati see how unnecessary that would be?

"You're making generalizations that are rather unfair, but I digress," Parvati finally said.

"Fine," Hermione relented. "But in this case, I think he fits the mold."

"Whatever you say. And moving on, that's all well and good, but you haven't even gotten to the most important part yet."

"Which is?"

"'Jocks', as you call them, may not always be the brightest bulbs, but they're usually hot. Was he hot? C'mon, Hermione, you're shut in a room with the guy for an hour, at least tell me you had something pretty to look at."

"God, you're kidding, right?"

"What?" Parvati asked, her eyes wide open. "It's a legitimate question! These are the things that people think about when they meet someone new!"

"Perhaps I'm just a little different from other people then."

"You think?"

Hermione shot her a side-eyed glare. "I'm more interested in knowing whether people are going to do the things that they say they're going to do. Which is, in this case, studying biology so that they don't fail the course."

"You're stalling, and you still haven't answered my question…"

Tapping her chin for a moment, Hermione considered how to respond. Truth be told, she did find herself somewhat attracted to him. His blue eyes entranced her from the moment she saw him, and the way he smiled with half of his mouth was endearing. The natural waves in his hair were a bit messy, and though she had never found red-haired men attractive before, he was proving to be an exception.

"He wasn't…unhandsome."

"Jesus Christ, just say what you mean."

"Yes, alright? He was. He was attractive," Hermione felt her face heat up with the admission. "But only in a superficial, charming in a slightly sleazy type of way."

"See? Now was that so hard?"

Perhaps it hadn't been, but Hermione couldn't give her roommate complete satisfaction. She was clearly still missing the point. "But once you factor in his arrogant personality, it all went downhill."

"Did it really? Just because he tried to get to know you a little bit?"

"Because he was completely unserious about the reason we were there!"

"So?"

"What do you mean, so? We went to the library to study. He needed a tutor, so I tried to tutor him. The least he could do was feign interest to some degree."

"You know," Parvati said, shifting in her seat and leaning closer to her roommate, "most people aren't as excited about biology as you are. Hell, plenty of biology majors are only really doing it as a stepping stone to medical school or a top research fellowship. Why do you consider it such a stain on his character that he's just trying to get by in a class he's required to take but doesn't really like? Why does that make it impossible for him to be a decent person?"

Comebacks started spinning through Hermione's mind, but each was weaker than the last. Parvati had a point, of course. Besides, if someone was truly interested in the field, they probably wouldn't need a tutor. The fact that she had agreed to help him in the first place confirmed that biology probably wasn't going to be his calling in life. Maybe she should cut him a little slack.

"I suppose you're right," Hermione admitted with a sigh.

"You're damn right I'm right."

"But still, it was just so…ugh!"

"Cheer up, Hermione," Parvati said, pouring her friend a refill. "Try to remember the reason you're doing this in the first place."

Hermione blew her hair out of her face as she rested her cheek against her hand. "Which is?"

"It looks really good to Professor Sprout, which means it looks really good to the medical school admissions committee."

It was true. Professor Sprout had been at the university for so long and was highly respected. Her word was given significant value in their community; it was practically a known fact that a recommendation from her was as good as a ticket to the medical school or graduate school of your choice. Hermione hadn't become her youngest TA in years by accident; she was proud to say that she had accomplished it through hard work and dedication to her field. If this one small inconvenience was the price she needed to continue to pay to make her dream future a reality, it seemed like a worthwhile expenditure of energy.

"Yeah, I know," she answered.

"So don't blow it. Besides, she's probably not expecting miracles or anything. It's not like you need to get the guy to ace the class or anything, just try to do what you can so that he doesn't fail miserably."

"To be honest, that's mostly up to him."

"I know. But if someone like Sprout sees something in you, then I'm guessing you can play at least a small role as well."

"Maybe. Whatever, no point worrying anymore about it tonight, I suppose. I don't have to see him again until next Wednesday."

"See, that's the other thing; why are you framing it like that? Especially when you just admitted that this man is attractive, did you not?"

"So what if I did?" Hermione asked, rolling her eyes.

"Details, girl, details!"

Hermione tried to keep the little smile off of her face, but it appeared anyway. "I mean, he's…fine. Tall but not too tall, skinny but clearly toned, great smile, pale skin with freckles that were kind of cute. Wavy red hair–"

"Good for you, Hermione. A lot of people dismiss redheads off the bat, but there are some extremely sexy ones out there."

"But the most stunning feature," Hermione continued, barely acknowledging her roommate as she stared off into the distance, "was his eyes. Just…striking blue eyes. Like, impossibly blue. They looked like…like swimming pools."

"Dang! You've kinda got it bad, don't you?"

"I do not!" Hermione replied in a curt tone, shaking her head and snapping herself out of her trance. "I just…I mean, I was being, you know, honest. A–And besides, you were the one who asked!"

Instead of a reply, Parvati started snickering to herself, lowering her head and eyeing Hermione intently. "And did you ever deliver."

"Alright, never mind, I shouldn't have said anything," Hermione said, throwing the blanket off of her lap and stamping towards her bedroom. "Just forget it. Ron's annoying, and this whole thing will continue to be annoying, but I'll do it because I really want to stay on Professor Sprout's good side. Hopefully, he improves his grade, but whatever, I'll just do what I can and leave the rest up to him. End of story."

"Fair enough. But Hermione? Give him a chance. He seems like a reasonable, attractive, perhaps occasionally unfocused person. He's not the devil."

Taking a deep breath and exhaling, Hermione nodded back in her friend's direction. "You're right. I'll try. Tell you what, I'll go send him an email right now, maybe provide a little encouragement."

"Sounds good. And don't forget to mention how much you like his dead sexy eyes!"

"Goodnight, Parvati!"

Frustration continued coursing through Hermione once she closed her bedroom door behind herself.

See, this is why I don't tell Parvati things! She'll just twist them into whatever form will embarrass me the most!

Her roommate did have a point, though. Hermione knew herself well enough to know that she could be quick to judge and label people, especially people that didn't approach school with the same sense of importance as she did. Which, she was realizing, was almost everyone. Ron hadn't been that bad. Once they had gotten past the introductions, he did seem to try his best to learn the material. And she hadn't exactly been lying about his good looks. If anything, she'd sold him a bit short. Sitting by herself in the safety of her own room, she finally allowed herself to admit that she found him to be stunningly handsome, even if he was somewhat frustrating to work with.

As she flipped open her laptop, she tried to reset her frame of mind away from that of an annoyed student towards one of a patient teacher. No matter how impossible their students may be, it was always the job of the teacher to try to reach them and help them understand the subject at hand.

Give him a chance. Let him prove that he can do it.

Pulling up the school's email page, she opened a blank message and addressed it to him with the subject line "Good Work".

Dear Ron,

Thank you for taking the time to work with me today; it was nice to meet you. I hope you found our time productive and helpful for your studies. From my perspective, I thought that you were showing a good understanding of the basic principles of macromolecule structure and behavior by the end of our lesson. I hope that you'll find time to continue to review the concepts this week as well as to start looking over the new material that will be covered early next week. If you have any questions as you're preparing, please don't hesitate to reach out to me.

Please also let me know if you have any conflicts with next week's session. Otherwise, I'll plan to see you next Wednesday at 7pm at the library.

Sincerely,

Hermione Granger

PS - You have amazing eyes and I'd like to stare at them for hours.

Her fingers produced the last line of the email almost all by themselves, and Hermione chuckled and had to consciously remind herself to erase it before pressing Send. She closed her laptop and sat for a moment, gazing blankly at the corner of her desk.

So maybe I find him a little attractive. So what? It's college. Plenty of men around a college campus are handsome. It doesn't mean anything. He's not my type in the slightest. I need to just ignore it, focus on doing my job, and get through the semester.

Hermione couldn't help but think that her mind wouldn't be continually coming back to Ron's looks if Parvati hadn't harped on it so much. Really, it was her fault that Hermione was getting distracted from starting her work. It would have been just fine with Hermione to continue to think of Ron as nothing but a slacker jock who needed help with biology. But now, thanks to her boy-crazy roommate, she couldn't help but think about what it would be like to run her hands through his untamed hair.

I sound like one of Parvati's romance novels.

Before she allowed herself to get too sucked into pointless fantasies, she stood up, jumped up and down and shook out her hands a few times to clear her head, and curled back up in the armchair in the corner of her room. A copy of her women's studies book was sitting on the side table, and she picked it up and opened it, taking one more sip of tea before digging back into her reading.

Moving on…