Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters used in this story. I just borrowed them, manipulated them to act in my fluffy little plot.

A/N: My stories aren't meant to be heavily angsty or serious or…anything really. Just a bit of fun. Life is too complicated so I tend to write complex free stories. Fair enough? Good. So don't take anything in them too seriously.

Ok, so basically, Ron says one thing and thinks another. That's what those short little sentences in italics are. (There is one or two of Hermione's thought floating around there though.) So if that was confusing you, now you know what it is all about. How many times have you said something and thought something completely different? If you're anything like me; way too many times to count.

Chapter 1

Un-bloody-believable.

Ron Weasley shoved open the door to his sixth year dormitory that he shared with his best friend, Harry Potter and walked slowly but purposely over to his four poster and threw himself down upon it. Not even greeting Harry who happened to be sitting on his own bed.

"You alright mate?" Harry asked absently, flipping through the Quidditch Magazine that he was reading. Harry didn't pay much attention to Ron's mood as he was used to this type of thing coming from him. Although when he didn't answer, Harry stood up and walked over to him and stood at the end of his friend's bed.

"Ron?" he prompted when Ron didn't acknowledge his presence.

"What?" Ron asked, his voice muffled by a pillow.

"What's up?" Harry asked, rolling his eyes slightly at his friends comment.

"Nothing." Ron said, clearly not wanting to talk about it. It being whatever was bothering him so much.

"Alright, fine. Don't ever let it be said that I didn't want to know about your problems." Harry said standing up again and heading back to his own bed.

***

"Morning Hermione." Harry greeted Hermione Granger as they sat at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall, eating their breakfast.

"Good morning Harry, sleep well?" she asked, buttering a piece of toast absently as she seemed to be looking for someone.

"Not too bad, thanks. If you're looking for Ron, he said he'd be down in a minute."

"Right, of course. Thanks." Hermione said, taking a bite of her toast and looking around her, cheeks coloured slightly.

"Speak of the devil." Harry said as Ron himself plopped down next to him at the table.

"You were talking about me? Why?" Ron asked, narrowing his eyes at Harry.

Who in return, held his hands up in mock surrender. "Calm down mate, I was just telling Hermione that you'd be down soon, that's all, I swear." Harry said, dropping his hands when Ron's posture relaxed.

"Honestly Ron, why would it bother you that we were talking about you? You're our best friend!" Hermione said, looking shocked.

Ron just stared at her for a second before spearing a kipper with his fork and shoving the whole thing into his mouth, his mouth full to the point of bursting.

Harry and Hermione exchanged a confused look at Ron's behaviour but neither had the slightest clue as to what was bothering their best friend.

***

"Ron you prat! What do you think you're doing?" Hermione hissed in Ron's ear as he added the whole container of newts' eyes to his Potion.

"Huh?" He asked absently, not concentrating on his Potion at all.

"Oh give it here." Hermione cried, exasperated. She took the container from his hand and screwed the lid on tightly so that there wouldn't be a repeat of the situation.

If Ron had noticed her annoyance, he didn't let on. He instead sat at the table, chin in his hand and staring off into space. Now, if the lesson had been History of Magic then it wouldn't have mattered to anyone (well perhaps Hermione) but as luck would have it, the lesson was not History of Magic, but Potions.

"Weasley! I don't recall giving you permission to sit there and daydream about Granger in ways that one shouldn't think about a friend. Merlin forbid…" Snape muttered his last comment, staring down his hooked nose at Ron, who still didn't seem to be in the same room as everyone else.

"Detention and ten points from Gryffindor…yes, I think that is sufficient enough." The Potion's master said more to himself than Ron. "My office tomorrow night at eight o'clock sharp any later and detention will be for a week." Snape snarled, sweeping away in a swirl of black.

"I just got detention didn't I?" Ron asked, turning to Harry, looking completely nonplussed. "What did I do?" he asked, frowning slightly.

"What did you do?" Hermione shrieked in his ear, "You didn't do anything! That's the whole point!"

"Lay off would you Hermione? I've got a lot on my mind ok? I don't need to worry about Potions for Merlin's sake!" Ron said, his voice getting steadily louder as he spoke. With a look from Snape he ceased arguing however and sat quietly in his seat for the rest of the lesson.

Once the lesson was over Ron was the first to leave the classroom. Thinking what a relief it was that it was the end of the day he strolled purposely out onto the grounds of the school and straight behind Hagrid's Hut once he made sure that their half-giant friend was nowhere in sight.

Once there, Ron slid down the side of the stone hut and leant his head against the cool wall. He blew out a breath that he hadn't realised he'd been holding and ran a hand through his hair in frustration.

"How could she?" he asked himself out loud, not meaning too and scowling upon realising what he had done.

Ron sat for quite a while, letting all the thoughts in his head tangle with one another as he tried to figure out what he had heard the night before. It couldn't be true. No way. Why would either of them say something like that? It just didn't make sense.  He could understand it being about Harry but him? There just wasn't a logical explanation for it all.

Ron didn't know what to do. He was only Ron after all. He wasn't smart like Hermione; he couldn't come up with an answer. He wasn't brave like Harry; he couldn't ignore the situation, as Harry so often did. He was just Ron. Just Ron, Ron that didn't know what to do. As usual.

He thought back to the night before when he had overheard something he would rather not have.

~~  ~~  ~~  ~~  ~~

The Night Before

~~  ~~  ~~  ~~  ~~

Ron stood outside Hermione's dorm room grinning having just fooled the stairs leading up there into thinking that he was a girl that lived up there. (Long story, complex spell) he raised his hand to knock on the door when he heard giggling.

He frowned. It didn't sound like Lavender or Parvati and it couldn't possibly be—

"Hermione!"

The name of whom he was thinking was squealed out loud in a high-pitched laugh.

"What? It's not something to laugh about I don't believe." He heard her answer, sounding a little miffed at their laughter. Ron smiled. That was definitely the Hermione he knew.

"Oh Herm, we're not laughing." Came a highly amused sounding voice. He could just picture Hermione raising a disbelieving eyebrow. He knew, because she did it to him so often.

"Oh really?" came Hermione's sceptical voice once again. Ron smiled to himself and was about to save Hermione from her dorm mates by knocking on the door when he froze, hearing something he didn't expect in the least.

"Leave her alone you two!" Ginny Weasley's voice came from a corner of the room. "It's Hermione's business who she fancies and I don't think you should be laughing about it."

"I'm sorry, would you like to be the target of this conversation?" Parvati's voice rang out sweetly.

"No. Do go on. Don't mind me in the least." Ginny's voice was less demanding now.

"So when are you going to tell him Hermione?" Lavender asked from another corner of the room.

"Excuse me? Tell him. I'm not going to tell him. He needn't know." Hermione commented, though she sounded a little nervous.

"He needn't know?! Are you delirious? Of course he needs to know Herm! He should have known a long time ago! First year maybe?" Parvati said, sounding as though her life depended on it if Hermione told her mystery guy if she liked him or not.

"I was eleven in first year! No one falls in love when they are eleven. That's ludicrous. I'm not even old enough to fall in love now! I fancy him. That's all!" she shrieked suddenly. Ron winced silently at the noise and continued listening.

"You've got to believe Hermione." Lavender stressed in a misty voice, sounding much like Professor Trelawney.

"Don't feed me that crap again. You know what I think of that stinking lesson." Hermione said sounding cross.

Lavender and Parvati gasped simultaneously at Hermione's rudeness and stalked out of the room, right past Ron without even acknowledging him. He backed against the wall in fear that Hermione and Ginny would come barrelling out of the room any moment but they didn't so he turned to knock on the door again but was stopped again by two sentences.

"Don't worry Hermione, I think it's cool that you fancy him."

"Yes, maybe but Ron can never find out that I fancy him. It would ruin everything."

Without waiting a second longer, Ron ran back down the stairs and up his own stairs to his own dorm and flung himself onto his four poster and fell into a restless sleep after being questioned briefly by Harry.

~~  ~~  ~~  ~~

Present Time

~~  ~~  ~~  ~~

Now what was he supposed to do? His best friend liked him. Fancied him even. This wasn't supposed to happen. Ever. This was in no way good. He'd have to put her off. Yeah that was it. Make her think he wasn't worth the trouble. That was going to be a little hard though, considering they were best friends.

Friends. Just friends.

Yeah right.

***

A/N: Do what you feel is right. I'm thinking that you are feeling the right thing to do is review…am I right?