An Author's Note to Readers and Hopefully Reviewers: 'Kay people, this is the drill: Read, laugh, or cry, whatever, and then review! I will not take no reviews for an answer. TEN HUT!

Ha ha ha. Kidding, though I do hope you all find it in your hearts to review this pitiful attempt at a fluffy, happy story. Thankee for clicking up on it. I hope you all like it.

As Clear as Mud

1

You Haven't Forgotten Our . . . Arrangement

He had promised himself he wouldn't do this. He had vowed that all he would dare to do would be to gaze longingly at her from across the room when she had her nose in her books, and she wouldn't notice; that he would act as he always did around her. He had sworn that he wouldn't fall in love with her. She was his best friend, not someone he could marry and call his own. Besides, she was with someone now; a pale skinned snake of a someone to be exact. How she had ended up with that someone, he didn't know. The someone had been their enemy for seven years now, yet she had decided to court him over the boy who had been fond of her for so long . . .

Ron Weasley slammed the huge textbook against his forehead in frustration. How on earth was he to know how to apparate to Vietnam without a license? No one had taught him this stuff, and he shouldn't have even had homework assigned over the holidays! It wasn't rational!

The common room was empty but for him and Hermione Granger.

It might as well have been void of anyone but himself though for all of the good Hermione was doing, sitting there, sulking, with her face hidden by a book. She was refusing to talk to Ron because he had tried to copy off of her essay on apparation.

"You need to do your own work!" she had said, and she hadn't spoken to him since. There was no way he was going to apologise though. If Hermione wanted to be stingy with her information, then that was fine with him.

'She's overreacting,' Ron thought, rubbing his recently book pummelled head, 'I just wanted to use her small paragraph about apparating without a license, but no, she wouldn't even let me see it!'

Ron looked across the room at Hermione. Her hair had fallen in her face as she loomed over her books, and Ron couldn't help but marvel at how lovely she looked like that.

Hermione glanced up, and her eyes met Ron's. Ron felt his ears grow warm and knew that they were turning red.

He felt something click in his mind as her gazed into Hermione's brown eyes. It was as if someone had unlocked the door to his brain, and it suddenly seemed that he was vulnerable to the world.

'Ron,' a voice in his head said, 'Ron, it's me.'

Hermione's eyes bore into Ron's slowly widening ones with urgency.

Ron couldn't believe it. Hermione could use legimency? Ron reached out with his psyche, forming the words, all the while struggling not to break eye contact with Hermione.

'H-Hermione?' Ron finally managed to think.

'Ron, I've-' Hermione's thoughts were cut off by a knocking at the portrait hole. Their contact broke as their eyes darted to the said portrait hole. As soon as the contact broke, Ron's head started pounding, and it hurt like hell.

He scrunched up his face in pain as Hermione got up and went to the hole, figuring that Neville Longbottom had forgotten the password again.

She opened it up, and not Neville, but Draco Malfoy was standing there. Hermione looked surprised, so she obviously had not been expecting his visit.

"Hermione," Draco said, bowing slightly, "I hope you haven't forgotten our . . . arrangement."

"Oh! I'm sorry, I did!" Hermione exclaimed, turning red and rushing back to her books to shove them into her bag and hurry out the portrait hole without giving a sideways glance at Ron.

It slammed shut behind her and Ron was left alone in the common room.

"Bye," he said, holding his throbbing head in his hands.

Author's Note: Did you like it? I hope you did! This chapter took me forever to write. I had that whole writer's block thing goin' on. Don't you HATE that? Please review. Thankee.