The next day, Harry had still had the conversation with Hermione stuck in his head, so he decided to bring it up to Ron to see if it would help.
"Ron?" Harry said nervously during their free period of the day.
"Huh?"
Harry took a deep breath. "Have you ever fancied anyone before?"
Ron sat up in a bolt right position on the couch. "Are you serious?" he asked
"So you have?"
"You have?" Ron rephrased, as he had already picked up on where this was going.
Harry hesitated to answer. "Yea...I mean, maybe. I don't know how this stuff works."
"I don't understand what happened." He said "I mean you didn't even speak to Hermione once yesterday!"
At first, Harry was going to deny that it was Hermione, but considering that Ron was his best friend, he knew he just had to tell him the truth.
"Well, I sort of..." he said "In the middle of the night I just couldn't really sleep without talking to her for the day, so I thought...I thought I'd find a way to talk to her, if I even could."
Ron stood there in shock. "Harry please ask her out." He begged "Please."
"Ron I can't--" Harry started but Ron cut him off.
"Why not?" He asked "Because you're nervous?"
Harry nodded.
"Well if you faced the Dark Lord at only 11 with only knowing about magic for less than a year...I think you can ask out the girl you fancy."
"Ron, I can't compare asking Hermione out to battling Voldemort." he said
"Why?" he asked "I did. So can you. Anyways, are you going to ask her out or not?"
*****
*****
Hermione had went to Ginny's room before bed, as her room mates had been at a party that some third year HufflePuffs were having by the kitchen. Though Ginny decided to stay back because she didn't like many of the girls in her year. She would rather spend time alone with Hermione.
"But then, in class today she thought I was flirting with her boyfriend." Ginny was in the middle of ranting about her day, which hadn't seemed so good. "And honestly I have no idea why because he is about as good looking as the garden gnomes in our yard at the burrow."
Hermione let out a small laugh, but Ginny kept going.
"Anyways, she thought she was so slick by looking over at me and laughing with her friend, but that was just a huge mistake. Since I was paired up with her boyfriend, I looked over at her and laughed with her garden gnome. Obviously I wanted her to think we were making fun of her but I think it went to far because they broke up after class."
Hermione sat up. "Ginny!" she said throwing a pillow at her "I swear, you are so heartless sometimes."
"You just noticed?" she asked and they had both laughed "But anyways tell me whats happening with you. What's new in Hermione's world?"
Hermione shook her head. "Nothing really." she said "Everything's stayed the same I guess."
"So you've always had a gigantic crush on Harry?" she asked with a knowing look.
"What?" Hermione said sitting straight up. "I do not have a crush on him!!"
"Really?"
"Really." She lied. "I don't have a crush on him. He's just someone that I stare at and that I like and when he's not there, it ruins my day."
Ginny shook her head, laughing. "You're absolutely hopeless, Hermione."
In response, Hermione grabbed a pillow and threw it at her. "And you're absolutely annoying."
