A/N: Standard disclaimer: I own nothing. Harry and friends belong to
JKR and Crazy for This Girl belongs to Evon and Jeron. Silly,
fluffy and pointless little songfic, but hey, its R/H!
***
Harry gave up! He just gave up. He had faced the Dark Lord, a basilisk,
dementors and numerous other dangers during his four years at Hogwarts
School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, but getting Ron and Hermione to speak
to each other after a row, was a whole other matter. As the three of them
sat silently in the back of a taxi on their way to King’s Cross station
to begin their fifth year, Harry almost thought he’d rather have another
go at the Hungarian Horntail. Almost.
Harry sighed and leaned back in the seat, Hedwig hooting softly in her
cage on his lap. Ron shifted guiltily in his seat on Harry’s right, but
stared stonily ahead at the back of the cab that carried his twin brothers
Fred and George and his little sister, Ginny.
Ron wasn’t very pleased with the oppressive atmosphere in the cab, but
it wasn’t his fault and he’d be darned if he was going to apologize to
her. She’d gone to Bulgaria! She’d gone on holiday with that great
big, bloody oaf, Viktor Krum. Oh sure, she’d gone with her parents, it
was only for a week and she had spent the last week of vacation at the
Burrow on Ginny’s invitation. But still…. she’d gone to Bulgaria!
Ron cringed inwardly as he remembered their initial meeting at her arrival
at the Burrow. She was smiling as she stepped out of the Weasley’s fireplace,
brushing soot and Floo powder off her clothes. Mrs Weasley and Ginny had
gone to retrieve her. She’d rushed over to the kitchen table where Harry
and Ron were seated. “Harry! Ron!” she cried, obviously restraining herself
from further girly gushing.
“Hi!” Harry had returned cheerfully. Ron’s answer was much stiffer.
”Hello. Had a good summer, did you?”
Hermione’s smile faltered uncertainly. They had been unable to talk further
because at that moment the rest of the Weasleys descended on her. But
as soon as the three of them had managed to be alone in Ron’s room….
“So, you went to Bulgaria? How’s Vicky?”
“What’s it to you where I go with my parents? And don’t call him Vicky!”
“Nothing! Absolutely nothing! But one would think you’d more sense than
to go traipsing around with You-Know-Who on the loose, that’s all I’m
saying.”
“That’s precisely why we went Ron! He’s not going to frighten me into
forgetting about life and what’s important!”
Ron’s eyes had softened a bit at the anxious tone in Hermione’s voice,
but the next second they were blazing like his ears.
“So, Vicky’s what’s important to you, is that it?”
Needless to say, their last week was neither pleasant nor restful. The
strange thing about it was that none of the Weasleys except Ginny noticed
that anything was amiss. Everyone had been so preoccupied with Voldemort that no one
except Harry paid attention to what was going on.
she rolls the window down
and she talks over the sound
of the cars that pass us by
and I don't know why
but she's changed my mind
would you look at her as she looks at me
she's got me thinking about her constantly
but she don't know how I feel
and as she carries on without a doubt
I wonder if she's figured out
I'm crazy for this girl
They got through King’s Cross and platform nine and three quarters in
a flurry of trunks, owls and Crookshanks. The crowd milling around the
platform seemed uncharacteristically quiet that morning. Parents lingered over their children quietly admonishing them
to be careful and stay safe. Mrs. Weasley kissed Fred, George and finally
Ginny, who hopped onto the Hogwart’s Express with a final, anxious look
at Ron and Hermione, and then Harry. Harry
tried to give her a little, reassuring smile before turning to Mrs. Weasley. Harry, Ron and Hermione had to endure Mrs.
Weasley’s motherly flutterings until Mr. Weasley gently reminded her that
they had to get on the train. Mrs. Weasley’s eyes filled with anxious
tears as she watched them clamber into an empty car. Hermione quickly
slid into a seat, unlatched the window and called out to her.
“Mrs. Weasley, don’t worry. We’ll be fine. We’ll owl you as soon as we
get there to let you know everything’s all right.”
“Will you, Dear? Will you really?” Mrs. Weasley clutched her hands to
her chest. Hermione answered something, but the sound of her voice was
drowned out by the hiss of the engine as it slowly pulled out of the station.
Hermione sighed and put up the window. As she slid down in her seat she
looked over at Ron who was staring at her with an unreadable expression.
She caught his eyes for the first time since her arrival at the Burrow,
but he reddened and turned away quickly. This wasn’t the first time she’d
caught him staring at her when he thought she wasn’t looking. Hermione
turned to Harry who was staring pensively out the window. Poor Harry,
she thought. She knew it hadn’t been an easy week for him. She followed
his gaze and for a few minutes she watched the Muggle towns flashing by.
Hermione sighed again and withdrew her gaze from the window only to find
Ron staring at her again with an open mouthed, closed face expression.
“What?” She gestured at him impatiently.
Ron quickly shook his head and pretended to tend to Pigwidgeon, hoping
that neither of them noticed the flush that started above the bridge of
his nose and spread all the way back to his ears. Through the corner of
his eye, he saw Hermione pull out her copy of Hogwarts: a History
and settle in for a read. Ron smiled inwardly at the comfortable
familiarity of seeing her with her nose in a book, especially that one.
He shook himself mentally, turned determinedly to Harry and started a
halfhearted Quidditch conversation. But all the while his mind kept returning
to that night….
she was the one to hold me
the night the sky fell down
and what was I thinking when
the world didn't end
why didn't I know what I know now
would you look at her as she looks at me
she's got me thinking about her constantly
but she don't know how I feel
and as she carries on without a doubt
I wonder if she's figured out
I'm crazy for this girl
The night He had returned. The gut-wrenching
agony of waiting for Harry to complete the third task of the Triwizard
Tournament. The moment when two bodies slammed to the ground. Ron had
been sure he had lost one of his best friends. Then, the race down the
stands to see if there was some remote possibility that Harry might still
be alive. When Dumbledore had told them that although Harry was not there,
he was still alive, Ron and Hermione had clutched hands tightly in relief.
Afterwards, after all of the night’s revelations, when they walked out
of the infirmary towards Gryffindor Tower, he had really lost it.
“Hermione, He’s back! He’s really back! What’re
we going to do? You don’t know what it was like before, but Charlie and
Bill have told me, and it was awful. Do you think we’re going to die?”
He knew there was naked fear all over his face and
deep down he felt ashamed to be breaking down in front of her. She stopped
him in his tracks, looked him straight in the eyes and said, “We’ll fight
Ron, and we’ll get through this. All of us.”
In a moment of unspoken understanding they fell into
each other’s arms in a tight embrace. Luckily the corridors were abandoned
at the moment. Hermione held him tightly until they both stopped shaking
and headed up to Gryffindor Tower without speaking. There was no need.
Then she had gone to bloody Bulgaria! The thought
brought Ron back to the present with a shattering crash. Sure, they’d
had a letter marathon all summer. They told themselves they had to with
everything that was going on. The Ministry might try and cover Death
Eater activities, but the Dark Mark that was shot into the sky all summer was a different story. But neither of them ever mentioned
that night, that embrace. The mutual feeling (he thought it was mutual)
that together they could face the Dark Lord, they could face anything.
Ron shot her another look. Luckily, she was still immersed in her book.
He saw how her brow scrunched up in concentration. Her lips, pursed in
a manner he recognized as her ultra studious mode. Funny, thought Ron,
she wasn’t pretty in a Cho/Fleur/Lavender kind of way. But he could definitely
see what had drawn Krum to her. She radiated warmth, understanding and
infinite intelligence. Ron tilted his head to the side as he watched
her pull a strand of bushy hair and wrap it around her index finger.
This was crazy. She was just Hermione after all. What was it to Ron
if she went to Bulgaria? What claim did he have on her after all? Knowing
her since she was eleven and buck-toothed did not a relationship make.
As he thought this, the old anger came back. Why was it that thinking
about her and Krum, made him so angry? Because, thought Ron, because
she should know. He knew. He knew the moment they shared that hug that
this was how it should be. Forever. Didn’t she feel it too? How could
she be so dense? She was Hermione after all! Hmph! Smartest witch in
the year, my arse….
Ron’s thoughts were interrupted by Hermione as she
pulled her nose out of her book and caught him staring at her yet again.
“Ron! Stop staring at me!
What do you think…”
They were spared an argument by the fact that Ginny
had walked into their car and headed for Harry.
“Harry,” Ginny began, blushing uncontrollably at addressing
him directly, “Fred and George asked me to come down here and tell you
they need a word. Do you have a minute?”
“Er…sure.” Harry got up from his seat, looked uncertainly
at Ron and Hermione, and then followed Ginny through the door that separated
the cars. Once they closed the sliding door behind them. Ginny said,
“Harry, er…Fred and George didn’t really ask me to get you.”
“They didn’t?”
“Actually, no. I just thought Ron and Hermione need
some time alone. Sorry.”
Harry looked at her with admiration. That was pretty
smart, thought Harry. “You’re absolutely right Ginny. Say, is that witch
with the trolley up front?”
Ginny nodded, uncertainly.
“How about we go find her and have some chocolate
frogs ***Chocolate Frogs while those two
work this out?”
Ginny beamed, “I never turn down chocolate, lead the
way.”
Meanwhile…
When Hermione had caught Ron staring at her for a
third time, he mentally cursed himself and turned to stare out the window.
How could she not know? His brooding thoughts brought a miserable look
to his face.
How could she not know? He asked himself again.
She was Hermione, supreme Know-it-All. Maybe the hug meant nothing to
her after all. Maybe she would have hugged Harry the same way and thought
nothing of it. Maybe she had hugged Krum the same way when she visited him in Bulgaria.
The thought made him grind his palm into his fist. Ron remembered the
way she had kissed
him and Harry at King’s Cross at the end of fourth year. Ron thought
then that somehow the kiss she had given him was different from Harry’s.
Sure, she kissed them both on the cheek, but surely Harry’s kiss didn’t
linger warmly on his jaw like sunshine, right? And surely Harry didn’t
notice the way she smelled like hot apple cider, spicy, yet so sweet.
Was he just fooling himself? Ron looked surreptitiously over at her.
She had her nose buried in her book, but he could tell she wasn’t reading.
Her eyes were not moving and she didn’t have her concentration look.
It suddenly occurred to him: maybe she didn’t know what he knew? Maybe
Hermione was just as scared and confused and elated as he was feeling.
The very idea of Hermione confused brought a bemused look to his face.
Unfortunately, she happened to look up at him again and caught him staring
at her for a fourth time. Her mouth opened in indignation, but before
she could launch her tirade, Ron took a deep breath of resignation and
cut her off….
and right now
face to face all my fears
pushed aside and right now
I'm ready to spend
the rest of my life with you
would you look at her as she looks at me
she's got me thinking about her constantly
but she don't know how I feel
and as she carries on without a doubt
I wonder if she's figured out
I'm crazy for this
girl
Harry slid the door to their car open to find Ron and Hermione sharing
a seat. They were also laughing and talking to each other. He turned around
to Ginny, who was trailing behind him,
a mass of sweets in her hands. Ginny smiled at Harry’s raised eyebrow
look. They walked in. The four of them spent the rest of their trip sharing
Chocolate Frogs and Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans and chatting pleasantly
about nothing important. No mention was made about why Ron and Hermione
held hand all the way to Hogwarts
When the train arrived at Hogsmeade and they prepared to disembark, Harry
held Ron back and let the girls off first.
“So, uh, you going to tell me anything?”
Ron squirmed uncomfortably, his face practically the color of the Hogwarts
Express. After a second he looked at Harry with a disbelieving expression
on his face and said, “You know what Harry? I reckon I’m crazy for that
girl.”
“Really? Never would’ve noticed.” Harry said it quietly so that Ron barely
caught it. Which was fine because he chose to ignore it anyway.
