Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns Ron, Hermione and their love. I love to write about it. UPDATE 8/11/06: In light of the recent plagiarism, I just want to be clear that there are a lot of lines in this fic that I did not write - JKR did - and I am in no way claiming them. I simply wanted to put down what I thought was going on in Ron's and Hermione's minds that night. When I wrote this, the fandom was analysing the Yule Ball scene, word by word, so I never felt it was necessary. And frankly, since it's HP fanfic I'm writing, and it's HP I'm stealing from, well, I thought it was a given. But you know, just want to do the CYA. If you don't know what lines are JKR's, then I suggest reading GoF again. ;)

A/N: Many thanks to the editors at The Sugar Quill. You are all fabulous!

The Yule Ball had ended.

Hermione said goodnight to Viktor in the entrance hall. As she turned to make her way up the marble staircase, she saw Harry and Ron beginning their climb. She threw Ron the most contemptuous look she could muster as she swept past him. How dare he accuse her of fraternizing with the enemy! Who had been the one to stick by Harry during the first task? Who had helped Harry learn the summoning charm? It certainly hadn’t been Ron. Ron was the one always blathering about what a brilliant Quidditch player Viktor was. He was the one debating whether he should ask for Viktor’s autograph. He was the one with the Viktor doll. Hermione’s face was now red-hot. She could feel tears welling up in her eyes. Why was she allowing herself to get all out of sorts over one of Ron’s stupid comments? Why did she have such a knot in the pit of her stomach?

She had had a perfectly nice time with Viktor. He was nothing but a gentleman. He was polite and genuinely interested in everything she had to say and he didn’t give her cheeky replies like someone she knew. Ron hadn’t even noticed her when he entered the Great Hall. He had walked right past her! Three whole hours she spent getting ready and the one person, the one person that should have taken some notice didn’t. Wait a minute. What was she saying? Viktor had noticed and he was her date. Viktor had said she looked pretty. Humph! Put that in your cauldron and boil it, Ronald Weasley!

As she came up on the entrance to Gryffindor Tower, Hermione glanced behind her. She saw Ron rounding the corner. "Fairy lights!" She climbed through the portrait hole, wiping her eyes and taking deep breaths, attempting to calm herself. She would not give him the satisfaction of seeing her upset over his insensitive and utterly ridiculous comments.

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Hermione swept past him up the marble staircase throwing him one of her nastier looks. Well fine, if that’s the way she wanted to be then what did he care? She was the one dating the potentially dangerous enemy! He and Harry resumed their ascent when Harry was stopped by Cedric. It didn’t seem that Cedric wanted Ron around for whatever it was he was going to say, so Ron continued on his way.

He thought Hermione was smarter than this but it was becoming quite obvious that she had no sense whatsoever when it came to these matters. Book smart she may be, but wise to the ways of the Wizard? That was a definite no. You’d have to be thicker than Crabbe and Goyle not to realize that Krum was using Hermione to get information about the second task. Couldn’t she see that? Getting the nerve to speak to her in the Library - what a line! Stalking her was more like it. Krum just wanted to find someone that knew their way around, someone that could do the research for him. A great big git like Krum wouldn’t know the first thing on how to research a topic. He’d need a pawn. Well, if Hermione wanted to be Krum’s pretty little assistant he certainly wasn’t going to keep his mouth shut about it!

Speaking of pretty, what was she thinking making herself all gorgeous for that big ape? How was he even supposed to recognize her? She looked so different. When the prettiest girl at Hogwarts entered the Great Hall on the arm of that Neanderthal from Durmstrang, well it looked simply ridiculous! The whole thing was giving him a stomach ache. Deep in his mental tirade, Ron almost ran right into the portrait of the Fat Lady.

"My, someone looks even redder than usual," commented the Fat Lady. "Did you and your girlfriend have a row?"

"She just went in and she doesn’t look happy," added her friend Violet.

Having no idea what they were talking about Ron just stared blankly at them. "Wha-? Fairy lights!" he finally said and scrambled through the portrait hole.

"Clueless," said the Fat Lady.

"He’ll learn soon enough!" replied Vi.

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Upon seeing Ron, all thoughts Hermione had of maintaining her composure fled. "You had no right, no right to say what you did about me tonight, Ron! Fraternizing with the enemy? That has to be the stupidest thing you’ve ever said and stupid things flow out of your mouth like butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks!"

"Well if you think I’m going to stand idly by while you’re led around on the arm of the enemy then you’re crazy! Harry is your best friend and you’re setting him up to be checkmated! Where do your loyalties lie?"

"My loyalties? I’m not the one that acted like a total prat and wouldn’t talk to him before the first task!" She paused for a second then let loose with, "Am I mistaken? Was it not you that asked Fleur Delacour, another Champion, to the ball? "

" Touché, " Ron thought. His ears began to turn that deep shade of scarlet that was only brought on by Hermione. He quickly and completely changed the subject back to Hermione and Krum. "To top it off, to make matters completely worse, you go and make yourself beautiful for that git! And everyone thinks you're the smart one! Did you forgot to look up common sense on you last library trip? Oh yeah, I forgot you were too busy telling Krum you'd be his date!"

The pair, still bellowing at one another did not even notice that Harry had come in and was staring at them.

"Well, if you don’t like it, you know what the solution is, don’t you?" yelled Hermione: her hair was coming down out of its elegant bun now, and her face was screwed up in anger.

She was very sure he still had no idea.

"Oh yeah?" Ron yelled back. "What’s that?"

"Next time there’s a ball, ask me before someone else does, and not as a last resort!"

Ron mouthed soundlessly like a goldfish out of water as Hermione turned on her heel and stormed up the girls’ staircase to bed. Ron turned to look at Harry.

"Well, " he sputtered, looking thunderstruck, "well – that just proves –completely missed the point –"

Not to mention that it was obvious she had gone completely mad.

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As Ron was getting himself ready for bed he accidentally knocked the figurine of Krum from his bedside table onto the floor. Stupid famous Quidditch star. He stomped on the figurine several times. After hearing a ‘snap’ he gave it a swift kick; where it landed he didn’t care. That ought to teach Krum to ask out his Hermione. Well, if she was going to go to dances with the first bloke that asked her, then he would save them all a lot of trouble. From now on he would just make sure that he was the first bloke to ask her.

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In the girls’ dormitory, Hermione was drawing the curtains on her four poster bed. Resigned to the very real possibility that Ron would never, ever get it, she drifted off to sleep. She was somewhere between consciousness and deep slumber when she suddenly sat bolt upright. She had missed it during their fight but her mind had saved it for her. Ron had called her beautiful! Maybe there was hope for him after all. Hermione smiled and drifted off to sleep.