They were seated at lunch a few days later. Dean and Seamus were telling Ron, Hermione and Harry about a Ravenclaw girl who accidentally switched her Charms book with Dean's and scolded him for not looking after his book well enough.

"Blimey, Ravenclaws are droll fellows." Ron said. "Luna Lovegood, the Quidditch Captain, Melinda Ratsche, Calum Hood..."

"Luna and Calum are actually pretty nice." Hermione said.

"I'm not saying they're not nice." Ron said. "Just a bit..."

"Special?" Dean tried.

"Something like that." Ron said.

"But the Ravenclaw Quidditch captain is good enough to-"

"Why do you think Malfoy stopped talking to me?" Harry interrupted Seamus. Ron was pretty sure he had not even listened to the conversation. He had been generally quiet these past few days. Ron had of course tried to talk to him, but he was never good at this stuff. And he felt weird trying.

Ron looked at Hermione who glanced back at him. They both knew the reason but they had not thought it would be a good idea to tell Harry.

"Maybe he's just... busy." Ron said. Harry looked at him in disbelief.

"Why do you even want that git to talk to you?" Seamus asked.

"He misses him." Ron said. "Ow!" He held his side where Harry had elbowed him in.

"How can you miss him?" Neville asked.

"I mean, he is like... nice looking." Dean commented. Ron frowned at him, then looked at Harry, who looked at Dean with a mixture of surprise and wariness. "Relax, I'm not into him." Dean seemed to interpret Harry's expression differently than Ron had.

For the second time, Ron wondered if there was a possibility for Harry to feel the same as Malfoy did towards Harry. But that was ridiculous, right? He looked at Hermione for support. She raised her eyebrows expectantly, like she was expecting Ron to realize something. He frowned and sent her a confused look. She rolled her eyes. "You're worse than Harry." She said.

"At what?" Harry asked before Ron could.

"Being oblivious as a pair of baby Kniesels." Hermione said.

"I love Kniesels." Neville said.

"Ron doesn't know?" Seamus asked.

"Know what?" Ron asked. Everyone looked at him in disbelief. Except for Harry, who seemed just as confused as Ron was.

"I still have some homework to do." Seamus said. "Dean?" Dean nodded and stood up to follow Seamus. Neville excused himself too.

"So what's going on?" Ron asked.

"I would like to know myself." Harry said.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "We should go to class." She stood up and the two boys followed her, Ron stuffing the rest of his lasagna into his mouth. As they left the Great Hall, Hermione held Ron's arm so they fell back behind Harry. "I'm not gonna tell you, but I want you to watch carefully now." She whispered.

"Okay, what exactly should I watch?" Ron whispered, feeling a bit bad that they were literally whispering behind Harry's back.

Instead of answering, Hermione said in a normal tone. "Look, there's Cho!" Ron looked where she was pointing at, but there were just a few third year Hufflepuffs. He looked back at Hermione in confusion and she signalled him to look at Harry. But he was just walking like before. He looked back at Hermione. "Look." Hermione pointed at Harry, where Ron looked back at. "There's Malfoy."

Abruptly, Harry stalled, looked around and then at Hermione and Ron.

"Sorry, my mistake." Hermione said innocently. "It was just a blonde Ravenclaw." Harry looked confused but turned around to continue to the Gryffindor tower.

"What the bloody hell was that about?" Ron hissed. "I know Harry is kinda weirdly obsessed with Malfoy noticing him, that doesn't mean... Wait." Ron stopped walking to look at Hermione in disbelief. "This was the exact same thing Malfoy said in the pub-"

"Shh..." Hermione said. "We don't need to tell the whole school."

"So you're saying," Ron said quietly, "That Harry has a thing for... That they have a thing for each other?"

"Took you long enough." Hermione said.

"I mean, I kind of thought about it, but it seemed unrealistic-"

"Uhh... guys?" Harry interrupted them. He was already at the staircase and waited for his friends to continue walking.

"Yeah, sorry." Hermione said and caught up with Harry, leaving Ron looking after them. He was confused. How could Harry like this git?

Suddenly, he felt a blow at his shoulder and he stumbled backwards. A bunch of Slytherins were pointing at him and he saw a Quaffel rolling away behind him.

"Sorry, you alright?" Malfoy suddenly stood in front of him, looking genuinely concerned.

Ron just nodded, too bewildered to answer. He watched as Malfoy nodded, picked up the Quaffel and went outside with a bunch of other Slytherins. He looked like any other student, just hanging out with his friends.

"What is happening?" Ron wondered, but no one was listening.

#

"This is getting out of hand." Hermione scolded Harry, who just frowned at the ground. They were walking to the Great Hall because it was finally lunch time. "I know you have your reasons, but you can't keep getting T's in potions. The O.W.L.'s are coming up."

Harry stayed quiet. Ron watched as Hermione sighed and shook her head in frustration. But he was also lost on what to do. Hermione grabbed Ron's arm and slowed down, making them fall back behind Harry.

"We have to do something about that." Hermione hissed.

"What?" Ron whispered back. "Go to Malfoy and ask him to fight with Harry again?"

"No." Hermione said. "I don't know."

"How about the classic?" Hermione and Ron turned around to see Seamus following them. "Lock them in a room together until they've snogged."

"Were you eavesdropping on us?" Ron asked, but it was obvious.

"That's not the most stupid idea I can think of." Hermione said.  

 #

They never got to put their plan in action. If it was even a plan they were planning on putting into action. Because Ron still thought it was a stupid idea.

That evening, Hermione and Ron were sitting at the Gryffindor table without their third party. Harry had told them he was going to the bathroom first, but he had been gone for so long that Ron started eating. Harry could not expect him to wait that long when there was food right in front of his nose.

"Ron." Hermione nudged him and pointed at the entrance of the Great Hall. Ron lowered his toast and watched Harry. He seemed kind of disturbed, absent. He ran into a Ravenclaw fourth year girl, made her stumble, and did not even seem to notice it. As if he was in a trance, he sat down opposite of Ron and Hermione. They just watched their best friend, who was just staring into the toast in front of Ron, but probably not really seeing it. "Harry?" Hermione asked carefully.

"Mate." Ron said when Harry did not react.

"Hm?" Harry lifted his head, blinked and focused his gaze on his friends.

"You okay?" Hermione asked.

Harry bit his bottom lip, stilling for a second before taking a breath. "I think I'm having a crush on Malfoy."

Ron froze, feeling Hermione do the same next to him. Harry stared back at them anxiously. Ron felt a grin grow on his face. "Well, congratulations. You're officially the last one to know."

Harry's face formed a confused frown. "Oh, don't act like that, Ronald." Hermione said. "You needed way too many hints yourself."

"Still." Ron said. "I knew before him. And I'm the first one who found out about- Ow." He glared at Hermione. She looked back with a deadpan stare.

"I know what you were going to say and I think it's the wrong time to tell him."

"Tell me what?" Harry said. He probably did not like that his friends were keeping something from him.

"So..." Hermione leaned forward. "What are you gonna do about it?"

"About what?" Ron saw Harry growing annoyed.

"Your crush." Hermione said.

"What? Nothing. Why should I do something about it?" Harry snapped.

"Well..." Hermione started, but Harry shook his head and stood up.

"Forget it. Why did I even tell you? This is ridiculous."

"Harry wait." Hermione grabbed his sleeve. "I'm sorry. No need to freak out. It's totally normal that you want to talk about it."

"Of course I'm freaking out." Harry hissed. "I have a fucking crush on Malfoy!"

"You have a crush on Malfoy?"

Harry, Ron and Hermione turned their head to Neville who was just sitting down next to Harry. "Shhh." Hermione hissed, but it was too late.

"I knew it!" Seamus appeared next to Ron, followed by Dean, who rolled his eyes.

"Everyone knew it."

"Interesting."

The Gryffindors turned to a brown haired sixth year. Ron's eyes went from her sly grin to her tie. Green. Ron looked at Harry, whose face was white as he was staring at the Slytherin emblem on her chest.

Before anyone could decide what to do next, she gave them a sarcastic nod and went to the Slytherin table.

"What do I do now?" Harry whispered.

"Maybe... It's good." Neville said.

"Why in the name of Merlin would it be good?" Harry glared.

"Umm... Maybe he feels the same?" Neville said, but he did not sound very convincing. Ron shared a look with Hermione.

"Fuck this shit..." Harry stood up, never stopping his rant of curses, and hurried out of the Great Hall. Ron looked over to the girl who had overheard them. She was whispering excitedly to her curly black haired Slytherin friend. Everyone would know it by tomorrow morning.