The Matchmaker

Ron had just crawled through the portrait hole and entered the common room when Hermione pounced on him.

"How did practice go?" she asked, although it was obvious that Quidditch was not the topic that she was interested in discussing. She had bolted over to him from across the room as soon as she had seen him, leaving her schoolbooks open on the study table she had been working at. Ron knew from experience that Hermione had something she was dying to tell him.

"It was fine. What's up?" Ron asked, deciding he could fill her in on Harry's argument with Ginny later. "You look like Crookshanks after he ate my rat."

Hermione frowned at him. She remembered quite well the great row the two of them had gotten into over that incident in their third year. Crookshanks hadn't really eaten Scabbers, who had turned out to be an evil, idiot servant of Lord Voldemort. It was a shame he didn't get eaten, really, thought Hermione. But deciding to avoid a fight, Hermione did not say any of these things. Instead she said excitedly, "I've been thinking..."

"Really, you?" Ron interrupted with a smirk.

"Oh, how clever!" Hermione replied with equal sarcasm. "No, I was thinking that maybe your original plan isn't the best way to go about things."

"What's wrong with an innocent little game of Truth or Dare?" asked Ron with a smile. "You just dare one of them to do something that they wouldn't normally do on their own..."

"Exactly. You know how Harry is. He doesn't like to be told what to do, least of all by us. And Ginny's even worse about things like that," Ron was tempted to interrupt her to point out Ginny's actions at practice but decided to hear her out. "And one of them is bound to realize what we're trying to do. I don't know about you, but I don't want to deal with the repercussions!"

"Oh, what would they do anyway? It's not like they can turn the tables on us!" Ron said, turning slightly pink and giving Hermione a sideways glance to gauge her reaction as he sat down in a chair by the fire. She looked at him curiously for a moment, and then her expression changed to one of quiet sadness that Ron did not understand.

Before he could ask her about it, she responded, "There's just got to be a better way to go about this."

"Well, fine. Not Truth or Dare then. What about that other muggle game? Turn the bottle or something?"

"Spin the Bottle?" Hermione sputtered, her eyes wide with shock and amusement. The idea of getting to play the game with a certain tall redhead ran fleetingly through her mind, but she ignored it. "Do you even know how to play that game?"

"Well, no, not really. I've heard of it though. I know you need a bottle and a closet..."

"Ron, I'm not going to explain it to you, but believe me when I say that if Truth or Dare is obvious, Spin the Bottle screams 'set-up'. We can't do that either."

"Well, I'm out of ideas then."

"Luckily for you," said Hermione with a smile, "you have me. Here is what I'm thinking. The best and least obvious way to get them together is to just give things an opportunity to happen on their own," she paused, hoping that Ron would be able to come to the conclusion on his own. Seeing the confusion on his face, she continued, "you know, talk to Harry and bring up Ginny. Get him thinking about her and kind of put the thought in his head. Give them a chance to spend some time together alone. Harry doesn't know Ginny very well, and I really think that if they could just spend some time with each other they would get together on their own."

"So you want me to speak to Harry about Ginny?" Ron asked.

"Well, we can just mention her whenever we can slip it into conversation. But we have to be very discreet," she looked at Ron incredulously.

"What? I can't be discreet?" Ron obviously thought that Hermione had no reason to doubt him.

"We'll just have to hope so," Hermione said matter-of-factly. "And you and I will have to make sure to disappear any time there's an opportunity for them to spend some time together."

"Oh, well, I've already done that!" Ron exclaimed. He quickly filled Hermione in on everything that had happened that morning and where Harry was now. He had not realized until that moment that she had not once inquired about Harry's whereabouts, which Ron found quite strange. He dismissed it as another thought occurred to him. "I'm not so sure about this," he said uneasily. "What exactly do you expect to happen between them during all of this 'alone' time?"

Hermione gave him a look that told him he had clearly forgotten his brain somewhere between the Quidditch field and the castle. "You want them to get together, right?" Ron nodded. "I realize that you don't have a lot of background with this, but what do you expect two people who are dating do when they're alone?"

"Well, you know - go to Hogsmeade together, talk about things..." He explained blankly as Hermione moved closer to him and sat down on the arm of his chair.

"Ron, let's just say, for the sake of argument, that you and I were a couple," Hermione said nonchalantly, forcing herself to stare right into his blue eyes. Ron's face flushed and he swallowed noticeably. She leaned toward him and continued softly, "Are you saying that you really believe that the only thing we would do together when we were alone is talk?"

Fireworks went off in Ron's brain as his mind was bombarded with images of all the different things he would like to do with Hermione if this scenario were real.

"Well, I...er," he stammered, shifting away from her. Why would she say something like that? She had to know what he was thinking. Was it possible that she fancied him? No, no it couldn't be, he thought.

It was then that Ron realized his face probably matched his hair at this point. And then he remembered who the conversation had been about in the first place.

"She's my sister!" Ron shouted in outrage.

"So you want them to date, but not..." Hermione broke off, staring at him. "I think you're a bit delusional, Ron. I mean, I expect Harry is a gentleman, but..."

"What do you know about it?" interrupted Ron angrily.

"I said I expect, you git!" fired Hermione, although there was a twinkle in her eyes that hinted her anger wasn't real. "For all I know, Harry's just waiting for a chance to snog some poor girl senseless," she added, a bit too dreamily in Ron's opinion.

Hermione did not really believe this, of course, but she felt she should prepare Ron for this possibility. It was obvious that he was not being very realistic. If their plan worked, Hermione was convinced that Harry and Ginny would become quite serious about each other, and that could make things awkward for Ron. However, if her plan worked, he would hardly be with them enough to notice.

Hermione was not able to dwell on her plan. Just then their conversation was interrupted as they saw Harry enter through the portrait in deep conversation with none other than Ginny herself. Harry did not even notice that his two best friends were in the room. Hermione watched them both closely. Ginny was acting quite normally, but Hermione notice that there was something different in Harry's interaction with her, something in his expression that she couldn't quite read. The two conspirators watched Harry and Ginny go up the stairs to the dormitories and disappear from sight.

"Oooh, did you see that?" Hermione asked Ron breathlessly as she jumped up from the chair. "I think the plan is working!"

"I think you may be right," said Ron, looking slightly shocked. "He didn't even notice us."

"So we'll make ourselves scarce when the two of them are in the same place?" she asked.

"I suppose," said Ron. "But where will we go all the time?"

"Well, there's always the library," Hermione said brightly.

"Smashing," Ron replied listlessly as he headed for the stairs and went up to join Harry in their room.