Our Ickle Ronniekins

Ships: R/Hr, H/G hinted, and D/Hr hinted.

The next day, Ron dragged himself out of bed at a very early hour. He didn’t like it, but he wanted to look good for Hermione. He jumped in the shower, making sure to use up all of the hot water. He never got hot water in the mornings because he was always the last one to awake. He got out of the shower and put a towel on. He used a drying charm on his hair, but it took a while because his hair was a little too long. Now it was time for him to train his tresses to stay put. He used half of a bottle of Heloise’s Hair Hijinx Hider and still wasn’t satisfied. ‘Oh well, it’ll have to do,’ he thought. He put on his robes, which he was totally disgusted with because every brother of his had owned them previously. He hadn’t noticed it before, but his robes shorter than they had been when he first came to Hogwarts that year. Of course, with his luck, he didn’t know how to fix them, so he just left them be. He exited the shower. Still, no one was awake. He descended the stairs to the Common Room, and waited for his friends to awaken.

* * * * *

Harry, Hermione, and Ron were in the Great Hall. Harry was eating his porridge, Hermione was reading Hogwarts, A History for the quintillionth time, and Ron was doing his best to finish his Potions essay, because he had been procrastinating yet again. He and Hermione were holding hands under the table. Ron put down his quill and ran his fingers through his hair. "I think that should do it," he muttered. He rolled up his parchment, not caring that his essay was only half the required length and that it had nothing to do with Upside- Down Potions.

Everyone at Hogwarts knew about Ron and Hermione, and obviously there was talk about it. Ron figured that even some of the teachers knew about it, and he didn’t care what they thought. He only cared about Hermione. Suddenly there was commotion at the Slytherin table. Draco Malfoy got up and walked over to the Gryffindor table, shouting so everyone could hear him, "Well, well, well, if it isn’t the two lovebirds nestled in each other’s arms. How nice," Ron glared at Malfoy.

"Get lost," he snarled.

"Weasley, you might be a poor, unsatisfactorily dressed pessimist, but why would you stoop so low to love a Mudblood?" Draco sighed. "What a pity," he muttered. He had approached Ron, trying to look as cool as possible.

Ron, with pure fury and hatred in his eyes, stood up. "Ron, just let it slide," Hermione whispered her eyes pleading. "Just ignore him."

"Hermione," he whispered to her. "I’ve let it slide too many times. I won’t let him insult you like that." By now everyone was watching them. The Professors weren’t paying any attention, like they thought Draco deserved what was coming.

Ron straightened. "Malfoy," he said as if the name was hated as much as Voldermort’s. "You can insult my family, my clothes, my name, my lack of money, my personality, my appearance. You can insult every last freckle on my face if you please. But you will not insult my Hermione if you know what’s good for you."

Harry and Hermione were shocked. Neville Longbottom had hidden under the table. The Weasley twins cheered Ron ("Gooooooo Ron!"). But Ron was oblivious to them. All he cared about was making Malfoy pay. He straightened to his full height, about a foot and a half taller than Draco. He grabbed the front of Draco’s robe, and hit him. Hard. Ron released Draco, and he fell to the floor. Draco took a moment to recover. He coughed, and spit blood on the tile floor. Then he swung at Ron, his fist connecting with his shoulder. Then Ron told Draco to do something not very nice. Fred and George burst out laughing, but Ron was quite serious.

"Language, Weasley. You really should control your temper, it’s going to get you into trouble someday," Draco said smoothly, though it was hard for him to act cool when his lip was bleeding.

Harry, looked over at the professors. Snape was talking to Dumbledore and gesticulating wildly. But, no matter what Snape was trying to do, Draco was in for it. So he continued with his verbal retorts.

"Weasley, you’re just scum. You and your whole family. And I’m sure that includes Potter, who hasn’t got a real family, and the Mudblood, who…" Ron snapped. He jumped on Draco, knocking him over. Ron was punching him in his face as hard as he could. Someone, probably a Gryffindor, said, "Yea, Weasley, you get that slimy prat!"

Draco had a black eye, a broken nose, and his lip was bleeding. Suddenly, Ron stopped punching him. He rose, leaving Draco just lying there. Ron realized what he had just done. "Get your sorry self to the hospital wing," he muttered. He sat back down in his chair. Hermione was thanking God that he hadn’t been hurt, and that Snape hadn’t been there to say ‘Fifty points from Gryffindor, and detention for the next month. She didn’t know that nobody at the table would have cared if all the points were taken away from Gryffindors. They knew the slimy prat deserved every bit of it.

* * * * *

After they finished eating breakfast Ron, Hermione, and Harry watched the food disappear from the table. Then they got up out of their chairs, gathered their stuff, and headed for Potions. Ron and Harry each only had their Potions book, essay, quills and ink in their bags, but Hermione had all of her textbooks (just in case she had spare time to study), her Potions homework (which was four times the minimum length requirement), extra parchment (to take notes), ink, and quills in her bag. As a result from carrying all of this, she was walking with very bad posture and could barely keep her balance.

"Hermione… do you want me to carry your bag?" Ron asked.

"No," Hermione replied. "I think I can manage."

"Okay," Ron said, not believing a word of it. After a while he spoke again. "Are you sure?" he asked.

She looked at him, her eyes sparkling. "Are you sure?"

Ron raised an eyebrow. "Would I have asked you if I wasn’t?" he replied.

Hermione smiled mischievously. "I don’t know, would you?"

Harry cut in their conversation. "Well there’s no point now because we’re already there." Sure enough, the trio had arrived right in front of their Potions classroom. They walked in and took their seats, which unfortunately were in the front of the room. Professor Snape walked in, and class started.

"Class," he began. "I’m quite sure all of you were at breakfast earlier today, so I’m also sure you saw certain… events during that point in time. I will leave you to discuss that." He paused, his gaze falling on Ron. "Weasley – in my office – now."

Ron followed Professor Snape to his office. Snape closed the door and look at Ron. Ron stared right back. Snape was fuming. He cleared his throat and tried to keep his emotions in check. He spoke.

"Weasley, you are quite lucky Dumbledore and Mcgonagall were on your side at breakfast. If I had my way you would be expelled. I think your friend Harry Potter saw me trying to convince Dumbledore to step in, but he wouldn’t hear any of it. I’m sure Lucius Malfoy –"

"Lucius Malfoy is a sodding Death Eater, and he’s already against my family!" Ron shot back furiously. He didn’t exactly enjoy being scolded by his least favorite teacher.

"YOU HAVE NO PROOF HE’S A DEATH EATER!!!" Snape snapped back. "And so what if he’s already against your family? I’m sure he’s not going to be any fonder of you after he hears about this. Obviously your family is quite poor by the looks of it. I’ve even seen your house, when your father was in the Daily Prophet. It’s called ‘The Burrow’ isn’t it? I could see why."

Ron went scarlet in the face from being so mad. "I know we’re poor, you don’t have to rub it in!"

"SHUT UP!" Snape snarled. "I’ve had enough of you and your brothers and sister, always giving me trouble. Almost as bad as Potter. Just… get out of here and go sit down!"

Ron ran out of the office, looking really, really ticked off. He took his seat between Hermione and Harry. Hermione, sensing his pain, put her arms around him, trying to comfort him as best she could. He held his head in his hands as if he has a headache. He was ashamed because of what Malfoy and Snape said to him. It hit him harder than Malfoy could have ever punched him. Malfoy, thankfully, was still in the infirmary, but after a while Snape came back out.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he said, "please get out your homework from last night and put it on your desks. I will come by and collect it." Harry got out all of their homework and put them on their desk while Snape’s back was turned.

Harry whispered to Hermione, "Try to talk to him tonight while I’m at Quidditch practice, okay?" Hermione nodded.