Maybe Ron and Hermione were dating, only in secret. Absurd you say? Well maybe, but there is a surprising amount of evidence to back it up.
Why would they date in secret? Harry is their best friend, why wouldn't they want him to know? Well consider Harry's mood in this book. In the beginning, he's already mad at Ron and Hermione for keeping information from him. But more than that, he's mad that they are together, having fun, doing all sorts of non-Privet Drive activities without him. If he were to find out they were dating, wouldn't that make him more angry? He might see this as a confirmation that they were in fact having all sorts of fun without him. Ron and Hermione know Harry is angry and confused, and the last thing they want him to feel is left out. If you accept that, it seems almost realistic that they wouldn't tell Harry if they were in a romantic relationship. Now to the evidence.
"...Ron and Hermione, who, though he often saw them whispering together and casting anxious looks in his direction..."(pg 119, OotP). Harry thinks that they are talking about his impending trial which could lead to his expulsion, but he never actually finds out what they are saying. Maybe they are talking about Harry’s trial, but it doesn’t seem entirely unlikely that they would be doing boyfriend/girlfriend things, and they are shooting anxious looks towards Harry because they don't want him to find out about it.
There are multiple cases were Hermione jumps to Ron's defense in this book. When Fred and George are making fun of Ron right after he becomes a prefect, Hermione sticks up for him. When they are giving him a hard time about Quidditch, Hermione criticizes them for it. Harry is Ron's friend, why isn't he always coming to Ron's rescue when he's being ridiculed? Why is it that Hermione gets all upset when he is getting teased? Again, this leads me to believe that Ron and Hermione are more than friends.
On the other side of that token, Ron and Hermoine are constantly bickering (more than usual that is) about little things that seem to not matter. The readers of mine who have dated can attest to the fact that those are the things couples argue about. It's not usually big things that cause this bickering, it's little, seemingly unimportant things that do; it's the proverbial straw breaking the camel's back.
Let's start with Hermione kissing Ron on the cheek right before his first Quidditch match. First, notice that she doesn't kiss Harry. Now some of you may think this kiss is just between two friends, and he needs support and she's trying to wish him luck. Maybe. Some may notice that Ron is puzzled by this, and that if they were dating, he should be anything but puzzled. Fair point. However, if they are dating in secret, it would come as a surprise to him that Hermione kissed him right in front of the one person they are trying to hide their relationship from. I'll agree that she is kissing Ron to try and ease his nerves, but I don't think she'd do it if Ron was just a friend.
Another small piece of evidence: consider Ron's Christmas gift to Hermione (perfume.) That just seems like something you'd give a girlfriend as opposed to a friend.
I think he's onto something. But, I'm not sure if Ron and Hermione would go to great legnths to hide their relationshipe from Harry, I mean, he is their best friend, I would think they'd feel too guilty to do so. I think that its more of a they mutually like eachother thing and know it, just don't want to have a relationship because of the strain it would put on their relationship with Harry.
What do you think about Josh Smith's theory?
