He walked down the corridor, desperately searching for her. Where in the world could she have sulked away to? He was certain it was about the Ron-Lavender thing, and Ron obviously wasn't going to go look for her. And Ron looking for her wouldn't help the situation anyway.
He poked his out to see if perhaps she was in the room. She sat on a miniature staircase, bawling. He walked forward, slowly, and she was startled to realize his presence.
"Oh, hi Harry." She half sniffled half whispered.
"Hi there, 'Mione." He tried to add sympathy to his voice, but it didn't come out the way he wanted. He sat down awkwardly next to her, not quite sure what to do to make her feel better. She cried and whimpered into his shoulder, and he noted the diminutive, tweeting birds floating above her head.
She spoke suddenly, "How do you feel when Ginny's with Dean?" The question hit him hard. He didn't really want to answer, let alone discuss Ginny.
He was going to answer with a sigh, when Ron kind of tumbled in, Lavender in hand as she giggled like she'd heard some small joke they'd missed.
"Ooohhoops! Looks like this room's taken!" She snickered, not menacingly, but it gave the illusion of being hurtful. Hermione let out a sharp cry that Lavender failed to notice. She bounded up the taller staircase to the left of the two, thinking Ron was right behind her. He stayed back, faintly concerned with the scenario.
"What's with the birds?" He chuckled, as if it were only half funny. Hermione wasn't amused by his lack of visible concern, which she thought would be one of his first reactions. She stood, and shot the birds violently in his direction. He jumped out of the way, and leapt up the steps after Lavender, but mostly to get away from Hermione. An angered Hermione is not what he wanted at the moment. Or ever, really.
Hermione sat down abruptly, and continued to whimper and cry into Harry's shoulder.
"It feels like this." He barely even managed to make an audible whisper of the words.
She raised her head up to meet his gaze and he coincidentally lowered his head to maybe get her to look at him. Their noses bumped, and their lips lightly touched. Butterflies seemed to begin to make their way into her stomach. Harry simply couldn't believe what he'd done. There was an image of a furious Ron creeping into his head. Ron had always fancied her, right?
Their lips parted, mostly out of embarrassment, but they both couldn't seem to keep the feeling at bay. A small peck was all it was, nothing notably special about it, it wasn't even intentional. Harry felt the need to try it again, but deliberately this time.
He shifted to a kneel; she was still sitting, so his head was a few inches above hers. She wasn't quite sure about what he was attempting, but she didn't try to keep him from achieving it. He lowered his head at an angle that caused his glasses to slip, and lightly fall on her eyes. She chuckled through now-dry tears and moved her head forward and kissed him.
It felt a lot like this moment was an accident. Like it was going to be regretted later, surely. That's the way it should feel, but not how it actually felt. It felt… Nice. Much better than Cho Chang, for sure.
Hermione felt his tongue slowly glide past hers, and, surprised, jumped a little. Her hand managed to find his shoulder, and though she'd been miserable just moments before, she felt elated now.
Lavender pulled away for a second.
"Ron?" she asked.
Ah, bloody hell, what'd he done wrong?
"Yeah…?" he replied softly.
"I'm pretty certain I dropped something down in that room before. Would you mind going with me to retrieve it?"
Phew, nothing wrong on his part.
"Yeah, sure." He said relieved.
"Come on, Ginny!" Dean pleaded.
"What if Ron sees, Dean? What then?"
"He won't, he's with Lavender!" Dean whined.
"Fine." She had no reason to not snog Dean, but she was fully content back at the party. They walked in silence, until Ginny saw a startling image that she did not enjoy witnessing.
Harry and Hermione couldn't really express what this was like into actual words. It was something indescribable. They broke for air, as Harry realized that the image of Ron hadn't returned. Hermione sleepily opened her eyes, only to notice two hot-headed young red heads staring at them in disbelief.
They spoke in unintentional unison,
"BLOODY HELL?"
