Making Plans

"Come on, Gin, please," Ron pleaded, following his sister across the common room. "I just need you to do this one thing for me, and she'll never even know you were involved. Please Ginny."

"Ronald Weasley, I refuse to steal for you, especially not from one of my best friends!" Ginny replied angrily heading in the direction of the girl's dormitories. Of all the stupid schemes her brother had cooked up in the past this was one of the worst. Stealing! And from Hermione, no less. If he was trying to earn points with her this was certainly no way to do it. And he needed all the points he could get after the whole Lav-Lav fiasco.

"It's not really stealing, just borrowing. I only need it for ten, maybe twenty, minutes. Then you can put it back and she'll never even know it was gone." He grabbed her arm and pulled her back as they neared the stairs to the dorms. "Please, Ginny, you're the only person I can ask to do this for me."

"I really don't see why you need the damn thing at all. Honestly, what is so important about Hermione's Planner? I mean I know she can't live without the stupid thing, but why do you want it so badly. I swear if you just want to mess with her I'll have no part in it." She pulled her arm out of his grasp and started up the stairs. Sometime boys could be so daft.

"It's not like that, I swear," he assured her again, following her to the bottom of the stairs, he remembered only too well what had happened the last time he and Harry had attempted to climb them.

"Then, why is it so bloody important? I'm telling you Ron, I will need one hell of a reason to even consider this." She paused and turned to look back at him. "Well, I'm waiting…"

"It's just that… we… Harry really. Well… he had this idea to… to…"

"I haven't got all day, Ron. Spit it out!" She turned in exasperation and began climbing the long curving staircase.

"Ginny! Wait!" cried Ron attempting to chase her up the stairs. He fell on his face as the stairs transformed, as they had the last time a boy had set foot on them, into a long slide. Ginny shrieked as she felt her feet slip out from underneath her and she slid down what had just seconds ago been a staircase, and into her brother.

"Ron!" she growled. "You are so DEAD!"

"Wait," he implored her, "Just let me explain."

"Fine," she mumbled. "Explain." Looking nervous, Ron explained to her the brilliant plan he and Harry had come up with (all by themselves, too).

"You see?" he asked. "It's the only way, and you can't deny that you've been wanting this. How can you object?" Overall, she considered, it wasn't a bad plan, and her part was essential.

"Oh, alright," she agreed. "I'll do it! But you owe me big for this!"

-.-.-.-

"Ginny, Have you seen my organizer?" Hermione asked as she entered the common room. "I could have sworn I put it back in my trunk but I can't find it anywhere."

"Oh, sorry," Ginny said, pulling it out of her bag. She'd meant to put it back before Hermione noticed but she'd come back earlier than they'd expected. "I borrowed it for a minute and forgot to return it."

"Okay," Hermione replied, slightly confused. What did Ginny want with her personal organizer? It was, after all, personal. "Thanks."

She flipped it open wanting to double check her homework for the day. As she scanned her 'to do' list for the day, however, something caught her eye. Near the bottom, written in small untidy handwriting that was clearly not her own, a small message was written. 'Meet Ron by the lake - 8:00.'

She glanced at the large grandfather clock in the corner if the room. 7:45. She had fifteen minutes, just enough time to get there if she hurried. What did Ron want with her at this hour, though? She had loads of homework to do tonight, and so did he. Should she go?

"She sighed and ran back up to her dorm to grab her jacket. Ron had better have a good reason for this.

It was beginning to get dark as she made her way from the castle down to the lake. There was still enough light, though, to make out his silhouette against the purple sky as she approached the lake. He was pacing back and forth muttering to himself under his breath and at first he didn't realize that she was there.

"Ron?" she called softly, as she drew closer. "What was so important that you felt the need to ask me here when we both have homework that needs done?"

Ron's face paled as he looked up and noticed her there and he opened and closed his mouth several times trying to think of how best to phrase his thoughts.

"You look like a fish," she told him with a small laugh. "Well, whatever it is just spit it out, Ron."

"Hermione, I think I'm in love with you," he said quickly his face turning the same dark maroon as the sweater he was wearing.

"You what?" Hermione gasped trying to comprehend what he'd just told her.

"I love you." he repeated more slowly, looking slightly horrified. "There, I've finally said it."

Hermione couldn't respond she couldn't make her mouth form the words that she'd been waiting to say to him for the last four years.

"Oh, no!" Ron said, rejection and embarrassment evident in his voice. "Oh, god, I feel like such an idiot. You obviously don't feel the same way. I mean, how could I have thought that-"

"Ron!" Hermione whispered, cutting him off. "Are you going to shut up, or do I have to shut you up?"

"What-" he began, as Hermione grabbed his shoulders and pulled her face to his.

"You can be so daft sometimes," she told him before she pressed her lips to his in a short but breathtaking kiss. "Of course, I feel the same way. I've loved you since our third year, you git."

"No need to be rude," he replied with a grin and he kissed her back enthusiastically.

-.-.-.-

"Mission accomplished," Harry whispered into his wand, watching the scene unfold from behind a tree.

"Pleasure to have you on the team, Harry," George replied from the twins flat in Diagon alley.

"I knew the plan was foolproof," said Fred, happily.

"No you didn't!" argued George, "You said he'd probably chicken out."

"I said the plan was foolproof, not Ron."