Genuine

By HiSpAnIc PaNiC

Ship: R/Hr

Author's Note: hello, happy shippers! This is a "missing scene" of sorts from Order of the Phoenix (yes, I have read all of the series, but this little part was too good to pass up!), and it takes place during Harry's hour or so in the Room of Requirement with Cho (which can be seen on the new OotP trailer on Yahoo!). See if you can bring your mind back to the Era of Umbridge and the sacking of Trelawney, where the biggest problem was Grawp and maybe not the death of a certain well-loved professor. ::sob:: yes, we are still in mourning. Anyway, to get your mind going, the story was inspired from:

"Is it Cho?" Hermione asked in a businesslike way. "Did she corner you after the meeting?"
Numbly surprised, Harry nodded. Ron sniggered, breaking off when Hermione caught his eye.
"So—er—what did she want?" he asked in a mock casual voice.
"She—" Harry began, rather hoarsely; he cleared his throat and tried again. "She—er—"
"Did you kiss?" asked Hermione briskly.
Ron sat up so fast that he sent his ink bottle flying all over the rug. Disregarding this completely he stared avidly at Harry.
"Well?" he demanded.
Harry looked from Ron's expression of mingled curiosity and hilarity to Hermione's slight frown, and nodded.
"HA!"
Ron made a triumphant gesture with his fist and went into a raucous peal of laughter…

Order of the Phoenix, pp. 457-8, American edition.

Happy reading! Onward!

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The door of the Room of Requirement snapped shut at the sight of the retreating backs of Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger.

"Why didn't we wait for Harry?" Ron inquired, rubbing his sore bottom, a souvenir from one of Hermione's particularly fine Impediment Jinxes. Hermione rolled her eyes, partly from asperity, and partly to ignore Ron's hand placement.

"Honestly, Ron, couldn't you tell he wanted a 'Happy Christmas' from Cho?"

"So what if he did? She could've done it while we were there. It's not exactly a romantic love song, that expression."

Hermione opened her mouth to protest, but instead pulled Ron's arm away from its previous location. He looked at her in resentment.

"That's sore, you know! Feels like I sat on a pair of knarls…"

"I can't talk to you properly when you're doing that. It's…distracting."

Ron grinned slightly. Hermione shook her head and made to turn left, when she felt long fingers close around her wrist. She looked down at them and then up at Ron, which allowed her a lovely view of the interior of his nose.

"What?" she asked. They were standing in the middle of the corridor.

"Erm…let's take the long way tonight," Ron said a little too casually.

Hermione hid her surprise fairly well. Ron hated the long way. He always complained of the aches in his feet after a long day and wanted to make it back to Gryffindor Tower as quickly as possible. Hermione blamed it on poor arch support. Instead of questioning it, however, she merely said, "Alright."

They began walking again in silence, Ron's hands stuffed in his pockets, Hermione's eyes glued to the paintings on the wall. Just as the silence was getting stifling, Cho's curly-haired friend, Marietta Edgecomb, shouldered her way between them, mumbling something that sounded very much like "Harry Potter."

"'Scuse you," Ron muttered. "Wonder what's got her knickers in a twist."

"She's probably upset that Cho's with Harry," said Hermione grimly.

"Oh, right…" Ron seemed to absorb this for a minute. "So, why didn't we wait for Harry again?" He said this in a slightly apologetic tone.

Hermione sighed. "You, Ronald Weasley, have obviously never been in love. It's apparent that—"

"Now wait a minute," Ron interjected, "Who says I haven't?"

Here, Hermione gave a false, scathing laugh that put Ron in the mind of Umbridge. Not too remotely appealing. Lost in this unpleasant thought, Ron almost missed Hermione say, "Oh, forgive me for forgetting about your darling Fleur Delacour."

"I wasn't in love with her! She was just…pretty…" Ron finished lamely.

"She was gorgeous, and half-Veela to boot," Hermione snapped. "Which proves my point."

"Alright, Hermione, alright," sighed Ron, grabbing her wrist again and pulling her onto the floor of the corridor. "You're overdue for a sermon anyway. Tell me what it's like to be in love, since Trelawney's tarot deck and crystal ball have so enlightened you."

Hermione stuck her nose in the air.

"That rubbish won't help you learn about love."

But, due to Ron's experience with Ginny in her room during a summer storm and an old card deck, he (silently) begged to differ…maybe.

"Love is," Hermione began strongly, then bit her lip. "Well, love is…" She rubbed the side of her nose with her index finger, leaving a smudge of ink. Ron was oddly comforted by this habit. Maybe, just maybe, Hermione was unsure about love as well.

Hermione's eyes had landed on a portrait of a famous Healer.

"Love is…like a sickness!"

Ron raised his brows. Even Hermione crinkled her nose in displeasure. That didn't sound very cheery, let alone romantic. Before Ron could say anything, she added hastily, "Just go with me here."

Ron put his palms out in front of him as a sign of submission.

"Well, love is like a sickness because when you're near the person you…fancy, your stomach sort of…goes all flip-floppy and your hands get clammy and you might get a bit short of…short of breath…" She met Ron's eyes and found herself quite incapable of speech. Only then (and not when she had overheard Lavender and Parvati discussing it in the dormitory), at that instant, did she truly believe what she was saying. Ron gulped, his Adam's apple like a Quaffle in his throat.

"And what else?" he asked.

Hermione was not prepared. "Er…sometimes you…you…" it was frustrating, all this casting about to find the right words, but Ron had some thoughts of his own.

"Sometimes you sit and watch them when you should really be taking History of Magic notes, and when you do pretend to take notes you really just doodle their name all over your parchment?" He said all of this very fast, looking Hermione straight in the eye the whole time.

Hermione nodded idly; she had never noticed how blue his eyes were…or perhaps she had never allowed herself to look for this long.

As a suddenly delicious feeling began to crawl through her veins, because Ron was regarding her as if she were the only person in the world, she felt the both of them come to themselves. They quickly averted their gazes. Hermione felt, for some reason, slightly disappointed.

"Hermione?" Ron asked, very softly. "Is lightheadedness a part of this sickness?"

Hermione nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

"What about loss of comprehensible thought?" he said, beginning to rise, and offering her a hand up. She took it and attempted a smile.

"Sometimes."

Ron smiled that quirky, lopsided grin of his in return, still keeping a loose hold on her hand as they made way to the common room.

"How 'bout nausea? Loss of appetite? Bloating?" Ron's voice was becoming lighter.

Hermione giggled, swatting at him playfully. Ron felt an odd sense of loss at the absence of her hand in his.

"Everything but the last one."

Ron stopped in his tracks and put his hands on her shoulders.

"Then I have definitely been in love—" he broke off awkwardly, quickly. Hermione felt a little jolt in the pit of her stomach, sort of like the feeling one got when traveling by Portkey.

"She broke my heart. Pretty little thing with chestnut hair and big brown eyes…I wish Ginny hadn't let Fred and George experiment with that doll."

Ron sighed dejectedly. Hermione made a noise between a giggle and a snort. It was also a mix of…disappointment and relief?

"Will you both stop goggling at each other and give me the bloody password?" said the Fat Lady irritably. Her friend Violet had been
"busy" with a new boyfriend—none other than Sir Cadogan, in fact—and this miffed her greatly.

Ron and Hermione jumped, not realizing they had reached Gryffindor Tower already.

"Mimbleus mimbletonia," said Ron crossly.

"Well," huffed the Fat Lady, swinging open rather forcefully.

Ron and Hermione entered the common room and seized their bags, huddling near the fire uneasily.

Ron cracked open his Transfiguration book, reading the same line over and over again. Hermione had pulled out parchment and was beginning a very long letter to Viktor Krum.

"I bet she kisses him," said Ron in a quiet voice, speaking to his book. Hermione looked at him.

"Rubbish. Why would she?"

"There was a bunch of mistletoe clumped above his head before we left, Hermione."

"So? That doesn't mean she'd go and snog Harry!" She said this in a hostile voice and instantly regretted it.

"Calm down, it's only an idea."

"Mistletoe," Hermione sniffed, "What a stupid tradition." She attacked her parchment with her quill a little more forcefully than intended.

Ron raised his eyebrows curiously at this, but didn't dare ask about it. Part of him didn't want to think about Hermione under any sort of leafy thing with any sort of person. Instead, he said, "I'll make you a bet, Hermione."

She stopped writing. "What?"

"I bet you they kissed." He eyed her bag, dug inside for a quill, and instead produced a knobbly elf hat. "And if I'm right, you can't knit any more elf clothes for a month."

"And if you're wrong?" Hermione asked, now a bit miffed herself. Here was Ron making sport of an affectionate gesture between two people as if it were…a horse race or something.

"Then I will wear your elf clothes for a month."

Hermione looked down at her parchment, making sure her hair hid her smile. Perhaps Ron had picked up on her less-than-happy feelings about mistletoe and was trying to reconcile for them. Maybe he was a bit more attuned to feelings than she gave him credit for. She tucked her hair behind her ear, prepared to give him a beaming smile…and saw that he was attempting to balance the quill on his nose, only succeeding in splattering ink on his Transfiguration book.

Instead, Hermione sighed. But it was somewhat a sigh of content. Ron was genuine, to say the least.

"You're on, Ron. You're on."

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a/n: Well, it's been awhile since I've written anything at all, but here I am, back and happy to bring you more r/hr joy! Please, please leave a review and tell me what you think! I shall loveth you as an obese child loveth frosted, pastry treats.

lol. Just review please. It'll make my day.

XOXO,

HiPa