Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter I would be going to Europe….and I'm not.
'Now let's see wolfsbane then dragon blood? ...Or is it the other way round? Where was that section in the…' Her thoughts trailed off as a glinting light found its way into her concentrated eyes. She focused in, looking for the source and instantly found the dusky sun reflecting off Ron's red hair, Hermione's face lit up with a smile at her two best friends leaning over a game of Wizard's Chess, both thinking intently.
She watched as Ron moved a piece and gave a satisfied nod as one of Harry's pieces was thrown violently from the board. Hermione let out a small giggle as Harry looked shocked and leaned closer over the board to devise his next move. Ron's ears pinpointed the light laugh he had come to love so much and looked over at Hermione instantly.
Their eyes locked on each other and they smiled warmly. She felt her face begin to turn pink (an increasingly common occurrence when Ron was around) and looked back down at her Potions essay, trying to concentrate on the order she had forgotten. After a few moments had passed, she chanced a look back at her boys and found them in the same position, Harry staring at the board and Ron, with a dazed smile, looking at her.
Hermione shook her head and flipped through the book, looking for the potion recipe so she could finish her essay and tried to ignore the boy on the other side of the room.
Ron looked at her, completely unaware of Harry's move, demolishing one of his bishops from the board. He smiled at her wrinkled brow and thought to himself 'There she is working as usual. Crazy girl, that essay's not due for a whole week!'
"Oi, Ron!" Harry waved a hand in front of his face and he shot his head back to the game. "Your move mate." He had a goofy smile on his face as if he noticed something Ron had no clue about.
Ron quickly returned his focus to the game, assuming the look was for an extremely clever move Harry had made. He found the board, relatively unchanged and his strategy still intact, two more moves and he would have Harry's king. He tilted his head slightly sideways and caught a glimpse of Hermione stretching her arms above her head gently, closing her eyes and making a small noise.
He looked away quickly but still felt the shockwave of goose bumps across his body and the distinct quickening heart he associated with her lately. Ron made his move and watched Harry agonize over his plan, trying to ignore the girl on the other side of the room.
Hermione was able to immerse herself into the essay and finish rather quickly after finding the section of the book detailing that it was indeed wolfsbane first. She began to gather her parchments and books together and reconfigure her things so she could work on something else.
"Why are you working on that now? It's not due for a week!" Ron questioned sitting heavily into the seat across from her with his Transfiguration book and a long strip of parchment.
Hermione stood and picked up her essay. "Ron, you've known me for nearly seven years. You should remember that I try to finish all my work no less than five days before it's due. Then I don't have to worry about everything and have plenty of time for other things."
"You're absolutely nutters Hermione."
"Yes but you love it." She felt a giggle rise up from her stomach and ran a hand lightly over his shoulder as she walked up to her room to put her essay away.
She shook her head on the way up the stairs. 'What am I thinking? I don't know how to flirt!' Hermione made a quiet noise of frustration 'Pointless.' She agonized the rest of
the way up how she could be so stupid and let herself fall in love with someone who would never notice her as anything more than a friend. She wasn't sure Ron even recognized that she was a girl.
His breathing stopped for a moment, Ron sat at the table staring at the blank parchment and reveling in the heated trail she had let on his skin. He reveled in the fact that a simple touch from her could ignite such a fire within him.
He wondered if she realized just how much her small teasing and giggles affected him. Ron bent over his work and shook his head, trying to shake the tingling feeling within his chest and focus on the Transfiguration essay he had due the nest morning.
"Ron, don't work yourself to death tonight, the match tomorrow isn't going to be easy." Harry packed up his books from around the common room as the last scarlet embers of the sunset faded beyond the far edge of the forest.
Ron chucked brightly "Come on Harry, it's only Ravenclaw!" He then let out a huge guffaw which nearly caused Harry to drop his books at the utter absurdity of the noise.
"Ron, you know just as well as I they won't be an easy team to beat this year. Just promise me you'll get some sleep alright?" He tilted his head and raised his eyebrows so high they all but disappeared under his long messy hair.
Ron nodded wordlessly and turned back to his work, struggling to keep the chestnut curls that he so longed to touch out of his head and focus on the essay.
Hermione lay in bed a few hours later, having read her necessary book per night and talked a bit with Lavender and Parvati about the new Transfiguration spells for make-up and hair. She stared up at the ceiling of her four-poster and got a sudden urge to feel someone's arms around her. She felt incredibly lonely and smothered in her covers, so she held her pillow tight to her and pulled the blanket snugly around her body. The last thing that ran through her mind before she fell asleep was how much she would've liked to be with Ron at that very moment, rather than cuddling with a down pillow.
A bit later, she was jolted awake by a large object being hurled at her from across the room. "Parvati, what is it?" She spoke sleepily, moving the pillow away from her face.
"Ron's been down in the common room calling you for nearly half an hour!" She groaned, clearly annoyed and very tired.
Sure enough, a relatively loud version of her name came floating up the stairs. Her heart leapt at the dulcet tone his voice hit just the right way to make her ears prick up. Then her skin flushed pink and she muttered a soft apology to the other girls in the dorm, padding across to the door.
"Ron, what is it?" Hermione called to him in a hushed yell, not wanting to wake up any more of the girls upstairs.
"I need help with my essay. Please, it will only take a moment." Ron spoke up to her, quite a bit louder than necessary.
She descended the stairs carefully, picking her way down slowly in the dark. Ron held out his hand for her at the bottom and didn't let go until she was safely in a chair at the nearest table. Hermione noticed the way the dull firelight echoed the layers of red in his hair and smiled as he ran a hand through it, mussing it like Harry's. "What do you need help with?" She said; her voice uncharacteristically timid.
"Can you just read through it and let me know what I need to change or add or whatever?" Ron handed her the essay and sat down across from her.
"You've been calling me for this long, in the middle of the night, before a Quidditch game, just to look over your essay?" Ron looked at her sheepishly. "That's not like you at all, Ron. What's going on?"
He sat up feigning bravery and spoke confidently. "Well maybe I just decided that it's time I start putting effort into school."
"Ron it's Seventh year. It won't make that much a difference now would it?" She stood and pushed the paper back to him. "I'll go through it at breakfast. You need to get some sleep; Harry says Ravenclaw won't be an easy match this year."
Ron stood and panicked a bit as she headed back towards the stairs. "Hermione wait!" He nearly shouted and moved close to her quickly.
She turned back to him and looked questioningly. When he didn't say anything for nearly a minute she said "What is it Ron?"
He jumped, seemingly broken from a trance of some sort and looked at her in a way Hermione had never experienced. Ron grabbed her hand and as she looked down at the intertwined fingers he leaned down and pulled her lips up to meet his own.
A second later, they broke apart and Ron turned bright red. "I- I'm sorry. I did-I- uh." He stammered.
Hermione smiled and flushed an adorable shade of pink. "It's ok Ron. Goodnight." She went up on her toes and placed a light kiss to his flaming cheek, causing him to darken even further, nearly matching his hair.
He stood, frozen for a moment longer as Hermione began to climb the stairs, staring at nothing. "Goodnight!" He called after her, floating up his own set of stairs, into bed.