Warning! MAJOR HBP SPOILERS!

Disclaimer: Unfortunately for me, since I'm broke at the moment, I don't own Harry Potter or any of Jo Rowling's characters.

Author's note: This just sort of came to me after reading HBP. Hermione and Ron might seem a bit OOC at a lot of moments. I think they've both really grown up from all of the events in HBP. Anyway, I hope you all like it!

Silence filled the dormitory of the Gryffindor sixth year boys, only punctuated by a lone boy's footsteps and his random muttering. He was doing some very last minute packing and couldn't seem to find some of his belongings. At one point the boy got down on all fours, looking under his four-poster bed. He grunted slightly, stooping his head to go under the bed as to reach an item that even his long arms couldn't. He grabbed the small item and grimaced when he realized what it was. Wrapping the thick gold chain around a finger for a second, he mouthed disgustedly 'My Sweetheart' and wrinkled his freckled nose. He paused contemplatively. Leave it for the house-elves to find or sell it? the boy asked himself indecisively. After only a seconds hesitation he dropped the necklace back onto the dormitory floor. About to crawl out from under his bed, he was startled by a, though it was soft and non threatening, voice.

"Ron?"

The boy in question promptly banged his red head on the bottom of his bed. "Argh!" Right hand massaging the back of his head, Ron Weasley slid out from beneath his bed and looked up fully prepared to glare at the person who'd disturbed, but his gaze softened as he met the slightly amused but saddened eyes of one of his best friends Hermione Granger. She was standing in the doorway of the dormitory, holding onto her furry ginger cat Crookshanks very tightly, as if to seek comfort from it. Ron noticed her eyes were still slightly red, as though she'd been crying; though after the events of the day, there was barely a dry eye left in the whole school.

"Are you alright?" she asked him, her voice unusually quiet but containing a tone of slight amusement. He nodded and still rubbing his head, got to his feet. She still stood there in the doorway, looking at him. "Can I come in?" she asked, shifting from one foot to another, as if she were anxious.

"'Course," he told her. He was a bit confused as she had never really asked permission before, and had always just burst in. Hermione shuffled into the room and settled on Ron's bed like she usually did when in the boys' dormitory. She absentmindedly started to stroke her cat's head, and Ron was immediately reminded of less than an hour ago when Ron had been trying to console Hermione, and was stroking her hair while she cried into his shoulder.

"Did Harry come back yet?" she inquired softly, bringing him back out of his thoughts.

Ron sighed and shook his head forlornly. He walked over to the window in between his and Harry's bed. Looking around, he finally spotted a figure sitting out by the lake, and pointed it out to Hermione who had joined him at the window. She glanced briefly at their best friend Harry Potter for a moment before settling her eyes on the bright white tomb that was now the resting place of their beloved Headmaster. Ron saw her eyes suddenly fill with tears and gulped before wrapping a shaky arm around her. She leaned against him gratefully, though did not turn her head into his shoulder and start crying again as Ron had expected.

Silence filled the room again, the two of them lost in their grief as they stared down at the grounds of their beloved school. Ron shifted his gaze back and forth between his best friend and the white tomb that he sat by. He couldn't decide which one was sadder to him at the moment.

"What will happen now?" Hermione whispered, so quietly he almost didn't hear her, breaking the thick quiet. She shifted against his arm to look up at him and her distraught brown eyes sought his. She was searching for an answer and unfortunately Ron didn't have one.

"I dunno," he admitted truthfully. He was a bit startled that Hermione looked so frightened. She was usually the one Ron could rely on to not lose her head and the one that always had the answers. Though, Ron mused humorlessly, I suppose there's no book on how to deal with situations like this. He looked down at her and carefully studied her features as she turned back to the window. "Hermione, are you okay?" he asked her concernedly.

He must have said something horribly wrong though, for the bushy haired girl stepped away from him as if she'd been burned, dropped her cat on the floor(though Crookshanks thankfully landed on all fours), and stared at him incredulously. "Am I okay?" she repeated disbelievingly. "Ron, Dumbledore's dead! Dead. As in never coming back. On top of that, one of our professors killed him!" she shrieked. Ron watched her in a sort of horrified amazement. He'd never seen Hermione like this before; even if they were rowing she was never this out of control. "Our best friend has to either kill or be killed. No, I'm not okay," she finished quietly and as she turned her back to him and the window he caught a quick glimpse of tears rolling down her cheeks. A wave of guilt him immediately as he had been the cause of those tears, as he had been too frequently that year.

He went to stand in back of her and tentatively put his hands on her shoulders. He felt her tense up and once more he gulped. "I'm-I'm sorry, Hermione. I didn't think-,"

He was interrupted by her quiet, defeated sigh. Her shoulders drooped unconsciously and her voice sounded tired as she said, "No, don't apologize. I'm sorry for yelling at you. It's just," she faltered for a moment before turning back around to face him. Again she looked up at him with those beautiful brown eyes of hers. "It's just...oh Ron, I'm so scared," she confessed, and that's when the tears really came down.

Ron was so shocked by her admission that he let her just stand there crying for a couple of seconds. Hermione had never ever admitted to being scared and the fact that she was now, meant that the enormity of the situation had grown. When he snapped out of it though, he immediately, without hesitation this time, drew her into his arms and let her cry on his shoulder for the second time of the day. He was so tall that he could comfortably rest his chin on her head. Stroking her hair lightly, he whispered what he thought were comforting things to her. "Shh, shh, don't worry. It's all going to be just fine. It'll be alright," he murmured, consolably. Unfortunately, his mouth was just not saying the right things, for Hermione went rigid and pulled away from him slightly. But she didn't yell at him this time.

"How do you know?" she asked him. She was looking up at him with a child like innocence and as if his answer mattered to above all else. The fluttering in his stomach that he'd been trying to control all year took off once more and he struggled against the urge to kiss her. Thankfully his conscience told him that kissing her now when she was so out of sync would be wrong so he squashed down the urge and fought to find a suitable answer.

"Things always have a way or working themselves out with the three of us. I'm sure this time will be no different," he reassured her. Suddenly though, he was uncertain. "We'll make it through this, won't we?" he asked, questioning her this time, referring to the three of them: him, her and Harry.

Hermione, who had seemed to gain control of her tears for the moment, sighed and reached up to brush some of Ron's bright red hair out of his eyes. "Ron, we've known for a while, maybe even since 1st year, that Harry might not even make it to graduation and-," she started to say sadly, but Ron interrupted her angrily.

"Don't you dare say that Hermione," he growled. "Take it back. I want you to take it back right now," he ordered her, grasping her shoulders rather tightly now. When she gave him a fearful look he realized what he was doing and let go of her quickly, causing her to stumble a bit. Ron stared at her with wide eyed and breathed in shakily. He had never put his hands on Hermione like that, or spoken to her as harshly as he had. He found her couldn't speak and suddenly dropped onto his bed with his head in his hands.

The only sound in the room was Ron's heavy breathing, and as he strained to control it, he was ashamed to find tears prickling in the corners of his eyes. He blinked rapidly behind the shelter of his hands but no matter how hard he fought them they began to trickle down her face.

Ron jerked, as he felt a small hand on his shoulder, and he picked his head up to see Hermione looking at him worriedly. His breathing quickened again when he remembered what he'd done. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," he told her, shaking his head pitifully. He looked her squarely in the eyes, willing her to believe him. "You know, you know I'd never do anything to hurt you. You know that, don't you?"

Hermione gave him a small reassuring smile. "Of course I know that, Ron," she said, using her thumbs to wipe away the tears from his face gently. For a minute, they just stayed where they were; Ron sitting on his bed with Hermione standing in front of him, her hands cupping either side of his face. Then, without warning, Ron got up off his bed.

"Hermione, I need to know something," he told her, immediately regretting his words the moment they came out. Now he actually had to get through with it.

"What is it?" she asked him. She looked rather confused; probably by Ron's rapid mood changes.

Ron took a deep breath and asked quickly, as though trying to get it over with as fast as humanly possible, "DidyousnogKrum?"

Hermione's jaw dropped as she, used to Ron's speech methods, interpreted what he'd said. She definitely hadn't been expecting this particular question. After her astonishment wore off she looked confused. "How did you find out about that?" she asked, though she was avoiding Ron's eyes.

Ron stomach dropped. "So it's true," he said, ignoring her question, looking at her as though he'd just seen her for the first time.

"Yes it is," she said quickly before plunging on, "But Ron you don't understand. I was only 15 at the time and Viktor asked me to the ball and everything. No boy has ever liked me before and-."

"I liked you!"

Ron covered his mouth hastily the second after the words had been spit from his mouth. He felt his ears warm and knew that he was slowly turning an unattractive red color. Hermione was looking at him with a sort of satisfied look in her eyes that made Ron puzzled.

"So you did realize that I was a girl then," Hermione stated triumphantly, which frustrated Ron because he didn't happen to think the situation was at all that amusing.

"Believe me, I realized that around 2nd year," he told her. After the first couple of outbursts, it seemed he had little control of what came out of his mouth, so he just stopped struggling against it. It was worth it, after all, to see the blush that came to Hermione's face.

"Ron?" she asked, looking up at him shyly after a moment. He raised his eyebrows at her; in surprise at her shyness (for Hermione had never struck him as the shy type) and telling her to go on. She looked around furtively for a couple of seconds before looking up at him and into his eyes. "Do you-do you still like me?"

Ron almost smiled outwardly. She looked so nervous and for a second Ron just wanted to bask in it because usually, although he tried not to let it show, he was the nervous one around Hermione. "'Course I still like you. I'm bloody crazy about you in fact," he admitted, running a hand through his shaggy red hair. He shot her an uncertain glance. "Do you like me?"

Hermione grinned. "Oh you're such a moron," she told him. And with that she stood on her tip toes, pulled Ron's head down a bit, and gave him a quick kiss on the lips. Ron stood there stunned for a moment, and she lowered herself back down to the floor and watched him for his reaction. He brought his fingers up to his mouth and touched his still tingling lips, before looking down at the girl who'd given him that sensation. She giggled slightly at the awed expression on his face before biting her lip in anticipation.

"Hermione?"

"Yes?"

"Are you sure-are you sure we should be doing this right now?"

Hermione's happy expression quickly faded. "What do you mean?" she asked, looking crestfallen, her brow furrowed. That hadn't been the question she'd thought he would ask.

Ron sighed and looked up at the ceiling. "I mean, after everything that's happened, Dumbledore being killed and all, I get the feeling like it isn't the right time for us to be together," he said reluctantly.

"Ron," Hermione started, pulling down his head to look at her. "Don't you remember what Professor McGonagall said in the Hospital Wing? 'Dumbledore would have been happier than anybody to think that there was a little more love in the world'."

As impressed as he was at her ability to memorize everything, Ron was unconvinced. "Is that what this is? Love?" he commented to her.

"I don't know," she said quietly. "But I'm willing to figure it out if you are."

She's leaving it up to me, Ron realized with a start. He looked down into the familiar features of his best friend. No matter how much the argued or how long they stopped talking to each other for, he couldn't deny the fact that he looked forward to seeing her every morning and when he was around her he couldn't seem to keep his head on straight. The opportunity he'd been waiting for, for 5 years was right in front of him. Why was he hesitating? It was time for some of that Gryffindor bravery.

Without breaking eye contact with her, her cupped her chin and brought her lips to his. Closing his eyes when he felt her lips, he felt her arms wrap around his waist. The kiss deepened and Ron slid a hand to the back of her neck, beginning to comb through her thick hair slightly. After a time, they both pulled away slowly and Ron felt a grin begin to form on his face. He opened his eyes to find Hermione looking at him with sparkling brown eyes, that earlier were deadened with grief. Ron felt happy to know he put the sparkle back.

"What will happen now?" he asked, repeating the question that she had asked him before.

Hermione thought for a second before answering. "Well, we'll face what we'll have to face. But we'll do it together," she told him, taking his hand into hers.

"Together," Ron agreed, looking down at their entwined fingers. "I like the sound of that," he told her, looking back up. Then he grinned mischievously. "Now, where were we?" he asked rhetorically, and she laughed pulling his head down for another kiss.

And although the Wizarding World was in chaos around them, the two were oblivious for now they had each other to focus on. And so the relationship that had been about six years in the making, finally happened.

Alrighty, that's the end! Hate it or love it? Lol. Please review!