Ron couldn't help but grin when Harry quipped, "I think I've had enough trouble for a lifetime." He couldn't agree more. All he could think about now was going back to the dormitories with Harry and Hermione, and relaxing into a much needed nap. He was too tired to think about anything else. His heart gave a particularly painful pulse when an image of his family downstairs flickered through his mind, but he refused to let himself think about the reason for their mourning. He knew that he would eventually have to face his death, he knew that he was in denial, but for now, he was okay with that.
Harry turned to leave the office, with Ron and Hermione in tow. However, when Ron made to follow Harry to the dormitories rather than returning to the great hall, he felt Hermione catch his hand. He looked back at her to see her eyes wet with tears, and she struggled with her words before saying, "Ron... your family...."
Ron quickly turned away from her as the image of his mourning family passed through his brain once again, and he pulled her along behind him to follow Harry. She made no more protests. As the three made their way up to the dormitory, Hermione grabbed Harry's hand with her free one, and Harry turned to smile at her wearily. They continued their ascent, now linked physically as an impenetrable trio as much as they were emotionally. They walked in silence. There was so much to be said, and yet none of it seemed necessary at the moment.
They reached the common room portrait, and Harry suddenly looked to Ron, a panicked expression on his face, and Ron realized that they were no longer privy to the Gryffindor passwords. However, this did not seem to bother the Fat Lady, who cried, "you dear, wonderful boy" and blew her nose loudly into a tissue before swinging open. Harry headed immediately toward the boys' old dormitory, and Ron made to follow but stopped when he felt Hermione let go of his hand. He looked back to see her rooted to the spot, giving him a meaningful look bordering on annoyance.
"Er- Harry, I'll be up in a minute," said Ron, flushing slightly when Harry gave him a knowing look and continued up the staircase.
Suddenly, Ron and Hermione were completely alone, for the first time since they'd left the Chamber of Secrets. Ron shoved his hand in his pockets and kicked idly at a bit of dust on the floor, avoiding looking directly at Hermione. Hermione, however, was not satisfied with this course of action.
"Ron," she prompted, with an edge in her voice, and when Ron looked up he could see that Hermione was definitely looking annoyed at this point. He assumed that since she had made the first move, by kissing him like a mad woman, the next move was up to him at this point. The problem was, though Ron had gotten much better at being there for Hermione this year, he still wasn't completely ace at the whole emotional thing.
He decided to ease himself into the conversation he knew would have to take place. "So," he began, "it's over. I can't really believe it, can you?"
He could tell this wasn't exactly what Hermione was hoping for, but she at least did not look angry with him anymore. "No," she said, shaking her head, "it really still hasn't sunk in, I don't think. I'm not sure whether to be happy or to burst into tears."
"I know what you mean," Ron agreed. "I'm not really sure what I'm meant to feel at this point. I mean, I'm relieved obviously, that You-Know--I mean, Voldemort, is finally gone. Relieved is a bit of an understatement really," Ron grinned shakily, running his hand through his hair. "And then of course I'm devastated because of... well, you know. Tonks, Remus, Colin, and... and, everyone else." Ron purposely avoided saying Fred's name, and although he knew that Hermione was not oblivious to this, she did not say anything. "And then of course I'm ridiculously happy, ludicrously happy really. Which doesn't fit in at all and makes me feel like a complete prat and an arse when my entire family is pretty much broken, but... I've just wanted to... y'know... for so long Hermione," he finished hurriedly, avoiding her gaze once again.
"Wanted to what, Ron?" asked Hermione, stepping closer to him.
"Well, I mean, you kissed me right?" Ron blurted out, causing Hermione to blush furiously, and look down at the floor just as Ron brought his gaze back up to her.
However, she seemed determined to not back away from the conversation, for which Ron was extremely grateful seeing as how he was fighting the urge to run away and hide under his blankets even with her pushing him, and she looked back up at him and said, "well... yes. I hope you didn't mind."
"Mind?" asked Ron incredulously. A slow grin spread over Hermione's face, and spread to Ron's as he realized that she was joking with him. Suddenly, everything seemed to fall into place. He realized he didn't have to be so nervous. Sure, he would always be a little embarrassed to discuss this sort of thing, and it would take some getting used to that he was allowed to be so open with Hermione about his feelings, when they were used to the not-so-subtle avoidance of the issue, but they had been working towards this point for a year--no, more like three years, and it was something that they both very obviously wanted.
Ron walked nearer to Hermione and grabbed her hand again. "Hermione," he stated seriously, "I think I should probably tell you that... well, I mean, you've probably already figured it out by now... and I know I've been a giant prat about it for a good chunk of time now... and I really... well, what I mean to say is that... I fancy you like mad, Hermione."
Hermione broke out into a genuine smile. "Well, that is a relief because, the weird thing is Ron, I fancy you as well." Ron blushed, before pulling Hermione in for a bone crushing hug.
"You've know idea how happy that makes me Hermione," he said, pulling back. "It's a bit disgusting, really. I didn't even know it was possible to fancy a person as much as I do you. Really," he insisted, seeing her chuckle and shake her head.
"Well, the good thing for you is you can't possibly fancy me as much as I fancy you," said Hermione, moving her arms rather boldly from around his waist to behind his neck.
"Are you serious?" asked Ron, looking at her as if she had sprouted an extra nose, "Hermione, I've fancied you blatantly since fourth year... probably even earlier though I was too stupid to realize it, and I've made a completely jealous arse out of myself every time you so much as mentioned another boy's name. I'm pretty sure that qualifies me as the head fancier in this relationship." He felt his ears burn as soon as he said the word 'relationship,' and detected a faint blush in Hermione's face as well, but she continued on as if she had not noticed.
"Well, despited all this self-proclaimed devoted fancying, who has it been making all of the first moves?" she asked self righteously, tilting her chin upward in the manner she always did when fighting with anyone, and anyone usually happened to be Ron. "I told you to invite me to the ball, I asked you to Slughorn's party, and I kissed you during the battle earlier!" Hermione seemed to feel satisfied that she had quite made her point, when Ron, feeling somehow as though Hermione had challenged his man hood, backed away in anger, causing her arms to drop from his neck.
"Well," he said bitingly, "if I'm such a complete loser of a boy I don't see why you fancy me at all then. If you're having to do all of the work and I'm sitting around without a care in the world, it seems as though your energies would be better spent elsewhere."
Hermione looked shocked for a split second his sudden anger, before punching him in the shoulder (rather a bit hard, Ron thought), and crying, "oh, you complete idiot, Ronald Weasley! Why must you always do this? You always ruin every situation, you blow everything out of proportion, and I--" but Hermione was interrupted at this point by Ron swooping down on her with a kiss. He had been staring at her, eyes slitted in fury at him, thinking about all of the times they had been rowing, just like this, and he had wanted to kiss her just as he was now doing. Only, then he hadn't been allowed to. Then, Ron realized how stupid he was for fighting with her, when he was now allowed to do this instead, and, unable to hold himself back any longer, he'd kissed her. After a moment of shock Hermione began to respond enthusiastically, and the kiss was, if possible, even more frantic and passionate than their first had been. Years of pent up frustration flowed from the two as their lips met again and again, and Ron, feeling Hermione lean into him, pressed himself against her completely.
Breathing hard, and scarcely able to believe that this was Hermione he was snogging, Hermione that he was touching as he had only dreamed about for the last three years, Ron moved his mouth from Hermione's open mouth kisses to kiss her softly in the crook of her neck. He grinned into her skin as he heard her moan softly. His mouth returned to hers and they continued their passionate snogging, and Ron would have been happy doing this forever, because this was Hermione, when he all of a sudden felt her pushing him backward. With shock, he realized that Hermione was leading him toward the common room sofa. It only took him a minute to overcome this shock, however, and then he broke away form Hermione, grabbed her hand, and practically dragged her to the couch. Hermione let out a giggle that was part excitement, part embarrassment as Ron pulled her down to the couch.
A part of him was thinking that perhaps they should be taking it slower considering the events of the day, but the rest of him could only think about how long he had been yearning to do this and how much in love with Hermione he was. As soon as the thought crossed his mind, realized that this had been something he'd known all along, that he was in love with Hermione, that she was the only girl for him, and before he could really even process it he was murmuring, "I love you Hermione," in between kisses.
Hermione pulled away from him, looking amazed. Ron, suddenly realizing how forward he had been, began to flush and pull farther away from Hermione, but she suddenly pulled him violently toward her, laying down so that Ron was now hovering above her. Liking the new turn of events, Ron carefully balanced on his elbows while snogging her for a while, so as not to crush her, but when Hermione began to tug on him impatiently, he lowered himself on top of her so that their bodies were mashed into one another in the most delightful way. He heard himself gasp as Hermione lifted her hips, driving them even closer together in a very... delicious area. Ron, who had never gone past snogging at all with Lavender, buried his head in Hermione's neck and attempted to urge his body to return to normal.
"Ron?" Hermione asked, concern in her voice, as her fingers played through Ron's hair.
"Hermione," Ron croaked, "I reckon we should, y'know, slow down for a bit." He raised his head again and, seeing the disappointment in her face hurriedly said, "only because, I'm afraid, I'm going to enjoy myself a little... too much." He blushed furiously and dropped his head back to her neck in embarrassment.
He could tell that Hermione was momentarily suffering from embarrassment as well, but she quickly brushed it off, saying, "well then... I guess you win. You do fancy me more," and playfully twisting to kiss his ear. Ron snickered into her neck before finally sitting up.
"Well," said Hermione, suddenly all business again, "we should probably get some sleep. I've completely lost track of how many hours we've been awake, but I'm sure its nothing normal, not even to mention the tiresomeness of what we've been doing during those hours." She stood up, pulling Ron with her, and the two walked toward the boy's dormitory stairs. "Goodnight," she said softly, leaning up to give Ron a kiss, but he pulled away.
"What?" she said, looking confused.
"You're not coming up with me?" he asked, slightly incredulously. "You're still following the rules, even though the school is blown to bits and we've been sleeping next to each other for a year?"
"Well," said Hermione warily, "when you put it that way...."
"Oh, come on you completely insane woman," Ron sighed, pulling Hermione up the stairs with him. Harry was fast asleep when they entered the dormitory, and Ron felt a sudden burst of a pained sort of joy at seeing Harry sleeping so peacefully. Ron climbed into his bed, and Hermione looked hesitant for a moment before joining him. They lay there facing each other, not saying anything, both blushing slightly despite the intimate situation they had been in just minutes earlier. Ron leaned in to gently kiss Hermione on the corner of her mouth, and Hermione closed her eyes in happiness as he did so. She scooted forward to snuggle herself against his chest.
It didn't take long for them to succumb to sleep, but before Ron was completely carried away, he heard Hermione whisper into his shirt, "I love you too, Ron."