The dress, the dance and the last resort

o

"So, are you really going back to Hogwarts?"

"Of course! I want to finish school!"

She turned to him, already mad.

"Even though you know everything already?"

"Ron! I want my diploma! Don't you want yours?"

"A paper doesn't make a difference, I just got asked to be an Auror by the Minister of Magic himself!"

Hermione rolled her eyes and went back to her task.

"Are you going to help me pack or not?"

Ron was actually leaning on her bed, relaxed, while watching her putting some of her clothes from the drawers to the trunk. But, since she mentioned that he should help her, he stood up and went to another part of her room and opened the closet.

"No, Ron, not that one!" Hermione tried to stop him from opening, but it was too late.

"Isn't this-?" Ron couldn't complete the phrase, it was the pink dress from that ball!

"Do you still keep this?" Ron asked, in a mixture of surprise and anger.

"Of course I do! It's the first dress I got!"

Hermione took the dress from the closet before he could even think on doing something.

She became a little nervous, the dress brought a lot of memories. To both of them.

"Put it on" he said, surprising her.

"W-what?" did she hear him alright? She turned to see his face and confirm that he actually said what he said.

"Put it on, Hermione" Ron said again, in a soft tone.

Hermione eyed him suspiciously and said slowly.

"It won't fit anymore… it's been ages."

"Of course it will! You didn't gain a pound all these years and you were always skinny! Come on…" Ron said, relaxed and almost laughing.

Hermione tried to ignore that Ron was actually saying something that any girl wants to hear from a guy, but she just gave in after a moment of thinking.

"Ok… I just need to go-"

"You can change here" Ron tried to sound innocent.

"Of course not! You're here!"

"I will close my eyes" then he actually closed his eyes.

"For some reason, I don't actually believe you"

"When did you ever? Come on! I promise, you can jinx me if I peek" Ron tried to reinforce his statement by putting his hand over his eyes.

Hermione then thought it wouldn't be a problem if she was carefully watching him as she changed, also she didn't actually have to be without clothes, she could put the dress first and then take her clothes off. A little tricky, but not impossible.

She did as planned and he remained with his eyes closed as promised.

"Ok, but could you help me with the zipper?"

Ron opened his eyes, but he didn't immediately help her. He pointed his wand at her and a spell came out.

"Ron! What you- you changed the color of my dress! It's blue!" Hermione turned around to complain about the sudden spell, but as soon as she saw what he did, she pointed at the dress.

"Now it's almost as a new dress" Ron said, with a smile on his face.

"Ron! Who told you… you can't change the color of my dress!" she put her hands on her hips.

"You can change it back later…" he walked to where she was standing.

"That's not the prob-" Hermione stopped in the middle of her sentence, because Ron pulled her forearm.

Then, Ron went forward and pulled his arms out like he would embrace her, but he went on and zipped the dress up.

"Dance with me" he whispered in her ear.

Hermione was breathing quickly, Ron was really close to her and he just whispered something that she never thought he would ask, also wasn't he acting weird? Was he for real or just trying to annoy her?

"You're not dressed properly" she tried to sound mad.

What right did he have to confuse her like that? Teasing her like she was a little girl?

Ron gave a big laugh and put his hands on her shoulders.

"You rather have that ugly outfit?" he looked into her eyes.

"Well, I would have danced with you in that ugly outfit if you had asked me for that stupid ball!" Hermione was mad now and she did want to make a point here, because ever since he started this discussion, he was winning!

"Well" Ron started, also sounding mad "you didn't seem like you were having a bad time!"

"I wasn't! Until you ruined my night!" he did have to mention that, right?

"You ruined my night first!"

Both were breathing quickly now, angry at each other.

"I won't say that I'm sorry for that day if you won't say it either" he said, with a controlled tone, trying his best not to raise it.

"I won't" she said, doing the same, but offended that he wanted her to say sorry.

"You drove me mad that day" Ron said with a softer tone and leaned down a little bit, getting closer to her face.

"You drove me mad that day too" she lifted her face up, but her voice sounded shaky.

"We drove each other mad for ages" Ron leaned closer.

"You shouldn't have taken me as the last resort" she also leaned closer.

"You shouldn't have kissed Krum then"

"You shouldn't have kissed Lavender then!" her nose was barely touching his.

"She kissed me first" he said, trying to sound obvious "you saw it" Ron took his face away a little.

"Of course I saw it! She wanted everyone to see it! And for your information, Viktor also kissed me first!" Hermione also took her face away.

"You could avoid all that if you have actually turned Krum down and accepted mine invitation" and Ron was smirking.

Hermione wanted to hurt him, how could he actually said that? What an idiot!

"Of course not! You were only inviting me as a last resort!"

"Hermione!" he said, raising his voice and pulling her both arms to him, making her look directly into his eyes.

"What?" she was a little startled by his pull, but she was still mad at him.

"You know what would be the last resort if you have accepted?"

She didn't answer him, she only swallowed.

"This"

Ron kissed her lips. And Hermione froze. But, only for a brief moment.

"Like hell it would!" she pushed him, breaking the kiss.

"Why are you still mad?" Ron sounded annoyed and tired about the subject.

"You are trying to put all the blame on me!"

"Of course not! What I'm trying to say is that I was in love with you back then, Hermione!"

"You- you were?" Hermione was taken aback by his confession.

"Yeah! I just didn't… know… back then!"

"And… you were… when you were snogging Lavender?"

"Yes" Ron lightly pulled the front part of her dress to him, making her step forward.

"I've been in love with you for ages, Hermione"

"Really?"

Ron smiled at her and put his both arms around her waist.

Hermione put both her hands on his chest but didn't push.

This time, she let him lock his lips on hers.

When the kiss ended. Ron hugged her and whispered.

"You can change back the color of the dress now…"

"I'll keep it blue" she also whispered, embarrassed.

Hermione hugged him back and Ron kissed the top of her head.

"Hermione?"

"Yes?"

"So, you really are a girl…"

"RON!"

"My hand slipped, I swear!"

o

N/A: This was supposed to be a first drabble, but now it's kind of an one-shot, but hopefully I can write more! I was dying to write this and I'm just glad I made it! Thanks a lot to Scila for checking it first (my english and the plot)! First fic in english, yey! For the Brazilian readers, I will update a translated version later.

And a quick note for HP-fans, in the books the dress was originally blue, and in the movies, the dress was pink. Not sure if it makes a difference, but I wanted to play with those two colors. Lala.