First Harry Potter Fanfic. Hope you guys like it, I had fun writing it. )
Read and review pleeeeease.
RonxHermione, mostly, HarryxGinny if you squint.
First Year at Hogwarts
"Who does she think she is? I mean, really, Harry, have you ever met anyone like her?"
"No," Harry mumbled into his pillow; he didn't actually know what he was saying no to, he'd been trying to go to sleep for the last twenty minutes. But Ron kept going on and on about this Hermione girl who seemed to know every answer to every question ever asked. Harry could see how she might be annoying to Ron, seeing as he hadn't answered one school-related question since they came to Hogwarts, but did he have to whine about her constantly?
Third Year at Hogwarts
"Do you think she's keeping something from us?"
"Oh, I dunno, Ron." Harry rolled his eyes. "What tipped you off? Was it the fact that she is always tired and never around? Or was it her obvious avoidance of our questions?" Ron scowled at him as they made their way to the Divination tower. "Besides, why do you care so much? I thought you thought she was an annoying know it all?"
Ron looked a little sheepish. "Well— she— I mean…she's alright."
Fourth Year at Hogwarts
When Harry woke the day after the Yule Ball, he saw Ron was already wide awake and sitting on his bed. "You're up early," Harry pointed out. Ron turned to him, looking worried.
"Didn't sleep," he said jaggedly, and Harry noticed that he had dark rings under his eyes.
"Huh? Why's tha-a-at?" Harry yawned during the last word, stretching it out.
"I— what I mean is—" he sighed. "Hermione. Last night. She was a wreck."
Harry was sort of expecting something about their friend to turn up in conversation today. He decided to try to make a joke of it. "Well, you wouldn't exactly be a bed of roses after snogging Krum, either, would you?"
Judging by the look on Ron's face, the joke did not help. He tried to make up for it by offering his friend advice. "You should go… er, talk to her. See how she's feeling."
"You think she's gonna talk to me after last night? After she yelled at me like that?" Ron said incredulously. "If you think I'm gonna ask her how's she's feeling, you're more mental than I thought you were."
"Well I'm not the one who's in—" Harry stopped. He was going to say 'in love with her', but instinct told him to decide against it, so instead he finished the statement "—a fight with her! You work out your own problems!"
Ron looked uncomfortable. "Yeah… I guess."
Sixth Year at Hogwarts
In the Gryffindor common room, Ron was grumbling and dabbing liquid he got from Madam Pomfrey on the wounds he acquired from the canaries Hermione sent shooting at him an hour before. "Honestly, what is her problem these days? She's crying, she's yelling at me, setting bloody birds on me… What do you think, Harry, what's with her?"
Harry scowled; he'd hoped to be left out of this. "She's… probably jealous of Lavender," he said absentmindedly while trying to do his Transfiguration homework by turning a lamp into an eagle. So far all he'd been able to do was make the lamp squawk when he turned it on and off.
Ron brightened a little when Harry said this. "You think so? Did she… did she say she was jealous?" he asked hopefully.
"I don't know, Ron. Just shut up, would you, McGonagall's gonna kill me if I don't transfigure this lamp before tomorrow's lesson."
Ron stopped talking and was tending his bird pecks instead, but Harry noticed he was considerably happier and no longer grumbling.
Seventh Year at (but not really at… around. Near.) Hogwarts
"Ron. I know what I saw. She was crying. For like, four nights after you… went, she cried all night. Just shook crying."
Ron looked confused. "Just because I left?"
"I can only assume." Harry was whacking at a tree with Gryffindor's sword, for lack of anything better to do. Ron was sitting on a rock, trying to comprehend what Harry was telling him, and Hermione was out picking berries.
"I made her cry? I made her upset? Are you sure it was me?"
"Positive."
Ron's face fell. He looked at his hands as if they had caused Hermione pain.
"I hurt her… I'll never forgive myself… I'll never, ever hurt her again…"
Harry snorted quietly to himself. "Yeah, good luck with that…" he muttered.
Day after the Battle of Hogwarts
Harry sat on his bed in the wrecked Gryffindor common room, looking up at the ceiling. He heard the Fat Lady's portrait open and he turned to see who it was.
It was Ron, looking flushed and a little pleased with himself. "Er… hi, Harry."
Harry smirked, sitting up. "Snogged any annoying know-it-alls lately?" He was making a joke. He, Harry Potter, killer of Lord Voldemort, angsty teen doomed to lead a troubled life until just yesterday, was making a joke. This was odd.
Ron raised his eyebrows suggestively, but said, "So where've you been? Mum's looking everywhere for you, along with about half of Hogwarts. You're famous now, Harry." He couldn't keep the sarcasm out of his voice.
Harry laughed and returned the sarcasm with his own. "Yeah, because I've NEVER been famous before." There the humor was again. He'd have to get used to it. "But, really, Ron… are you and Hermione…" He paused, contemplating how to phrase this. "…Not completely hating each other?"
Ron chortled. "You know, I think she might even like me." He subconsciously reached up and touched a red circle on his neck.
Harry snorted. "I'll say she likes you. Can't you two stop sucking face long enough to… well, breathe?"
Ron laughed and sat down in an armchair with stuffing coming out of a gash in the left arm. "Hark who's talking, Mr. Snogs-Ginny-in-a-Closet-When-No-One's-Around!"
Harry blushed a little and squirmed where he sat. "Don't try to turn this one on me; you're the one with Hermione. That's…huge."
Ron placed his hands behind his head and leaned back. "Yeah… I suppose it is innit? But, Harry, I mean— I look at Hermione and how happy she makes me, and I look at when I was with Lavender… I just can't believe I was happy with anyone but Hermione, you know?"
Harry thought vaguely of an afternoon after a D.A. meeting with one girl… and then thought of countless walks across the lake and trips to Hogsmeade with another. "Yeah," he said quietly. "Yeah, I do know what you mean."
He looked at Ron and smiled a little. "Well, your mum's looking for me, eh? Better go find her before she sends out a search party."