Romione

Ron sat in the common room staring up at the ceiling. He sighed softly to himself. Within the hour he'd be going to the Yule Ball with Padma Patil. He'd be thinking how lonely Hermione would be. Nobody had asked her and he was sure of it. Why would they? She was smart, talented, fantastic…okay, he thought sadly, there are a lot of reasons someone would ask Hermione to the Yule Ball.

Maybe it was so hard to accept that she was going with someone was because she was going with someone other than Ron. He had instantly fallen for her when they had first started at Hogwarts and he could not picture her with anyone else but him. If only he had asked her sooner. Maybe he would have had a chance to take such a beautiful girl to the dance they would probably only have one chance to go to before leaving Hogwarts.

After all, the Yule Ball didn't happen every year.

Harry entered the Common room with his dress robes on. Ron groaned at how nice Harry's looked compared to the Robes he himself was wearing. Harry smiled at Ron.

"Ready to head down?" He asked

Ron shook his head slowly but he had no choice but to follow Harry down. The stair cases were flooded with the students from Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang all meeting up with their dates or friends to go down to the ball with. Ron spotted Neville and Ginny heading down together and almost laughed.

Everybody seemed in pretty high spirits as they walked about the castle. That is, everyone except for Ron Weasley. He was grumbling about everything even though his real issue was that Hermione wasn't going to the ball with him.

"Harry, I'm hungry." He grumbled as they reached the fourth floor.

"It's a good thing they'll be enough to eat at the ball," Harry replied rolling his eyes at his friend.

"Harry, I look like an idiot!" He stamped as they reached the second floor.

"No kidding," Harry laughed. "If you hate it that much, take it off now and go to the ball naked."

Ron laughed dryly and shook his head in annoyance but Harry didn't seem to notice. His head was drifting on different thoughts. Ron glared at the back of Harry's head and wore a sour expression until they reached the first outside of the great hall.

The Patil twins were standing there watching as Harry and Ron approached. Ron blushed slightly as Padma made a face. He knew it was about his dress robes. She probably wouldn't want to get caught hanging out with someone wearing such an odd attire. Ron sighed softly.

Hermione wouldn't have cared.

Professor McGonagall came into the hall and directed Ron and Padma in. Ron made a face to Harry as he stepped into the hall. He took a seat with Padma and looked around at everything.

There were beautiful ice sculptures, fantastic winter themed decorations, and snow was falling lightly from the enchanted ceiling above. Food was displayed everywhere and people in lavish dress robes from all three schools were entering the hall with their dates looking as happy as anyone would be to go to such a lavish dance.

Ron was the odd one out. His mind was on Hermione and how he wished it was here, and not Padma Patil, that sat next to him at this very moment. He didn't have anything against Padma. She was definitely a nice girl and was pretty. Her only flaw, in Ron's eyes, was that she was not Hermione.

He took a deep breath.

"Is something wrong?" Padma asked softly.

"Just remembered something," Ron lied. "It's not important."

Padma smiled and took his hand. "Well, how about we just focus on the ball."

Ron pulled his hand away quickly and Padma turned away feeling rejected. She crossed her arms and stared at the people entering the hall just like Ron was before they had spoken. Ron rolled his eyes and stared at the falling snow.

Suddenly, Padma gasped.

"Is that…Hermione Granger?" She asked softly and Ron veered his head in the direction she was looking. "With Viktor Krum?"

Ron spotted Hermione and gaped. Her hair wasn't frizzy or as bushy as it had always been. Her dress robe was an amazing color and she looked wonderful. Ron was in awe until he saw the so good looking Viktor Krum standing next to her with his arm around her.

Ron felt a wave of different emotions wash over him as he watched Viktor and Hermione. He wanted to pounce on Viktor and rip him apart yet, he wanted Hermione to be happy. She had a smile on his face and he wanted to see that always. He just wished he could be the one to make her smile. He wanted to break down crying but that would just be too embarrassing.

He sat there frozen and unsure of what to do next.

He was pretty much like that for the entire ball. Padma had grown annoyed with him and left with a boy from Beauxbatons and Harry and Parvarti joined him moments afterward.

"Where's my sister?" Parvarti asked.

Ron shrugged. "How should I know?" he asked bitterly.

"You're her date!" Parvarti shot back at him.

"Not anymore," Ron rolled his eyes angrily. "She left me from so git from Beauxbatons."

Parvarti sighed and sat down next to Harry with her arms crossed. A good looking Durmstrang boy came over to her and asked her to dance. It was clear she wanted to and that Harry wasn't going to dance so she took his hand and they joined where her sister stood with the boy from Beauxbatons.

Ron sighed. Harry sighed. Neither of them said a word to each other. They watched everyone else dance because the one they wanted to dance with was already taken by some other bloke much more handsome than they felt they were.

The music was nice, the atmosphere was nice, but Harry and Ron felt out of place and upset. They would have moved if they had the desire to but neither of them did.

"Harry, Ron," Hermione's voice rang out.

Ron jumped and saw Hermione standing there. Her face was bright pink and she was smiling bright.

"Where's Viktor?" Ron asked sounding annoyed and Hermione's smile turned into a frown.

"He's getting us drinks," She replied softly. "Can we join you guys?"

She looked at Harry who shrugged but it was Ron who answered her just as Viktor was getting close.

"No!" He stamped as he stood up. "You can't!"

Ron glared but Hermione could see the hurt in his eyes as he ran from the Hall. She looked at Harry who shrugged. Viktor approached holding drinks for her and himself but she didn't notice him. She ran after Ron.

"Ron!" She called out to him.

Ron had run out into the courtyard. He had tears had back in his eyes as he collapsed and sat on the stairs. Hermione came out right behind him.

"Ron?" She asked softly. "What was all that about?"

Ron turned and glared at her. "You know bloody well what that was about, Hermione!" He yelled at her and turned away once more.

She sat door besides him and what she did next surprised him. She wrapped her arms around him and leaned her head on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry, Ron."

Ron gasped and looked at her confused. "Hermione?"

Hermione took a deep breath. "I went to the ball with Viktor because I knew you'd be hurt by it."

Her voice was soft and calm. Ron was unsure for a second what was going on. His head was spinning like mad. He found himself wrapping his arms around Hermione and pulling her close to him.

"Hermione," He said softly. "I…I like you a lot."

She blushed. "I know, Ron."

His face turned Red up to the tips of his ears. He held her close in his arms and sighed deeply. She knew he liked her? She had gone to the ball with Viktor because she knew he'd be upset about it? Why would she do such a thing?

Somehow, he couldn't find a way to be mad at her. He was just glad that he was holding her close.

"Hermione?" He said softly. "Do you like me?"

She looked up at him and smiled. She moved closer to him and kissed him lightly on the lips. He gasped unexpectedly and she blushed.

"I do, Ron," She said softly.

He pulled her close to him and kissed her like she had kissed him. "I'm glad."

…

AN:

This story was written for Lindsey, a fan of a Harry Potter fan page that I admin called Harry Potter is my Oxygen. She won the HC contest on the page and she got to choose what fan fiction ship I write. I am sorry that it is so short. I was running low on ideas. Romione is my OTP and I hope you like this. Maybe, and that's a strong maybe, I'll continue this but at the moment I am happy where it is.

Thanks for reading.

~Ted Theodore Logan