Disclaimer: Do not own.

This takes place in the summer after 6th year...after Bill/Fleur wedding? About so. And at the Burrow. :)

Hermione groaned. For the past four or five hours she had been sitting at the kitchen table, books strewn all around her, and taking notes on Horcruxes, more of Voldemort's past, any item that could possibly be a Horcrux, and pretty much everything and anything that will help their perilous journey. She glanced at her watch. 7 AM. She rubbed her heavy eyelids and decided she could take a break and have some breakfast when she heard a strangled yell from upstairs.

"AAAARGGHH!"

That, thought Hermione, could be none other than Ronald Weasley. And surely enough, the lanky red-haired boy—man now; it seemed only yesterday when he was just a boy—stumbled down the last few steps chasing Crookshanks, who had a piece of clothing in his mouth. Hermione sighed as Crookshanks ran to the corner of the room, eyeing him scathingly.

"Ron, what is going on?"

"It's him! Crookshanks stole my Chudley Cannons boxers!"

"And you are worrying about this while Voldemort is out there...probably murdering people for who knows what?"

"Well—yes! You wouldn't understand! You don't care about Quidditch!"

"Ron, you can just buy another one after we—hopefully—defeat Voldemort!" She ignored Ron's wince.

"I don't want new ones! I like those fine! And I've had them for a while."

"Suck it up! He'll probably give it back soon anyway—CROOKSHANKS!" Hermione was cut off by her ginger cat jumping onto the kitchen table and stealing her notes. Apparently, he had dropped Ron's boxers somewhere in the corner so that his mouth would be free to steal Hermione's notes. He hurried back to his corner, dropped the notes with the boxers, and hissed at them.

"Crookshanks, what has gotten into you?"

"I've told you since before you bought that cat! He's MAD!"

"He is NOT mad, Ron!" Hermione snapped. Then she squatted on the floor and faced Crookshanks. "Come here now, Crookshanks. Please?"

But Crookshanks did not come nearer. Instead he continued spitting. Hermione growled in frustration and crawled toward the furball. Crookshanks took both her notes and Ron's boxers in his mouth and ran or jumped around until he was on a high book shelf so that Hermione could not reach him. Hermione looked at Ron reproachfully.

"Well?" She spat.

"Well what?"

"You're taller than me! Go get him!"

"Are you kidding me? He's going to scratch me! I told you he's mad—"

"He is not mad! He's not usually like this!" Hermione looked helplessly at Ron again, but when he shrugged his shoulders she let out another cry of frustration. She shot Crookshanks a disdainful look but all he merely did was purr and stare at both humans expectantly...as though waiting for something to happen.

"What do you want, Crookshanks?" Hermione asked exasperatedly. "Look, if you want some food, you didn't have to steal our stuff!"

But Crookshanks simply stared at them with his yellow eyes...waiting. He stuck his tongue out and licked his lips. (...or the outside of his mouth...you know what I mean.)

"Ron, go grab me some cat food from my bag. Go!"

Ron obliged and returned seconds later with a few snacks Crookshanks would probably like. Hermione held it out to Crookshanks, coaxing him to hop down and return their belongings. He sniffed and leaned over, doing his best to eat from Hermione's stretched out hands without jumping off the shelf. However, even though he licked her hand clean of food, he did not give back their belongings. He sat down on the shelf staring at Hermione, his squashed face looking still expectant.

"Argh! Great—first you take our stuff, then I give you treats for not giving our stuff back? Well, if you didn't steal our stuff for food, then what is it?"

"Come on."

Hermione whipped around and looked at Ron when she heard those words whispered.

"What did you say?"

"I didn't say anything..."

"I swore I heard someone say...oh never mind."

"Hermione, are you going mad like your cat now?"

"Shut up! He is not mad!"

"Hearing voices...honestly."

"I—Harry?" Hermione wondered out loud.

"Now you're calling me Harry! My name is Ron..."

"Shut up!" Hermione hissed as she walked cautiously to the foot of the stairs. No one. "But I swore—I heard..."

Her expression changed immediately from confusion to anger and she stomped up the steps and into Harry's room. Harry wasn't in there either. "Wha—HARRY! WHERE ARE YOU?"

He's hiding! The little git! He's definitely hiding!

"You insufferable prat! Where ARE you?"

Hermione crashed into the bathroom door on the way back downstairs. Ouch, lucky it didn't open.

Pause.

Didn't open?

She turned the knob.

Locked...

"HARRY! YOU OPEN THIS DOOR NOW!"

The door creaked open and Harry peeked out at a furious Hermione.

"Er—yes? You called?"

"Don't be silly, I've only been yelling your name for the past five minutes!" Hermione scolded. She grabbed his arm and led him downstairs to where Ron was waiting. She shoved him onto the sofa. "Explain!"

Harry looked unconvincingly bewildered.

"Well?"

"I—what are you talking about?"

"Stop trying to weasel your way out of this! I know you did something!"

"Alright!" Harry yelled, giving up. "But before I say anything...remember that this was Ginny's idea...I made Crookshanks take your stuff and told him to not give it back until—until..."

"Yes? Until what?"

"Um, you and Ron were supposed to figure that out on your own..."

"Tell me! Surely you don't want to lose ten pages of notes that might really come in handy in the next few weeks...months...years?"

"No. But I assure you Crookshanks will not rip it up." Harry smirked.

"I didn't think he would. But you're wasting time here! I could have produced another page of notes by now!"

Harry shrugged. "Just get the rest back from Crookshanks. And besides...what he wants from you and Ron might help our journey a lot more than another page of notes. Less bickering...keeps me sane, you know?"

"What could that possibly be? And what do you mean? Less—"

"OUCH!" Harry and Hermione both turned around to see Ron holding his right hand; three scratch marks, shining with blood, could be seen. Ron looked uncertainly at Hermione. "I told you your cat would scratch me. It hurts so much..."

Impatiently, Hermione stalked over to him and grabbed his hand. "Stop it, Ron! It can't hurt that much. It's just a small scratch."

"It stings."

Hermione scowled at Ron. She was still holding his hand out in front of her. Crookshanks gave a purr of approval.

"Did you hear the way he purred when you grabbed his hand?" Harry asked.

"Yes. Why?"

"Then you can tell he's purring contently. So...hopefully that would be a hint."

"Hint?" Hermione raised an eyebrow. "So he wants me to hold Ron's hand?" Hermione scoffed.

"Well...not exactly..."

"Harry, just tell me already!"

"Do I need to shove Veritaserum down both your throats to get this over with?" Harry asked. Hermione froze. Veritaserum? But surely...

Harry rolled his eyes as Hermione turned faintly pink. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'll just—just take a nap while you guys figure this out. And if you bother me, I'll hex you," He added as Hermione made to charge at him.

"You can't hex me!" Hermione shouted, still fairly pink.

"Yeah I can! And when Ginny comes back, she can perform a Bat-Bogey Hex if I can't," Harry said before turning around to run upstairs.

Oh no, thought Hermione. Oh no, no, no, no...I think I know what Harry and Ginny are up to...but I'm not about to do it.

"Crookshanks...you don't have to listen to Harry...just give me back those notes, please..."

"And Crookshanks agrees with me so he's not going to give back those notes until you say it!" came Harry's voice. Hermione glanced at the stairs where Harry was standing. Harry froze. "Ah, yes, nap time..." And with that, Harry dashed up stairs and they heard a door slam.

"Git," Hermione muttered under her breath. "Crookshanks...is there really no other way for you to give those back?"

Crookshanks hissed contemptuously in response.

"O-oh...FINE! ALRIGHT THEN!" Hermione screamed. "RON, COME OVER HERE!"

Ron, who still hadn't gotten what they had to do, walked up to her carefully. They were now both right next to the shelf on which Crookshanks lay waiting. "Y-yeah?"

"Okay, Hermione, calm down, you can do this," She told herself as she placed both hands on Ron's cheeks. Ron's ears immediately turned pink.

"W-what are you doing?"

"Shh, calm down. It's the only way to get our stuff back." Hermione slowly brought Ron's face down to hers.

"H-Hermione?" Ron whispered in a scared, hoarse voice when they were barely centimeters away from each other. She paused and looked up into his eyes then back down to his lips.

"It's okay, Ron...it's the only way," She repeated.

And without further ado, she closed the last tiny bit of space between them, closed her eyes, and their lips met in a gentle kiss. It took Ron a moment to register what was happening and to kiss her back. Simple and gentle slowly turned to passionate and scorching.

Merlin, he really knows how to kiss, Hermione thought as she ran her fingers through his flaming red hair, pulling him closer, and intensifying the kiss. The room had gone so quiet that a sneer from Harry did not go unnoticed.

I'm going to kill that prat, Hermione thought. Despite herself, she couldn't help but smile.

They broke off after about ten minutes. Both had lost track of time. She smiled shyly up at Ron, who in turn, flashed his trademark lopsided grin. She laughed nervously.

"Sorry, Ron...for not telling you until now but I-I—love you," She finished lamely. She heard pages of paper flying and looked up at Crookshanks. He had allowed her notes to flutter down to the floor beside her.

"No! No! NO! Augh! Now my notes are out of order!" She cried as she bent down to pick them up.

"I love you too," Ron whispered.

"What did you say?" Hermione said absentmindedly as she skimmed her notes to check which page was which and placing them in order.

"I—er..." Ron trailed off, glowing scarlet. "Love you too?"

Hermione froze before picking up her last piece of paper. She straightened her notes out and stood up to face him. For a few seconds, neither could think of anything to say. Finally Hermione spoke up.

"So—um—does this mean we're going out?"

Ron shrugged and said hopefully, "Only if you want to."

Hermione nodded eagerly. "Yes, I want to."

"Good," said Ron, grinning as Crookshanks dropped his boxers on his head. Hermione laughed and called out, "Harry, I know you're there."

Harry stepped out guiltily. Hermione rolled her eyes. "Had a nice nap, have you?"

"Oh, yes. Splendid."

Hermione chuckled and she turned to Ron, raising and eyebrow. "You do know why I love you, don't you?"

"Nope," said Ron. He hadn't stopped grinning since after the kiss.

Hermione smiled. "Me neither."

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