Chapter 1
Hermione's struggle
Hermione woke with a start and stared around her dorm hoping she hadn't woken any of the other girls in the room. Slowly she crept out of the room and down the stairs to the common room, once there she saw Crookshanks purring by the fire that was still lit. Hermione walked towards her favourite chair and sat down, Crookshanks leapt onto her lap and Hermione stroked his head.
"Oh Crookshanks, what am I going to do?" sighed Hermione, knowing that although Crookshanks was half Kneazle, he still couldn't understand her.
"Crookshanks, what if he feels the same way? What if his heart pounds like it's going to burst out of his chest every time he sees me, what if he feels warm all over whenever my name is said or when he's near me, I wonder if he feels like just grabbing me by the waist and kissing me senseless like I long to do to him? Still, it wound wreck our friendship wouldn't it? We'd never be able tog o back to just being friends after loving each other, god I hate this feeling!"
At that moment Hermione heard footsteps coming down the boys staircase, Hermione looked up and saw it was Ron, Hermione didn't know what to do, why was he down so early? Why isn't he in bed? Then suddenly, before she could stop herself Hermione jumped off of the chair, making Crookshanks hiss at her and she walked towards Ron.
"Morning Hermione, why are you up so early?" asked Ron, with his deep voice that Hermione had never heard him use before.
"Oh, me? I um, I...I, have studying to do!" stumbled Hermione hastily.
"Oh, but wait a minute! It's Christmas! We're on holiday!"
"Oh, oh yes, so we are, well I was just, erm, seeing if Crookshanks was ok"
Ron frowned suspiciously at Hermione before speaking again.
"Right, well d'you fancy going for a walk? Harry's still asleep."
When Ron asked her to go on a walk without Harry, Hermione nearly burst with excitement; she grinned widely, showing her perfect, shrunken teeth that had been shrunken two years before when Draco Malfoy enlarged them.
"YES! I'd love to go on a walk, maybe we can try to skate on the ice" she suggested before laughing at the thought of Ron ice-skating.
"Right then, off we go!"
Ron held out his arm for Hermione to take and she did so, they walked out of the portrait hole and down to the grounds, where they strolled over to the quidditch pitch, Ron concentrated with all his might on his broomstick and it came soaring out to him and Hermione.
"Want a ride? It's not as good as Harry's Firebolt, but it flies, come on, we can go for a fly if you want, or you could, hey, why don't I go and get the Quidditch trunk and I could see how you do as a chaser?"
Ron asked and seeing the look on Hermione's face, smiled, before going and getting the trunk, an extra broom and taking out the quaffle.
"Right Hermione, just fly up there into the scoring area with the quaffle under your strongest arm and then shoot, I'll be on my broom you'll be on the school one, I'll try to defend the hoops, come on, it'll be fun, if we had Harry we could try you out as a seeker to see how you do."
If we had Harry this wouldn't feel as good as it does at the moment Hermione thought. She got on the broom and flew into the scoring area, waited for Ron to stop showing off and then shot, the first try went far to wide and Ron had to go zooming after it, second time the aim was better but Ron blocked it, and then third time she scored, Ron flew over to her and gave her a hug and then grabbed the handle of her broom and started flying around in a circle with it, making Hermione very dizzy but also making her laugh a lot while trying to stay on the broom, when he finally let go Hermione's broom went flying and Hermione slid off, Ron flew as fast as he could and caught her, Hermione held onto him by the waist while he flew down to the ground.
Once he had landed he noticed Harry was leaning against the Gryffindor stands, Ron still had his hands on Hermione's waist and Hermione still had hers on Ron's, they both took their hands away at once, Hermione began to blush and nervously tucked her hair behind her ears, Ron cleared his throat and bounced on the balls of his feet.
"Right then you two, come on lets get inside it's freezing out here, Hermione you go in, I'll help Ron with the Quidditch stuff." Said Harry, Hermione walked quickly into the castle again while Harry and Ron took the Quidditch supplies back to the broom cupboard.
"Why don't you just tell her Ron?" asked Harry on the way back to the common room.
"I can't Harry, I mean, what if she doesn't feel the same way? After all, she does have Krum. I'm no match against him!" mumbled Ron.
"Shut up Ron! Are you thick? It's so obvious she fancies you! Ask her out, I know she's a mate, but, it's worth a shot, just ask her ok?"
"Oh alright! But only to the Hogsmeade trip!"
"Good enough for me, I'll stay out of your way, I'll go about with Seamus, Dean and Neville."
"Fine" grunted Ron.
Ron clambered into the common room and saw Hermione sitting reading...again; he looked round to Harry but saw him walking up the stairs winking with his thumb in the air.
"Hi, Hermione" Said Ron nervously
"Hia!" said Hermione without looking up from her book.
"So, erm, you're a good flier." Mumbled Ron before gulping loudly, at this Hermione placed the book on the table.
"Thank you, it didn't help being flung half way across the pitch though" said Hermione with a smile.
"Yeah, um, you know how it's the Hogsmeade visit today?
Hermione nodded. "Well, do you want to go there with me? Harry's hanging around with the other boys because they erm, have some, erm stuff to do. I thought that we could just erm..."
"Just what? Go on a date?" probed Hermione.
"Erm, yeah, that's it, you'll probably say no, but it was just a suggestion."
"I'd love to Ron!"
Ron stared, shocked that Hermione said yes.
"Well erm, lets go then, the carriages will be leaving in a moment." Said Hermione, before taking his hand and they walked out hand in hand to the carriages, at the carriages they saw Draco Malfoy and his bullying sidekicks Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, and, unfortunately they saw them aswell.
"Oi! Weasel-boy what are you doing holding hands with the Mudblood?" Shouted Malfoy.
"Just ignore them Ron, they're not worth it, honestly!" whispered Hermione into Ron's ear.
"But Hermione, I'm not letting him call you a Mudblood again, you can't help who you are, and he's just being a git, I tell you, if he calls you it one more time infront of me he's getting my fist down his throat! We'll see how he likes having his teeth in his stomach!" said Ron, who was trembling with anger.
"Ok, but come on Ron, let's just get in a carriage!"
And so they did, and the ride to Hogsmeade was a quiet one, but Hermione didn't care, the pounding in her chest was easing as Ron's hand brushed against hers as he stroked her fingers, she felt like they were breathing at the same pace, it was like their hearts were beating as one, and Hermione loved the feeling.
The Hogsmeade trip was great, Ron and Hermione went into Honeydukes and bought bags of ice mice, chocolate frogs, choco balls, Bertie Botts every flavour beans, white chocolate mice, and droobles best blowing gum. Then, with their sweets in bags, they went into the Three Broomsticks and ordered two tankards full to the brim with hot, bubbling, creamy butterbeer, then sat at a table for two and held hands over the table, and drank their butterbeer, and shared their sweets, Harry looked over and smiled, Hermione smiled back and Ron winked at him.
"You know Hermione, this has been the best Hogsmeade trip I've ever been on!" Ron told Hermione after a while, Hermione smiled at him.
"The same feeling here. Ron, I need to tell you this, I...I...I love you."
Ron stared at her.
"I love you too Hermione, I didn't know you felt the same way as I do."
"Same here, shall we go up to the shrieking shack, it'll be better now we know it's not haunted!"
And off they went, this time with arms around each other, once up there they sat on a log and huddled together under each others cloaks, Hermione's head resting on Ron's shoulder. But it was too good to last, Malfoy and his cronies came round the corner.
"AWWW LOOK BOYS!" shouted Malfoy, and Crabbe and Goyle waddled over. "Going out with a Mudblood Weasley! Tut tut, I never thought you could sink so low!"
Ron stood up, and pulled Hermione up with him.
"Well Malfoy I can sink even lower, because I love her, and she loves me, and that's that, we don't care about what any one else thinks, we love each other, so bugger off Malfoy!"
And with that Ron turned to Hermione and kissed her on the lips, for a long time, she kissed him back and Hermione felt a rush of heat and pleasure soar through her body, from the tips of her toes to the tips of her fingers, from the tips of her fingers to the lips that were in contact with Ron's. It was then that, Malfoy left, leaving Ron and Hermione in each other's embrace, still sharing that one, special, loving kiss that confirmed their love.
By Nichelle Gibney, aged 13 from England.