Ron crept down the gloomy hallway and tried his best not to make any noise. Circles of candlelight spilled from sconces on the walls, and he kept to the shadows that pooled between. The ornate runner that covered the stone floor muffled his footsteps. When he couldn't sleep – which wasn't too often, but still – he couldn't bear lying in bed and listening to the soft snores and slumbering sighs of his friends. Prowling about the building was the only thing that really soothed his nerves. After sunset, the school changed. Clothed in nighttime, it became a dream castle, the bottomless stairwells and endless hallways leading to dark places Ron could only imagine. Hogwarts never slept, but when the first rays of dawn touched its stone towers, its somnolent, slightly sinister presence melted away, and it became once again a cheerful, cozy boarding school. Ron enjoyed the fun schooldays, but part of him loved the castle's other, darker side too.
It was almost time for sunrise. Ron pulled his black cloak tighter around his shoulders and crept up the stairs to the Astronomy tower. He stopped short – someone else was there, little more than a darker shadow against the already dark room, but he could tell from the long hair that it was a girl. His solitary nighttime wanderings had always been just that – solitary. He'd never encountered another person before, and for a moment, he was unsure what to do. He didn't want to leave…maybe if he just waited quietly, the intruder would go on her own.
Except…damn. She knew he was there. Her chin lifted slightly and her head tilted as she listened. He saw her hand creep slowly, slowly across the desk, and a split-second later her chair crashed backward as she jumped to her feet and whirled around, wand pointed into the impenetrable blackness. "Who's there?" she demanded, and if Ron hadn't been listening for it, he would've missed the small quaver that belied her fear.
He recognized that voice. It was Hermione. He couldn't wait, invisible, for her to leave, not now that he'd frightened her. If it were anyone else he wouldn't have cared nearly so much, but he didn't want Hermione to be scared, especially not because of him.
He shrugged out of the cloak. "It's me. It's Ron."
Hermione's shadow didn't move. The wand was still trained on him, and he realized that if she was no more than a shadow to him, then he probably looked the same to her. "Prove it. Come closer," she said. "Slowly."
He dropped the cloak on the floor and walked toward her, his hands held out in front of him so she could see he didn't have a wand. The moment he stepped into the swath of starlight that poured through the tall windows, she lowered her wand with a relieved sigh. "Sorry about that. It's just that you can't be too careful."
"I know." Truer words were never spoken.
She bent down to right her chair. "You gave me a scare."
"I'm sorry. I didn't know anyone else was up here."
A split second after the words left his mouth, he saw her shoulders tense. "Are you meeting someone?" she asked, her tone artificially nonchalant. "A girl, I mean? I wouldn't want to be in the way."
He fixed her with an incredulous look. "And which girl would I be meeting?"
"Um…" Hermione stalled. Ron couldn't see her face, but he would've bet every Galleon in Harry's Gringotts vault that she was blushing. "Cho?"
He laughed out loud. "Where did you get that idea?"
"Well, now that Harry and Ginny are…I mean, now that he doesn't like Cho anymore…and she's really pretty, you know…."
"She's not my type," Ron interrupted. "She's too…nice, if that makes any sense. And, anyway, she knows that as Harry's best friend, I'm a target for You-Know-Who. Cho's a Ravenclaw; she's too smart to put herself in danger by meeting with me."
"If she wouldn't meet you for a reason as stupid as that, then she's not worth your time," she said tartly.
He raised his eyebrows. "All right. Any other ideas?" He knew he was teasing her mercilessly, and that she'd probably give anything to change the subject, but he couldn't help himself.
"Er…Padma?" Hermione guessed.
"Padma? Really?"
"You went to the Yule Ball with her," she pointed out. "It's not such a far-fetched guess."
"She ditched me for a kid from Beauxbatons," he reminded her.
"She wouldn't have done if you hadn't ignored her."
"Not Padma." He was dying to know what name she'd come up with next.
"Hannah?" she asked, her voice barely a squeak.
He snorted. "Her brothers would have my head."
"Which one?"
"Yes."
"I meant which brother, not which head, you –"
Ron exploded with laughter. "So did I!" he finally gasped. "Hermione Granger! Who would've known that you had such a dirty mind?"
"Shut up," she muttered, and now that sky was lightening to faint, pre-dawn gray, he could see that her face was dark red.
He checked his watch. It was quarter past five. "What are you doing up so early?"
"Detention," she said shortly.
"You had to get up at five to serve detention?"
"I haven't been to bed yet," she sighed. "I've been up all night, tracing the constellations for Professor Vector."
"That's a bad detention."
"You're a master of the obvious."
He twirled a chair around and sat, resting his chin on the backrest. "What did you do? It must have been awful."
"I'd rather not discuss it," she said primly, sitting at her desk once more. "It's none of your business, and it's a little embarrassing, so let's talk about something else. Like what you're doing here."
He said, "I couldn't sleep."
"So you decided to go to the Astronomy tower?"
"Well, at first, I was walking around the school, but it's almost time for the sunrise so, yes, I came up here."
She raised her eyebrows. "Why?"
"Because it has the best view," he said matter-of-factly. The first pink blush of sunlight lined the horizon, and he could see her clearly now. She'd turned to him with interest.
"You've done this before?"
"A few times." Ron was suddenly uncomfortable. She was looking at him with an unsettling sort of softness in her eyes. It was quite nice to have that look directed at him, and that's what scared him.
"Well," Hermione said, "the stars are almost gone, so I'm done with my work. I suppose I can stay to watch the sunrise with you."
He didn't answer.
After a moment of awkward silence, a small note of uncertainty crept into her tone. "Or I could go, if you'd rather be alone."
He cleared his throat. "No, that's all right," he said hoarsely. "Stay."
She favored him with a beaming grin, and for a moment Ron reflected, Who needs the sunrise? The moment ended too soon; she turned back to the window and he was left feeling cheated, somehow.
The sky overhead was now a deep purple, streaked with fiery red and yellow fingers of light. Hermione got up from her desk and walked to the window. She pressed her palms against the glass and leaned forward, drinking in the sight. He watched the golden morning glow light her smooth, pale skin and her sparkling brown eyes. "It's gorgeous, isn't it?" she said.
"Yeah," he replied, mouth dry.
She looked over her shoulder. "You can't see anything from over there. You have to be by the window to get the full effect."
Ron shifted in his seat. "I'm comfortable where I am, thanks."
"Don't be a prat," she said. "If you're going to stay up all night to watch the sunrise, the least you can do is get a proper look at it."
He rolled his eyes and dragged himself to his feet with a long-suffering air. "If you insist."
"I do," she said, turning back to the window.
The sky overhead was now lavender, rapidly fading to blue. "This is my favorite part," He murmured, forgetting his irritation. The sky exploded in color and light as the sun crested the horizon. He closed his eyes and tipped his head back, enjoying the warmth of the day's first light on his face.
He didn't know how long he stood like that, but he eventually realized that Hermione hadn't said anything in a long time. That was unusual, to say the least, so he cracked his eyes open and looked over at her. She wasn't paying the sunrise the slightest bit of attention; instead, her eyes were fixed wholly on him.
"What?" he asked, nervous that he had dirt on his face or something.
"Nothing," she said, but didn't look away.
He said the only thing that came to mind. "You snipe at me for sitting too far from the window, and then when the sun actually comes up, you don't even look?"
She shrugged. "There will be other sunrises."
"Not this one."
That earned him a smile. "Are you always this astute first thing in the morning?"
"Hermione –" he began in a warning tone.
"I don't care about the sunrise," she said. "But watching you enjoy the sunrise…"
Ron's face felt like it was on fire. Nobody had ever said anything like that to him before, and the fact that it would be Hermione, prickly, funny, bossy, brilliant Hermione…. He croaked, "Really?"
She nodded, but before she could speak, he leaned down and pressed a quick, impulsive kiss to her mouth. Her lips were soft and warm, and for a moment all he knew was how good it felt but then his mind caught up with his hormones and screamed – You're kissing Hermione Granger! – and he started to pull back but before he could quite detach himself she'd thrown her arms around his neck and was kissing him back and, oh, it was just too nice to stop.
But kisses can't last forever and, too soon, it had to end. "What was that?" Ron gasped.
She teased, "I don't know. A bout of freakishly good sense, maybe?"
He made a sound that was half incredulous laugh, half nervous exhalation, and rested his forehead against hers.
"Ron?" she asked, a current of nervousness running beneath her words. "You're not sorry, are you?"
"What? How could you ask that?" he demanded. "You're my best friend, Hermione. Well, you and Harry, and I can't very well go around snogging him. Ginny would hex me into tomorrow." He wound an arm around her waist. "And anyway, he's too short for me."
She laughed. "What do you think he'll say when he finds out what we were doing?"
Ron predicted, "He'll say, 'It's about bloody time.' "