Ron's POV on page 457 OOTP

How do you know?

"What kept you?" I asked Harry as he sank into the armchair next to Hermione's. We had left him in the Room of Requirement half an hour ago and he was just turning up.

"Are you alright, Harry?" Hermione asked, peering at him over the tip of her quill. He responded with a halfhearted shrug.

"What's up?" I said, hoisting myself up on my elbow to get a clearer view of Harry. "What's happened?" When he didn't respond Hermione took matters into her own hands.

"Is it Cho?" she asked in a businesslike way. "Did she corner you after the meeting?" Harry nodded. I started to snigger until Hermione caught my eye.

"So – er – what did she want?" I asked in a mock casual voice.

"She – she – er" Harry stuttered.

"Did you kiss?" Hermione asked briskly. I sat up so fast I sent my ink bottle flying all over the rug. I disregarded it completely and stared avidly at Harry. The thought of Harry snogging Cho in the deserted Room of Requirement was the funniest thing I could imagine. The thought of Harry snogging anyone anywhere was the funniest thing I could imagine.

"Well?" I demanded. Harry looked from me to Hermione and nodded.

"HA!" I cried making a triumphant gesture with my fist and went into a peal of laughter, rolling around on the hearthrug. My best mate was snogging! Harry Potter – The Boy Who Lived – just had his first kiss.

"Well/" I said finally, looking up at Harry. "How was it?" He seemed to consider this for a moment.

"Wet," he finally answered. Wet? Was that a good thing? It didn't sound like a good thing. Were kisses supposed to be wet? I had never heard anyone else describe a kiss as wet. "Because she was crying," Harry continued heavily.

"Oh," I said. "Are you that bad at kissing?"

"Dunno," said Harry. "Maybe I am," He added sounding rather worried.

"Of course you're not," said Hermione absently, still scribbling away at her letter.

How could Hermione possibly know that Harry wasn't a lousy kisser? She had never kissed him, therefore she could not know that he wasn't bad at it. She had never kissed Harry, right?

"How do you know?" I demanded.

Cho was Harry's first kiss, wasn't she? Of course she was, Harry and I are best mates, he would have told me if he had snogged some other girl - but would he have told me if that some other girl were Hermione? - Of course he would! He would tell me especially it were Hermione – wouldn't he? – Unless, maybe he thought I wouldn't approve? Or maybe it was just a one time thing? But, now that I think of it, Hermione never has been too friendly with Cho. What if for Hermione it wasn't just a one time thing? What if Hermione is in love with Harry? But then, why wouldn't Harry want to be with her? She's beautiful and smart and, okay she can be a bit annoying at times but, she's caring and loyal. Who wouldn't want that? Unless Harry doesn't know Hermione's in love with him. And once he finds out he's going to dump Cho and go straight for Hermione, like any sane man would. And then Harry will be dating Hermione. My Hermione. How could he do that? Not that I want to date her of course. It's just that . . . that . . . that . . . I'll be all alone! Yeah, that's it, I'll be like a third wheel around them and that –

"Because Cho spends half her time crying these days," said Hermione.

Oh. Hermione's never kissed Harry, she's not in love him. Well that settles that.

"She does it at mealtimes, in the loos, all over the place." Hermione added.

Now that my world had stopped spinning, I was feeling much happier.

"You'd think a bit of kissing would cheer her up," I said grinning.

"Ron," said Hermione in a dignified voice, dipping the point of her quill into her ink pot, "you are the most insensitive wart I have ever had the misfortune to meet."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I said indignantly. "What sort of person cries while someone's kissing them?"

"Yeah," Harry piped in, "who does?"

"Don't you understand how Cho's feeling at the moment?" asked Hermione.

"No" Harry and I said together. Hermione sighed and laid down her quill.

"Well, obviously, she's feeling very sad because of Cedric dying. Then I expect she's feeling confused because she liked Cedric and now she likes Harry, and she can't work out who she likes best. Then she'll be feeling guilty, thinking it's an insult to Cedric's memory to be kissing Harry at all, and she'll be worrying about what everyone else might say about her if she starts going out with Harry. And she probably can't work out what her feelings toward Harry are anyway, because he was the one who was with Cedric when Cedric died, so that's all very mixed up and painful. Oh, and she's afraid she's going to be thrown off Ravenclaw Quidditch team because she's been flying so badly."

A slightly stunned silence greeted the end of her speech before I said, "One person can't feel all that once, they'd explode."

"Just because you've got the emotional range of a teaspoon doesn't mean we all have," said Hermione nastily, picking up her quill again.

"She was the one who started it," said Harry. "I wouldn't've – she just sort of came at me – and next thing she's crying all over me – I didn't know what to do –."

"Don't blame you, mate" I said. I sorta tuned out what Harry and Hermione said after that. How could Harry like a girl who cried all over him when he was kissing her? I couldn't imagine a more awkward situation. What did Harry see in Cho anyway? I bet if he started an argument with her, she wouldn't even fight back, she'd just start crying. Where's the fun in that? Harry couldn't still like her, could he? Surely he's changed his mind after tonight.

"What if he doesn't want to ask her?" I said, just catching the end of what Hermione was saying.

"Don't be silly," said Hermione vaguely. "Harry's liked her for ages, haven't you Harry?"

Sure, but how could he still want to go out with a girl like her when a girl like you is sitting right in front of him?

"Who're you writing the novel to anyway?" I asked her, trying to read the bit of parchment trailing on the floor. Hermione hitched it out of sight.

"Viktor."

"Krum?"

"How many other Viktors do we know?"

Of course, how could I think that Hermione was in love with Harry when she has Vicky pining after her in Bulgaria? Well, at least she didn't spend the summer with him like he wanted. She spent the whole summer with me. Ha. Take that Vicky, your girlfriend turned you down to spend her whole summer holiday with me. Cleaning. We weren't even doing anything fun, just cleaning. She could have been doing all kinds of fun things with you, but she wanted to clean with me. Ha ha ha.

Okay, so maybe Hermione didn't exactly choose to spend her time with me, but with the Order. And she didn't really know all she'd be doing was cleaning all summer, but still she was with me this summer not him.