DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything to do with Harry Potter, that all belongs to the wonderful J.K Rowling.

This is just a little one-shot that popped into my head whilst watching the Half-Blood Prince the other day... I've always wondered what Ron and Hermione got up to whilst Harry was off on his Slughorn mission...

Felix Felicis.

Ron and I knelt down on the floor on our knees in the Gryffindor Common Room, facing Harry who was sat on the battered old sofa holding a small vial of Felix Felicis – more commonly known as 'Liquid Luck' - that he had annoyingly won for brewing the best batch of Draught of Living Death in our first potions lesson with Professor Slughorn.

With a pop! Harry removed the cork and glugged the contents down in one! He had been sent on a mission by Dumbledore to retrieve a valuable memory of Slughorn's that he had himself tampered with and Harry had insisted that the only way he was going to fulfil the task was with a little help from Felix.

"Well? How do you feel?" I asked as Harry licked his lips.

"Excellent!" He replied, looking at me with a grin. "Really excellent!" Harry stood up and Ron and I swiftly followed suit.

I looked at Harry seriously and stated "Remember, Slughorn usually eats early, takes a walk and then returns to his office".

"Right" … Then there was a pause before he simply exclaimed "I'm going down to Hagrid's!"

I frowned. "What! No, Harry, you've got to go speak to Slughorn!" Harry began heading towards the door as I paced after him. I had a bad feeling the luck was going to affect his instincts.

Harry turned to look at me with wide eyes. And I reminded him "We have a plan."

"I know, but, I've got a really good feeling about Hagrid's. I feel it's the place to be tonight, d'you know what I mean?"

Ron and I both looked at Harry with utter disbelief and slight confusion and both responded with a "No".

"Well trust me, I know what I'm doing, or, Felix does!" Harry flashed us a child-like grin and practically ran out of the common room shouting "Hi!" at some scared-looking first years walking in.

"Oh dear" I heaved a great sigh and slumped down onto the sofa, worried about what stupid things Harry might say or do whilst on his little adventure. I felt the sofa dip beside me and knew that Ron had sat himself down. I folded my hands into my lap and gently chewed on my bottom lip.

"Hermione, don't be nervous…"

I frowned without looking at Ron. "How do you know I'm nervous?"

I could almost hear the smile in Ron's voice. "You always chew on your bottom lip when you're nervous." I blushed slightly and twiddled my thumbs, still looking down at my lap as Ron continued "honestly, don't worry about Harry, you know what he's like. He always gets the job done no matter how he goes about it… Besides, he's taken Felix Felicis, what could go wrong?"

I nodded slowly "I suppose you're right, it's called liquid luck for a reason I guess." I had to admit, I had never come across anything bad about Felix Felicis whilst reading various books on potions and luck enhancements.

Ron chuckled lightly and placed a large hand on my shoulder. "Hey, it's not often that we get some time alone to spend together when we're not with 'the chosen one'"

I snorted at Harry's nickname and then blushed again, before brushing a loose curl of my hair behind my ear and looking up at Ron through my eyelashes. I wondered what he meant by that? We were nothing more than friends… were we?

I saw Ron fidget slightly and clear his throat "How 'bout a game of exploding snap?!" He grinned mischievously and reached behind to his back pocket, producing a pack of cards, I groaned.

"Ron, you know I always lose at exploding snap!" I sighed, but couldn't say no to his twinkling blue eyes pleading with me like a puppy. "But I guess it'll take my mind off what Harry's getting up to… just one game and then I'm going to head up to bed, it's getting late." I checked my watch to see that the time was 10:15, way after curfew.

At my decision to play, Ron's eyes lit up and twinkled even more than I thought possible. Secretly, I loved it when he got excited and smiled at me the way he did, it made my heart flutter.

"Yes! Alright, I'll shuffle and deal, then you can go first." Ron began shuffling the cards back and forth and in and out, then dealt us half a deck each. "Okay 'Mione, you're up!"

I smiled as Ron used his nickname for me. It wasn't very often that he called me 'Mione, but I loved it. Although I wasn't going to tell him of course.

I placed my first card into the middle of us and turned it face up. A cauldron. Ron then did the same, his card showing a picture of a Nimbus 2000. We continued like this, a soft bang going off when our cards matched, making us both flinch, then burst into fits of giggles. I soon forgot all my worries as I relaxed into the game and found myself thoroughly enjoying Ron's company.

Bang! Went the final pair as I placed my last card down and gasped as realisation hit me. "I won! Oh my gosh, I actually won!" I giggled and clapped my hands together.

Ron chuckled "You did, congratulations, you finally beat the master!" He winked at me and smirked, making me blush under his gaze and push another strand of hair behind my ear.

"I also know that you brush your hair behind your ear too, when you're nervous." Ron gazed at me still, his deep blue eyes looking right into my chocolate brown ones.

"And how do you know this Ronald?" I replied indignantly, but curious as to know his answer.

"'Cause… I notice things."

"Things about everyone?"

"No… Just things about you."

I could feel my cheeks getting hotter as Ron shuffled ever so slightly closer to me, pushing the remnants of the exploded cards onto the floor. He placed one hand gently on my knee and I bit down on my lower lip once again, the butterflies in my stomach were going crazy, but I could not dismiss the shock of electricity that shot through my body at his simple touch. By the way his eyes darkened slightly, I'm certain he felt it too.

Ron whispered "Hermione…" before trailing off and just gazing at me still.

"Ron-" I breathed before he cut me off by placing a finger against my lips.

"Shh. Don't say a word…" Ron paused, and all I could hear were the sounds of both of our breathing as Ron dragged his finger softly from my lips down to my chin, before hooking his finger under and tilting my head back slightly so that his eyes were baring down into my own. His other hand was still placed on my knee.

My heart felt like it was pounding out of my chest and my breath hitched as Ron's face slowly leaned closer to mine, our lips inches apart before he placed his against mine in a soft, gentle kiss. I closed my eyes and responded to him, gently pushing my lips back against his as I let myself melt into his arms. The kiss gradually began to get deeper and more passionate and I felt Ron's arms wrap around my waist before pulling me onto his lap, my legs wrapping around his own waist. He groaned into my mouth and I could feel just how much he wanted me as my hips were against his.

Only coming up for air for a second, I continued the kiss, not getting enough, and pushed my fingers into his silky ginger locks, letting my own small moan escape into his mouth. Ron's hand began to slowly travel up my back and I ran my hands down from his hair to his cheeks, cradling his face as I brought the kiss to an end.

Both panting and slightly pink in the face, we stayed in the position we were for a few seconds, catching our breaths back until I planted one more light kiss on his lips and raised myself off of his lap to stand up.

"Goodnight Ronald" I stated with a wink and sauntered on up to the girl's dorm leaving a rather bewildered looking Ron on the sofa.