Ron had been asleep in the common room for about an hour at that point and Hermione had finished editing his Potions essay about half an hour ago. They were the only ones left in the common room. The fire was dying and was mostly just cherry red embers now. It cast its light against the exposed half of Ron's face and the flickering light kept changing the parts of his face Hermione could see. It was like different spot lights turning on to highlight the different parts of his face-his long, freckle-covered nose, his long, orange eyelashes, and his lips that were partially turned up at the corners into a smile. His smile made Hermione wonder what he was dreaming about.
She had spent the last half hour watching and puzzling over him. She liked him and, to be perfectly honest, had been well aware of the fact for a couple of years at that point. It had been at least a year before he even noticed she was a girl in their fourth year at the Yule Ball that she had realized that she felt differently about him. She wasn't even sure what triggered it. It was like she blinked and suddenly it became clear to her. She greatly liked, she might even venture to say loved, him. The problem was that he could just be so thick about things when it came to girls. He wouldn't recognize flirting if it held up a sign to identify itself and did a little tap dance. Maybe that's one of the things she liked most. He was just so damn innocent and naïve. It was adorable.
It wasn't like she just sat around staring at him like this all of the time. This happened to be a rare occasion when it was just the two of them and it had her thinking about if she would ever be able to do anything about it.
Eventually Hermione looked down at her watch to see it was already approaching 1:00am. Shit. She really needed to get to bed. Sighing, Hermione got up and crossed over to the chair Ron was sleeping in. Feeling a bit brave, she leaned down and brushed his red hair off his forehead. "Ron," She whispered. "Ron it's one in the morning. We need to head up to bed." He stirred a little and Hermione moved her hand to his cheek and stroked her thumb under his eye. Ron blinked his eyes open and looked up at Hermione, clearly having trouble understanding the situation.
"You fell asleep while I was fixing your paper, but I am done now." She stuck out her hand, which he took gratefully, and she helped him out of the chair.
"What time is it?" He mumbled with a little bit of a slur to his words. Ron always took a long time to come out of his sleepy state.
"It's one. Here's your essay," She said handing him the rolled up parchment. "Now let's get you up to bed." He was currently leaning against the wall by the fireplace and looked in danger of falling over. Hermione put her arm around his wasted, pulled him off the wall and proceeded to guide him to the staircase. "Think you can make it from here?"
"Mmm sure… Thanks Hermione. You're the best…" He said before starting to clumsily navigate the stairs. Hermione watched him go and then returned to the table she was at to pack up her things. Maybe next time they were alone she would actually get up the nerve to say something about her feelings to him. That is if he was actually awake the next time.