"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again."


"Wingardium Leviosa!"Ron swished his wand for what seemed like the millionth time, trying to levitate the feather in front of him.

Stupid feather, he thought. Why is levitating it so stupidly difficult?

He swished his wand, faster and faster until it was a blur and he looked more like he was hitting the feather than casting a spell on it. "Move, you dumb feather! Wingardium Leviosaaaaa!"

"What are you doing?"

Oh, great. It was her again.

Ron slowly turned around to see the chipmunk girl next to him, (What was her name again? Oh yeah, Hermione.) waving her wand in this oddly dreamy way, her feather floating above their heads like a kite on a breezy day.

"Just levitate it." She said it as if it was easy.

Ron gnashed his teeth together. That girl...might even be more annoying that Ginny, when she was going on about Harry, and that was saying something.

"I'm sorry, Miss Perfect," he retorted, huffing as he turned back to his feather. Even the drab, unmoving plume was better than her.

He could practically feel her rolling her eyes at him.

Well, see if I care, he thought in his head, but to be honest, he did care. It wasn't fair, how she got everything right the first time around!

Her feather poked into his head, as if she knew he was thinking mean things about her. No apology from her; he was sure it was on purpose.

"Here." Suddenly, she took a hold of his wand and held her hand with his. Her cold fingers were wrapped around his hand and suddenly he couldn't think straight because no girl had held his hand before other than his mother and sister and Aunt Muriel-

"It's Wingardium Levi-o-sa, not Wingardium Levio-sa," she corrected him, moving his wand with him. She then let go of his hand, and Ron released a breath he didn't know he was holding.

Well. He didn't expect that from her.

But it's not like he was going to thank her. All she had ever done before was be a rotten teacher's pet and make fun of him; even her helping him sounded condescending.

He hated people who made him feel worthless; so he hated Hermione Granger. Simple.

(Or maybe it was because she just made him feel really weird and tingly inside. He didn't really know what he was feeling, to be honest.)


A few minutes later he made fun of her and she stormed away crying and he felt this huge sense of dread growing in his stomach.

Her bushy brunette head vanished in the crowd and for some reason he wanted to see her again, and apologize.

(But he would never do that, because he was Ron Weasley and she was Hermione Granger.)


Ron was eleven at the time; you couldn't really blame him. But really, that moment in Charms was the new beginning to something much bigger for the two of them.


I may have failed, but I have loved you from the start.

-Fall For You, Secondhand Serenade.


A/N: Short Romione drabble because I can.

Done for:

Tour de Fiction Competition - Round 2, using the prompts Fall For You by Secondhand Serenade, new beginning, and kite.

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry - Charms, Year One (Write a fic under 500 words about a first-year student in Charms. I used the prompts "If you don't succeed, try, try again.", a character must preform a spell incorrectly, and difficult.)

OTP Boot Camp - Prompt #31: Rotten.