He ran his hand through his fiery red hair, which was almost standing on end from the repeated gesture, as he gazed at her from across the grounds. He watched as her face lit up at the sight of a perfectly arranged head of white-blonde hair. His heart clenched painfully as she beamed at the man whose arms now encircled her as he bent down for a kiss. Try as he might, he couldn't tear his eyes away from her face as she looked into those grey eyes so lovingly.

The way she used to look into his cerulean ones. It pained him to think that she would never do that again.

It was so perfect in the beginning. He had finally realized how he really felt about her, right in the midst of ridding an old roll top desk of doxies, while Harry pitched Black family relics into a garbage bag. Granted, he sure did take his sweet time to put it all together. He could still remember the sparkling green eyes of his best friend silently laughing at him when he finally figured it all out.

It took him months to get the courage to tell her. Merlin only knows how many times he walked up to her in the common room, fully intending to spill the feelings that threatened to explode from his chest, only to feel that familiar flutter in his stomach that was only induced by that adorable little half-smile of hers as she looked up at him from yet another ridiculously thick book. He ended up producing a few unintelligible vowel sounds, and then had to go and sit down to collect himself before sighing and striking up normal conversation instead.

It was Christmas time when it finally happened. Term had just ended, and the three friends were outside enjoying the first true snow of the season, since it had been raining nonstop up until then. He had suddenly realized that Harry wasn't hiding behind the boulder 15 feet away anymore, where he had been pitching snowballs at them as fast as he could. He twisted around, looking for the familiar messy black hair of his friend, when he saw him heading up to the castle very slowly, while winking at him and gesturing with his hands in a "get on with it already!" fashion. Then, Harry smirked pointedly at a spot just past him and walked off, thoroughly confusing him.

This was it.

He turned around to face her, and was surprised to see her looking straight back at him, with a brilliant smile on her face. He was confused, why was she smiling? And who was Harry smirking at? He gulped, and opened his mouth, determined to tell her before he lost his nerve.

"I, uh...well, what I mean to say is...I-" and he stopped, flustered, as he felt the telltale heat of a blush creeping up his neck to his ears. He went to start again but stopped when he felt her soft lips brush against his own.

"I know Ron, me too." She beamed at him. Her voice was like music to his ears, he was speechless. So instead of saying anything, he bent down and picked her up, sweeping her literally off her feet as he kissed her. Unfortunately, this sweet moment was interrupted with catcalls and whistles coming from all the Gryffindors who stayed at school for the holidays 50 feet away and Harry's "FINALLY! TOOK YOU TWO LONG ENOUGH!"

At Hermione's chuckle he finally realized what had happened. Harry had planned all of this and hinted at Hermione to get on with it! His broad smile gave away his happiness as he tried to yell at his best friend.

"HARRY YOU EVIL LITTLE-"

"Ron don't swear!"

"Sorry mate, but it seemed highly unlikely that you were going to do it yourself, so I just gave Hermione a little nudge in the right direction!" Harry laughed.

Everything went amazingly well from then on.

Until he screwed everything up. Now she wouldn't even look at him. One mistake, and she went running into the arms of his enemy. The last time they spoke he asked her why him? Why the hell did she pick Ferret Boy the Death eater over him? Did it really only take one bad decision on his part to make her turn to evil? He's reformed now, he's different! That was what she kept saying.

Reformed his ass. Once a death eater, always a death eater, in his opinion. But she didn't care about his opinion anymore, she ignored him now.

That's why he sat there gazing at her under a tree fifty yards away. He only got to see her from a distance.