Hermione sighed in the Gryffindor common room. The red-orange fire danced and came alive with popping and crackling sounds. She had been listening to it with her eyes closed, concentrated on the noises she heard. 'Pull yourself together, Hermione' was being said over and over in her head. 'Why are you doing this to yourself?' she thought. 'You need to say something' said her conscience.
Hermione and Ron were dating at the time, holding hands in the hallways, kissing each other goodnight, the whole deal. But lately, she had been falling out of love with him, and even questioning if she had been in love with him at all, even though they hadn't even said the words to each other yet.
"Think happy thoughts,"she whispered to herself, then scoffed.
"Happy thoughts don't exist," Hermione mumbled again.
Then a voice came, startling her.
"Happy thoughts? What about happy thoughts?" Ron came down the stairs, beaming brightly at his girlfriend.
Hermione still stared at the fire.
"Are you alright?" Ron asked, gently touching her arm. Hermione jumped, her entire body suddenly filled with aching fear. No more than a split second later it vanished.
"Uh… yeah. I'm sorry." She shook her head, trying to remember where she was, who she was with, and what she was doing. "I was just talking to myself."
"Oh." Said Ron. "Well, I… I need to talk to you."
Hermione quickly replied to reduce all of Ron's suspicions of her feelings.
"Okay, yeah. Sorry, I was… anyway, what do you need to talk to me about?"
Ron fidgeted in his seat a bit, cleared his throat, wiped his nose (even though there was nothing to wipe), and blurted the words out.
"I love you." He said, and his eyes darted every which way, just to avoid Hermione's eyes.
"Oh, shit!" She replied, and then covered her mouth immediately.