A/N: This is just a random one shot I thought of. Please read and review. Flames are welcome as long as they are explained.
Disclaimer: All characters and settings belong to J.K.R.
"Ron!" Harry yelled "Ron, Ron wake up its Christmas morning!"
Ron groaned. "Harry what time is it?" he said as he opened his eyes. Harry was standing above him with a bemused expression on his face and an emerald sweatshirt with a large "H" on the front, no doubt from Ron's mother. He shook his head at Ron's remark, then said shortly,
"Nine."
"You let me sleep 'til nine on Christmas Day!"
"Let you? I don't think you would have woke up if a freight train crashed into the room." Harry laughed, "How late did you and Hermione stay up?"
"Six." said Ron groaning again. He thought back on the night before. He and Hermione had played at least twelve games of chess. He thought of how funny it would be if she came in right now and started to lecture him on how he had messed up her circadian rhythm, then of how good she looked when she was lecturing.
He didn't linger on this as long as he usually did. This was due to the large stack of presents at the foot of his bed. There seemed to be more than usual. He started to open them. He received, at first, the usual. His own sweatshirt, maroon with a large "R" on the front and sweets from his mother, more sweets from Hagrid, a book and a few more sweets from Hermione, and Harry had gotten him a broom handling kit.
He thanked Harry and then looked at the final two gifts. One said "To Ron" in Fred's handwriting. He decided to open that one. First he took the short note, broke the seal, and read aloud.
Dear Ron,
We hope you're having a good Christmas. Business is booming at the shop. These are two new products that are untested; the only thing we know is that they're non-toxic. Use them when Hermione bugs you too much about homework. Put a teaspoon of each liquid in her pumpkin juice. If the black fluid works (we're still working on names) she'll get bibliophobia, and if the blue fluid works she'll get graphophobia. Since you most likely don't know what those mean: bibliophobia is the fear of books and graphophobia is the fear of writing.
At this both Harry and Ron burst out laughing.
"She'd- kill you." Harry said through laughs.
"Only if- she finds out- it was me." Ron said, also laughing. Once he had subdued his laughter he finished the letter.
Don't worry, it wears off after two or three days. Hope they come in handy.
Your thoughtful and smarter older brothers,
Fred and George
Ron tore off the wrapping and opened the box. Inside were two small vials, each containing either black or blue fluids.
"Cool, both these must be at least five teaspoons." Ron said. He made a mental note to thank Fred and George later, then turned his eyes, at last, on the final present. He couldn't think of anyone (aside from Bill and Charlie who never sent him gifts) he knew that hadn't sent him a gift. He tore off the note and read it.
"Who's it from?" Harry asked
"Doesn't say." Harry gave him a questioning look, so he tossed him the note. It was a short note written in an untidy manuscript. It was so short; Ron had already memorized it.
Keep this on you. It'll be useful.
Harry looked up.
"Weird." he said.
"You reckon it's from Dumbledore?"
"I doubt it."
"Why?"
"S'not his handwriting." Harry said simply, "And I doubt he'd change his handwriting just so we wouldn't know it was him who sent you the gift."
"That's a good point." Ron agreed.
"Oi, just open it, will ya!" Seamus said exasperatedly, bringing Ron back to the package in his hands.
"Oh, right." With that, he ripped off the wrapping paper to find a small metal sphere.
"What the-" Ron started, but Neville broke in.
"That's a Weathosphere," he said in awe.
"Wow, wizarding manufacturers are creative when it comes to naming their products, aren't they?" Harry asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
"As I was saying," Neville started once again, his voice more matter-of-factly, "It's a Weathosphere. Some people use them to grow plants that need special conditions. What you do is picture in your mind what you want the weather and your surroundings to be like: sunny and desert-like, stormy and grassy, anything you can think of, and then say "Initium" and it will make the weather and the temperature, in an area of 36 square feet around the sphere, to what you wanted it to be. They're rare and very expensive"
"I wonder what I'd need it for?" Ron wondered aloud.
"Dunno, but it couldn't hurt to keep it on you." Harry replied.
"Guess not." Ron said, shrugging his shoulders and stuffing it in his pocket. "Come on, lets head down to breakfast. I'm starving and I bet Hermione's looking for us."
"Alright." Harry agreed, so they got ready and headed for the Great Hall.
As they were walking along, Ron thought back on last summer's events. It had been relatively calm for him and luckily it had been calm for Harry, too. What had really been interesting was that Lucius Malfoy had been arrested because he was found torturing muggles. Draco thought Ron had tipped off the Ministry and had been after Ron ever since. Harry's voice snapped him out of his thoughts.
"Ron look out!"
Ron's vision cleared just long enough to see Malfoy, his eyes popping madly, pointing his wand at him and a blast of purple light before he blacked out.
"Is he gonna be alright?"
"He'll be fine Mr. Potter. He'll be waking up soon."
Ron could hear the voices floating above him, but they seemed to rebound off his head, so that he couldn't make them out. His head hurt and he groaned, or at least he tried. His voice didn't appear to work. Every inch of him ached. The voices above him spoke again.
"What did Malfoy do to him?"
His brain seemed to recognize Harry's voice.
"I believe I can answer that Harry," said Dumbledore's voice.
Suddenly everything flooded back into his head. It was Christmas morning! But hang on, he thought. Why are Dumbledore and Madame Pomfrey in the boy's dormitories? He didn't have time to dwell on this because Dumbledore was speaking again.
"Mr. Malfoy attempted a memory charm, however, based on the information you've given me, Mr. Malfoy simply erased Mr. Weasley's memory of the past morning for the next 24 hours."
What! Ron couldn't believe what he was hearing. Malfoy hexed him!
"Slimy git." That was Ginny's voice. "Sorry Headmaster," she added, hurriedly.
Dumbledore spoke again, "My attention was momentarily stolen by a scene out the window and I haven't the slightest idea what you said."
"Right," Ginny said skeptically.
"At least Malfoy got what he deserved." That was Hermione's voice. It was then he realized he must be in the Hospital Wing.
"Indeed, never in all my years of teaching have I seen a case that required expulsion. I've given detentions for a few leg-locker curses, but never this." That was Professor McGonagall.
"He should be up so--" Dumbledore started, but he stopped when Ron shifted and finally let out a groan.
"My head." Ron moaned.
"Ah, you're awake," Madame Pomfrey said. "Don't make a fuss. If you're head's really that bad I can get you a potion for it."
"No thanks." Ron said, not fancying one of the vile concoctions. He opened his eyes and saw all of those who had spoken, looking at him. His friends looked worried, Professor McGonagall looked furious, but Professor Dumbledore had his almost ever-present calm look on his face.
"You may leave whenever you are ready, Mr. Weasley." Madam Pomfrey told him.
"Mr. Potter, you may want to tell Mr. Weasley what happened. " Professor McGonagall suggested.
"It's alright. I heard the conversation you had before I could talk." Ron said.
"Well that's new. You used your ears before your mouth." Harry joked.
"Ha ha." Ron's laugh was dripping with sarcasm. "Well lets go. We don't want to miss the rest of Christmas Day!" He swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood up. The four friends walked out into the hall.
"Let's go to the Great Hall, I'm starved." Ron complained.
"Well, at least some things never change." Ginny laughed.
After a late lunch, the group decided to go outside for a snowball fight.
"Well, I'm cold, tired, and wet. I think I'll go in." Ginny said. She waved them off and headed toward the castle. A while later, Harry waved them good bye without a word and headed in the same direction. Ron and Hermione continued for a few minutes when they noticed the wind picking up and the snow falling faster.
"Let's go in before it gets too bad." Hermione suggested.
"Right." Ron agreed.
They hurried through the quickly thickening snow. It was falling by the pound, now, blinding them. Then there was a mighty gust of wind and Hermione was swept off her feet and out of sight. The wind was pounding in their ears and the snow was a foot high and getting higher.
"Hermione!" Ron yelled at the top of his lungs, but it was no use. He couldn't even hear himself.
"Ron!" A worried, yet hopeful voice echoed in his ear.
"Hermione? What is this?" he questioned.
"Communication spell" she answered. "Walk a little to the left."
Ron turned and began to walk left. Soon he bumped into something solid on all fours. He looked down and saw a bushy head of brown hair.
"What are you doing down there?"
"The winds too strong, it's easier to stay put down here. I've never seen a blizzard like this, never even heard of it in Scotland."
"We've got to head toward the castle."
"One problem Ron. Which way is the castle?"
Ron looked around. She was right(Surprise surprise). He couldn't see anything more than a few inches in front of this face.
"You're right. But we have to try to get back and we have to move to keep warm. Stay close."
She moved close to him, grabbing his arm and leaning against him.
Well, at least I'll die happy, Ron thought. Wait! Where'd that come from? We're not gonna die, he tried convincing himself. He failed miserably.
They moved as quickly as possible for what seemed like hours. Finally, Hermione dropped to her knees.
"I can't walk anymore." she said, defeated and upset.
"Come on, Hermione, we've got to-"
"No," she cut him off, "We're probably closer to the Forbidden Forest than Hogwarts. For all we know, we could be half way to Hogsmeade, but we'll freeze before we get there."
Then she began to cry. Ron was stuck. He had no idea how to deal with a crying Hermione. Before long, she spoke again.
"Ron, I need you to know something." she said, looking at him intently. Even Ron could tell this was important. He sat down, thinking it would take a while. "Well, I wasn't going to tell you this because I wouldn't be able to live with myself if you said you didn't too, but since I'm not going to be living with myself much longer anyway, I might as well say it."
At this point, Ron was thoroughly confused and thought she should just spit it out. As if reading his thoughts, she blurted, "I love you, Ron," very quickly.
Ron was stunned. All this time he'd been so scared to tell her the same thing, for the same reasons she was.
"I guess you don't feel the same," she said, tears coming to her eyes. Ron realized that he had frozen up and she assumed his pause meant "No."
"Wow, this hurt a lot more than I thought." Tears were flowing freely from her eyes now.
Suddenly, Ron reached out and brought her face so it was just centimeters away.
"Hermione Jane Granger, why would I not love you?" he said.
Quite honestly, Hermione could list a thousand reasons why, but they all flew out of her head when he kissed her soundly on the lips. It was sweet, but too short in her opinion. He leaned his forehead against her and was about to say something, when Hermione did something that saved both their lives. She saw a small circular hole in the snow.
"What's that?" she wondered aloud. Ron turned and saw it too. Both still wondering, they started to dig and pulled out a metal sphere.
"What's that?" Ron said, confused. Hermione gasped, then hugged Ron, yelling "We're saved!" over and over again.
"Huh?" was all Ron could manage.
"Watch" she said, then she got a calm look about her. Instantly a meadow surrounded them. It became warm and sunny. Ron's jaw dropped as Hermione went into lecture mode.
"Hermione," he said, cutting her off mid-sentence, "Look!"
She turned. There, no more than six feet in front of them, were the doors to the Great Hall.
"No." Hermione said in awe, "All that time." She shook her head slowly. "Well lets not sit here all day," she said sternly. They both stood up and Hermione began to walk toward the doors.
"Wait," said Ron, grabbing her arm, "Before we go in, I have to know. What exactly are we now?" he asked, blushing to the roots of his hair.
"We can't go back to being friends, not when we both know…" She trailed off, also blushing.
"Then, are we a couple?" Ron said nervously.
"Yes… Yes I think we are." Hermione said, a little more confidently.
As if he had been waiting for this cue, he put his arm around her shoulders and she leaned on him. Together they headed toward the castle. As they pushed open the door, a red haired blur ran up and caught them both in a bone-crushing hug, yelling all sorts of things about how worried she was about the two of them.
"We're okay, Ginny. Sorry to make you worry." Ron said, hugging her back. He looked up to see Harry walking toward them, a smile on his face. Behind him was a very annoyed Professor McGonagall. He raised an eyebrow at Ron's arm, which was still around Hermione and his smile widened.
When he reached them he said, "I tried to come look for you guys, but the Professor here delayed me."
"The last thing I needed was another student out their." Professor McGonagall said.
"Well, since you're both here now, what do you say to some dinner?" Harry said smiling.
They all agreed and headed for the Great Hall. Ron had a weird feeling that Harry was up to something, especially when he saw Harry grab two vials with blue and black liquid out of his robes.
A/N: I kind of left it left it up to you on who sent the letter. No, there will not be a sequel to this or more chapters. Please review.