Hermione POV

I felt extremely guilty, leaving Harry alone in the castle. He looked so small and helpless from the second that McGonagall refused to sign his permission slip. I was going to stay behind with him, but the small wizarding village of Hogsmeade intrigued me. I was eager to see the only muggle free village in Britain, where no one knows what electricians are, or dentists.

Ron managed to convince me to go. "Harry will be able to come next year" were his exact words. I hadn't even said anything; Ron had a method of reading my thoughts, it's scary sometimes.

So with my curiosity getting the better of me, I ventured into Hogsmeade with Ronald. My muggle friend back home, Emma, would have called this an "awkward turtle moment". I could already see the tips of Ron's ears going slightly pink, and he obviously realised because he started tugging his hat down over his head, and his fiery ginger hair. It wasn't until I went to Hogwarts that I was sure of my favourite colour, and it is the same shade of red as Ron's hair.

As we were walking down the lane in a fairly awkward manner, I started to think aloud. 'Do you think Harry will be alright on his own?'

'Bloody hell, Hermione,' was his immediate response, 'he's defeated You-Know-Who, what, three times now? And you're worried about leaving him alone in the castle for a couple of hours.'

Well, Harry is quite danger prone, but that's not what I was referring to!' I retorted stiffly, 'I was thinking about how he was doing emotionally, not physically.'

It was at that moment that I realised that Ron and I had never had a proper conversation that wasn't about Harry; he had always been the glue to our relationship. If we ever did get some time alone, it was filled with, "How can we help Harry? I wonder what Harry's doing, I'm worried about Harry". We had never spoken about ourselves, and I felt this was what made things awkward with Ron.

I decided to start a new conversation. 'What's your favourite band?' I blurted out without thinking bout what I was going to say. This sudden question took Ron by surprise and it took a while for him to answer.

'Well, err… I guess I like My Elfish Needs and The Flightless Hippogriffs. What about you?' he asked, peering out from under his hat.

I was surprised he asked me back; for my previous impression of Ron was that he wasn't very good at holding conversations. I jumped at this opportunity.

'Well, I always liked Mozart and Wagner…'

'Who the hell are they?' Ron interrupted.

'They were muggle composers of classical music, y'know, violins and stuff.'

'Oh,' said Ron, obviously not taking my music taste well, 'Well, The Flightless Hippogriffs use muggle instruments, like e-lec-trum guitars and stuff.'

'It's an electric guitar, Ron,' I corrected, and instantly regretted it. Ron never liked to be corrected; it was one of his pet hates, especially if I was the one to correct him. We reverted back to our awkward silence until we got to Hogsmeade.

Hogsmeade was enchanting; trees, whose leaves had turned wonderful shades of orange and red, surrounded it. There was one leaf lying on the ground that was the exact same shade as Ron's hair, and I couldn't help but pick it up. In the middle of the village was a large oak tree, it's trunk gnarled and it's bark wearing. There was a plaque in front of the tall oak tree, saying that the tree was planted when the village was first founded, and had no magical help to make it grow faster. It was all so fascinating.

Ron, surprisingly, was the one to break the now comfortable (for me, anyway) silence.

'Fred and George told me you can get tons of different sweets at Honydukes, maybe we can get Harry something?' I knew he was trying to cheer me up and ditch my worries, so I smiled at him and said, 'Yes, I've got a Galleon or two left from summer, we can buy him lots!'

Ron smiled back, and together we wove our way round our fellow third years into Honydukes; a small and extremely busy shop. It smelled amazing, the balance was just right. When I first went in, caramel and fudge charged at my face with little mercy, whilst the sweeter smells like strawberry and orange followed behind, delicately engulfing my nostrils. Once I had recovered from the outburst of wondrous smells, I observed my surroundings with great pleasure; brightly coloured jars in every colour of the rainbow were sitting neatly on shelves around the room, with tables of baskets filled with chocolate and wrapped sweets.

Ron's gormless expression made me wonder how my own facial features had arranged themselves; I struggled to close my mouth and lower my eyebrows and found it very hard to compose myself. Ron seemed to be having the same problem. The happy aroma was too much for me, and I began to laugh out loud. That wiped away Ron's gormless look immediately, a puzzled look spreading it's way across his face.

'Why are you laughing, Hermione?' he asked, although he was struggling not to laugh himself.

'I don't have the foggiest of ideas!' I giggled back, and all this was too much for Ron. I think he might have collapsed with laughter if he hadn't caught hold of one of the tables. 'Come on, let's explore!' he said excitedly, grabbing my arm and steering me towards a woman with a bunch of free samples of chocolate. He took two pieces and handed me one, stuffing the other in his mouth. I popped mine in and started chewing on the most amazing chocolate ever.

'This is better than Cadburys!' I exclaimed.

'Who the hell is Cadbury?,' asked Ron.

'Never mind.'

After taste trying several types of sweets and chocolate, we bought Harry some bars of chocolate and chewy wands and left the shop, munching on sweets as we went. I discovered a packet of muggle jellybeans in my pocket and offered them to Ron after I had put a white one in my mouth.

'Jellybean?' I asked, waving the packet in front of him.

'No way, last time I had one of those I got a vomit flavoured one, that has put me off the things completely.'

I giggled, 'No, Ron, these are muggle Jellybeans, not Bertie Bott's. All the ones that are the same colour are the same flavour,' I explained, before adding, 'did you really get a vomit flavoured one?'

'Yeah, George told me it was butterscotch,' he replied, plunging his hand into the bag and coming out with a green one. 'I swear Hermione, if this is bogey flav-'

'It's not Ronald, muggles aren't that cruel.'

He put it in his mouth. 'What is that? It's like…'

'Lime?' I ask, already knowing his answer.

'Yea! Do all green ones taste like this?'

I handed him the bag. 'Here, experiment.'

'Wow, thanks!' he said, before plunging his hand in again and pulling out another green one. He put it in his mouth. 'Amazing!'

'Yes, isn't it just,' I said, half sarcastically, but I was rather entertained at how easily amused he was.

We were approaching a humble little bar by the name of The Three Broomsticks and we entered, our thirst getting the better of us. The barmaid, Madam Rosemerta was a smiley lady, and she asked us what we were having. Seeing that we were new, she said, 'Third years? Well you just go and sit down somewhere and I'll bring you two Butterbeers, on the house.'

We thanked her and went to a table, chattering away about our earlier purchases. Madam Rosemerta came over with our Butterbeers. It was the strangest liquid I had ever seen. Thick and smooth, it looked like a milkshake, but when I took the first sip, my whole heart warmed up. It wasn't a particularly cold day, but it was like I had been absolutely freezing before, and then my whole body had heated up, in the time space of a millisecond. I look up at Ron, who is wearing his gormless look again. It's like it's the latest fashion item, one he cannot bear to take off. We natter on for a bit before leaving and going to explore.

We passed lots of places, running into people as we went. We saw Fred and George picking up supplies from Zonko's Joke store. They said they were planning something big, and we'd know when it hit us. George whispered they were planning to slip Ron and Harry love potion so they would fall in love with each other, and I planned to make sure that neither of them drank anything without me checking, but I was pretty sure he was only joking.

On the way back, we were walking in silence, but this time it was comfortable. I think we were both just happy to be in one another's company. I slipped on a patch of wet leves, but Ron managed to catch me just before I fell. He took my hand and helped me up, and for a second our eyes met, but we both looked away, embarrassed.

Looking back on that day now as a grown adult with our children running around Hogsmeade, causing trouble just like their uncles, it feels like that was our first date, even if we didn't know it then.

Okay, I really hope you liked it, whomever the reader may be. I was thinking about doing it Ron POV too, review what you think Also, I do not own Harry Potter but I really enjoyed writing as Hermione and I think I might try and steal her!