It was going well up until dinner.
Ron and Hermione hadn't fought since the day Hermione had come to stay with the Weasleys and told Ron that she had, in fact, been to see Viktor over the holidays. The whole thing had blown over a little before school started. Since then, the school year had been a perfectly peaceful one for Harry, even if Ron was being rather weird toward Hermione. But then Krum had to go and ruin the peacefulness.
Harry was eating his kidney pie listening to Hermione badgering Ron about studying for O.W.L.S. again. It wasn't really a fight, per say, as Hermione was doing all the talking. Ron rolled his eyes and continued stuffing his mouth with chicken.
"Evening post is here!" Parvati cried excitedly. She always looked forward to post this year because of the letters she had been receiving from her Beauxbatons friend.
Hermione looked up from her study schedule only when a large gray tawny landed in front of her. She looked at the letter quizzically, then turned noticeably red when she started opening it. Hastily, she started to stuff it into her robe pocket. Unfortunately, this whole affair did not go unnoticed by Ron.
"What's that?" he asked through a mouthful of chicken, making a grab for the envelope.
"Ron, don't!" she cried a little too late as Ron started opening the envelope.
Ron started to read the letter with a mad grin that was quickly replaced by a look of astonishment that soon turned into anger.
There was complete silence at the Gryffindor table as every head turned to Ron whose face was in the unmistakable state-before-a-conniption-fit. Hermione winced before Ron even yelled.
"You get letters from VICKY!" The windowpanes of the great hall rattled.
With that, Ron crumpled up the letter, threw it at Hermione with as much force as he could and stormed out of the great hall.
A few moments later, conversations started stirring again, and no one noticed Hermione starring pointedly at her shoes, crumpling the letter, then unfolding it, and crumpling it again.
"Erm…." Harry began, but he couldn't finish. He cleared his throat again, trying as hard as he could not to laugh.
Hermione suddenly shook her head abruptly and stood up from the table with an extremely determined and angry face.
Harry heard her mumbling to herself as she passed him: "Not even a clue…."
A few minutes later, when dinner was over, Harry figured it was about time to make sure Ron and Hermione weren't killing each other. He followed the other students trickling out of the great hall and up to the Gryffindor common room slowly, not wanting to witness another row like the one after the Yule Ball.
Unfortunately, the scene Harry saw as he climbed through the portrait hole was about the same as that Christmas night.
Ron and Hermione were standing several feet apart, yelling each other hoarse.
"Well, if you think you can get away with that, Ronald Weasley, you've got another thing coming!" she yelled. "I can't take much more of your childish behavior!"
"My childish-behavior?" Ron cried indignantly. "What about yours? Or isn't an eighteen-year-old git too old for a child like you?"
Hermione's face got, if possible, even redder. "How dare you call me a child! What's it to you if I got an owl from Viktor, anyway! I don't know why you have to suddenly take an interest in my life!"
"I don't have an interest in your life! I just think you're being completely ridiculous to be dating someone four years older than you!"
"We are not dating!" Hermione huffed. "We're just friends!"
"Then why does he keep sending you all those bloody owls?" Ron questioned.
"Because that's what friends do! They talk to you and tell you how they're doing! And they tell you why they're being such bloody pillocks! Like you, Ron! Or haven't you noticed that you're being such a prat this year. You don't even listen to me anymore, and you're being impossible!"
Ron stared at her, bewildered. Then he paled slightly and gritted his teeth. Harry watched in amazement as Ron took three long strides to where Hermione was standing, continuing to yell at him, grabbed her face roughly in his hands and kissed her. Hermione's eyes were wide and her hands dangled uselessly at her sides. Suddenly, Ron turned beet red and let go of Hermione's face. Both of them ran to their dormitories as fast as they could, with their heads bowed.
It took about a minute before the initial shock wore off. Then the entire Gryffindor common room let out roars of laughter. Fred and George looked at each other, then fell over laughing hysterically. Harry cracked a smile.
"It's about bloody time!" Lee Jordan yelled from among the chuckling Gryffindors.
Silently, Harry agreed with him. He quickly made his way up to the dormitory to salvage what was left of Ron's sanity.