DISCLAIMER: Harry Potter and all it's characters belong to J K Rowling.

Author's note: Please rate and review! Constructive criticism and thoughts on the story are greatly appreciated!

A Night in the Life of Ron and Hermione

"Study."

"No way."

"We have a test coming up soon."

"Yeah, like, in a month!"

"Don't exaggerate, Ronald, it's only two weeks from now."

Ron huffed from where he was lounging on the sofa, with his legs propped up and facing the fire. He had a resolute expression on his face and his broom servicing kit was on the couch next to him—the broom in question was on the table in front of him. A table completely devoid of books—something that Hermione had noticed the second she had entered the eighth year Gryffindor dorms and stalked over to investigate. She was now standing in front of him, hands crossed and slightly pouting.

"Have you even completed you homework?" she asked archly.

Ron leaned back on the couch and thought about that, his lips pursing automatically. "Sort of," he finally said.

Hermione snorted, "By 'sort of', I'm guessing you mean that you still have the Charms essay to complete, or one of the other ones?"

"Well, the Charms one and the Potions one, actually."

"Ugh!" Hermione exclaimed, "Then, why aren't you doing them? They're not going to write themselves. And I'm not going to let you copy from mine either!"

Ron bristled, "I wasn't going to ask you to lend it to me, either. I'll do it when I want to, which will be as soon as I finish servicing my broom."

"Why can't you do it later?" Hermione asked, her foot tapping now in impatience.

"Because we have a friendly match tomorrow evening, against the Ravenclaws. It's the only way the eighth years can even play anymore." At this, Ron turned back to the fire and glared at it moodily. Hermione gave him a few seconds and then said,

"We have school in the morning, Ron. The match is in the evening. Which do you think will come sooner?"

Ron scowled at her and stated, "I'm not going to do it until I'm done with my broom." But then, his scowl disappeared, "And then, I'll do it to the best of my abilities, and as perfect as I can make it, okay?" with that, he cast a pleading look to Hermione.

Having lived in the same dorms with him for seven years, and in a tent for one, she knew that, when he was like this, leaving him to do what he wanted was the best choice. So, with a sigh, she said, "Fine, but make sure you do them."

Ron grinned, "Yes ma'am!"

Hermione rolled her eyes and turned to walk away, "And study for the test as well," she called over her shoulder smiling a little when she heard him mutter, "All right, already"

She walked to the table Parvati was occupying. With the loss of Lavender in the war, Parvati had been largely alone when she had returned to the school, looking lost and forlorn all the time. Seeing that, Hermione had made up her mind to stick with her and help her get through the loss of her best friend. So, in a true Hermione fashion, she had set up study dates and got her to join them, dragging her off to the library whenever she could, and generally keeping her occupied. It was where the two of them had been before they had returned to dorm.

Parvati raised her eyebrows when Hermione sat down across her, "Everything okay?"

Hermione nodded, "Yeah. Ron was just being himself. And who else can I be except myself so I just had to go and nag him for a while. He'll get it done." One thing Hermione had accomplished growing up was getting a better sense of who she was and how other's perceived her. 'Nagging bookworm' seemed to sum up their thoughts pretty well. As she didn't want to spend the rest of her life like that, she decided to do something about it; change a little. Although, instead of changing herself, she had changed the way she behaved with others, making sure that they would never become irritated with her or offended. It wasn't perfect at any time, but the rest of her friends were more comfortable with her now—a change, she was sad to see, that had happened almost immediately. If she had been like this before, would her life have been easier all those years she felt alone and ostracized?

But then, she thought of Harry and Ron and decided that there was nothing in her life she wished to change; her days had always felt complete when the boys were there, still did now as well. Hermione was brought out of her thoughts when she heard Parvati say, "We always knew that the two of you would get together,"

Hermione brows furrowed, she was getting tired of hearing that. Had she and Ron really been that obvious and oblivious? With the amount of people who expressed the same feeling as Parvati, they probably had been that bad.

"You and everybody else," she replied to Parvati.

The brown-skinned girl giggled, but said, "Not what you're thinking. I meant that Lavender and I always knew the two of you would get together."

Hermione raised her eyebrows, "Lavender? If I recall, she spent most of sixth-year wrapped around him."

Parvati giggled again, "Yup. By that time, we—the both of us, I mean—had sort of given up on the two of you ever realizing things. So Lavender thought that a little incentive was required. It didn't help that she thought Ron was extremely good looking as well."

"Lavender dated Ron to make me jealous!" Hermione exclaimed. This was something she had never expected; it shed a new light on her sixth year—a year she had hated for many reasons including the sight of Ron and Lavender snogging at every opportunity. The other reasons were best left forgotten.

Parvati shook her head, "Not exactly. She really did like him, and the relationship in itself was true, but she had gone into it with the thought that it would probably make you to realize your feelings for each other. And she always knew that, when that happened, she would back out as best as she could. Of course, by the end of it, she had really fallen for him, and you know how upset she was when it ended."

Hermione nodded when she remembered the glares Lavender had given her for a long time after the break-up between her and Ron. At that time, all she had felt was relief that the two were no longer in a relationship.

Parvati noticed her thinking and said, "Don't worry about it too much. It's all long in the past. He's much happier with you than he was with Lavender anyway. She would be happy for you now."

Hermione nodded slowly and went back to reviewing her Charms essay, thoughts on how things could have ended up plaguing her. She glanced up at Ron and saw him polishing his broom with an intensity that had yet to appear in school-related stuff—homework, in particular. With a sense of calm, she admitted to herself that, whatever had happened, they were together now and her life felt more complete that it ever had before. No books or information in the world could give her this feeling.

She returned back to her homework with new vigor and started jotting down notes on the side of her essay where she wanted to add points or make correction. She lost herself in the work and only surfaced again when she heard Parvati utter a gasp in front of her. She looked up to see Parvati stare at something behind her, a light flush seen even over her dark skin.

She swiveled around to see what had caught Parvati's attention and absently noted that a few of the boys were looking up as well. Her gaze reached the door and she saw what had caused the small commotion. She smiled softly as she saw Harry finish climbing into the common room, blushing slightly as he caught sight of all the stares. Of course, his skin had already been red, his hair mussed and his neck showing off a big bruise—'love bite', Hermione corrected absentmindedly. He looked, in general, like he had had the snog of his life, just a few seconds ago. This was, in fact, how he looked for most of the time now. Most of the Gryffindors, not only the eighth-years, were wondering who it was that had captured the Golden boy of their house.

'Oh, how they would be surprised when they finally find out who it is,' Hermione thought. She smiled widely at Harry when he caught her glance, and he walked towards her, dropping his bag on the floor and taking the couch next to hers. He ran his hand through his hair and smiled nervously at her, avoiding the gazes of the others in the common room.

"Had fun?" Hermione asked mischievously, liking the way Harry smiled when he thought about his evening.

In response, he nodded without a word and leaned back on the couch, similar to what Ron had done before.

"Did you get any work done in the end?"

Harry rolled his eyes, "Yes, we finished everything before we got… busy."

Hermione nodded seriously, "I see."

Harry finally looked around and his gaze rested on where Ron was still working on his broom, with such seriousness that he had failed to notice Harry enter the room.

"Has he done everything?" he asked gesturing to the redhead.

Hermione shook her head and said, "He said he would as soon as he finished with the servicing."

Harry nodded and got up to make his way to his other best friend. He at down next to him and Hermione could see them start a whispered conversation—about brooms, she guessed. She got back to her own work and lost herself again.

A few hours later, she looked up to see an almost empty common room. Parvati had left a long time ago, leaving Hermione with her reading, and she had lost track of time. She looked around to see that only Ron was remaining. He sat where he had before, his head bent over a piece of parchment. Hermione sighed and got up to go and sit next to him.

She quietly sat down next to him on the couch and leaned against him. Ron unconsciously shifted a little so that they were a little more comfortable without even looking up from his work. Hermione went back to reading and waited for him to finish. After a while, she felt him stretch and looked up to see him extending his arms in from of him, flexing his fingers.

"Done?" she asked softly.

"Yeah," he grunted.

Hermione smiled and wordlessly held out her hand for his essays. Once she got them, she skimmed over them, making sure that he hadn't made any mistakes. While she did that, Ron packed in his stuff, putting the inkbottles in his bag and closing the servicing kit. With that done, he leaned back and put his arms around her, waiting for her to finish as well.

Finally, she nodded, "They're pretty good. Of course, if you had worked on them for longer, they would be better."

Ron snorted softly, "Of course."

They sat down in front of the fire, content to be with each other. Hermione couldn't recall the times when she had been so frustrated with him; everything seemed so perfect now. They both had their quirks, but they had learned to live with them. Neither thought, honestly, that there would be one day when they stopped fighting completely, but that didn't mean that they weren't perfect for each other.

'Opposites attract', was the most apt description for their feelings.

After a while, Ron sighed and kissed Hermione on the forehead, whispering a soft "Goodnight," before he got up and left for his room. Hermione followed him out and went to the room she shared with Parvati. As she got ready for bed and, finally, got into her sheets, she thought of all they had been through and the life they had in front of them now.

Sixth year jealousies, she realized, were something far in the past. What they had now was never going to be threatened, and will never disappear.