"Won-Won?"

Ron seemed to wince at the sound, turning round warily. "What is it, Lavender?"

"Where are you going?" Lavender asked, hurt, as Ron came back towards her from the boys' staircase. He looked as if he'd been trying to escape her notice.

"Sorry, I was... just going to get something. My... Potions textbook," he added quickly.

Lavender tried not to allow her scepticism to escape into her voice. "But you don't have Potions today. I memorised your timetable."

She could almost see Ron's brain working to try and get round that one. "I... I've got a free," he told her finally, inspiration clearly striking him. "I'm going to the library to work on the essay with Harry."

"Oh," Lavender said resignedly. He was definitely lying to her. She knew for a fact that he'd done that essay yesterday. "But aren't you going to say goodbye to me before I go to Divination? We won't see each other for a whole hour!" she exclaimed dramatically.

"Yeah...sorry. I'll see you at dinner," he said, not looking into her eyes, and he tried to escape up the stairs again.

"Won-Won!" she said again, more insistently this time. "Aren't you...forgetting something?" she asked, in her best seductive voice, pouting exaggeratedly.

Ron sighed visibly and reluctantly came over to Lavender, touching his lips against hers unceremoniously. Lavender did her best to inject some feeling into the kiss, but Ron was as unresponsive as ever. They broke apart quickly and Ron shot a guilty look somewhere over Lavender's right shoulder. She didn't need to glance behind her to know who he was looking at.

He pulled away quickly.

"What are you doing tonight?" Lavender asked in desperation. "We could, I don't know, go for a walk? In the moonlight. How romantic," she said dreamily.

Ron looked disgusted. "I... I won't have finished the essay by then," he told her. "It'll take hours. See you at dinner," he said, finally reaching the stairs without waiting for Lavender to respond.

"Bye," Lavender muttered bitterly towards Ron's retreating back.

She sighed. She didn't know how she could re-enthuse him. She didn't know if she could.

It was during fourth year that she realised she liked Ron. Harry had asked Parvati to the Yule Ball, and then asked Lavender if she'd go with Ron, and she'd been almost upset that she'd already asked Seamus. Seamus was very nice and everything, and Lavender had hoped that they'd be able to keep seeing each other after the ball, but he'd just acted as if nothing had happened. So Lavender found herself daydreaming, wondering what would have happened if she'd gone with Ron instead. Would he have paid her more attention? Would he have taken her to Madam Puddifoot's with all the happy couples? Would he have been her first kiss?

Ever since, she'd always made sure to laugh at his funny comments, to talk to him at every possible opportunity, to flash flirtatious smiles at him, and her heart leapt whenever she got one of his adorable goofy grins in return. But he was just oblivious. So when sixth year began, Lavender decided to step her flirting up a notch.

When it became clear that he was never going to ask her out, she considered asking him herself. But she wasn't good with words. So after Ron did so spectacularly in that Quidditch match, she decided she just couldn't take it any more. She walked up to him and planted her lips on his. And that was that. She couldn't believe it had been so easy.

But honestly, she was surprised they'd lasted this long. She'd be a fool if she thought there wasn't something between Ron and Hermione, even if it wasn't necessarily something that could be categorised. The looks they shot at each other, the amount of time they spent together, and especially the fact that they'd hardly even spoken a word to each other since she and Ron had got together: it was so glaringly obvious to anyone who took the time to look. And Lavender had been looking.

She didn't know why she hadn't given up. She'd feared that their relationship was doomed from the start - Ron's face when they'd walked in on Hermione and her birds told her that for sure. She couldn't help but fight for them, however; she just wished he would open up to her. They'd been going out for months, and yet she didn't feel she could really understand him. She could never tell what he was thinking or how his brain worked. It was just so confusing. But she kept hoping. The more distant Ron became, the harder Lavender tried to cling on. She wished she knew what else she could do to capture his attention.

Sighing, she dragged herself away from staring up the staircase and walked towards the portrait hole to go to Divination. It wouldn't do her any good to stand about whining to herself. She needed to take action if she wanted to keep him - something bold, something she hadn't tried before. On her way out, something bright pink with hearts all over it caught her eye on the noticeboard.

Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes WonderWitch Products: Owl Order Service - Everything a modern witch could need!

Lavender bit her lip. It would be so easy to take one of those forms and order a love potion. He would be infatuated with her and she wouldn't even have to try anymore.

No, she couldn't do that. She wouldn't be able to live with herself. He wouldn't be himself anymore, and it was his natural personality that she loved about him. It broke her heart, but maybe if he wanted to be with Hermione, she should leave him to it. It would be the decent thing to do.

But she'd come so far; she didn't want to admit defeat so easily after all these years of trying to capture his attention and finally succeeding, for a while at least. At the start of their relationship, he'd been endlessly enthusiastic. Surely he must see something in her. She could always give them one last chance.

A/N: So...this is my attempt to make Lavender seem like a human being, unlike the way most Romione shippers portray her. :P I really hope it worked, because I do feel sorry for her at this point. But I feel like I was so mean to Ron in this, so I would just like to apologise to him and declare my love for him ;)

Anyway, I'll shut up in a minute, but first I would like to say a huge thank you to my beta, kci47. Also, this was for Women's Football which is part of the 2012 Hogwarts Games on HPFC. I am also not J K Rowling, just to clear that up.