Ron climbed down the dormitory stairs and sought out the person he wanted to talk to the most. He saw her sitting in an arm chair curled up with a book. He walked over to her and sat on the arm of the chair.
"Hey, what do you have here? Ah, Goshawk's Guide to Herbology. I heard that's an interesting book. Something to do with plants right?" Ron gave a timid laugh. Hermione threw a disgusted look at him and said harshly, "What do you want?"
Ron scratched his neck and thought about what he had planned. What if she actually didn't feel the way he thought. Both Harry and Ginny had agreed with him and said that he was right, but he still wasn't sure. Hermione wasn't one to share her feelings with Harry and Ginny even though they were her two closest friends then. Was he still even a friend to her? Ron got lost in a train of thought until two fingers snapped in front of his eyes.
"Ron! Ron! What did you want to say?" asked Hermione. Ron shook his head, "Oh, right. Uh… could you come with me really quickly?"
"Ron, it's," Hermione checked her watch, "it's already 9:00! And we have a Potions test tomorrow! We -you- need to study!"
Ron frowned, "Since when did you start worrying about me studying for a test?"
Was it his imagination or did a shade of pink start showing on her cheeks? "Oh, well, I was just thinking about it, and with you sitting here, I wanted to remind you. But what do you want to show me?"
"Just come with me, it's a surprise."
"But what about Lavender? Where is she? She wouldn't like it if we were alone together." Hermione sarcastically commented. She slammed her book down and started walking towards the girls' dormitory. Lavender. Ron never wanted Hermione to ever talk about Lavender to him. "Oh, forget about her right now. She's out of the picture, hopefully forever."
Hermione stopped walking, "What? You broke up with Lav Lav?"
"Yeah, I got tired of the name calling I guess, and just talking to her, well not even talking really…" Ron stopped himself from going on. He looked at Hermione and saw that she was still astonished. "Well it was bound to happen sometime."
"Yes, it was." Hermione said and started walking again, this time she moved closer to him. Ron gave her a sideways look and saw that she was partially smiling and that her eyes flickered with happiness. Ron smiled too.
The walk was silent. Several times Ron glanced at Hermione and was sure that she saw him do it but he also saw her glance at him too. His ears turned a little pink as he thought about if she would think what he did was stupid.
They reached the seventh floor and arrived to the wall across from the portrait of Barnabas the Barmy. Ron closed his eyes and a door appeared. He took Hermione's hand and brought her through. Inside, the Room of Requirement had turned into an evening out in a meadow filled with flowers and a dance floor. There was a radio sitting on a bench and fairy lights floated above them. Hermione turned to face Ron, "What is going on?"
Ron took a deep breath and took her other hand, "Hermione, I just want to say I'm sorry. I'm sorry for all the shit I put you through this year-"
Hermione released herself from his grip, "I'm sorry? I'm sorry is all you've got? Ron! For the past few months you've made me feel awful! I can't be in the same room as you for more than ten minutes or however long it takes for Lav Lav to come in and start snogging you! You ignore me all the time and every time we try to talk we start yelling at each other and you go right back to her! I can't take it anymore! I'm done! I'm done trying to be your friend. Or at least I think I am but then I can't! I can't stop thinking about you! You consume my thoughts all day, I can't think about anything else. I've turned in essays and assignments late at least five times in the past month, I don't know what's wrong with me! All I can think about is you and her together and it makes me sick! I don't know what to do!" Hermione's eyes were starting to look watery and she had stopped frantically waving her arms. Ron took this as the opportunity to grab them and hold her hands again. At first she restrained but he held on and she loosened a little.
"Listen to me Hermione. I know I've been an arse the couple months and I don't know what got into me. Harry told me all this stuff about you and Krum-"
"-What the hell does Viktor have to do with-"
"Listen! I got super jealous and all the sudden Lavender started giving me a lot of attention and I guess I liked it. No other girl has ever flirted with me and no other girl has wanted to snog me like that! I was stupid and when you started dating McLaggen I thought that we could never," Ron paused for a second and changed what he was going to say, "I couldn't stop thinking about you either! You clouded my thoughts daily and every time I saw you I would light up inside but then Lavender would walk in and you would turn around. I was mad that you were ignoring me so I wanted to hurt you back! I was so pissed off that we were mad at each other and it didn't make sense to me! I've wanted to tell you how I've felt since our fourth year! I love you Hermione Granger, I love you!" Ron's face was beet red and Hermione's was as well. Then she did something completely unexpected. She grabbed his face and kissed him. He held onto her waist and pulled her closer to him. Ron felt as if time had stopped as they kissed. After what felt like an eternity, they separated. Hermione bit her lip and said, "I love you too."
Music started playing from the radio. Hermione raised an eyebrow. Ron's ears turned red and he scratched his neck. "I um, I hoped to make up for the Yule Ball, I acted like an arse."
Hermione frowned, "But we didn't go together, I thought we made that pretty clear."
"Well, I was hoping we would, or at least get a dance in, but I started acting like an idiot," Ron admitted. Hermione smiled and wrapped her arms around his neck, "You certainly did, but this definitely makes up for everything."