Ron stood in the snow where Hermione had left him completely stunned at what just happened, though he understood her point of view without argument. Looking over to Harry, who seemed even more confused, he issued him to wait outside for a while. Harry raised his eyebrow, but Ron knew what he was doing.
Timidly, he pulled back the thick canvas entrance to the tent, and scanned the room for Hermione, who he expected to be lying in wait to attack him once more. But instead, he found sitting on his bed, curled up with the battered copy of Beedle the Bard. "I'm not finished," he proclaimed, much more defiantly than he had intended. Hermione slammed the book shut and glared at him so furiously, he could only imagine she was trying to set him on fire with pure determination of thought. "I-I know I'm sorry isn't good enough," he choked, taking a step back, "and I know you didn't believe a word I just said out there, but I swear its true."
Hermione threw her shoulders back, and smiled at him as friends do. "Well then that changes everything," she snapped sarcastically. Ron immediately dropped the relaxed smile from his face and cursed himself for being to gullible. "So you're so much of an arse," she shouted, jumping to her feet, "that Dumbledore knew you'd give up and abandon us last year when he wrote you into his will, know pathetic you would need saving! So do explain how thats supposed to make me feel better about you!"
He stared across the room at her, his heart racing as he wracked his brain for the right wording and correct explanation. Ron looked down at the Deluminator and then blankly into space. "Because he knew something I didn't," he muttered quietly, "Because he knew I get lost easily. Because he knew that I get confused and stupid whenever I think of you!" He was shocked once he realized he was pointing accusatory finger at Hermione.
"Are you blaming me?" she screamed.
"I'm not a bloody genius who can sift through my thoughts and figure out the answer!" he held up the Deluminator and jabbed his finger at it furiously, "I need a bit more help than you do!"
"I don't care!" she yelled, throwing her arms in the air, "I tried to help! I ran after you! I wandered that forrest for hours, screaming your name for you to come back!"
"I wanted to come back, but I couldn't!"
"And yet here you are!"
"You still would've been mad as Hell if I came right back!"
"And rightfully so!"
"I wasn't in my right mind!"
"You never are Ronald!"
"Its you that does it!"
"Like Hell it is!"
"I saw one wanted poster with you on it and it labeled you a Mudblood, so I ran through Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley like I bloody fool, risking my life to tear down every single poster of you to keep you a little safer, to rip off ever time they called you a Mudblood because when I see that, it makes my stomach turn!" He was screaming to at this point, even though he wasn't the least bit angry at her, and his heat had brought him further and further across the tent as he spoke. "And screw Dumbledore, because that damn ball of light wouldn't have worked for me if I didn't love you like do!"
Hermione apparently hadn't heard anything. "You left because you're as much of a coward as Lupin is, you hypocritical son of a-!"
Part of him felt it would've been best to let her continue screaming at him, because thats what she might've needed. Regardless of that small notion, he dropped the Deluminator to the floor, ran forward, and cradled her face in his hands. He kissed with every earnest bone in his body. She leaned into him desperately, clutching the collar of his coat, and he wrapped his arms around her as lovingly as he could. "I'm so sorry for leaving," he explained pulling away slowly and staring into her large brown eyes, "I will not go anywhere, unless you asked me to."
"Forgiven," she smiled, her cheeks brightly flushed.
Author's Note: Fluffy stuff about what I thought the kiss was going to be. 3
