The Yule Ball was supposed to be a fun way to spend the Christmas holidays but for Ron Weasley, it was his worst nightmare. Harry had gotten him a date, but he wasn't interested in Padma Patil, he only had eyes for Hermione Granger. He was angry and jealous as he watched her dance with Viktor Krum. What made it worse was that she actually looked like she was having a good time. After a while Hermione came and sat down next to him and Harry.
"Wow, I can't believe how much fun this is." She said with the biggest smile on her face.
"Yeah, so much fun." Ron said sarcastically.
"Well Ronald, maybe if you weren't sitting over here sulking you could enjoy yourself."
"I'm not really in the mood. But don't worry about me. Just go back to Krum. He seems to be enjoying himself."
"Yeah. And what's wrong with that?"
"Hermione, he's using you."
"What! The whole point of this tournament is to make friends. And that's what I'm doing."
"Yeah, well I think Krum has a little more than friendship on his mind."
"I can't believe you Ron! I'm not gonna let you ruin my night." Hermione turned and walked away angrily.
A while later Ron watched as Krum led Hermione out of the great hall.
"Probably taking her back to his room." Ron muttered to himself. With Hermione gone, he decided it was finally time to leave.
"I'm gonna go up to bed Harry. I'll see you later."
"Bye Ron."
Ron started walking up the stairs to Gryffindor tower but he stopped when he heard Hermione say, "No. Stop it!"
He was quiet for a second but didn't hear anything. He thought he was just imagining things, but then he heard it again. "I said stop! Let me go!"
Ron walked in the direction of the sound he heard. It was an empty classroom off of the main staircase. When he tried to enter, he found that the door was locked. He couldn't let that stop him. Hermione had sounded scared, he had to get to her.
"Bombarda!" Ron yelled, blasting open the classroom door.
When he walked in he saw Krum standing over Hermione who was crying, her dress ripped.
"Get away from her!" Ron yelled.
When Krum turned towards him and went for his wand, Ron yelled, "Petrificus totalus!"
Krum froze and fell to the floor, paralyzed.
Ron walked to Hermione. "Are you okay?" He asked.
"Yeah, I will be." She said.
He took her face in his hands and gently wiped away her tears.
"Ron, can you take me up to the common room?"
"Yeah. But what are we gonna do about him?" He sneered as he pointed towards Krum's still form lying in the middle of the floor.
"Just leave him. He'll come to eventually."
"I could kill him for what he was trying to do to you Hermione!"
Hermione put her hand on his arm and said, "He's not worth it Ron. Let's just go upstairs."
"Fine. But you have to tell Dumbledore what he did in the morning. Then at least he can keep an eye on him."
"Okay." Hermione agreed.
As they walked out of the classroom Ron put his arm around Hermione's shoulders. She put her arm around his waist and leaned into him as they walked back to Gryffindor tower.
When they got into the common room no one was around, everyone was still at the dance. Hermione sat down on the couch in front of the fireplace and Ron sat next to her.
She turned to face him and said, "Ron, thank you. I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't shown up. You were right. He did have more than friendship on his mind." As she spoke she started to cry again.
"Hey, don't cry. It's okay. You're safe now. I didn't want to be right if it meant you getting hurt." He took her hand and laced his fingers through hers, squeezing her hand reassuringly.
"I know. I always feel safe when I'm with you." She said looking down as she blushed.
"What happened Hermione?"
"Viktor said he wanted to go and talk away from all the noise. We went into that classroom and he locked the door. Before I could do anything, he grabbed my arms so I couldn't get to my wand. I tried to push him away and that's when he ripped my dress. He started to kiss me but I turned away from him and I told him to get off. He just laughed and I couldn't get away, he was too strong. That's when I heard the door burst open and I looked up and saw you." Hermione finally looked up at Ron, gazing into his eyes.
"I'm so glad I heard you when I was walking by. At first I thought I had imagined it but then I heard it again and I knew it was you. When I tried the door and it was locked, I got so mad, and I did the only spell I could think of to get to you. When I saw the look on your face and the tears in your eyes, I thought about using the cruciatus curse on Krum, but I knew you wouldn't want me to, so I did the next best thing."
"You're right, I wouldn't have wanted you to use the cruciatus curse. Not even on him. I wouldn't want you to go to Azkaban for me."
Still looking her in the eye, Ron said, "Hermione, I would do anything for you. I…I love you."
"What?" Hermione was shocked. She couldn't believe he had just said that he loved her.
"I know I've been a real prat to you most of the time. And I know that we drive each other crazy and we fight all the time. But I'd rather fight with you every single day than be with anyone else. Because even when we're fighting, I get to look into your beautiful eyes and hear your voice and just be with you. And even if we only had one day out of the year where we were just blissfully happy, it would be worth it, because one good day with you is worth 100 great days with anyone else."
"Oh Ron. That is the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me. If I wasn't sure before, I am positive now that I love you too!" She said, smiling again with tears of joy in her eyes.
Ron leaned closer to her and as Hermione closed her eyes, Ron's lips briefly touched hers. She was amazed by how soft and gentle his lips felt on hers. Just as Hermione started to kiss him back, Ron pulled away from her. She opened her eyes to see Ron smiling at her.
"That's another reason I love you. Whenever you smile it makes me feel like nothing can go wrong." Hermione said.
"I just can't believe this is really happening. I always thought you would want to be with someone heroic and brave like Krum or Harry. Next to them I'm nothing special." Ron said as he looked down at the floor.
"Ron, look at me." He brought his eyes back to meet hers. "You are the one I want to be with because I love you. You, are my hero."
Hermione leaned closer to Ron until their lips touched again. What started out as a sweet kiss filled with all the love they felt for each other quickly turned frantic and passionate. Ron brought one hand up to the back of her neck with the other slipping around her waist. As he laid down on the couch he pulled her with him, as she brought her hands up around his neck.
They were so focused on each other that they didn't hear the portrait hole opening as people started to come back from the ball.
"I'm glad that's over," Harry said.
"What, you didn't have fun Harry?" George asked.
"Not really. But it looks like someone else is," Harry said pointing to the couch in front of the fireplace.
As they walked closer, George gasped, "Is that…?"
"Hermione?" Harry yelled in shock.
Ron and Hermione froze and slowly pulled apart when they heard Harry's voice. As Hermione sat up and turned to face Harry, her legs moved so she was straddling Ron.
"Sorry, we didn't mean to…" Harry said but before he could finish, George said, "Ron!"
Hermione blushed as she stood up, smoothing out her dress and fixing her hair. Ron got up and stood next to her, taking her hand in his.
"Wow, I don't know what to say," Harry said.
Laughing, George said, "I didn't think you had it in you Ron."
"Shut up George," Ron said.
"What happened? I thought you left with Viktor?" Harry asked.
"I did." Turning to look at Ron she said, "But I found there was someone else I wanted to be with instead."
"It's about time," George said.
"George!" Ron yelled.
"We're leaving," Harry said as he grabbed George's arm and dragged him to the staircase leading to the boys' dormitories.
As they started climbing the stairs George turned back and said, "don't do anything I wouldn't do."
Ron rolled his eyes as they heard George's laughter echo throughout the staircase.
Ron turned to Hermione and said, "I'm sorry about my brother. He can be a real prat sometimes."
"Don't worry about it. I love your family. And as much as I like spending time with you like this, it's been a long night."
"Yeah. Well I guess we should go to bed then."
They were both silent for a minute before Hermione said, "Ron, we can talk more about everything in the morning okay?"
"Yeah, sure. I'm just scared I'm gonna wake up and this will all have been a dream."
"Don't worry Ron. This is definitely not a dream." She leaned into him and kissed him lightly on the cheek. "Goodnight Ron."
"Goodnight Hermione."
She turned and walked towards the steps leading to the girls' dormitories.
"Hermione."
"Hermione!"
"Huh? What?" Hermione turned to face Ron.
"What were you thinking about just now Mrs. Weasley?"
Hermione smiled. "That night after the Yule Ball when we first kissed and you told me you loved me." Ron walked towards her and put his arms around her waist while she brought her arms up around his neck.
"That was one of the best nights of my life. Well, until tonight. I was just so happy that night because you finally knew how I felt and I couldn't believe you felt the same way. I never imagined that years later we'd be married."
"I'm so happy right now, I can't wait to spend the rest of our lives together and to start a family with you." She brought her lips up to his and kissed him slowly but passionately as he kissed her back. She pulled away and said, "I love you Mr. Weasley."
"I love you too. Now let's get you out of this dress."
They both laughed as she turned her back towards him and he started unzipping the dress that took his breath away when he saw her walking down the aisle to him just a few hours earlier.
She turned her head back to look him in the eye and said, "You're still my hero you know." He brought his lips to hers and kissed her with all the love he felt for her.
They were definitely going to live happily ever after.
A/N: Thanks for reading, I hope you liked it! Please review.