A/N: for the prompt 'Wait a minute, are you jealous?' requested by anon on tumblr c: i think there've been other re-imaginings of this scene in the past but i wanted to give it a shot because honestly they must have come close at least once. (Rated T for Ron's language, but other than that it's pretty clean.)

Disclaimer: i don't think i really need disclaimers anymore as it's already pretty clear i do not own harry potter

The door closed with a gentle 'click' as Fleur exited Ron's tiny attic bedroom.

Hermione made a small 'hmph' sound and continued sorting through books, albeit with a bit more ferocity than before.

"What?" Ron asked, immediately defensive.

She met his gaze briefly, only to tear her eyes away in anger. "You!" Another book joined the pile with a thud. "You're practically drooling over her- it's pathetic!"

Ron frowned. Hermione's attitude towards Fleur had never been particularly friendly- he used to think it was because she was scared Fleur would run off with Krum, but now he knew that wasn't the case. "I don't drool…you're only saying that because you don't like her."

Hermione rolled her eyes and laughed derisively, "Yes, well, she hasn't exactly been very friendly now, has she?"

Ron felt this was an unfair assessment on Hermione's part; Fleur was plenty kind to him. He'd never detected even a hint of malice in her character before. "Oh come on Hermione, you know that's not fair. You haven't given her a chance!"

"Yes I have! She's just stuck up, with her 'I'm so much better than you' attitude- she thinks she can get anything she wants just because she's pretty!" Another book was slammed unceremoniously onto Hermione's ever growing pile, and Ron watched as it collapsed. Hermione let out a frustrated growl and set about picking them all up again.

Having never recognised that attitude in Fleur before, Ron frowned. Hermione's argument had no basis, and besides, his brother wouldn't marry someone if they were as bad as Hermione seemed to believe. It just didn't make sense. Unless…

"Wait a minute. Are you jealous?"

Hermione froze, mid slam, and Ron could practically hear the cogs whirring in her brain. "No." she denied a little too quickly. "Of course I'm not jealous. Why on earth would I be jealous of her?" She paused to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear and stuck her chin out stubbornly. "I may not be conventionally beautiful, but so what? At least I have brains."

Most of her sentence went unheard to Ron's ears; his brain could only focus on her brief self-deprecation, and how badly he wanted to contradict it. "I think you're beautiful." was out of his mouth before he could stop it.

Fighting the urge to slap himself, Ron mentally cursed. How obvious could he be? And now Hermione was likely to be even more pissed off at him if she thought he was only saying it to appease her. He was prepared for her to either start yelling at him or otherwise ignore him completely. But she did neither.

"Really?" Hermione turned her eyes to him, surprised.

"Yeah. I mean- yeah. Of course I do, you're… umm… very, y'know, beautiful and stuff." he blundered. The expression she was wearing told him she very much doubted his sincerity, and he tried to recall advice from the book Fred and George had given him. Be specific, it had said. "You have very nice, um, hair. Yeah, I love your hair. And… your eyes! They're, um, a really nice colour. And… and your.. skin! You have really nice skin."

How much was it possible to fuck up in one sentence? Because Ron was pretty sure he'd just broken the record.

Despite his lack of eloquence, Hermione seemed flattered. She was fiddling with the hemline of her shirt and offered him a timid but still slightly puzzled smile. "That's… really sweet of you. Thanks, Ron."

"No problem. Anytime." He returned the smile a tad too enthusiastically.

Hermione was giving him a look she reserved for studying the board during chess. The look she used when she wasn't sure whether to move her bishop or her queen, or when she tried to predict his moves ahead of her own.

He studied her in return, and they engaged in a very strange battle of wits. Ron wasn't entirely sure what was happening, only that he didn't want it to stop. He wanted to look at Hermione like this forever. Openly, unabashedly staring at her sharp features and dark eyes. Endlessly staring at the intriguing magnificence that was Hermione Granger.

The moment felt incredibly intimate, just staring into each others eyes, so silent you could practically hear it, their faces slowly getting closer.

Bloody hell. It had slipped up on Ron before he had time to register anything, but his face was close enough to hers that their noses were almost touching.

He felt as if he were on autopilot as his head turned to the side. Hesitant to close his eyes, sound in the belief that everything would be gone when he re-opened them. He could almost feel her breath on the skin of his lips when the door burst open.

He jumped back from Hermione in a flurry, heart pounding wildly. "I'm doing it! I'm doing- Oh, it's you."

Ron Weasley spent the next half hour discussing their plan for the horcrux hunt, desperately trying to forget about what had almost happened between him and Hermione, and plotting all of the different ways in which he could kill Harry James Potter for his bloody inconvenient timing.

A/N: Thanks so much for reading! I hope you liked the story, and if you really liked the story perhaps consider leaving a review? c: