Insomnia

Ron Weasley was having trouble sleeping again. Normally, the bustling activities during the average day at Hogwarts put him to sleep immediately, but for the past three nights he had tossed and turned, almost as if something were bothering him. With a sigh, he stuffed his large feet into a pair of ratty old slippers, making his way into the common room.

He shuffled to the plushy red couch by the fireplace and collapsed upon it with a groan. He closed his eyes letting the heat from the fire warm his body. He had only been laying there for about 10 minutes when he heard someone descend from the stairs behind him. He turned to see who was also up this late at night.

It was Hermione Granger, one of his best friends. She was wearing her dressing gown, and her eyes were sagging with weight from being so tired. She descended down the stairs slowly, not having noticed Ron yet. She shuffled to the same couch Ron was on and leaned back to sit on it. Ron, seeing what she was about to do, quickly moved his long, gangly legs to make room for her. She fell with an "Oomph" onto the couch, finally noticing Ron and letting out a little exclamation of surprise.

"Ron Weasley! What do you think you are doing?! Scaring innocent people like that!"

Ron lifted his large hands in front of himself in defense. "Hey, you scared me first. I was just down here, minding my own business, when I hear you coming down the stairs. Why are you up anyways? Couldn't sleep either?"

Hermione looked at him out of the corner of her eyes, her expression softening a bit. "Yeah… I think I'm worried about the upcoming Potions exam." The look in her eyes made Ron think that that was most certainly not the reason she had been unable to sleep.

"Potions exam?! Hermione, it's the holiday break! Relax a little bit! Kick back and have some fun! I swear you worry about homework and tests too much."

Hermione's chocolate brown eyes fired up once more as she replied indignantly. "Yeah, well maybe you should start worrying a little bit more about them. Your grades would certainly be a lot better!"

Ron was silent, fuming inwardly with his arms closed around himself, holding in his frustration and anger. Hermione was quiet by him, her face also red with anger. They stayed like this for a minute until they burst out laughing.

"Why do we always fight like this?" Hermione said through her laughter.

Ron just shrugged, looking at something on the ceiling above their heads with an unreadable expression etched across his features. Hermione immediately stopped laughing once her eyes followed his line of vision. There, on the ceiling, was a tiny sprig of mistletoe, and as luck would have it; it was right above their heads.

"Silly little Muggle thing…" Hermione said, blushing brilliantly. She was cut off as Ron came closer, putting his large hands on her face and his warm lips came into contact with hers as they kissed.

Hermione suddenly pulled away as if she had been struck by lightning. "Oh! I'm sorry!" Hermione said, taking care to avoid Ron's stare. She quickly got up, looking at Ron for a split second before turning and running up the girls stairs, leaving Ron sitting on the couch staring after her. Ron was stunned.

"I'm not…" He whispered softly to himself in the dark room.

Author's Note: Well, there's the revised edition of Chapter One. If you're reading this story for the first time, then you are reading the better version of this chapter. If this is the second time you're reading it (just to check out the improvements I made), then what do you think? Is this version better? Tell me all in a review. Oh yeah, I forget to mention this before. Kaitlin wrote the first paragraph of this chapter, I can't take credit for her wonderful writing. -K