Disclaimer: Anything you recognize belongs to J.K. Rowling. Everything else is mine (heh-heh).
A/N: To all my lovely readers, this is one that's been in the works for a while, so read and REVIEW! Seriously, it'll take like ten seconds, so just do it, okay? Okay. Love to you all!
Chapter OneFinally, after three hours of travel, I had arrived at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, and I could sit on my bed and read. There is nothing like a good book to take my mind off my problems. That night, it was a particularly frustrating problem, a problem that had red hair, freckles, and deep blue eyes. Ron Weasley had been my best mate since Halloween of first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, when he and Harry Potter (my other best mate) had saved me from a mountain troll, and for the last three years he had also been the biggest prat I had ever met. In our fourth year, Ron had asked me to the Yule Ball as a last resort. Then, when I showed up with Viktor Krum as my partner, he had stared at me all night, and I swear that his blue eyes had turned green with envy. In our fifth year, he had been even worse, sending me "I like you" signals one second and "but only as a friend" the next. Finally in our sixth year, Ron had started going out with Lavender Brown, one of the stupidest girls I had ever met. It was enough to drive any girl mad! I heaved a deep sigh as I thought of the piercing blue eyes that made me forgive him every time. A loud tapping at the window shook me out of my thoughts and I turned to see what was making the noise. It was Hedwig, Harry's owl. Quickly I strode to the window and threw it open. Hedwig flew in and landed on the bedside table. She stuck out a leg, and I noticed a piece of parchment folded up very, very small. Surprised at this – Harry never sent me anything by owl, he just looked around until he found me – I untied the parchment and another smaller piece fell out to rest on the floor. I noticed writing on the larger piece, and decided to read that first.
Hermione,
I'm sorry to be doing this, but I can't do it any other way. Too much chance someone will hear if I tell you in person, I swear, even the walls have ears. I know you can't figure out why he's been acting so weirdly around you…I thought this might help explain it. DON'T TELL RON WHO TOLD YOU THIS OR I WILL BE EXTREMELY DEAD IN THE MORNING.
-Harry
Perplexed, I bent down to pick up the smaller wad of parchment. Had Ron and Harry been keeping something from me? I smoothed it out carefully and read Ron's messy scrawl.
Hermione,
I've been thinking long and hard about how to say this. There is no easy way, I suppose, so I may as well just get to the point and say it. I love you. There. I said it. Maybe not in person, but in writing, anyway. I don't know why I'm writing this down. It's not like you're going to see it anyway. But I swear, it's true. I love everything about you. Your wavy brown hair, beautiful cinnamon eyes, your smile. I love how you scrunch up your nose when you're concentrating really hard. I love how you lecture me about not cursing, I love how you are always telling me to do my homework, I even love the way you read obsessively. I'm sorry about everything I've done in the past to hurt you. It was never, ever my intention to make you upset in any way. It was easier to be mean than it was to tell you the truth. I'm so sorry. I just wasn't ready to tell you. But never mind that, because I just did.
All my love,
Ron
It was all I could do to keep from crying. I had loved Ron since the minute I'd told him about the dirt on his nose on the Hogwarts Express in first year. And now I knew that he loved me too. There was only one thing to do. I stood up, wiped my eyes, and went to find him.
It wasn't too hard. These days, Ron was either downstairs practicing Quidditch (there was a Quidditch pitch in the cellar, which Ron and Harry had discovered upon arriving) or playing chess with Harry in their room. He wasn't playing chess, so I went outside to the backyard. There he was, soaring from post to post to stop oncoming Quaffles, which he had bewitched to fly at him. I sat on the grass, just watching him play, giggling to myself every time he made a particularly good save. At last he finished his practice and touched down. I hurried over to meet him. He looked the same as he always did, tall and gangling, with hands and feet I didn't think he would ever grow into. I didn't mind, though. His eyes made up for it. Those eyes lit up as they fell on me.
"Hermione, what are you doing here?" he asked. "I thought you were-"
He didn't say anything else. He couldn't really. I had gathered up all my courage and leaned up to kiss him. When I finally broke away for air, he stood looking at me in a vaguely shocked and confused manner.
"What was that for?" Ron asked me.
I blushed, my courage rushing away. He hadn't even kissed me back. He'd just stood there, not doing anything. Harry had made the whole thing up to embarrass me. Suddenly I made up my mind about what to do next: run. So I did.
I made a beeline for Sirius's library. I wove in and out of the shelves of the books, and stopped in front of a fireplace with armchairs on either side of it. I muttered a few unintelligible words to myself (I don't even know what they were), and I fell apart. I collapsed on one of the soft armchairs, sobbing hysterically. Why had Harry done that? Why would he have played such a horrible trick on me? I didn't understand, but I didn't want to go up to Gryffindor Tower to find out. Knowing Ron, he was headed for his room, where he would most likely play a game of chess with Harry and forget the encounter entirely. I wasn't about to risk running into him until I knew what was going on. Finally I had cried myself out and come to a decision. The safest way to get an explanation from Harry was to find him and ask. I stood up, made a few weak attempts at taming my hair, and set off for his room.
RON'S POV
I don't think I will ever understand girls. There I was, enjoying a perfectly good Quidditch practice, finally getting my mind off Hermione, and all of a sudden she was kissing me for no apparent reason…unless…no, Harry wouldn't have…he knew he would be beyond dead and that Ginny would be forever off limits to him if he told her…I tried to relax and think logically. It was a bit difficult to do with the girl I had loved for longer than I could remember kissing me. I told myself to kiss her back, but it didn't seem to work. My mind and mouth were completely disconnected.
"What was that for?" I asked her. Apparently my mind and mouth were still disconnected. I saw her cheeks redden and an odd look came into her eyes. It was like she was embarrassed or something. Then she did something I had never seen her do before. She ran away from me. I decided to follow her. At least my feet were still connected to my brain.
As I suspected she would, she headed straight for the library. I followed her through row after row of books, but she didn't stop. She just kept running. After about five minutes of running around, she finally stopped in front of a fireplace with armchairs on either side of it. Hermione muttered a few unintelligible words and collapsed into one of the armchairs. I guess she was crying at that point. I made a mental note to come back later and try to talk to her. Until then, I would let Hermione calm down.
I made my way back to my room, both happy and confused. I was so caught up in my thoughts that I stood at the door for a good five minutes before realizing that I had been lost in thought. I shook my head, opened the door, and sat down on my bed. At least I had decided one thing while I stood in front of the door: Harry was a dead man.
A/N: Okay people, this is the part where you hit the little review button – yeah, the little gray-white button down there, that's right – and tell me what you think. Just remember, no flames, please!