In Your Room

Hermione stood outside his door on the top floor landing. He had disappeared after breakfast, and after a few hours she'd begun to wonder what he was doing. It wasn't like him to spend the holidays indoors, unless he was pestering her, and she'd seen his chess set downstairs. So she knocked.

There was a creak of mattress springs, and the door opened, Ron stood in the doorway

"Hello" he said simply

"I came up to see what you're doing"

"Ah, bored are you?"

"No! I was just wondering, what are you doing?"

He frowned, as though thinking what to say

"Oh, are you studying?" she said brightly, her eyes hopeful

Ron snorted

"Come in and see for yourself"

He swung the door open and she stepped in, glancing round. Without Harry's bed the room seemed a bit bigger, the floor was covered with the contents of Ron's trunk, and on the bed lay a book.

"You are studying" her eyes widened "But, we don't know what we're taking next year, 'cause of the OWL results" she turned to him "so what are you reading?"

Ron shut the door

"Shh, I don't want anyone to know" he ran a hand through his hair, an odd expression in his eyes. "It's a new book, dad got it for me"

"Oh" Hermione's mind ran through the years, not once had she seen Ron with a new book, when his battered second hand copies finally gave in he usually shared with Harry.

"It's a sort of early birthday present, very early" he continued, looking down at the book "just don't want the others trying to borrow it" the tips of his ears were a faint pink.

"I bet you don't" she said quietly, he looked up at her quickly, searching her face for the pity he was expecting, but it wasn't there, "there must be some benefits of being an only child after all, not having to share anything I mean, I'm a bit selfish sometimes" she admitted "and I like my privacy, do you want me to leave you to it then?" she looked longingly at the book he held, and tried to read the title upside down.

Ron was surprised, but he knew he shouldn't be. They'd never seemed to care about his lack of cash, why would they start now? Of course it hadn't occurred to her to pity him, and she seemed to be fascinated with the book… He handed it to her and she took it eagerly 'A Guide to Applied Apparition'

"Oh wow, I'd forgotten we'll be doing that this year' she carefully opened it at the contents, 'of course there's some stuff in the library about it, but this is the latest edition isn't it?" unknowingly she stroked the spine

Ron chuckled to himself "yeah, are you going to get a copy in Flourish and Blotts?"

She was only half listening, scanning the first diagram,

"Mmm? Oh, no, mum and dad weren't too impressed with how much I spent on books last year, so I'll only be getting the standard textbooks, the library has everything else I'll need"

Ron was taken aback, "but what about 'light reading', you normally bring loads with you"

She glanced up at him "It doesn't matter, I've got lots of old favourites in my trunk"

Well, this was new, Hermione being relaxed about books, and he had a copy of something she didn't, he knew the Grangers weren't rich, but she'd always seemed to have everything she wanted before, or at least he thought so. He stood up a little straighter, perhaps he was wrong. Suddenly he felt as though a weight in his stomach had lifted. For some reason this discovery made him feel a bit better.

Hermione had started muttering to herself as she read. He rolled his eyes, and with his hands on her shoulders gently moved her backwards, her legs bumped into the bed and she sat down heavily, totally engrossed and unaware of him. He sat next to her folding his legs under him, and watched her. He'd been in the middle of 'World Apparition Records and How To Beat Them' but it didn't look like Hermione would give up the book anytime soon.

He pondered this new situation, and remembered the time his Charms textbook had fallen apart in first year. Harry had taken one look at it and shoved his own copy over. In the middle of an essay, Ron had taken it gratefully, and the next day, Harry had wordlessly opened it between them so they could both take notes. At the end of the lesson Ron had noticed something written on the title page. Harry had added his name under 'this book belongs to'. They'd looked at each other, smiling awkwardly,

"Anytime mate" was all he'd said, and though they'd never said anything else about it, Ron's name had been added to almost every one of Harry's textbooks, the moment his own was done for.

Well, it wasn't a textbook but she would need to read it, and she'd want to borrow it even if she didn't ask. He reckoned he owed her for all the times he'd copied her homework anyway.

"You can borrow it you know," he said, "anytime"

"Oh" he'd gotten her attention "but you said… I mean… its new, and"

He smiled at her "No", he said slowly "you're not one of my brothers, and you ought to read it if you want to pass with your usual standards"

She looked back at him blankly, she desperately wanted to take him up on his offer, but, but she couldn't…

He saw the argument in her eyes and hastily took the book from her "listen, don't borrow it" her face fell.

'I knew it' he thought

"Here" he flipped back through it "lets share it, officially" and he wrote her name under his, before she could protest. "It belongs to you too" he looked up, pleased.

Her cheeks were pink and she was smiling at him, Ron felt his face grow hot "what are friends for" he shrugged. Suddenly he grinned and thrust the book back at her, "you've got a lot of catching up to do, I'm already on chapter seven".

But she just smiled back at him, "Thanks Ron".