« He's using you. » simply said Ron, heading for the staircase in front of the great hall.

« How dare you? Besides, I can take care of myself! » answered Hermione abruptly.

"I doubt it, he's way too old."

"What?" shouted Hermione incredulously. "What, that's what you think?"

"Yeah, that's what I think!" answered Ron, trying to sound confident.

"Why do you even care if I'm with Viktor?" she asked, her face red with anger.

"What?" he asked turning around to face her. "I don't, I just…"

"You just what?" she asked, still shouting.

Ron looked at her for a moment. Tears were streaming down her face, he'd never seen her so mad.

"I…" he said again, trying to think of something clever to say as to why he cared, or didn't, as he tried to convince himself, that she was with Viktor. He looked at her for a moment. He hadn't really taken the time to notice how pretty she looked in her dress. She looked like a princess. An angry princess, yes, but she was so beautiful nevertheless. Ron felt his heart ready to burst out of his chest at any moment. He swallowed painfully before rushing in, grabbing her face with both hands and kissed her.

Hermione gasped in surprised. She quickly pushed Ron back and slapped him right across his face as hard as she could. She let out another gasp, this time surprised at her own reaction.

Ron raised his hand to his cheek and stared at her with eyes wide open.

Hermione started crying harder than she already was and hurried up the stairs, her face buried in her hands. Ron watched her go as she disappeared around the corner, his heart beating harder than ever.

"What have I done?" he whispered to himself, sitting on the lowest step of the stairs. He looked at the ground and shook his head slowly. "What have I done?" he repeated.

A few moments later, Harry stepped out of the ball room, looking around as if searching for something.

"Ah!" he said, "There you are, mate!"

Ron didn't look up and kept on shaking his head instead.

"What's wrong?" asked Harry, sitting on the step next to Ron.

Ron looked up and starred at Harry with a look he usually had when faced with spiders. "Why did I do that?" he asked his friend.

"Do what?" asked Harry, more confused than ever. "What did you do?"

"I kissed Hermione!" exclaimed Ron.

"You what?" shouted Harry in surprise.

"I kissed Hermione!" repeated Ron, although Harry had clearly heard him the first time.

Harry looked at his friend for a moment, not knowing what to say. This must be the last thing he had expected to hear. "Uh.." he started, searching for words, "did she kiss you back?" he asked.

Ron looked up again and raised a hand to his cheek. "She slapped me!" he said, still shook about it.

"Oh!" exclaimed Harry in a still surprised voice, "I'm sorry mate," he said sincerely.

Ron put his head back down in his hands and shook it once more, releasing a deep sigh.

Harry felt really uncomfortable and helpless. He obviously wanted to help his best friend, but he had no clue how.

"How about we go up to the dormitory, uh?" he finally said, feeling that Ron was clearly not in the mood to go back to the dance. Harry put a reassuring hand on Ron's shoulder, who leaned in and used Harry's arm to slowly get up, nodding.

Ron didn't really want to go up to the dormitory, especially since he could bump into Hermione in the Gryffindor common room, but he clearly couldn't sit in the stairs all night long where the whole school could see him be miserable.

Harry and Ron went up the multiple staircases and through the portrait hole to the Gryffindor common room and headed straight to their room, not meeting anyone on their way since everyone was still downstairs at the bal.

Harry and Ron both sat on their respective beds, Ron looking as defeated as ever while Harry looked totally helpless.

"Well," harry started awkwardly, "should we go to bed then?"

"Yeah." answered Ron in a deep sigh.

They got ready in silence and got into bed after a while.

Harry didn't take long to fall asleep. Ron could tell by the way Harry's breathing had changed and how he was as agitated as he usually was every night, mostly due to his daily bad dreams.

Ron listened to Harry move in his sleep and starred at the dark ceiling above him for a long moment before he checked the time. It wasn't even 11. All his classmates would still be partying for a long while before anyone would be coming up to the dormitory. Ron sat up in his bed. Clearly, he could not possibly fall asleep with everything that was going on in his head. He got up and headed to the Gryffindor common room, which he found unsurprisingly empty, to his relieve. Ron threw himself comfortably on one of the couches around the fireplace and starred at nothing in particular until he heard footsteps coming from the girls dormitory staircase. He quickly rose his eyes and was surprised when they met Hermione's, who was sleepily making her way down the stairs. She froze as soon as she saw him and they both starred at each other for a moment.

"Hi!" she said in a surprisingly not angry voice, which confused Ron more than anything.

"Hi!" he said back quickly, his eyebrows raised in surprise that she even acknowledged him.

"What are you doing here?" she asked after a moment of silence.

"I, hum, I couldn't sleep" answered Ron awkwardly.

"Yeah, me neither." Hermione said before she finished making her way down the stairs and approached Ron slowly. "Can I join you?" she asked pointing at the empty space on the couch next to Ron.

"Uh..." started Ron, now even more confused, "yeah!"

Hermione sat down and put her hands on her knees. They were both silent for a while as the awkwardness filled the air around them.

"Look Ron..." started to say Hermione at the exact same moment when Ron said "Listen, Hermione..."

They both stopped short and said "Oh, you go first! No, you!"

Hermione spoke at once in a deep sigh. "I'm sorry I slapped you." she said in a quiet voice, starring at her feet.

"What? No! I'm sorry I kissed you!" he said quickly in a surprised tone.

"Oh, no! Don't be! It was..." started to say Hermione.

"It was stupid." Interrupted Ron, now looking at his feet in embarrassment.

"Well, I was going to say nice." Simply said Hermione.

"You were?" exclaimed Ron as he jerked his head back up, eyes wide and eyebrows raised in surprise.

"Well it was a bit unexpected, I must say, and I was quite angry at you at the time, but…" said Hermione before pausing for a moment, thinking. "Do you think maybe we could try again?"

"What?" blurt out Ron a little louder than expected.

"I mean, I'll understand if you don't want to..." quickly added Hermione looking at Ron.

"No! I want to!" he said almost too excitedly.

Hermione smiled shyly as Ron did the same.

They looked into each others' eyes for a while, neither of them really knowing how to proceed.

"Uh…" said Ron awkwardly.

"Maybe you could start by getting closer?" said Hermione shyly.

"Right! Yeah, um…" answered Ron as he slowly moved towards Hermione, closing the space between them. "Hi." He said grinning as they were now only a few inches apart.

"Hi." She said, smiling widely back at Ron.

Ron's smile faded a little as he became suddenly incredibly nervous. He could feel his heart struggling to pump his blood properly. He tried not to overthink the situation and slowly rose his hand to Hermione's face, putting one of her curl behind her ear. He then rested his hand on her cheek as he took a deep breath and went for it. He pressed a gentle kiss on Hermione's lips, but let go after a few seconds to make sure she hadn't changed her mind about kissing him.

Hermione looked back at him with a confused look on her face.

"Um, was that okay?" asked Ron shyly.

Hermione's confusion left her face immediately to make room for a huge grin. She flung herself forward, grabbing Ron's face with both hands and kissed him passionately. Ron couldn't help but be surprised by it, but he sure wouldn't complain. He put a hand in Hermione's bushy hair and pushed their mouths even closer, deepening the kiss.

They made out for a long while before breaking apart, almost out of breath. They looked at each other for a moment before Hermione smiled, but lowered her eyes, almost as if she felt embarrassed by what she had just done. Ron couldn't help but smile at how cute she was when she felt embarrassed. He grabbed her hands and they played with their intertwined fingers for a moment.

"I should go back to bed." Hermione said finally, although she didn't let go of Ron's hands. She gave him one last look before leaning in and deposited a small kiss on his burning cheek.

"Goodnight Ron." She said getting up before heading back to her dormitory.

Ron watched her as she went up the stairs in her night gown. He was still smiling brightly, still incredulous of what just happened. "Night, Hermione…" he said in a deep sigh.