Well, no reason for this really other than the fact that after the last chapter I decided Ron and Hermione needed a really good snog! I hope you enjoy xx
You know the drill – they don't belong to me :-(
That's When . . . . .
Ron Weasley was coughing up slugs. Big black slugs glistening with slime. His face was a sort of pale green and he just didn't look well at all.
Hermione Granger thought he'd never looked more wonderful.
"What? Are you joking?" Ron almost spit his pumpkin juice all over the table. Hermione wrinkled her nose in disgust, then smiled.
"Not at all. Do I ever joke?"
Ron regarded his best friend - now girlfriend for all of an hour - and decided she was telling the truth. His brow wrinkled and he slowly asked her a question.
"S-o-o-o, you're saying you fell in love with me when I was puking up slugs. That was the moment that you thought, 'wow, that Ron Weasley, he's the one for me'?"
"Absolutely," Hermione replied. "Right then." She got up from the Burrow's kitchen table and busied herself fetching two bottles of butterbeer. She glanced out of the window to the garden, lit up brightly with coloured fairy lights and fireflies. Bill and Fleur's wedding reception was still in full swing and everyone was outside in the warm summer's eve, savouring this chance at happiness, this calm before the inevitable storm that was soon to come. She smiled as she watched Mr & Mrs Weasley dancing and looking as in love as they ever were.
"Why, Hermione, why then?"
Ron's voice brought her out of her wandering thoughts. Hermione turned back to the kitchen table, handed Ron a butterbeer and sat down. She smiled radiantly before answering. Ron's stomach threatened to leap into his mouth at that grin. She looked bloody brilliant when she smiled like that!
"Ron, you stood up for me that day. Against Malfoy, without any thought for your own safety. I know, we'd gone through an awful lot already by then, you and Harry had saved me from the troll, and then you sacrificed yourself in that awful wizard's chess game so that Harry could go on and find the Philosopher's Stone," Hermione paused for a breath, "You put yourself in danger all the time when you believe something is worth fighting for, we both have, for Harry. But Ron, the day you stood up to Malfoy, you stood up for me, you tried to hex him for me." Hermione took his hand. He entwined his fingers with hers. "And so when you were coughing up slugs from your reckless attempt to defend my honour I thought you were the most wonderful thing I had ever seen!"
Ron grinned his lop sided grin, the tips of his ears quickly reaching boiling point, the rest of his face following. He took a swig of his butterbeer to cool himself down. "Bloody hell Hermione, you were - you are my friend. I just did what was right, that's all."
Hermione stood up and walked around the table to stand behind Ron. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and kissed his cheek, "I know that. You always do. That's one of the reasons why I love you. You always do what's right, bravely and without question. You're loyal and so, so proud. I know you don't think of yourself that way, Ron, but you're a hero. Every bit as much a hero as Harry. He has to be - it's written. You just - are. You're a hero, Ron. You're my hero."
Flabbergasted at this revelation, Ron turned to his own hero, his bossy, brilliant, know it all, always right, and always has everyone's best interests at heart and their safety before her own, wonderful Hermione, who was blushing furiously at her confession.
"Herm - I, bloody hell!" he threw his arms around her waist and hugged her tightly. He wasn't much shorter than her when he was sitting and she was standing, and he kissed her eagerly when she lowered her mouth to his. Hermione's hands snaked into Ron's long red hair as the kiss deepened. She sighed into Ron's mouth and the vibration caused him to moan softly. Breathless and blissfully happy to have finally admitted their feelings for each other, they broke apart, their foreheads pressed together for a short moment before Hermione stood straight and smoothed down her blue silk bridesmaid dress. Ron admired her curves as she did so. He decided he quite liked the way silk clings to a girl's curvy bits. He'd decided that as she'd walked down the aisle behind Fleur, as it happens. He smiled at her and took her hand.
"I love you Hermione Jane Granger," Ron kissed the back of her hand and stroked it gently with his thumb. She beamed happily at him. He didn't think he'd seen her this happy since they got their O.W.L. results.
"I love you too, Ronald Bilius Weasley," she giggled as Ron frowned at the use of his middle name. He got out of his seat with a mischievous twinkle in his eye. Hermione stepped back.
"I told you never to use my middle name woman. Now you must pay!" Ron started towards her. Hermione ran towards the lounge laughing.
"Never, Ronald Bilius! You'll never take me down!"
Not one to back down from a challenge, Ron caught up with her in a few strides, having much longer legs. He tried to grab her but she slipped free and ran to the other end of the room. He caught up and very ungracefully tackled her in a Quidditch move. They landed on the sofa where he proceeded to tickle her.
"No, stop!" Hermione shrieked, laughing and squirming underneath him
"Not until you apologise!" Ron had pinned her down on the sofa. He was sitting astride her waist and ticking her ribs and there were tears streaming down her face from laughing so hard. She threw her fists weakly against his chest, trying to make him stop, but it was just too much for her.
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry I used the middle name!" Hermione spluttered, "Now will you please stop?"
Ron stopped tickling her immediately and looked down at her. She was panting hard, her once neat chignon loose and curls spilling out all over, looking up at him with her big brown eyes. It was then he realised the compromising position they were in.
"Oh!" he exclaimed and started to get up. Hermione grabbed the front of his robes and pulled him back down, surprising them both with her forwardness. She blushed but held his ocean coloured gaze as she pulled his head down to meet hers. She kissed him gently. Ron responded, just as gently at first, then Hermione opened her mouth just a little, as if in invitation, and he ran his tongue softly across the inside of her lower lip. She gave a most un-Hermione like moan at that action, and gripped his robes a little tighter. Ron thought that was the sexiest thing he'd ever experienced in his life and was quite thrilled that it was his doing! He put his too-large hands on her hips, and stroked her gently, loving the feel of the silk and the feel of her arching against him as if she couldn't get close enough. No kiss he'd ever experienced with Lavender had felt this way. That had been sloppy and too wet and - what was he thinking about Lavender for anyway when his best friend, his Hermione was slipping her arms around his waist and resting her hands on his backside and - bloody hell - her tongue was touching his and he wondered why they hadn't done this sooner. They kissed for what seemed like an eternity, and damn that much needed oxygen for making them stop! Hermione tried to sit up, looking very flustered and ruffled and extremely pleased with herself. Ron lifted himself off her, then sat beside her, staring incredulously at this girl he thought he knew so well.
"Wow," he sighed, "I mean - wow. Merlin, Hermione, how did you do this to me? You're my best friend - one of them - I thought I knew everything about you. And then you suddenly become a - a girl!"
"I'll take that as a compliment!" Hermione exclaimed, "I was always a girl, Ronald. It's just that you didn't notice until the Yule Ball." Ron hung his head, "Don't feel bad, Ron. I don't think anyone noticedI was until I walked into the Great Hall that night."
"I do feel bad, 'Mione. It should have been me that took you to that ball," Ron sighed, then muttered, "and not that Hungarian Harpy, Krum."
"Oh, Ron, that doesn't really matter anymore, surely? I promise you, nothing happened with Viktor except a quick kiss. Nothing that could be called a snog, and absolutely nothing else." Hermione looked exasperated. "And I hardly need remind you that you certainly got your own back on that score, Won-won."
Ron shuffled his feet awkwardly, "Yeah. Message understood. Sorry Hermione."
Hermione shrugged, "It's not important now. What we have is. The road we took to get here is behind us, and I don't need to look back at the bad stuff. But there is one thing I want to know."
"What's that?" Ron looked at her warily.
"Well, I told you my innermost secret, Ron. That I fell in love with you whilst you were barfing up slugs," she smiled wickedly, "I feel it's only fair that you tell me when you finally, once and for all realised that I was in fact a girl. And not just a girl, a girl you wanted to snog!"
"Oh, I don't know. About two hours ago," Ron said flippantly. Hermione punched him playfully on the arm. "Ow! Okay, well then." Ron cleared his throat and in his best Hermione voice said, "You've got dirt on your nose by the way, did you know? Just - there."
Hermione looked outraged. "You did not Ronald Weasley! I believe 'Nightmare' was the word you used for me!"
"And mental," Ron agreed, "Completely barking in fact."
"Thanks." Hermione frowned and chewed her lower lip. Ron watched fascinated, wishing it was him doing the chewing. He reached over and gently tucked a stray curl behind her ear.
"When did I decide I wanted to snog you Hermione? I think I was a bit slow with that particular realisation," Ron admitted, "That was some time after the Yule Ball. But I think I fell in love with you the second you punched Malfoy in the face!"
Hermione blushed. "Yes, I can believe that. Oh, hitting him was wrong but it felt so good!"
Ron shook his head solemnly. "I think Harry and I have been a bad influence on you, Granger."
"I think you're quite possibly right, Weasley." Hermione sneered, then turned her head towards the cheers coming from the garden. "Looks like there's yet another toast going on out there. We'd better go before we're missed and everyone gets the wrong impression."
Yeah, I suppose," Ron sighed reluctantly, "but would that really be so bad?"
"Ron!" Hermione blushed furiously, "Come on you - outside!"
Ron took Hermione's small hand in his and they headed back outside to the rest of the world.
