143.
Chapter Nine: Into Your Arms.
Am I obsessed with you?
I do my best not to want you.
But I do all the time,
I do all the time.
Am I obsessed with you?
Thank you a ton for all the reviews! Still amazes me I have 28 people with this story alerted and I KNOW all of them don't review. Sort of a bummer. But alright for those that do, repeatedly and religiously - thank you. Cause I'm typing this all out on my blackberry just for you guys. :) Here we are.
The ride home had be silent. Comfortable, and silent. Heather and Mark shared a few words on the ride home, but not too much. And Ron and Hermione didn't feel the need to speak at all.
Once they got home, her parents excused themselves to shower up and go to bed. (Not before triple checking that Ron had indeed had fun at the fair, of course.)
Ron followed Hermione up to the guest bedroom, opening the doors. Rons things were already at the end of the full sized bed. She looked up at him, a soft smile playing on her lips. "Well, I'll leave you now." She could have sworn she saw an ounce of disappointment in his features. (But then again she could have
just dreamed it, which was also equally realistic.) As she turned to walk away, she heard Ron clear his throat.
But it wasn't one of those 'I'm going to choke', clear of the throat.
It was the 'I'm looking for you to turn around so I can say something *hopefully* cute, or something irrelevant- but either way please turn around.'
So Hermione turned around, Ron's eyes digging into hers as she felt herself smile once again.
"Goodnight." And it was reasonable and normal. One word. Two syllables. And it couldn't be any cuter.
"Goodnight, Ronald." She replied, watching his smile turn into one of his lopsided grins as he turned back around, to which Hermione turned slowly on her heels and walked back to her room.
Once she got to her room, which was diagonally across the hall, she took off her shirt, revealing the white tanktop underneath which was perfect for bed. She replaced her jeans with pajama pants. After letting herself smile once again, knowing her best friend was in the other room, she crawled under her covers.
Forcing herself to shut her eyes.
Ron had taken his shirt off, placing on one of his old Chudley Canons shirt which was a bit snug (given it was a few years old) but he wasn't one to complain. He took off his pants, staying in his boxers. He never felt the need to wear pajama pants. It wasn't necessary. For him it was either boxers or go starkers. And he wasn't about to go starkers in Hermiones guest bedroom. Unless she was too. Again, joke. Sort of.
He peeled back the covers and began to climb into bed. The bed was comfortable. Nothing like his bed at home that had mastered his every shape, but the size of this one definitely had his beat. He felt himself stare at the ceiling for what felt like five minutes, rethinking the whole days events. Candy, Ice Cream, Baby pictures and the fair. The whole day was pretty adventurous. But this time it was in a GOOD way. Not a 'we might get killed today' kind of adventurous which he seemed to experience a lot.
When he finally shook his head of thoughts, he glanced over at the clock. It had been an hour. He didn't know how it was an hour, but it had clearly been an hour. And he wasn't falling asleep. Maybe Hermione wasn't either. He didn't know how this thought even surfaced his brain, and what courage he had to go see. But he got out of bed.
He tiptoed out of the room, very cautious of his every move as he carefully reached her door. He twisted he door knob, his eyes closing as if something was about to jump out at him but instead he was met with the dimly lit room. It was lit only by the light of the moon through the windows.
Hermione quickly sat up as she heard her door open, her eyes scanning the room slowly. She hadn't yet fallen asleep. She was too awake. She had tried to force herself to sleep, just so it'd be the next day. But it was no such like. Especially now. She then turned to look towards her door and immediately saw Red. Her eyes adjusted and she noticed it was Ron's shirt that she was seeing, and then his hair. And she could have sworn she could see his baby blues from across the room as well. "Ron?" She asked, feeling suddenly foolish, as if she'd imagined it.
"Oh. You're awake." He replied, hiding the fact that he almost booked it out of the room. He was assuming that she was actually asleep. But obviously, that wasn't true.
"What are you doing?" She asked suddenly. She wasn't bothered by his company, not at all. But it was out of nowhere.
"Can't sleep."
"Neither can I."
Ron let himself smile. Good. He wasn't interrupting anything. She wasn't sleeping. He sat himself down at the desk, finding himself fiddling around with the quill that was placed right next to a pile of parchments. Great, now it was awkward. Because Ron couldn't speak up.
"You can come over here… you know." Hermione mumbled, pushing herself against the wall to make room for Ron. It wasn't like she was inviting him into her bed as some… scarlet woman. She was inviting him as a… friendly gesture.
"Oh." He mumbled, pushing back the chair as he stood up. He took the time pushing the chair back under the desk. Why? He was nervous. Sure, he wasn't going in her bed to give her a quick lay. But it was still laying in bed with Hermione. That was almost equally nerve-wracking. But he calmed himself down, or tried to, and walked over to her bed.
Hermione could tell he was frightened, he seemed scared, and she couldn't help but let out a slight laugh.
Ron sat himself down at the edge of the bed, and turned towards her, offering a smile. She rolled her eyes in response. That wasn't nearly what she meant. She wasn't saying, Ron, come over here and sit on a sliver of my bed. NO! That's too much, push off, yes, I want you to FEEL like you're falling, but you're really not. Perfection.
"Ron, don't be ridiculous." She muttered, grabbing one of his arms and yanking him onto the bed. He fell back slightly, stumbling before letting himself lay completely next to her. He placed his hands on his chest as he tapped his fingers against his chest a few times, looking around. He then realized he was the one making it awkward. Not her, him.
"I had a lot of fun tonight." Ron finally spoke through the silence, turning his head where he was immediately met with Hermione's big brown eyes. He watched as she instantly grinned and this feeling erupted at the pit of his stomach. He loved that he could make her smile, by some of the simplest of ways.
"Me too." She started, turning onto her side, her hands placed under her head. "Today was a lot of fun for me. I've missed you. It means a lot that you could come and stay here. I know it must be a lot different than staying at your house. It's probably a lot more boring here. The whole week won't be as exciting."
Exciting? He didn't come here for fun and games. He came for Hermione. Because crazy enough, he missed her too. He just didn't know if he should say it back or not.
"Well, I missed you too." Too late. He did. Without thinking. As usual.
But it placed another angelic smile upon her face, and all was well.
"And I don't care what we do, Hermione. Don't think you have to entertain me, or bring me places. I enjoy just sitting and talking with you. You know that." He paused. "We did that everyday at school." And the moment he mentioned the word school, he saw a different kind of look in her eyes. He just couldn't place it. "What's wrong?"
"I don't know."
"You can tell me."
Hermione let out a slight sigh as she rolled back onto her back. Her eyes gazing up at the ceiling. "This is our last summer. And we aren't even going back to Hogwarts." She let her head turn to look up at him, waiting for the laugh, or the taunting. But she got no response. So she continued. "I mean, it's been my life for 6 years now. I always wanted to complete it all 7 years. Though, I know we've got to help Harry, and don't get me wrong, I want to! It's just you know how much I love school. It's going to be a bit hard." She then realized what she said. "Oh gosh! I sound absolutely selfish. I'm a horrible friend!"
"Hey hey hey." Ron stopped her from going any further, building up the courage to turn onto his side, his body shadowing over her as he propped himself up with his elbow; the palm of her hand resting against his head as he looked down at her. "You're not a horrible friend, and you are most definitely not selfish." He wasn't one to spill out stuff, or compliment people… at all. But for some reason he was on a roll today. "You're one of the most unselfish people I know. Surprisingly I get what you're saying. I'm going to miss that bleeding school as well." Ron was a somebody at school. Well.. Not technically. He was more of a sidekick, of the somebody but it was still better than that freckled face ginger.Or that Weasley. Though.. He was known as that at school as well…
Hermione had to admit, she was touched by his words. (Ignoring his cursed mouth.) But she also knew if she commented on them, by saying it was 'sweet' or 'kind' or 'charming', he'd get embarrassed and probably never compliment her again. So instead, she smiled, and continued on her rant. Knowing that this was between the two of them. Never to even leave the room.
"I felt like I fit in there. I never felt like I fit in before. It was as if I was somebody." And Ron was speechless. That's exactly how he felt. Never would he have thought Hermione felt the same way.
"I know what you mean. Same here. I've always been known as the youngest brother, or, the toothless idiot, or, the clumsy ginger." He then paused quickly before continuing, "Toothless meaning my two front teeth.. I wasn't.. yeah." He let out a slight laugh, shaking his head before he looked back at her, seeing her grin. "What?"
"Nothing. You're just very amusing." She let the grin turn into a small smile. She already felt herself a bit tired. It was as if all she needed to was talk to him, and spill out what she was feeling. And she could tell by the way Ron's blinking sometimes lasted a bit too long, he was feeling the same way.
"Amusing? Thanks, I 'spose.. It's the best thing I've got." Hermione knew Ron's self esteem wasn't exactly high… and she honestly didn't blame him. With such a large family, she could only imagine.
"That's not all you have Ron. But currently, you look exhausted." And she watched as he smiled sleepily. She shook her head, rubbing his arm gently. "You go to bed. We'll talk in the morning, okay?"
Ron nodded slowly, his eyes taking a few seconds to open back up.
"You're not a git, like you think. Remember that for me?"
He nodded again. He didn't know if it was the fact that he was now, incredibly, half asleep, or the courage inside of him… but he leaned forward and planted a kiss upon her forehead, mumbled a goodnight and stumbled out of the bed. But waking up enough to walk out of the door quietly and back into the guest room. Where he immediately fell fast asleep, not even rethinking his actions.
Hermione watched as he left, the smile on her lips spreading a bit as she felt his lips on her forehead. It was the sweetest gesture. Even if he didn't know what he was doing. She watched his half asleep body stumble about.
She felt like it may be a reoccurring thing. This nightly talk.
It was short, quick, and sweet.
But that was Ron.
One second he's not hungry.
Point two seconds later, he is.
One second he's awake.
The next, he's tired.
He's a closed book, completely hidden from the world.
But every day, and every moment they shared…
Hermione felt like Ron was slowly letting her read his chapters.
As strange as that was.
That was probably bloody awful. I'm sorry. School is surrounding me. Work is now going to re-surround me. And I've just been clueless to the world… really. But! Review!
