Well then, sorry about the break, that was unexpected. Regardless, Enjoy.


Hermione Granger should have been thinking of a lot of things before her rapid descent down the stairs from the girl dormitory. About how this maybe-date was going to go. What she should say, what she should do, and more importantly what not to say and do. About how she was going to handle a whole day with Ron without blathering on like an idiot about fancying him. Somewhere in that impressive mind of hers there, there was a tiny Hermione being suffocated by hormones who's chief concern was her essay due the following Monday she had only written two rough drafts of to date. There should have been a lot of thoughts running through her mind, but instead there was only one:

Merlin's bloody beard, I'm late!

Yes, even the small piece of her that chastised cursing, even mental cursing, was not on top form with this impending Hogsmeade trip. Such mental necessities were taking a backseat today. A rather unfortunate circumstance considering she was barreling down the staircase at top speeds and causing her to throw caution quite forcefully to the wind. Fortunately she did not fall...just stumble rather ridiculously upon the final step. She corrected herself just in time to make as much noise as humanly possible, and certainly enough to alert Ron to her presence.

If, of course, he was actually there. In this instance he was not, and the relief from embarrassment Hermione temporarily felt was immediately replaced with indignation. She was approximately five minutes late and he wasn't even there yet? How dare he! How dare he put her through all of this and not even show up. She had half the mind to march up the stairs and cancel the whole thing...Except he would probably argue it was another excuse to avoid him...and they'd probably get in a row...and truth be told she wanted more than anything else in the world to spend the day with him in Hogsmeade. Talking, laughing, nervously touching...

Unwittingly lost in her daydreams of Ron patiently waiting while she searched countless shops for old tombs and buying her coffee and raptly listening to her detailed and interesting facts from Hogwarts, A History, Hermione was unaware of reality like Ron so hopelessly was. You see, while Hermione built this magnificent and perfect day with the boy of her day dreams, Ron was having trouble making it past the last step from his own dormitory.

He had been standing there long enough to watch Hermione try to decide between walking back up the stairs or staying. He watched her take a seat by the fireplace and decide to stay. While ordinarily that should have made him happy, the discomfort he was feeling could not be helped. The entire night he dreamed up every possible negative scenario. A good chunk involved her never showing up at all. The worst ones were when she did. Facing that possibility was harder for him than imagined.

Behind Hermione there was a creak from Ron's shoe once again stepping down and back up that last step in doubt of what to do next. From her stupor she glanced toward the noise and saw him standing quite out of sorts.

If she had asked, he would have said it was because he himself had stumbled, or he was tired perhaps. In truth, it was because as soon as she looked his way, every thought in his mind melted away. All the bad dreams and doubts were replaced by one unifying thought.

She is gorgeous.

Admittedly, if anyone else were in the room, they likely would not have agreed with his assessment. Especially since her own thoughts made her quite out of sorts herself and her dreamy contemplating left her face quite unattractive. Ron didn't mind at all.

"Hey," He mustered with a wave.

"Hi," She meekly replied. Back in the real world nerves took precedence once more.

"Er, are you...ready?" He asked.

"Yeah," She breathed back. He smiled nervously and, after taking a moment to remember what smiling was, she returned the gesture.

"Well then, after you," He gestured toward the entrance.

As she passed by him she could smell the unmistakable scent of Ron and feel his unmistakable warmth. She tripped over the entrance because of it.

Perfect. She thought, This should go smoothly.

Unbeknownst to her, Ron was sharing the exact same thought after getting distracted by her wonderful, wonderful hair in his face and the touch of her soft hand in his after catching her before she fell to the ground. Because of that, he closed the portrait door on his hand.

They were sharing quite a few thoughts actually. If they had the ability to read each others mind, they may very well have not known the difference from one to the other. It might have made things go much smoother too. Instead, they both, simultaneously thought with a sigh:

Here we go.


Right. Kind of a short one, especially after a break, but I will return...with a vengeance.

Or, more, you know, words.

Anyway, as always, questions? Comments? Review!