Hermione
"We'll be in the library, Harry," I told him as I saw Cho come up to talk to him. I grabbed Ron's arm, and half-dragged him down the hall.
"What'd you do that for?" Ron asked, sounding annoyed. "I wanted to hear what she had to say!"
"Ron! What Harry and Cho talk about is a private conversation between the two of them! If he wanted you to stay, he would have asked." Honestly, though, I kind of wanted to stay, too.
Ron and I walked in silence for a minute, before he asked, "Why are we going to the bloody library again? You already spend all of your free time there. Do you really want me to suffer as well?"
I stopped walking and turned to him. "Fine, Ron. You're so sick of going where I want to, why don't you just pick somewhere?" He just looked at me, like usual, confused. "Go on," I urged him. "Where do you want to go? Anywhere is fine with me."
He stood thinking for a few moments. I thought he was about to give in when suddenly he said, "Do you just want to walk? I mean, we never really walked around the castle before."
"Are you joking? We must have walked through every corridor in the castle at least a dozen times over the past five years!" I laughed, thinking of our adventures, but stopped when I saw Ron didn't look amused and his ears had turned pink.
"Well, I, erm," he cleared his throat and looked down at his feet. "What I meant was, that we, uh, never really took a walk around, you know, just you and me." He gave me a sheepish look.
I felt my cheeks get warm. Did he really mean he wanted to spend time with me? Just the two of us, no Harry or Ginny? I mentally shook my head. Of course he didn't mean that! He couldn't. He was just stating a fact, is all, and found it a bit awkward. But then, why should it be awkward? It's not like he was asking me out, or anything, he was just talking about a walk. There's nothing romantic about a walk. Well, I suppose that if you are walking somewhere like along a beach, then that's romantic, but we're in school. There is no way there could be anything relating to romance in school!
"Hermione?" I glanced up, realizing I hadn't said anything in response to his idea. His ears had turned from pink to red. I smiled at him.
"A walk sounds lovely, Ron." And it did. He was kind of right, anyways, about spending all my time at the library. "Let's go this way," I said, motioning in the opposite direction. Even I could use a break from there, sometimes.
We just started when we saw Harry half-skipping down the corridor, a huge grin on his face. "I did it," he said, as soon as we were within earshot.
"You kissed Cho again?" Ron asked excitedly. I elbowed him lightly.
"Don't be such a pig! Did what, Harry?" I asked, turning to him.
His grin, if it were possible, grew a little bigger. "I asked her out. To Hogsmeade. On Valentine's Day. And I didn't even make an arse out of myself doing it!"
"Harry that's great!" I was about to tell him I was happy for him when Ron cut me off.
"So what happened, mate? You know Hermione made me leave, so we don't know anything! How did it come up? And what am I supposed to do all day if you are out on a date?"
I walked alongside them, Ron and I on either side of Harry, and listened to the boys "talk strategy", or whatever it is they did. I was so happy for Harry, I truly was, but I was kind of disappointed that mine and Ron's non-romantic, as-friends walk never happened. I wondered if Ron felt the same way. I glanced over at him while Harry was chattering happily, and was surprised to see Ron giving me a searching, almost wistful look. He quickly turned his attention back to Harry as soon as our eyes met, and didn't look at me again.
I blocked out the rest of their conversation as I tried to fit together the puzzle that is Ronald Bilius Weasley. Honestly, he had seemed almost… embarrassed, when he was asking to go on a walk. I thought again of his eyes meeting mine, how the emotion in them was borderline longing, and wondered if it was just my mind making me see what I wanted to see. Then again, maybe the idea of Ron and I isn't as ridiculous as I had originally thought.