A Bad Experience

Ron was staring at the back of the seat in front of him, his face narrowed in frustration. He was in the middle seat in the centre isle of the plane, squashed between two old women. They were obviously good friends because they kept talking over him. That would have been fine in any other circumstance, except not at that moment. They would continually lean over him and Ron would be hit with a stench that smelt much like Great Auntie Muriel. His long legs were cramping from being stuck in the same position for over an hour without being able to stretch them. To make things worse, he was sitting right behind Hermione, who was blatantly flirting with a brown-haired male, perfectly content with chatting away aimlessly. His own girlfriend! Unbelievable! And where were Ginny and Harry? Sitting together in the back corner of the plane, conveniently next to the bathroom, much to Ron's disgust. Of course, they would get to sit together. All I get is to see Hermione flirting. Trapped between his flirting girlfriend and snogging sister and best mate, it was the worse experience of Ron's life.

He knew he had to do something, to stop that guy from stealing his girlfriend. Hermione wouldn't mean to flirt, of course, but she was so darn beautiful and easy to talk to that she just couldn't help it. She was about as naive as a toddler but seriously had a way of charming guys. Maybe it had to do with her brains. Ron had always found her smartness to be an extremely attractive feature of hers and it wouldn't surprise him if it was the same with other men. Nonetheless, he sincerely wished there was something he could do to get rid of him. Ron disliked the way he was looking at Hermione.

He leant forward to whisper something in her ear and forgot that the old women next to him were talking again. She bumped heads with the lady on his right, causing her to cry out in pain. Ron felt extremely bad and began apologising frantically. Hermione and her neighbour turned around to see what had happened and the brown-haired youth began to cackle with laughter. Hermione smiled and shook her head in exasperation before turning around to continue the conversation with her neighbour. Ron frowned and rubbed his forehead gingerly. He could feel a lump forming and wished that he could pull out his wand to fix it. But Hermione had give strict instruction not to use their wands for anything unless they were completely alone.

He leant forward again, this time managing to not hit anyone in the head.

"Psst, Hermione, can I talk to you for a second?"

"Why?" she asked, confused.

"Just come with me, please!"

"Alright," she said in a huff and followed him down near the toilets. Ron made a face as they passed Harry and Ginny, intertwined in a passionate embrace.

"Okay, what is it, Ron?" asked Hermione, crossing her arms and arching one eyebrow.

"Can you please stop flirting with that guy? It's frustrating me!"

"What do you mean, flirting?" cried Hermione, her voice rising.

Ron put a finger over her mouth to tell her not to yell. He didn't want the whole plane to hear.

"I know you don't mean to, okay, but you're easy to talk to and he's obviously flirting with you. But you're my girlfriend, so you can't just go around flirting with people and think it's okay!"

Hermione put her hands on her hips and pursed her lips. She was definitely angry.

"Yes, I'm your girlfriend, Ronald. But that doesn't mean that you control everything I do! I can have a genuine conversation with a guy if I want to. It's not flirting!"

She stormed back to her seat without looking at Ron and began flipping her hair ridiculously as she sat back down. If Ron wasn't so angry he would have laughed. He followed her and squeezed himself between the two ladies. They were asleep, snoring quite loudly for women. At least that meant that Ron wouldn't have to listen to their gossiping. They were seriously reminding him of Auntie Muriel. He was watching Hermione's conversation with the guy with keen interest. After their conversation, it seemed that Hermione had taken to try flirting, in a Ginny-like attempt of spite. However, unlike Ginny, she neither had the ability nor the experience at flirting and it was turning out to be quite amusing. Maybe this will stop the guy from trying to steal Hermione, Ron thought happily.

It was obvious that the guy was definitely regretting pulling any moves on Hermione. She was speaking in an incredibly high and girlish voice, giggling and flipping her hair like an idiot. The guy, desperate to continue with their normal strain of conversation, began picking topics that he thought she would enjoy however it was in vain. Hermione was insistent to get back at Ron and it really wasn't doing her any favours. Every now and then, Hermione would turn around and glare at Ron, trying to judge his reaction. Ron, being who he was, made sure that she thought he was angry, and Hermione would always turn back with a smug look on her face. After half an hour, Ron decided to act. Whether it was to turn his girlfriend back to her normal nerdy self or save the poor guy from this torture, Ron secretly pulled his wand from his pocket and pointed it at the guy. Instantly the guy put his hand over mouth and rushed to the bathroom. Ron, seizing this chance, got up and stole his seat next to Hermione.

"What are you doing?" asked Ron.

"Oh, nothing!" she said, turning her nose up in the air as she usually did when she was annoyed. "Just casually flirting!"

"Oh, that's what you call it. I thought you were trying to impersonate Cho Chang."

Hermione turned on him, "What do you mean?"

Ron cupped the side of her face affectionately, and pushed a lock of hair away from her face. "It was really bad, love. As bad as Cho. Please, don't ever act like that again."

"What are you saying! I was doing fine until he had to go to the bathroom!" She glared at him, looking insulted.

Ron tried to reason with her in a joking manner, "Mione, seriously, I admire your brains and your logic and your organisation, but one thing you are not good at is flirting. It's not a bad thing actually. It's quite adorable."

Hermione frowned and looked to the ground. "It's not fair. Ginny's so good at it! And I'm... I'm pathetic. No guy would ever want to flirt with me. I'm hopeless."

Ron lifted her chin with his finger. She looked so defeated at finding out that she wasn't good at something that he could stay mad at her. He couldn't even laugh at her.

"You don't need to flirt with any guys, Mione. You have me. And you don't need to try to impress me. I think you're perfect!"

She smiled at him. "Really?"

"Course," he said and leant down to kiss her. She smiled against his lips; she loved how blunt he was about things. It meant that he really meant them.

"Ahem."

Ron and Hermione broke apart. The guy was back, looking a little nauseous; his arms crossed over his chest. Ron gave the guy a lopsided grin. "Sorry, mate. You can take my seat if you want."

The guy looked behind him to see the two snoring old women. He made a face but, looking back at Hermione, decided that at least they wouldn't try to flirt with him.

"Okay," he shrugged his shoulders. Hermione looked a little insulted, making Ron laugh.

"How rude!" she frowned, pouting her lips. Ron merely smiled and captured her lips with his own again.

"Oh, well," he said through kisses, "at least I get you all to myself now, bad flirting and all."