Disclaimer: Property of J. K. Rowling, etc.

A/N: I really hope you are enjoying my story. I'm glad to be writing again more frequently, and I want to work on my unfinished fics. I've been meaning to give some of my time to the Percy/Hermione and Sirius/Ginny fics (I know where everything is going for all of my current stories), but this one seems to have taken hold of me right now. Thank you all for reading, and I really appreciate reviews - they let me know if it's worth it to keep going!

Chapter 25

Hermione waited a few moments, but the figure in the bed remained completely motionless. Having already made her decision to risk entering his dormitory, she tried again, just slightly louder.

"Ron?" she said, not in any form of a whisper this time.

This effort was successful. "Huh? Whozat?" his sleepy voice managed to creak.

"It's Hermione."

With that, he sat bolt upright. "Hermione? What the hell are you doing here? What time is it?" he asked.

"It's very, very late," she answered softly. Working up her courage to do what she came there to do, she continued. "It's getting too late for a lot of things."

Ron frowned. "What on earth are you talking about?"

"Oh, Ron, things are getting awful! Dumbledore gone, Umbridge taking over, and You-Know-Who and his followers are out there! We know it's only a matter of time before they take Hogwarts and the Ministry! I can't stop thinking about it all the time. Doesn't it frighten you?"

"Of course it does," he said, rubbing his eyes. "But that still doesn't explain what you're doing here in my room at this bloody ridiculous hour."

Hermione paused, wringing her hands. "I, uh, I'm afraid for all our lives. I know that Harry is doing everything he can. I know we all are. But I – none of us – have any way of knowing how long we are going to be safe for."

"Blimey, Hermione, this is a pretty heavy conversation to wake someone up with," Ron replied, eyes growing wide.

"But I'm not wrong! I've always worked so hard at everything, always trying to work toward the best possible future. Now I don't even know if I have a future! There are so many things I've wanted from life, and... and..." She could feel the tears from earlier beginning to well up in her eyes again.

"Hey," Ron said, somewhat lamely, unable to come up with a more reassuring phrase. He put his hand on her shoulder. "Nobody knows what's going to happen. Otherwise, Trelawney'd be a much better teacher," he said, trying to lighten the situation.

Hermione let out a soft giggle, and placed her hand over his. She could feel his hand tremble a little at her touch, and was bolstered by his reaction to her, having already had her confidence shot twice in the couple hours prior.

"Thanks," she said. "I've just been doing a lot of thinking..."

"Not surprising," he interrupted.

She laughed. "I've been doing a lot of thinking about the things I want out of life. I've been thinking about that ever since You-Know-Who came back, and I started to realize how precarious all of our futures are. There are some things I don't know that I can ever have, and there are some things I know I should." She paused to look directly into Ron's eyes. He still looked confused, but as though he cared very much about everything she was saying. She shifted slightly closer to him, and readied herself. "Ron, you're one of my best friends. I can trust you with anything, right?"

His brow furrowed. "Of course you can, Hermione."

"That's good." Hermione edged still a little closer to him on the bed. "I want to ask you something, as your best friend. I'm afraid of a lot of things right now, and I want to try and have some control over my life, and I – I don't want to die a virgin."

She relaxed slightly at having stated the most difficult sentence she ever imagined herself uttering to her best friend, but tensed up again as he removed his hand from her shoulder.

"Is that why you're here?" he asked, suddenly quite frosty in his demeanour.

"Well, yes," she slowly answered.

"I don't think this is the sort of thing friends should do to each other, Hermione," he said, a hint of anger starting to become apparent in his tone.

"I don't see why it shouldn't be! We care about each other, and –"

"Not that!" Ron almost yelled. "It's not about that at all. I'm talking about toying with your friends' emotions. Asking for things that aren't fair to anyone involved. You shouldn't be here at all, Hermione!"

"But I thought," she started nervously, stopped, and tried again. "Is it because of how you feel about me? I thought it'd be okay anyway, as long as I was honest about things."

"Hermione, I don't know if you've been honest about things for a while. And as to my feelings for you, I've been working on getting over them. I know you just think of me as your friend, so I'm trying to move on. Losing my virginity to you isn't going to really help me with that."

Her eyes filled with tears. "I'm sorry, Ron, I didn't think –"

"No, clearly, for once, you didn't think," he interrupted. "Didn't you stop at any time to think about how unfair this was to me? To yourself? To Fred?"

Hermione froze up. "What do you mean, 'to Fred'?"

Ron scowled. "Don't treat me like I'm an idiot. Maybe you haven't told anyone else, but you don't need to tell me. Like you said, I have feelings for you and I'm your best friend. Don't you think I'll notice when you suddenly aren't around as much? Or when you just start making big moon eyes at someone specific every time you see him? I don't know what's going on to make you come see me about this, but I don't think your boyfriend would like it very much," he finished.

Hermione couldn't hold back any longer, and burst into tears. "He doesn't care! He turned me away, and ran off to Angelina. I thought he... and that I..."

Ron still felt anger toward his best friend, but pushed it just slightly aside in order to give her a comforting hug, while she wept and shook with all the confusing emotions she had felt throughout the night – fear, lust, embarrassment, anger, disappointment, shame. As the tears slowly began to subside after several minutes, he spoke up, the fire of his own temper quelled by her tears. "Do you want to talk about what's been going on?"

Hermione let out a long sigh. "I don't know. I don't think so. I don't think I'm with Fred anymore, but... but I'm sorry I tried to use you, Ron. That was a stupid, selfish thing to do, and I'm sorry. I hope you can forgive me."

Ron patted her on the back. "Already forgiven. Just don't throw yourself at me again," he joked, which gave her a chuckle. "And I can't really believe I'm saying this, but maybe talk to Fred. Whatever it is that's happened, it doesn't sound like you entirely understand. At the very least, he owes you some sort of an explanation. He gets away with so much. Don't let him get away with anything to do with you."

Hermione smiled. "Okay. Thank you."

"You should really get to bed now. To your own bed," he told her.

She nodded, reluctant to let go of the comforting embrace of one of her best friends. "Will you walk me to the landing of my dorm?" she asked, knowing that she couldn't stand to see if Fred and Angelina were still out there, and that Ron could provide her reassurance, or at the very least, something else to focus on.

"Sure," he agreed.

The creak of the boys' dormitory door opening shook Angelina from her peaceful slumber in Fred's arms. She was about to tell him to wake up, but the sight of the noise's source caused her to keep her mouth shut, and instead woke him silently by nudging him in the ribs. As Fred awoke, he was about to speak, but Angelina hastily shushed him and pointed. They watched as a pyjama-clad Ron with his arm around Hermione left the boys' dorms, walked down the stairs, and headed over to the stairs leading up to the girls' dormitories.

"Goodnight. I know it might be hard after everything that's happened, but try to get some sleep," Ron said.

Hermione hugged him tightly and kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you for everything. I really needed that. I just can't imagine how I could have been on my own tonight," she said quietly.

"Any time. Did you get everything out of your system, then?" he asked.

"I think so," she nodded. "At this point, I just need some sleep, but if I need to talk about it more...?"

"You know where to find me," he finished for her.

"Thank you," she said again.

"And hey, no need to be so forward about it next time," he teased.

Hermione laughed, and gave Ron another tight hug. "Goodnight," she said, heading up to her own dormitory, as Ron turned and walked back up the stairs to his.

As both doors closed, Angelina let out the breath that she suddenly realized she had been holding the whole time the scene played out in front of them. She turned to face Fred, to try to talk with him about how he was feeling or offer him some sort of comfort, but found herself stunned and speechless at the sight of his stormy expression.