Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any related characters.

A/N: 6th year angsty AU drabble. Ron and Hermione confront each other during Prefect rounds. Tumblr prompt: "I think about you all the time."

One Way or Another

On a dreary Friday evening, Hermione was in a sour mood.

So far that day, she managed to spill an entire bottle of ink, forget her Transfiguration book in her dormitory, and fall flat on her face in the Great Hall in front of most of her classmates.

To top it all off, she found herself staring at the Prefect rounds schedule only to figure out that she had been paired with Ron for the first time in over two months.

Splendid.

"Son of a bludger."

Hermione whirled around to find the ginger-haired boy in question, peering over her shoulder, clearly having just come to the same realization as her.

Their eyes met, and for a moment Hermione felt her heart skip a beat. The tenderness behind his eyes was quickly masked by a look of confusion.

"What?"

Hermione pursed her lips. "We're on the schedule together. I'm usually paired with Anthony Goldstein."

"Sorry to disappoint," he sneered at her. "Let's just go."

Ron exited the portrait hole before Hermione could get another word in edgewise, frustrating her to no end. She hurried after him, determined to find a way to turn her day around.

One way or another.

"Ron, back there, I didn't mean—"

"O'course you didn't."

Hermione tutted, still struggling to keep up with Ron's lengthy strides. He ducked into empty classroom after empty classroom, holding his wand out with a blazing look on his face. She pitied the first batch of students they would find on their nightly patrol, for Ron appeared ready to discipline for once.

"Will you just let me finish?" She huffed, blowing out a frustrated breath.

Ron slowed down as he turned a corner, just enough to allow Hermione to catch the back of his robes between her fists. She tugged on his collar as hard as she could, causing him to let out a grunt of pain.

"No, stay put!" Her voice was firm and steady as she placed a hand on his chest, shoving him back against the stone wall behind him.

"Bloody hell, Hermione!"

"You need to listen to me," Hermione snapped, entirely too impatient to hear any more snide remarks from him.

"That's a first," he scoffed back, kicking the sole of his shoe into the floor.

Hermione took a step back, observing Ron's overall demeanor. He refused to look her directly in the eye, and he was slumped against the wall as if he wanted to be anywhere but there.

A pang of guilt shot through Hermione's chest. One of her very best friends felt uncomfortable around her. All because she was too stubborn to admit that she was jealous and heartbroken to find him snogging a girl that wasn't her.

Taking a deep breath, she was filled with a determination to rectify all that was shattered between them. She was not going to lose her best friend.

"I miss you."

Ron continued to stare down at the floor, unmoving. If she existed in his world, she wouldn't have known it.

"I think about you all the time," Hermione urged on. You're my best friend. I need you in my life.

When Ron lifted his head, there was a vulnerability in his eyes that Hermione had never noticed before. "You do?"

"I do, Ron. You're my best friend."

"O'course I am." Ron spoke as if he didn't believe her. Hermione frowned, a bitter taste in her mouth from his tone. Of course. That's all he seems to know how to say. Of course.

"Will you stop saying that?"

"What do you want from me, Hermione?" Ron shouted, his voice echoing down the long, empty corridor. He waved his hands through the air. "Do you expect me to just have a full blown conversation with you right now after you've barely spoken three words to me in over a month?"

Her first instinct was to throw back a retort — to fight against his words. But she held back, knowing that arguing with Ron, as much as she found it in her nature to do so, wouldn't be the right choice at this moment.

She was tired of fighting.

"Why is it so different with us, Ron?"

His eyebrows furrowed. "What do you mean?"

A flurry of questions filled Hermione's mind, and she almost couldn't get them out fast enough. "Why is my friendship with you so different from my friendship with Harry? Why do we fight all the time? Why do we go so long without speaking? Why do we break—"

Hermione let out an audible gasp. She was close, so close, to revealing everything she had kept hidden in her heart.

She hadn't stopped herself fast enough, for she knew by the way Ron's glassy eyes were looking at her now, that he had already worked out what she was going to say.

"Why do we break each other's hearts?" Ron finished. His chest was heaving up and down as his breath came out in short, uneven bursts.

Did he just say we?

Hermione inhaled sharply, shifting her eyes from Ron to the floor and back to Ron again, and Merlin she had no idea what to do with her hands...

"I think we may have just found the answer to that question." Ron's heated gaze sent a shiver rippling down her spine.

Hermione was certain, without any shadow of a doubt left, that Ron shared some level of romantic feelings for her as she had for him. With the weight of a hippogriff now lifted off her shoulders, there was only one question she had left for him.

"So, what happens now?"

The corner of his lip lifted, and stood up straight as if he was just given the most important mission of his life. "I s'pose I need to go take care of something I should've done a long time ago."

Without another word, he started strolling away in the direction of the Gryffindor common room. After a few paces, he turned around, meeting Hermione's eyes one more time. His brilliant, very Ron smile made her heart soar with happiness.

"Then, I'm going to come back, and we will finish this conversation."