Hermione was gazing at the girl reflected back at her in Ginny's vanity mirror. I'm barely recognizable, she thought to herself as she continued taking in her appearance. She wore a navy blue dress that came down just past her knees and had straps rather than sleeves. The fabric shimmered whenever she moved, making it look as though the dress was woven from the very night sky. Her makeup was simple--small amount of eyeliner, bit of mascara, and a dusting of blush on her cheeks--but it brought out the features of her face quite nicely.

Hermione's hair, however, was a different story. Her and Ginny had been fussing over it for nearly an hour, but their attempts of taming it were pointless.

"Gin, I think that's as good as it's going to get," Hermione spoke, grabbing Ginny's attention for moment. "It will have to do."

Ginny shook her head and went back applying hair potion to Hermione's head. "No, it has to look absolutely perfect for tonight," she retorted, furrowing her brow in concentration.

"That'll take at least another hour!" Hermione nearly shouted. "C'mon, Ron's waiting for me."

Sighing, Ginny placed the bottle on the vanity. "I s'pose you're right. Let's at least put it up, though." She quickly went to work pinning up Hermione's hair until it was in place. The end result was a somewhat messy, yet still classy bun.

"Oh, Ginny! It's perfect," Hermione exclaimed, beaming up at the other girl's reflection.

Ginny smiled back before exclaiming, "Now, get downstairs before Ron decides to come looking for you himself!" Hermione nodded and stood up from the vanity, making her way towards the bedroom door. "Wait! I want to see the look on his face when he sees you. I'll meet you downstairs. Count to one hundred before you come down."

And before Hermione could say anything, Ginny bolted out the door.

Hermione chuckled softly and shook her head as she heard Ginny's not-so-quiet footsteps descending down the stairs. Still smiling, she began to count.

One...two...three...

Oh, what will Ron think when he sees me? Hermione began to think to herself. What if he's not at all pleased with how I look?

Ten...eleven...twelve...thirteen...

Perhaps this dress is bit much. She began tugging down the hem of her dress and pulling up the bust of it. God, it's hot in here.

Twenty-two...twenty-three...twenty-four...

Oh, I'm just being silly! She began to fan herself with her hand. There's nothing to ge all worked up over.

Thirty...thirty-one...thirty-two...thirty-

Merlin! This is stupid! She's probably already down there by now.

Giving up on counting, Hermione resumed her journey to the bedroom door. She turned the knob and prepared to make her way downstairs. However, as she walked out the door and into the hallway, she slammed into something tall and solid.

"Oof!"

"I'm sorry!" she apologized looking up at the person she had ran into. "I didn't--" She froze as she realised who it was.

Fred didn't seem to have heard her attempted apology as he was too busy ogling her appearance. His eyes slowly traveled down the length of her body, before quickly reverting his gaze back to her eyes. Hermione felt her face warm as she noted how dark his eyes looked at that moment.

"Blimey, Hermione," he whispered, more so to himself than to her. "You look stunning."

"Er, thank you," she replied back in a small voice. She could feel her face growing even hotter.

"What's the occasion?" he asked her, smiling softly.

"Oh...um, Ron and I are, uh, going out tonight."

Fred's smile faded ever so slightly and his eyes were no longer dark, yet they didn't seem to hold their usual brightness either. No, they were the dullest Hermione had ever seen them, and it wasn't something she particularly liked to see in such a happy.

"Well, hope the pair of you have fun." He walked past her without saying another word before disappearing into his and George's room.

Hermione stayed rooted to the spot. She blinked several times trying to comprehend what had just happened. After a few seconds of doing this, she shook her head as though this would clear her mind. Trying to forget about what had just happened, Hermione began making her way down the steps.

As she approached the lounge room, several voices could be heard. Hermione realised that those voices were all conversing excitedly about her.

"Just wait till you see her, Ron," came Ginny's voice. "I daresay that you will be stunned speechless the moment you lay eyes on her."

"S'pose that'd be better than me rambling on like a nutter," Ron replied nervously.

Laughter filled Hermione's ears. She instantly recognized the owner of the said-laughter as Harry. It was such a wonderful sound to Hermione as it was always a rare occasion to hear him laugh. Though, since the war had ended, Harry laughed a lot more frequently.

"Ron, if you being a nutter was problem you would've scared Hermione off ages ago," George commented casually.

Hermione chose this moment to enter the lounge room. All conversation had died and all eyes were on her the moment she stepped in.

She scanned over the occupants in the room, taking in their expressions. Ginny and Harry were lounging on the sofa, both smiling at her brightly. George was seated in an overstuffed armchair. He was smiling too, but it didn't quite reached his eyes. Ignoring this, Hermione turned her gaze towards the redhead standing in the center of the room.

Ron was staring at her wide-eyed, his mouth hanging slightly open. He quickly closed it before swallowing thickly. "Hermione," he breathed out, "you look..." he could not seem to find the right words. Luckily, Hermione quickly jumped to his rescue.

"Thank you, Ronald," she said smiling. She took in the handsome, charcol suit he was wearing. "You look rather dashing, if I do say so myself." Ron's ears and cheeks turned a bright shade of pink.

He cleared his throat before speaking. "Shall we go then?" he asked, offering her his hand. She nodded before taking it.

"You kids have fun," George said getting up from his chair. "Better go see were Fred ran off to." He quickly made his way out of the room.

"Yes, have fun," said Harry smiling. The couple smiled back before disapperating with a crack.

oOo

Ron and Hermione arrived in front of the doorway of a restaurant called Moonbelle. It must have been a fairly new a place as Hermione had never heard of it before. As she peered inside she noticed several nicely dressed witches and wizards seated at a number of tables that were covered with very clean, white table clothes that had lace trimmings. All the waiters, who were dressed exquisitely as well, were levitating dishes of expensive delicacies.

Hermione glanced at Ron and began to worry. This was clearly a very expensive place and Hermione knew that the Weasleys, though the most lovely bunch of people you could ever meet, weren't the wealthiest. She didn't want to feel like he had to spend a lot of money to impress her.

"Ron," she began cautiously, "this place looks a bit costly. Are you sure you wouldn't rather go somewhere else?"

Ron frowned at her. "I already made reservations, and I'm perfectly capable of buying the two of us dinner at this bloody place if I want to," he said coldly.

"I didn't mean it like that, Ron," started Hermione as they walked inside. "I was just saying that--"

"Ah, Mr. Weasley I presume?" asked a handsomely dressed waiter with sandy hair, cutting Hermione off. Ron nodded in response. "Lovely. If the two would follow me this way, please." He led them to a table in one of the vacant corners of the restaurant. As they seated themselves, the waiter spoke again. "I'm Michael and I'll be your waiter tonight. What can I get the two of you to drink?"

"I'll have a glass of firewhiskey," Ron decided.

"Of course, Sir." Michael waved his wand, causing a glass of firewhiskey to appear in front of Ron. "And for you, Miss?"

"Oh, just water for me, thank you," Hermione said. With another wave of Michael's wand, a glass of water appeared before her.

"Alright, here's some menus," again he waved his wand and two menus appeared in front of of the couple. "Whenever you are ready, just give your wand a wave and say my name. I'll be there shortly to take your order." With that, Michael left them to look over the menus.

Hermione glanced over the meal choices, none of which really spoke to her. Everything seemed to swimming in some sort of rich, savory sauce, which was not really something she was in the mood for. After scanning the menu for a few moments longer, she finally decided to get the herb roasted chicken with a side of white asparagus cooked in white wine.

"Ready?" asked Ron, as his glass filled with firewhiskey automatically for the third time. Hermione only nodded.

Ron gave his wand a wave, mumbled the name 'Michael' and a moment later, their waiter appeared. "What can get you?" he asked.

Hermione ordered first, then Ron. She didn't pay attention to what he ordered as her mind was on other things. This is going terribly, she thought. She began fussing over the material of her dress so she would have something to do. It wasn't until after several moments of doing this that Ron spoke.

"Hermione." She looked up from her lap, waiting for him to continue. "About earlier, I shouldn't have snapped. It was...I was..." he closed his eyes sighing, clearly frustrated that he could not spit out the words.

"It's okay, Ron. You don't have to explain yourself," Hermione reassured, smiling. "I forgive you."

Ron smiled back at her reaching for her hand, which she happily accepted. It was at this moment that their dinner arrived.

As they ate, they reverted back into silence. Their sole focus was their food. Hermione, although, had to admit that she was not all that impressed. Her chicken was rather dry and her asparagus wasn't so much as cooked in wine as soaked in it. However, she kept her mouth shut and acted as though it was absolutely devine.

Once finished with their meal, Ron payed, making sure Hermione did not see the check. They then clasped hands and disapperated to the Burrow.

The house was completely dark. Hermione assumed that everyone must have retired for the night. She wanted nothing more than to do the same.

"I think I'm ready to call it a night," she said, turning to Ron.

He nodded. "I'll walk you to your room." He took her hand and led her up the stairs. They walked down the hallway before stopping in front of Hermione's and Ginny's shared bedroom.

Ron leaned into her. Hermione closed her eyes, knowing what was coming. The two of them locked lips and Ron's hand came up to cup her face.

It was the first time they had kissed since the Battle. At that time, adrenaline had been high and their kiss had been a spur of the moment thing.

Now, this kiss was not quite as exciting. Hermione felt slightly uncomfortable, actually. If she was being completely honest, kissing Ron felt like how she would imagine kissing Harry to be like. Like kissing her brother.

Finally, they broke apart. Ron smiled at her and stroked her cheek with his thumb. "I had a really nice time, Hermione."

She only smiled, unable to verbally lie to him. "Good night, Ron," she said before slipping into the bedroom and shutting the door behind her.

"So, how'd it go?" came an excited voice from behind her.

Hermione turned, her eyes landing on the redheaded girl sitting cross-legged on one of the beds. Hermione sighed, "Honestly, Ginny, it went quite awfully."

She quickly explained the events of the night to Ginny. When she was finished, both girls were quiet for a moment.

"Well," began Ginny, "I guess it would make sense why it was like kissing your brother."

Hermione furrowed her brow in confusion. Ginny rolled her eyes. "Honestly, Hermione. Think about it! Almost everyday since you were eleven, you've spent just about every waking moment with Ron and Harry. That's what it's like having siblings. They're even there when you don't want them to be."

Hermione took these words into consideration. Ginny was right. She did spend the majority of the time with the two boys, therefore, they developed a very strong bond. The three of them where siblings in every way but blood.

Hermione shifted her gaze back to Ginny. "What should I do?" she whispered.

"That's something you need to figure out on your own," Ginny said, bringing the conversation to close. "Get some sleep and then worry about it tomorrow."

Hermione nodded. She quickly changed into a pair of pajamas and snuggled into the bed opposite Ginny's. She silently casted a spell that caused the lights to turn off, then she let sleep consume her.