The table was covered in parchment, rolls and rolls of parchment. Hermione
had surrounded herself with as many books and parchments as possible,
studying and going over her notes from the first week of school.
It was part of the seventh year study plan that she had set out for herself over the holidays. Hermione had evaluated all of her activities and planned other events, and then organised them, put them in the order of importance, and then worked her study times around the things that she knew were unavoidable.
Saturday evenings was one of her set study times. Saturday evenings when every one else was doing other things, when the common room was relatively quiet. This was a time when she could do any home work that she had not managed to finish during class time, and also a time to check over her notes, making a list of things she wished to research further.
She sat at the table in the corner, completely enthralled with the parchment in front of her. She was so enthralled, that she didn't even realize she was being watched.
Ron was watching her from the big, comfortable lounge chair on the other side of the room. He had settled down earlier, with his potions book, completely intent on doing some studying himself. But his own text book had been discarded hours ago, and now, he was just watching her.
He watched her as she moved her parchments, books and quills around the desk in an anal-retentive, organized fashion. He watched her as she silently went over the things they had learnt over the last week. He watched her, with conflicting emotions.
He had to admit he was impressed with her ability to sit and study for what seemed like days at a time. She had unbelievable stamina when it came to school work. She would sit, her quill gliding across the parchment, and she would not emerge from her state of academic bliss until the rolls parchment was filled.
Ron sometimes envied that. He wished he could just sit there and work like that, but he was to hyperactive. He would never be able to sit for longer than 10 minutes with a book, especially if there was something more fun that he could be doing.
He also looked at Hermione and thought that she was crazy. Hours and hours on end, wasted (well, he thought they were wasted) by school work. There was no point, really. Well, Ron didn't think that there was any point. Because what could you learn from a book that you couldn't learn from experience.
They would do potions classes, and every class they would make a potion. Why? Because it is easier to learn things by doing, not just reading. Test the theories, not just learn them. That was Ron's way of thinking.
But Hermione liked to read it all, she liked to know what she was learning before she came into the classroom. They had agreed to disagree on the subject of education so long ago, they both had their opinions, but they didn't agree.
He respected her opinions, but he didn't necessarily think she was right.
He had no more energy to fight with her about it anyway. If felt like her had been fighting and arguing with Hermione for the last seven years. It was fun to fight with her; he would always be the first to admit that she got some sort of satisfaction out of fighting with Hermione. He liked the way that sometimes all he would have to is say something simple, and then, it would be on for young and old.
They never seriously fought though; they would only pick fights over the silliest little thing. They never said anything hurtful to one another, and they never intentionally hurt any ones feelings. It was just the way that their friendship worked.
"Hermione" He began, but Hermione didn't pull away from her parchments.
"Hermione!" He tried again, and she still didn't move. "HERMIONE"
This time, she looked up at him, scowling slightly.
"What?" She asked, dipping her quill back into the ink pot.
"Why don't you take a break, you have been working hard for the last few hours." Ron offered. Hermione smiled slightly at him, it was nice of him to offer, but she didn't really want to take a break.
"No, thank you" She smiled.
"Oh, come on Hermione, all work and no play makes Hermione a dull girl" Ron replied. She smirked.
"And all play and no work makes Ron fail the seventh year" Hermione replied. He chuckled, and stretched out on the lounge.
"Ok, just so you know, the offer to share my couch is open" he told her, she laughed and went back to work.
It were only a few more minutes of quill scratching before the noise stopped, and Hermione came to join him on the lounge. Ron chuckled, and moved his feet so that she could sit down beside him.
"I knew you would come to me" Ron smiled in a muggle movie villain voice. Hermione laughed, and slapped his shoulder softly.
"Yeah, cos it is all about you and it has nothing to do with the fact that my hand is cramped up from writing so much" Hermione replied. He shrugged.
"Believe what you want to believe Granger, I know the truth" Ron smiled again. Hermione just laughed again. Hermione liked the way that Ron could make her laugh. After so many years of fighting, he could still make her laugh.
"Why do you have to start working straight away Hermione? You are making me look bad." Ron smiled, stretching his legs out in front of him and resting them on the coffee table. Hermione smiled and copied his stance, resting her feet beside his.
"I just want to make sure that I don't fall behind in any of our classes" Hermione began, biting her bottom lip. Ron couldn't help the smirk that crossed his face.
"Hermione, it is the end of the first week back and you are all ready 6 weeks ahead of the rest of the class. I am sure you can take it easy" Ron replied.
"I am just ... Scared, that's all" Hermione whispered. Ron looked at her, slightly confused. He had never heard Hermione say she was scared over anything like school work.
He had often seen her worried, he had seen her on edge, he had seen her extremely happy about it all, but Ron had never seen her scared about schoolwork.
"What do you have to be scared for?" Ron asked softly. Hermione sighed.
"I don't know I am probably being silly" Hermione admitted. Ron placed his hand on her arm and smiled at her.
"You have nothing to be scared of, you are the smartest witch this school has ever seen, and you know everything about everything.." Ron began softly. Hermione nodded and allowed his words to flood over her. He was right; she really had no reason to be concerned.
Ron had moved closer to her on the seat. Hermione looked up at him as he shifted slightly, their legs coming to rest against each other. He still held Hermione's arm in his, his fingers slowly stroking across her soft skin.
She didn't know if she should tell him to stop, or if she should just let him continue with what ever he was going to do. The feelings that Ron enticed in her were amazing, they were new and fresh and exciting.
Deep down in side, Hermione had always felt something for Ron, but she never understood what it was, she never realized that it could ever be anything more than friendship. They would fight and they would joke but she had never really thought of Ron in a boyfriend type of way.
But now they sat together, him still touching her arm softly. They sat in silence, while Hermione demanded answers from within herself. She wanted her internal questions answered.
She wanted to know why she was not pulling back from him. She wanted to know why she was allowing him to do this to her. She wanted to know why Ron had suddenly gained enough courage to do this. She didn't understand why something like this felt so right.
But the number one question that plagued her was did she really want this to happen.
Ron gave her no time to answer the question. Because his lips lightly pressed against hers, rendering Hermione's mind unusable. He just pressed his lips to hers for a few seconds, giving her time to push him away in disgust if she wanted to.
She never did.
It was one of the biggest surprises in the world to both of them when Hermione was the one to escalate the kiss. She parted her lips slightly, and licked at his lip, begging for entrance.
She wanted to test these new feelings that he brought around in her. She wanted to experiment with the way he made her heart beat fast in her chest. But she also wanted to know if he was feeling any of what she was feeling.
Ron was feeling that much and so much more. Hermione was kissing him. Hermione Granger, the smartest and prettiest girl in the whole school was kissing him. It had not been his intention for this to happen, but now that it was, he was happy.
The second his lips pressed against hers, something awoke inside him. Something that had always been there just had been hibernating for a while. That something was his feelings for Hermione.
He had feelings for Hermione, strong feelings, feelings that had his heart thumping harshly against his ribs.
His world had been turned upside down in a matter of seconds; he had gone from talking to his best friend to kissing his best friend. He had gone from loving Hermione as a friend and now he loved her as so much more.
Ron had been looking for something all his life, but he never thought that he would find that something in Hermione. He never thought that something that he had been searching for all these years could have been hiding right under his nose all this time.
He didn't understand what was going on with Hermione, or with himself, but he was a teenager, he wasn't really supposed to know. But he did know that he liked it, he was enjoying it now, and he hoped that he had the chance to enjoy it in the future.
But could a transition from friends to lovers ever be smooth for them? Ron could have guessed that the answer would be no. Nothing was ever smooth for them, nothing ever went their way.
And this was not going to be going Ron's way either.
He felt the light pressure on his shoulders, carefully pushing him away from her, separating their mingled lips. He watched as her eyes fluttered open, and she looked away from him.
Ron settled back into the cushions of the chair and began to silently mentally bash himself. Why had he been so stupid, he had probably just ruined his relationship with her, nothing would be the same between them ever again ......
.... Hold on a minute, his brain rationalized, she kissed you back.
Hermione was yet to look back at him; she was still glancing across the room, suddenly very interested in the tapestry that was on the wall. Ron sighed silently.
Should he say something to her? Should he apologize, even though he didn't think what he did was wrong? All he knew was that he had to do something, because the silence was killing him.
"Hermione, I am sorry" he said softly, she turned back and smiled nervously.
"You did nothing wrong, this was as much my fault as it was yours" Hermione told him. He nodded, only because he had no idea what else to do. He needed some sort of gesture, some sort of way of showing his emotion. He needed a way to tell her that she was as confused by this as she was.
"Hermione... What does this mean now?" He asked, not really wanting to hear the answer.
"Well, umm, I don't know, you said before that I know everything about everything, but I don't, because I don't know how to deal with this" Hermione admitted, gesturing between the two of them.
"Well, it could mean that I like you ..." Ron began. Hermione blushed slightly. "It could mean that you like me to"
"I do like you Ron...." Hermione told him.
"But?"
"But I don't think this is a very good idea, I don't think us is a very good idea, not now" Hermione replied sadly. Ron had almost expected her to say something like that.
"Can I ask why?" He asked softly. He didn't know why he was torturing himself with the details of his rejection, but part of him wanted to know.
"Well, look at where we are in our lives Ron, we are almost 17, we have our whole future to prepare for.." Hermione began, she had to stop when she saw Ron's face, he looked oddly hurt.
"I am not a part of your future?" he asked, she sighed. Hermione was confused, she hated being confused, she liked to have control over things, but she did not have control on this situation.
"I can't answer that Ron, I don't know how to answer that" She admitted. He didn't necessarily like that answer, but he wasn't going to push it.
"I am head girl this year, and we have to concentrate on our exams, I can't let myself become..distracted" She told him. Hermione sighed, she was not managing this well.
"I am a distraction?" He asked, Hermione nodded, but then stopped herself.
"Unfortunately yes" She replied.
"So, are you just going to hide yourself away so you can't get distracted?" He asked, Hermione sighed.
"I don't know...I don't know what I want" Hermione admitted. Ron reached out and brushed a lock of her frizzy brown hair behind her ear.
"Then how do you know that you don't want me?" he whispered.
Once again, Hermione was faced with a question that she could not answer. The way she saw it, she had two options, one, she could just stand and leave, maybe ruining one of the strongest friendships she had ever had, or two, she could just jump into his arms, allow herself to become distracted by Ron, and seriously have problems with her education.
But he was right, how did she know that she didn't want him. Deep down she did want him, she had only ever wanted one other thing in the world as much as she wanted him.
That other thing was a good education and a good job. Could she really allow Ron to stand in the way of what she really wanted?
No, she would never let anything, or any one, jeopardize her future. No matter how much she wanted him.
Hermione, taking all of the strength that she contained in her body, stood.
"I am sorry Ron, maybe it is best if we pretend this didn't happen" She told him. Ron sadly nodded and watched as Hermione stood, moved back to the table, and put everything back into her bag.
He watched her quickly as she moved swiftly, making sure she had not forgotten anything. Hermione flung her bag over her shoulder, and then, with out looking at Ron, she moved to the stairs.
He knew he had to say something, he had to tell her how he felt, he couldn't just let her walk out with out knowing that. He had to tell her, because he had to end the conversation on his own terms.
"Hermione, I think I might be in love with you" He told her.
Hermione paused on the stairs as soon as he heard Ron talk. She paused, but did not turn back to him. He wasn't going to.
Because Hermione didn't want him to see her cry.
It was part of the seventh year study plan that she had set out for herself over the holidays. Hermione had evaluated all of her activities and planned other events, and then organised them, put them in the order of importance, and then worked her study times around the things that she knew were unavoidable.
Saturday evenings was one of her set study times. Saturday evenings when every one else was doing other things, when the common room was relatively quiet. This was a time when she could do any home work that she had not managed to finish during class time, and also a time to check over her notes, making a list of things she wished to research further.
She sat at the table in the corner, completely enthralled with the parchment in front of her. She was so enthralled, that she didn't even realize she was being watched.
Ron was watching her from the big, comfortable lounge chair on the other side of the room. He had settled down earlier, with his potions book, completely intent on doing some studying himself. But his own text book had been discarded hours ago, and now, he was just watching her.
He watched her as she moved her parchments, books and quills around the desk in an anal-retentive, organized fashion. He watched her as she silently went over the things they had learnt over the last week. He watched her, with conflicting emotions.
He had to admit he was impressed with her ability to sit and study for what seemed like days at a time. She had unbelievable stamina when it came to school work. She would sit, her quill gliding across the parchment, and she would not emerge from her state of academic bliss until the rolls parchment was filled.
Ron sometimes envied that. He wished he could just sit there and work like that, but he was to hyperactive. He would never be able to sit for longer than 10 minutes with a book, especially if there was something more fun that he could be doing.
He also looked at Hermione and thought that she was crazy. Hours and hours on end, wasted (well, he thought they were wasted) by school work. There was no point, really. Well, Ron didn't think that there was any point. Because what could you learn from a book that you couldn't learn from experience.
They would do potions classes, and every class they would make a potion. Why? Because it is easier to learn things by doing, not just reading. Test the theories, not just learn them. That was Ron's way of thinking.
But Hermione liked to read it all, she liked to know what she was learning before she came into the classroom. They had agreed to disagree on the subject of education so long ago, they both had their opinions, but they didn't agree.
He respected her opinions, but he didn't necessarily think she was right.
He had no more energy to fight with her about it anyway. If felt like her had been fighting and arguing with Hermione for the last seven years. It was fun to fight with her; he would always be the first to admit that she got some sort of satisfaction out of fighting with Hermione. He liked the way that sometimes all he would have to is say something simple, and then, it would be on for young and old.
They never seriously fought though; they would only pick fights over the silliest little thing. They never said anything hurtful to one another, and they never intentionally hurt any ones feelings. It was just the way that their friendship worked.
"Hermione" He began, but Hermione didn't pull away from her parchments.
"Hermione!" He tried again, and she still didn't move. "HERMIONE"
This time, she looked up at him, scowling slightly.
"What?" She asked, dipping her quill back into the ink pot.
"Why don't you take a break, you have been working hard for the last few hours." Ron offered. Hermione smiled slightly at him, it was nice of him to offer, but she didn't really want to take a break.
"No, thank you" She smiled.
"Oh, come on Hermione, all work and no play makes Hermione a dull girl" Ron replied. She smirked.
"And all play and no work makes Ron fail the seventh year" Hermione replied. He chuckled, and stretched out on the lounge.
"Ok, just so you know, the offer to share my couch is open" he told her, she laughed and went back to work.
It were only a few more minutes of quill scratching before the noise stopped, and Hermione came to join him on the lounge. Ron chuckled, and moved his feet so that she could sit down beside him.
"I knew you would come to me" Ron smiled in a muggle movie villain voice. Hermione laughed, and slapped his shoulder softly.
"Yeah, cos it is all about you and it has nothing to do with the fact that my hand is cramped up from writing so much" Hermione replied. He shrugged.
"Believe what you want to believe Granger, I know the truth" Ron smiled again. Hermione just laughed again. Hermione liked the way that Ron could make her laugh. After so many years of fighting, he could still make her laugh.
"Why do you have to start working straight away Hermione? You are making me look bad." Ron smiled, stretching his legs out in front of him and resting them on the coffee table. Hermione smiled and copied his stance, resting her feet beside his.
"I just want to make sure that I don't fall behind in any of our classes" Hermione began, biting her bottom lip. Ron couldn't help the smirk that crossed his face.
"Hermione, it is the end of the first week back and you are all ready 6 weeks ahead of the rest of the class. I am sure you can take it easy" Ron replied.
"I am just ... Scared, that's all" Hermione whispered. Ron looked at her, slightly confused. He had never heard Hermione say she was scared over anything like school work.
He had often seen her worried, he had seen her on edge, he had seen her extremely happy about it all, but Ron had never seen her scared about schoolwork.
"What do you have to be scared for?" Ron asked softly. Hermione sighed.
"I don't know I am probably being silly" Hermione admitted. Ron placed his hand on her arm and smiled at her.
"You have nothing to be scared of, you are the smartest witch this school has ever seen, and you know everything about everything.." Ron began softly. Hermione nodded and allowed his words to flood over her. He was right; she really had no reason to be concerned.
Ron had moved closer to her on the seat. Hermione looked up at him as he shifted slightly, their legs coming to rest against each other. He still held Hermione's arm in his, his fingers slowly stroking across her soft skin.
She didn't know if she should tell him to stop, or if she should just let him continue with what ever he was going to do. The feelings that Ron enticed in her were amazing, they were new and fresh and exciting.
Deep down in side, Hermione had always felt something for Ron, but she never understood what it was, she never realized that it could ever be anything more than friendship. They would fight and they would joke but she had never really thought of Ron in a boyfriend type of way.
But now they sat together, him still touching her arm softly. They sat in silence, while Hermione demanded answers from within herself. She wanted her internal questions answered.
She wanted to know why she was not pulling back from him. She wanted to know why she was allowing him to do this to her. She wanted to know why Ron had suddenly gained enough courage to do this. She didn't understand why something like this felt so right.
But the number one question that plagued her was did she really want this to happen.
Ron gave her no time to answer the question. Because his lips lightly pressed against hers, rendering Hermione's mind unusable. He just pressed his lips to hers for a few seconds, giving her time to push him away in disgust if she wanted to.
She never did.
It was one of the biggest surprises in the world to both of them when Hermione was the one to escalate the kiss. She parted her lips slightly, and licked at his lip, begging for entrance.
She wanted to test these new feelings that he brought around in her. She wanted to experiment with the way he made her heart beat fast in her chest. But she also wanted to know if he was feeling any of what she was feeling.
Ron was feeling that much and so much more. Hermione was kissing him. Hermione Granger, the smartest and prettiest girl in the whole school was kissing him. It had not been his intention for this to happen, but now that it was, he was happy.
The second his lips pressed against hers, something awoke inside him. Something that had always been there just had been hibernating for a while. That something was his feelings for Hermione.
He had feelings for Hermione, strong feelings, feelings that had his heart thumping harshly against his ribs.
His world had been turned upside down in a matter of seconds; he had gone from talking to his best friend to kissing his best friend. He had gone from loving Hermione as a friend and now he loved her as so much more.
Ron had been looking for something all his life, but he never thought that he would find that something in Hermione. He never thought that something that he had been searching for all these years could have been hiding right under his nose all this time.
He didn't understand what was going on with Hermione, or with himself, but he was a teenager, he wasn't really supposed to know. But he did know that he liked it, he was enjoying it now, and he hoped that he had the chance to enjoy it in the future.
But could a transition from friends to lovers ever be smooth for them? Ron could have guessed that the answer would be no. Nothing was ever smooth for them, nothing ever went their way.
And this was not going to be going Ron's way either.
He felt the light pressure on his shoulders, carefully pushing him away from her, separating their mingled lips. He watched as her eyes fluttered open, and she looked away from him.
Ron settled back into the cushions of the chair and began to silently mentally bash himself. Why had he been so stupid, he had probably just ruined his relationship with her, nothing would be the same between them ever again ......
.... Hold on a minute, his brain rationalized, she kissed you back.
Hermione was yet to look back at him; she was still glancing across the room, suddenly very interested in the tapestry that was on the wall. Ron sighed silently.
Should he say something to her? Should he apologize, even though he didn't think what he did was wrong? All he knew was that he had to do something, because the silence was killing him.
"Hermione, I am sorry" he said softly, she turned back and smiled nervously.
"You did nothing wrong, this was as much my fault as it was yours" Hermione told him. He nodded, only because he had no idea what else to do. He needed some sort of gesture, some sort of way of showing his emotion. He needed a way to tell her that she was as confused by this as she was.
"Hermione... What does this mean now?" He asked, not really wanting to hear the answer.
"Well, umm, I don't know, you said before that I know everything about everything, but I don't, because I don't know how to deal with this" Hermione admitted, gesturing between the two of them.
"Well, it could mean that I like you ..." Ron began. Hermione blushed slightly. "It could mean that you like me to"
"I do like you Ron...." Hermione told him.
"But?"
"But I don't think this is a very good idea, I don't think us is a very good idea, not now" Hermione replied sadly. Ron had almost expected her to say something like that.
"Can I ask why?" He asked softly. He didn't know why he was torturing himself with the details of his rejection, but part of him wanted to know.
"Well, look at where we are in our lives Ron, we are almost 17, we have our whole future to prepare for.." Hermione began, she had to stop when she saw Ron's face, he looked oddly hurt.
"I am not a part of your future?" he asked, she sighed. Hermione was confused, she hated being confused, she liked to have control over things, but she did not have control on this situation.
"I can't answer that Ron, I don't know how to answer that" She admitted. He didn't necessarily like that answer, but he wasn't going to push it.
"I am head girl this year, and we have to concentrate on our exams, I can't let myself become..distracted" She told him. Hermione sighed, she was not managing this well.
"I am a distraction?" He asked, Hermione nodded, but then stopped herself.
"Unfortunately yes" She replied.
"So, are you just going to hide yourself away so you can't get distracted?" He asked, Hermione sighed.
"I don't know...I don't know what I want" Hermione admitted. Ron reached out and brushed a lock of her frizzy brown hair behind her ear.
"Then how do you know that you don't want me?" he whispered.
Once again, Hermione was faced with a question that she could not answer. The way she saw it, she had two options, one, she could just stand and leave, maybe ruining one of the strongest friendships she had ever had, or two, she could just jump into his arms, allow herself to become distracted by Ron, and seriously have problems with her education.
But he was right, how did she know that she didn't want him. Deep down she did want him, she had only ever wanted one other thing in the world as much as she wanted him.
That other thing was a good education and a good job. Could she really allow Ron to stand in the way of what she really wanted?
No, she would never let anything, or any one, jeopardize her future. No matter how much she wanted him.
Hermione, taking all of the strength that she contained in her body, stood.
"I am sorry Ron, maybe it is best if we pretend this didn't happen" She told him. Ron sadly nodded and watched as Hermione stood, moved back to the table, and put everything back into her bag.
He watched her quickly as she moved swiftly, making sure she had not forgotten anything. Hermione flung her bag over her shoulder, and then, with out looking at Ron, she moved to the stairs.
He knew he had to say something, he had to tell her how he felt, he couldn't just let her walk out with out knowing that. He had to tell her, because he had to end the conversation on his own terms.
"Hermione, I think I might be in love with you" He told her.
Hermione paused on the stairs as soon as he heard Ron talk. She paused, but did not turn back to him. He wasn't going to.
Because Hermione didn't want him to see her cry.