"The Incentive" by Quidditch, Anyone?


What He Wanted Most


"Oh, give me a break, Hermione," a wisp of Ron's voice muttered. "You know as well as I that I'm crazy about you-"


Crack. A newborn roar of thunder woke Hermione from her rapt dreaming. The storm had gotten considerably worse through the evening and threatened to beat the castle down to dust. Hermione lay fully awake (and fully dressed) in her four-poster, very thoroughly upset that the bloody weather had brought her back to reality.


She'd searched for Ron for over an hour. He'd gone hiding somewhere, she imagined, too embarrassed to face her. Eventually Filch caught up with her, yelled himself hoarse, and demanded she go to bed. She resentfully obeyed her order and fell asleep within seconds, only to dream of that stupid carrot-top some more.


She rubbed her eyes and shifted to her side. Every time she thought of screaming at Ron, a very unpleasant stomachache came over her. Worse yet, she faced a bigger dilemma; she didn't want herself to take any sort of advice from Terry, but to stubbornly think that he was lying about Ron saying he liked her wasn't only spitefully stupid, but almost depressing. It's possible that Hermione had never felt more sorry in her life.


·~··~··~·


The same flash of boom that had awakened Hermione had done the same to Ron, though in his dream Hermione hated him and he was about the size of a young Scabbers. Then a very large and somewhat God-like version of that wally Terry came over and disappeared with Hermione.


"Harry?" Ron asked the silence. No response.


Ron sat up in bed. "Harry?" he repeated, this time a bit louder.


"Harry, I need to talk to you right now." Only some familiar snores answered. Ron sighed and lay back down.


"Right, well, I have to tell you something whether you are listening or not," he mulishly continued, not even bothering to whisper. "I don't know if you have heard about anything that's happened today, but here it goes anyway. I was talking to that prat Terry, and I sort of... sort of hinted that I like Hermione," he finished quickly. "And I'm beginning to regret that I did. I mean, what if he tells her?"


"Then it's a load easier for you, mate," a very muffled voice answered, but it wasn't Harry.


Ron jumped at the sound. "Neville?"


"Mmm," his roommate answered, rolling over to his backside. His eyes were closed and would have appeared totally in a state of slumber- if he hadn't been holding a conversation with Ron.


"Neville, are you... sleeping, or... not?" Ron asked awkwardly. Even the inquiry sounded very stupid.


"Ron, Hermione likes you a whole lot," he continued somewhat unconsciously. "Last year, when I asked to her the ball, I was really startled that she was going with Krum." He paused and yawned. "Then managed to ask why she wasn't going with you, and she said... she said..." his words were lost in another half-yawn.


"She said what?" Ron demanded.


Neville finished and rolled back onto his stomach. "She was sick of waiting for you to come around, so she just decided to have a go with someone else. But she really regretted it, you know. Broke her heart."


Ron sat, stunned. Was this all true? Could he really trust some like this from a very disoriented boy like Neville, especially when he wasn't even completely... awake?!?! To finish it off, his storyteller had just clutched onto his teddy and muttered something about not baking cookies because PooPooh's tea party was starting in a half-hour.


Though something triggered in the back of Ron's head. Maybe he was just forcing himself to believe it... maybe not. It's possible that the only reason she looked twice at Terry in the first place was because he, Ron, hadn't said a word of admiration to her in five years.


Finally Ron leaned back down onto the blankets. He was now facing a very, very big choice- break down and tell Hermione, something he had been avoiding since the first time she showed her bucky teeth and annoyed him with her smarts... or risk not telling her and let her become involved with someone else. Again.


By comparison, Ron realized the last thing he wanted to do up until this moment was the thing he wanted most.




Starting a brand-spankin' new cluster of stories for new year. Should finish ones already posted fairly soon.