Okay, first of all, I am SORRY! But I've been three weeks without a
computer thanks to an exploded hard-drive and a very disagreeable computer
company! I am SORRY!!!!! Please, please still be interested!
This part is all R/H, so I hope you guys enjoy it! Remember to leave thoughts and suggestions!!!
Disclaimer: None of them are mine...
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He liked Hermione Granger.
And as a whole lot more than a friend.
Ron stood in semi-shock as this grand revelation hit him full force- so forcefully, in fact, that he was almost knocked over from the impact of it. He couldn't, wouldn't believe it. The whole idea of him, Ron Weasley, liking Hermione Granger, bossy, know-it-all, stick in the mud Hermione Granger was simply preposterous. The twins and Ginny- that's who he had to blame for this ridiculous notion. Them and Harry.
What did any of them know anyway? They were stupid, the whole lot of them.
They were the ones who kept insisting that he fancied Hermione. They were the ones who had spent the whole summer trying to trick him into some kind of embarrassing confession. Some untrue confession, of course! He didn't fancy Hermione because that would just be too. too weird!
She was Hermione, for crying out loud!
He'd known her for five years. He'd known her when she was still in her awkward stage- before she'd started turning various heads in her direction. He'd stood up for her when others had made fun of her or talked rudely about her behind her back. He'd been there for her when she was upset and had offered his shoulder to her on more than one occasion. Because that's what a friend did.
Bug if she was just a friend then why was all of that suddenly so much more important? Why did he spend so many nights lying in bed just thinking about her and the way she was suddenly becoming even more important to him than she had been before? And why had he recently caught himself staring at her profile as she leaned over her books and rapidly took notes on their teachers' lectures while he should have been taking his own notes? And why did he start noticing tiny little details about her that he'd never noticed before? Like the habit she had of pushing all but a single strand of hair away from her face and twirling that one strand thoughtfully while she read? Or the way she gently clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth while she checked over his and Harry's homework?
Bloody hell.
He did like her.
But. Oh, God. This was bad. How was he supposed to act? What was he supposed to say? And why did he have to notice this now, anyway? He couldn't have realized it when he was in the privacy of his dormitory or even when he was in Divination and worlds away from her Arithmancy classroom. No, it had to happen in the most inopportune of moments- when she was only inches away from him and brushing the back of his neck with the inside of her fingertips.
"Are you okay?" The sound of her voice brought him out of his momentary lapse in consciousness. He blinked and glanced down to see her staring up at him intently.
He did his very best to appear just fine. Quickly, he said, "Huh? Yeah, I'm fine."
But Hermione wasn't convinced. In a voice that sounded way too much like his mother, she said, "You look sick. I hope you haven't caught whatever Colin has."
"I'm not sick," he declared evenly.
However, his tone was simply not convincing enough. Hermione eyed him suspiciously before raising a hand to his forehead. Perhaps she didn't notice the way he tensed at the relocation of his hand because she said, "You're warm," quite sternly.
Ron prayed silently that she would remover her hand from his face. "I don't have a fever." His face was probably hot from the sheer embarrassment of the situation.
Hermione tutted softly at him before shrugging slightly and taking ther hand from his forehead to replace it against the back of his neck.
He couldn't help the shiver that shot down his spine.
******************************
Several dances later, Ron and Hermione had finally calmed down as best as was possible. In fact, the nervousness was nearly completely absent when Hermione peered around Ron's shoulder and squinted at a couple in the corner of the Great Hall. "Is that Lavender with Seamus?"
Ron turned his head to follow Hermione's gaze and grew very bewildered. "Yeah..."
Hermione stopped dancing and removed herself from Ron's arms to look around. Ron wanted to protest the sudden disconnection, but he didn't dare. Instead, he just followed her lead and looked around, too.
He looked into the corner where Lavender was currently perched on Seamus' lap. "They certainly look very interested in each other," he said fleetingly.
"Yeah," Hermione said sarcastically. "Interested in each other's tonsils."
Ron snickered but was secretly grateful for the dimmed lights so that Hermione couldn't see his blush- especially since he didn't even know exactly why he was blushing. It was true, though. Lavender and Seamus appeared to currently be attempting to inhale each other's tongues.
"I wonder where Harry is," he wondered aloud. Surely, he hadn't gone up to bed and left his date to Seamus. Didn't he have more sense than that?
Hermione shrugged and glanced in several directions. "I dunno." Suddenly, though, her gaze rested on what was unmistakably Harry... And Ginny Weasley. "Oh," she muttered quietly.
"Huh?" Ron looked around immediately and instantly followed Hermione's gaze to the appropriate target. "What the hell?!"
"Ron, hush," Hermione whispered. "Leave them alone."
The voice of reason was often ignored by Ron Weasley.
"What the hell is he doing to my little sister?!" He looked outraged. "What are they laughing about?!" He suddenly took on a very scandalized appearance. "And why the hell are his hands on her hips like that?!?"
He started to march right over to the couple in question, but was stopped by Hermione's grasp on the back of his robes. "Ron, stop," she commanded calmly. "They're just dancing."
"Just dancing?!" Ron looked as if she'd gone completely mad. "They certainly appear to be enjoying each other's company quite well!" It was true; Ginny and Harry were laughing very hard about something. "And he's not allowed to put his hands on my little sister!"
Hermione rolled her eyes and released her grasp on Ron's robes only to walk around and face him front to front. "So, they're laughing. Maybe he told her a joke."
"He's not allowed to tell my sister jokes!" Ron exclaimed heatedly.
"Ron, leave them alone," she said quickly. "They're only dancing. It's not like they're pulling a Lavender and Seamus."
This, of course, was the wrong thing to say because it put way too many images into Ron's head. "If he ever... Oh, my God, I'll kill him!"
Hermione, realizing that she was not going to get through to Ron any other way, slid her arms up and around his neck. "Dance with me," she requested. Then, smiling up at him very, very softly, she added, "Please."
This, of course, awakened Ron's other half- the half that was powered completely by teenage male hormones. Suddenly, he found himself quite incapable of imagining his best friend and little sister doing inappropriate things, and he realized that the only thing he could focus on was the fact that a very beautiful girl had her arms wrapped tightly around his neck and had her body in very, very close proximity to his own. Doing the only thing that made any sense at all, he wrapped his arms around her waist and said, "Okay."
Now that the original awkwardness of dancing together had passed, Ron and Hermione found themselves falling into a comfortable position rather quickly. Only, this comfortable position was much closer than the previous ones. Ron wrapped his arms tighter around her waist, and he felt Hermione's arms pull more concisely around his neck. It was at this moment that Ron began to revel in the sensations shooting through his body. It felt like every time they moved together, new sparks would shoot off and send him into a new rush of emotions. He noticed that they were so close that it seemed as though he could feel every single inch of his body pressed against his. And it felt nice. Very nice.
It was at that exact moment, though, that Ron realized quite instantly that if he could feel every inch of her body then she could feel every inch of his...
And there were certain biological reactions that he really did not want her to notice...
'Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God.'
This was the only coherent thought shooting through his mind as he frantically wondered what he was supposed to do. If he pulled away, she would think he was uncomfortable. It would make the situation painfully obvious. Of course, if he stayed pressed against her like this, the situation would only become more obvious. And more. And more. Deciding that if he pulled away just a few inches, he could break actual contact with her, he loosened his grip on her waist and backed up in what he hoped was a very inconspicuous way.
'Snape,' he thought frantically. 'Grandmum... Snape and Grandmum together. Naked.'
Okay, that took care of the situation.
Although he did feel just a bit sick at the imagery. Okay, 'just a bit' could easily have qualified for the understatement of the millennium.
"Ron, why do you look like you're going to throw up?"
Hermione's question jerked him out of his previous reverie. "Huh?" Then he realized that his sick feeling must have been reflected on his face. "Oh, it's nothing," he said quickly, careful not to make any sudden contact with her body and praying that she wouldn't check him for a fever yet again.
They'd stopped dancing, but they stood silently with one of her hands behind his neck and the other on his shoulder while both of his hands rested on the back of her waist for several moments. Finally, though, Hermione pulled away, and Ron found himself wishing she hadn't. He didn't dwell on this, though.
Especially when he felt her hand drop into his.
"Do you want to go for a walk?" she asked quietly, glancing up at him curiously.
Ron's brain was focused on the fact that Hermione Granger's hand was in his. More specifically on the fact that her hand fit into his so perfectly. Her hand was so tiny that he was positive that if he just tightened his grip a little, he could cover her hand completely with his own.
He decided to try it.
And he found that it worked quite well. He didn't meet Hermione's eye to see her reaction to the sudden tightness of his grasp; instead he answered her previous question.
"Sure. Okay."
He could sense Hermione smiling a little as she nodded gently and started toward the exit of the Great Hall, leading Ron behind her. Ron ignored the way his brothers were very obviously snickering and pointing at him; he ignored everything.
Except for the fact that Hermione had not yet removed her hand from his own.
Together, they left the Great Hall and headed out the front entrance. The darkness and still of the outside was a far cry from the loudness and hyperness that the Ball had held. There were no other students in sight, but Ron knew from last year that the bushes were undoubtedly filled with people interested in the same type of activity that Seamus and Lavender were currently engaged in.
For a very brief and fleeting moment, he wondered what it would be like to take Hermione into the bushes.
Of course, he quickly pushed this thought out of his head because it was quite absurd. Stupid, stupid teenage hormones. He would be glad when this whole bloody hell was over and he could go back to acting like a normal, rational human being who knew perfectly well that such thoughts about one's best friend were not only ludicrous but just a tad sickening.
Kissing Hermione would be like. kissing Ginny!
Because that's all she was when it came down to it. A substitute sister. A substitute sister who just happened to be very beautiful.
He mentally groaned at the horrid little thoughts floating through his brain.
"Is something wrong?"
Okay, obviously, his groan was not mental if Hermione had heard it. He looked up quickly and shook his head. "Uh, no. I'm fine."
Hermione raised an eyebrow at him but shrugged and tugged on his hand once again. "C'mon, I want to show you something."
Ron followed her for several more minutes until they were on the outskirts of the forest. "Hermione, we're not supposed to be down here," he said, uneasily glancing into the darkness of the forest.
Hermione turned to him with a bit of a smirk. "Since when are you a stickler for the rules, Weasley?" she asked playfully. "I thought that was my job."
He narrowed his eyes at her and decided to play along. "It is, Granger," he told her haughtily. "I just wanted to make sure you realized what you're doing before you find some way to blame it on me." Because if they got caught, it would undoubtedly be his fault.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "We're not going into the forest, Ron. Not the bad part anyway."
Bad part? The whole thing was bad as far as Ron was concerned. Hermione tugged him forward a little more, though, and he suddenly found himself engulfed in the trees and blackness of the forest. How the hell did she consider this the good part?
"Look," she said quietly, using her free hand to point a little to her left.
Ron followed her pointing finger and gasped a little in surprise. There was a small pond not too far before them. It wasn't a beautiful, cheery little pond by any means. But it was intriguing nonetheless. The moon was shining down on it brilliantly, and Ron noticed that there was a clearing in the trees that made it a little lighter than the rest of the forest.
"I didn't know there was a pond down here," he said absently as Hermione led him over to it.
"I don't think many people do," she said. "I found it that night back in first year when I had detention with Harry and Neville and Malfoy, and I came back to it a few days later to see if I could find it again. It's a really good thinking spot. Sometimes I come down here just to get away from everything else, you know?"
Ron nodded. "It looks really peaceful."
"It is," she said, nodding for effect. "Want to sit down?" she suggested and slid to the ground beside a tree without waiting for an answer.
Ron looked down at her for a minute, noticing that their hands were still connected. "You're going to get your dress robes filthy," he said with raised eyebrows.
Hermione shrugged. "I'm not that much of a girl, Ron," she said, rolling her eyes slightly.
He grinned a little and sat down beside her, leaning back against the tree behind them in the same fashion Hermione was doing. They sat in silence for several moments as Ron marveled at the way it felt to just be sitting alone with Hermione, so close, and holding her hand. It was nice. Extremely nice.
Finally, Hermione sighed softly, breaking the silence between them.
"What's wrong?" he asked, turning his head just a bit and viewing her profile. She was looking upwards, seemingly toward the sky.
Hermione gave a very small smile but didn't turn her head. "I was just thinking about how small we really are when it comes down to everything."
Ron was more than a bit bewildered by her statement, so he decided to ask for a little clarification. "Um, what?" he asked, not able to think of a more intelligent way to state his confusion.
Hermione giggled a little but still didn't turn to meet his eye. She just stared at the sky and said, "Well, sometimes I feel like we're supposed to be saving the world or something, you know?"
Ron did know. He felt the same way a lot of the time- especially with the whole prophecy thing now weighing on his mind.
"But then I come out here," she continued. "And I look at the sky, and everything just seems so big and so vast. And I can't even fathom how we're of any importance at all."
Ron stared at her for several more moments, simply basking in just how intelligent she really was. Then he slowly turned his own head upwards and looked at the sky. She was right. It did seem incredibly huge, stretching out for billions of miles in all directions. In somewhat awe, he slowly turned his head to look at her again. "How can you be that smart?" he asked seriously.
Hermione finally turned to him, a curious expression on her face. Then she broke into a smile and gave him a sort of half-laugh. "I guess I have a lot of practice," she said shrugging. "And I read a lot," she added fleetingly. "Did you know that the stars used to be the only type of Divination available? The answer to everything and every question was said to be hidden in the stars."
"No wonder Professor Sinistra likes them so much," Ron joked, still craning his neck, taking in the millions and millions of flecks of light decorating the dark sky..
Hermione laughed lightly before posing another question. "Where do you think they all come from?"
Ron turned his head slightly and looked at her in short confusion. "Where do I think what comes from?"
"The stars."
"Oh." Ron glanced back up at the sky and shrugged. "I dunno; I guess I just assume they've always been around."
He saw Hermione nod, and they sat in silence for a few moments. Finally, Hermione followed up with an even deeper query. "Do you believe in God?"
Ron was completely caught off-guard by this question and turned his head to look at her. To his surprise, she'd stopped staring at the sky and was staring back at him awaiting the answer to her question. The only problem was the fact that Ron didn't exactly have an answer. "I don't really know. I mean, I guess so, but it's not like I spend a whole lot of time thinking about it or what God means or anything like that." He raised an eyebrow at his female best friend. "Do you?"
She cast her eyes downward for a moment before looking back up and half- shrugging. "I don't know. I used to, of course. I mean, I was raised Catholic and went to Mass every single week until I came to Hogwarts. And then, you know, when I came to Hogwarts it was because I was a witch, and that's really sort of looked down upon by the Catholic religion." Ron was sure he saw a sarcastic little grin tugging at the corner of her lips, but she kept talking nonetheless. "But then, if there is a God, then it must have been God himself who made me a witch, and why would he do that?"
"So, you don't believe in God because you're a witch?" Ron was a tad bit confused, but he was trying to get the clarification he needed to make all of it fit together without being painfully obvious about it.
Hermione turned her eyes back to the sky. "Well, yes. And no." She sighed. "I don't know if I believe in God or not, but I don't really think that I do. At least not the Christian idea of God anyway."
Ron, who had never really been too interested in religion didn't really know much about Christianity, Catholicism, or any other faith that people had. "What is their idea of God?"
Hermione turned back to him and pushed a single ringlet out of her face. "They believe that God is all-knowing and all-powerful and that he loves all and forgives anyone who asks him for forgiveness. But I think that just asking something you've never seen for forgiveness is a little too easy; I think that when we do something wrong, we have to take the consequences by ourselves. I mean, scientific knowledge has told us that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. So, we should know this and deal with it here on Earth instead of just asking some, well, 'idea' for forgiveness and clearing our conscience."
Ron wasn't exactly sure what to say. After all, what response do you give to pure and utter brilliance? Hermione was simply too smart for her own good, and Ron listened carefully as she explained the rest of her feelings.
"And if God supposedly loves everyone, then why does he let such awful things happen to people?" She looked down at the ground and used the hand that was not still resting in Ron's to pick at the dying grass below her. "I mean, just take Harry for example. He's an orphan, and he didn't do anything to anybody. He was a baby!"
Ron, too, joined her gaze on the grass and waited for her to finish.
"And I just don't think that this great and loving and caring deity would be subjecting people all over the world to all the horrible things that are happening. Not just in our world but in the Muggle world, too. Things are really bad, and I just can't imagine why this God would do this to everyone."
Her voice faded away at the end, and Ron instinctively knew that she was finished. He simply allowed her sheer brilliance to flutter around them for several moments before finally breaking the thick silence and speaking. "Hermione, you think too much." It was a light-hearted response meant as a joke and taken as one.
Hermione laughed and shrugged. "I can't help it."
Ron watched her as she laughed and took in every feature of her delicate face as it was illuminated by the pale light of the moon. The revelation he'd had earlier about his not-so-friendly fancying of Hermione came back, and Ron cursed it. He didn't want to like her. He didn't want to think she was beautiful. He didn't want to wonder what it was like to kiss her.
The previous grin that had rested on his features faded as he realized what he'd just thought. It wasn't the first time he'd had the strange urge to kiss her; he'd felt the same way the night they'd spent in the girls' bathroom after he'd asked her to the Halloween Ball. It had scared him then, but it scared him even more now. That night a few weeks before, he'd blamed the whole thing on teenage hormones, but now he couldn't do that. Now, he realized that he'd want to kiss her even if he wasn't being tormented by teenage angst.
There were several problems with this, of course. The main one being that she quite clearly did not want to kiss him.
But as her laughter faded away, she turned to meet him with a rather breathtaking smile, and Ron couldn't help himself- he wanted to kiss her. Very much. And suddenly, just as her laughter faded away, so did her brilliant smile. It was almost as if she knew that he wanted to kiss her and maybe...
Maybe even wanted to kiss him back.
Ron took a deep breath as he stared very seriously into her eyes, asking, no begging her with his stare to just give him some sort of signal that he wasn't alone in this bloody torture. She didn't say anything; she didn't even nod. She simply bit down lightly on her lower lip and ran the thumb of the hand that was still in his over his knuckle gently.
Ron didn't know why, but this simple act gave him enough courage to take the next step. This might be the only chance they would ever get, and he was willing to take it.
He was going to kiss her.
However, the fates had other ideas in store, and just as he moved his head slightly forward, a loud clap of thunder was heard, causing him to jump and Hermione to squeak in shock. Just as quickly as the thunder had sounded, rain began to fall from the previously clear sky. The sudden downpour soaked them both immediately, and their eyes met in a silent agreement.
Ron immediately jumped to his feet, trying to duck under a tree and save himself from the rain. With his hand still connected to Hermione's, she, too, was pulled to her feet and under the tree.
The rain pounded down so heavily that they had to yell in order to be heard. Ron ducked his head a bit and yelled, "We have to get back!"
Hermione nodded, jumping again as a flash of lightning shot through the sky. Ron looked up at the illuminated sky and then started pulling her in the direction of outskirts of the forest. When they were almost back into the clearing of the grounds, though, Hermione stopped abruptly and grabbed onto Ron's arm with her fee hand, halting him as well. He turned to look at her curiously, squinting at her through the darkness and rain.
"Ron, wait!" she said frantically. "I... I..."
Ron shook his head, not understanding her and barely able to make her out through the storm. "What?"
Hermione paused and then shook her head. "Never mind!"
With that, she took off running, and Ron followed quickly, their hands still entwined with each other. Together, they raced back to the castle through the storm. They reached the entrance and, for some reason, didn't stop running until they reached the portrait hole to Gryffindor Tower. The ball was still going on, so there was no one else around. The Fat Lady peered at them curiously.
"What have you two been doing?" she asked haughtily. "You both look a mess!"
Ron rolled his eyes, and Hermione gave the password ("Snickerdoodle") in place of an answer. The Fat Lady tutted disapprovingly at them but swung open nonetheless. As they climbed into the Common Room, they both seemed to notice at the same time that they were still holding hands. Blushing, they dropped their grasp on each other and walked in awkward silence to the stairway that separated the boys' dorms from the girls'
"Well, I guess I'll see you in the morning." Hermione looked up shyly into Ron's eyes.
Ron, too, seemed to be suddenly bit by the 'shy bug' and nodded nervously. "Yeah."
There was an awkward pause in which both parties stared expectantly at the other, though neither was sure what they were quite expecting. Finally, Ron nodded and spoke again. "Right," he said with a swallow. "Goodnight."
Hermione barely raised one corner of her mouth and nodded a little. "Goodnight."
They stared at each other for another moment before at last turning to go their separate ways up the staircase. Just as Hermione turned her back, though, Ron called out to stop her.
"Hermione."
She turned around at the sound of her name and looked at him curiously. "Yes?"
Ron glanced down at the ground nervously before finally looking back up and saying, "Thanks for going with me."
Hermione raised both corners of her mouth this time and nodded. "I had a lot of fun."
Ron returned the smile hopefully. "Really?"
She nodded again. "Really." She grinned. "And thanks for asking me." With that, she raised herself onto the tips of her toes and pressed a small kiss against his cheek before lowering herself again and looking up at him.
Ron felt his cheeks blush a little, and then he did something he'd never done before. He leaned down a bit and placed his lips gently against her own cheek. When he raised back up, he gave her a quick smile and said, "Goodnight," before hurrying up the stairs to his dorm.
Hermione realized that her cheeks were burning slightly as she watched Ron's retreating back. When he disappeared around the corner of the staircase, she allowed the smile to return to her face, and she slowly raised a hand to the cheek he had just kissed and ran a finger over the space his lips had just been as if to check and see if it was real.
Satisfied that it was, in fact, real, she walked upstairs to her own dormitory in pursuit of a warm and peaceful shower.
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Okay, so kill me because it's not the real thing... But all in due time, people. All in due time!!!
I'd LOVE feedback! MUAH!
This part is all R/H, so I hope you guys enjoy it! Remember to leave thoughts and suggestions!!!
Disclaimer: None of them are mine...
**************************
He liked Hermione Granger.
And as a whole lot more than a friend.
Ron stood in semi-shock as this grand revelation hit him full force- so forcefully, in fact, that he was almost knocked over from the impact of it. He couldn't, wouldn't believe it. The whole idea of him, Ron Weasley, liking Hermione Granger, bossy, know-it-all, stick in the mud Hermione Granger was simply preposterous. The twins and Ginny- that's who he had to blame for this ridiculous notion. Them and Harry.
What did any of them know anyway? They were stupid, the whole lot of them.
They were the ones who kept insisting that he fancied Hermione. They were the ones who had spent the whole summer trying to trick him into some kind of embarrassing confession. Some untrue confession, of course! He didn't fancy Hermione because that would just be too. too weird!
She was Hermione, for crying out loud!
He'd known her for five years. He'd known her when she was still in her awkward stage- before she'd started turning various heads in her direction. He'd stood up for her when others had made fun of her or talked rudely about her behind her back. He'd been there for her when she was upset and had offered his shoulder to her on more than one occasion. Because that's what a friend did.
Bug if she was just a friend then why was all of that suddenly so much more important? Why did he spend so many nights lying in bed just thinking about her and the way she was suddenly becoming even more important to him than she had been before? And why had he recently caught himself staring at her profile as she leaned over her books and rapidly took notes on their teachers' lectures while he should have been taking his own notes? And why did he start noticing tiny little details about her that he'd never noticed before? Like the habit she had of pushing all but a single strand of hair away from her face and twirling that one strand thoughtfully while she read? Or the way she gently clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth while she checked over his and Harry's homework?
Bloody hell.
He did like her.
But. Oh, God. This was bad. How was he supposed to act? What was he supposed to say? And why did he have to notice this now, anyway? He couldn't have realized it when he was in the privacy of his dormitory or even when he was in Divination and worlds away from her Arithmancy classroom. No, it had to happen in the most inopportune of moments- when she was only inches away from him and brushing the back of his neck with the inside of her fingertips.
"Are you okay?" The sound of her voice brought him out of his momentary lapse in consciousness. He blinked and glanced down to see her staring up at him intently.
He did his very best to appear just fine. Quickly, he said, "Huh? Yeah, I'm fine."
But Hermione wasn't convinced. In a voice that sounded way too much like his mother, she said, "You look sick. I hope you haven't caught whatever Colin has."
"I'm not sick," he declared evenly.
However, his tone was simply not convincing enough. Hermione eyed him suspiciously before raising a hand to his forehead. Perhaps she didn't notice the way he tensed at the relocation of his hand because she said, "You're warm," quite sternly.
Ron prayed silently that she would remover her hand from his face. "I don't have a fever." His face was probably hot from the sheer embarrassment of the situation.
Hermione tutted softly at him before shrugging slightly and taking ther hand from his forehead to replace it against the back of his neck.
He couldn't help the shiver that shot down his spine.
******************************
Several dances later, Ron and Hermione had finally calmed down as best as was possible. In fact, the nervousness was nearly completely absent when Hermione peered around Ron's shoulder and squinted at a couple in the corner of the Great Hall. "Is that Lavender with Seamus?"
Ron turned his head to follow Hermione's gaze and grew very bewildered. "Yeah..."
Hermione stopped dancing and removed herself from Ron's arms to look around. Ron wanted to protest the sudden disconnection, but he didn't dare. Instead, he just followed her lead and looked around, too.
He looked into the corner where Lavender was currently perched on Seamus' lap. "They certainly look very interested in each other," he said fleetingly.
"Yeah," Hermione said sarcastically. "Interested in each other's tonsils."
Ron snickered but was secretly grateful for the dimmed lights so that Hermione couldn't see his blush- especially since he didn't even know exactly why he was blushing. It was true, though. Lavender and Seamus appeared to currently be attempting to inhale each other's tongues.
"I wonder where Harry is," he wondered aloud. Surely, he hadn't gone up to bed and left his date to Seamus. Didn't he have more sense than that?
Hermione shrugged and glanced in several directions. "I dunno." Suddenly, though, her gaze rested on what was unmistakably Harry... And Ginny Weasley. "Oh," she muttered quietly.
"Huh?" Ron looked around immediately and instantly followed Hermione's gaze to the appropriate target. "What the hell?!"
"Ron, hush," Hermione whispered. "Leave them alone."
The voice of reason was often ignored by Ron Weasley.
"What the hell is he doing to my little sister?!" He looked outraged. "What are they laughing about?!" He suddenly took on a very scandalized appearance. "And why the hell are his hands on her hips like that?!?"
He started to march right over to the couple in question, but was stopped by Hermione's grasp on the back of his robes. "Ron, stop," she commanded calmly. "They're just dancing."
"Just dancing?!" Ron looked as if she'd gone completely mad. "They certainly appear to be enjoying each other's company quite well!" It was true; Ginny and Harry were laughing very hard about something. "And he's not allowed to put his hands on my little sister!"
Hermione rolled her eyes and released her grasp on Ron's robes only to walk around and face him front to front. "So, they're laughing. Maybe he told her a joke."
"He's not allowed to tell my sister jokes!" Ron exclaimed heatedly.
"Ron, leave them alone," she said quickly. "They're only dancing. It's not like they're pulling a Lavender and Seamus."
This, of course, was the wrong thing to say because it put way too many images into Ron's head. "If he ever... Oh, my God, I'll kill him!"
Hermione, realizing that she was not going to get through to Ron any other way, slid her arms up and around his neck. "Dance with me," she requested. Then, smiling up at him very, very softly, she added, "Please."
This, of course, awakened Ron's other half- the half that was powered completely by teenage male hormones. Suddenly, he found himself quite incapable of imagining his best friend and little sister doing inappropriate things, and he realized that the only thing he could focus on was the fact that a very beautiful girl had her arms wrapped tightly around his neck and had her body in very, very close proximity to his own. Doing the only thing that made any sense at all, he wrapped his arms around her waist and said, "Okay."
Now that the original awkwardness of dancing together had passed, Ron and Hermione found themselves falling into a comfortable position rather quickly. Only, this comfortable position was much closer than the previous ones. Ron wrapped his arms tighter around her waist, and he felt Hermione's arms pull more concisely around his neck. It was at this moment that Ron began to revel in the sensations shooting through his body. It felt like every time they moved together, new sparks would shoot off and send him into a new rush of emotions. He noticed that they were so close that it seemed as though he could feel every single inch of his body pressed against his. And it felt nice. Very nice.
It was at that exact moment, though, that Ron realized quite instantly that if he could feel every inch of her body then she could feel every inch of his...
And there were certain biological reactions that he really did not want her to notice...
'Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God.'
This was the only coherent thought shooting through his mind as he frantically wondered what he was supposed to do. If he pulled away, she would think he was uncomfortable. It would make the situation painfully obvious. Of course, if he stayed pressed against her like this, the situation would only become more obvious. And more. And more. Deciding that if he pulled away just a few inches, he could break actual contact with her, he loosened his grip on her waist and backed up in what he hoped was a very inconspicuous way.
'Snape,' he thought frantically. 'Grandmum... Snape and Grandmum together. Naked.'
Okay, that took care of the situation.
Although he did feel just a bit sick at the imagery. Okay, 'just a bit' could easily have qualified for the understatement of the millennium.
"Ron, why do you look like you're going to throw up?"
Hermione's question jerked him out of his previous reverie. "Huh?" Then he realized that his sick feeling must have been reflected on his face. "Oh, it's nothing," he said quickly, careful not to make any sudden contact with her body and praying that she wouldn't check him for a fever yet again.
They'd stopped dancing, but they stood silently with one of her hands behind his neck and the other on his shoulder while both of his hands rested on the back of her waist for several moments. Finally, though, Hermione pulled away, and Ron found himself wishing she hadn't. He didn't dwell on this, though.
Especially when he felt her hand drop into his.
"Do you want to go for a walk?" she asked quietly, glancing up at him curiously.
Ron's brain was focused on the fact that Hermione Granger's hand was in his. More specifically on the fact that her hand fit into his so perfectly. Her hand was so tiny that he was positive that if he just tightened his grip a little, he could cover her hand completely with his own.
He decided to try it.
And he found that it worked quite well. He didn't meet Hermione's eye to see her reaction to the sudden tightness of his grasp; instead he answered her previous question.
"Sure. Okay."
He could sense Hermione smiling a little as she nodded gently and started toward the exit of the Great Hall, leading Ron behind her. Ron ignored the way his brothers were very obviously snickering and pointing at him; he ignored everything.
Except for the fact that Hermione had not yet removed her hand from his own.
Together, they left the Great Hall and headed out the front entrance. The darkness and still of the outside was a far cry from the loudness and hyperness that the Ball had held. There were no other students in sight, but Ron knew from last year that the bushes were undoubtedly filled with people interested in the same type of activity that Seamus and Lavender were currently engaged in.
For a very brief and fleeting moment, he wondered what it would be like to take Hermione into the bushes.
Of course, he quickly pushed this thought out of his head because it was quite absurd. Stupid, stupid teenage hormones. He would be glad when this whole bloody hell was over and he could go back to acting like a normal, rational human being who knew perfectly well that such thoughts about one's best friend were not only ludicrous but just a tad sickening.
Kissing Hermione would be like. kissing Ginny!
Because that's all she was when it came down to it. A substitute sister. A substitute sister who just happened to be very beautiful.
He mentally groaned at the horrid little thoughts floating through his brain.
"Is something wrong?"
Okay, obviously, his groan was not mental if Hermione had heard it. He looked up quickly and shook his head. "Uh, no. I'm fine."
Hermione raised an eyebrow at him but shrugged and tugged on his hand once again. "C'mon, I want to show you something."
Ron followed her for several more minutes until they were on the outskirts of the forest. "Hermione, we're not supposed to be down here," he said, uneasily glancing into the darkness of the forest.
Hermione turned to him with a bit of a smirk. "Since when are you a stickler for the rules, Weasley?" she asked playfully. "I thought that was my job."
He narrowed his eyes at her and decided to play along. "It is, Granger," he told her haughtily. "I just wanted to make sure you realized what you're doing before you find some way to blame it on me." Because if they got caught, it would undoubtedly be his fault.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "We're not going into the forest, Ron. Not the bad part anyway."
Bad part? The whole thing was bad as far as Ron was concerned. Hermione tugged him forward a little more, though, and he suddenly found himself engulfed in the trees and blackness of the forest. How the hell did she consider this the good part?
"Look," she said quietly, using her free hand to point a little to her left.
Ron followed her pointing finger and gasped a little in surprise. There was a small pond not too far before them. It wasn't a beautiful, cheery little pond by any means. But it was intriguing nonetheless. The moon was shining down on it brilliantly, and Ron noticed that there was a clearing in the trees that made it a little lighter than the rest of the forest.
"I didn't know there was a pond down here," he said absently as Hermione led him over to it.
"I don't think many people do," she said. "I found it that night back in first year when I had detention with Harry and Neville and Malfoy, and I came back to it a few days later to see if I could find it again. It's a really good thinking spot. Sometimes I come down here just to get away from everything else, you know?"
Ron nodded. "It looks really peaceful."
"It is," she said, nodding for effect. "Want to sit down?" she suggested and slid to the ground beside a tree without waiting for an answer.
Ron looked down at her for a minute, noticing that their hands were still connected. "You're going to get your dress robes filthy," he said with raised eyebrows.
Hermione shrugged. "I'm not that much of a girl, Ron," she said, rolling her eyes slightly.
He grinned a little and sat down beside her, leaning back against the tree behind them in the same fashion Hermione was doing. They sat in silence for several moments as Ron marveled at the way it felt to just be sitting alone with Hermione, so close, and holding her hand. It was nice. Extremely nice.
Finally, Hermione sighed softly, breaking the silence between them.
"What's wrong?" he asked, turning his head just a bit and viewing her profile. She was looking upwards, seemingly toward the sky.
Hermione gave a very small smile but didn't turn her head. "I was just thinking about how small we really are when it comes down to everything."
Ron was more than a bit bewildered by her statement, so he decided to ask for a little clarification. "Um, what?" he asked, not able to think of a more intelligent way to state his confusion.
Hermione giggled a little but still didn't turn to meet his eye. She just stared at the sky and said, "Well, sometimes I feel like we're supposed to be saving the world or something, you know?"
Ron did know. He felt the same way a lot of the time- especially with the whole prophecy thing now weighing on his mind.
"But then I come out here," she continued. "And I look at the sky, and everything just seems so big and so vast. And I can't even fathom how we're of any importance at all."
Ron stared at her for several more moments, simply basking in just how intelligent she really was. Then he slowly turned his own head upwards and looked at the sky. She was right. It did seem incredibly huge, stretching out for billions of miles in all directions. In somewhat awe, he slowly turned his head to look at her again. "How can you be that smart?" he asked seriously.
Hermione finally turned to him, a curious expression on her face. Then she broke into a smile and gave him a sort of half-laugh. "I guess I have a lot of practice," she said shrugging. "And I read a lot," she added fleetingly. "Did you know that the stars used to be the only type of Divination available? The answer to everything and every question was said to be hidden in the stars."
"No wonder Professor Sinistra likes them so much," Ron joked, still craning his neck, taking in the millions and millions of flecks of light decorating the dark sky..
Hermione laughed lightly before posing another question. "Where do you think they all come from?"
Ron turned his head slightly and looked at her in short confusion. "Where do I think what comes from?"
"The stars."
"Oh." Ron glanced back up at the sky and shrugged. "I dunno; I guess I just assume they've always been around."
He saw Hermione nod, and they sat in silence for a few moments. Finally, Hermione followed up with an even deeper query. "Do you believe in God?"
Ron was completely caught off-guard by this question and turned his head to look at her. To his surprise, she'd stopped staring at the sky and was staring back at him awaiting the answer to her question. The only problem was the fact that Ron didn't exactly have an answer. "I don't really know. I mean, I guess so, but it's not like I spend a whole lot of time thinking about it or what God means or anything like that." He raised an eyebrow at his female best friend. "Do you?"
She cast her eyes downward for a moment before looking back up and half- shrugging. "I don't know. I used to, of course. I mean, I was raised Catholic and went to Mass every single week until I came to Hogwarts. And then, you know, when I came to Hogwarts it was because I was a witch, and that's really sort of looked down upon by the Catholic religion." Ron was sure he saw a sarcastic little grin tugging at the corner of her lips, but she kept talking nonetheless. "But then, if there is a God, then it must have been God himself who made me a witch, and why would he do that?"
"So, you don't believe in God because you're a witch?" Ron was a tad bit confused, but he was trying to get the clarification he needed to make all of it fit together without being painfully obvious about it.
Hermione turned her eyes back to the sky. "Well, yes. And no." She sighed. "I don't know if I believe in God or not, but I don't really think that I do. At least not the Christian idea of God anyway."
Ron, who had never really been too interested in religion didn't really know much about Christianity, Catholicism, or any other faith that people had. "What is their idea of God?"
Hermione turned back to him and pushed a single ringlet out of her face. "They believe that God is all-knowing and all-powerful and that he loves all and forgives anyone who asks him for forgiveness. But I think that just asking something you've never seen for forgiveness is a little too easy; I think that when we do something wrong, we have to take the consequences by ourselves. I mean, scientific knowledge has told us that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. So, we should know this and deal with it here on Earth instead of just asking some, well, 'idea' for forgiveness and clearing our conscience."
Ron wasn't exactly sure what to say. After all, what response do you give to pure and utter brilliance? Hermione was simply too smart for her own good, and Ron listened carefully as she explained the rest of her feelings.
"And if God supposedly loves everyone, then why does he let such awful things happen to people?" She looked down at the ground and used the hand that was not still resting in Ron's to pick at the dying grass below her. "I mean, just take Harry for example. He's an orphan, and he didn't do anything to anybody. He was a baby!"
Ron, too, joined her gaze on the grass and waited for her to finish.
"And I just don't think that this great and loving and caring deity would be subjecting people all over the world to all the horrible things that are happening. Not just in our world but in the Muggle world, too. Things are really bad, and I just can't imagine why this God would do this to everyone."
Her voice faded away at the end, and Ron instinctively knew that she was finished. He simply allowed her sheer brilliance to flutter around them for several moments before finally breaking the thick silence and speaking. "Hermione, you think too much." It was a light-hearted response meant as a joke and taken as one.
Hermione laughed and shrugged. "I can't help it."
Ron watched her as she laughed and took in every feature of her delicate face as it was illuminated by the pale light of the moon. The revelation he'd had earlier about his not-so-friendly fancying of Hermione came back, and Ron cursed it. He didn't want to like her. He didn't want to think she was beautiful. He didn't want to wonder what it was like to kiss her.
The previous grin that had rested on his features faded as he realized what he'd just thought. It wasn't the first time he'd had the strange urge to kiss her; he'd felt the same way the night they'd spent in the girls' bathroom after he'd asked her to the Halloween Ball. It had scared him then, but it scared him even more now. That night a few weeks before, he'd blamed the whole thing on teenage hormones, but now he couldn't do that. Now, he realized that he'd want to kiss her even if he wasn't being tormented by teenage angst.
There were several problems with this, of course. The main one being that she quite clearly did not want to kiss him.
But as her laughter faded away, she turned to meet him with a rather breathtaking smile, and Ron couldn't help himself- he wanted to kiss her. Very much. And suddenly, just as her laughter faded away, so did her brilliant smile. It was almost as if she knew that he wanted to kiss her and maybe...
Maybe even wanted to kiss him back.
Ron took a deep breath as he stared very seriously into her eyes, asking, no begging her with his stare to just give him some sort of signal that he wasn't alone in this bloody torture. She didn't say anything; she didn't even nod. She simply bit down lightly on her lower lip and ran the thumb of the hand that was still in his over his knuckle gently.
Ron didn't know why, but this simple act gave him enough courage to take the next step. This might be the only chance they would ever get, and he was willing to take it.
He was going to kiss her.
However, the fates had other ideas in store, and just as he moved his head slightly forward, a loud clap of thunder was heard, causing him to jump and Hermione to squeak in shock. Just as quickly as the thunder had sounded, rain began to fall from the previously clear sky. The sudden downpour soaked them both immediately, and their eyes met in a silent agreement.
Ron immediately jumped to his feet, trying to duck under a tree and save himself from the rain. With his hand still connected to Hermione's, she, too, was pulled to her feet and under the tree.
The rain pounded down so heavily that they had to yell in order to be heard. Ron ducked his head a bit and yelled, "We have to get back!"
Hermione nodded, jumping again as a flash of lightning shot through the sky. Ron looked up at the illuminated sky and then started pulling her in the direction of outskirts of the forest. When they were almost back into the clearing of the grounds, though, Hermione stopped abruptly and grabbed onto Ron's arm with her fee hand, halting him as well. He turned to look at her curiously, squinting at her through the darkness and rain.
"Ron, wait!" she said frantically. "I... I..."
Ron shook his head, not understanding her and barely able to make her out through the storm. "What?"
Hermione paused and then shook her head. "Never mind!"
With that, she took off running, and Ron followed quickly, their hands still entwined with each other. Together, they raced back to the castle through the storm. They reached the entrance and, for some reason, didn't stop running until they reached the portrait hole to Gryffindor Tower. The ball was still going on, so there was no one else around. The Fat Lady peered at them curiously.
"What have you two been doing?" she asked haughtily. "You both look a mess!"
Ron rolled his eyes, and Hermione gave the password ("Snickerdoodle") in place of an answer. The Fat Lady tutted disapprovingly at them but swung open nonetheless. As they climbed into the Common Room, they both seemed to notice at the same time that they were still holding hands. Blushing, they dropped their grasp on each other and walked in awkward silence to the stairway that separated the boys' dorms from the girls'
"Well, I guess I'll see you in the morning." Hermione looked up shyly into Ron's eyes.
Ron, too, seemed to be suddenly bit by the 'shy bug' and nodded nervously. "Yeah."
There was an awkward pause in which both parties stared expectantly at the other, though neither was sure what they were quite expecting. Finally, Ron nodded and spoke again. "Right," he said with a swallow. "Goodnight."
Hermione barely raised one corner of her mouth and nodded a little. "Goodnight."
They stared at each other for another moment before at last turning to go their separate ways up the staircase. Just as Hermione turned her back, though, Ron called out to stop her.
"Hermione."
She turned around at the sound of her name and looked at him curiously. "Yes?"
Ron glanced down at the ground nervously before finally looking back up and saying, "Thanks for going with me."
Hermione raised both corners of her mouth this time and nodded. "I had a lot of fun."
Ron returned the smile hopefully. "Really?"
She nodded again. "Really." She grinned. "And thanks for asking me." With that, she raised herself onto the tips of her toes and pressed a small kiss against his cheek before lowering herself again and looking up at him.
Ron felt his cheeks blush a little, and then he did something he'd never done before. He leaned down a bit and placed his lips gently against her own cheek. When he raised back up, he gave her a quick smile and said, "Goodnight," before hurrying up the stairs to his dorm.
Hermione realized that her cheeks were burning slightly as she watched Ron's retreating back. When he disappeared around the corner of the staircase, she allowed the smile to return to her face, and she slowly raised a hand to the cheek he had just kissed and ran a finger over the space his lips had just been as if to check and see if it was real.
Satisfied that it was, in fact, real, she walked upstairs to her own dormitory in pursuit of a warm and peaceful shower.
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Okay, so kill me because it's not the real thing... But all in due time, people. All in due time!!!
I'd LOVE feedback! MUAH!
