A/N: THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!!!!

Dislcaimer: None of them belong to me. I don't think it's ever going to change, either..

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Three days later, Hermione's hometown was hit with a snowstorm that could rival any of those experienced on the Scotland grounds of Hogwarts. It was one of those storms so big that had it not been Christmas holiday, all of the local schools would have been cancelled. As it was, her mother and father were both detained in their city office until the roads were cleared. They'd called and apologized for having to cancel on the early afternoon that they'd promised. Hermione had tried her very best to sound upset by the news that her parents wouldn't be home early enough to take them all out to a late lunch; however, she was actually quite pleased that they were being forced to stay out for a bit longer.

It definitely gave her more time to research her new favorite subject.

Ron's lips.

It had been three nights ago that they'd shared their first kiss in her bedroom. The memory of it still surpassed all monumental moments in her life, including the afternoon she received the most curious piece of mail she'd ever gotten- from an owl two months before her eleventh birthday. Even realizing that she wasn't merely a freak who "accidentally" made things happen without really meaning to couldn't beat out the way it felt to kiss Ron Weasley.

Not that they had really done an awful lot of kissing... It had been more like a few stolen kisses here and there whenever no one else was around. Hermione sighed every time she thought about it; it was terribly romantic, in her opinion. They weren't rushing into anything at all; it was all so sweet and simply so innocent that she could barely stop herself from writing owls to Lavender and Parvati just to gush about the tingly feelings she kept getting whenever he was close by. Of course, it took only a second each time she had this urge to get over it; she certainly wasn't about to go spilling any secrets to Lavender Brown or Parvati Patil, but she knew that both of her roommates would go insane "Awing" over it all.

She just couldn't quite describe it. It was like finally finding the exact spot in front of the fire to keep you just the right amount of warm- not too hot but definitely not too cold. It was just amazing- there was no other word to accurately describe it. How she had known Ron Weasley for five years and never given into any of this before was a mystery beyond her logic. He was so adorably sweet that she honestly didn't know how she'd denied it for so long.

Just everything about the situation was truly, truly magical.

They hadn't yet resorted to pulling a Gia and Harry, who, by the way, were now just as bad as Lavender and Seamus. It seemed like they simply didn't care if everyone in the world sat around and watched them snog for hours on end. Hermione often wondered if they'd ever even had a conversation that went beyond the word, "Hello." She certainly didn't see them spending too much time on anything that might be considered intellectual conversation. She couldn't help but be amused, though, at how differently Harry was acting now. Of course, much of this was a rather rude sarcasm, but he was also insanely carefree. He most definitely would never sit around Hogwarts and make out with a girl in public, as he hated any and all attention he got there unless it was on the Quidditch Pitch. Here, however, he didn't seem to mind one bit if anyone saw him literally groping the curly headed blonde he'd only just met a few weeks ago. Hermione was quite sure that he was going to have a horrible time once he had to leave and go back to school in a week. When she'd pointed this out to Ron, he'd simply shrugged and muttered something about there being ways to take care of that before turning a brilliant shade of red and looking quite shocked at himself. It had taken Hermione a few seconds to register what he'd said before she, too, turned red; however, the second their eyes had met, they'd erupted into a fit of giggles that only insanely hormonal fifteen year olds whose thoughts were occupied nearly every minute of the day by thoughts having to do with things in that general area of subject matter could.

But things weren't like that between herself and Ron. They didn't need to spend twenty-three hours of the day making out like crazy to get satisfied. It was the small things that made her simply melt inside. It was the way they would kiss briefly outside of her bedroom door each night before going to sleep. It was the way he would sometimes reach for her hand under the dinner table and send her a shy grin before they each did their best to busy themselves with their plates. It was the way he would tuck her hair behind her ear when she was too engrossed in a book to notice that it had fallen into her face. It was all of those little things that made everything just perfect.

And the way he kissed her was so beautiful that she couldn't think of one single reason why she'd never kissed him before. She didn't have too much experience in the subject, but she was perfectly pleased with the way things were transpiring. Of course, the fact that she had so little experience might have been what made everything so right. She'd only kissed one other person before, and kissing Ron was a world and half away from kissing Viktor Krum. For one thing, Viktor had never squeezed her hand gently and tenderly before leaning in for a kiss. And for another thing, Ron certainly hadn't shoved his tongue down her throat like Viktor had. Her first kiss had been nearly disastrous- so much, in fact, that she would just have assumed blocked it from her mind entirely. Viktor had grabbed her shoulders and kissed her without warning; it had been so much of a shock that Hermione had nearly bit him as he tried to, what seemed like, lick her tonsils. She'd never kissed anyone before and had absolutely no idea what to do, so she'd opted to just sit there and try not to vomit; it was extremely difficult. Viktor had kissed her a few more times after that, but she'd always just squeezed her eyes shut and tried desperately not to focus on how incredibly stupid she felt.

It couldn't have been more different with Ron.

She had been Ron's first kiss. This knowledge gave her a somewhat powerful sort of feeling but mostly sent her into her own little episode of "Awing." Kissing him gave her a sense of security that she'd never had while kissing Viktor. With Viktor, she'd been far too obsessed with trying to pretend that she wasn't as clueless as she really was. With Ron, she could completely be herself without having to pretend anything. They were learning together, which, in itself, was the biggest "awe" factor of all.

She was quite content with taking things slowly and sweetly. She wanted to savor each and every moment of these early stages of romance; it was beautiful. However, there was this little nagging part of her brain that wanted to know if the type of kissing Viktor was so fond of could actually be somewhat pleasurable instead of rather sickening. So, on the afternoon that her parents definitely wouldn't be back anytime soon, she decided to do a little bit of research on the subject.

Harry was off with Gia, of course, and probably wouldn't be back until sometime late, late that night. Mr. and Mrs. Granger were stuck at their office. And Hermione was sitting on the sofa curled under a blanket with Ron and watching some program on television that she had never seen before. Of course, she really wasn't seeing too much of it then, either; she was more concerned with the way her knees were actually on top of Ron's as she sat with her feet pulled over to one side on the couch. Ron, however, seemed quite intrigued by the program (as he was with everything having to do with television) and didn't bother to look up until she courageously and slyly tucked one of her hands under her knees and on top of Ron's leg. His head turned in her direction, and she offered up her most innocent and shy smile; he looked at her for a moment before grinning back at her.

It was his adorable grin that gave her all the push that she needed to jump into her experiment.

As conspicuously as possible, she carefully scooted just a bit closer to him and pulled the blanket just a bit tighter across them, snuggling her head under his chin as she shifted. She smiled softly to herself as she felt Ron, too, shift positions to accommodate her before reaching an arm behind her and tucking it around her waist. After reveling for a few moments at how perfectly she seemed to fit into his arms, she decided to proceed with her experiment. Tilting her head up just slightly, she kissed his cheek very gently, letting her lips linger against his skin for just a moment longer than necessary.

Ron turned his head to look at her when she pulled back. Flashing him a quick little grin, she leaned in just enough to kiss him quickly against the lips. Apparently, this was all the convincing Ron needed that the television program wasn't really as interesting as it had originally appeared. Smiling back at her, he reached across her with his free hand and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, letting his hand stay on her face as he brought his face to hers for another kiss. Before they pulled away, though, the single kiss turned into three mini-kisses right in a row; they allowed the final one to last a few moments longer than the others, though, and pulled apart with identical smiles on their faces.

For a long minute, they simply looked at each with shy little grins playing on their lips. She couldn't help but feel all giddy from the way that he stared at her so intently, as if he were trying to memorize her for future reference. When he spoke, his voice sounded strangely awed.

"Did you know that your eyes and your hair are exactly the same color?"

He certainly knew the right things to say at the right times. It was a simple observation, but it made her feel absolutely adored in every way; just the fact that he had actually noticed something so detailed about her was enough to make her giggle with glee.

In a teasing tone, she said, "Well, it's a good thing your eyes aren't the same color as your hair. If they were, I'd be a bit worried... Red eyes are usually not a good thing."

Ron laughed. "Well, what if my hair were blue and matched my eyes?" he questioned with raised eyebrows.

Hermione pretended to ponder this for a second. "Hmm... You know, I bet Fred and George could come up with something to test that out."

Ron just smirked rather triumphantly. "Wouldn't work on me!" he said with a shrug. "Weasley immunity, remember? There's at least one good thing about sharing their blood..."

"You don't honestly believe that, do you?" she asked suspiciously. "You really don't think they'd slip something to you and just have you think you were immune to it?"

" 'Course I don't believe it," he said obviously. "I don't trust those two any further than I can throw them- and, trust me, they weigh more than I do." He got a rather reminiscent look on his face. "I haven't trusted them since I was seven years old and they told me that Mum was hiding my birthday presents in the attic." Hermione looked at him a bit curiously, so he finished the explanation. "Of course, they locked me up there, and the ghoul entertained itself for the four hours it took Dad to find me by throwing various sharp objects at me. And do you even know how many spiders hide in dark attics?" He broke off, visibly shuddering in a not-at- all-exaggerated manner.

Hermione put a hand over her mouth to keep from giggling at the story. When she finally managed to get a straight face, she said, "Well, did you at least get to peek at your presents?"

Ron rolled his eyes. "It was May... My birthday wasn't for another ten months; there were no presents."

Hermione gave up on fighting the giggles and laughed right out. Ron tried to look offended but didn't succeed at all. He ended up laughing with her but telling her to shut up in between snickers.

And just as he got caught up in the laughter, she quickly pressed her lips tightly against his.

He was obviously shocked by the sudden change, but he relaxed into the kiss quite quickly. It was a bit different from their previous soft kisses, but she noted quite happily that he didn't freeze up when she carefully moved her lips over his; in fact, he even responded a bit by tilting his head just barely and giving her a better position to deepen the kiss a little. Feeling that she could get caught up in this quite quickly, Hermione raised a hand and placed it gently against the side of his neck, brushing her fingertips up and down the corner between his neck and shoulder. She felt rather than heard the soft sigh that he gave as he settled back further into the couch, turning his body just barely so that he was facing her at an easier angle, and she brought her free hand up to his shoulder when she felt his arms tighten just a tad around her waist.

She knew vaguely what she was supposed to do, but she relied mostly on her instincts as she decided to put her experiment to the test. Breaking contact with his lips for a split second, she returned to the kiss with her own lips just slightly parted. They were opened in such a way that she managed to somehow catch his upper lip between her own; it wasn't exactly what she'd planned, but it was interesting nonetheless. She noticed that Ron seemed to be following her plan of going on instinct. In fact, he was doing such a good job of following his instincts that he somehow managed to catch her lower lip in a split second release from the kiss. As he did, her lips parted once again, and she shivered when she felt the outside of his lip come into very slight contact with her tongue. She felt him jerk slightly at the contact, as well, and he pulled away just slightly to look at her. It was, by far, the most involved kiss that they'd shared, and he looked a little apprehensive and just the tiniest bit nervous.

Hermione thought she'd never seen anything more adorable.

Biting down on her own lip just a little, she flashed him a shy little smile before carefully running a hand through his messy hair and letting both of her palms rest against the back of his neck. He watched her as she leaned forward and kissed him again, this time carefully letting her tongue just barely slip through and brush against the outside of his lips. It was all instinct, but it also felt incredibly natural- as if she'd been doing this for ages. However, she half-expected Ron to pull away from her.

He didn't.

Instead, he, too, followed his instincts and, not knowing anything more logical to do, opened his own mouth just a bit. Hermione was beyond thankful that he didn't take both of their open mouths as an opportunity to choke her with his tongue, as had been the last experience she'd had with such a kiss.

This was the complete opposite of shocking and sickening, though.

As they were both quite inexperienced, they took a long and slow time exploring the kiss and everything that went with it. Hermione felt her eyes close as Ron's tongue slowly slid over the top of hers at the exact same moment as his hand slid slowly up her back to rest in the back of her hair. All of the feelings rushing through her were amazing; there were the obvious 'wanting' feelings that she was quite familiar with and had come to know even better over the past few days. But there was so much more.

She felt all warm and comfortable and adored and just perfect.

It was amazing.

After pulling out of the kiss, they exchanged a few tiny kisses before pulling away and looking at each other. There was something new between them now, and the knowing smiles on both of their faces proved this point perfectly.

Hermione could feel that the same blush she saw coloring Ron's cheeks was mirrored on her own. However, they weren't turning red from embarrassment; it was something else all together.

Ron smoothed down the back of her hair gently and flashed her one more of the lopsided grins she fell apart for. Quietly, he muttered the one word she was thinking of.

"Wow."

Feeling quite satisfied that her experiment had been successful and counting on the opportunity for much, much more research, Hermione quickly kissed his cheek and settled back into his arms without another word. She smiled to herself as she felt his arms once again tighten around her as she leaned her head back against his chest.

One thing was for sure.

She could definitely get used to this.

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Okay, I know this one was a bit shorter, but I needed to get it out here before I leave to go out of town. Yeah, I'll be gone until either Sunday or Monday, as it's Thanksgiving holiday.

I will be back, though, you can count on that!

And, as always, I adore feedback!!!!!!

PS- To Maddie Lupin, who mentioned the article in MAD Magazine. Hahaha, I was laughing so hard I thought I was going to throw up! Especially at the whole, "Careful, Dobby. That's not just any old sock. Don't forget that this school only has same-sex dormitory. That's my long, cold, lonely semester sock." Or whatever the exact quote was; you know what I'm talking about. It was hilarious!