Chapter One- Happy Birthday, Hernia!
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Hermione Granger was staring out the window when Ginny Weasley, her best girl friend, walked in. Ginny came behind Hermione and rubbed her shoulder fondly.
"Are you alright?" Ginny asked, sympathetically.
"I'm okay, I suppose," Hermione answered, unconvincingly.
"It doesn't look that way. Do you want to talk about it?"
"Not especially." Hermione paused. "I've changed my mind. How, Ginny? How did I, Hermione Elise Granger, go from Bookworm Know-It-All to Skanky School Slut?"
"Things have a funny way of becoming better. Trust me, this is just a short chapter of your life. Maybe right now you can't see it, but one day you'll see that everything happens for a reason, and it all adds up to nothing in the end." Ginny warmly smiled at her friend. "Why don't you tell me how it all began?"
"It's a long story."
"That's alright. It's a Saturday. We have a while."
"Alright. It all started last year, my sixth year. I was the girl Gryffindor Prefect for the second year in a row, and Draco Malfoy was the reigning boy Prefect for Slytherin."
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It was the first day of school again. Hermione Granger arrived, like every other year, with Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, her two best friends. They sat through the never-ending sorting ceremony and welcome feast, and were sent back to their dormitories.
There was a Prefect Meeting scheduled at nine that Hermione was to attend, and it was only eight, so she said her hellos to Parvati, Lavender, Dean, Seamus and Neville, of whom she had not seen over the summer. At 8.55, she left, with Ron, his sister, Ginny, and Colin Creevey (who were the new 5th-year Prefects,) for the meeting.
The four entered and Ginny and Colin sat down, while Ron and Hermione said their hellos to their old Prefect friends from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, but were shushed when Professor Dumbledore walked in the room.
Dumbledore started to talk, when he was rudely interrupted by the four Slytherin Prefects who had walked in late.
"Draco Malfoy, Pansy Parkinson, Daisy Fuentes and Ferguson Bailey. Surely you realize that you are 3 minutes late?"
"Surely you realize that my watch has the correct time on it, and we are not late?" Draco said lightly, before sitting down.
"Surely you realize that all Prefects are expected to show up according to the Hogwarts times?"
"No, I did not, Professor."
"Well, 3 points off Slytherin each for the 3 minutes you were late."
"Yes, sir." Draco looked defeated.
"I told you we should've left early!" Pansy whispered to Draco.
"Shut up, Pansy."
"Don't talk to me like that!"
"To continue our meeting, where were we?" Dumbledore asked, more to himself than to the Prefects. "Oh, yes.
"Welcome, Prefects. Head Boy and Girl." He nodded to the two seventh year students who sat before them. "Robert Sledge and Cho Chang are here to make your jobs easier. They will be the leaders of the Prefects, and they worked hard for their positions." They all clapped, except for Draco, who seemed to have boycotted clapping for the night. "We have elected Robert and Cho with great expectations that they will be responsible individuals. As Heads of the student body, Robert and Cho will have to plan balls, if we have them," Draco snickered, Hermione rolled her eyes, "feasts, special privileges and Hogsmeade trips." He turned to them. "You have earned your ways into these titles with your skill, responsibility and leadership involving Witchcraft and Wizardry, and you will be required to obtain those things while holding the title, or else the title will, in fact, be taken away from you and passed down to the next worthy Prefect of Sixth Year. The same goes to the Prefects. Any questions?"
"Yes, Professor." Hermione raised her hand. "When will we be receiving a list of Prefect meetings and our hall-guarding schedules?"
"That is a very valid question, Miss Granger. One I was going to save until the end. Your schedules will be waiting for you on the desk in the Prefect Office. For those who don't know where that is, it's on the fifth floor corridor, and it has the Hogwarts crest on it, the word 'Prefect,' and will require a password."
"Which is?" Pansy asked, in her snotty voice.
"If you would kindly stop interrupting me, I shall tell you that it is 'Fizzing Whizbees.' You are all here to protect our school and make good choices as fifth, sixth and seventh year students. I would advise not to tell anyone the passwords to anything that does not concern them, or you will be punished severely."
"If caught in the act," Draco muttered under his breath to Pansy.
"Believe me, you'll be caught," Dumbledore said sharply. Pansy, who was tearing from Draco's oh-so-witty joke, burst into cackles of joy at Dumbledore's response to the words he wasn't supposed to hear.
Draco easily shut her up with a malicious stare, and Pansy didn't even smile for the rest of the meeting.
About five minutes later, when the three words, "You may disperse," left Dumbledore's mouth, Hermione stood up with Ron, Ginny and Colin and walked back to Gryffindor Tower.
On their way up the stairs, Ron insisted that Hermione come with him to the kitchens before retiring for the night, and when Ginny asked if she could come too, Ron said no, stating that he didn't want Colin coming.
So, Ron and Hermione were walking along towards the kitchen when Ron spoke.
"So, your birthday's tomorrow. What should I get you?"
"Oh, you don't have to get me anything. I'll be far too busy to celebrate. We start tomorrow."
"Oh, come on. There's always time to celebrate. Do you want... er... a toy for Crookshanks?"
"That's fine."
"Oh, come on. Help me out here. A new quill? Some parchment?"
That reminded her. "Oh God. I didn't get any new quills! How could I be so stupid?! Would you please get me quills?"
"Sure! Quills... nice, cheap and practical."
"Yes, I suppose," Hermione chuckled.
They reached the portrait of the bowl of fruit, and Ron tickled the banana, and they went inside and immediately the house elves flooded the room.
"Mr. Ron Weasel! Miss Hernia Granger!" they yelled, in delight. "Come, come!"
The house elves led Hermione and Ron to the back room. The same back room where Harry, Ron and Hermione found Winky sobbing in their fourth year. Except now, the room was decorated with banners that said 'Happy Birthday Hermione!' and had a table with two chairs in the middle. Ron led Hermione, who looked astounded, to the table. She sat down and took in her surroundings.
The room was lit by a warm fire with a red, velvet couch in front of it; their table was in back of the couch, with a velvety red tablecloth on it with tea and cookies waiting; the lighting was pretty dim, the only lights being the moon through the one window, and the fire; and the window had two comfy looking chairs in front of it.
Although her face most certainly showed the shock she was in, the only thing she was thinking was, "How did he plan this?"
"Oh, Ron! This is so sweet!"
"Yeah, it was bugger trying to explain to the house elves that your name was Hermione, instead of Hernia."
She laughed, and for the first time, she was calm and relaxed on her first day of school.
"So when did you do all this?" she asked.
"When you were saying your hellos I ran down here and I'll admit, the house elves did a lot of the work, and only because Harry was with me and Dobby went crazy.
"That's nice of you to credit them."
"Thank you."
"Mmm. Crumpets! I love Hogwarts crumpets!" She took a bite. "I've forgotten how good these were!"
Ron didn't say anything, just stared at her.
Hermione looked up, perplexed and feeling she had something on her face. She tried wiping the crumbs off, but there weren't any there. "What's wrong with my face? Is there something on it?"
"Oh no. It's just... you look... beautiful. Truly beautiful."
Hermione was awfully glad that the fire was so dim, otherwise he'd have seen her blush.
"Erm... thanks. Not so bad yourself." She took another bite of her crumpet, and bit down. There was something hard in it. Her tooth hurt. She spit out the unidentified object and saw it was a ring.
"Whoa... whoa whoa. Wait. You're not proposing to me, are you? I mean, I'm sorry to ruin the moment, but --"
"No! It's just a birthday gift. Hermione, come sit with me." He led Hermione to the chairs near the window. It was a rather cloudy night, with hardly any stars, but the moon still shimmered in Hermione's eyes, and Ron felt brave enough to say it. "Hermione... I have a confession to make. I love you. You're the most wittiest, most charming, most smartest girl I know, and I've liked you since about first year. I tried not to like you, especially in fourth year with Krum, but I still felt the same. It's always been you."
Hermione couldn't take it all in. She knew something had to be up. First of all, they were on a date for the first time without Harry. Secondly, the whole dim lighting gave a lot away, and thirdly, the ring gave a clue. But, after all that, she wasn't expecting this. She didn't even know if she loved him back. She didn't know what to say.
They sat there, staring at each other, for a minute or so, and Hermione, unsure about it, did the one thing she could think of.
She leaned forward, grabbed Ron's face in her hands and kissed him. It was like no kiss she had experienced before. The chemistry from her lips to his just melted them together into bliss. She felt like the only place she had ever been happy was in Ron's presence, and she couldn't remember anytime else. She wasn't sure about her feelings before, but now, she felt as if she could fly. She suddenly wished that ring was an engagement ring because she felt ready to give herself to Ron, to pledge her devoted love to the boy she had a crush on for six years. The kiss was everything she could have thought it to be and more.
And when their lips parted and Hermione took a deep breath and opened her eyes, Ron was obviously feeling the same way, because his eyes had yet to open as well. When they did, he stared deep into her eyes, and smiled.
Hermione felt like she was finally the boss. She could pretty much control Ron's life now by making the right or wrong moves. So, being the grand, old boss she was, she decided on an educated decision.
She was going to rock Ron Weasley's world.
She stood up from her chair, and finally turned the night around on Ron. She led HIM to the couch, where, sitting comfortably side by side, they got, pardon my French, freaky.
It started when Hermione kissed him again, over and over, each kiss feeling more and more intimate, when, of course, it moved further.
Hermione started by moving up Ron's jaw line with soft kisses, until she reached right below his ear. She then moved down to his neck, where she kissed and licked and pretty much sucked a few hickeys into. With each kiss, Ron let a little moan escape, until Hermione finally spoke up and said, "You know, you can be a gentleman. I don't want to do all the work."
Ron then went into action. He unfastened and took off his school robes, and loosened his tie, and then did the same to Hermione. Hermione unbuttoned Ron's shirt and got it off him, while he did the same to her.
He was just about to unfasten her bra, when she spoke.
"Wait! No, we can't do this. I mean, I'm only fifteen. Well, sixteen in a couple hours. But still, I can't."
Ron seemed to have come to his senses as well. "Yes, we're much too young, even more inexperienced. Not that being inexperienced matters."
Hermione nodded. She lay down so her head was on top of Ron's stomach and his back was against the arm of the couch. She kissed his stomach and lay her head down and closed her eyes.
"I love you, too, Ronald Weasley."
He patted her hair and grabbed his school robes from the floor. Using his robes as a blanket for her, Ron and Hermione slept half-naked together on the couch.
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"Wow, that sounds really romantic. For a second there, I thought you were going to explain to me all the details about sex with my brother." Ginny shuddered, exaggeratively.
"No, we never went all the way."
"Alright, that helps me get by the night with out losing my treacle fudge. So what happened next?"
"Well, there's still plenty to go, so get comfortable." Hermione moved over to her bed.
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A/N- Well, for those who read the other version of this story will be shocked. It's a lot different now, but next chapter will seem a lot more familiar. And all you Hr/D shippers (like myself) don't leave too quickly, now.
Love, Sully, Atty, or Whatever.