A/N: And, so the revisions continue. That's two down! Yeah! I rule! Isn't this chapter wonderful? Ah, the fluff. 'Ah, the plot that comes next chapter!' I hear you scream.
The red head looked around, his eyes meeting mine. He seemed unsure of whether he wanted to run away screaming or greet me like an old friend. I took him and myself by surprise and dashed up to give him a pleasant hug. He smelled really good, like he always had back in the days when we were all friends.
His face registered shock for a moment, but he quickly returned my smile. "Hermione, it's so great to see you," he said warmly.
"Yeah, it seems like it's been forever."
"Well, it has, hasn't it?" Ron went on. I nodded, rather reluctantly.
"How are you doing then?" I asked.
"Oh, pretty good. And you?"
"Well, I'm actually off to France in a couple of days to travel and learn." The conversation seemed friendly enough, but it was very curt. We, that all those years ago had been the best of friends, now had trouble making comfortable conversation.
"That should be...er- interesting."
"Yeah." We looked around, feeling the awkward tension dripping off every word. "So," I said, keen to keep the conversation normal. "How is your family doing?"
"Oh, pretty- pretty well. Ginny's getting ready for her last year of school even though she looked into graduating early, she decided against it. Nothing else too much."
"Really," I pressed on, "Well, why are you in Diagon Alley?"
"Just to be alone for a little while, think about a career, spend some time out on my own, meet up with some old friends," Ron explained quietly.
"Just about the same goes for me," I told him. "Wanted to get out, buy some new stuff, say hi to my friends...I actually visited with Fred and George for a while yesterday."
"Oh, cool," Ron said, nodding. "You want to walk with me? I was just heading up to Madame Malkin's to get some new robes. I got sick of black." I agreed and followed him as we set off up the street.
"How about maroon?" I suggested innocently, as we turned a corner.
He blanched. "Ugh- anything but would be fine."
"Remember your dress robes?" I asked, giggling lightly.
"Oh, God, yes. Who could forget those?"
"They were rather horrible, weren't they?" I said, and we both laughed hard. Then, meeting each other's gaze stopped abruptly. It was odd to think about the old times. It was uncomfortable, and even painful to remember what had been.
"Yes, well, gone now, aren't they?" he said, bringing the conversation back to a normal pace.
"You got a haircut," I commented after a moment, fingering his ginger locks. "I wasn't sure it was you for a moment." I took my hand quickly from his hair as he looked at me. I had a sudden urge to touch his red hair just one more time.
"Yes, well, I've changed a lot more than that since the last time I saw you." I gave him a meaningful look, which he returned. I stared into his soft blue eyes for a moment, but before I could make out the look he was giving me, he dashed across the street. I fell behind.
"Hey, wait up!" I screeched. He stopped abruptly, and I ran smack into his back.
"Oh, sorry," he said, swinging around and making sure I hadn't fell down. He laughed a little. "You o.k.?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," I replied, dusting off my robes. I was wearing my well fitting azure robes today and felt rather proud.
"Where are you staying?" I asked once he started walking again, jumping two pairs of stairs, almost causing me to trip.
"The Leaky Cauldron, where else?"
"Ooh, me too," I said excitedly. "We could, you know, eat together tonight. If you want." He stopped really fast again, to look at me.
"You want to eat? With me?" He raised an eyebrow. "Aren't you afraid we'll, what's the term you used to use, stir things up again?" There was a definite cool note in his voice I hadn't heard him use with me in a long time.
I knew I sounded rather pitiful when I said, "Ron, we're not in school anymore. I just wanted to eat with an old friend, is there harm in that?"
His eyes unglazed over, and he looked rather downtrodden. "Old friend, eh?" he said skeptically. "Well, I'm sorry; I didn't mean to snap like that. I've been trying to get out of that habit. I would like to have dinner with you. Oh, here we are. I'll see you later then?" I nodded and said goodbye.
The rest of the day went on like bits of sand falling slowly from an hourglass. I just sat watching them sneak slowly away. Oh, so slowly. If I had had a time turner, I would have just turned it over and skipped the rest of the day to arrive at dinnertime.
I actually couldn't believe how excited I was about having supper with Ron. It was almost the sort of feeling I would have gotten if Anthony had been coming over for dinner. It was an odd sort of jumpy feeling in the pit of my stomach. I figured it was probably just because I hadn't talked to Ron in so long. But, it was a very good feeling.
He arrived a little later than I expected, and looked surprised to see me sitting in a private booth, obviously awaiting his return very eagerly.
"Er- hi," he said, taking the seat opposite mine, looking me over.
"Hey," I answered casually. He studied his menu for a moment, then looked back up at me.
"Your hair- er- looks nice like that." I had put it up in a ponytail once again. I had used a bit of hair potion to get the bushiness to look more like carefully place curls.
"Thanks, Ron. But, I've been wearing it like this since beginning of seventh year."
"I knew that," Ron said unconvincingly. "You began to wear it like that when you started hanging out with all those preppy girls. Padma and Parvati Patil, Lavender Brown, Mandy Brocklehurst."
"They were not just 'preppy girls,'" I returned, slightly offended. "And at least I didn't start hanging out with a bunch of jocks and all around dumb asses."
"Who?!" he asked, sounding shocked.
"Oh, let's see. Seamus and Dean, Zacharias Smith, Michael Corner, Marley Johnston, the stupidest, most overly done excuse for a girl Hogwarts had ever seen."
He shook his head. "Whatever."
I opened my mouth but shut it quickly with a little resolute thought. I readjusted the bangles on my wrists in an annoyingly calm fashion. "Could we please not fight? Let's talk a bit. Let's talk about life after school."
So, we did talk. We went for an entire hour without having one single tiny little fight, which of course, had just about exhausted the two of us.
"I'll walk you up to your room," Ron offered, pushing away the last of his Yorkshire Pudding.
"Thanks," I returned. "That'd be great." He pulled out my chair for me, and I was able to see him up close for the first time since us being reunited. His freckles still were spread all over his face, making him look almost tan. He still had that good natured look about him, but I saw something else in his blue eyes. There was seriousness—a lot more than I remembered. But, he certainly had kept that same breathtaking smile, which he was showing me.
"You know, Hermione?" Ron began, walking me up the stairs. "You really do look good. Your hair looks nice and so...so do you."
I was so busy gazing into his eyes, I didn't realize we had stopped in front of my room. He looked right back into my eyes too. "Uh- isn't- isn't this...er- your room?"
"What? Oh, oh yeah," I answered blushing crimson and opening the door. "You can come in, if you want."
He looked sort of taken aback, but shrugged and walked into the room nonchalantly. He noticed all the cards on my mantel over my fireplace. He smiled slyly. "Who are these from?"
"My friends," I informed him, pulling out some bedclothes. He looked at each card in turn, studying them thoughtfully.
"Parvati's a liar," Ron said, chortling slightly, putting their card back.
"How so?"
"Her and Seamus aren't together anymore; Lavender wrote and told me so last week."
"You- you keep in touch with Lavender?" I asked, feeling an emotion that was definitely not jealously stirring inside of me.
"Oh yeah," Ron answered, scratching the back of his neck. "We made a pact to—does Terry guy have a thing for you?!"
I walked over to him. He was holding up Terry's letter. "Call it what you want to call it. We did go out for awhile last year, but I broke it off."
"Oh," he said slowly. "So, you don't like him in that way?"
"Uhm- no. I don't think so. Why?"
"Dunno. Why is Padma so happy? How can anybody be that happy?"
"Padma? You know her, you two went to the Yule Ball together in fourth year."
"Oh- oh yeah. But, I don't remember her being very happy."
"Well, one thing's for sure—her nose was dead center," I said, poking him in the nose playfully.
He grinned, but it looked to be in spite of himself and color crept into his ears. He picked up my last card, and I could feel my heart pounding against my ribcage.
His grin was gone in an instant. "Who the hell is this Anthony?! What does he want from you?! I don't know who he thinks he's kidding. He is sick. That boy wants something."
"Shut up, Ron," I said exasperatedly. I took my card from him, and put it back in its rightful place. My mind was hardly on Anthony at all. I could feel Ron's presence right behind my back. His hand brushed my hair, and I spun around to find him so close to me, I could feel his breath on my face. I was backed into the wall and had no choice but to stare right into those blue eyes, while the seductiveness washed over my entire body. I could feel my hand trembling into my robes. God, they matched his eyes.
He scrunched up his face. "You know, it was never really the same between us after fifth year."
"No, it wasn't," I admitted.
He looked like he didn't want to get into it either. He ran his hand down my shoulder and found my palm. "Well, g'night, Hermione," he said, kissing me lightly on the cheek. And before he closed the door, he said, "Oh, if you're still wondering, I did have a crush on you after the Yule Ball in fourth year. All through fifth year, too, come to think of it. There, I admitted it. See, I have grown up enough to come clean about that sort of shit." He slammed the door leaving me all alone in the large room.
I stood there for awhile. My cheek and hand both tingled pleasantly. I kind of wanted to stand there and live the moment over as many times as possible. Or forever.
But, over the next two days, I barely slept any. Ron and I spent every waking moment together. Every time I was away from him, I couldn't think of anything else. I found myself dreading the prospect of leaving and going to France.
On Friday morning, I woke up as early as possible. I had had trouble sleeping again because I had been reliving Ron's and my day as soon as I got into bed. I had never been so excited to spend time with anybody in my life. I forgot about everything and everybody else when I was with him. Everything made sense as long as we were together.
Next to my bed was one fresh pink lily that made the entire room smell wonderful. There was no note, but I knew who it was from.
As soon as I was showered and dressed, I dashed down the stairs where Ron was standing, talking to some really pretty blonde girl. There was that emotion I couldn't identify again!
I ran up to them, and gave Ron a pretty firm kiss on the lips to ward off Blondie, carefully running my fingers through his fiery hair. His eyes were the size of galleons, as I said, "Thanks for the flower, Ron. It was so beautiful." Something was all the sudden coursing through my veins. It was making my heart pound and my adrenaline rush. Damn, that was the best kiss I had ever had, along with being the shortest, simplest.
He blushed, smiled, and said, "You're welcome." The blonde gave me a scathing look and made her exit. I smirked pleasantly at her back. I had never been so mean before!
"So, what do you want to do today? You said you had big plans," Ron said.
"Oh," I said happily. "That. Padma's having a party tonight. I wanted to know if you wanted to go with me."
"Yeah," he answered, smiling sincerely. "Be nice to catch up with some old classmates."
"Well, I've got to go. I promised her I'd help her get ready. Can you be there at seven?"
"Of course. I can apparate now, remember?" He winked at me and disapparated with a pop.
"Padma?"
"Hermione? Hermione!" she screamed, opening the door fully and pulling me into a bone breaking hug. "How are you?"
"You mean since the last time I saw you four days ago?"
"Oh shut up with the sarcasm," she said, in mock anger.
We had a great time, putting up decorations and making fun ofeach other. I conveniently forgot to mention all that had been going on between me and Ron. She had said last year that when we were younger, she used to think there was something going on between the Ron and myself. I'd hate to bring those suspicions back to surface when it was clearly nothing. Or at least, that's what I kept telling myself.
The party filled up quickly that night, and people began arriving at fifteen till seven. Forty-five minutes later, there was still no sign of Ron. I was moping in a corner, when Anthony walked over to where I was sitting. "Why are you all alone, lovely?" he asked in his deriding gentleman voice. "C'mon, Hermione! Have some fun, dance with me." Over the speakers, a slow song started up, and he put out his hand for me to take.
I smiled and followed him into the crowd. He put his other hand in the small of my back, and we began to dance. He glided me around carefully, and I felt like I was floating. I loved dancing; it made me feel like a graceful angel.
As I leaned into Anthony's shoulder to keep up the romantic vibe, somebody walked in on the other side of the room. It was Ron. He looked at Anthony and me, frowning slightly. He waved when he saw I was staring at him, but very halfheartedly. He walked across the room and out of my line of vision.
The dancing was no longer wonderful. It was horrible, and I couldn't get to Ron. When it was over, I pushed away, dashing to where Ron was. He was dancing with Marley Johnston. She had changed her hair color again, this time to a deep brunette with a stylish cut. She looked really pretty, I noticed. Ron had noticed too; he was flirting profusely with her. I dug my nails into my palms and stomped to the other side of the room. Ha, jealousy? That wasn't it; I just hated her. I wanted to cut her up into a millions pieces. Ha!
I left at the first possible chance without being too conspicuous and went back to the Leaky Cauldron. I was finally leaving tomorrow, thank God. I barricaded myself in my room and was somewhere on the verge of either sobbing hysterically or finding a picture of Ron, tacking it on my wall, and throwing darts at it. I settled for lying down in my bed and not sleeping at all, no matter how hard I tried.
A couple of hours later, a soft tip-tap found my ears. "Shut it!" I roared at the mirror, hurling my shoe and thankfully missing by a couple of inches. I turned over as the annoyance continued. Then, another noise was made. "Hermione?"
I sprang up pretty fast and opened my door. Who would be disturbing me at this hour of the night? Guess. "Oh, it's you. What do you want?" I snapped.
"Look, I'm sorry, Hermione. I saw you dancing with that Anthony guy, and I just- I dunno- got jealous. You know how I am. So, I went and did what I thought would annoy you most," Ron said, sounding sort of pathetic. I guess I was immature; at least he could admit he was jealous.
"It worked," I replied sharply.
"I know," he said, grinning apologetically. "But, really, I didn't want to hurt you. These last couple of days have been some of the best of my entire life. And I think it's because of you..."
"Mine too," I said, looking deeply into his chilling blue eyes, all my anger forgotten. We moved a little closer together. "I've just been feeling so- you know, it's not the same- you're just the most amazing-"
"You feel that way too?" he asked. Without so much as a warning, he pulled me into his arms and kissed me, fully, amazingly. I melted into his arms as he moved around my mouth to get the full taste of my lips.
We sat back on the bed, him just pouring kisses on me like rain. I answered back, not being able to keep my hands out of his hair, feeling my pulse soaring wildly. A soft moan escaped my mouth, but I was too into it to pull away and think. His hand had made its way onto my bare back, creeping slowly up. He tried to push me back onto the bed, but I pulled away, staring at him intensely.
He ran his hand down my cheek. "Trust me, Hermione. I'd never let your head hit the bed without my hand behind it. I'm yours." He kissed my fingertips softly. He pulled them around his own neck and I grasped to hold onto the back of his collar, clinging to it with all my strength. I smiled, believing everything he said was absolute truth. More slowly, looking dead sincere, he put his lips to mine again, and I allowed my head to fall onto his hand, back onto the surface of the bed. I let go. I was his for whatever he wished. He sent a trail of kisses down my neck and it was perfect. Everything was perfect.
The night melted away, and I wouldn't have given up anything to be anybody else.
A/N: Precious, right? Got to hear you opinion. How was it? I am very fond of this chapter because I spent a lot of time adjusting and readjusting it to how I thought it read the best. Please review. Everybody who does gets a free candy bar. Your choice!!! And, even better, you get another chapter. cheers All right, STOP! It's review time!!!
Danananananananana! Review this! (Crookshanks dances by in genie pants)