Chapter 4: Stupid Enough
Snape was taking them to Dumbledor's office. It was just great! He had finally got the courage to tell Hermione how he felt, and bloody Snape had to show up and ruin their amazing kiss! Stupid git.
They sat in front of the Head Master's desk, waiting for the old man to return from dinner. Ron and Hermione were both in silence. Snape was staring at them.
"You know Miss Granger, as Head-Girl of Hogwarts, that any kind of sexual activity between two students within the wall of this school are strictly prohibited."
Both Ron and Hermione opened their eyes in shock and blushed when Snape said 'sexual'. The thought that they had been involved in a sexual activity was so embarrassing, specially because to them it had just been a kiss. A kiss had nothing to do with sex. Not that they were some kind of prudes, I mean they are a couple of 17 year olds, but what the word meant, everything about it was so... casual, so impersonal. And that was not them. It had not been sex what drove them to that point, it had been... you know, the L word.
Dumbledor finally arrived.
"What is it, Severus?" he asked as he sat behind the big desk.
"I found Mr. Weasley and Miss Granger in the middle of a sexual act on one of the hallways," Snape told Dumbledor.
"What?!" yelled Ron and Hermione.
"That's not true!" she said to Dumbledor.
"It was just a kiss!" said Ron. Hermione immediately looked at him with a bit of disappointment mixed with a bit of shock, though he didn't noticed it. Just a kiss?
"A kiss is a sexual act, Mr. Weasley. Rules are rules," said Snape.
"Come, come, Severus. A little kiss can't hurt nobody. I'm very sure Mr. Weasley and Miss Granger are very sorry about this whole incident."
"Yes, we are, Professor. We're very, very sorry. And I promise-- we promise that it won't happen again," said Hermione, thanking Merlin Dumbledor was such an understanding man.
It was Ron now who looked at Hermione with a bit of disappointment mixed with a bit of shock, though she didn't noticed it. Won't happen again?
"Very well, you may go now," Dumbledor told them to Snape's displeasure.
They were now alone outside Dumbledor's office. They looked at each other for a moment, not saying anything. It was Ron who broke the stare by leaving without a word. Hermione could only feel confused as Ron's body disappeared from her sight.
Ron went straight to the Gryffindor Tower and into his room. He laid down on his four poster bed and stared at the ceiling. She said it hadn't been a mistake. Then she says it won't happen again, but he had felt the way she touched him, he knew Hermione liked him, that she wanted to be with him. Or maybe he had just imagined it, and had taken advantage of her confusion, without knowing what he was really doing, which now brought a sense of guilt... Or maybe, she just said it wouldn't happen again because you were in front of the Head Master and evil Snape and thought that was the easiest way of getting out of there without detention or worst, a little voice inside Ron's head said.
Maybe, he thought, we're not ready to be more than friends.
ø´¯·¤»×®ön/#€®mîønë׫¤·´¯ø¤ø´¯·¤»×®ön/#€®mîønë׫¤·´¯ø
Things went back to normal the following days. Ron was too busy studying for his NEWTs that he didn't even had the time to think about Hermione. Ok, maybe at nights, when he put his books down and stared at the ceiling, tired of reading, he thought about her, her face, her smile, her frizzy hair; he would remember something she said, something about a test, usually, being too easy, and he would smiled and then dozed off.
Hermione now sat with them in class but she wasn't talking to Ron, and Ron wasn't talking to her. Maybe because they were still angry with each other, or maybe because they were way too embarrassed like to even look at each other.
Parvati was Ron's date for the Graduation Ball. She had approached him one day after Transfiguration and asked him whether he had a date for the Prom. His answer was no, so she gain the strength to ask him.
"Would you like to go with me?" she asked softly, almost shyly.
"You want to go with me?" asked Ron not really understanding what was going on. Typical.
"Well, yes. I thought, you don't have a date, and I don't have a date... so what the hell! we could go together," she said again softly, but with a hint of annoyance, for the cluelessness of his existence.
"Oh, uhm... Sure," he answered. Parvati was one of the prettiest girls in Gryffindor. He would have never dared to ask her the time, much less to go with him to the Prom. And then, all of the sudden, she was asking him to go to the ball with her.
She smiled widely and he found himself hypnotized by her. He then it hit him... why would Parvati, a beautiful girl, ask him, Ronal Weasley, sidekick and dork, to the dance? Maybe she had lost a bet and had to go to the Prom with the most disgusting boy in Gryffindor... maybe in the whole school... He couldn't go with her! He, at least, had some dignity... right?
"Did it ever occurred to you," said Harry, when Ron had just told him about Parvati's invitation, "that maybe, just maybe, just like everybody else, you've changed, you've grown up into an interesting... handsome young man?" said Harry, with a bit of mockery.
"Mate, don't say handsome and young man in presence," Ron told him, joking.
"He's right, Ronnie," Ginny added, who was sitting next to Harry, "look at you, you're... big... tall, girls like tall boys. And you're super fun, and you are handsome. Besides, you are the bravest! Girls all over the school are still talking about your performance during the last Quidditch match against Slytherin."
"Really?" he said a little sorprised.
"Yeap. Ask Hermione if you don't believe me. She shares a room with her," said Ginny as Hermione entered the common room.
"Ask me what?"
"Isn't it true that Parvati and many girls are drooling all over Ron?" asked Ginny.
Hermione looked at Ginny, then at Ron and then back at the book she was holding in her hands and shrugged.
"I don't know. I don't pay much attention to what Parvati does or says."
"What do you mean? You share a room with her and other 2 girls... who are just like Parvati," said Ginny.
"That doesn't necessarily mean that I listen to every thing she says. Why are you so interested in knowing what she says all of the sudden?"
"Well--" Ron tried starting saying, but was cut off by Ginny.
"She asked Ron to the Prom!"
Hermione remained silent for a moment and then laughed. "What?!"
"What?!" said Ron feeling insulted.
"Oh, nothing," said Hermione, trying to fix her mistake, "it's just... we're talking about Parvati. She... only dates really popular boys. I mean, she went to the Yule ball with Harry because he's famous, and I remember Victor telling me she had invited him to the ball but he turned her down because he wanted to ask me." At the mentioning of Vicky Ron rolled his eyes at Hermione. "And I know for a fact she used to like Cedrick and... Malfoy," she said little disgusted, "Famous and talented... and also athletes."
Ron looked at her with an eye-brow up, waiting for the point of her speech.
"She only wants to go with you because you made Gryffindor win the Quidditch cup, and she wants everyone to know she is going with Ronald Weasley to the Prom."
... still with the look.
Hermione was getting annoyed. "She doesn't want to go because she likes you! She doesn't even know you!"
And... the look.
"So?" he finally spoke.
"So? What do you mean 'so'?!"
"What's the problem?!" said Ron getting up his chair, angry now, "Everyone has a date for the Prom but me. Harry does, whoever she is!" The git wouldn't tell him who she was; "Seamus, even Neville has a date. You have a date. Why can't I have a date for the Prom?!"
"Maybe if you would've realized you had to ask someone to the ball before, you wouldn't be dateless right now!"
"For your information, I'm not dateless!! In case you haven't heard our little conversation," said Ron rising his voice little by little, "I am going with Parvati Patil!!"
"Fine! You are stupid enough like to fall for that, after all!" she yelled at him, turned around and went up the girl's dormitory.
Ron left the common room immediately, red-ears and all, leaving a very shocked and confused Harry and Ginny, sitting on a round table full of books.
ø´¯·¤»#å®r¥ Þõtt€®«¤·´¯ø¤ø´¯·¤»#å®r¥ Þõtt€®«¤·´¯ø¤ø´¯·¤»#å®r¥ Þõtt€®«¤·´¯ø
Author's Note II: So, you know what to do now... made my day... tell me I'm beautiful!!! I'm kidding!! Though if you wanna add that on you review, please do!