A/N – Sorry for the short chapter and long wait. I'll try to be more diligent this time around. There were some things happening with my dad, and he's been away for five months; had to go to the Stanford Medical Centre to get a stem cell transplant for lymphoma. He's doing well now! If you can, donate stem cells to the International Stem Cell database; you could save a life (it saved his life! Thank you SO much to an anonymous (always during first post-year) 29-year-old woman with a friend named Bear), and it is, contrary to popular belief, just like a blood draw, not a bone marrow draw.  okay, I'll stop lecturing now. On with the chappie.

Confrontations and Emotions

"Hermione?" he said again, looking at her with his brow furrowed. "Did you need to be alone? I'm sorry…I'll just…go now."

He moved to close the door, but she suddenly leapt up from the bed and grabbed his arm. He froze. "What?"

He was feigning nonchalance, and they both knew it.

"Hermione? What's wrong?"

She said nothing, but shut the door before he could get out again.

"Look, Ron…"

"I know. I was an idiot, and I'm sorry I snogged you last night, 'specially when you didn't invite me to. Do you forgive me?" It sounded incredibly corny and rehearsed, but nonetheless, he meant it, though he wished that she had felt the same way. Bugger, bugger, bugger. Why was I so STUPID? He thought desperately, wishing he could evaporate.

"No, Ron, the question I'd wanted to ask you was if you forgave me."

Everything Ron felt halted in his guts at that moment. What?

"I was stupid, Ron, but it turned out all right, didn't it? I mean, you do feel the same way, don't you?" Her eyes never left his in their quick darting, trying to probe his muddled mind.

"Hermione, are you kidding? I…I've liked you since…well, since that troll thing in the girls' WC! First year, remember?"

"Remember? How on earth could I forget?"

"So we're okay? For now, at least?"

"I think so."

Ron couldn't quite place how things progressed the way they did, but for some reason, he found himself stroking Hermione's cheek, and before he knew it, he was kissing her all over again.

Damn! We should not be doing this in MY ROOM! What if Mum comes in? She'll kill me, and then revive me just to kill me again! Still, he had to admit to himself that he couldn't resist. Incredibly, when Harry had his little interlude with Cho right before the summer holidays, they had had a moment of their own in the common room…

As he slowly let his tongue slither into her open mouth, his memory flashed back to that moment, by all accounts, the first indicator that this experience might actually occur…

They had arrived back in the common room, Harry having delayed his stay there for some reason, though they both knew what that reason really was. They saw the way he looked at Cho, and Hermione, with her hawk-like perceptions, told Ron about the way Harry had acted when he saw Cho at the Quidditch World Cup last year (they both had a good laugh over it).

For some reason, Ron felt a stirring in his blood that had nothing to do with the excitement of the upcoming holidays, and everything to do with Hermione's flyaway hair, framing her face like a cloud.

He had no control over himself, none. His kiss was insistent, and he wondered vaguely whether Snape or Malfoy had slipped something into his drink that night. He was acting mad. She would never forgive him…

Sure enough, her mouth jerked away from his, and she looked like she'd swallowed a lemon.

"Ron Weasley! What the hell is wrong with you?" Her face was flushed with anger, and she looked so beautiful that he just couldn't resist shutting her up again.

There was a creaking sound, and Harry, looking distracted and slightly dreamy, stepped through the portrait hole, Ron thanking God at that moment that he was so distant he didn't even realise that Hermione and he sprang apart.

"This can never happen again, Ron," Hermione had said in an undertone to him as Harry approached; and at that moment, his gut was flooded with shame.

If he hadn't done what he did that night, neither of them would have realised that Harry had his first major moment.

Hermione wouldn't have known how he felt about her.

He wouldn't know that she felt the same, for he knew, by her eager response, that no matter how guarded she was about it, she did.

Hermione wouldn't have tortured him all the next day by subtly making seductive gestures simply to punish him for his behaviour.

And he wouldn't have burned to tell Harry all that night what had happened. He wouldn't feel trapped by knowing he couldn't under any circumstance do so.

He wouldn't feel so goddamned jealous of Harry.