A/N: Sorry for the long wait for this chapter, but work's killing me! Anyway, hope this was worth the wait for you guys.

Gred: Hope this wasn't too long a wait for you... lol Thanks

As my other story This is truly my first kiss is a one-shot, I shall responde to my reviewers in this story from now on.

So,

call me brit: I'm glad you liked it! Thanks :)

Jarodparker82: I'm honoured to get such flattering words of encouragement! And I do promise you that my HP stories (the ones that envolve romance) will always focus around Hermione and Harry.

OK, just one more thing before I bore you all into tears with my long A/N: If you haven't checked out my other story, plese be so kind as to do so! And leave a review too, if it's not asking for too much... :)


Ron sat on a chair beside Hermione, watching her eat up a whole pumpkin pie with satisfaction. She had been terrifyingly hungry these past days and pumpkin pies seemed to lighten her up a little. Ever since she had the dream she was alternatly filled with hope, then desperation, then hope again. Every night she'd have the same dream over and over again and every day afterwards she'd try a new way to wake Harry up. Classes were going on again, but Hermione had been granted permission to skip them as long as she needed in order to help Harry Potter wake up from his slumber and, though she didn't like the idea of skipping class (even though she already knew everything they would talk about), Harry was her top priority. She felt she couldn't afford to leave the place beside his bed in fear she would lose precious time, or worse – lose Harry for good.

But not being allowed to come even close to a book gave her a hard time. How can I find the answer to this problem without consulting books! They must have the solution to this problem, I'm sure! Why does Dumbledore want to keep me away from them? How come the answer is in me?

To add salt to the wound, all her attempts to bring Harry back to the world had been frustrated. She had tried everything she could remember that had healing properties but nothing seemed to work. Not being able to help the one she loved to rise again killed her from the inside out.

"Oi. Hermione. Anyone in there?" Ron knocked softly at her head.

Hermione jumped in her seat, startled, and only then she realized she had been staring off into the distance, a half eaten pie in a plate sitting on her lap. "Sorry, Ron… were you saying something?" She put on a fake smile and tucked a stray of hair behind her ear.

"I've been trying to call you for the last ten minutes or so!" Ron looked exasperated. "I was starting to get worried you had gotten yourself turned into a vegetable or something."

Hermione laughed at this remark but could no longer hide the fact that her smile was a sad one. "No, not a vegetable, Ron, not a vegetable… more like a… a rock."

"A rock?" the poor Weasley looked deeply puzzled. "What do you mean?"

"I'm stuck in here without any answers, and it's like I can't move or breathe or… like I can't even live" she paused and looked at the boy she had learned to love lying on a bed, almost lifeless. "It's like part of me just exists."

They sat there in silence for a couple of minutes until Ron checked his watch and got up from his seat. "Well, Hermione, I'm off to the library" he said, not the least excited about it.

"The library?" This seemed to have surprised Hermione. "Since when does Ronald Weasley goes to the library?" she laughed.

Ron couldn't help but blush a little. "Well, I'm sort of, uhm… meeting someone there." Suddenly he seemed to be very interested in the tiles on the floor.

"Who is she?" she asked, a ping of curiosity slowly making its way to her.

The redhead blushed even more, and all of a sudden looked nervous. "H-How do you know it's a girl?"

"Well, girls know these things…" she said dreamily. "And besides, if you were meeting the boys you would certainly not do it in the library."

Ron didn't say anything.

"So, who is she?" Hermione asked again, after some moments of silence.

The redhead mumbled something incoherent, so she had to ask once more.

"Luna" he said, this time clearly.

"Well well well, it seems today you're full of surprises" she said happily. "Why are you meeting her?"

"Work…" he mumbled, his tone one of disappointment.

Hermione sensed it and wouldn't let it pass unquestioned. "You don't look too excited about it."

"I'm not…"

"Why not?"

"Because it's just that, work." Ron took some time looking at the floor, thinking what to say. "I've been doing homework with her ever since classes restarted."

Hermione's eyebrows shot up in great speed. "You've been doing your work?"

"Well… Luna is quite smart and she explains things well and… I don't know, it seems I kind of like to do it with her…"

Hadn't Hermione's eyebrows already shot up, they'd do it this time for sure. Ron, it seemed, had started to do his school work on a regular basis. And all because of Luna Lovegood. Something wasn't quite right there.

Something was missing.

"So, why the disappointment?" she asked, heading directly to the point.

Ron sighed heavily. "I don't know how long I can keep it up." He paused and sighed again. "Things have become different without you and Harry. It seems the classrooms are bigger, and scarier. I tried teaming up with Seamus and Dean and Neville and, sure enough, they're good company but they can't help me with all the work because they're just as stuck into it as I am. At first I remembered of asking you to help me since you already know everything we're learning, but since you're here all day trying to save Harry I thought that I couldn't bother you with other things because you already had enough on your back. Well, I didn't really know who to go to, but Luna showed up and offered to help me. And so she and I have been doing homework together since then."

Hermione offered him a warm smile. Ron had matured, she knew it. But… "I still don't understand the disappointment there."

"I guess… I guess I'd like it to be something other than quill and parchments for once. I don't know how I ended up like this, but all of a sudden it seems my brain doesn't focus on anything else besides her when we're in the library."

And all of a sudden Hermione understood everything.

Ron kept going, not noticing a smile slowly growing on Hermione's lips because he hadn't taken his eyes off the floor. "I can't think right, I can't concentrate, it's worse than having to write an essay on the effects of some nasty potion during a summer day when everyone's out playing quidditch. We talk a lot – well, she talks a lot, because she's the one explaining me things, but it's only work. And for once I'd like it to be something different."

"How different?"

"Don't know…" he shrugged "Different. Something normal. Something that doesn't have anything to do with work." He paused and then looked up at Hermione. "Am I going crazy?"

Hermione had a big smile on her face, while she shook her head slightly. "No, Ron, you're not going crazy. It's something far more simple than that." Hmm, that sounds familiar...

"Well, I have to go now. I'll see you tomorrow." And with that he left, leaving her staring after him with her smile still plastered on her face.

Suddenly she found herself rooting for Ron to find love and to be happy. He deserved it. Sometime during the summer she had heard rumors about Ron's possible interest in her, and that had made her somewhat uncomfortable. All had been dismissed though, as she had found out from a very reliable source that Ron only saw in her another member of his family. Another sister, so to say. She laughed slightly as she remembered Ron's face twisting in mock disgust as Harry told him about the rumor. It all had ended with them drinking butterbeer and spending an entire evening imagining odd couples for each one of them, rolling on the floor with laughter as they tried to picture Harry flirting with Mrs Figg, Ron with professor Trelawney, Hermione with Grawp and Ginny with Mr Filch. They had had the most fun that evening.

She was a sister to him and he was the brother she never had.

Her smile, however, dissipated rather quickly once she found herself gazing into Harry's numb body, and her happy expression gave way to a sad and desperate one.

As time went by Hermione grew more and more desperate to find a quick solution for Harry's problem, and all her frustated attempts were starting to take their toll on her emotions.

How she longed to see the day when Harry woke up, to be the first one he saw, to hold him tight and feel safe again, to pull him into a deep kiss, one which would pour all of her emotions into him and make him see how she felt…

How she longed to hear 'I love you' coming from his lips.

How she longed to say it back to him.

She got up from her chair and walked to his bedside, gently passing her hand through his hair. Like a pin drawn to a magnet, she lay on top of him and rested her head on his chest, being careful so as not to do any physical damage to his already weak body.

Time slowly engulfed the night in darkness, and Hermione found herself devoid of any thoughts. Only emotions came, and with them the tears. She had been crying for almost an hour, and the blanket that covered him up to the collarbone already had a big wet spot. Finally she looked up and gazed into his closed eyelids. Slowly she got up, and as this was done another tear fell, this time on his chin. She didn't notice it though, the tears were flowing freely like water down a fall. She lowered her head to give him her usual goodnight kiss but, as she had her head leved with his, yet another tear fell, this one on top of his scar. And this time she noticed it, stopping in her tracks, gazing at it glowing in the moonless night. Unexplicably she felt an urge to kiss it and so she did, pouring into that smallcontact ofher lips with his skinall she felt for the boy.

And all of a sudden Hermione's vision was blinded by a huge white aura of pure magic and emotion that lightened the night as if it were day, a huge beacon in a world of darkness.