A/N: I actually rewrote this chapter and didn't include the stuff on my last preview. I'm really sorry about that! You'll actually find that on chapter 3, unless I decide to re-write that chapter, too, haha.

This chapter probably won't make any sense if you haven't seen Disney's "The Little Mermaid." If you haven't seen it, shame on you (hehe just kidding)! It's a Disney classic!

And thank you so much to everybody who reviewed on the last chapter!

Disclaimer: Harry Potter and The Little Mermaid belong to their original creators.

Harry and Ron finished their essays about an hour after Fred and George had talked to them. They remained silent and barely spoke, talking only when they needed help on their essays, only exchanging a couple of words. Harry had spent the whole time debating on when to say something that wasn't related to their homework, mainly something about what had just happened between Ron and his brothers. The silence had made him feel very uncomfortable. I just have to wait for the right time to pop up, Harry had thought, but he had missed his shot when Ron got up and murmured that he was going to bed.

Ron was now lying on his bed, staring at the ceiling. The dormitory was empty except for him; it was only half past 8 o'clock after all. Everybody else was down in the common room hanging out, or doing homework. He had thought that Harry might've followed him up when he had said that he was going to bed. Ron was sort of disappointed that he had not but glad at the same time. He didn't want to deal with anybody at the moment.

Too many thoughts were floating inside of his head. Ron had no idea why he was feeling so weird. All he had done was talk to Harry, Fred, and George about kissing. That's it, just kissing. Ron had spent lots of time talking to them before, about Quidditch and other things. So why should talking about girls be different? Girls were just girls, and kissing was just kissing.

And why did he bring up the subject of kissing in the first place? Ron suddenly realized that he had no idea why he did. It wasn't as if he was planning to talk to Harry about it or anything. The words just seemed to have come out naturally at the time, even though he had never discussed kissing with anybody else before.

Ron tried to shake the thoughts out of his head. He turned to the side and closed his eyes. Why am I making such a big deal about this, Ron thought, suddenly feeling sleepy.

Out of nowhere, Percy's advice that Fred had told him earlier came to his mind: "Remember to kiss girls as if you're kissing a pillow."

Ron opened his eyes and lifted his head. He looked down at the pillow. It was fluffy and white, and it seemed to be calling out to Ron: "Kiss me".

He stared down at the pillow for a moment, thinking it over. The picture of a certain girl came to his mind for a brief second. "What! No, this is crazy! I'm going to sleep."

Ron made to go back to sleep, but suddenly stopped and looked at the pillow one more time. Nobody was in the dormitory except for him, so maybe if he did it really quickly…

"I'm gonna kill Percy for giving Fred and George this idea," Ron murmured quickly and brought his face down to the pillow. He awkwardly puckered his lips, closing his eyes, expecting to feel the pillow against his mouth any moment. A mental image of that same girl came to his mind when Ron's mouth had made contact the pillow, but he quickly pushed the thought of her away. His lips touched the pillow for several seconds before lifting his head off.

So this is how a kiss is supposed to feel like? Soft… and kinda dry? Ron thought. He suddenly felt very embarrassed for even trying such a thing and swore to himself that he would never tell anybody about what he had just done.

Ron turned the pillow over and proceeded to go to sleep again, the thought of Fred and George trying to kiss their pillows causing him to silently laugh himself off to sleep...

Ron was sitting in a chair in the middle of a row of empty seats. They were all identical to the one he was sitting on: cushioned, with arm rests on either side. He looked around and saw that there were several more rows of seats in front and behind him. He appeared to be sitting in the center of a muggle movie theater. The whole room was empty except for him. The theatre seemed small and cramped, and there weren't any aisles at either side of the room. The rows of seats stretched from one side to the other, side by side, barely leaving any gaps between the arm rests. How was one supposed to get out? Hop over the seats? Ron stood up to go find an exit, but the lights above him suddenly dimmed, leaving the room in semi-darkness.

He sat back down, starting to become frightened. "Err.. What's going on?" Ron said to no one in particular. He twisted around in his seat, looking towards the back of the theater, squinting his eyes and searching for some sort of door to lead him out.

It had become very dark; the electric lights on the ceiling gave off very little light. Ron turned back around and reached into the pocket of his robes for his wand. He brought it out and said, "Lumos."

The room remained dark.

Ron's heart started to beat faster. This couldn't be good. Why wasn't hadn't his spell worked? "Lumos!" he said again.

Nothing happened, again.

Ron was starting to become very worried and scared. There was the fact that he was stuck in the middle of a room without any visible exit and the fact that his wand didn't seem to be working. Plus, he was all alone. Normally, Harry and Hermione were with him in situations like this one, but he didn't have anybody to help him or give him ideas.

He took a deep breathe and prepared to cast the spell one more time. If it doesn't work this time, then I should really start to worry, Ron thought. He held his wand high and poured every single inch of his concentration into this simple spell.

"Lumos!" Ron yelled.

Nothing.

Ron took another deep breathe and thrust his wand hand higher into the air. No, no, I will make this work, he thought.. "Lumos! Lumos! Lumos! Lumos! Luuumooooss! Godammit, you stupid wand! Lumos!" The room remained dark, once again. He sat back down. "This is hopeless."

Suddenly, the big screen in the front of the theater turned on. Ron jumped; he had never seen of a muggle device like this work before. Right… these things are called "tell-visions", Ron recalled, though I remember Dad saying that they were much smaller than this. He looked it up and down. It was at least 25 feet tall.

The "very large tell-vision" was showing a green screen with white text on it. "The following movie has been rated GENERAL AUDIENCES by the…" Ron read aloud. He tried to recalled anything about movies that he had heard about but remembered nothing. "Well, I guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens, then."

The movie screen faded back to black and suddenly flashed through a series of scenes moving at a very rapid pace. It was as if the movie was on fast-forward. Ron watched, confused, trying to make out what he was seeing on the screen. He saw many half-naked people with large, green fins, where their legs should have been, swimming around under water, along with various sea animals, moving around very quickly. Then, a minute or so later, Ron saw the movie come from taking place in the ocean to taking place on land. There was a brown-haired girl and a man moving quickly around the screen, and a little red critter showing up every now and then. Ten seconds later, the movie slowed down to normal pace and sound started to come out from the speakers on the wall.

Ron nearly choked when he saw what was happening on the screen. He saw an older version of himself (Whoa, I sure turn out good, Ron thought) and a young lady with brown hair in a small wooden boat in the middle of a lagoon. There was something strangely familiar about that girl… The screen showed a close up on her face. She was very pretty, with long, wavy brown hair flowing down from her head. The girl was staring and smiling sweetly at the older version of Ron on the movie screen.

Ron gawked. "N-no, that can't be- that can't be Hermione!" Ron yelled, in shock. He was sitting on the edge of his seat, gripping tightly on the arm rests. His heart beat quickened. …But there was definitely a resemblance between her and the younger Hermione that was one of his best friends.

He was watching himself row their boat through the lagoon. They were floating in the middle of an open lagoon, the sky above them colored red, purple, and orange from the setting sun, with long wisps of cloud scattered amongst it. Several willow trees were surrounding them. The ends of their leaves drooped down towards the water. There were lily pads floating around the lagoon and various weeds planted on the outskirts. The atmosphere seemed to have a nice bluish-green hue to it, reflecting the water, which only formed little ripples every time the on-screen Ron rowed the oars to move their boat.

Then, Ron saw a seagull talking to a little yellow and blue fish. "…Only one day left, and that boy ain't puckered up once," he heard it say, " O.K. All right, this calls for a little vocal romantic stimulation."

"Puckered up? Romantic stimulation?" Ron yelled frantically, wondering what that big, white bird was talking about.

The seagull flew to the branch of a willow tree that was nearby their boat. It started cawing loudly, in a very painful way, equivalent to the sound of nails on a chalkboard.

For the first time, Ron heard his on-screen self talk. "Somebody should find that poor animal and put it out of its misery," the older Ron said. His voice was deeper than Ron's, more mature sounding.

"Too true," Ron said in response, feeling weird. It was awkward seeing a future version of himself projected over 10 times his size on the big screen.

Ron leaned one of his elbows on the arm rest and rested his head on the palm of his hand, continuing to watch the movie with a tired expression. He saw a crab swim under the lagoon, ripping off a piece of an underwater weed, saying "You want something done, you've got to do it yourself." It came back to the surface and held the piece of weed like a rod, like how music conductors did. "First we've got to create the mood," the crab said to nobody in particular. It turned towards several ducks and turtles. "Percussion." The ducks flipped over the turtles so that they were floating on their shell and started hitting on them as if they were drums, making a bongo drum sound. The crab then faced a group of grasshoppers sitting on the leaves of a water plant. "Strings," it instructed them. The grasshoppers started rubbing their hind legs together, creating soft sounds that one would hear if he or she were to take a walk down a road in the country at night. A soft melody was filling the lagoon as the older Ron and Hermione sat in their wooden boat, rowing through the water. There was just one thing missing in the little song that the sea-critters were creating… The crab took a little bow to himself. "Words."

Ron raised an eyebrow. He had never seen animals playing music, let alone interacting like this, concluding that this was definitely on his top five list of weirdest things that he has ever seen. What Ron saw happened next surprised him… The crab was singing. He bursted out laughing.

"A crab singing!" Ron said, "this is hilarious!"

The crab had a dreamy look on its face, serenading Ron and Hermione.

"There you see her

Sitting there across the way

She don't got a lot to say

But there's something about her

And you don't know why

But you're dying to try

You wanna kiss the girl"

Ron suddenly stood up. "Hey! Hey! I don't wanna kiss Hermione!" he screamed at the crab. "Hey! You stupid crab, take that back! You don't even know me! You can't just assume that some guy that you've never ever met wants to kiss his friend!" Ron was now blushing furiously. He took his wand out of his robe's pocket and pointed it towards the movie screen. "Why don't you come down here, you crab? Come down here and face me like a man!" He didn't seem to have any idea that people on the movie screen couldn't interact with people sitting in the theater, like wizard paintings could. Ron looked down at his wand and remembered that it wasn't working. "Oh-okay! My wand might not be working, but- but… er… I know! I'll eat you for dinner if you don't shut up about me kissing Hermione! Yeah! I'll cook you up, eat you with some nice, melted butter," he paused, "You know… that doesn't sound bad, sounds good actually. I could use some crab. Wait, that's not the point! The point is-"

The crab continued to sing, as if he had never heard Ron, and was joined by several other sea-critters.

"Yes, you want her

Look at her, you know you do

Possible she wants you too"

Ron stared, horrified, a the movie screen. He didn't know how to respond to what that stupid crab was singing. All he knew was that he didn't want Hermione and there was no way in the world that she wanted him too. Or at least he thought so. Ron continued to watch all the little animals sing. This was certainly a nightmare.

"There is one way to ask her

It don't take a word

Not a single word

Go on and kiss the girl"

Ron was hoping with every fiber in his body that the older version of him wouldn't kiss her. I mean, he thought, I can't be that stupid.

But the way Hermione was looking at him on the movie screen… Ron noticed the that she was staring at him as if… as if she was in love.

He froze for a moment. "Hermione, in love with me!" Ron spat. "N-no! H-how! Why?"

The rest of the scene passed by as Ron stared down at the ground trying to sort things out. He never really had thought of Hermione in that way before. They hadn't even known each other for a whole year yet.

Plus she's too bossy and smart, Ron thought, not that he had any problem with girls who were really smart. It was just that this was Hermione, his friend.

When Ron looked back up at the movie screen, he nearly fell out of his seat. Him and Hermione were still sitting in their boat, but they were now holding hands and staring into each others eyes. The sea-critters around them were all swimming and dancing around them. Their boat was slowly spinning in the water, and their faces neared each other. "Go on, kiss the girl," the animals were whispering, looking hopeful.

"Hey! Older Ron! Stop! Don't kiss her! Please!" Ron yelled at himself. He saw that he obviously wasn't paying any attention to what Ron was telling him. The older Ron looked as if he actually did want to kiss Hermione, and some part of the younger Ron actually did want to see him kiss Hermione, even though he didn't want to admit it.

Ron's heart was beating like crazy, feeling as if he was going to have a heart attack. "I need to get out of here! I can't watch this," he said, breathing heavy. Ron stood up to go find an exit of some kind. Any means of getting out of that theater would be fine, as long was he didn't have to sit through this. But as Ron got to his feet, an invisible pair of hands pushed him back down. "No! What's going on?" He stood back up, but was forced him back towards the chair again. Ron turned his face to the side, so that the screen wasn't in his view, but his face was suddenly wrenched so that it was facing forward. He realized that somebody out there wanted him to see what was going to happen and stopped trying to fight it.

Maybe this won't be so bad. Maybe I'll just somehow forget about seeing this. …I mean, I'm just watching myself about to kiss a girl. It's not as if I'm actually kissing Hermione, Ron thought, calming himself down.

He held his breathe, watching their faces nearing each others. Three inches apart. Two inches… Ron suddenly wished that he had the ability to Apparate. This was starting to be a little too much for him. One inch… His and Hermione's faces nearly touched. But just at the last moment, right before their lips made contact, something caused the boat capsize.

Ron woke up with a start. His whole body was sweating, and he started to recall what he had just dreamed about. I almost kissed Hermione… Sitting up, Ron pulled the blankets off of him and looked around. He was back in the boys' dormitory, not in that nightmarish muggle movie theater.

Ron got out of bed, promising himself that he wouldn't tell anybody about that dream.

---

Next Chapter:

Ron starts going crazy and can't get the dream out of his head! Hermione's on his mind almost every second of the day, and he can't help but to blush every time he sees her or hears her name. Will Harry and Hermione ever figure out why Ron's acting so weird? And just how far will Ron go to get a kiss from Hermione?

Keep watch for Chapter 3 of "How Kissing Works", which will be posted by next weekend, hopefully.

Thanks for reading! Please review! (And don't flame me for making Ron and Hermione look "too beautiful" in Ron's dream. It's Ron's dream and he can make anything any way he wants.)