Disclaimer: Harry Potter, not I own. x(
A Few Moments
During The Hearing
' "I knew it!" yelled Ron, punching the air. "You always get away with stuff!"
"They were bound to clear you," said Hermione, who had looked positively faint with anxiety when Harry had entered the kitchen and was now holding a shaking hand over her eyes, "There was no case against you, none at all." '
--pg 142 and 143, OoTP.
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Ron Weasley was having a particularly good dream; he was back at the Quidditch World Cup and was cheering on for the violently orange Chudley Cannons although they hadn't been in league for the World Cup in decades.
The other team, coincidentally, was Bulgaria.
Who, to Ron's immense satisfaction, were being thrashed.
So there he was, in the top box, surrounded by piles and boxes of Chocolate Frogs and pumpkin pasties. He was hollering right at the window, looking down onto the pitch before cramming another sweet into his mouth.
For some strange reason, he ended up watching from a bird's-eye view. He was floating... no, not floating. Suspended in mid-air. But he wasn't afraid. Not at all. No... he was bloody angry.
Krum had seen the Golden Snitch.
"NOO!" Ron bellowed, furiously waving his arms. He had the urge to fly after the Snitch himself, although Seeker was by far his worst position.
But that didn't matter now. Ron Weasley was on a Firebolt of his very own, zooming after the tiny, fluttering, golden ball. Krum was getting closer and closer in view... yes, Ron was going to overtake him. He could hear Lee Jordan commentating enthusiastically, aided with the screams and cheers of... Veelas?
He was getting closer now. He could see the Snitch, it was just a foot away...
With a surge of ecstasy and excitement, Ron thrust his right hand out and grabbed the Snitch, right before Krum did.
Everyone was screaming... everyone was running towards him to lift him onto their shoulders and sing some sort of odd but nonetheless supporting song... yes, Ron Weasley was a true hero.
And there Hermione appeared, her cheeks flushed, her face split into a beam. Their eyes met and they shared a brief something, before Hermione let out a, "Oh, Ron!" and began to run towards him, pushing past Krum who tried to reprimand her.
She was almost there... she was almost in his arms... she was going to kiss him, he knew it, and by Merlin he could not wait a moment longer before that sweet -
"Ron, wake up!"
Ron was rudely brought out of his dream. His eyes remained closed, desperately trying to re-enter back into his fantasy... but it was all hopeless. Annoyed, he groaned extra loudly before wrenching his eyes open.
He was taken aback to find Hermione standing above him, looking at him disapprovingly.
"Hermione!" he yelped, trying to get out of his bed and shoving the covers over his head at the same time, "What are you doing in here?"
Hermione sighed as she turned away, while Ron frantically pulled on a maroon jumper over his head.
"It's breakfast," she announced, "And... Harry's already left for his hearing." Her voice quivered slightly at this.
Ron was still flushed with embarrassment at the aftermath of the dream, as well as having Hermione wake him up, of ALL people, but he was brought to reality abruptly at this piece of information.
"He has?" he immediately turned his head to Harry's bed, which was quite empty.
"Yes, he has," Hermione said impatiently, turning her head slightly, "Can I look now?"
"Oh - yeah," Ron said, his ears going uncomfortably warm. Hermione turned around, peeked at Ron, decided he was 'decent', took a couple of tentative steps and dropped herself on his mattress.
Oh.
Dear.
Merlin.
Hermione was sitting on his bed.
Ron swallowed in what he hoped was a subtle way, wondering why his ears always had to go so blurdy red for. Fortunately, Hermione seemed too distracted to notice his scarlet ears. In fact, she seemed very worried.
Over the past few years, Ron had learnt how to tell if Hermione was upset about something. For one thing, she kept unnaturally quiet. And she'd have this little frown on her face, which she sometimes wore when she was thinking or concentrating hard.
One certain Mr Weasley had noticed these minor things, not because he observed her every move (though Ron had been noticing a lot of alarming things about Hermione lately), but because he was often the reason why she became this upset.
You know, with their bickering and all.
Not that it was his fault!
...Not always.
Anyway, the point was, Ron wasn't particularly great at comforting her. It was nothing personal; Ron "sucked" at cheering people up and sympathising with them, as Ginny had bluntly put it.
Ron cleared his throat uncertainly, "You're okay, aren't you, Hermione?"
"Oh what? Oh, yes, I'm perfectly fine," she replied almost at once, her head snapping up, "It's just... are you alright?"
Ron was perplexed. She was certainly acting rather odd.
"I'm fine, thanks?" he responded rather questioningly.
"Oh... okay," she sounded resigned, almost disappointed. She glanced back down to the floor, her eyes dim and her brow furrowed. Ron waited patiently. He knew she would speak up sooner or later.
Sure enough, Hermione looked up again and said in a would-be casual voice, "Do you think they're going to expel him?"
"Of course not," said Ron without hesitation, "There were Dementors after him, it doesn't take an idiot to put two-and-two together and realise that he needed to perform magic. It was an emergency! You know we're allowed to do magic if it's an emergency."
"I do know that," Hermione insisted, "But it can't be that simple!"
"Why can't it?" Ron asked, frowning, "Does everything have to be complicated?"
Hermione narrowed her eyes at him and snapped, "No. But the situation's fishy enough as it is. Dementors roaming around a Muggle area? It's ridiculous. I don't think they'll believe that."
"But it's true."
"Oh, honestly Ron, do you really think they'll care if it's true or not?" Hermione said sharply, "Fudge just wants to make Harry appear more delusional than already publicised."
"But the hearing," Ron said helplessly, "They've got to be fair. Don't you Muggles have hearings? Or do you just sentence them without listening to both sides?"
"Of course we do. It's just..." Hermione sighed, suddenly looking defeated, "I... I don't think Harry's going to come back with us."
"Don't be stupid," Ron said firmly, "Of course he's coming back to Hogwarts! It's his home. They can't just expel him. It wouldn't be fair. I dunno why you're so worried about this, Hermione, it'll be fine!"
"How do you know that?"
Ron shrugged, "He's smart and brave enough to do anything. Whatever situation he finds himself in... he always gets back out."
Hermione smiled at him, and Ron felt his ears burn again.
"That's really good," she said softly, looking at him with those bright brown eyes, "That you can think that way. But, oh Ron. How can you be so sure?"
" 'Cos... 'cos he's Harry, isn't he?" Ron said sheepishly.
"Yeah," Hermione agreed with, he noticed, a very nice smile, "He is."
And they sat in comfortable silence for several seconds. It felt odd, unnatural even, to be sitting completely at peace in this gloomy high-ceilinged room with only Hermione at the end of his bed. Sure, they were best friends, but they did seem to get into more bickering than most friends do, and a quiet moment with her was, well, rare.
Ron stole a glance at her, and found her chewing her lip, something she hadn't been driven to do in a while. He felt a surge of emotion and for some reason he had the desire to comfort her, even though he was no expert at this.
How on earth did you cheer a girl up?
"Did you ever notice that portrait?" he suddenly blurted out wildly, "Isn't it great?"
Hermione turned to look. "Um... it's empty?"
"Thus its appeal!" he said quickly, his mind racing, "Blank canvases are brilliant. They evoke you to... to use your imagination! And the portrait you paint in your mind... err... well, at least you can be sure you'll like it."
Ron cringed.
He wanted to die.
Or maybe not that far.
He wanted the bed to open up and swallow him whole.
Hermione looked at him for a couple of seconds, before shaking her head, probably condemning him mental in her mind. Well, she had a point, even Ron had to grudgingly admit.
"Well," she said slowly, "Moving on from the blank painting - "
"It laughs at me."
"Pardon?"
"Uhhh - " (Oh, for the love of Merlin...) " - the painting. It kinda - snickers - ...in this really creepy way. Bloody painting. Sometimes it sneezes and coughs. During the night. Usually in the middle of the night. Worse than that damn ghoul back home."
Really, that ruddy empty portrait was irritable.
Whoever heard of blank canvases having the cold?
Ron pondered over this briefly while Hermione rebuked his unbecoming language, then said tentatively, "But Ron..." (he loved the way she said his name, sometimes), "...it's just a blank frame. There's no one there."
"I know you think I'm being foolish," Ron said earnestly, quite enjoying this now that he had steered away from the original problem of "not-being-able-to-cheer-her-up","But that painting there is a devious one."
"Right," Hermione said bemusedly, shaking her head a little, "Are you sure it's not just your imagination?"
"Definite," Ron said firmly, "It was snickering like a true Slytherin and hacking away while I sat here last night... thinking."
Hermione's eyes widened a little, "You were thinking?" she said mockingly, "About what?"
Ron felt uncomfortable as he looked down at the dusty floorboards, "You know... about Harry, and if he doesn't actually come back..." The mere thought of Hogwarts without one of his best friends was unbearable, even in imagination.
"Oh, Ron," Hermione looked so sympathetic, so understanding, so lovely. She did something that made Ron's ear perform their favourite past time and which made her blush a little afterwards. She crawled closer and settled herself beside him.
On his bed.
Ron was sure his ears were going to let off steam at any moment. This extreme close proximity was... well, he had to admit it, it didn't feel so bad.
"So you are worried, then," Hermione said with the slightest note of accusatory in her voice.
"I'm not," Ron insisted, wondering how in the name of Merlin they were both managing a normal conversation in this... circumstance, "I was just thinking about it. But I know he'll make it. Harry always makes it. He survived death I-can't-keep-number of times, he'll survive a hearing. And," he added viciously, "They can't kick him out of his home. They'd be great prats if they did."
Hermione gave him a funny look, as if she didn't quite understand him and never would, but that she liked this about him anyway. "Yeah," she agreed musingly, "They would be."
Then she sighed heavily, "I wish I could be as optimistic as you. But I can't. It's just..." her voice grew hard, "They had better not expel him."
"Huh?"
"They've got no case against him! I've looked it up in a book, what they're trialing him for is ridiculous!" Hermione burst out fiercely, "It's so obvious Harry's innocent, so they had better let him stay at Hogwarts." She sounded vicious, but uncertain, like she was stuck in a helpless situation.
Alarmed, Ron put a hand on her shoulder, which meant he had to put an arm around her. Still scowling, Hermione put her head on his shoulder.
"Hermione," he said meekly, putting his head on her head, "You're not gonna stop going mad off your nut until Harry comes back, are you?"
"No."
"You're not gonna stop obsessing over this anytime soon, are you?"
Half offended, half amused, "No."
"You're not gonna be convinced that Harry won't be expelled, are you?"
"No, Ron, I'm not."
"Then there's nothing I can do."
"No, there isn't."
And silence fell in between them again. During this time of peace, Ron suddenly realised what position he was in. By Merlin, he was in bed with Hermione next to him!
Ron wrinkled his nose. That sure sounded bad.
But on the contrary, it was very nice. (Not that, git.) Having an arm around Hermione in a protective way... it just felt right. And she smelt nice too. A faint trace of cinnamon that seemed natural. Having Hermione lean against him for support, for comfort, for protection; it was wonderful. Wonderful to know that she trusted him. Ron immediately made a vow to make sure he'd protect her from there on in.
Though that was unnecessary, as he had been looking out for her since he and Harry tackled that mountain troll in their first-year. Ron frowned and shuddered involuntarily; he didn't need reminding of those Acromantulas, either.
It hit him how much he had faced for this girl, this bossy, know-it-all, brave, smart, funny girl, and something tugged at his heart.
"Hermione - " he started, a bit muffled.
"Hermione! Ron! C'mon, breakfast is waiting!" yelled an unwelcome voice. The door to the room flung open, and Hermione and Ron yelped and shoved each other away instinctively. Since Hermione had pushed him first, and with more force, she merely slid onto the floor while Ron was sent sprawling onto the cold floorboards, taking his blanket with him.
Ginny stood in the doorframe, her hands on her hips. She was frowning, "What's going on?" She looked from Ron, who was groaning in pain underneath the blanket, to Hermione who was sitting on the floor beside the mattress, looking ruffled and embarrassed.
"What took you so long?" Ginny asked again, looking suspicious and all-knowing at the same time.
"Ron was being amazingly stubborn," Hermione lied spectacularly with flushed cheeks, getting to her feet, "I couldn't persuade him to wake up."
Ginny rolled her eyes at her brother, "Come on you lazy prat! Mum would've cleaned up by now if Hermione had eaten breakfast. She says hurry up, and I couldn't agree more."
"Whatever," Ron grimaced from the floor.
Hermione managed to roll her eyes, "Well I'm going down, at any rate." She haughtily walked out of the room with Ginny. Seconds later, Hermione returned, looking sheepish.
"Are you coming?" she asked apologetically, trying to hide her smile.
"Yeah," Ron grunted, trying to ignore the pain his ribs were currently in, "I just need to get dressed, you know."
Hermione saw that he still had the blanket over him and she let out a surprised, "Oh! I'll - uh - leave you to it, then." Just as she reached the door frame, Ron called out.
"Hermione?"
"Yeah?"
"It'll be okay. Honestly."
She smiled.
"I hope so."
And she turned around and walked out, leaving Ron to pull on a pair of trousers and hope that more pleasant moments like this occurred during what appeared was going to be a long and rough year.
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A/N: Hmm .. seemed quite AU with the sitting-beside-each-other thingy, but AWW isn't that sweet? x) Hehe. Hermione wasn't nearly as anxious as I wanted her to be .. (makes stabbing motions with the mouse) Oh, well. Hmm .. I'm pondering on what to write next. Hermione and Ron make me squeal. xD And the loaf of bread behind me is very .. intoxicating. Bread fumes .. chicken fumes .. WHY MUST THEY BE SO TEMPTING? (flies off to eat) Twahahahaha .. review, pretty please? x) - MSQ.