Smalltalk.

First words.

"So how is he?" asked Hermione.

"He'll be ok. Harry's quite tough," beamed Ron. They felt victorious. Lord Voldemort had been banished, Professor Quirrel had been exposed and, apart from the intra-house cup, they felt happy.

"Well, so are you Ron. You took quite a knock on that chessboard."

"Ah, but it was only chess," said Ron smugly. Hermione arched her eyebrows at him.

"Well, ok maybe those tests were never meant to be fatal. Still hurt though," added Ron as he subconsciously rubbed his shoulder, still bandaged beneath his robes.

Hermione smiled. "Even so, Harry was brave to face you-know-who." She noticed Ron deflate a bit.

"You were brave too of course," she rallied.

"Well," smirked Ron. His ears were glowing red again. This happened a lot lately, especially around Hermione.

Hermione turned to the stairwell and ambled up a few steps. She turned and looked down on Ron. "Are you going to wait for Harry? I think Professor Dumbledore's seeing him."

Ron dawdled as his mind niggled him about her superior tone of voice. Hermione had become more easy-going since the troll incident, but ever since that day they had first met in the train carriage he had always felt annoyed at her patronising tone. This itself seemed a little harsh to him: since seeing Hermione flee from him crying, Ron had taken stock of his attitude to her and resolved to try harder to be friends – if only for Harry's sake of course. And the first step to friendship was being open and honest.

"I might do. Where are you off to?" Ron placed his foot on the bottom step without thinking.

"Back to the common room perhaps. Mind you I did promise Hannah I'd see her too," said Hermione absently, taking another three steps sedately.

"Erm…" flustered Ron. He stood rooted not sure why Hermione would be more fun to be with that Harry. That and a nagging obligation sat heavy in his mind.

"Sorry Ron?" asked Hermione calling from near the top of the stairwell.

"Hang on Hermione!" called Ron and raced up the stairs to her.

"What is it?" she turned to him at the top of the stairwell and appraised this lovable idiot. His grin made her own mouth beam. While Harry was brave, honest and kind at least Ron could be relied upon for impulsive and irrational acts of daftness.

"I forgot to say thankyou," said Ron earnestly. Hermione blinked in shock. Something inside her wanted to sit down and have a cup of tea. Something further down did a somersault.

"Sorry?" she asked.

"Thankyou. Yes, me and Harry did some brave things, but I would never have got past that creeping vine thing without you. Harry rubbed it in earlier and I realised I never did thank you properly."

Hermione was agog. Resisting the urge to tell him what the creeping vine was she fished in her mind for things to say.

"Aw. Erm, bet you couldn't say that again in front of Harry," she managed. They grinned at each other.

"There's lots I'd say to you, even if Harry was here!" said Ron with some urgency in his voice.

"Oh yes? Like what?" grinned Hermione.

Ron's mind froze. Somewhere inside him something wanted to shout out. This small voice inside wanted to try and understand Hermione but he was not really sure how she would react – it had taken half a year to get Hermione to loosen up enough to talk to about quidditch and chocolate frogs. Anything more personal could make her run away again.

Hermione's smile waned when Ron did not react immediately. Was Ron really able to only talk when Harry was here? Or did Ron lack the vocabulary to talk about life beyond chocolate and broomsticks.

"Well…" croaked Ron. His mind was pestering him now and suggesting wild subjects of conversation from brooms, chocolate, chess and Harry.

"It's ok Ron. Thankyou for saying thankyou anyway." Hermione's mind, as usual with Ron, took pity on the boy in front of her and saved him from further embarrassment.

Then Harry appeared.

Ron turned away from Hermione and grinned down. As Ron and Harry called to each other something inside Hermione's mind finally got heard and something warm and syrupy exploded in her chest and trickled down inside her. Ron had been nice to her at last – genuine and sincere! Grinning she joined the boys as true friends.

Disclaimer:-

Boyflea says:- Deliberate slow-start to this series to allow me to rotate points of view. Thanks all for your interest and patience.

This will be the first in a series of tiny "off-camera" shorts primarily between Hermione and Ron spanning all books to date.

All Harry Potter characters and references are solely owned by JK Rowling. I just love the setting.