Procrastination has always been something Ron Weasley excels at. When he was still at Hogwarts, he would have weekends, to finish assignments and essays. They were rarely finished until late on Sunday evenings before the due date, often with generous help from Hermione. On these evenings, an exasperated Hermione would almost always point out times during the weekend that Ron could have spent completing his work. When he was waiting for Harry and Hermione to finish their chess game so he could play the winner. When he spent an entire 30 minutes trying to convince a first year that the chairs in front of the fire were for fifth years and up only, and that he'd better get out of it right now or Professor MacGonagall was going to send him home before the night was up. When he was outside practicing Quidditch with Harry for so long he could barely remember how to walk. To Hermione, it was like Ron had wasted the entire weekend just by having fun.
Right now it's approximately 3 hours after Bill and Fleur said, "I do," and Ron is definitely not thinking about essays or due dates. The atmosphere hardly calls for it.
The atmosphere, apparently, calls for about half the people who are in the Burrows back garden right now to be amazingly drunk.
Fred and George are telling crude jokes to Fleur's triplet cousins very loudly. Mundungus Fletcher has just fallen down for the fifth time tonight. Ron hasn't seen Harry since he downed another glass of blueberry wine in two large gulps, announced that he'd made a huge mistake, and that he had to find Ginny right now. He'd stumbled off, leaving Ron, Hermione, Luna and Neville sitting at a white table on the edge of a party.
Ron doesn't know if it's the implication that weddings bring about love, or if it's the fact that Hermione looks dazzling in her dress robes, or if it's the fact that he's had a few glasses of wine himself, but he does know one thing.
He really needs to get things sorted out with Hermione before they go to Godric's Hollow.
He's spent the evening trying to think of the best time to ask Hermione if she could please step aside and have a word with him, and now seems a best time as any. Luna is keenly informing Neville that the centerpieces on the table are probably full of Nargles, and Hermione is quietly nursing a bottle of Butterbeer.
Ron asks if he can talk to her for a minute. Hermione nods, and follows him to the side of the house, away from the party and next to the shed where Mr. Weasley keeps all his Muggle artifacts.
"What do you need to talk to me about?" asks Hermione. Ron realizes that he's stood in this spot for half a minute without even saying anything.
He probably could have spent a bit of time thinking about what he wanted to say.
"It's just … you remember when we were at Hogwarts, and you'd always have to help me with my essays because I didn't do them until the last minute?"
"Well, of course I do, it happened quite often." Hermione looks thoroughly confused, and Ron realizes that he must sound like he's completely off his rocker.
"Well, you see, you'd always list off times when I could have done it. Instead of just putting it off so I could play Quidditch or something."
"Yes," agrees Hermione. Her tone suggests that she'd really like for him to get to the point already. Ron's trying, but it's proving to be harder than he thought it would be.
"It's just that there's something I've wanted to do. But it's not like an essay or anything, I mean, I want to do it." He laughs nervously. "And I probably could, right now. And I can think of other times when I could've done it, and I don't want to leave it to the last minute." Ron is pretty sure that Hermione knows exactly what he's trying to get at, judging by the look on her face, but he continues anyways. "Because if I leave it to the last minute, you might not be there to tell me about all the other times I could have done it."
He stops talking, and there's a swelling silence between them. Ron's suspicions that Hermione knows what he's talking about are confirmed when she stands on her tiptoes and wraps her arms around his neck so her lips can meet his. The kiss is short, but it's pretty much exactly what Ron was shooting for.
"I'm sorry," Ron says. "For last year. And being a prat. And for making you kiss me right now because I was too chicken."
"It's alright," Hermione says as she rests her head on his chest. He can hear the smile in her voice.
It would be a very sweet scene, until Harry bounds over to the two of them and gives them both a crushing bear hug. Still hanging off of them, he tells Ron and Hermione that they're the best friends he's ever had, and if they really loved him they'd help him find Ginny right now.