It was one fight too much.
She knew it would never be the same again.
Over the last couple of years, she'd really felt they were getting closer, stronger, intimate. They never kissed or anything as brave as that, but he'd walk that bit closer to her and rub her hair gently when she sat by the fireplace. He used to touch her hand gently and look into her eyes, and she just knew they were more than just friends. Much more.
She wasn't like this with Harry. With Ron, it was different. And that made it all the more special.
They had their own jokes and their own little secrets that they'd tell nobody else but each other.
But after one fight, she knew it was gone. It was one fight too much. They'd fought before, of course, and there was nothing special about this fight, it wasn't particularly vicious or spectacular. But it was after this fight, that both Ron and Hermione accepted that they would never be together.
He went back to Lavender, and Hermione returned to her books.
Even when they made friends, which inevitably they did, things were never the same. The basis of their friendship – that will we, won't we aspect to it all – was gone now. It all seemed a bit hollow and empty after that, full of forced laughter and repeated jokes that appeared to have lost all meaning.
Ron didn't touch her hand anymore, and when she sat reading by the fireplace, she sat alone.
Years and years after though, both of them would wonder about what would have happened if Ron just hadn't borrowed and crimpled her notes that day.
But both would never know.
Will miss ya, Kev :(