Just a Few More Paragraphs
A Hermione/Ron one shot
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter nor do I own anything mentioned in the story below. Enjoy!
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Just a few more paragraphs on the effects and uses of Alyhotsi and her required parchment length for Snape would be reached. Her hand ached and throbbed in pain from the already written parchment infront of her and she carefully checked one of the many books infront of her before setting off on another paragraph. She paused only momentarily half way through writing to look at the fire, casting her amber coloured eyes into the flaming abyss slowly dying in the fire place. Only two logs were still partly intact while the others were slowly turning to ash. Her eyes flickered back to her page and she continued writing as if she had never left her focus.
The Gryffindor Common Room was frightfully silent at 1:30 in the morning. Only a handful of students were still awake at this hour and they were all working on the same task; a ridiculously long essay on an ingredient Seamus Finnegan had carelessly used during their lesson early that day. They all had books scattered around them in such a cluttered fashion it would make Madam Pince cringe and cower in horror of the way the books were being treated. Some stacks of books were so high you couldn't even see the student referencing them. But they slaved away, dragging their hands across their parchments to try and squeeze every word possible out of it.
Using the back of her hand she brushed her bushy brown hair out of her eyes and back behind her ear, sighing hopelessly as it tumbled back into view only seconds later. She threw down her quill onto the table and got up, deciding to give her bones a good stretch before settling down to finish the last paragraphs on her essay. Using a black elastic band she secured her hair into a loose pony tail at the back of her head before going over to the window and letting in some air, since the room was positively boiling from the fire. The cool air washed over her and everyone in the room, several heads perking up at this welcoming breeze. One of them was full of flaming red hair, and was hanging infront of the owner's eyes lazily. Through the fire and the dim candle light she could see his ever so familiar pale blue eyes peeking through the mop of hair and she smiled at him, withdrawing one in reply before he returned back to his work.
She watched him from the window struggle with his writing, his face flexing and retracting as he thought hard about his essay. She knew that any second he would quietly wave her over to ask for a word or ask her how to re-phrase a passage in the book to make it look like his own writing. But for the next 4 minutes, there was total silence in the room, except for the scratch of their quills. She watched him look up for a second and then snap back towards paper the next. She watched him read the potions book infront of him and then go back to writing. She watched him.
Over the past year he had matured greatly beyond belief. He was no longer gangly limbed; instead he had filled out his frame thanks to Quidditch and no doubt tons of sweets and second helpings at dinner from his mum. His hair was longer now, just falling infront of his eyes which had become deeper and darker over the summer. He was still a useless fool when it came to girls; she'd caught him fumbling with his words last week as he tried to invite a Hufflepuff girl to Hogsmeade for the upcoming weekend. He turned his famous tomato red colour at the sight of her but she gave him a smile of reassurance instead, silently aching inside. She wished that sometimes he'd stumble and stutter with her, to give her a small faction of hope. But he never did. To him, she was the 'best friend'; the one to go to when in need of advice, especially when it concerned girls. What he didn't know was how she pained inside every time he came to her and how she would struggle to get the words out, and how he never noticed. He never noticed her. He never turned red in her presence, he never stumbled on his words, and he never asked her to Hogsmeade. He never noticed her.
A few minutes passed and she had cooled down, closing the window slightly before turning to go back to her station. Bringing her eyes back to her station she walked swiftly back to her table, sitting down and taking her quill into her hand, reading to start the final push to finish her essay. She took her eyes off her paper and she saw Ron across the room looking at her, the reflection of the dim fire reflecting in his eyes. He didn't say anything or even do anything. Instead, after keeping her gaze for a few seconds, he looked back down at his paper and began writing again. And as soon as she had lost his eyes, she did the same.
Staring at her paper, she felt her hand begin to move across it, going word by word as her mind focused on other things. She shook her head and forwarded the final fragments of her energy towards finishing the essay. Just a few more paragraphs. Just a few more paragraphs.