Author's Notes: At long last, here's a new drabble of mine.

Rating: Something around K+, I guess, due to mild language.

Disclaimer: A missing moment I thought up, constructed with and around stuff thought up by JKR.

A Shift in Paradigm

After what had felt like hours of tossing and turning, Ron had eventually decided to give up on sleep.

This was why he was now sitting on a couch in the otherwise unoccupied Common Room, hoping in vain that the warmth of the crackling fire that he had lit would finally melt away the coldness of the guilt that had been gripping him like a vice for the bigger part of the day.

Today, his view of the world had been wrecked, stomped on and blown to tiny little bits and pieces by a particularly powerful Confringo.

If he had been asked to name three facts of the world prior to today, he would have said that the grass was green, the sky was blue and Hermione Granger was a haughty, rule-obsessed smart aleck that would happily rat out anyone just for the fun of it.

Well, today, he had learnt that Hermione was not that bad after all.

Of course, he had realized that only after being a right and proper twat to her.

And yet, Hermione, chief character of many a violent fantasy of his and a teacher's pet if there ever was one, had gone out of her teacher's pet ways and lied - yeah, right - a teacher right in the mug just to keep Harry and him out of trouble. It was unnerving. Unreal even. And it made him feel lower than Flobberworm crap.

Letting out a sigh, he bent forward, forearms resting on thighs, and stared at the carpet through the gap between his knees. He had been all wrong about her. And now all the nasty remarks that he had shot at her during the past weeks came back to bite him in the arse. He let out another sigh. He had no idea what he was supposed to do exactly; he was, frankly, utter rubbish at this sort of thing, but he knew that he had to make it up to her somehow.

A little sound from somewhere to his left caught his attention and he looked up at it, only to come face to face with the reason for his troubles.

There, by the foot of the stairs to the girls' dormitories, stood Hermione, biting her lip and looking sort of caught.

"Hey," she squeaked rather uneasily.

"Hey," he muttered. "Can't sleep, either, huh?"

She shook her head. "No."

"Well, sit," Ron offered, waving his hand towards the couch perpendicular to his.

She kept standing there for a moment, then slowly, hesitantly, made her way towards the couch and settled down gingerly. A painfully long period of awkward silence followed.

"Listen," she finally piped up, fumbling with the sleeve of her nightgown. "I haven't properly thanked you for-"

"Don't!" Ron interrupted her and rose in his seat as though his conscience had poked him sharply in the ribs. "The whole thing wouldn't even have happened in the first place if I hadn't been such a jerk. I guess if anything, I'd have to thank you. I mean, you saved the butts of Harry and me even though you had all reason not to, so... yeah..." He took a much needed breath and slowly exhaled. "I'm sorry about this morning," he continued. "You're not a nightmare. You're... You're quite alright, actually."

"You... think so?"

"Yeah, sure," he laughed, surprised by how surprised she sounded.

"I suppose I deserved it in a way," Hermione said with a shrug. "You wouldn't be saying that without reason. I do realize that I... that I tend to annoy everyone and that I should be more... I dunno... more easygoing or something..."

"Don't say that!" Ron exclaimed, his temper fueled by another flare of guilt. "I mean, yeah, I reckon we could've had a better start if you'd been a tad less like a midget teacher in a Hogwarts uniform, but that still doesn't justify the way I've been treating you the whole time." He let his upper body sink to his knees again, breathed out a lungful of air, and then carried on, trying to calm his voice.

"I have a little sister, you know. Ginny. She's starting Hogwarts next year, and if I ever find out that some little punk treats her the way I did you, I'll probably punch his stupid little face beyond the point of magical fixing."

"D-do you miss your family?" Hermione wanted to know.

"Well, yeah," Ron said, shrugging. "I do miss Ginny and my parents. But here I have my brothers that I haven't seen a lot ever since they started school, so it's not that bad."

"I miss my parents," Hermione said, her voice uncharacteristically small.

Once again, Ron looked up at her, his brow furrowed, and he gave a start at how small, almost vulnerable, she looked. It baffled him how many times he could be proven wrong on one single day. Ever since their first encounter, it had been his profound conviction that Hermione did not need anyone, that she considered herself above her fellow students and that she possibly even hated mankind as a whole, but now it could not have been more obvious that that was not the case. It was so obvious that, in fact, he was in the mood for smacking himself for not realizing earlier how lonely she must feel, even more so when he faintly remembered her mentioning that she was Muggle born. She had not only left her family behind, but her entire life, and had not yet managed to make any friends in a world that was all new to her. And he had not exactly helped making her feel better. Before his common sense could tell him not to, he had jumped to his feet.

"Come here," he said.

Hermione started to rise from her couch, but halted midway, frowning.

"What-"

"C'mere," Ron insisted. "I'm not biting, y'know."

With much reluctance, she rose to full height and walked towards him, confusion and suspicion written all over her face. When she was directly in front of him, Ron flung her arms around her and hugged her to him.

She gasped with surprise and he felt her body stiffen. "This isn't weird, is it?" he asked uncertainly when he figured that she was not going to hug him back. "I do this to Ginny when she's upset, and for some reason, it helps."

Hermione let out a shaky, nervous chuckle. "No. No, it's not," she said and brought up her hands, touching his back ever so lightly.

Ron smiled. It seemed to him as if Hermione was suspecting that he was playing some sort of prank on her. Seeing that this was the last thing that was on his mind right now, it was almost endearing, but he had to admit to himself that, given their history, it was probably a reasonable train of thought. After all, if somebody had told him in the morning that he would end this very day hugging Hermione Granger, he would have advised that person to pay a nice long visit to the mental ward of St. Mungo's.

After a few moments, they let go of each other.

"Well, I guess I'm off to bed, Ron," Hermione said. "Good night," she added before she turned around and headed for her dormitory.

"Night," Ron muttered, letting his lanky form plop back on the couch as he watched Hermione cross the Common Room. She had almost arrived at the door when he called after her.

"Hermione, wait!"

She stopped in her tracks and turned her head towards him.

"Yeah?"

"We'll pick you up here for breakfast tomorrow, Harry and I. How's that sound?"

A smile crossed her face, the first real smile that he had ever seen grace her features. It had an amazing effect. It made her look joyful and the blush on her cheeks and the sparkle in her eyes, combined with the warm glow of the fire sort of made her shine. It was as her true self, kind and amiable, was emerging from the disguise of the stiff and unapproachable persona that it had been hiding under.

"That sounds lovely," she replied before she opened the door to the dormitories and disappeared behind it.

Unable to suppress a grin, Ron got to his feet and went for his dormitory as well, but not without vowing to himself that he would do his best to keep that smile on her face.

Author's Notes 2: Well, granted, Ron giving out free hugs in first year seems sort of OOC even to me, but I liked the idea and just couldn't notwrite it.