A/N: This was requested by one of the people on my blog. They wanted a different first kiss for Ron and Hermione. And who am I to do anything but deliver? See if you can spot a few of the ironies in here! They're sad ironies, but it'll give you something to think about. Let me know what you thought!

-Ashley

So they were into the Chamber of Secrets. He had done a bit of fancy fake-Parseltongue which had been good enough thus far, and now they were in. He grinned at Hermione who grinned back. He gave her a thumbs-up, but put it down in a disheartened manner when he saw the look on her face. "So-erm- basilisk fangs, right?"

She ignored him as she took off toward the rotting carcass of an extremely large snake. "Right then," he said, following her. The smell was awful, but it didn't stop them from sticking their hands into the thing's mouth to pull out every last one of it's teeth.

"Be careful not to pierce yourself," warned Hermione. "Naturally the venom is still dangerous, and I doubt there's a way to heal it, except phoenix tears obviously."

"Obviously," said Ron, agreeing with her. He yanked out another fang and added it to their growing pile. "Don't you think twelve will be enough?" he asked, doing a mental count.

"Well yes, I suppose so," she said, wiping her forehead on the sleeve of her robes. "We're wasting time pulling out all of them, aren't we? There are only three Horcruxes left."

She pulled Hufflepuff's cup out of the bag around her neck. "Stab it, Hermione. Go on!" Ron urged, taking the cup from her and setting it on the floor three feet away. He stepped back, handing her one of the dozen fangs they'd collected. Hermione took it from him, her hands shaking.

"I—I don't think I can, Ron."

"You have to! You're the one who did the most to get it from the vault. It's got to be you."

Hermione nodded and slowly lifted the fang above her head, poising to strike the cup, much like a snake. "Are you su-?"

"NOW!" shouted Ron. Hermione closed her eyes tightly and brought her arms swinging downward, striking the cup right in the center of the basin. The Horcrux let out a sickening, high-pitched squeal and it began to shake, over-flowing with what he hoped was water.

"Hermione, move," Ron said quietly, his eyes transfixed in horror on the shaking and over-flowing cup. "MOVE!" he said again, grabbing a handful of the back of her robes and yanking the shocked and terrified figure of Hermione after him as he used his robes to scoop up what he could of the basilisk fangs and took off running down the chamber. Hermione let out a scream and Ron looked over his shoulder to see a wall of water following them.

Pulling Hermione with him, Ron dived behind a statue of a snake that was along the side of the chamber. He held her close, shielding her head from the spray of water as a very angry tidal wave crashed over them. The statue took most of the force and Ron heard it crack loudly. As quickly as it had begun, the whole ordeal appeared to be over with, and the only noise he could hear now was Hermione whimpering quietly from his arms.

"Are you okay?" he asked, to which she nodded slowly. He looked down at his lap and saw that he'd only managed to scoop up eight of the fangs, but it would still be more than enough to finish off the last of the Horcruxes. "Shall we go then?"

Helping Hermione to her feet and up the dark passageway, Ron led them on. Getting out of the chamber was far easier than getting in, despite the fact that they were now soaking wet and shivering from cold.

It didn't take long until they found Harry in the Room of Requirement, though he was too preoccupied to notice they were there right away. Ginny and Tonks were sitting inside, and Ginny was clearly bitter about being left alone again as the other woman prepared to leave. Tonks took off running as soon as Harry was able to give her an idea of where Remus might be, and then he kicked Ginny out of the room, too explaining that he, Ron, and Hermione had important things to discuss 'as soon as they showed back up'. "It's just for a few minutes!" he called after her as she happily took off running after Tonks. "YOU'VE GOT TO COME BACK IN!"

"Good luck with that one, Mate," Ron said from the doorway inclining his head after Ginny. Harry finally noticed him and Hermione standing there and demanded to know where they'd gotten off to. They explained as quickly as they could and he seemed to think their plan had been a good one.

"Well, it was all Ron's idea really," said Hermione, smiling at Ron. "He saved us both down there. You were brilliant, Ron." She pecked him on the cheek and his ears flushed bright red.

"Yeah, yeah, now that we've established Ron's brilliance, can we go find that other Horcrux now?" Harry demanded.

"Harry, Hermione is really shaken up about this one. And we still don't know what it even is, Mate…"

Harry let out a sound of frustration. "Fine. You stay here and wait for the room to give her something for shock and then come find me. I'll go try to figure out what the Horcrux is. There has to be a clue somewhere."

"But how will we find you?" Hermione called after him, clearly flustered.

"Don't worry. We'll find him," said Ron reassuringly. Everyone seemed to be at their highest stress levels, and it didn't help that once they closed the door to the room, it still seemed unable to give Hermione the potion she needed.

Ron began kicking a pillar and shouting curses at the room at the top of his lungs. "Ron, I feel better now. Honestly," Hermione said, trying to ease his stress. "I don't need anything. It's okay." He paused with his foot in midair and then sighed, lowering it to the ground. He leaned against the pillar he'd been trying to mutilate and put his head in his hands.

Hermione rubbed his arm comfortingly and sighed. Ron lifted his head to look at her and softly put his hand along the side of her face, pretending as though he'd only meant to tuck some of her hair behind her ears. "Alright," he finally murmured.

Straightening up and trying to make it look like he'd never been upset, he punched his fist into the air and cried, "Now let's go kill some Death Eaters!" He grabbed Hermione's hand and yanked her from the room.

The next hour or so flashed in a blur of running, fire, shouting, and Hermione. Ron didn't seem to notice too much else. But before he knew it, they were another Horcrux down, they had saved Draco Malfoy's life, and the battle was about to truly begin. There were already crashes and shouts coming from floors below them.

Somewhere on the way downstairs in the flurry of excitement and wand-fire, he and Hermione lost sight of Harry. "It's okay, Ron," Hermione said reassuringly. "He knows what he's got to do. He knows where Voldemort is. We just have to find him before he gets to the Shrieking Shack." Ron nodded, keeping his eyes peeled for Harry, but only seeing chaos.

Out of nowhere, a dark mass knocked Hermione to the ground making the most disgusting noises Ron had ever heard. It was Fenrir Greyback. Ron aimed a swift kick at Fenrir's face, making contact with a sickening crunch. The wolf-man bared his bloody teeth at Ron as he locked his claws into Hermione's robes, preventing her from escaping. Hermione let out a scream of terror, trying not to let her neck become exposed. Ron was in a panic, but he pointed his wand at Fenrir's throat, and with the quickest spellwork he'd ever done, he sent the wolf flying backward and into a wall, knocking him unconscious.

Hermione sat up, shaking from head to toe and with rips in her robes where Fenrir's claws had been but seconds before. "You-you saved my life again, Ron," she gasped in shock.

"Always the tone of surprise," he said as playfully as he could, pulling her to her feet. As they made eye-contact, Ron couldn't hold himself back anymore and he put his hands on either side of her face, bringing her lips up to his. Greedily and hungrily he kissed her, thankful that she had been his friend all these years and thankful that she hadn't just died right in front of him. Surprised as she was, Hermione threw her arms around his neck, giving a soft moan of appreciation and contentment.

"Now is not the time," came a voice from beside them as Professor McGonagall went running by, leading her army of statues in pursuit of a nearby cluster of Death Eaters. Hermione busted out laughing, but seemed almost shocked that the sound was coming out of her. Ron smiled and grabbed her hand, leading her down a flight of stairs. Ron noticed that a lot of his family was gathered in a tight-knit circle in the corner of the room and he started to make his way over to them.

"No," said Hermione, giving his hand a tug in the other direction. "Harry," she reminded him. "He's going to the Whomping Willow and he needs our help, remember?"

"Right," said Ron, following behind her as she weaved her way toward the door of the castle, casting only one more look back over his shoulder, wondering which of his family members had been hurt.