A/N: Thank you all for those fab reviews. Told you it was a favourite chapter, this one is too, although this one is a smaller one.

Have been a little tied up so could not reply, hopefully will do that today.

Happy Reading.

Please don't forget that review. They really urge me to post sooner.

All characters, places, props mentioned here belong to JKR.

Chapter 13: The First of Many

The seventh floor corridor was dark and eerily silent with even the occupants of the portraits fast asleep. Still huddled together under the invisibility cloak, it wasn't difficult for her to notice that they hadn't just appeared here in this empty passage by fluke, there was a particular determination in his step as he guided her to a predetermined location. Hermione felt slightly nervous as she walked with him. For reasons unknown, suddenly his presence began to scare her. She longed for the comfort and the security that her chambers provided. What if he did something to hurt her here? What if... She shrugged those thoughts aside by force. Even for his standards that would be a stupid thing to do. Everyone would know it was him and most importantly he was risking much more by bringing her out by flaunting the Headmaster's orders anyway. He would have to take her back to the room in one piece and then, if necessary she always had the parchment McGonagall had given her. She took a deep breath urging herself not to lose her head now as she concentrated back on their present location.

He stopped in front of a tapestry, it was way too dark to see anything much but he seemed to know what he was doing as began to walk to and fro in front of a blank wall.

"Wha-" she began and then halted as a door appeared in their third pass. He unlocked it with a gentle push and walked in pulling her along.

The sudden brightness of room blinded her for a second after the dark corridor outside and she closed her eyes momentarily during which a soft click in the background indicated that the door had been shut. She opened her eyes quickly and got the shock of her life.

Ron watched as she lifted the cloak and moved away slightly before turning back, fear flashing in her eyes for a moment in her bright eyes and he realised he was still invisible. He removed the cloak from himself and she appeared to relax.

"The Hogwart's Library? But here? How?" she asked in a whisper as if she feared someone would hear her. "Where are we?" she asked.

"The Room of Requirements." He answered softly and then at her still confused look he added further. "It changes into whatever it you ask it for." Her astonishment was clearly marked on her features but apparently the lure of the books was too much for her to bother about anything else at the moment so she turned around and a genuine smile broke out on her face as she walked ahead in the exact replica of the place she perhaps loved the most.

Ron followed quietly in her wake, keeping safe distance but not so much as to force the connectors to pull them back together while she strolled as if in a daze, her hand reaching out to touch the spines of the volumes as she soaked it all in. He could see her right profile. A smile was playing softly on her lips, her face was lit up with what he thought was genuine happiness although she was much too good at faking everything from joy to sorrow to love so it might still be an act, he thought bitterly.

He looked at his watch as he stuffed the bundled up cloak inside his jacket. It was forty minutes past one, so they still had some time. The walk from the Gryffindor Tower had taken excruciatingly long and being at such proximity with her was a painful reminder of the times he craved to forget. She still smelled the same intoxicating way that used to drive him crazy... was at the moment smiling just the way he yearned to see her back in those days, cheeks flushing with colour, joy dancing in those big brown pools, gently biting her lower lip to hold the smile from breaking out. But unlike before, each gesture was an agonising reminder of her deceit and seemed to wrench his heart. As she stopped to pull out a volume before she settled down, he got a little closer to see the title. He had to know what she intended to read, had to keep watch on her every move to decipher what she wanted, the true intention behind all this facade of grief.

It was a simple book, a reference read for their Transfiguration class, he noted and as she sat down on the same table where she used to in the actual library, he took to standing near the window, leaning on the wall behind watching her carefully. Within a minute she was deeply engrossed in the pages, completely oblivious to the surrounding but unfortunately for Ron, he wasn't. The Room had done it again, morphed into an exact replica of the place he hated, complete with the exact location between the rows of books and the girl who had hurt him more than she knew. She had got her dumb revenge right. Keeping an eye on her to watch her every move, he noticed how those curly locks fell on her face and how she tucked them behind her ears in that same familiar gesture. He was unwillingly reminded of every moment he had spend gazing at her last year, craving for her, wondering why he was attracted to her like a moth to a flame and true to his thoughts, Hermione had burnt him alright. He watched with his jaws clenched as the pain intensified inside. She would never know how madly he was in love with her... yes he was in love, it wasn't a simple case of teenage crush and that made it all the more worse. He should have kept away from the beginning, never given into the temptation in the first place but the pull he felt for her was something else, something he could never acknowledge as the thought itself, he felt was barmy for his age. At least there was some lesson learnt here. He knew never to fall in this trap or any other of the same nature ever again. The pain was not worth it. He took in a deep sigh. How long would it be before he was released from this duty of guarding Hermione? How long till he could just let go of the past without being reminded of it by having to see her every single day? How long before this intense love- hate he felt for her ceased to exist? It would leave him void of a crucial part in his chest region perhaps but at least he would be sane...

Hermione closed the book in her hands making a mental note to get it issued from the actual library somehow. There was another Rune's book she needed to cross check. Getting up she placed the book back in its place and turned around and stepped away to go towards the Rune's section further ahead when suddenly there was a maddening pull that hurled her back. Trying desperately to catch her footing, she crashed hard into the chest of the guy who was standing far away from her, just a few paces ahead of the wall. She felt one strong arm go around her waist holding her to him while the other went behind to grab the wall to arrest their fall as he stumbled to catch his own footing, unbalanced by her weight.

There was a minute or two perhaps when pressed flushed onto him, her palms resting on his hard chest, his arm still encasing her with his large palms touching the small of her back that she noticed the bare skin revealed by the v-neck of his tee-shirt under the jacket. Blood crept upwards making her slightly dizzy as she lifted her chin slightly to watch that handsome freckled face. She noticed how a faint copper shade graced the fair skin of his cheeks and ran down to a little below his pronounced jaw line. She noticed that long nose that was peppered with freckles and those lips that she knew could be both ruthless and gentle with equal ease, she noticed those mesmerizing blue eyes and the pale coloured lashes as blood flooded her cheeks causing her to lower her eyes again as the heat from his body threatened to burn her down. But then all of a sudden, she was pushed away by strong hands that grasped her upper arms.

"What are you doing?" he asked in a gruff, anger and hatred in equal measure laced into the words.

She took a moment to catch herself, mortified by her bland display of the attraction she felt for him and the ease with which he shunned her away as if he was disgusted with it.

"I-I am not sure what happened... I felt like I was pulled back-" she managed weakly, turning away to hide the tears that sprang up in her eyes.

There was a momentary silence from his end and without looking at his face she could not say for sure if he believed her.

"Hurry up and see what you want you want to. You've got ten more minutes." He said in that same rude way and Hermione realised she didn't want to check any more books; she just wanted to get back and curl up on her bed. For some strange reason his actions, the way he pushed her away, hurt and it made no sense.

"Let's go back. I'm done." She said in a quiet voice, still looking away and he didn't bother to ask her for any reason. He pulled out the cloak from his pocket and coming closer dropped it over the two of them.

Hermione was lost in her own thoughts, not paying much attention to their walk as he guided her back. She was still fighting tears and worst was perhaps the urge to turn back and curl into his chest and let the tears fall. It would be an insane a thing to do on so many counts, to look for comfort from the very person who was the cause of the pain. She constantly reminded herself that he was just a pawn in her plan to escape, he was Ron Weasley , for crying out loud! The guy she had fooled with false pretences of romance and what the hell was she doing now? Craving for his closeness, for his touch, for a few words that were not spoken as if he hated the very existence of her? Where was the guy who used to spend hours at the library for her? The one whose eyes traced her out in a crowd? The one with softness marked in those blue irises? Since when did they turn so cold and most importantly why did it matter so much to her? What or who pulled her back to him and why?

She came to her senses when she heard a soft but not kind voice in her ears.

"Sit, put your legs up and shift in."

They had reached not just the Gryffindor tower but his dorm, more precisely his bed... She did as he asked, faintly noticing the presence of another person behind his taller frame. He got on the bed too, pulled the curtain shut and then removed the cloak. The bed was too small for two people and she pushed herself back with her knees pulled closer to her body as he leaned in and closed her eyes with his palm, the touch burning and hurting her somewhere deep in her chest region. There was no sound but then his hand moved away and she found the archway to her quarters. She scrambled down and rushed in. On a second thought she turned around to thank him but the door was already shut, he had not bothered to accompany her. As tears welled up in her eyes, she ran to her bed room and crashed on her bed, face pressed on her pillow, the long held tears finding release finally.

A/N: As always thanks for reading :) A review will be highly appreciated.