Ron woke up Saturday morning with a burst of confidence. The anxiety he had in his stomach yesterday was now nowhere to be found. Ron opened the curtains to reveal several empty bunks. Harry was up, reading a piece of parchment.

"Hello," Harry addressed

"Hi," Ron replied

"Ready for another day of total embarrassment?"

"Piss off. Come on, let's go eat. I'm starving."

"Right…"

They left the dormitory and climbed through the porthole of the common room. On their way down to the Great Hall, Ron avoided the topic of the previous night because he knew Harry was buzzing to joke about it.

Once they reached the Gryffindor table, they greeted Hermione and quickly began eating. She had already finished breakfast and was reading over her homework.

"Hermione, have you been asked to the ball as yet?" Harry asked after he nudged Ron to get his attention off of his plate.

"Er, no." she replied indifferently.

"Oh, don't worry, someone will soon. Once they pluck up the courage…"

"Thank you, Harry but I don't worry about getting a date to the ball."

"And you shouldn't. Any of these blokes would be lucky if you went with them."

"I suppose, but I don't really care about things like that. I mean getting a date would be great, I guess, but if I don't, I'm not going to cry about it like other girls do."

Ron sat there fighting the urge to scream "will you go to the ball with me" in her face, by biting his lip and staring down at his breakfast. By this time, he was so confident about what he had to do that he began thinking about how he was going to do it. How would Hermione Granger appreciate being invited to the ball? He wanted to make it special. No, he wasn't proposing marriage or anything like that but he knew that if she accepted, it would be a milestone in their relationship. If she accepted… that was a whole other thing. What if she rejected him?

Ron decided that if he kept thinking, he'd probably talk himself out of ever making a move. And where would that leave them? Seventh year and she decides to make the first more? To hell with that. He abruptly got up from the table earning Harry and Hermione's questioning eyes.

"Er, I got to…yeah…" he stuttered and briskly walked away.

He wasn't planning on going back to the dormitory and somehow his feet brought him to one of the most unlikely places: the library. What were the chances of him finding a book on 'how to ask your best friend/crush to the Yule Ball' yet he still browsed through the isles, searching.

After about twenty wasted minutes of searching, he was ready to give up. About to replace a book on its shelf, he caught glimpse of the back of a girl with brown, bushy hair he was so familiar with. Hermione. He had forgotten he might've encountered her in the library. After all, it was her favourite place in the entire world. In an attempt to sneak out quickly and quietly, he tiptoed down the isle and to the back shelf. He swiveled on his feet and escaped out of sight. "Close one." he thought to himself.

Then, Ron realized he still had a book in his hands. He had forgotten to put it back on the shelf as he ran. He looked down on it. 'Playing with Fire and not Getting Burned' by Joanne Rowling. He opened it and scanned the contents swiftly.

'Chapter 6: Word Play – pg. 172' he turned to the page and began reading in his head.

"By now you would've mastered the easy art of fire work. In this chapter, you will learn step-by-step, how to conjure charms to make the fire spell out different words and sentences. You will learn to form simple things such as 'I Love You' or complicated sentences such as 'Honey, please call you mother and ask her if she is going to be supplying the pumpkin juice for the party.' In the following chapter, you will learn how to form human-like sounds with your fire…"

That was it! He could do some fire work on the fire in the common room so that when he got the chance to be alone with Hermione he could complete it and show her.

Later that evening in the common room, the last person, a second year named Bobby Fitzgerald had finally left. The common room was quiet and peaceful with just the three of them, though Ron was a bit annoyed at Harry. Not that he had told him about his plans or anything but he was sort of hoping he would've just figured it out.

Every now and then, Ron would glance at the crackling fire that he had prepared earlier. The book was indeed correct, fire work was easy. All he had to do was write 'Will you go to the ball with me?' on a piece of parchment and mumble 'Firendio' while tapping it with his wand a couple times. Then, drop it into the fire and to be sure it had worked, sparks would fly in the shape of a circle. To complete it, he would need to tap the fire with his wand while saying 'Blazio'. If he had done it correctly, a capitalized 'Will you go to the ball with me?' would conjure in the fire.

Ron was ready. He was going to do this. He scribbled quickly on a piece of scrap parchment: 'Get out, mate. I'm going to do it now!' and threw it at Harry's face. It hit his glasses and he threw an angry glare at Ron. Harry opened the crushed parchment, read it, and looked confused at first but them, his face filled with understanding and amusement.

"Hermione, Ron, I'm off to bed." Harry spoke up with a smirk on his face.

"Night, Harry." they replied in unison and quickly, Harry ran up the stairs to the Boys' Dormitory.

Ron got up off of the chair he so often occupied and walked over to Hermione who was sitting on the wooden floor, reading a new book.

"Hermione, you got a minute?"

"Now? Is it urgent? I'm right in the middle of this book." she said without glancing up at the specky, red-haired boy calling to her attention.

"A bit," Ron replied nervously. She looked up, he brown eyes blazing with interest. Ron held out his hand to help her up and she took it without hesitation. Once she was up, she fiddled awkwardly with Ron's hand, wondering if she should let go or not. He answered by leading her to the fireplace. She had a confused look plastered on her face.

"Sit down." Ron said and she complied. He was surprised how calm he was and how natural it all felt. He took out his wand from his pocket and tapped the fire.

"Blazio." He whispered and slowly, the words began to form letter-by-letter in the fire. After about a minute of configuration, it finally spelled out 'WILL YOU GO TO THE BALL WITH ME?'

Hermione sat, amazed with her mouth hanging slightly open.

"So… what do you say?" Ron asked, feeling rather nervous again. Hermione got up from the ground and looked Ron straight in the eyes with a smirk on her face.

"I'd be delighted." She hugged him around his torso. Relief washed over him as he hugged her back. Still engaged in the hug, she mumbled:

"I can't believe you went through all that trouble into learning fire works just to ask me." Ron pulled away.

"You should be grateful! I had to go to the library." He said the word with disgust. They both smiled at each other with content.

And that night, Ron fell asleep feeling much happier than the night before.

I really got carried away with this chapter during the book part. I really planned on Ron just running out of the library and encountering Neville who had successfully asked Ginny to the ball. Oh and just so you know, those spells were not real ones that J.K. Rowling had written about or anything, I just made them up. The 'fire work' was not anything real either, I made that up too. I also really liked the fact that I included "Where would that leave them? Seventh year and she decides to make the first move?" Derf. Only one more chapter left, guys!