TITLE: Five Firsts
AUTHOR: ponderer
SUMMARY: Five firsts with Ron and Hermione. Not the ones you may have thought of.
DISCLAIMER: I own nothing.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: As always, read, review, and all that jazz. You have no idea how much your support means to me.

Five Firsts: Part the Second

The first time Hermione and Ron saw each other after she returned to Hogwarts.

Hermione bustled her way through the moving crowd in the corridor, huffing past fellow students who all wore eager faces. She understood their excitement since it was the first Hogsmeade visit of the year but she felt that a little more order was also needed. Taking a deep breath, she continued past her peers to her bedroom she shared with the other seventh year girls that had either unfinished last term, or had not come back at all.

When she came to the portrait that held a fierce lion and her cubs, she murmured the password, "Survivors". It was an easy phrase that most common rooms held at one time or another after the war ended, and it was finally the turn of the returning students that were a year older than the actual seventh years. It was a smaller room that she entered, although it was still extravagant. All colors were prominent now without horrifically clashing, like Hermione once thought. She murmured her hellos to the other dorm students before making her way upstairs to the last room on the right, her very own bedroom.

Closing the door, Hermione finally let a huge grin escape on her face. True, she had been frustrated that the halls were full and slow moving, but she too was very excited about the Hogsmeade trip because this was the first time she would be seeing Ron since he had waved her off just over a month ago at the train station. A rather feminine sigh fell from her pink lips at the thought of her boyfriend. Dropping her heavy bag to the floor in a style only Ron would be proud of, Hermione floated towards her desk where a Muggle picture sat of her and her boyfriend that past summer.

-

"Why are we taking a Muggle picture Hermione? They don't even move!" Ron whined. Hermione fumed, blowing out hot puffs of air that made her bushy hair fall from her face briefly before again sticking to her sweaty skin. It was late July and the time to go back to school was approaching too fast for their liking. They were currently lounging at Harry and Ron's new apartment in Diagon Alley, unpacking and organizing. Harry and Ginny had taken a break and had escaped downtown to have a quiet lunch away from the ever bickering Hermione and Ron. Hermione knew she should have been offended, because honestly, they weren't that bad, but today Ron was being extraordinarily annoying. She loved him dearly, for sure, but he still got under her skin better than anyone else ever could.

"Ronald, I've told you a thousand times. I like the Muggle way of things sometimes. I don't understand why you can't just accept that," Hermione explained, leaning towards the box fan she had brought from her parents house. Just wearing a tank and shorts, she was still so hot and fighting with Ron was not helping matters at all. Tired of arguing over nothing, Hermione decided another tactic; one she knew would work. Closing her eyes briefly, she fluttered her eyelashes slowly and looked up at him slyly. Suddenly, his bright blue eyes turned dark and his beautiful lips parted, letting air escape. Feeling something other than the excitement of winning fell deep into her belly at his look and felt herself slipping closer to him. She let her long hair trail up his bare torso (he had taken his shirt off once Ginny and Harry had left saying, "I can't bloody take this heat anymore!") and placed her hand right in the middle of his chest.

"You win," he murmured, trying to lean forwards to catch her lips in what would have been a very promising kiss but Hermione wanted to tease him one moment later. Taking the camera from its place on the floor, she pulled it up and snapped a picture of him right when their lips met.

Much, much later after their not so innocent embrace ended, gratefully minutes before Harry and Ginny returned with two slices of apple pie, Hermione went to her camera to see how the picture turned out. She toyed with the idea to buy a digital camera once she had returned home to pick up her parents from Australia and was surprised when they had already purchased her one. Uploading the few pictures she had to her small laptop, another treasure she cherished, she looked through the photos, playing with the color schemes. When she got to their photo, she felt it was perfect for it to be in black and white.

"So, that's it then, huh?" Ron asked, coming into his bedroom behind her. Her wrapped his arm around her shoulders lightly, although it was late in the evening, the apartment was still sweltering. Hermione nodded, letting her head fall back to rest on him. Ron looked at it in silence for a moment. "I suppose it's not so bad," he said and Hermione grinned. She turned around in his arms and stood, placing another brazen kiss on his lips.

Ron knew that all that arguing would pay off after all as Hermione tore her shirt off to the floor and they picked up right where they left off that afternoon.

-

Hermione gazed longingly at the photo wishing that Ron was there with her. Instead, she knew she had a bittersweet hour long wait before students were released for the weekend. Because of her age, she was fortunate to be able to stay away from the castle the entire weekend and had made plans to stay with Harry and Ron at their apartment. Ginny was quite jealous because she wasn't of age yet to do so, but was making good use of the time she had with her boyfriend. Harry too was upset about their limited time, as Ron had mentioned in his letter, and they vowed to not make a big fuss in front of their two friends because they got an extra full day with each other.

'Try to keep your hands to yourself while we're in front of Harry, okay Hermione? Poor bloke won't stop mopping about just thinking about it," Ron had written. Hermione had chuckled, knowing that it wouldn't just be her that would struggle to keep her hands to herself.

Turning to her closet, Hermione reached in for her outfit that Ginny had planned on her to wear earlier that week. They both had gushed over what they would do once they would see their boyfriends, giggling and blushing, all the while making sure to keep some details to themselves for obvious reasons. Ginny had selected Ron's favorite color on Hermione (a little secret she had let her friend know about) – blue, "It brings out her eyes in the best way, don't you think?" he sighed dreamily as Hermione had come outside in a blue sundress. Ginny had pretended to gag at the thought of her brother being close to Hermione in that way, but told Hermione later on. Ginny picked out a thin blue sweater that had a deep V shape, with a beautiful white chemise underneath that had a touch of lace. It wasn't something that screamed Hermione, but Ginny had insisted that it would be perfect. Wearing her usual jeans, Hermione felt confident that this would fluster Ron more than anything.

"Besides Hermione, I don't think you'll want to keep this on for too long anyway, once you finally see my brother," Ginny chuckled, making Hermione blush deeply to the roots of her hair. She was even more embarrassed because she too had had the same thoughts earlier.

Hermione quickly changed out her robes and uniform to put the selected outfit on. She had already packed the night before when she couldn't sleep so she had a large amount of time to fill. Deciding to do something about her hair, she picked up and her hand and started working on the movements that Ginny had taught her that summer. Fifteen minutes later, Hermione finally found a hairdo that was comfortable for her. It was down, and the curls were more controlled, pinned back with small blue clips on each side. It would stay out of her eyes and as long as the weather stayed sunny, it had no chance of changing to frizzy and out of control.

She heard a small sound at her lone window and smiled when she saw that it was Pig. "Hello Pig," she murmured, letting the small bird enter the room. She stroked his feathers while he made a small, purring sound. "How's he holding up?" Logically she knew that Pig couldn't answer her outright, but with the way he fluttered his wings in excitement, she felt that maybe the owl understood. "I'm pretty excited myself," she smiled. Taking the letter from his outstretched leg, she reached down to her lowest desk drawer to find a small treat. Pig nipped at her extended finger and then flew off.

Hermione opened the letter in a rush.

"Hermione,

I can hardly wait to hold you in my arms this weekend. I've missed you so much.

Love,

Ron

P.S. Piss on Harry. I won't be able to keep my hands from you at all."

Grinning like a madwoman, Hermione folded the note carefully after reading it thru twice more and moving it to her collection of other letters sent from the adorable red-head. She cheered to herself thinking she only had forty more minutes.

-

Ron grinned to himself, watching Pig fly away with his short letter to Hermione. He knew she'd respond warmly to the last part of the note. He reached out to close his bedroom window and turned back to his room. It was still unorganized, but he had tried to tidy it in his minimal time. He had been busy at the joke shop and with George's continuing to test his newest products on him and Harry; he hadn't had much time to clean up his place. Harry had made sure his room was spotless though, and had begun to clean up the shared living space. Ron groaned, lifting a stray sock from his bedpost. "Bloody hell," he murmured. He threw the sock into the corner's clothes basket, looking around for any other piece of stray clothing.

"Ron, have you seen Pig? I wanted to send a note to your Dad about work," Harry asked, coming right into his room. Ron grinned.

"Just went on a delivery for me, mate. He should return soon though," he replied.

"A note for you?" Harry smirked. "It wouldn't happen to be for Hermione would it?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, Harry," Ron quipped, striding out of the room to clean up his lunch plate. Harry followed behind him, chuckling. "Should I even ask what you're asking my Dad about?"

At this, Harry paled. He reached to scratch his messy hair behind his ear. "Harry?"

"Well, I've been thinking a lot lately, about your sister and me. And I wanted to make this weekend special…" he began. Ron came to his own conclusion.

"You want to marry her," he said simply. Harry watched him in trepidation, wondering when the blow would come from his best friend. "I figured it'd happen sooner or later. I'd rather it be later, but I figure with what my mother will want to plan for it, it won't happen that soon. You have my blessing."

"Thanks Ron," Harry beamed. Ron noted the look in his friend's eye, the gleam he himself got whenever he thought of Hermione. Then he felt something deep in his stomach. "Mate? Are you okay?"

"You don't think Hermione will expect me to propose to her too, then? I mean, it's the first time I'll have seen her in over a month and she has seemed pretty excited about it too. I'm not ready for that yet!" Ron exclaimed, running his hands through his hair. Harry frowned.

"You don't have to do anything you're not ready to do, Ron! This wasn't a ploy for you to propose to her too, you know!"

"Bloody hell," he murmured again, taking a seat at their table. Harry laughed shortly, watching his worried friend.

"Shouldn't I be the one nervous?" Ron looked up and rolled his eyes.

"Not funny Harry." Ron sighed. "Good luck mate. I think it's great."

"Thanks, really."

-

Ron paced impatiently, waiting for the familiar brunette to make her appearance outside of Honeydukes, their planned meeting spot. He could see Harry from the corner of his eye, looking out in the crowd for his sister, but he was hiding his impatience better than he was.

Moments later, a blur of red ran past him, tangling herself around Harry, laughing and kissing him soundly. Ron sighed, hoping that his girl wasn't far behind. He was about to turn back and face the crowd again when a finger tapped him on the shoulder. He froze and murmured, "Hermione?"

"Oh honestly," she laughed, turning him around and throwing herself into his arms, and he smiled.