Chapter 5 - Everything We Haven't Done, Part 1

Half an hour later, Ron and Hermione separated, breathing heavily, their faces flushed from kissing. Ron lowered his head to the pillow next to Hermione and blew her hair out of her face. She giggled as his breath tickled her, then reached for his hand where it lay between them, aching to be held.

"Hermione," Ron breathed, looking very satisfied and warm. "I should probably tell you something..."

"What?" Hermione asked, scooting closer to him on the pillow.

"Well..." Ron began, looking guilty. "I sort of... overheard you and Ginny talking in Ginny's room this morning."

Hermione stared back at him, blinking. Her eyes widened.

"What do you mean? What did you hear?" She sat up a bit to stare down at Ron.

"Well..." Ron said again. "I was coming out of the shower and I heard... I heard you saying something that seemed to be about me... and I was curious."

Hermione's eyes widened further.

"I know I shouldn't have, but I stuck around and listened because... I just couldn't walk away. It was like I was glued there."

Hermione's lips parted slightly from shock.

"And I just... I wanted to know... after I heard a bit of what you were saying, I needed to know what you meant by it, see..."

Ron looked away from Hermione, his face red and his eyes darting about nervously.

"Ginny said you'd lied to me and I needed to know what about... I thought... I was worried for a second that you didn't really want to be with me. Then..."

But Hermione gasped.

"You... you were there for the whole thing!" she exclaimed, looking mortified. "When I left the room you were standing outside and I thought you had just come out of the loo! I was terrified you'd heard something but... but I just let it go because your hair was wet and you were in front of the bathroom door..."

"Yeah, I had just taken a shower," Ron said, flashing Hermione a guilty half-smile, but she shook her head.

"Why would you do that? Why did you think that was okay?!" Hermione sat all the way up now and pressed her hands to the cushion, preparing to stand, but Ron reached out to stop her.

"Hermione, hold on a second, please?"

"You shouldn't have listened to us!" Hermione shouted, pulling out of his grasp and standing now. But Ron jumped to his feet next to her.

"Hermione! Yeah, I know I shouldn't have listened! And I'm really sorry that I did... in a way." He paused and Hermione glared at him. "But I can't be entirely sorry because the reason why I even had the guts to tell you that I love you is because I had already overheard you telling Ginny that you..." he scuffed his foot on the shed floor... "love me!"

"But that's not fair!" Hermione shouted, her cheeks flushed now. "What if you hadn't felt the same way and you'd heard me? You could have ruined everything! I wanted to wait and tell you on my own time..."

"...so you could lure me in and make me love you gradually?"

Hermione blushed deep crimson and avoided his eyes.

"Hermione, that's totally mental! I don't need convincing, I don't need extra time, and I certainly don't need you to be cautious around me to make sure things work out the way you want them to."

Hermione huffed and crossed her arms over her chest, but her eyes were wet...

"You really are an arse..." she said almost inaudibly.

"Yeah, I know I am," Ron admitted as he scratched his neck. "But please, please don't be angry with me."

"You don't understand," Hermione said with an exasperated sigh, her cheeks turning even more red as she continued... "And I can't explain it to you. But all I know is that yesterday morning I was terrified to tell you that I fancied you, and now you've told me that you love me... and I just don't know what it all means... how much it means..."

She looked confused, flustered, and like she'd rather be anywhere else but in this shed with Ron at the moment.

"Hermione," Ron sighed, searching for the right words, sure that he didn't know them. But then it occurred to him... he swallowed the lump in his throat. Things were moving so fast between them, but it felt so right, like it all just made sense. He had a feeling that they were on the same page, but this was his chance to explain to her just how serious he was, just how much it all meant to him, because he could tell her he loved her all day long, but it was about showing her that, wasn't it? And especially now when she felt that he had betrayed her trust by listening in on her private conversation, something that, without directly lying to her, he'd never completely be able to regret...

So he took a breath, looked down at her, and nodded to himself...

"I'll never regret how much of an arse I was today. I just can't do that. You want to know why?"

Hermione finally looked up at him, her angry, tear filled eyes meeting his. But she nodded very slightly and he nodded back.

"This is how I feel, this is all I know how to say..."

He shifted from foot to foot and shoved his hands into his pockets...

"If you want this to be serious... with me... with us... well, you should know that I do too. So you don't have to worry about that..."

Hermione blinked at him, taking in what he had just admitted. It was just so utterly mature and sincere. She had never heard him say anything like it before. Her lips parted involuntarily from her shock as she continued to blink up at him.

"Say something," Ron pleaded, looking nervous, his eyes on hers.

"If you're saying what I think you are-" Hermione started, but Ron nodded.

"I am," he said.

"Okay." Hermione stared up at him, still shocked. Finally, her eyes had filled with too many tears not to spill over. "Damn it, Ron, I can't even stay angry with you about being untrustworthy!"

"I'm not untrustworthy!" Ron countered, his lips curling slightly as Hermione stepped closer to him. "I just told you everything I overheard! And it's been less than two hours!"

"You stupid prat," Hermione said, but before Ron could respond, she had leaned into him so tightly that his back pressed against the inside of the shed door. She kissed him deeply, and his expression of surprise remained firmly planted on his face for the first few seconds of the kiss before he completely gave in and moved his hands up and down her back as his lips danced with hers.

When they finally pulled apart, Hermione locked eyes with him, looking more serious than she had in quite a while...

"You really want to be with me, you don't care about any other girls, you won't ever think about what it would be like to be with someone else, someone prettier-"

But Ron stopped her there.

"Hermione, there is no one else in the world who even comes close in my mind. You never have to even think for a second ever again that I'm having second thoughts or that my heart doesn't completely belong to you..."

"Is this a dream?" Hermione whispered.

"Blimey, I sure hope not..." Ron whispered back.

"You have my whole heart too, Ron Weasley. Don't ever forget it."

"I won't," he choked as he kissed her again.