Dirt on Your Nose

Dirt On Your Nose

By Lady Pyrefly

Author’s Note: This is my first HP story, although I adore the books and their corresponding fanfiction. The story here came to me shortly after reading HBP.

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As Ron walked calmly, albeit smugly, off the Quidditch field, he couldn’t help but stare at the brunette waiting for him in the stands. Hermione had her nose stuck in a random book yet again, but that was to be expected. Quidditch was never really Hermione’s thing.

As Ron walked towards her, he couldn’t help but remember their first meeting.

But halfway through the bittersweet memory, Ron realized he was already standing in front of his friend. He supposed his legs were just longer than he realized. “Ready, ‘Mione?” he asked.

Hermione, a little startled, smiled up at the tall redhead and began to gather up her things. With her bag full of quills and parchment, and the book she’d been reading tucked safely under her arm, the brightest witch in the year smoothed her slightly-frizzy hair down and asked, “Have a nice practice?”

Ron nodded, thinking. “Yeah, but that was a nasty fall, did you see?” Not that he cared whether or not Hermione watched him fall, whether she worried about him, whether she…

“Oh, yes!” Hermione said, rather surprised by her own reaction. She reached out and gingerly touched Ron’s shoulder. “You aren’t still hurt, are you?”

“Nah,” Ron lied, trying to stop the grimace of pain from showing on his face. “It wasn’t too boring for you without Harry or Ginny around?”

Hermione shook her head, and squinted her eyes against the setting sun they just turned into. “They’ve been spending a lot of time together, haven’t they?”

Ron shrugged. His best friend snogging his little sister wasn’t exactly his favorite thing to be thinking about.

The pair walked in silence for a few moments, as the castle before them grew larger and larger. Hermione smiled up at the boy walking next to her. She had recently realized how good looking she found him. But Hermione could guess that their relationship would always remain infuriatingly platonic. Infuriating being the operative word.

Hearing Hermione sigh for no apparent reason prompted Ron to ask, “Something wrong?” Okay, so he wasn’t exactly articulate. Forgive him, this girl had an odd effect on his mind.

But again Hermione shook her head. “No, just thinking.” She dared one, quick look into Ronald Weasley’s blue eyes and felt her heart stop for a moment. Of course, that could always just be from the bright orange sunlight streaming into her eyes. What Hermione needed was a distraction at the moment, something to keep her mind off the words she so desperately wanted, no, needed to say to him. That distraction came. “You’ve got dirt on your nose,” she said, and wiped it off with the tips of her fingers.

Ron felt an odd sensation around his stomach, almost as if someone dropped him from a broomstick. He was quite aware of the sense of falling. With yet another jolt, Ron realized how much Hermione had changed. When she first met him, Hermione wouldn’t dare touch him without self-consciousness.

And that was all it took. That one, quick brush of fingertips, and Ron fell apart. Slowly, agonizingly slowly, he bent down to the smartest girl he would ever know, and kissed her full on the lips. He felt Hermione gasp through the embrace, but didn’t pull away.

Finally, not even six seconds after, Ron took a step back. Hermione noticed through the haze in her mind that his ears were quite pink. After nearly seven years of knowing the Weasley boy, Ron hadn’t outgrown that. It occurred to Hermione that she never really wanted him to.

“I…” Ron started to say, before deciding against it. “Stupid, right?” he asked, and took a few steps backwards in the direction of the school. Hermione wondered if he thought she would hit him.

Hermione opened her mouth to speak, but realized she had no words to say. She just mouthed silently, a very puzzled look on her face. Ron, too, seemed to be frozen in place. “Why…?” she finally managed to choke out.

Ron suddenly got defensive. “Look, I’m sorry,” he said, feigning indifference, “It was a stupid idea, and it’ll never happen again.” Hermione could tell by the way his voice shook that either there was a very large spider behind her or that Ron was nervous.

“No…I mean…why d’you…it was just a bit of dirt,” Hermione finished lamely, given up completely on logic.

A rather lopsided smile came over Ron’s face, and Hermione felt her heart twist. “You told me I had dirt on my nose when we first met,” was all Ron could say, as he prayed he didn’t sound like a complete idiot.

“You didn’t kiss me then.”

“You didn’t touch me then.”

And it was quiet, there on the edge of the Quidditch pitch. Quiet, with the only scene that of a boy, and a girl, her hand on his face, his arm around her waist. Heads bent forward, lips almost touching.

There was still a bit of dirt on Ron’s nose.