Falling

Falling

Ron saw, as if in slow motion, Hermione's face shift gradually towards him, moving upwards as she raised herself high onto her tiptoes. He felt her warm breath on his cheek, then the touch of her lips on his skin, light as a feather.

It was then that he realised it. He was falling.

Not falling in a bad way, like when Fred had pushed him off his broomstick when he was seven and he'd fallen six feet onto the grass below. No, he suspected that this fall would not result in such a painful landing.

But he had the same feeling now as he'd had then. The sensation of losing control, of not knowing what would happen. Uncertainty. Fear.

This time, however, there was also expectation. Not of a painful collision with the ground, but of...Something. Exciting and exhilarating.

Ron had never really embraced the idea of investigating the unknown. After all, the Forbidden Forest was the unknown and he'd never had a good experience there. The unknown was a big scary place, possibly containing spiders, and Ron was never keen to venture in that direction. He much preferred sticking to what he knew; Quidditch, for example. And food was a safe option. He couldn't go far wrong when it came to food.

But this...this was different. He felt as though he'd been standing on the edge of a cliff, and in that one instant something had tipped him over the brink.

All he knew was that, in that moment, everything else had disappeared. His surroundings. The sick pit of fear in his stomach. The niggling worry that he should have gone to the bathroom one last time before the match. Possibly to throw up.

Something had changed. Something had altered the normal workings of his mind. Not to mention the regular rhythm of his heartbeat.

One aspect of his life would never be quite the same again. It would take time to develop, but a new path had been drawn. A small action had suddenly put the world a little more in focus.

And now he was falling.

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Hermione tried to be logical about the situation. Yes, she had kissed Ron. But it was only on the cheek and it was simply to wish him luck. It didn't mean anything. Of course it didn't.

But of course it did.

Hermione knew she had been falling for quite a long time now. Still, she hadn't been prepared for such a small action to affect her so much, especially since it was she who had taken the initiative.

In her deepest, most private thoughts she had likened herself to Alice in Wonderland, struggling to understand something so much that eventually it had drawn her in, and now she was lost.

Ron was her White Rabbit, a force so incomprehensible to her that she had studied him, followed him, until she had fallen down her own unique rabbit hole, without knowing what was at the other end.

Well, that would teach her to be so curious. But she was still curious, only this time it was about what was to come. She hadn't even planned to kiss him, it had been just a spontaneous action, an attempt to calm him by showing he had her support, friendship, and even...love. Very unlike her. What had happened to the Hermione who simply said what she thought, instead of expressing her feelings through sentimental gestures?

Yet, something told her it had been the right thing to do. At least it had distracted him from those foul Slytherins, no small feat in itself.

I don't remember him being this tall, she'd thought as she lifted herself up, why didn't I notice it before? And she had breathed in the musky scent of him, tingling from her fingers to her toes as her lips touched his skin.

It was only later, after the drama of the rest of the day, that she realised what she had done. In the Hall. In front of the whole school.

But why should it matter to her what people thought? Wasn't she allowed to wish her best friend luck in his first Quidditch match? Evidently not, as the sniggers of Lavender and Parvati in the dormitory that night had shown.

Unlike Alice in Wonderland, she'd had no sharp drop into her current state. It was as if she had suddenly found herself in this position, falling into the unknown. Nevertheless, she felt more in control of her continuous falling now. She had influenced it, speeded it up, even.

And now she had caught up with her White Rabbit. And, if his reaction was anything to go by, had hopefully dropped him into his own rabbit hole. Probably one a little deeper than hers. That was something to celebrate, she was sure.

Except that it hadn't stopped her from falling. Far from it. But now, she was quite enjoying it.

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