Obvious

Obvious

By Kay Elle Hunter.

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Of the five years they had known each other, Ron had never quite realised just how beautiful Hermione was until now. She sat in the armchair beside him, staring into the dancing flames of the common room fire, with reflection flickering in her brown eyes that reminded him of liquid chocolate. He couldn't understand why he had never noticed her before. Oh, he had noticed her, yes, but not for her beauty. He had always seen around that to the soul within and he had wanted that very soul for a long time, but now, he wanted it even more.

He watched with unblinking eyes as she sighed and ran her fingers through her bushy hair, causing the curls to sit in odd places on her head. She looked away from the fire and around at her scarlet and empty surroundings. She cast a look at the back of the portrait of the Fat Lady. Ron knew what she was thinking, or rather, wondering. Where was Harry? He had left the common room to see Dumbledore some two hours ago and he was yet to return. The clock on the other side of the room read midnight and Ron was beginning to consider going to bed. Hermione, however, didn't look close to being tired and leaned further back in her chair.

"I'm sure he's not far away," she said, though Ron wasn't sure if she was talking to him or herself.

Ron gave a great yawn and began to stand up, when Hermione suddenly reached over and touched his thigh, sending tingles running up it. Ron looked down at it with questioning.

"Please don't go to bed, yet," Hermione said in voice of controlled quietness. "I want you to stay with me until Harry gets back."

Ron silently obeyed and sat back down. He knew Hermione was worried. She had been a lot lately, but Ron didn't truly understand why. Voldemort would never come to Hogwarts - not with Dumbledore here.

He watched closely as she cast another look at the back of the portrait, before leaning forward and grabbing a piece of parchment from the table in front of them. She conjured up a much littler table to sit on her lap and summoned her quill and ink to her with her wand. Quietly, she began to write upon the piece of parchment, obviously trying to keep her mind off Harry.

After a moment, Ron asked, "What are you writing?"

Hermione looked up and smiled. "A letter to Viktor," she said shortly.

Ron felt a surge of jealousy erupt inside of him. "Krum? Please tell me you're still writing to that - that git?"

"He's not a git, Ron," Hermione said quietly, not looking at him. "If you ever got the chance to get to know him you wouldn't think that, either. You might not even be jealous of him." She said the sentence very quietly.

"Jealous? Why would I be jealous of a grouchy prat like that?"

"Oh, Ron!" Hermione said rather angrily, suddenly standing up, sending the letter and her table to the ground. "Open your eyes, Ron! You keep complaining about Harry getting all the attention from girls and everything - I've heard you with my own ears and yet you're still completely oblivious to the thoughts and feelings going on around you and inside of you. At every mention of Viktor's name from my mouth, you suddenly get all jealous and offensive, as though it's the natural thing for someone to do. And don't you dare say you only do it because I'm your best friend!" she added as Ron went to speak. "Harry's my best friend as well and do you ever hear him saying the same sorts of things you do? No!"

Ron gaped at her. "What - what are you saying, Hermione?"

"I'm telling you to open your eyes and realise exactly how you feel about me, exactly how I feel about you, and do something about it instead of wasting your time being jealous of someone you shouldn't be," she replied. She walked past him as he merely stood there, staring at the spot she had stood with his mouth agape. Secondly later, he heard the sounds of footsteps heading up the stairs and sat back down.

She knew. She knew how he felt and... (His stomach suddenly did a small somersault inside of him at the thought) ...she liked him the same way...

Suddenly, the portrait nearby swung open and Harry clambered on through the hole. Noticing Ron straight away, he took Hermione's empty seat, ignoring the mess on the floor and looked at Ron's rather far-away expression.

"What's up?" he asked.

Ron turned to look at him. "Hermione knows how I feel," he said. Harry's expression suddenly changed to one of amusement. "So do you, obviously."

"I've known it for ages, mate," Harry said with a smirk. "Since fourth year to be exact."

Ron groaned. Had it truly been that obvious?

Suddenly the sound of someone running down the stairs above interrupted and a moment later, Hermione had re-entered the common room wearing her pajamas. She had obviously heard that Harry had arrived.

"Harry!" she gasped, almost out of breath. "I was getting worried!"

Harry was still looking at Ron with an odd expression on his face. "I'll leave you, two, I think," he whispered, not really caring if neither heard him. "Goodnight, Hermione. I swear I'm fine. I was in Dumbledore's office the whole time," he assured her. "'Night, Ron." With that, he climbed the stairs up to the boys' dormitories two at a time.

Ron and Hermione looked at each other. Ron stood up, but continued to look at her, not knowing what to say.

To his relief, Hermione spoke first. "I gather by now that you've realised, like the rest of the school who have managed to notice, that it is really quite obvious that you like me?"

Ron nodded, his ears going slightly red.

"For how long, Ron?" Hermione asked, stepping towards him. "For how long have you known that you like me?"

Ron stayed silent for a moment. "I dunno, a couple of years," he answered finally with a shrug.

"Since before you finally realised I was a girl?" Ron didn't have to look up to know she had an amused smile on her face.

Ron looked at her. "I knew you were a girl way before then, Hermione, I just never -"

"Took much notice of the fact because I was one of your best friends?" Hermione said, looking down at her feet. She looked up when he didn't respond to see him staring at her with an unreadable expression.

"I did notice you," he admitted eventually, going even redder around the ears. "It's kind of hard not to notice when one of your best friends' chest is erupting to an ... attractive size."

Hermione opened her mouth in slight shock and disapproval, but closed it quickly to suppress a giggle. "How come I never caught you staring at my chest if you took so much notice of it?" she asked, slightly curious.

"It's called stealth, Hermione," Ron said with an absent nod. "With a little help from all those bloody books you read, it really is quite easy... I don't think Harry took much notice of it, though."

Hermione giggled again and looked at him in the eye. "I like you, too, Ron," Hermione said. "A lot," she added as an after thought. "My feelings for Viktor in fourth year were nothing compared to the ones I felt for you."

Ron was suddenly staring at her lips. It seemed they had each moved closer during their little talk and were now standing only about a foot apart from one another. Hermione kept licking her lips in nervousness and Ron seemed transfixed by the sight.

"Ron...?" Hermione whispered.

It seemed that was the trigger for what was long awaiting to finally come. Ron took a small step closer to her and bent down to allow his lips to brush over hers in a sweet and very soft kiss. Hermione wrapped her arms around his neck, as Ron went back for more of her sweet taste, neither unaware of the bright green eyes that were staring down at them from the staircase.

Harry turned, a smile on his face, and headed silently back upstairs to his dormitory where Dean, Neville and Seamus stood in the doorway, wanting to know what happened. He gave them a quick thumbs-up, before heading in and climbing into bed.

"I believe that Ron and Hermione are officially together," he said to the other boys. "Finally!"

They all laughed and fell back onto their pillows, ready for a good night's sleep.

- The End -

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A/N. PLEASE REVIEW!!!

Hmm... R/Hr: my new fave SHIP! It used to be D/Hr, but I've kinda moved on, finally, to one more realistic (no offence to all those D/Hr SHIPers out there! I swear that I still support you 100%, it's just R/Hr now my fave!).

Anyway, I hope it was OK. This is the first R/Hr fic I've written in almost a year and it only took a mere 2, if not less, hours to write so I understand if you found it crappy. I also don't have a beta-reader at the moment, so I did all the corrections and that on my own.

Also, just so you know, I'm actually writing a R/Hr (with H/G) chaptered fic at the moment, though I only started a couple days ago. If anyone is interested in beta-ing that fic, please email me at: [email protected]! I only want 2 betas, so don't get upset if I reject you!!!

Cheers with Butterbeer,

- ~ * Kay Elle Hunter.