The Question

The Question

Chapter One

He sat in a seat next to Harry. He could hardly grasp what was happening. He then heard the music. No, this just can't be he thought. It just can't be. He lowered his face into his cupped hands; tears began to form in his eyes. Harry nudged him to stand with the rest of the people. He slowly raised himself from his seat and turned to face the bride. She was walking down the isle, being escorted by her father. As they passed Harry and Ron, she turned and looked at both of them. She gave them a slight smile, and then she and her father passed on. As they approached the front, her father placed her hand into the hand of the man she was about to marry, Neville Longbottom. Everyone sat down to begin listening to the ceremony.

Again, Ron placed his face in his hands and began to sob and wail. He screamed and then yelled, "No, no, no, not my Hermione, she is mine, not his!" He began to fling and flang and toss and turn. He then felt a hand touching his shoulder.

"Ron! Ron! Wake up! It's me, Harry. Wake up!"

Ron slowly looked up and saw Harry and Neville staring at him. With sudden rage he grabbed Neville by his pajama top and began pulling Neville's face to his own face. With measured words he said to Neville, "You can't have her! She is mine do you hear! She is mine!"

Neville tried to break free from Ron's grip, but Ron's grip was too powerful. Finally, Harry loosened Ron's grip and yelled, "Ron, command yourself! You were just having a bad dream."

Ron let go. He then stared at the end of his bed for a moment. He flung back his covers and hopped out of his bed. He pushed Harry and Neville aside. He ran out of the bedroom and into the common room. He ran to the stairs leading to the girl's dorm. As he began to climb the stairs, they became smooth. He slid down.

"Oh no you don't!"

He grabbed the rail. With great effort, he pulled himself up to the door. He opened it and went inside. He walked around looking at all of the girls sleeping.

"Where is she?"

Finally, he saw her. She looked so beautiful even while in slumber. He walked to her bedside. All of a sudden one of the other girls screamed.

Before he knew it, all of the girls were staring wide-eyed at him. Then the worst sound he could have heard came forth.

"Mr. Weasley, just what do you think you are doing in here?"

It was Professor McGonagall.

"Ah, I can explain," said Ron, with a sheepish look on his face.

"You had better Mr. Weasley!"

Of course by then Hermione was looking at him too.

"Ron, what are you doing here?" Hermione asked.

Everyone was waiting for an explanation from him. Finally, he let out a deep breath.

"It was just that I...I...I, oh blast and botheration, I just wanted, needed to, to ask, Hermione, will you marry me?"

Hermione's mouth dropped open and then she slowly began to smile. With a shaky voice, she said, "Yes, I will marry you Ron."

She then regained her composure and grabbed her daily planner. She slowly turned the pages. When she arrived at the page she wanted, she looked up at him and said, "I knew you were going to ask me soon, I have it written here."

Ron gave her a stare. "You have to be joking, you actually wrote in your planner that I was going to ask you to marry me?"

"Yes!" Hermione said, with a know-it-all look on her face.

"This is bloody unreal," he said. "Well, did you write this too?"

He bent over and kissed her with everything he had. When their lips parted she was in shock.

"Uh no," she said, with her lips quivering.

With a smile on his face Ron sat down on her bed and looked at her as if he were in a trance. He then lifted his eyes, only to see Professor McGonagall staring at him.

"Mr. Weasley, I must present two orders to you," said Professor McGonagall. "First, GET OFF HER BED! And second GET OUT OF THIS DORM!"

Ron stood up immediately. He then turned and looked at Hermione.

"I love you sugar!"

He then ran out of the dorm. He then slid down the stairs into the common room. Harry and Neville were waiting for him there. They both thought he was two pickles shy of a full picnic. He looked at them both, with a silly grin on his face.

"I did it! I did it!"

"What did you do?" Harry and Neville asked in unison.

"I asked her to marry me."

"You asked who to marry you?"

Ron looked at both of them like they were nuts.

"Well, who do you think Professor McGonagall? By the Golden Snitch, Hermione of course!" He then looked at them again and said, "I'm going back to bed, I'm tired!"

Harry and Neville turned and looked at each other. Then they shook their heads in total disbelief. They wondered when he would realize what he had just done.

Harry replied to Neville, "I guess we will find out in a short while after he wakes up and takes a reality check."

Meanwhile, back in the girl's dorm, Hermione laid her head down on her pillow. The other girls came to her and touched her shoulder. Most of them felt sorry for her. They thought about what a bone headed way for a wizard to ask a girl to marry him. Others were thinking, that they wished it were one of them he asked to marry him, even though it was Ron Weasley. Some thought it was rather romantic. Many laid their heads down and dreamed of the day when their handsome wizard would pop the question to them.