Seo Gerecednis

The clock had just chimed "past your bedtime" when Harry made his way upstairs to Ron's room. A dull ache had been throbbing at the base of his skull all day and he was glad for the opportunity to sleep it off. Besides, he'd had just about all he could take of Luna Lovegood for one day, and he really wanted to be able to talk to Ron in private. He said goodnight to the girls on the landing outside Ginny's room, then again to Peter at the door to Percy's old room, then climbed the last two flights alone.

He carefully nudged the door open. "Ron?" he whispered. No answer came, but he had a feeling Ron was feigning sleep. He opened the door further, letting the light from the corridor shine in. To his surprise, the mess from earlier had been cleared away--or at least shoved to the corners of the room--and someone had set up a cot for him to sleep on. His trunk sat at the far end. Hedwig's empty cage stood on a bookshelf.

"Ginny and Luna will be glad to know I won't be bunking with them tonight." The catch in Ron's even breathing confirmed his earlier suspicion. "Hey," he said, closing the door and using the light of the moon to find his way to the cot.

"Mmph," Ron grunted.

Harry sat on the cot and peeled off his T-shirt. "You missed a brilliant game of chess," he said, buttoning his pajama top.

Ron rolled on to his side and faced the wall.

"Peter's an excellent player." He put on his pajama bottoms. "He may even be as good as you."

Ron mumbled something unintelligible.

Encouraged, Harry forged ahead. "Peter's a decent bloke. You should get to know him." When Ron didn't respond, he added, "He didn't mean to offend you earlier. You know, with the whole bull and cow thing." He lay back on the cot.

Ron rolled on to his back. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Okay." Harry was silent for a while. Then he took a deep breath and said, "Hermione got ten O.W.L.s."

Ron's laugh echoed in the darkness. "All O's, I bet."

"No."

"No?" He heard Ron roll on his side to face him. "Don't tell me they created a mark higher than Outstanding just for her."

Harry laughed. "U for Unbelievable?"

"Yeah, or M for Miraculous." He could almost hear Ron smiling in the dark. "So what happened? Why didn't she get all O's?"

"She only took E's in Astronomy and History of Magic."

"Only E's, huh?" Ron sniggered. "If only we could all be so imperfect."

"She's considering an appeal to the examining committee."

"You're kidding me!" At the creak of bedsprings, Harry looked over to see Ron sitting up in a shaft of moonlight. "No, you're not kidding. If there's anyone we know who'd appeal an E --"

"-- it'd be Hermione."

Ron shook his head. "I tell you, mate, that one is completely nutters." He lay back down with a sigh. "Barking mad, she is."

Harry grinned to himself. The affection Ron felt for Hermione was all too obvious. Why they both refused to surrender to the inevitable was beyond him. Not that he had any intention of saying anything of the sort; he rather liked his limbs intact. Even so...

"Ron?"

"Yeah?"

"Why didn't you go to Heathrow to see Hermione off?" He tensed in anticipation of the coming eruption.

It never came. Ron was silent for a long time, so long that Harry wondered if it meant he wasn't going to respond at all. Then he wondered if Ron had dropped off to sleep while he'd been considering his response. He had almost given up on getting an answer when he heard Ron sigh. "I don't know."

He turned his head to look at Ron. "You don't know?"

Another sigh. "No."

"What kind of answer is that?"

"Hell, Harry, what do you want me to say?"

"That you're a daft fool for not going?"

"Okay, I'm a daft fool for not going. Happy?" He mumbled something under his breath that sounded vaguely like "ruddy tosser." "What would you have done in my place? If it were Cho doing the asking, would you have gone?"

"Cho would never have asked me to see her off at the airport."

"You know what I mean."

"I'm serious. She wouldn't have asked, even when things were going well between us."

He saw Ron turn his head towards him. "Serious?"

"Serious. She never fancied me the same way Hermione fancies you."

Ron sucked in his breath. "D'you really think Hermione fancies me?"

Harry shook his head to himself. He could sympathize with Ron's self-doubt, but he couldn't understand how Ron could possibly continue to have any doubts about Hermione. "Ron," he said, "there are only two things in this world I'm sure of. One, Voldemort's going to try to kill me. Two, Hermione fancies you."

Ron's blush was almost audible. "Bugger."

"Y'know, you should probably write her and apologize. For not seeing her off. Crookshanks is still here; I think Ginny was going to send him back with a letter tomorrow after breakfast."

"I already sent Pig."

Harry's jaw dropped. "You sent Pig? To India?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Ron, that's like 10,000 miles. Even if he doesn't get eaten by seagulls over the Channel, he'll never make it across the Himalayas."

"Oh," Ron said. "Well, bugger. And I was just getting to like that feathery git."

Harry chewed thoughtfully on his bottom lip, wondering if he should pursue this subject any further. Unable to restrain his curiosity any longer, he summoned his courage and asked, "Have you kissed her?"

"Huh?"

"Hermione? Have you kissed her?"

"Oh." He was quiet for a moment, staring up at the ceiling, then yanked his pillow out from beneath his head and pressed it across his face. From beneath, Harry heard a muffled, "Yeah."

He propped himself up on one elbow. "Excellent!"

Ron's grip around the pillow slowly loosened. "Not really."

"Not really? What d'you mean, 'not really'?"

The pillow fell to the floor with a whump. "It didn't come off the way I meant it to."

"She wasn't crying, was she?" Harry thought back to his rather soggy first kiss.

Ron snorted. "No, she wasn't crying. That's your field of expertise, mate."

Harry tossed a slipper at him. "Prat."

"Oy!" He tossed the slipper back.

Harry lay back and laced his fingers behind his head. "So what happened?"

"D'you really want to know?"

"No, I'm just asking to be polite." He looked at Ron, staring resolutely up at the ceiling. "Yes, I want to know! What happened when you kissed Hermione?"

"Well...er...." He paused, apparently searching for either the right words or the courage. "I sort of...er...missed."

"Missed? How could you miss? What were you aiming for, her ear?"

"No! She just...she moved."

"Maybe she was trying to get away from you."

"Do you want to hear this or not?"

"Yes."

"Then shut it."

Harry snickered softly. "Okay, I promise to behave. Go on, then. What happened?"

"Yeah, she moved her head just as I was about to kiss her, and I...er...I...I ended up kissing her eye."

"Her eye?" He fought back a surging storm of laughter.

"I didn't expect her to move like that!"

"Obviously not. So what'd you do then?"

Ron retrieved his pillow from the floor and hugged it to his chest. "This is the bad part."

Harry turned to look at him. "It gets worse?"

"Bloody awful, mate." He sighed. "Well, after she'd figured out what I was trying to do, she moved her head again, so I could kiss her properly."

"Yeah?" He couldn't stop the grin from spreading across his face. "That's not so bad."

"Yeah. That part was brilliant." Ron sighed again, but this time it had an entirely different tone. "But then I...I went to put my hand on her shoulder, and I...."

"You what?"

"I grabbed her...her...." Harry looked over to see Ron's hands fumbling around his midsection. "I grabbed her...you know."

The last part was rather garbled. "I'm sorry, what did you say?"

Ron huffed and pointed at his chest so that Harry could not possibly doubt what part of Hermione's person Ron had offended. "Her...you know? I grabbed it. Accidentally."

He just couldn't stand it. If he refrained from laughing one second longer he'd explode. Fearing for his life--from without as well as within--Harry surrendered to the storm. He rolled on to his stomach, pressed his face into the pillow, and let out a shriek.

"I'm glad you find this so amusing," cut Ron's voice through his hysterics.

Tears streaming down his face, his entire body convulsed with mirth, Harry rolled back over and sat up shakily on the edge of his cot. He imitated Ron's gesture. "Y-You," he gasped, "you g-gra-grabbed h-her...you know?" He collapsed on to his back, clutching at his side, still laughing. If he kept this up, he was in serious danger of pissing himself.

"It's not funny!"

"Y-Yes i-it is."

Ron chuckled softly. "I suppose it is a little funny."

"It's b-bloody hysterical!" Harry forced himself to calm down before he woke up the entire household. He took off his glasses to wipe his face, then set them on top of his trunk. "How did Hermione react?" he asked once his breathing had returned to normal, although now he had the hiccoughs.

Ron shuddered. "Blimey, Harry, I've never seen her that mad before."

"I can just imagine."

"Believe me, you don't ever want Hermione to be that hacked off at you."

Harry snorted wetly. "I'll remember that, if I ever get the urge to grab her...you know." He guffawed.

Ron smacked him with his pillow. "Wanker."

"Hey! I'm not the one groping girls, you are." He stuffed the pillow behind his head and grinned at Ron.

"You and Cho...you never...?"

"No!" He laced his fingers behind his head and stared up at the ceiling again. "We only snogged but once, and you already know all about what a disaster that was."

"Yeah." His sympathy was palpable.

"The human hosepipe. Yeah."

"Not even at Madame Puddifoot's?"

Now it was Harry's turn to shudder. "What a bloody awful place."

"Never been there." He paused. "D'you suppose Ginny's ever been?"

Appalled, Harry stared at him. "How would I know?"

"Dunno. Just wondering."

"You're a right perv, you know that?"

"Just because I'm watching out for my sister doesn't make me a perv!"

"Yeah, right. And just because Snape passes out detentions for no reason at all doesn't make him an evil, slimy git."

Ron laughed. "True. But I still think you and Ginny --"

Harry let out a loud groan. "Stop right there. Just stop."

"But Har --"

"No. No more. I don't want to hear it. Just because you finally found the bollocks to snog Hermione doesn't give you the right to muck about with my love life--or Ginny's." He yanked the bedcovers up to his chin.

"But --"

"No, Ron."

"All right." He was quiet for a moment, then the words tumbled out of his mouth like an avalanche. "ButIstillthinkyouandGinnyshouldgettogether."

Harry sighed and rolled on to his side, facing away from Ron. "Go to sleep, Ron."

"Good night, Harry."