Until Last Tuesday

Ron opened his mouth and quickly closed it again. He could not for the life of him think of anything to say. They stared at each other, Hermione seemingly as speechless as he was himself. The unnatural silence lasted for a full minute before Hermione blushed and said, "For Pete's sake!" and stormed away.

This did NOT improve Ron's mood!

Ron stood in the hallway with his mouth open until he was interrupted by Ginny, who tapped him on the shoulder and asked sweetly, "Are you trying to catch flies, or are you thinking really hard?"

"Bug off," Ron mumbled halfheartedly. Normally he would be happy to get in a row with Ginny, but today he couldn't seem to put himself in the right state of mind.

Ginny looked at him critically for a few minutes. "What!" Ron finally burst out impatiently. "Do I have drool on my chin or something?"

"Has something happened with you and Hermione?" Ginny asked bluntly. Trust Ginny to be blunt. "She's been acting weird. And so are you, for that matter."

"I am NOT acting weird! I don't know why you have to be so nosy all the time. Besides, shouldn't you be in your room fixing yourself up? Harry's coming today, you know."

Ginny stared at him and Ron immediately felt sorry. She had not outwardly shown her crush for Harry in a really long time, and Ron did not think that anyone outside the family(and of course, Hermione) was aware she still felt the same. They had, by unspoken agreement, stopped teasing her about Harry long ago, she was just too sensitive about it.

"Ginny," he started awkwardly, "I'm sor...."

"Sod off," Ginny mumbled, her face now as red as his own. "I'm going to change for lunch," and she pushed by him into her room and slammed the door.

Ron groaned. He had certainly started the day off well.

Lunch was an uncomfortable affair. Ginny glared at him and Hermione did not speak to him at all. His dad and Percy were working already, and the twins were whispering amongst themselves, causing Mrs. Weasley to cast suspicious glances their way every few minutes. Fortunately, she seemed to preoccupied with them to notice the tension between the remaining members of the table.

Ron, for the first time since those years ago when he'd finally noticed that Hermione was in fact a GIRL, could not eat. He picked morosely at his food and spent the rest of the time alternating between pleading glances at Ginny and furtive glances at Hermione. Hermione kept her eyes down and Ginny was not taking the bait. If anything she glared at him more.

Ron sighed, hoping it would get either Ginny or Hermione to feel sorry for him, but nothing happened. So he sighed again, with more gusto. This time it attracted the attention of his mother who turned to him with a concerned face and inquired, "What's wrong, dear?"

Ron started. That had not been his plan. "Nothing, Mom," he said in as cheerful a voice as he could muster. "Just not hungry today, I guess,"

His mother's face went from concern to worry. "Are you sure you're alright, Ron? Maybe you should have a bit of a lie down."

Ron was about to say that wasn't at all what he needed, then thought better of it. This way he could hide in his room without his mother being suspicious. Then he wouldn't have to get up until Harry got here. Then Harry would come and talk to Hermione. Harry was always so good at helping things with him and Hermione. Then Ginny wouldn't be mad anymore. Harry always made her more chipper.

Ron jumped up in his chair. "Yes, that's just what I need, Mom!" he said and bolted out of the room. Just before he went out of earshot, he heard his mother say, "I don't know what's gotten into Ron these days. I wish he'd let me cut his hair. It's getting almost as silly as Bills."

Ron permitted himself a small smile. His mother was amusing sometimes.

After three hours, Ron was regretting his decision. He was BORED! And he hadn't eaten! What time was Harry getting here, anyway? Why was he sitting in his room like a coward?

"This is stupid," Ron said aloud to his mirror." We've gone through so much together already, we should be able to talk about this,"

"That's the spirit," his mirror said soothingly. With his mirror's words of encouragement (he'd had it for years, it had never stirred him wrong before) Ron tried in vain to smooth his spiky hair, and failing at that, stared at himself with a determined air. It was time to be an adult about this and talk to Hermione.

Ron's first discovery since venturing out of his room to talk to Hermione was that doors were really a lot more fascinating then they appeared. Take,for example, hers. The different patterns and colors, the intricacies of the wood....I mean,seriously, one could write a very interesting theOLOGy on this subject, he should ask Hermione about it at once, and sudden;y his head cleared (partially) and Ron realised to his chagrin,that he was in fact still staring at the door.

Right. This wasn't helping. And so Ron took a deep breath and remembered all the other things he had done in his life,things that had seemed so frightening at the time. The time he had played the giant chess set. The time with all the.....ugh....spiders. That horrible moment when he had thought Harry was dead. He had thought Harry was dead and his world had stopped and all that had been there to stop his world from floating away on its axis had been her. Hermione.

She had clutched her hand in his and She hadn't SAID anything,she knew as well as he that words were nothing,they were nothing, she had just held her hand and her eyes with his and for a brief moment he felt more calm than he had ever felt in his life, and when they had heard that it was Cedrick who had died they shared a secret feeling of ultimate relief. And then Hermione had sagged against him, and he had caught her so she would not fall, and together they had sank down into the earth.

He'd wanted to kiss her then. But he had not, it had taken until nearly the end of fifth year, the time they had fought so savagely and badly that Hermione had hit him across the face. It hadn't been hard but it had been enough to shock them both. And then her face had crumpled, and all Ron had known was that he couldn't STAND for her to feel that way, and somehow all the pent up feelings had turned into something more physical. But it had never been THAT physical. They had in fact,barely discussed it. But thinking on it , Ron had not even the remotest idea why. Why was it such a big thing? Shouldn't one be reponsible and discuss it? Wasn't it something everyone did at some point, at least to procreate? Hell,sodding Malfoy had been doing it and talking about it since fifth year! Not that he would want to put himself in that class, he hastily assured himself, but he should be able to TALK about it, at least to Hermione.

Finally, Ron knocked on the door. There was no answer. Ron knocked again. No answer. "Hermione"? he finally called. "Are you in there?"

He hadn't at this point expected an answer and was suprised when Hermion called in a calm voice, "Come in, Ron." Ron,feeling slightly foolish, opened the door.

Hermione was sitting on her bed reading a textbook. Resisting the urge to make his usual comment about her studying, he asked hesitantly, "Is it alright if I sit down?"

Hermione looked surprised but motioned next to her, "What is it?" she asked and Ron tried not to notice that she was wearing shorts, not skimpy shorts but shorts all the same and they were showing a lot more leg than he was used to. (Except for on Tuesday, his sly mind man said,but he shushed it quickly and it retreated)

Ron cleared his throat. "I thought we should talk about what happened the other day." (Tuesday, his mind said, it was Tuesday)

Hermione blushed slightly but looked resolute. "I think so too, Ron. We're nearly adults now and should be able to talk about things that embarrass us. I know that was a little...unsettling what happened but we should just deal with it and pretend it never happened." As she said the last of this, she blushed slightly more and looked away.

Ron couldn't help but notice how pretty she was when she was nervous. She had such a way of biting her lip when she was concentrating, and her hair always had the tendency to fall in front of her eyes in a haphazard fashion.

"Hermione," he started tenderly, and Hermione looked up because she had never heard him address her in such a tone. "I'm sorry you were embarrassed. I was embarrassed too. These things happen, you know. I walked in on Mum once when i was 8 or so, scarred me for years,that one."

Hermione laughed. "Oh Ron,really? That's awful, you shouldn't say things like that about your Mum," and without realising it she moved closer to him, closer to the warmth and security that was Ron, Ron who always made her feel better without hardly trying. She realised in a hurry when she felt Rons lips on her hair. She peeked at him under the cover of her lashes and saw that he had his eyes closed, as if he was inhaling the scent of her. Hermione closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. She could smell soap...and the mintiness of his breath and another smell, the sunshiny boyish smell she had always associated with him. "Hermione," he said and his eyes were on her lips.

Feeling shaky and not sure of her next breath Hermione inched closer until her bare leg was next to his. She felt as if she could feel the heat radiating from it and it heated her leg up so that the other felt cold. Hermione wondered for a minute what it would be like to wrap her legs around that heat and then paused, flushed at her own daring. However, somehow Rons hand had ended up on the small of her back and there it lay, just underneath the fabric of her thin t-shirt so that it touched her skin, and she had never in her wildest imaginings had realised it would be so very exciting to get her back touched,but it WAS, and to reciprocate she stroked his face all the while staring at his blue blue eyes and feeling like she was lost and she almost WAS lost when they were interrupted by a very large pop and an exclamation of voices.

They drew apart, both flushed. "I think Harry's here," whispered Hermione,more out of necessity to say anything than to state an obvious fact.

Ron sighed. For a brief moment he had almost resented his friend. He rose to his feet,offering Hermione a hand up.

"Thank you, Ron," she said quietly. She then looked him full in the face. " I DO think we should continue this discussion sometime, maybe we could go for a walk or something sometime?"

Ron could not help grinning. "Definitely," he said.