Ron looked in the mirror one last time and tried to comb his hair back again, only to have it fall right back into his face. He should have gotten it cut when his mother had told him to last summer; now it was slowly growing below his ears.

“You know, I could try to cut it for you with a simple spell…” Harry volunteered, hiding a grin that was slowly becoming harder for him to resist.

“Could you?” Ron asked excitedly. “Well that’s a relief- you will do it for me, right?”

“…but it might end up like your dress robes back in Fourth Year.” Harry laughed as he moved away from Ron, his reflection no longer visible in the mirror. “Come on, mate, you’re only taking a walk around the lake with Hermione. It’s not like you’re getting married! It’s only Hermione, the girl you’ve been best friends with since first year!”

“Yes, I know that, but now we’re going on a date!” Ron sat on his bed. “You know, how could I think this would work out? I should just send you down there and tell her I screwed up on my Potions homework and I have pus coming out of my ears.”

“I’m not going anywhere!” Harry exclaimed. “You know I’m already spending the night with Ginny down in the common room. You’re going with Hermione.”

“But I never actually went on a real date before, you know that!”

“What about Lavender? What did you ever do together?”

Ron’s face turned the exact same color of his hair. “You know what we did, Harry. It wasn’t much of a secret…”

“All you did was snog?” Harry looked at him in amazement. “You must have talked at least a little bit. She did call you Won-Won after all.”

“Oh forget about it, Harry,” Ron sighed. “I’m just going to stay up here and wait for the night to pass.”

“Oh no you’re not! I’ve waited through too much of you and Hermione fighting to have you skip your first chance with her!” He picked up his wand up off of his nightstand and pointed it at Ron. “I’ll levitate you down those stairs right now if you don’t go yourself.”

Ron nervously got off the bed and headed toward the door slowly as Harry tucked his wand away with satisfaction. He half followed, half pushed Ron down the stairs to the Gryffindor Common Room. Hermione and Ginny were sitting on the couches by the fire, waiting for them to arrive. Ron tried to turn around, but Harry was right there waiting to push him forward. Ron took a deep breath and then led Harry over to the couches.

Harry greeted Ginny with a kiss on the cheek, from which Ron looked away from pointedly. Hermione was getting up and heading towards Ron. She was holding some sort of large book in her hands, but didn’t say anything about it as she looked Ron in the eyes and said, “Are you ready?”

“I think so, let’s go,” Ron took Hermione’s right hand , which she freed from holding the book almost instantly, and he looked towards Harry one last time before heading out of the common room with the book tucked neatly under Hermione's other arm.

“What’s with the book?” Harry asked Ginny as soon as the portrait door closed behind Ron and Hermione.

“Oh, you’ll know about it soon enough,” Ginny answered secretively. “Right now, we’re going to relax right here by the fire and you can tell me everything that happened today. You did have that meeting with McGonagall. What did she want?”

~*~

Ron led Hermione down all of the school staircases and out the front doors, silently questioning himself on what he was doing there, but quickly freed that thought of his mind. They walked across the lawn silently and went right down to the lake. Hermione pulled Ron along the shore to start walking. Apparently she had a plan, which was good because Ron didn’t have any idea what he was doing.

The strolled together on the soft grass until they were directly across from the spot they had started at, facing the castle. Here, Hermione casually sat down on a large rock and signaled for Ron to follow suit. He did with no objections and looked out across the lake. The castle looked like a fantasy with the sun's light casting down upon it. In the distance, he could see the Whomping Willow flicking it's branches at some birds flying around it, like they were all play some sort of game. The giant squid had its tentacles above the water, letting some younger students tickle them, and then splashing them with water whenever he felt like it. All in all, it was like a dream, but in reality.

“So, what are we going to do?” Ron asked, already leaving the night’s events to Hermione.

“I thought we could read from this book,” Hermione set the book she had brought along on her lap. It now looked a lot larger than Ron had noticed before in the common room. The last of the sun’s rays made the title almost shimmer. Uh-oh, Ron thought, she wants to read ‘Hogwarts: A History’? What kind of date is this anyway?

“Um…” was all Ron could stammer. Hermione just grinned and turned to the first page.

“Chapter One - Hogwart’s Founders - Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin,” she read aloud. There was no stopping her now. “These four people each had a love of teaching and magic, and the day they met was fate. It all started when…”

Ron lazily looked up at the sky and thought, What am I doing here? Hermione and I aren’t meant to be together. We’re two different people. She likes books; I like Quidditch. She likes to go to library; I like eating in the Great Hall. We’re too different to be girlfriend and boyfriend! What have I gotten myself into? Now I have to sit here and listen to a stupid book that I hadn’t planned to read in my lifetime.

There was nothing left to do, and Ron was left listening to Hogwarts: A History for the next two hours, occasionally listening in and learning something he didn’t know about the school. Ron dared a glance at how far Hermione was in her favorite book. Not even halfway done. He had to stop her and get himself out of this madness. He wondered slightly if this was how it was when she went out with the famous Quidditch player, Viktor Krum.

“Hermione?” Ron asked nervously, afraid of what she might say. She marked her place in the book and looked up at him expectantly. “Can we do something else?”

“Why?” Hermione asked, unfathomable.

“Because I don’t like reading! I never in my life dreamed of reading Hogwarts: A History, even if I became Headmaster myself! I‘m not particularly fond of Salazar Sytherin and his Chamber of Secrets, since I witnessed most of this stuff first hand! Could we please just do something else; like anything?”

Hermione let as smile overcome her features and started laughing hysterically. Ron stared at her incredulously, wondering if she had gone insane.

“Hermione, you’ve gone off your rocker,” Ron said, wide-eyed. “We should go back up to the castle.”

“Ron…I know…” Hermione gasped through her laughing. “I knew you didn’t…like reading this…book.” She collected herself up to speak more clearly. “I only did it as a punishment.”

“A punishment?” Ron asked incredulously. “A punishment for what? What did I do now?”

“The punishment was because you were a thick-head for the past four years,” Hermione announced. “You didn’t notice any of the attempts I made to get to you. Not to mention, you got mad when I said yes to Krum at the Yule Ball; you should have already asked me though.”

“You mean all of this suffering was just because I was dumb when I was younger?” Ron asked, surprised. “You made me listen to, how many pages was that?”

“Three hundred fifty-two,” Hermione answered.

“You made me listen to three hundred and fifty-two pages of Hogwarts: A History just because I was thick-headed?”

“Yes, I did,” Hermione said proudly.

“Well, that was kind of harsh, Hermione,” Ron said. “I didn’t expect you to do that.”

“Oh, shut up, Ronald,” Hermione said. She leaned in and closed her eyes as Ron did the same. Their lips connected right in the middle and the kiss deepened.

Ron opened his eyes to see Hermione had done the same. Three hundred and fifty-two pages later and all he had gotten was a kiss…

But it was the best kiss of his life.