He had been watching her for some time now, his light eyes following her from bookshelf to bookshelf and back to the tiny table where she had her things scattered about the top of it. She was completely oblivious to his stares, which only added to his frustration as it seemed the girl was never going to notice him. At least not in the ways he had hoped she would.



Leaning back, he kicked the front two legs of his chair off the floor and tilted backwards with his arms folded tightly across his chest as he tried to think up some smart and suave way to get the girl to notice him. His eyebrows furrowed together in concentration and his foot unwillingly tapped the side of his table, keeping up a dull rhythm that was sure to bring more than a scolding from Madam Pince.



What were the chances that she would look up, notice him sitting across the room and invite him over to sit with her? He had already tried the tactic of brushing past her several times while she retrieved books from the shelves, and had even gone so far as to cast a spell to scatter her papers all over the floor so he could scurry over to help her pick them up. And it would have worked too...if she hadn’t been so damn smart to use magic to pick them back up again. It seemed as though she were lost in her work and refused to take notice that anyone else existed at this precise moment.



She was up and moving again, pulling him from his private thoughts so quickly that he jumped at the sight of her stalking past his table and sent his chair flying back out from underneath him. His arms frantically thrashed about in midair while his body seemed to be falling in slow motion onto the floor – and wouldn’t you know it, the sound from all the commotion was enough to get her to cast dirty looks in his direction before doing a double take and covering her mouth with her hand to keep from laughing at him.



His scowl darkened and he managed to shoot her a rather nasty look himself before he stood up and put his chair back onto the floor. Of course, Madam Pince came scurrying around the corner in a hurry, her eyes narrowing at him, and her wand wiggling out in front of her as she advanced on him. He held up his hands in defense, already preparing to retreat from the library without her needing to tell him, or worse, escort him out.



Madam Pince seemed to be at a loss for words for once in her time at Hogwarts as he eagerly picked up his schoolbooks and hurried out of the library, not wanting to create a further scene. He had seen the way the girl looked at him, laughter crinkling up the sides of her eyes and daring to escape those sweet lips of hers. He was nothing more than a joke to her. That was all her would ever be too.



He was half way up the corridor when a voice called out behind him for him to slow down. He paused for a moment, cast a sideways look back over his shoulder, and then seeing that it was her who was chasing after him, sped up tenfold. The last thing he wanted was for her to have a real good laugh at him. However, she seemed quite determined to catch him and continued to pursue him, shouting his name louder and louder the further distance he had managed to put between them.



“Would you just wait a minute, please?� the words hissed from her mouth as he stopped and turned around to face her, causing her to collide with his chest and bounce backwards. Instinctively his hands reached out to grab hold of her shoulders and steady her, a faint blush rising to both their cheeks from the electricity that seemed to be pumping from the spot where their skin had touched. He pulled his hands back quickly as though he had been burned and immediately scrunched his face back into a frown.



“What do you want? Can’t you see I’m in a hurry here?� His voice was crisp, much more harsh than he had intended it to be, but was happy to be avoiding a confrontation about what he had just felt from the slightest touch from her. Her face clouded over, emotions crossing her face so quickly that it was hard on him to keep up – confusion, anger, frustration, worry...and possibly even a hint of lust was lingering there behind those soft eyes of hers. Or perhaps, that was only what he wanted to see there.



“Well, if you want to take up that tone with me, I won’t bother asking you if you’re okay.� She held her head up a little higher and glanced away, but not before he had the chance to notice a few fresh tears glistening around the corners of her eyes. Instantly, he softened, a guilty feeling rising up in the pit of his stomach. Really, he had no reason to be so sharp with her.



“Oh.�



It hadn’t been the best of choice phrases that he could have responded with, but it seemed to be the only thought that came to his mind the second she returned her gaze back to his, their eyes holding for a long minute while neither of them spoke. When the tension grew to be too intense, the pair of them began to shuffle their feet nervously and shift the weight of their schoolbooks around in their arms.



“I...uh...I only wanted to make sure you were okay,� she added hastily to break the unnerving silence that filtered between them. “And it seems like you are, so–“ Her voice broke off as she timidly began to back away, apparently keen on taking up his previous role of putting as much distance between them as was possible.



He wasn’t about to let her get away, though. Not this time. For far too long she had been avoiding him and he was entirely finished with being ignored. She couldn’t put off talking with him forever, and now seemed the perfect time, more than ever, to get his true feelings out in the open. She seemed to know exactly what was about to happen, for her mouth dropped open and her eyes grew wide. For a split second, he was sure that she was going to either shove him away and go running up the corridor, seeking shelter in the girls’ dormitories, or else slap him silly and put him in his place.



Neither of those things occurred, however. She stood her ground, waiting to see whether he could muster up the courage to pull off the task that he clearly had been waiting a very long time to complete. He was opening his mouth to say something, though the words never came. He merely stood there with his jaw flapping back and forth, the only thing coming from his lips being hot and empty air. Then with a shake of his head, he managed to find his voice, if only for a second.



“To hell with it,� he muttered so low he wasn’t sure if it had actually been him talking or not. His arms looped around her back, pulling her up against his chest before she had any chance to protest – though it seemed quite evident to him that there wasn’t going to be any resistance on her part – and dipped his head to graze his lips softly against hers.



He pulled his head back to judge the expression on her face and nearly laughed when she gave his arms a playful pinch before running her hands over his shoulders and interlocking her fingers behind his neck so that she could toy with his shaggy hair. “All this snogging you’ve been doing with Lavender, and that was your best shot?�



“Shut up, Hermione.�



And before she had the chance to get the last word in, his lips settled back down on top of hers. He had lost track of the days that had passed while he waited in vain to get her attention, and all along he had actually had it. He had been so full of himself that he had never realized that she had been there all this time, waiting patiently for him to come around. When their lips parted, his eyes fluttering open for a second before he dropped his chin to rest on the top of her head, he replied, “Why didn’t you tell me?�



“I did, Ron. You were just to stubborn and refused to listen.�