I finished up my essay twenty minutes later, although it wasn’t my best work” I couldn’t help thinking of Ron. I gathered my things and went back up to Gryfinndor tower. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were sitting around the fire with Dean and Seamus, both giving me a warm smile and moving over on the couch so I could sit down by Ron, who immediately went pink. Hermione frowned.
“So Ron told us you two are going to the dance together,” Harry started, grinning. I nodded.
“What a complete and utter surprise,” said a voice coming from the balcony. Ginny was standing there, watching us. I noticed that Harry’s face went from smiling to completely ecstatic. He got up from his chair to let Ginny sit down as she came down the stairs. She took it and blushed. Ron glared at her.
“Who are you going with, Hermione?” Ginny asked, brushing off Ron’s pathetic look.
“Oh, um, I dunno, I don’t think I’ll go with anyone this year… I’ll just go by myself.”
“Who are you going with?” Seamus asked Ginny. Harry’s ears perked up.
“Colin Creevey.”
Harry looked back down. We all talked until dinner time, when we all sat together in the Great Hall. My best friend, Parvati Patil, who was sitting next to me, once told me that she liked Ron, although that was many years ago and she was now happy for me. Her sister, Padma, had gone to the Yule Ball with him, and I had gone with Seamus. I thought there were a few sparks, but I turned out to be wrong and we just remained good friends. There were no sparks between Ron and Padma, considering the fact that she split before they could even dance once.
All the Gryfinndors headed back up to the tower after dinner, so the common room was quite crowded. After a few hours it was 11 o’clock, although nobody seemed to want to go to bed, possibly because it was a Friday. Neville Longbottom decided to engage me in a conversation about the Herbology lesson the day before, but I couldn’t care less and just wanted to get out of there. While Neville took a break in explaining to me what a grangroot was by tying his shoe, I took the opportunity to look around the room for somebody else to come in this conversation. My eyes fell upon Ron, who happened to look at me at the same time.
“Help!” I mouthed to him. He nodded and came over just as Neville stood up again.
“Like, I was saying, Professor Sprout thinks I’ll make a fine herbologist someday””
“That’s really cool, Neville,” Ron interrupted, smiling at him. “Although I think you mean botanist.” Neville’s cheeks turned slightly pink.
“You’re right…” he said sheepishly, and walked away.
“Thanks,” I said to Ron after Neville had left.
He came a lot closer to me than necessary, and I realized that he wanted to talk quietly to me, not wanting to draw any attention. He looked straight into my eyes and my stomach did a back flip.
“Actually, I was kind of wondering if you’d like to go for a walk” get away from bad conversations?”
I laughed. “Sure,” I replied, smiling and looking into his eyes.
He took my hand and led me through the crowd of people and out of the portrait. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Hermione watching us like hawk, although I couldn’t do anything about it.
You could hear a pin drop in the corridors, and both Ron and I let out a huge sigh. He was still holding my hand.
“So where”” I started, but Ron quickly shushed me.
“Filch could be out here” we don’t want him to catch us.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Why? What’ll we be doing?”
“Nothing! Nothing” it’s just… I don’t have a really good record with him, that’s all,” he said quickly, flashing me a smile. “Besides, we’re not supposed to be out here.”
I rolled my eyes. “Oh.”
Ron looked down at our attached hands and quickly let go. We both blushed.
“So where are we going?” I restarted as we walked through the corridors to nowhere.
“I wanted to show you something” I don’t suppose you’ve been there at this time of night?” Ron whispered back.
“Um… what are you talking about?”
“You’ll see. I think you’ll like it.”
We walked in silence for the next five minutes on a path that seemed to go to the Astronomy Tower, and I soon realized that I was right.
“Astronomy Tower? Why?” I whispered, taking hold of Ron’s hand again as he helped me up the ladder.
He smiled at me in a fond way. “It’s a surprise.”
I looked at him curiously but smiled. I trusted him.
“Close your eyes,” he whispered, taking both my hands. I shut them instantly.
I heard a door open, then quietly close. Ron pulled me along a few more feet.
“Open them,” he whispered.
The sight that met my eyes was the most beautiful thing that I had ever seen.
“Oh, it’s gorgeous,” I whispered, staring up at the full moon and the sparkles that surrounded it.
“Yeah it is,” Ron replied. I looked at him. He wasn’t looking at the sky.
“Look” a shooting star,” Ron said, taking his eyes off me and pointing up. Indeed there was. Streams of red, gold, and white shot out of the tail as it soared across the stars. I felt Ron’s hand melt into mine for the third time, but there was a different feeling about it. I turned my head and looked into his eyes.
He was coming closer.
“I really like you, Lavender.”
I just gazed.
He was just an inch away from me now, and I could feel the heat coming off of him.
Ron’s hands made their way to my hips, while mine were slowly moving to the back of his neck. Just as he leaned in closer to me, I smiled slightly and realized just how much I loved astronomy.