Hermione didn’t need to make it as far as the bed to know that Ron was in the grips of a powerful nightmare. Already beads of sweat were glistening on his forehead, the bed sheets rising and falling in unison with his racing breath
She stood for a moment watching him, and then making her decision, made her way speedily to the side of his bed. She saw rather than heard him mouth the word Hermione. She cursed herself once again for all that happened, but before she could act she found herself listening to what Ron was groaning in his sleep.
“She, she cant be…No… I don’t.. I don’t believe it…Hermione, she can’t be dead….Oh God No…”
She moved her hands to steady his arms that were flailing about helplessly. She clasped them in her own, feeling their grip tighten on her fingers. She freed one hand from his, and used it to gently caress the hair back from his eyes, letting her fingers careen down his cheek slowly.
“Shush Ron, its okay, I’m okay. Come back to me Ron, its okay,” she whispered, her teenage awkwardness around him momentarily forgotten in her desire to rid him of his nightmare. “I’m here Ron, and I’m not leaving you. Its okay.”
Slowly Ron began to calm and then jerked into wakefulness as if to confirm that indeed, Hermione was okay. He sat up suddenly and looked her over, as if to be sure that she was in one piece, the nightmare had once again seemed so horribly real.
“Hermione?” he said, his voice a mere croak. She nodded slowly, not once breaking eye contact, she felt rather than knew he needed reassurance and was relieved to see his breathing slow noticable and he relaxed back onto his pillows. Now that the nightmare was once again slipping away, Ron’s previous worries about Harry returned and he immediately began to question Hermione, “Hermione is Harry doing okay? I haven’t been talking to anyone all day, Mum wouldn’t say anything initially, she just looked like she was going to cry. In fact she freaked me out so much that I didn’t want to know how bad he was, but now, now I just have to know. Tell me everything.”
Hermione filled him in as best she could, watching his face as his brow creased with worry when she told him of Harry’s unconciousness. She quickly gave him Dumbledore’s latest assessment and was relieved to see his face relax.
It was only when she had finished talking that Ron realised that her hand was still on his neck and her other hand was still gently holding his. Lately, the smallest touch between the pair had led to both jumping apart and looking distinctly embarrassed. Ron wasn’t sure what had happened to change all that but he wasn’t complaining.
He found himself staring into those brown eyes that were displaying a mix of fiery emotions. He saw a deep protectiveness glow there. He saw some other emotions too that caused his heart to stutter from its regular beat and his mind to leap into full alertness.
She was so close, he could see the flecks of green that tinged her brown eyes.
He felt her hand on his neck, her other hand gently holding his, he couldn’t seem to tear his eyes away from that face, those eyes. As if from a million miles away he heard her whisper, as if fearing that to speak out loud would break the spell, “You are not going to lose me Ron and I’m not going to lose you. I can’t imagine life without you.”
Slowly, she lowered her head towards his before her common sense got a chance to prevail. The distance between them shrank from feet, to inches to millimetres. She left her lips brush his softly, savouring their first real kiss. It was awkward and sweet, all at the same time. They broke apart quickly, but didn’t pull away from each other. Ron’s fingers were still lost in her hair at the base of her neck, her hand resting against his chest. Both blushed, their teenage tendency towards embarrassment reasserting itself with force.
Ron leaned in and kissed Hermione again, before his nerve failed him. He could feel her smile against his lips and felt one begin to form on his face too.
“Ron, I want to, I need to apologise for everything,” Hermione stuttered breaking eye contact with Ron. “I may not have known what I was doing, but you could have died because of what I did -”
Ron interrupted her by placing a finger on her lips to silence her. “Leave it be Hermione. There is no point in rehashing what’s happened. We know that you weren’t yourself. We both survived what happened, it’s now just a matter of getting over it and moving on. I guess it proves that we are not really safe anywhere are we? We are going to have to help Harry more than ever this year, no one is really safe until Voldemort is taken care of,” he said. “I don’t think I ever fully appreciated that fact until this week. While he lives we can never have a normal life. We shouldn’t be worrying about being attacked, we shouldn’t feel the need to constantly be in a state of high alert, but we are. We have become so accustomed to it that we tend to forget that living like this isn’t normal.”
Hermione nodded slowly. “I know Ron. It’s hard to think of fighting Voldemort while Harry is still so ill. I can’t bring myself to do anything other than pray that he will be okay.
Ron gently squeezed her hand reassuringly, “He’s going to be okay Hermione. Harry has been through worse than this and has never given up. He’ll make it.” If he could have Ron would probably have croseed his fingers as he said this, but still deep down he believed it.
“It’s not going to be an easy year,” he added, “ but I think it might be a little more interesting that I would have previously thought,” he said, grinning slyly, “But before I kiss you again and lose all common sense there’s something I need to ask you..”
Hermione raised her eyes to his, still blushing and waited for Ron to ask his question.
He looked very solumn suddenly. “Hermione, will you be my girlfriend?”
Hermione was unable to stifle the laugh that was breaking through, it was so typical of Ron to come up with something like that at a time of crisis but he persisted not in the least bit put out by her reaction. “You might laugh Hermione but I don’t think it’s official unless I actually ask you out.” He was blushing furiously again at this stage.
Hermione nodded and confirmed it with a kiss.