Chapter 2
In the Garden
It was 7:00 am and Hermione found herself waking up early to put on make up and pay extra attention
to her hair.
“I wonder why I never noticed my feelings toward Harry and Ron. I can understand liking one of them, but BOTH? Why so sudden? I really need to analyze my thoughts and feelings towards the boys. I mean, I can’t date both!” Hermione thought as she applied a light pink gloss to her lips.
When she finished her uncooperative hair, it was about 8:00. She knew the boys weren’t awake yet, but couldn’t wait for breakfast anymore; her stomach was growling. “Can you just wait another hour or so?” she asked it uselessly.
Hermione was tempted to drop something loud in her room to wake up the boys. She wanted to enter the kitchen when they were already there. She wanted to make an entrance. Hermione also fought the temptation to go in there and wake them up the normal way, by shaking them.
After fifteen minutes of debating with herself, she was about to give up on her entrance and just go down to breakfast. But, she heard shuffling feet outside her door. They were walking to the bathroom. She listened for a second before she opened the door and casually- on purpose walked out.
It was Harry. He was wearing red and blue plaid pajama pants. He didn’t see her, he had already walked past. Hermione cleared her throat. He jumped a little and turned around quickly.
“Hermione! Do not scare me when I wake up! I almost pissed myself!” he exclaimed then chuckled. She giggled.
“We don’t want wittle Hawy to go pee pee in in his pants,” she teased and smiled. He smiled brightly, then yawned. Harry stretched and flexed his abs to show off to Hermione.
At this time the potion was in full effect without the teens knowing.
“Quidditch does the body good,” Hermione didn’t mean to say out loud.
“Whoops!” she thought and mentally gasped.
Harry smirked and opened his mouth to speak when Ron came out of his room. He sleepily ran his hands through his messy red hair.
“Good morning, Ron,” Hermione said, still blushing from her comment to Harry.
“Morning,” he smiled warmly at her.
“Meet you two downstairs,” Hermione made a quick exit as she went down to breakfast. She was surprised the boys didn’t hear her stomach growling.
“So much for an entrance...” she thought moodily.
She entered the kitchen and smiled at the people at the table: Mrs. Weasley, Ginny, Bill, and Fleur.
“Bon matin,” Hermione said brightly.
“You ‘ave practized Francais over ze ‘olidays?” Fleur asked her.
“Oui,” Hermione smiled. She sat at the table next to Ginny and helped herself to some cereal. She and Ginny then began to talk about some muggle novels they had been reading.
Harry and Ron came downstairs at the same time and fought slightly for the remaining seat next to Hermione. Ron won and Harry took a seat next to Ginny. Ginny gave Hermione a questioning look; she shrugged in response.
“After breakfast, can you two go and get some vegetables from the garden, Hermione and Ron?” Mrs. Weasley asked.
“Sure,” Hermione and Ron agreed. Harry sulked and quietly ate his cereal.
******
“So, how was your summer this far, Ron?” Hermione asked him as they headed toward the garden.
“It’s great. Well, besides the current situations,” he replied.
“Yeah, I understand. It was the same here. I was so worried that I kept thinking that I saw you or Harry in the crowds of people in Cancun,” she said and smiled. “So, when I did see you two, it was definitely a sight for sore eyes.”
“You have no idea how great it was to see you,” Ron said and looked over at her.
She smiled and looked at him flirtatiously as she took his hand in hers. They reached the garden and found the rows of carrots.
“I heard that if the green leaves of the carrots reach your knees, they’re ready to be picked,” Hermione stated.
“Well, how tall was the person who told you that?” Ron asked.
“I read it,” she replied.
“Of course,” he sighed sarcastically.
“Try that one,” she suggested pointing to the first carrot in the row.
Ron let go of Hermione’s hand and bent over to pull the carrot up. Hermione started to look at his butt. “No!” she yelled in her mind. She pretended to be fascinated by the spade she was holding.
“I guess it’s OK. Mum’s just gunna be cutting it up anyways,” Ron said and put the carrot in the basket they had brought.
After they had picked some carrots, they moved on to tomatoes. There was a comfortable silence between them. The sun was hot and the tomatoes were in the shade of their leaves, making them cool. Hermione grinned slyly to herself and threw a tomato at Ron. He stopped and slowly turned to face her. It had hit him in the small of his back; not where she aimed (upper back), but close. She busied herself with picking the red tomatoes; looking innocent. She heard Ron behind her, but pretended to ignore him.
Suddenly, she felt something cold on the back of her neck. She gasped and stood up. Hermione had tied up her hair (“So much for all that work.”) because of the hot sun. When she stood up and turned around, she saw Ron standing there with a half of tomato.
“That was cold!” she exclaimed laughing.
“Yeah, but you ruined my clean T-Shirt,” he laughed back.
“It’s not like you can’t get the stain out with magic,” she said.
The sun was directly above the and Ron’s face was beginning to turn red. She was sure she was burning also.
“Let’s take a break in the shade,” Hermione suggested.
They sat under a willow tree. She extended her legs in front of her in the prickly grass. He admired her legs in her jean shorts. She watched him watch her. And, when he looked up and saw her watching him he blushed and mumbled “Sorry,” before looking at the grass. Hermione moved closer to Ron so that their sides were touching. He looked at her warmly and they both leaned in for a kiss.
It wasn’t either of their first kisses, but they both had nervous butterflies in their stomachs as if it was. The kiss was slow, sweet, and long. Little did they know this was not their own feelings...
******
“Why did that take you so long? You were simply picking vegetables,” Mrs. Weasley scolded Ron and Hermione when they returned an hour after they left.
“We got into a small fight,” Ron chuckled turning around to show his mother the stain. She rolled her eyes and smiled.
“Ron, I want to show you this great book I got over the summer,” Hermione said.
“Will it take long?” Ron whined.
“Not unless you like the book,” she smiled.
“I doubt it, but alright,” Ron sighed as they headed upstairs.
“Why do I suddenly have strong feelings for Ron? That kiss was... great, but something felt funny. It wasn’t the way I would have thought kissing Ron would be like. Before I came to the Burrow I would have been almost repulsed at the thought. But,... I’ll just ask him what he thought about it. Now all I need to figure out is how,” Hermione thought. She had been thinking about this all morning.
“So, where’s the book?” Ron asked when they reached her room.
“There isn’t one,” she replied. He raised his eyebrows at her. “I wanted to talk to you.,” she added as they sat at the foot of her bed.
“We kissed today,” she stated.
“Yeah,” he grinned widely.
“It was nice but...” she started but stopped and sighed. Ron’s face fell.
“It’s weird. All of a sudden I have these feelings for you. The thought of you and me kissing would have made me very... uncomfortable over the summer before I came here. But, when we were hanging out in your room I was... infatuated with you, I guess,” Hermione said carefully choosing her words.
“The same goes for me. It was weird, wasn’t it?” Ron agreed. “But, I’ve always had some feelings for you,” he confessed. She smiled knowingly.
“Can I think about this before we become a... couple?” she asked.
“Yeah, no problem,” he said and kissed her lightly before he left her to go find Harry and Ginny.
******
Cupid's Liquid Arrows by moonbeamfairy16
Chapter Notes: thanks a bunch to everyone who reviewed!