He heard knocking at the door.
"Hermione!" Ron whispered, with an eager voice. "Coming!" he said, grabbing his coat.
"Flowers," Ron muttered to himself, taking wand out.
"Orchideous!" he said, and flowers turned up from the wand.
"Lovely," said Ron, taking last look in the mirror before he opened the door.
He became speechless when he opened it. Hermione was so... gorgeous.
Her hair was in a bun, and there were blue flowers put into it. She had a lovely light blue blouse, and a skirt in the same colour. The moon was up, giving her a mysterious glow where she stood.
"You look wonderful," Ron said to her.
"Thanks," she said, grinning. "You aren't bad yourself," she added, looking at him.
Jeans, black-striped shirt and a dress jacket, that was what he'd found in the closet.
"Here," Ron said, giving her the flowers.
"Oh, they're lovely!" she said, taking a deep breath while she smelled at the flowers. "How good they smell...,” she said lowly into the flowers.
"Are you ready?" Ron said. Hermione nodded. "You can Apparate, I guess?" he said, and took out the wand from his jacket.
"Of course," she said.
"Where is it?" Ron asked.
"It's close to the café we were at last night," she answered. "You can meet me outside the door at the café."
"Is that safe? Won't there be Muggles?" Hermione thought for a moment. "No," she said.
"There aren't so many walking outside, because of the snow."
Ron looked out at the window. Indeed, it was snowing.
"Ok.. See you there!" Ron said, hearing a 'plopp' when he Apparated.
Two seconds later, they were outside the café again. Luckily, there hadn't been any Muggles passing by at that moment. "Shall we go?" Ron said gently.
"Yes," Hermione said, smiling slightly.
It was a wonderful night. The sky was starry; no clouds were in sight. The moon was shining down at the pavement, and the snow was lying as velvet on the ground. Nobody was outside.
"It's like magic..." Ron muttered to himself.
He walked so close to Hermione that he could hear her breath. He looked at her. Looked at her eyelashes.
He looked down at her hand. Ron took her hand in his. To his relief, she didn't jerk it back. She was just looking at him, smiling. He smiled back, feeling it was a perfect moment.
"Is it that restaurant, over there?" Ron said, pointing at a building at the other side of the street.
"Yes," Hermione replied.
They went over, and Ron read "Madam's Place,"
Hermione looked up at the window.
"Didn't realize how foolish that name was before you read it," she said, a little embarrassed.
"No problem," Ron said, grinning slightly.
He opened the door for her, smelling her perfume when she went by him. It smelled faintly lavender.
"Here, let me take your coat," Ron said.
"Thank you," Hermione said, giving him her coat. When she did so, he took her hand.
"I'm glad we went out to dinner," he said, whispering.
"Yeah, I have been looking forward to it all day, you know," Hermione said softly. They looked each other in the eye for a moment.
Then they heard someone cough behind them.
"Have you made a reservation, miss?" The headwaiter said, looking at Hermione.
"Yes, I have. On Hermione Granger," she said.
"Aha," Ron heard the man say. "Come with me. We have arranged a fine table to you in the corner, over there," he said as they followed him.
Ron looked around in the restaurant. Hermione had a sense of picking good places. It was a nice room, with candles as the only lightning. It could be a Muggle restaurant, if it hadn't been for one thing: there were candles hanging in the air, over the tables, and in the ceiling. It reminded him about the Great Hall at Hogwarts.
"Thank you," Hermione said, sitting down.
"It's really nice in here," Ron said as he sat down.
"Yeah, I got a tip from a colleague at work," she said.
"Who was it?" Ron said as he got the menu from a waiter.
"Remember Hannah Abbott?" Hermione said as she looked at the wine list.
"Yeah, of course," he said.
Hannah was their age, but she'd gone in Hufflepuff at Hogwarts. She'd also been a prefect, together with Ernie Macmillan from their House. Ron and Hermione had been prefects from Gryffindor.
He smiled at thinking of it. He'd been so surprised when he had become prefect instead of Harry. Ron had asked him why a while ago. Harry had said that Dumbledore thought Harry had had too much to think about. And Dumbledore was right about that.
"Ron? Hello? Earth calling!" Hermione said, waving her hand in front of his eyes.
"Hm?"
"Hello dear!" Hermione said, laughing. "As I said, she'd been eating here with Ernie Macmillan, and they had been very satisfied with both service and food, so that's how I got to know about this place."
"Ah, I see," Ron said.
The waiter asked what they would like to drink, and the both of them ordered a glass of red wine.
"Didn't know you drank wine?" Hermione inquired.
"Surprise," Ron said, then asked, "What do you want to eat?"
Hermione looked at the menu.
"Hm.. I think I'll take some chicken," she said. "What do you want to eat?"
Ron looked down. "It's a long time since I've eaten a good steak. Yes, I'll take steak and baked potato," he added, laying down the menu.
The waiter came with two glasses and a decanter. Then he took out his wand, and let wine come out of the wand.
"What does the lady want to eat?" he asked Hermione.
"Chicken," she said, and right afterwards a grilled chicken breast come onto her plate.
“And the gentleman?" the waiter asked Ron.
"Steak and baked potato, please," Ron replied, and soon after the food appeared on his plate.
They ate in silence, the both of them enjoying their food.
"The food's really good," Ron said pleased.
"Specially when you're eating it with me," Hermione replied, making Ron's ears red.
He didn't know what to say. Say something, you idiot! A little voice said in his head.
He smiled. He didn't know what to do.
She laughed. "Are you speechless?" Hermione said, grinning.
"Yes," Ron mumbled.
"Why?" she said, looking at his forehead.
"Well, I'm just so ... surprised. I haven't gotten over the shock of your owl. I thought you'd forgotten Harry and me since we haven't talked to each other since Hogwarts. And then, just one day I saw your letter.." Ron said, looking at the candle over them. "And here we are. Eating dinner."
"Oh," Hermione said. Did she look a little bit disappointed?
"But," Ron said quickly, "I was really glad for your owl, and, as you probably found out, I responded very quickly. I have missed you, you know. The three of us, hanging out together, breaking a rule or two," he added, smiling.
He could see a corner of Hermione's mouth rising up a little bit.
"Yeah," she said. "I've missed you too, both Harry and you. I'm always thinking back at the schooldays. Remembering the troll, in first class?" she said, smiling.
"Yeah, and what about the making of the Polyjuice at Moaning Myrtle's bathroom?" Ron added, with an eager voice.
They talked for a long time, remembering what they did at Hogwarts.
She's so pretty when she's laughing, Ron thought to himself. She gets that spark in the eye when she's eager, talking about something she's burning for, Ron continued. And I... I'm just Ron to her. One of her best friends. If I just could tell her that... That I haven't let go of my feelings to her.
"Maybe we should be leaving?" Ron asked.
"Yeah, I want to go out," said Hermione, and they asked the waiter for the check.
"That's on me," Ron said, taking up his wallet. When the check came, flying over to them, he laid the money on a plate, and it zoomed back to the headwaiter.
When they were dressed, they went out in the cold. It was silent for a minute.
"So..." said Ron. "Do you want to go to my place? Be there for a while?" he said, stuttering a little bit.
He knew his ears became red.
"Sure. I would like to se your apartment," Hermione said, smiling.
"Ok.. Let's go," Ron said, smiling to her.
"Coming," she said, giggling.