text version
Title: Nothing Happened
Author: Devin
Email: franny122004@gmail.com
Website: http://dancing-through-life.com/
Rating: G
Category: SAR
Keywords: R/H, prior character death, Harry angst,
Hermione angst
Spoilers: minor OotP
Summary: How did they get together?
Disclaimer: JKR owns and created all of the
characters and places in Harry Potter, I just
borrowed them.
Author's Note: This is the prequel to HH; I
suppose you don't have to have read it but I
highly recommend it. Thanks to Wooly for beta
reading this for me.
Ron was walking into the library to meet his two
best friends. He'd been in the middle of a game of
Exploding Snap with Dean and Seamus when Hermione
had decided they needed to study. He'd told them
to go ahead of him and that he'd catch up in a
couple minutes.
As he was reaching to open the door one of his
books slipped out from under his arm and all the
bits of parchment that had previously been stuffed
into its pages fell all over the ground. This was
somewhat fortunate because if he hadn't had *to
step aside to get his papers back in order than
Hermione would have ran straight into him as she
came running out.
"Hermione?" he called after her, but she didn't
turn.
As she continued to escape down the hall he
noticed her shoulders shaking with what could have
only been repressed sobs.
Worry and anger coursed through him as he went
through the door she had just bolted through.
"What happened?"
Harry raised his head from one of the table Ron
had found him banging his head against. "Nothing."
"Don't bloody lie to me! What happened to
Hermione? Why is she crying and why do you look
guilty as hell?"
Harry didn't answer but started putting his things
back in his bag.
Frustrated, Ron went off in search of Hermione.
***
Finding Hermione was a sight more difficult then
Ron had thought it would be. First he got Ginny to
check the girls' dorms, later he realized he must
have looked mental pacing back and forth in front
of the staircase. Ten minutes later Ginny came
down and told him that she wasn't up their and
that Lavender and Parvati hadn't seen her for a
couple hours.
"You want me to check the girls' lavatory too?"
Ginny joked.
Ron laughed but as soon as she left he ran to
Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. "Hermione?" he called
in tentatively.
"What do you want?" a glum voice, which belonged
to a glum ghost, asked.
"Have you seen Hermione?"
"I haven't seen anyone. No one ever comes to see
me," she sobbed out.
"Uh, sorry bout that," Ron said awkwardly and
quickly exited.
Pausing outside the door to consider his next move
and to pull himself together after even being in
the same room as a crying girl.
'Than why am I chasing another crying girl?' The
answer seemed painfully obvious; it was Hermione
who was crying.
So he went on looking.
He checked the Owlery, Astronomy Tower, the Room
of Requirement, and even went to see if she'd gone
back to the library. He was on his way to check if
Dobby had seen her when he literally ran into
Professor McGonagall.
"Mr. Weasley, please watch where you're going."
"I'm sorry, Professor. I was just looking for..."
"Miss Granger. She looked pretty upset. What did
you two argue about this time?"
"We haven't been arguing," Ron spat in an angrier
voice than he should have used with a teacher but
then suddenly realized what she'd said. "You've
seen Hermione? Where'd she go?"
McGonagall gave him an appraising look. "I believe
she was headed to the Quidditch pitch."
"Thank you," he called over his shoulder as he
raced towards the field.
Once he got there he spotted her immediately,
though it wasn't too hard to notice the lone
figure sitting in the bleachers. She would have
seen him coming but she was leaning back with her
eyes closed, she almost looked asleep.
"Hermione?"
"What is it, Ron?"
She seemed so calm, he could hardly believe this
was the same girl that burst out of the library
sobbing. "What happened?"
Hermione just shook her head, still not opening
her eyes.
"Hermione," he said softly.
"Ron, I need to ask you a question."
Trying not to look too nervous he answered,
"Sure," and waited for her to continue.
"Percy's death..." Ron's head shot up, "do you
blame me for it?"
"No!" he shouted forcefully. "Is that what Harry
said to you?" At that moment Ron didn't if he was
the only one who could kill Voldemort, Harry
Potter was a dead man for putting that idea in her
head.
Ignoring his question she went on. "Really? I
would blame me."
He stared at her for a couple seconds before
answering. "There's obviously no 'would' about
it."
"What's that suppose to mean?"
"You obviously blame yourself but what I want to
know is if this is a new idea Harry brought up or
did he just reinforce an old fear?"
Hermione didn't answer but the slump of her
shoulders told him it was the latter.
"Why?" Ron asked softly.
Her eyes snapped open. "Like it's not obvious!"
"Bugger that! It is most certainly not obvious to
the rest of us, Ms. 'top-of-every-class'. So
you're going to have to explain it to me."
Hermione was on her feet now and, apparently
wasn't done yelling. "I got your brother killed!
I'm the one who convinced both of you to take
Harry's vision with a grain of salt. If we hadn't
of hesitated we would have gotten there in time
and..." she gestured wildly, almost violently.
Ron grabbed her flailing arms and stilled her
motion and forced her to look at him. "And we
could have all died. We're 16, we can't fight the
Death Eaters single handedly. We barely survived
last time."
"How can you not blame me?"
"How can you blame you?"
She started crying again and threw her arms around
his neck. Ron awkwardly returned the hug; he had
yet to get used to when Hermione got emotional.
After a few minutes, when Hermione had run low on
tears, she pulled back to say something but
whatever it was quickly evaporated from her mind
when she looked up into Ron's eyes and how close
they were standing seemed to matter all the more.
Ron must have noticed too, she decided based on
the way he gulped and his Adams apple bobbed.
"Um, Hermione..." He began to pull back to a
comfortable distance but Hermione held him in
place by tightening her arms, which were still
around his neck.
They were at a crossroad. Either one of them was
going to start hyperventilating and preserve their
friendship or...
Hermione moved closer and brushed her lips
tentatively against Ron's. In this close proximity
it was hard to tell which of them was shaking, but
in all likelihood it was both of them, though
neither would admit it. After the first tentative
meeting of lips, instinct kicked in.
After the need for air became more and more
paramount they pulled away.
Ron was the first to try and speak. "That was...
that was..."
"Brilliant?" Hermione supplied helpfully, causing
both of them to laugh.
"Yeah it was." There was another lull, that wasn't
altogether comfortable, as they searched for what
to say next. "So...um... now what?"
"Well, we could pretend it never happened-" she
was glad when he looked truly affronted by this
suggestion, "or you could ask me a question."
Ron looked puzzled by this last suggestion a
mulled over it while Hermione waited as patiently
as she could. 'Girls are so cryptic! What question
could I possibly have to ask her after - Oh.'
"Um, Hermione?"
"Yes, Ron?"
'I really hope this is the question I'm supposed
to be asking, otherwise I'm screwed.' "Would you
like to be my girlfriend?"
From her squeal of delight and the way she once
again threw her arms around his neck, he could
tell he'd picked the right question and sighed
with relief. "Of course I will!"
As they started to head back, hand in hand, they
both thought of where they were going back to. At
the same time they said, "Maybe we shouldn't tell
Harry."
They both stopped and looked at each other and
both started to explain.
"He'd just use it to distance himself from us
more."
"We should be able to be happy about this and if
he finds out we'll spend all our time trying to
make him happy for us so we could be happy."
"Besides, sneaking around could be fun."
"Did you say we shouldn't tell Harry?" they both
asked, having realized that they were explaining
the same side of an argument.
"I think that's the most boring fight we've ever
had," Ron commented with a smirk.
"I'll be sure to take the opposite stand next
time."
"Nah, I kind of like being on the same side," he
then leaned down and kissed her again before they
headed back to the Gryffindor common room and
pretended like nothing had happened.
The End
