Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or its characters, first of all. If I did, I would be crying right now, cause y'all are awesome. Secondly, I did change some details of HP that we know and love. Ron did ask Hermione to the Yule Ball, and she never was romantically inclined towards Krum. Thank you for reading and please review!

Hermione pushed the hair out of her face and behind her ear, and sniffed loudly. She was sick and her head felt like she had eaten one of Fred and George's Whizzbangs that hadn't gone quite as planned. She wanted to go to sleep, but she also had Ancient Runes homework due tomorrow that wasn't going to write itself.

Write a 12 inch parchment on the root of "Ehwaz." Use at least three examples from the last lesson. Information found on pages 387-400.

She sighed. Well, I might as well get it out of the way, and then I can sleep. She blew her nose, and tossed the tissue behind her in the waste bin by the fireplace in the Gryffindor Common Room.

"Hey! Watch where you're throwing things!" Hermione recognized the voice immediately.

"I'm sorry, Ron, I guess I have more important things to focus on," she growled softly. Ron's lopsided grin was wiped right off his face, and he wrapped his arms around her.

"What's the matter, sweetie? I think this is the first time I've seen you upset about homework."

"I know." Hermione pushed the paper away and caressed Ron's hand, which was placed over her heart. She smiled as she remembered how he asked her to the Yule Ball during the Triwizard tournament, she had said yes, and, well, the rest was history.

The two walked down the corridor toward the stairs that led to the Gryffindor common rooms.

"C'mon, lets go out to the gardens!" Hermione tugged on Ron's arm as she started running in the opposite direction.

Ron laughed. "'mione, you sure that their wasn't anything but Sprite in your drink?" But he didn't resist her invitation to go outside.

"Forget the rules for tonight," Hermione giggled, "and no - I'm not drunk. It's beautiful outside with the snow, and I want to see the trees with the snow resting on the branches so delicately, yet so heavily at the same time. It's an enigma, Ron, don't you see?"

It took a while for Ron to answer. He wasn't really listening if he was going to be totally honest with her. He was too busy staring at the girl that he had had a crush on since a year and half ago when they had started their third year. Ever since she had grabbed for his hand during their first Care of Magical Creatures class with Hagrid when he had shown them the Hippogriff, Ron had realized that Hermione wanted him to protect her, that when she looked for someone strong to keep her safe, she thought of him. When she needed someone to make her feel protected and unafraid, she was willing to give him a chance. And Ron didn't want to give that chance up. He knew that he was clumsy and uncoordinated. He knew that he wasn't the best with words or common sense, but he also knew that someone trusted him, and God forbid that he let that trust go unfounded in truth.

He walked up behind her and grabbed her hand. She looked up into his face, a questioning look in her eyes. "Hermione, there's something I've been wanting to tell you, for a while now."

"Yes?" She stared at his face, trying to decipher what it possibly was that he could have wanted to tell her for a while.

How was he possibly supposed to tell her that he was in love with her after protecting her from Draco for a year and a half? There were no words to describe the pain he felt every time Draco said "mudblood" or spat in her face. He couldn't stand not being able to pummel Crabbe and Goyle whenever they played some petty joke on Hermione by pulling her hair or hiding her homework and forcing her to redo it the night before it was due. He loved her more than any other girl he had been with; more than Lavender Brown, Pevarti Padmil, or Jessica Simpson. The one girl he actually loved, and he had no clue how to tell her in words.

So he decided not to use words.

Instead he stroked her cheek slowly.

"Ron-"

"Shh." He covered her lips with his thumb. "Please, don't say anything. I have something I would really like to say to you. That I would love to say to you."

Hermione quickly sucked in some air. Ron was hoping it was in expectation rather than disgust; he couldn't really tell the difference.

"Hermione, do you remember when Hagrid had Harry take that crazy ride on the Hippogriff?"

"Of course," Hermione chuckled. "That was the day Draco received the scratch and had to be carried to the infirmary and Madame Pomfrey. He was barely hurt."

Ron didn't appreciate the fact that Draco was brought up as a topic of conversation, but decided to ignore it.

"Yes, but do you remember what you did when we thought that Harry would be attacked by that creature?"

Hermione wrinkled her brow, but eventually shook her head. "No, I honestly cannot, Ron. Why? Was it important?"

Ron grinned a little, and whispered, "Perhaps not to you, or to anyone else, but to me it was the most important action that has occurred in the past year or ever to be honest." Their faces were only a few inches apart, and Hermione's breathing began to quicken.

"Wha-what happened?" She asked breathlessly. Ron's lips quivered over hers, his hands brushing back the hair that somehow fell in front of her eyes.

"You grabbed my hand, and -"

"And what?" She gazed deeply into his eyes, and Ron leaned in closer, bathing in the scent of her lilac perfume and minty breath.

"And I fell in love with you, 'Mione. I fell so hard, and I'm not sure I want to get up."

Hermione didn't stop locking eyes with Ron. "Oh, yeah?" She whispered.

"Yeah." And he gave her that lopsided grin that made her accept his request to go to the Yule ball in the first place. Their lips locked in a passionate fit of hormones and love that only teenagers seem to feel when the romance is young and the night is clear.

And to make things even better, it began to snow.