Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot. The characters and the setting and all that jazz belong to J.K. Rowling (AKA – writing goddess).

"'Mioneeeee?"

"What Ronald?" Hermione sighed.

"Do you think, just maybe, you could help me with this herbology homework?" Ron said with a grin and begging eyes.

"Why do you always need me to help you with everything? Can't you just figure it out?" Hermione said finally looking up from her book, facing him.

"No, I can't, because I wasn't even paying attention in herbology so I have no clue what a… 'Giggling Lily' is!"

"Why weren't you paying attention?" She asked with an accusing look. Ron went silent.

The truth is that he couldn't answer that question, the only reason Ron wasn't paying attention is because he was staring at Hermione. He loved the way her hand shot up when she knew the answer to a question. He loved the way she would bite her lip when she was concentrating. He loved the way she would delicately brush spare strands of hair from her face as she worked, he always wanted to do that, touching her hair seems amazing. Or the wa-

"Ron?" Hermione said snapping her fingers in front of his face.

"Oh uh- I was- Thinking about… food?" Ron tried to pull together.

"Oh dear Merlin Ron! Is that all you think about?" Hermione said snatching the paper from his lap and writing an introduction to his paper. Ron smiled at her, she was doing it again. He leaned down slightly to get a better look at her face, luckily she didn't notice.

Ron stiffened when a hair fell from behind her ear and she didn't brush it away. Without thinking, Ron brushed the hair behind her ear and his hand lingered on her hair, brushing it with his fingers. This time it was Hermione's turn to stiffen.

As soon as Ron felt her freeze, he quickly withdrew his hand, mentally kicking himself.

"Ron?" She asked, not looking up from the paper, but also not writing anything.

"Uh- yeah?" He choked out.

"Why did you just touch my hair?"

"I uh- your hair fell and I- um…"

"Okay, but why did you stop?" Hermione said taking a leap of faith. Ron froze at this question mouth hanging slightly open.

"I thought you- wait… what? Hold on-"

"I never said you had to." She said, holding her breath slightly. 'Who am I right now?' Hermione thought.

Ron didn't know if he understood completely, but took his chance. He reached out and stroked her hair from top to bottom. When she didn't stop him he did it again. Slowly, he began lacing his fingers with her hair. Brushing it and enjoying it.

Hermione turned to where her back was facing him on the common room couch, sitting Indian style. So Ron brought his knees up onto the couch, scooting closer and sitting on his calves. He began braiding her hair like Mom had taught him to do to Ginny. Hermione sighed and it felt like he had won a million gold medals at once. He smiled his goofy lopsided grin at that. Just then someone huffed behind them, Ron knew instantly what that huff was. Both him and Hermione turned around slowly to see a red-faced Lavender.

"RONALD WEASLEY WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH THAT- THAT RAT!?" She screamed, which was highly inappropriate being it was nearly 1:00 am.

"Lavender! She was helping me with my paper! You have no right to call her that!" Ron said turning his torso around also. Hermione did the same.

"OHHH! JUST DOING YOUR PAPER, IS THAT RIGHT? THEN WHY ARE YOU BRAIDING HER HAIR? YOU NEVER DO THAT TO MY HAIR!"

"Maybe it's because your hair is greasy like the mutt you are." Hermione said with a smug smile.

"YOU'RE JUST JEALOUS THAT YOU WILL NEVER BE AS PRETTY AS ME, YOU UGLY LITTLE SLIME BALL!" Lavender screeched back. Ron stood up at this with the most anger he's had pent up in a long time.

"HOW COULD YOU SAY THAT LAVENDER? SINCE WHEN DID YOU BECOME A COLD HEARTED TRAMP?" Ron said now raising to her level. Lavender gasped and put her hand to her mouth. He visually saw her take a deep breath.

"Won-Won! I don't want you talking to Hermione anymore! Can't you see what she is doing to our relationship?" She said with a pouted out bottom lip. After she finished her declaration she ran at Ron with her arms open, wrapping them around him. But he shoved her off.

"No Lavender. You did this to our relationship. We're over." He said before storming off to bed. Lavender tried to run after him but the stairs dumped her where she stood.

"AHHHHHHHHH!" Lavender screamed in frustration, stomping her foot.

"Detention for disturbing the peace." Hermione said with another smug smile, clearly loving her prefect abilities. Lavender's eyes were filled with fire as she huffed and went up the stairs. Hermione finished up the last sentences of Ron's paper (She went ahead and wrote all of it since she wanted him to play with her hair longer), then went up the stairs to her dorm also.

~*~Later That Night~*~

Ron heard a faint knock at the dorm room door. He sneaked over and opened the door to see Hermione standing there, disheveled with a bruise on her wrist.

"Hey-" She started but Ron had already grabbed her wrist and was examining it.

"What happened!?"

"Lavender she uh- threw a lamp at me, I blocked it with my wrist luckily. Don't worry about it, it doesn't hurt that bad." Hermione could see she worry in his eyes, then the worry became laced with anger. He kissed the bruise before dropping her wrist. Starting to go back down the stairs but Hermione stopped him by putting her bruised hand on his chest.

"Ron no… Leave her alone please, for me?" Ron softened then and nodded slightly.

"So why are you up here?"

"I uh- was wondering if I could sleep up here… I can't sleep in my dorm and McGonagall told me that if I sleep in the common room again I will get detention so…" She said softly looking down after finishing.

Ron didn't need to hear anything else, he gently grabbed her wrist and pulled her back into the dorm with him. They both climbed in and Ron wrapped his arms around her, snuggling his head into her hair and breathing the scent. Hermione smiled. She flipped over to where she was facing him. His hands now on the small of her back. He looked into her eyes and smiled also. He moved one hand up to stroke her hair. She smiled even wider. Ron pulled her closer to where their chests were touching.

Hermione was tired of all this teasing and finally leaned in and kissed him. He kissed her back gently.

When they broke apart Ron let out a breath. "I can't tell you how long I've been waiting for that." He said, still with his eyes closed. He smiled the brightest smile Hermione has ever saw. Hermione chuckled and smiled too. She wrapped her arms around his neck kissing him again more passionately.

Ron was more than happy to return the enthusiasm.

A/N: The end! I hope you liked it. I know, I know, it was really long I just had so many ideas for this fic and had to squeeze them all in. Please leave a review! I hope you're beautiful faces have an amazing day!