25

Chapter 21-Dreams

Ron awoke with a start and looked around. It was dark, so it must have been either late or early. He got up, knowing what he was going to do and that he shouldn't be doing it. He padded down the stairs that led up to the boys' dormitories.

He reached the common room and stopped in front of the stairway that led to the girls' dormitories.

He took a deep breath and started up the stairs. He reached the girls' sleeping quarters fairly quickly and took a brief look about the room. He saw Hermione sleeping in one. It had to be her.

She had kicked the covers down to the foot of the bed, and her nightgown was hiked up above her hips. Ron took a sharp breath as he studied her curves. The moonlight shone in through the window and illuminated the quiet surroundings.

Ron took a reluctant step forward. If he was going to do it, he might as well do it now. His feet carried him to Hermione's bedside. He looked down at her and smiled. Her hair was spread out on the pillows and her face was passive in her slumber.

He leaned down and kissed her. Just one kiss was all he wanted, just so he would know what it was like to have his lips pressed against hers. He didn't need her to kiss back, just to know what it was like.

He tried to pull away, but Hermione's arms suddenly wrapped around him, pulling him closer to her. He didn't resist. She probably thought he was Malfoy, but he didn't care. She was here, with him, kissing him as though she meant it.

Hermione opened her eyes, but she was not surprised or disappointed. She pulled away slowly. "Ron," she said, her voice a whisper.

Though she could not see it in the dark, she knew Ron was turning red.

"Hermione," he said, "I-"

Hermione silenced him with a kiss more passionate than the first. Ron wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted her slightly. He was living a dream. Never had he thought that Hermione would kiss him back, let alone kiss him again after the first had ended.

Hermione was living a dream of her own as she clung to Ron in the moonlight. She had hoped that Ron was the boy who had snuck into the dorms to steal a kiss, and indeed, it was him.

Ron pulled away and looked into Hermione's eyes as well as he could in the darkness of their surroundings. "I thought you and Malfoy-" he began before Hermione cut him off.

"Ron, Draco never meant as much to me as you do."

"But why did you go to the Graduation Ball with him? I-I saw you kiss him."

"I don't know why I kissed him. He was there, and he was willing to love me when you weren't."

"I was always willing to love you. I didn't know that you felt the same."

"How could you not tell?" Hermione cried.

"All that matters is that you are here now, and I love you."

Hermione kissed Ron again, and pulled him onto the bed.

"Ron!" Harry's voice called and Hermione pulled away. "RON!" Harry's voice yelled. "RO-ON!" Harry yelled again.

Hermione's faced blurred and then faded into black. The pillows surrounding her did the same.

Ron grimaced at the bright light that shone into his eyes. He put his arm over them to keep it out. When he took his arm away, the light wasn't as bad, and he could see again. Harry was standing at the foot of the bed. The light of dawn flowed into the room and washed over everything.

"Happy Christmas!" Harry exclaimed, tossing a present to Ron.

Ron groaned. "What time is it?" he asked.

" 'Round eight," Harry answered, walking back to his four poster to open the his presents, "I half expected you to wake me up at six like you do every Christmas, but you were sleeping like a rock."

"Yeah," Ron replied. He opened the present in his lap to find it was another sweater and a box of fudge from his mother. "Harry, I need to tell you about this dream I had," he said after pulling on the large sweater.

Harry looked up from the gigantic textbook on Quidditch tactics that Hermione had given him. "All right," he answered, closing the book.

Ron sat up and took a deep breath before beginning the tale. "I woke up, in my dream, and it was really dark, so I walked down to the common room, and I-"

"Happy Christmas, Harry!" Hermione called from the doorway she had suddenly appeared in. She had not forgotten Ron's actions the night before.

"Happy Christmas!" Harry replied.

Ron looked down and pretended to be very interested in the wrapping paper he had torn from his gifts. He knew Hermione was angry with him. His actions at the ball had been uncalled for.

Hermione walked over to him and set a present down on his bed. He looked up, surprised. Then, he remembered that he had given her a gift, but he couldn't place what it was. He stared at the present.

"You can open it, you know," Harry said.

Ron looked up to find that Hermione had gone away. He carefully tore the green, red, and gold wrapping paper from the gift. "Great," he said, "Another book that I don't want to read." He read the cover. Verotis, The Power of the Mind. There was a piece of parchment sticking out of the book, and Ron turned to the page it was marking. There was a note scribbled on the parchment.

I know what you did last night. Is it true?

Ron stared at the words. "What the . . ." He looked at the page. It was the beginning of a chapter. Chapter 21: Dreams.

Ron gaped. He opened and closed his mouth several times.

Harry looked at him. "Ron?"

Ron put the book on his bed and hurried to put on his clothes and clean up. He sprinted out of the dormitories, down the stairs, and into the common room.

Hermione was sitting in a chair, skimming through a book. She glanced up and saw Ron walking towards her, holding a small piece of parchment. She knew exactly what it said and flushed.

Ron sat down on the sofa. "You-Do you really-How did you-"

Hermione closed her book and looked at Ron. "Is it true?"

"I should be asking you the same question," Ron said.

"I asked you first," Hermione said. Her heart was beating faster and faster every second.

Ron turned red. "I-Y-yes."

Hermione's eyes widened. She stared at Ron. There was nothing else she could do. Heck, she could barely breathe. "I never expected . . ."

"Is what you said true?" Ron asked.

Hermione bit her lip. She nodded, turning red, too.

"But-but how?" Ron stuttered.

"How?"

"How could you go with him and then . . ."

"I didn't think you felt . . . I didn't know," Hermione said, feeling tears well up in her eyes. All this time she had been denying her feelings when what she should have done was admit them.

"Don't cry," Ron said, grabbing Hermione's hand, "I didn't know either."

Hermione felts tears run down her cheeks. "I know . . . It's not that . . . What are we going to do about Draco?"

"Break up with him," Ron said simply.

"You say that like it's going to be easy to do. His father practically hates me, and if I break up with him . . . that'll only give him more reason to do something bad to me."

Ron looked thoughtful for a moment. "If we kill him-"

"Ron!"

"Okay, okay. How about we make a deal with him?"

"Make a deal with him?"

"You know, you stay with me, and he gets . . . Cho maybe. Cho was saying that Cedric wouldn't have let her be with Malfoy. Maybe it would help her to get over him. Plus, Cho's a pretty girl. Malfoy cares about that type of thing."

Hermione thought about this. "That's a really good idea," she murmured, "I wouldn't have thought that . . ."

"I would come up with something like that?" Ron asked, "I know. It's odd, but as I said, things are changing . . ."

Hermione looked at him, smiling almost longingly. Ron turned red and leaned forward. His lips met Hermione's and he felt himself being swept away by happiness. He didn't want to pull away, but the laughter behind him wasn't something he could ignore. He turned angrily. "Would you two shut up?" he asked, glaring at Harry and Ginny, who had come down and seen the couple sharing what they thought was a first kiss, "Snog each other, for all I care. Just leave us alone!"

Harry looked at Ginny in surprise, as if the thought had never occurred to him. Ginny turned red. "I like you a lot, Harry," she muttered, looking at her feet.

Harry smiled and tilted Ginny's chin upward. "You know what? I just realised that I like you a lot too," he said.

Harry gave Ginny a quick peck on the lips, but even that was enough to make Ron want to vomit. "Good lord!" He grabbed Hermione's hand, "Let's get out of here," he said, pulling Hermione out of the common room and into the corridor. They stopped and Ron gave her another kiss, not noticing the extremely pale boy coming up towards the portrait hole.

"Weasley?" Draco asked incredulously, though how he could mistake the red hair for anyone else's was a mystery, "What are you doing?" He didn't seem mad. In fact, he seemed more amused than anything else.

"Malfoy, I can't deny my feelings any-" Ron began.

Draco waved his comment away. "Save it. I was coming up here to break up with Granger anyway," he said.

"What?" Hermione asked.

"It wasn't meant to be," Draco said simply, "Your kiss wasn't right. I could tell you were thinking about someone else. I only went to the ball with you after that because I couldn't stand another night of Pansy hoping that I would kiss her." He shuddered.

Hermione glanced at Ron to see what his reaction was to the "her kissing Draco" part, but it seemed no surprise to him. She remembered the dream and what he had said, so it made sense. "So, Malfoy," she said, putting her hands on her hips, "Enemies again?" She held out one hand for Draco to shake.

Draco smirked. "Granger, after today, we couldn't be anything else," he said, shaking her hand. He yanked it away quickly, "I've got to wash this hand before your mudblood germs spread," he said and dashed off toward the dungeons.

Hermione turned to Ron. "How did you know that we kissed?" she asked.

"Well . . . I sort of followed you and Malfoy to the courtyard-"

"So there was someone watching us!"

Ron nodded, turning red. "God, Hermione. I love you so much," he said and pulled her into another kiss.

"Ron, if I loved you any more than I do, nothing would ever make sense to me."

"Well, that would be a shame. Harry and I need someone to knock some sense into us every now and then."

"Speaking of that, are you going to read the book I bought you?"

Ron looked reluctant. "Well . . . I thought about it . . . but . . . maybe I should stick to "Dick and Jane" books instead."

Hermione laughed. "They are so much simpler," she said, "Oh, by the way, I loved the bookmark. It was very nice. How did you know I liked orchids?"

"I . . . didn't," Ron said. So that was what he had gotten her. He didn't remember it at all, "I really had no clue."

Hermione grabbed both his hands. "You must be very acute subconsciously," she said and stood on her tiptoes to kiss him again. Ron kissed her back, finding this to be much more exciting than a dream.

"You know, I do wonder what happened to Harry and Luna. How will she react when she finds out about Ginny?"

The portrait hole burst open, and Neville tripped out of it. A letter flew out of his hand and Ron picked it up. "Dear Neville," he read, "I enjoyed not dancing with you last night. Would you like to take lessons from Professor Trelawney with me? I would very much enjoy it. She's teaching them at nine o' clock, Christmas Day. Hope to see you there," he glanced at Hermione, "Luna Lovedgood."

Hermione grinned, and Neville looked at them merrily. "We don't know how to dance!" he exclaimed and continued running toward Professor Trelawney's Room.

"I guess everyone found someone," Ron said, smiling, "What a great Christmas."

Hermione nodded and leaned against Ron. Things had never seemed so clear to her, yet everything was still as clear as mud.

A/N: Well? What do you think? Did I screw up? Sorry if I did. I was thinking about posting a sequel . . . Shall I? Hey! Now I can work on The Little White Room for those of you who actually liked it! Please review and post whatever comments you have.