That Little Extra Push

Chapter One: Ginny

Ron found Hermione sitting against a wall around a corner from the Great Hall. She looked straight ahead, silent tears falling from her face. He said nothing but sat next to her and snaked his arm carefully around her shoulders. She too said nothing but leaned into him and succumbed to the sobs she had been holding in for hours. Ron's tears were silent. This is how Ginny found them.

"Ron? Hermione?" Her head peaked around the corner, and she was wringing her hands tightly. The pair looked up, not daring to let go of each other. "We were all wondering where you'd gone. What are you doing out here?"

Hermione was the first to speak, "I-I didn't want to intrude on the family. I've helped take enough from you this year." Ron and Ginny looked at her as if she had just declared her undying love for a basilisk.

"What do you mean intrude?" Ginny asked just as Ron declared, "You are family." Hermione practically climbed onto Ron's lap and flung her arms around his neck, murmuring thank yous and sorries. Ron was so taken back that it was a few seconds before he responded. He hugged her tightly and ran his hands over every inch he dared – her arms, her back, her hair, her face.

Ginny, on the other hand, looked nothing but smug, forgetting for a moment everything that had happened. "Well, I can see that Ron can take it from here." She turned to go back to the rest of her family. Before she reached the end of the corridor, she paused. "Oh, and I do think it is time to be honest. Do us all a favor, and tell each other how you really feel." Her smirk was the last thing Ron and Hermione saw.

The moments of silence that followed were deafening. Celebratory shouts and the noises of clinking glass from the Great hall were all but forgotten as they, both a deep shade of red, looked at each other. This time, Ron spoke first in a ragged, quiet voice, "Hermione? I think…I think Ginny's…right."

Hermione suddenly noticed her position against Ron's body. As she moved ever so carefully back to her position next to him on the floor, she whispered, "Yes, but it's not necessary. Not right now. It can wait."

"No!" he exclaimed, causing her to tense a little. He noticed and tried to soften his grip. "I'm sorry. What I mean is…I've been waiting for the right time, and it never seemed to come, but I should have told you years ago…but how do you tell your best friend…well-and then you kissed me…" Hermione's eyes got wide, and any blush that had escaped her cheeks returned with a vengeance.

"I'm sorry, Ron. I-I-I didn't know. I just-" Ron cut her off before she could finish.

"It's alright. Really. I'm just mad that I didn't have the bollocks to do it first." His mouth turned up into a shy, crooked grin. "What I was trying to say was that there may be no right time. There always seems to be something holding me back…but I-we almost lost you, and I don't know what I would do if I-we did. I don't…think I would make it."

Hermione's defenses caught up with her when she realized what he had said, "You, Ronald Weasley, would go about the day like any other. You can't…give up just because-you would go on just like you are now. I'm not nearly as important as your brother!" She was going into hysterics, and Ron didn't exactly know how he should react, so he did what he did best with Hermione – he argued.

"That's where you're wrong, Hermione. How can you say that? You are just as important as Fred, if not more so! You mean…"his voice caught in his throat, but he managed to finish with "…everything to me. I-I love you." He felt the heat spread across his face, down his neck, and to his shoulders. "You're my best friend, and I'm in love with you." He took his eyes away from her face, embarrassed for telling her but also relieved that he finally did.

"I'm in love with you, too." Hermione's answer was so quiet that Ron briefly doubted whether she had answered at all. Perhaps, he had imagined it. He felt her hands guide his face upwards to look at her again. She was smiling, that huge triumphant smile that only Hermione Granger could give. Ron couldn't help but smile back. "Say it again…just so I know I wasn't imagining things."

She rolled her eyes, "I'm in love with you, too." She saw the light return to his eyes just before he crashed his lips to hers. They broke apart, and Ron helped her up. "Should we make some sort of-um-formal announcement when we get back to the Hall, or…?"

Hermione's laugh was like music to his ears, "I think they already know, Ron. In fact, I think they knew before we did."

"I doubt it," was Ron's answer, but he didn't argue as they reentered the Great Hall hand in hand. The knowing looks they received from all around told his that she might have been right. What else is new?

I know, "music to his ears." It's full of cheese, but I couldn't resist. Review if you want to read more!