The next morning, Ron woke up to find that Harry was already up and gone. He furrowed his brow, knowing what the day's events would consist of and worried at what the final outcome would be. He dressed hurriedly and went to fetch Hermione.
Hermione emerged from her room looking like she had the worst sleep in all her life. Dark circles lined her eyes and her hair was bushier than usual though she seemed to not give a damn. Upon seeing Ron, her eyes brightened in the slightest.
"Hi, Ron," she said.
"'Morning," he replied. "Are you alright?"
"I'm not going to lie to you." That was all she said, and Ron understood.
"So you sure you want to end this today?"
Hermione sniffed, pulling at her sleeve and dusting away invisible lint from her robes. "What's the use anymore, Ron?" she said hopelessly.
"What are you talking about?" Ron asked in alarm. Hermione's attitude had changed radically after a night's sleep.
"I talked to him last night, you know," she said, sounding as if she were holding back tears. "W-we kissed!" Ron nodded, listening intently. "I so wanted to tell him what was going on, Ron, but before I could, he stopped me. He apologised, thinking that by kissing me he was doing something wrong, and now… now I just think everything is gone. After this, I don't think anything is ever going to be the same, nonetheless something more coming out of him and me. Why did we have to gamble on this?"
Ron felt awful. He knew that this was his fault, and he blamed his inner longings to have brilliant, off-the-wall ideas like Fred and George did. He tried to soothe Hermione, but he didn't feel very much reassured when she said that she felt better.
He gripped her shoulders firmly and stared straight into her eyes. "Okay. Let me talk to Harry. I'll tell him everything. I'll try and get you out of trouble. And believe me, Hermione… stupid as this idea was, blame it all on me, Harry will still love you."
She gaped at him, noticing that he used the word "love".
"It might be kind of hard… but… Harry isn't that thick to let someone as great as you walk away. He needs you. Both of us do, really, but it's him that needs you the most. It's about time that he knows that."
"Thanks, Ron," she answered sincerely. Ron began to walk towards the Great Hall, when he turned around.
"Hermione?" he called.
"Yeah?"
"You're a great girlfriend. Harry is going to be one lucky bloke."
She smiled.
*
"Harry I need a word with you," Ron said the moment he saw Harry sitting at the Gryffindor table.
"What is it?" Harry asked gloomily, scraping his fork idly on his plate.
"Not here. Let's go outside." He took a hold of the neck of Harry's robes and practically dragged him outside, near the lake, despite his protests of him knowing how to walk. When finally they were by the lake, Ron looked him seriously in the eye.
"Me and Hermione are not going out."
Harry blinked stupidly at him. "Oh… what happened? Why did you break up?"
Ron shook his head, sighing exasperatedly. "No, mate, you don't understand. We were never going out in the first place. This was all a dismally planned scheme for you to notice her."
As soon as the words escaped his mouth, Ron knew that what he said was quite insensitive and sounded a lot better in his head. Apparently, so did Harry for he gave a heavy jab into Ron's jaw.
"WHAT?!" he practically bellowed.
Unprepared for the blow Harry was going to bestow upon him, Ron found himself on the ground, nursing a very painful jaw. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, hoping to get the hinges back into their original place. He then realised that that was the least of his problems when he saw his friend towering above him, looking livid.
"You lied to me? About this whole thing? After all I've been through?" he spat.
Ron felt guilty enough, and Harry sure wasn't helping in making this easier. Soon enough, he felt his own temper starting to flare.
"Look, Harry, I did this out of good intentions. You were barely giving Hermione a chance, and so I decided that the best way to grab your attention is if she was already taken!"
"You?"
"Yes, Harry, me. Don't go taking it out on Hermione, because, mate, this was all my idea. Frankly, I was concerned for the both of you. The two of you are slower at this thing than the slugs I spit out in second year. I figured that a good push in the right direction was all you needed."
Harry opened his mouth to say something more, but Ron smoothly cut him off.
"And I now know that it was a dumb plan. I shouldn't have done it in the first place, but remember, I was trying to help. So I know that this is going to hurt for a little while, but please find it in your heart to eventually forgive me."
Harry and Ron stared each other down for a dire moment, then both simultaneously flopped themselves on the ground, staring out into the lake.
"Sorry," Harry said. "For punching you, that is."
Ron rubbed his jaw tenderly. "No. I deserved it."
Harry pulled at a few blades of grass and threw them haphazardly around him. "I don't know, Ron. Hermione was still in it too. She lied to me just as much as you did. That hurts."
"No, Harry, you don't get it. Hermione was against this from the start. She knows you inside out, you know, it's quite scary… she knew how you were prone to react to it but I was too stubborn," Ron said, seeing one of the Giant Squid's tentacles cascade lazily over the water.
"But why did she still agree in the end?" Harry asked grimly.
"Mate, don't you get it? Hermione likes you! She'd do anything for you. Now, this may not be on her top list of how to help you, but it just shows how much she'd be willing to sacrifice to try and get you to see her and have the chance to be with you. I'd go as far as to say that… she loves you, Harry."
Harry remained silent, choosing to divert his full attention to the poor blades of grass that were being ripped out of the earth. After a long time though, he finally said, "You think she loves me?"
A small smile broke out on Ron's face. "I sure do, mate. Haven't you noticed over the years?"
*
Hermione stared glumly at the textbook in front of her. It unnerved her to no end that it was already their first class of the day (Charms), yet Ron and Harry weren't present. She seriously hoped that nothing got out of hand and somehow, the two of them were lying in the Hospital Wing. She tapped her quill fervently on the desk, enough to get Parvati to swivel around and shush her.
"Shush yourself," she mumbled, stopping the tapping anyway. She rested her head down onto her book, for once, not concerned with the current charm they were studying.
"Miss Granger! Please pay attention! It's vital for a wizard to know the exact movements of the Metamorphosis Enchantment to prevent any mishaps!" Professor Flitwick squeaked. Hermione obligingly straightened up in her seat, her anxiety growing every minute. Where were Harry and Ron?
Suddenly, the doors to the classroom opened and in walked Harry and Ron. Hermione felt some of her apprehension ebb away, but seeing Ron holding up an ice pack to his jaw did little to calm her. The two of them walked up to the front to address Professor Flitwick, and as they passed, Hermione swore she saw Harry wink at her.
"Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley. Late, I assume, with a good excuse?" Professor Flitwick asked, towering above them from his stack of books.
"Sorry, Professor," Harry replied. "We got preoccupied with something."
Professor Flitwick peered over at Ron and Harry suspiciously. "Alright then, you two. Twenty points off Gryffindor though for your tardiness. Consider yourselves lucky that it isn't a point more." The two of them hurriedly made their way to their seats next to Hermione, who was bursting with questions.
"Where have you two been?" she whispered, as Professor Flitwick turned their backs to them and continued his lesson.
"We talked," Harry said, looking into her eyes honestly. "…and… we're okay."
Tears began to well up in Hermione's eyes and she gave both boys' hands a squeeze underneath the table. "Oh thank God. I was so worried about… about… you know…" she said in between sniffles. She made to disentangle her hands, but found it odd when Harry didn't let go.
"You three, I don't want to take anymore points away from Gryffindor today!"
Harry, Ron and Hermione paid full attention again, but Hermione couldn't help but notice that Harry didn't let go of her hand for the whole class.
*
The only time that Harry, Ron and Hermione were able to talk was later that day during lunch. The three hadn't really spoken since Charms, as things were still a little uncertain. There were still things to be resolved.
They sat themselves down at the Gryffindor table as more students steadily began to pour in. Ron kept noticing that Harry and Hermione would steal little glances at each other when the other wasn't looking, and if they had been caught at the same time, they would look away shyly. He rolled his eyes.
"Speak, you two!" he insisted, breaking the silence. "I'll even leave you two alone for a bit. I know that there's much to discuss." He nodded at Harry and gave a hopeful smile to Hermione. He then left them alone while he joined up with Neville, Dean and Seamus.
Harry turned towards Hermione earnestly, taking a hold of her hand once again. He took a deep breath and chose to stare down at their joint hands. "Hermione… about last night, I-"
Hermione stopped him. "Harry, please don't apologise. You didn't-"
"I wasn't apologising," Harry said, now looking up at her. "Listen, that was the best kiss I've ever had!"
Hermione raised her eyebrows. "Oh really? How would you know? How many other girls have you kissed?"
Harry moved a bit in his seat uncomfortably. "Well… there was really only Cho…" Hermione nodded. "But I don't need to kiss other girls to know that this is… real."
She remained silent. In truth, she couldn't even speak.
"And you know what love does…" he said.
Hermione gazed at him, puzzled. "Love?" she queried quietly.
"It makes you do crazy things." And he leaned in and kissed her right there in the Great Hall.
Ron had been in the middle of a heated discussion about the Chudley Cannon's latest loss to the Appleby Arrows. "No way, Seamus! That last goal didn't count! That referee was biased! Biased!" He yelled out the last word right when the Great Hall went completely silent. He followed almost everyone's gazes and saw that, indeed, his two best friends were kissing wildly, like there was no tomorrow.
"It's as if there was no tomorrow…" Ron heard someone say in awe.
It probably took the faculty fully by surprise for it was a whole minute before Professor McGonagall was up and out of her chair, flying towards the kissing pair.
Ron turned away, shaking his head, amused.
"Harry and Hermione! Who would have thought?" Dean wondered out loud.
"Yeah, you wouldn't have seen it coming," Seamus agreed.
Ron chuckled a bit, hearing Professor McGongall's furious lectures on appropriate displays of affection directed at his two best friends.
"Oh… you'd be surprised," Ron said. "And don't go changing the subject, Finnegan, we're not done with this discussion yet!"