Love Or Lust - A Romione Fic 🦋

~ Year 1 ~

- Ron -
He hated her. Absolutely hated her. Or at least, that's what he told himself all the time ever since his best mate Harry befriended Hermione Granger. "Hermione is a decent girl", Ron reasoned with himself as he tried to fall asleep one night at Hogwarts. "She just needs to put more effort into being a human. She'd be quite pretty if she tried, at least... Blimey, what am I thinking!" Ron shut his eyes and shook his head fiercely. It wasn't long before he fell asleep, though... "What are you, crazy?!" Harry screamed. "You can't like a girl like that! You'd be just about out of your mind! Set yourself straight, Ron." Harry yelled. Harry cornered him in and reached his hands out. He grabbed hold of Ron's shoulders and violently shook them."... "Ron! Ron! Mate, you've got to wake up!" Harry shook his friend's shoulders eagerly. Ron's vision cleared and, by seeing Harry and Hermione's faces 3 inches away from his made him jolt up, now fully awake. He blinked a few times and stared at their faces. "What're you two doing here, it's 2am! Especially you, Granger, you're supposed to be in the girls dormitory!" Ron whispered, clearly exasperated. "Hermione will explain," Harry said, looking at her. Hermione paced in front of the foot of Ron's bed. Ron stared at her face, somewhat in a daze, thinking to himself, "You know, she's sort of beautiful." Ron recoiled in disgust at his own thoughts. He hit his head with his fist and furrowed his eyebrows. Hermione stopped pacing and looked at him worriedly, wondering if he needed to go to a mental hospital. She took a deep breath. "Well, I've just gotten an idea about the Sorcerer's Sto-" "OH MY GOD! Are you kidding me? Hermione, it's 2am and you're blabbering about that stupid stone to me? Merlin!" Ron whisper-yelled. "See Harry, this is one reason why Hermione wasn't sorted into Ravenclaw. She's got brains, mate, but she uses 'em for the wrong things!" Ron said, annoyed. Hermione looked at him, her lip quivering, and eyes getting shiny. "I-I've got to go." She said, voice trembling. Suddenly, she bolted out of the boys dorm, head bent over and hands wiping at her face. Harry looked at Ron. "Wow, Ron. She had something important to say and you blew it. G'night." Harry slipped into his bed and pulled the covers up. Ron, propped up on his elbows, looked around the room. "What did I just say?" He said quietly to himself. "Why am I so cruel to her? I'm probably more annoying than she is, for Godric's sake!" He shook his head and went to sleep, troubled. The next day, after class, he went into the Gryffindor common room, setting up his chess board so Harry and him could play. Putting his hands behind his head and propping his legs on a table, he closed his eyes. Suddenly, footsteps approached and he opened them. A bushy head of light hair and body heavily packed with books stepped in the room. It was Hermione. She looked like she was about to fall over with the amount of books she was carrying. At the sight of Ron, her bottom lip quivered. Ron could only stare, but after a few seconds, he tentatively walked over to her. He wasn't the type of boy who apologizes to people, but he felt like he needed to. "H-hey." He softly said. Hermione was surprised to hear him talk to her. Her doe-brown eyes drifted to meet with his bright blue ones. "Hello, Ron." Her eyes narrowed. "Let me help you with those books." He took half of the load she was carrying in her small arms and set them on a table. She softly smiled at him. "Thank you." He grinned as she put the rest of the books down. "Well," he said, massaging the nape of his neck with his right hand, "I just wanted to say that I'm sorry about what I said this morning, I didn't mean a word." "Oh Ron!" She cried into his shoulder. "Woah, there there, it's okay." He awkwardly patted her shoulder. She hugged him tightly, and he hugged her back. She then pulled away, wiping away her tears fiercely. "It's quite alright Ron," she said. "You know, you're a really great friend to me." He blushed profusely. His crush thinks he's a great friend? Wait, what? He stuttered to find words. "W-well thanks. Y-you too, 'Mione." She smiled and kissed him on the cheek. "Whoa-ho-ho! Ickle Ronnykins has a girlfriend! Have you two snogged yet?" Fred and George Weasley exclaimed in unison. "Aw, now he looks like a tomato." George laughed as him and his twin walked into the common room. Hermione's jaw dropped. Was she blushing too?