Kiss Excerpt from:

Let’s Just Keep Our Fingers Crossed
by Thing 1

~Contributed by: Zsenya~

~~~***~~~

Ron sighed, remembering the night he had finally, standing on the edge of the lake at Hogwarts and covered in mud thanks to having been dragged across a large expanse of the lawn by one of Hagrid’s winged horses Ron had foolishly agreed to help him corral, told Hermione exactly how he felt. Like so many of the conversations they’d been having at that time, it had started as an argument. Ron had snapped when Hermione, having successfully captured the other animal without incident, had stood there and calmly explained how he had erred by getting his rope around the horse’s leg, not his neck.

"Yes, Hermione, I am quite aware that the rope was supposed to be on the neck, not the blasted leg! I was aiming for the neck, the horse moved!"

"You needn’t yell, I was just…."

"Just what? I get it, Hermione. I screwed up. But I’m the one covered in muck, not you, so I really don’t see how this in any way puts you out!"

"I was just worried you’d hurt yourself!"

"Well I didn’t, so you needn’t worry."

Hermione, inexplicably, started to cry. Ron stood there staring at her, feeling helpless and horrible.

"Mione? Please, look, sorry. I’m not hurt, but I just feel like an idiot…I lost my temper. It’s not your fault, it’s mine. I’m just so on edge, lately."

She gave him a wet look, but stopped crying and just shook her head.

"Ron, we’re all on edge. You think I want to leave here in a few days at the end of term? I’m terrified to go home, and I’m terrified that…that not all of us might be back next year. I can’t bear it. I don’t want to argue! Why are we arguing?"

"Why do we ever argue? I just…I don’t want to see you go, either. I don’t want to not be able to see you every day and know you’re alright."

She watched him silently for a minute before finally whispering, "Why’s that Ron?"

Ron couldn’t believe the next words finally came out of his mouth. "Because I love you, Hermione. And you’re no idiot, and I know you know that. And it scares me to death."

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Okay, so there's no ACTUAL first kiss, but it's implied, heavily implied...

***

Kiss Excerpt from:

Never Go Back
by Athena Arena

~Contributed by Neppi Weasley~

~~~***~~~

The tears had started again as Ron saw Hermione's eyes flicker all over his face, looking desperately for an alternative. They were barely inches apart now: he could feel her broken breath on his skin, coming in fits and bouts but smelling distinctly of her. And for the first time that night, the first in his life, he could feel a salty wetness of tears on the surface of his skin too. He couldn't tell if it was hers or it was his. It could have been both. She held tightly onto his upper arms, clinging on for dear sweet life as they bowed their heads in a joint form of grief, their foreheads slowly touching.

'I saved you?' she said in a barely believable whisper. 'The potion actually worked?'

Ron didn't even make an answer, words drying up instantly in the tightness of his throat. He didn't even make an effort to nod, but Hermione knew the exactness of his thought. But he soon drew in a shuddering breath.

'He died to save us both, Hermione. To save us all from the dark.' He closed his eyes heavily, then opened them to look deeply into hers. He smiled fondly. 'I owe you and him my life.'

She raised her tender fingers to his cheek, touching the skin where the freckles had once resided and she knew would once again. She smiled as he brought his own hand up to keep hers there as she spoke.

'As I probably owe you mine.'

And then he kissed her.

***

Kiss Excerpt from:

Carpe Diem
by Imogen

~Contributed by: NightZephyr~

~~~***~~~

"What? Let’s get this straight," Ron spluttered. "You know, Ginny knows, Harry knows… don’t tell me; half of Gryffindor know how I feel about you?"

"Do you care?" she asked him curiously. "Anyway, if Harry had worked it out Ginny was bound to. Just look at the time the two of them spend together now. You saw how close they were in the hospital wing yesterday."

Harry hugged his knees towards him and buried his rapidly reddening face in them, wishing fervently he was somewhere else, but there was no escape.

"No way!" Ron’s voice rang round the room emphatically. "Ginny might have had a crush on him once, but Harry’s got more sense."

"But Ron," Hermione persisted.

"Look," Ron interrupted testily. "There is no way I’ll let my little sister go out with Harry Potter. If she does get close to him it’ll put her in danger with You-Know-Who again, and I’m not having that."

There was silence, and Harry glanced desperately at the door again. Maybe…

"So what do we do now?" asked Hermione cautiously. "About us, I mean."

"I know I’ve been a bit slow on the uptake, Hermione, and I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you, but I’ve never felt this way for anyone before," he murmured to her.

"Well, you got there in the end," said Hermione’s voice softly, in a tone Harry had never heard her use before.

"I was just so jealous of Krum," Ron continued thoughtfully, reproaching himself.

"Shh! Forget it," came her reply, gently reassuring him. "It’s all over now."

"Hermione?"

"Yes?"

"If you’re sure you can put up with me, I want to make this work," Ron’s voice had become as tender as Hermione’s.

Harry edged carefully round the pillar, and could now see them wrapped in each other’s arms. They were completely absorbed and as he backed away towards the door and freedom, he saw them sharing their very first kiss.

***

Kiss Excerpt from:

Crazy for This Girl
by Poppy P

~Contributed by: NightZephyr~

~~~***~~~

When Hermione had caught Ron staring at her for a third time, he mentally cursed himself and turned to stare out the window. How could she not know? His brooding thoughts brought a miserable look to his face.

How could she not know? He asked himself again. She was Hermione, supreme Know-it-All. Maybe the hug meant nothing to her after all. Maybe she would have hugged Harry the same way and thought nothing of it. Maybe she had hugged Krum the same way when she visited him in Bulgaria. The thought made him grind his palm into his fist. Ron remembered the way she had kissed him and Harry at King’s Cross at the end of fourth year. Ron thought then that somehow the kiss she had given him was different from Harry’s. Sure, she kissed them both on the cheek, but surely Harry’s kiss didn’t linger warmly on his jaw like sunshine, right? And surely Harry didn’t notice the way she smelled like hot apple cider, spicy, yet so sweet. Was he just fooling himself? Ron looked surreptitiously over at her. She had her nose buried in her book, but he could tell she wasn’t reading. H! er eyes were not moving and she didn’t have her concentration look. It suddenly occurred to him: maybe she didn’t know what he knew? Maybe Hermione was just as scared and confused and elated as he was feeling. The very idea of Hermione confused brought a bemused look to his face. Unfortunately, she happened to look up at him again and caught him staring at her for a fourth time. Her mouth opened in indignation, but before she could launch her tirade, Ron took a deep breath of resignation and cut her off…
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This cuts to another scene in the story at this point, but we all know precisely what's going on, right??

***

Kiss Excerpt from:

If I Had Never
by AfterThoughts823

~ Contributed by: RupertGrintlovr8

~~~***~~~

Harry and the other three stayed for quite a while until Harry went to see
Hagrid and the others went down to dinner. Ron was staring longingly out the window at the Quidditch pitch when he heard Hermione say, “Ron?”

He turned toward her, “Yeah?”

“I’m sorry about yelling at you today,” she said with her head down. “With everything happening like it is we shouldn’t be fighting. I would hate it if something happened and we were fighting with each other.”

Ron paused for a moment, took a deep breath and said, “Hermione… I… um…now that you mention that, there’s… something I want to tell you.”

“What?” she asked.

He got up and walked over to her bed, sitting down beside her. “You were saying that you would hate if something happened and we were mad at each other. Well, I would hate it even more if something happened and I had never done this.”

Then Ron leaned down and kissed Hermione softly on the lips. It was a short kiss, but it meant more than anything else would. When Ron moved back, he looked down at Hermione for her reaction. She looked stunned but then a smile formed on her face and she hugged him.

“I would have hated if you had never done that too,” she whispered.

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