The distribution of this story is for personal use only. Any other form of distribution is prohibited without the consent of the author.

Author’s Note: I wasn’t going to submit any fic to this tournament, simply because I had no idea whatsoever of what I could possibly write that would require the appearance of a sugar quill. But last night an idea suddenly popped into my head, and I just had to write this ficlet.

Anyway, I’d like to congratulate Zsenya and Arabella for this wonderful site and its one-year anniversary! Also, I’d like to thank my last minute Beta-Readers, Manu and Courtney. =)

TheRealMaraJade

 

Disclaimer: I don’t own Harry Potter or anything related. Jo Rowling owns them. (I wish I could have at least Ron, though. ;)) No money is being made with this, so please don’t sue me!

 

Leaning

 

Ron woke up with Harry throwing a pillow at him, and yelling, “Oy! Time to wake up!”

He pierced his friend with a murderous stare. “Why did you do that?”

“Well, you seemed to enjoy yourself when you did that to me on the Christmas morning of our third year.” Harry grinned. “So I thought I should return the favour.”

Ron groaned. “Harry, Christmas is months away.”

“I know that, but today is a special day too.” The smile faded from Harry’s face, and was replaced by a worried look. “You haven’t forgotten that today is Hermione’s birthday, have you?”

Ron looked at the calendar on his bedside table. September 19^th. Hermione’s birthday. And he had forgotten to buy her a birthday present. Bloody hell.

“No, of course not.”

He quickly jumped out of bed, completely awake now. While searching for some clean robes, he began to think about a way out of this mess. And if possible, without Harry’s help. Ron didn’t think that he could trust Harry not to tell Hermione that he had forgotten about her present.

Glancing at his best friend, who had an amused expression on his face, Ron noticed that he was already dressed. “Harry, why don’t you go downstairs now? I’ll be ready in a minute.” He pulled his shirt over his head, and said in a muffled voice, “I can meet you down there.”

“Okay. We’ll wait for you then.” Even though he couldn’t see Harry’s face, Ron knew just from hearing his friend’s voice that Harry didn’t believe him. Well, there was nothing he could do about it. The important thing was that Harry didn’t have any proof that he had forgotten Hermione’s present.

Once Harry was gone, Ron quickly put his clothes on and began to search frantically in his trunk for something that he could give Hermione. Anything. He was so desperate that he even considered giving her his Chudley Cannons hat. But he dismissed the possibility when he remembered it had been a Christmas gift from Harry in their fourth year.

Just when he was about to give up, he found his box of sugar quills. Ron sighed in relief; he had finally found something he could give her. But when he opened the box, Ron felt his insides lurch. There was only one sugar quill inside it.

“Well, it’ll have to do.” He conjured up a red ribbon with his wand and tied it around the tip of the quill. Perfect. He ran downstairs.

But what he saw made him stop dead on his tracks.

On the other side of the room, Harry was hugging Hermione. Except that they weren’t exactly hugging. They were leaning.

Ron’s heart froze. He couldn’t believe it. Harry and Hermione…together?

His first instinct was to run towards them, wrench Harry away from Hermione, and hit him. But he didn’t. He couldn’t hit Harry. If it had been anyone else, if it had been bloody Viktor Krum… But this was his best friend Harry. He couldn’t do it.

He dragged himself to the nearest armchair in the common room, which thankfully was facing away from his two best friends, and flopped down on it. Ron still couldn’t believe it. He felt like someone had pulled the floor from under him.

Ron wondered why he had never seen that Harry and Hermione cared for each other in that way. Other people surely had, like Rita Skeeter and Draco Malfoy, but he had discarded their comments at the time. He thought that they were just trying to irritate Harry and Hermione. Which, come to think of it, they hadn’t been able to do. Harry and Hermione certainly didn’t seem to mind being called boyfriend and girlfriend. And that could only mean one thing: they liked each other. Bloody hell.

He took the ribbon off the sugar quill and began sucking on it. Maybe it would make him feel better.

For a long time, Ron had believed that he only cared for Hermione as a friend. That he only got angry when Malfoy called her a Mudblood because that was a very rude name to call anyone, especially one of his best friends. That he only got angry at her for going to the Yule Ball with Viktor Krum because he was their enemy.

But it had finally hit him, during their fifth-year, that he felt all those things because he fancied her. At first he had tried to deny it, but at the end he had finally had to admit it to be a fact.

However, admitting your own feelings was one thing. Saying them out loud to the object of such feelings was something he soon found out to be very hard.

And so here he was, a sixth-year Hogwarts student in love with his best friend Hermione, who apparently was involved with his other best friend Harry.

Well, he was the only one to blame after all. Ron wanted to bang his own head against the wall. He was such a stupid git! If he had plucked up his courage and told Hermione how he felt about her sooner, maybe things would be different now.

But it was too late. Now Hermione would never look at him. After all, who would want a stupid prat like him when they could have the great Harry Potter?

“Ron, is everything all right?”

He jerked his head towards the voice.

It was Hermione.

“Yeah, everything is fine,” he said, glancing at his feet, still sucking his quill. “Happy birthday.”

“Thanks…I think.” Hermione tilted her head to get a better look at Ron’s face. “Are you really sure that you’re okay?”

“Yeah, I am. By the way, congratulations to you and Harry.” He looked up at her, a weak smile on his face.

Hermione looked confused. “Congratulations? Why?”

“Well, you and Harry are dating, aren’t you? That’s great!” He said the last sentence in a rather loud and squeaky voice, trying to appear happy for his best friends.

Almost all the students in the Gryffindor common room stopped talking and looked at Ron and Hermione, the only exceptions being Ginny and Harry. Ginny was giving Harry a wide-eyed, furious look, and he was shaking his head, looking at her in surprise and desperation.

But neither Ron nor Hermione noticed any of this. They were too concentrated on each other to notice anything.

Hermione, who had been speechless at Ron’s comment, regained her voice and whispered, “Harry and I aren’t dating. What gave you that idea?”

Ron jumped from the armchair, dropping his sugar quill on the floor. He was ecstatic. Maybe, just maybe, it wasn’t too late after all.

“You aren’t dating?” But as soon as the words left his mouth, a feeling of dread overcame him. The smile that had almost split his face in two faded. “But that doesn’t mean that you don’t like each other. I saw the leaning.”

“The leaning?” Hermione furrowed her eyebrows. “What do- what do you mean by the leaning?”

“When you two were hugging. You leaned,” he said, indicating her with his right arm.

“I leaned?” Hermione asked, puzzled.

“Yeah.” Ron started to feel uncomfortable under her gaze.

She sighed and crossed her arms across her chest. “I have to disagree with you, Ron. I was only hugging Harry.”

“No, you leaned,” he retorted, looking straight into her eyes. “It was a lot different than hugging. Hugging’s very different. Hugging involves arms and hands. And leaning is whole bodies moving in, like this.” Ron leaned over her, his ears pink. “Leaning involves wanting, and…and accepting.” His whole face was pink now, but nevertheless he took a step forward, closing the distance between them. “Leaning.”

But what he wasn’t expecting was to trip over the sugar quill that he had dropped earlier. Soon, they were both on the floor, Ron straddling Hermione.

His face now had turned a violent shade of red, while Hermione’s cheeks where pink. Her hands where on his chest, preventing him from smashing her with his weight.

Before they could get up, though, they heard Ginny’s voice.

“Hermione, is this stupid git I call my brother bothering you?” They could detect a definite hint of sarcasm in her voice.

They quickly got to their feet, both too embarrassed to look at each other.

“No. No, Ginny,” Hermione answered, her voice cracking.

“Are you sure?” Harry had approached them, with an evil smile that matched Ginny’s. “‘Cause it looked like he was leaning over you…”

“Thank you.” Ron turned to Hermione, a triumphant look on his face. “See?”

But Harry was still talking, “…and after that he was literally lying on top of you.”

Ron and Hermione’s faces turned crimson. The common room roared with laughter.

 

THE END

 

A/N: Okay, the leaning dialogue was based on the movie “While you were sleeping” with Sandra Bullock and Bill Pullman. I watched this movie again the other day and just *had* to write a R/H fic with that! I didn’t mention this before because I didn’t want to risk ruining the surprise for you. Anyway, this idea belongs to the writers of “While you were sleeping”. So, please, don’t sue me. I just borrowed the great idea they had. =)