Work Text:
Ron rounded the corner of the mahogany bookshelves and was met with a stack of books at least 2 feet high. The only reason he even knew Hermione was there was due to the masses of her brown curls encircling the books like a halo of some sort. He cleared his throat, and saw Hermione’s head shoot upwards, looking like a deer in headlights. Once it registered that her visitor was Ron, she quickly relaxed and pulled out the chair next to her for him to sit down. As Ron walked behind Hermione to reach his chair, it took all of his self restraint not to extend his finger tips and sink them into her hair.
“Alright, so I’ve gathered a few books on legislation around magical creatures, and cases against them. They’re very detailed so I’ve only been able to get through a few, but if you could help me with these three on the top, that’d be lovely.” Hermione said while swiftly taking her hair into a knot at the bottom of her head and securing it with a red scrunchie that was being held between her teeth as she spoke. Ron picked up the book on top, a purple hardback with a dust jacket covered in drawings of various magical creatures. Before opening the book he turned to Hermione and said “Anything you need, just ask. I want to be as much help to you as possible. Well unless you want me to go talk to Aragog again, because that was strictly a one time thing.” Ron was elated to see Hermione rolling her eyes at him and then smile back down at her back. He thought he maybe even saw a slight blush growing on her face, which made him more giddy than he’d ever like to admit.
Hours passed in comfortable silence, only interrupted by one of them asking the other to look at a certain case they’d found, and if it could be of use to their situation. After all of the books had been read, three by Ron and the remaining seven by Hermione, they were both inclined to collapse onto the table in front of them rather than take the daunting trek back to Gryffindor tower. Ron was the first to get up, grabbing a couple books in one hand and offering the other to Hermione to help her up as well.
“Cmon ‘Mione we’d better get back. Harry’s probably been kidnapped by Sirius Black by now.” Her eyes widened, as did his as he realized he’d let the nickname he’d spent a little bit too long thinking about calling her slip out. Hermione quickly broke eye contact, grabbing the leftover books, and then Ron’s hand. As she stood up she thanked him and began to direct him as to where the books should be put back.
After putting back the last of his books, Ron turned to see Hermione struggling to reach the shelf where one of her books belonged. He chucked at the fact that after three years of attending Hogwarts, she was still adamant about manually putting her books back rather than using magic. He moved behind her and took the book from her hand, using his recent growth spurt to his advantage, and placed the book back in its perfectly snug spot. Hermione turned around with a slight smirk on her face. “You know I could’ve done it myself?”
Ron shrugged.
“I know, but watching you struggle turns from funny to pitiful rather quickly.”
Hermione laughed and playfully hit his shoulder, letting her hand linger longer than necessary. Her hand returned to her side and she sighed. “Thank you for helping me with this, honestly. It would’ve taken me another day without your help.” Ron looked at his feet, in an attempt to hide his reddening cheeks, but Hermione had already seen. “It was no problem, Buckbeak deserves to live as much as either of we do, so why not help him get that chance?”
Hearing these words, Hermione threw her arms around Ron’s neck and hugged him harder than he could remember her ever doing. He wrapped his arms around her middle and rested him chin on top of her head, taking in the sweet flowery smell of her shampoo. Much too soon, Hermione let go and began to step back from him.
Ron took a breath and he knew, it was now or never, but before he could speak he was cut off.
“Ron, I think I know what you’re about to say, but before you do i just have one thing i need to do. However, if I’m misinterpreting this, I’d really appreciate if you would completely forget what I’m about to do”.
And with that she took his face in both hands and placed a gentle kiss on his lips.
She stepped backwards, beginning to play with one of the curls that had fallen out of her bun, “So was I right?”
Ron looked at her and tilted his head in confusion. She laughed and crossed her arms in front of her, “Did I interpret the situation correctly?”. Ron raised his eyebrows, still in shock from her sudden boost of confidence that seemed perfectly in time with his. Taking one of her hands he said “Absolutely you did.”. This sent them both into a fit of giggles. Once the laughter subsided, they both looked at each other in silence, very satisfied with the turn their afternoon of research had taken.