+Night Patrols+

Disclaimer: All characters and the world of HP belong to a very nice lady named Joann Rowling. Not me, sadly. I just played with them.

Author's Note: Alright. I haven't written fanficiton in forever. And I mean at least 3 years. At least. But this Valentine's Day, I was inspired by the drabble challenge Snitchseeker has. My prompt was Astronomy Tower. I wrote a 200 word fic and was like... wow, this would be cool to write the whole story behind this. So I did.

I wrote this within 2 days, and finished proofreading it today. It's not too long, only about 8 MS pages. There might still be a few mistakes, but I mostly wrote it for myself, just because I haven't written in so long. And to be honest, I'm more of a H/Hr shipper... but I'm also very much in support of cannon fanfiction. Because of this, I write R/Hr fiction, even though in my mind I really wish it had gone H/Hr. Either way is quite nice though, hehe.

Well, read, enjoy, and please review if you get a chance! I'll love you forever... I send you virtual hugs. Def.

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Being a prefect came with certain responsibilities. Removing points, setting a good example, and of course, doing the patrols.

One particular night in the common room, Hermione came downstairs to find Ron performing his prefect duties the way he pretty much always performed them. That was, in the poised and ready -not moving, eyes closed, and mouth open- position.

Normally she brushed it off. Every night, again and again, she allowed Ron to “monitor the common room” while she walked the entire castle to yell at students (usually Slytherins) to get to bed. But tonight was different. She was in a very bad mood, and it was mostly Ron’s fault.

Not that Ron would notice something like that.

“RON!” Hermione shouted. Ron jumped with a start, muttering something Hermione didn’t quite catch. It only took him a moment before he caught sight of Hermione, the culprit who had awoken him. Ron’s surprised, confused expression soon turned grumpy from being awoken so suddenly, and he rounded on Hermione.

“Well, what the bloody hell is it? The Deatheaters better be attacking the castle right this instant or I swear-“

“It’s your turn to do patrols, Ron!” Hermione cut him off angrily. Really. Every night, she had gone up to the Astronomy tower, over the Divination floor, through the Room of Requirement, quickly around the everywhere-in-the-castle, and what had Ron done? Skive off his duties regularly. ‘Monitor’ the common room. And of course, never once thank her.

He is a just so…so… UGGGGHHH.

Just as Hermione opened her mouth to yell at him once more, Ron grumbled and sat up. “Fine, fine, keep your knickers on. But you’re coming with me…” he muttered, not even throwing a glance at her as he crawled through the portrait hole grudgingly. Hermione paused. She had expected more of an argument than that. Maybe he really was just too tired to care. Whatever the reason, Hermione quickly followed him through the portrait hole, and soon they began their patrols. They didn't say a single to word to each other after they left the common room.

Halfway through the patrols, Hermione began to rethink asking for help.
Then again- she paused, reminding herself that she wasn’t at fault here- I had asked him to do the patrols… not for both of us to do it together.

No matter who was at fault, nothing could describe how awkward it was now. Ron was silently brooding over having to do anything at all, and Hermione was still angry with him in general. And they still hadn’t said a word to each other the whole patrol.

Time continued to pass. Hermione looked at her watch. It was getting later, and Hermione motioned Ron over to a ladder. “Come on now, we should at least check the Astronomy Tower…” After getting a slight eye roll from Ron, Ron moved over to the ladder and began up.

“The things I do for you, ‘Mione.” Ron muttered quietly.

But Hermione heard. She stood there shocked for a moment. He most likely didn't mean it the way it had sounded to her... It was a very un-Ron-like thing for him to say. Deciding it was better to pretend that she indeed hadn’t heard, she quickly hurried up the ladder after him.

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I actually have this fic finished, so I should be posting pretty regularly. Well, let me know what you think. It gets better (well in my opinion).