Versions// Ron Weasley X Reader

Three

I trudge through the empty halls slowly, my trunk scraping behind me against the marble floors. One of it's wheels broke off somewhere between the first day of school and now, and I hadn't found the time to fix it. I lug it along behind me, making a game out of balancing it on the one wheel. I turn to readjust my grip, just as my trunk bursts open, spilling my clothes on the floor. I squeeze my eyes shut in frustration.

"There you are!" I straighten and see Ron jogging over. "The rest of us are already on the train- What happened?" He notices the broken trunk.

"My trunk isn't exactly cooperating with me." I reply huffily, and drop the handle of my trunk. The whole thing thuds to the ground.

Ron furrows his brow. "You alright?" He asks as he walks closer. He pulls out his wand, seemingly from his sock, and absently taps it against his legs.

"I don't know. My trunk is just all broken. It was missing a wheel, and I could almost get past that, and then it just broke." I sigh, and kneel on the ground to start throwing things haphazardly back into the trunk.

"I don't know if I can add another wheel, but I think I can fix the rest of it." Ron offers as he scoops up the rest of my clothes and piles them into the trunk. I look at him questioningly, but step back.

"Sure, give it a go then." I watch as he points his wand towards my trunk. He blinks a few times and nervously glances at me. I nod encouragingly.

"Clausis Instaurabo!" He exclaims, and my trunk slams shut, and we hear the sound of locks clicking.

"Well done!" I smile up at him. "Thank you, Ron." He smiles back with a subtle triumphant gleam in his eye.

"Well, mum has to fix a lot of old trunks for us. I just remember her doing that spell every time something blew up from inside George's luggage," He jokes. He grabs the handle of the trunk and starts to pull it for me, but halts almost immediately. "You weren't kidding about that wheel." 

"Maybe I could just..." I pull out my wand and point it at the trunk. "Wingardium Leviosa!" I swish and flick my wand, and my trunk begins to levitate. Ron smiles excitedly and copies me. We both hold up the trunk with our wands and continue walking down the hall.

"Good thinking! I haven't done this spell in a while!" Ron looks up at the trunk as we match each other in pace. "Hermione helped me master it."

"Yeah, I remember." I mumble back. Hermione had shown us all how to properly cast the spell. But this was years ago, before I had ever developed a crush.

Ron glanced over. "Is something else the matter? Besides your trunk? You seem off."

I snapped to look at him. "I'm not off, thank you." He raises his eyebrows in response, but doesn't say anything else. We walk along in silence. When we reach the front gate and the train is in sight, I sigh and look over. "Sorry Ron. I didn't mean to snap, I know you didn't mean to be rude. I just don't really want to talk about it."

Ron looks over again. As we approach the train, he lowers his wand and stops casting the spell. I meet his gaze and lower my trunk to the ground outside one of the trains doors, where it magically disappears onto the train. Ron looks around and takes a step closer to me. In a low voice, he asks "Is it-Listen, is it about Hermione?"

My jaw goes slack. "What do you mean?" I choke out. Ron twists up his mouth and looks down at the ground. 

"I mean, I see you looking at her." He mumbles and slowly looks back up at me through his lashes. My throat tightens. He sees my panicked expression and straightens. "I'm not like, judging. I just mean- when I said her name, you changed a bit, and-"

"I see how you look at her too." I cut him off. His face turns pink. We stare at each other, faces deepening in crimson for several minutes before Ron sighs.

"She's great. She really is, and I've fancied her for a bit, but I don't know. She's such a good friend, you know? I don't want to scare her off." He admits. I can always tell when Ron is really stressed, so I walk closer to him and take his hand.

"Well, how do you think I feel? It's way more likely she doesn't feel the same about me." I say, partly as a joke. Ron grunts, partly as a laugh. He meets my eyes and we smile at each other.

"So... If you like Hermione, does that mean when you dated Dean, were you just-?" Ron started to ask. I giggle and squeeze his hand tighter.

"No, Ron, I really did like Dean. I can like both girls and boys, you know." I say. Ron nods and squeezes my hand back before pulling me onto the train.

"Just wondering! Would be real funny to see Dean used as a beard though." I shake my head and laugh as the car door closes behind us.