Ginny rubbed her eyes, and stifled a yawn, as she stumbled down the last couple of steps into the Gryffindor common room. She expected to be alone at such an early hour, but wasn’t completely surprised to find Hermione already there, on the sofa in front of the fire. Her eyes looked tired, but she smiled weakly at Ginny when she entered the room.
“Hi,” Ginny said brightly.

“Umm, hi yourself,” Hermione replied, stifling a yawn of her own. “You’re up early.”

“Not as early as you, apparently.”

“Actually, in order to be up, one would have had to have gone to bed in the first place,” said Hermione. “I couldn’t sleep.”

“Too excited about last night?” asked Ginny.

“Excited, scared, worried,” rambled Hermione. “Take your pick.”

“What’s wrong then?”

“Last night was wonderful, and I’m really happy for you and Harry. Seems you won’t have to worry so much any more about him getting you all worked up when he’s snogging you, but being too much of a gentleman to do anything about it.”

Hermione paused and took a breath before continuing, “And being with Ron last night was what I’ve dreamed about for so long, but I don’t even really know if he was with me because he was reacting to the show you and I were putting on when he and Harry found us, or if he was with me because he wanted to be. I don’t know if you noticed, but he couldn’t even bring himself to touch me in the corridor coming back here, and he kissed me goodnight like he was afraid he might catch something from me.”

“Hermione, you know how Ron is. He’s a big coward when it comes to emotions, but I know he loves you,” Ginny said with complete sincerity. “And I know you love him, but you’re going to have to be the brave one in this relationship, at least right now you are. If you act like the two of you are a couple when Harry and Ron get up, then you will be. But if you act all nervous and uncomfortable, or if you act like nothing has happened between you, then I hope you can be happy with last night’s memory because it may be all you get for a long time to come.”

Hermione nodded, knowing that Ginny was right. If Ron were going to pluck up the courage to ask her out on his own, he could’ve asked her to the Yule Ball in fourth year, or he could’ve said something during all the time they’d spent together at Grimmauld Place before Harry joined them the summer after that. But he didn’t, and Hermione wondered if Ron would have ever worked up the nerve to ask her out if the previous evening hadn’t happened.

“So you think I should just act like we’re a real couple,” Hermione finally said, “and leave it to him to either play along or put a stop to it.”

“He won’t put a stop to it, Hermione. He’ll be relieved, and he won’t be playing along, he’ll be in it for real.”

Ginny watched the stairs for students coming down to breakfast as the girls talked on, gasping and exclaiming over how mortifying it was to have been caught making out, then congenially comparing notes on the action that had ensued once Harry and Ron had shed their clothes. Occasionally Ginny would shush Hermione because someone was coming, then their conversation would resume.

When Ginny admitted to being impressed by how her brother looked naked, Hermione confessed to having briefly considered helping her with Harry.