go out with me

Ron banged his sweaty fist on the door. Better get this over with, he thought to himself. It's been three weeks since the war was over. It's been three weeks since he and Hermione had shared that fateful kiss in the room of requirements. They haven't talked about it of course; not that hermione hadn't wanted to, but there hadn't seemed to be a right time what with all the funerals and the post-war cleaning they had been caught up in. All in all, the past few weeks had been spent trying to mend all that had been broken from homes to hearts. It was going to be a while before everyone started feeling happy or even normal again, but at least the reality that the war against Voldemort had finally been won for good was starting to dawn over everyone and sometimes Ron glimpsed shadows of smiles and eyes getting brighter with each new day of victory. Now that the world has started to move forward again, it was time he did something he realized he should have done years ago; he couldn't believe he had wasted so much time dismissing and dodging his feelings. He raised his hand to knock again when the door swung open and a bush of brown hair blocked his view of the bedroom. "Oh hey Ron," Hermione gave him a shy smile and looked over his shoulder. "Have you seen Ginny? I think she's been avoiding me because I want her to clean her side of the bedroom. I swear that sister of yours is just–" She suddenly stopped talking when she saw the look on Ron's face; he was sweating, his face a ghostly white and his eyes terrified of something invisible to Hermione. "Ron? what's wrong?" Hermione put her hand on his arm and squeezed slightly; Ron jolted back to reality. C'mon mate you can do this, he told himself but "errr... er..." was the only sound that came out. Hermione frowned: "Is everything ok? Ron come on; it's me. You can tell me. What is it?"
Ron took a deep breath: "Go out with me."
Taken by surprise, Hermione stared at him. It suddenly dawned on Ron that maybe Hermione didn't want to go out with him, that maybe that kiss was just a kiss, a spur-of-the-moment kind of thing you do if you think you're going to die and panic had taken over. "That is only if you want to," he rushed, "you don't have to say yes. I dunno what I was thinking Hermione ...I'll...I'll just go."
Hermione saw Ron moving away still babbling excuses for what he had just said; it had taken her mind a moment to register what she had heard, but once it did she felt her heart skip a beat; "I'd love to!" she blurted out. Ron stopped in his tracks. "I'd love to go out with you, Ron."
Ron smiled to himself as he went back down the stairs to where Harry was waiting to play a game of wizard chess. All he could think of was that for the first time in his life, he knows what he wants, and he was not going to mess this up.