Hello everyone!

As has been mentioned before, I have been depressed for a long while now. But, thankfully, things are finally starting to look up for me. Getting back into the gear of writing, I've decided to take on the 30 Day OTP challenge. This obviously means that I will be updating this every day for the next month! Each chapter will be somewhere around the 500 word mark, so generally short, but quick coming. As I said, this is an exercise I'm using to start writing (which, I regret to admit, became less of a priority in the last few months). Anyway, I'll say more after the chapter regarding my other stories. Enjoy!

Day 1: Holding Hands

Hermione sat at a table, running her finger around the rim of her glass of Butterbeer. What she wanted more than anything right now was to walk up to the Dormitories and lay down in a four-poster bed – any one, it didn't matter – and sleep. However, at the same time, she wanted to stay awake and cry, and talk to her friends, and go home, and see her parents, but also do something productive. In the end, though, it didn't matter, because all she was doing was sitting, staring at her full glass and trying to believe that Voldemort was actually dead.

She'd almost made up her mind for the fourth time when she felt a weight take a seat on the bench beside her. Looking up, she found Ron sitting beside her, wearing a nervous smile that she couldn't help but return. She was wondering if he wanted to talk to her; Merlin knew she'd been hoping and dreading he would. She bit her lip in a nervous habit, eyes tracing the features of his face, reading him like a book.

Usually, she would be able to see right through him simply by his expression, but today she was distracted. His face wasn't as it normally was: pale and clean with protruding freckles. His stubble had grown out and his usually white skin was smeared in dirt; a long cut on his cheek looked nasty, covered in dried blood and grime. His freckles were still there, hidden beneath it all, but she could still make them out. Hermione felt a stone settling in her stomach. She wanted to reach out and touch him, but didn't seem capable of basic motor functions.

His eyes only remained the same. Clear water blue, bright with relief and lids sagging with exhaustion. As she watched he glanced down to the table. Without saying a word, he gently took her right hand in his, pulled it from the Butterbeer, and set it on the table, cupping it. Hermione entwined her fingers with his, flexing them to get a better grip. She could feel her eyes watering. He didn't know how much it meant that he'd taken the initiative this time; he was holding her hand, not the other way around. It made her feel as if a weight had been lifted off her chest: he'd told her exactly what she'd wanted to know without uttering a word.

What Hermione wanted more than anything right then was to scoot closer and rest her head on his chest, listen to his beating heart through his soiled shirt and close her eyes and allow herself to be surrounded by Ron. But something told her she couldn't do that, not now. Someday, she promised herself, but today wasn't that day.

And so they sat, holding hands and smiling at each other, talking to other people when they came along and drinking Butterbeer with their free hands. Every so often he would run his thumb along her index finger and Hermione would close her eyes and smile, feeling as if everything would be alright as long as she had him to hold onto.

Years later, she would look back and call it the moment they became a couple.

Short and sweet, right? I hope!

Okay, as for my other stories.

The final installment of The Dream Hermione is currently my number one priority after this and, considering these only take forty-five minutes maybe an hour of my day, it will be the first thing I turn to after. I know, seven months, I'm pushing it, but I promise I'm going to make it worth it!

As for How I Met Your Father, that will be my second priority. I'm not really sure what I want to do with the next chapter and if anyone feels like it, I'm open to ideas through reviews (here or on the story) or PM's! Anyway, I'll be getting to those.

Feel free to leave a review for this chapter and any future chapters telling me what you think! Your wonderful reviews have helped me out a lot in the last few months and I'd like to thank every single one of you for your support through my lazy and inconsistent updates!

Until tomorrow!