Ron was nervous.
He didn't understand why he should be so nervous. He had been on first dates before. He couldn't blame the nerves on anticipating the first kiss. She had gotten that business over with in the most dramatic fashion during the battle. It was just Hermione. They had been best friends for years; it wasn't as though he didn't already know everything about her. He knew her idiosyncrasies and she knew every last one of his.
Ron knew that she could be maddeningly frustrating when she pestered him about History of Magic assignments. Ron knew better than anyone else that she had a temper befitting a Weasley. He knew that she bit her lip when she was nervous or deep in though. Ron knew that her smile was brighter than anyone else's. If George knew what he was thinking he would never hear the end of it. But she does have a nice smile, he thought, that's a reasonable observation. It is not in any way sappily romantic. Merlin, if his thoughts were this scattered now, he couldn't imagine how he would handle the actual date.
"Ron, dear," Mrs. Weasley said as she entered his room. "Are you almost ready? You should go early to make a good first impression."
"I think that it's a bit late to try to make a good first impression on Hermione, mum," Ron said.
"Not on her parents it isn't," Mrs. Weasley said, straightening his dress shirt.
"Her parents? I'm meeting her at the restaurant," Ron said.
"Honestly Ronald, you really ought to learn to listen if you are going to date a nice girl like Hermione. I told you this morning that she owled to ask if you could meet her at her parents' house because she is moving them back from Australia."
"Bloody hell," Ron muttered. "Something else to deal with."
"You should also watch that mouth of yours," Mrs. Weasley chided. "Don't be nervous now Ron. I'm sure they'll love you. They were very nice people when we met them in Diagon Alley. Just make polite conversation and you'll be fine."
"I have to talk to them too?" he said.
"Well, naturally. She is their only daughter and they will want to make sure that you are a respectful young man. Just the same way you would feel about someone taking Ginny on a date," Mrs. Weasley said.
Ron paled considerably. He decided that from now on he would be much less hostile to any man brave enough to come and pick Ginny up for a date. He batted away his mother's hand as she tried to smooth out his hair.
"I'm fine mum, and I am not nervous," Ron said.
"Whatever you say dear," Mrs. Weasley said.
"I have to go now," Ron said. He left the room followed closely by Mrs. Weasley and went downstairs. He walked outside to grab his broom, and after more advice and well wishes from his mother kicked off.
He flew the short distance between the Burrow and Hermione's parents' new home. Ron landed softly in front of the country cottage and took a deep breath before walking up to the front door and knocking.
The door opened to reveal a kind looking muggle woman. The woman smiled at him and eyed his broom curiously.
"You must be Hermione's wizard friends," she said pleasantly. "Why don't you come in?"
Ron entered the house and Mrs. Granger ushered him to a small sitting room where Hermione's father was reading the newspaper. The man smiled in greeting at Ron and set the newspaper aside.
"Why don't you sit? She should be ready soon. She has been fretting over this date all afternoon," she said as she took a seat across from him.
Ron sat in uncomfortable silence for awhile. He occasionally shifted his weight from one side to the other. Then he recalled his mother's advice to make small talk to show that he was a respectable young man.
"So you're both dentists?" he asked.
"Yes, we are," Mrs. Granger answered with an encouraging smile.
"And you really like this business of muggle teeth?" Ron asked.
"Yes," Mr. Granger said. "We do. It's very interesting."
"Of course, yes," Ron said, his ears turning bright red. "Interesting and useful. I mean you need teeth for a lot of things. Like eating and…and biting and nibbling and all."
When the Grangers looked befuddled by Ron's thoughts on teeth, he continued.
"Don't worry, I won't bite or nibble your daughter or anything," Ron said. "I wouldn't even think of that."
This assurance did the opposite of its intended purpose. Hermione's father looked a bit concerned by Ron's unsolicited reassurance and her mother smiled uncomfortably at the strange young wizard sitting in front of her. Ron looked at the corner of the room. The three of them sat in uncomfortable silence for what seemed like forever, though it was no more than a few minutes. Ron began to wonder where in Merlin's name Hermione had disappeared to. He decided to make another valiant effort at small talk. Ron thought that he couldn't fail any more spectacularly than he already had.
"Did you like Australia?" Ron said abruptly.
"What do you mean?" Mrs. Granger, though confused, seemed relieved that the silence had been broken.
"When you lived in Australia," Ron said. "Did you like living there?"
"We never lived in Australia," Mr. Granger said, puzzled by the young man's assumption that they had lived elsewhere.
"I thought you did," Ron said, as confused as the Grangers were by the current topic of conversation.
Mr. and Mrs. Granger were saved from having to respond when Hermione enter the small room. She had chosen a simple, light dress over which she had draped her best dress cloak. She smiled at her parents and Ron in turn.
"Are you ready to go Ron? We don't want to be late," Hermione said.
"Yes, we'll apperate there," Ron said, springing out of his seat and grabbing his broom. He nodded awkwardly to the Grangers. "It was nice to meet you."
Mr. Granger nodded back and Mrs. Granger, though still nonplussed by their conversation with Ron, smiled at him as he hurried Hermione out of the room and into the front yard.
When Hermione and Ron entered the new Diagon Alley restaurant, a surly little old wizard led them to an intimate table for two in the back of the restaurant. He put the menus on the table and left them to get settled. Ron tried to move Hermione's chair out with an extravagant flick of the wand. His spell was a bit overenthusiastic and the chair slid out to hit the chair behind it, which was occupied by a serious young man. The man turned to Ron with a look of exasperation.
"Sorry 'bout that mate," Ron said, his ears bright red as he moved the chair to its appropriate position. The man returned his attention to his date without responding to Ron's apology.
"You're not nervous about this date are you, Ron?" Hermione said, suppressing a grin of amusement as she sat down.
"Aren't you?" Ron said defensively. "Your mum said that you've been fretting about it all afternoon."
"I'll admit that I was a bit nervous about how this would go, but when haven't I fretted about something. It's just me Ron. You don't need to impress me. It's not as though we don't already know everything about each other."
"Blimey, it's not just you, Hermione," Ron said. "It's you. This has been a long time coming and I didn't see it until recently. I don't want to ruin it."
"Ron," Hermione said. She put her hand on his. "I've been your best friend for almost seven years, and I've fancied you for more than half of them. You couldn't ruin our relationship in one date. "
"Thanks, Hermione," Ron said. He cleared his throat and picked up a menu. "Now that we have that cleared up, we should probably look over the menu. I'm starved."
Both opened their menus and read them in silence for awhile. Hermione, while still perusing the menu, restarted the conversation.
"I hope my parents weren't horrible to you," she said. "I was nervous that they might be a bit overprotective, what with me being their only child. They kept asking me if you were a respectful wizard. Is he good to his parents? Does he respect the girls he dates? Honestly, it got to be quite annoying. So how did your conversation go with them?"
"Well," Ron said, his ears crimson, "I assured them that I would not be biting or nibbling you at any point during the date."
"You didn't!" Hermione said, her eyes twinkling with laughter.
"I did," Ron said. "Not one of my shining moments. I admit it."
"Don't worry about it. I'll tell them that wizard parents ask about things like that to find out if the date is a vampire, or some nonsense like that," Hermione said to make Ron feel better.
Before Ron could thank Hermione, the curt old wizard returned to take their order. After the pair had placed their respective orders, the man slunk off to fill the order.
"Think he enjoys his job?" Ron jested.
Hermione laughed and the mood began to relax. They slipped into the same comfortable conversations they usually had. The conversation carried them easily through dinner. They, against logic, Hermione thought, were so natural together. It felt right.
After the empty plates magically vanished and the bill was paid, Hermione and Ron left the restaurant. The sun had set during their dinner and the sky was now black. The full moon cast a soft light on the empty Diagon Alley sidewalk and the stars were like crisp pinpricks in a velvet sky.
Ron and Hermione could have easily disapperated or mounted Ron's broom to return home, but they strolled along the street. Ron slipped his hand in Hermione's. When he did, she looked at him and smiled without saying anything. They walked along in comfortable silence.
"So, what else did you and my parents talk about besides your…biting habits? Or did that put an end to any further conversation? I mean you did get right down to the question on every parent's mind," Hermione said, suppressing laughter.
"Very funny, Hermione," Ron said. "You know it was bizarre. I asked them about Australia, but they didn't know anything about ever being there. I thought you restored their memory."
Hermione stopped dead and turned to Ron. There was no trace of laughter in her voice. "Ron. Please tell me you didn't tell them what happened, about what I did to them."
"No. I just said I thought they'd lived in Australia," Ron said. "Blimey, Hermione. You didn't tell them what happened? "
"As far as they know, I just returned from a thoroughly uneventful seventh year at Hogwarts and they have always lived in that house," Hermione explained. "They know that the danger that the wizarding world faced has passed, but they don't know I had any part in it. They have no idea that I ever altered their memories. I want to keep everything that way."
"Why though?"
Hermione turned and continued to walk. "Don't you understand? The same reason I altered their memories in the first place. To protect them."
"From what? You-know-who's gone," Ron said.
"I want to protect them from knowing what happened to me," Hermione said sadly. "No parent wants to know that their child went through the things we went through. They don't need to know that Death Eaters tried to kill us and that we were nearly killed robbing a bank, and," Hermione shivered and continued, her voice barely above a whisper, "they especially don't need to know that I was tortured to the brink of insanity. It would kill them to know that."
Ron walked along beside her in silence. Hermione did not look at him the entire time she spoke. Her eyes stayed locked on the inky black sky as if searching it long enough would reveal to her some fundamental truth. A truth that would explain all they had been through.
"What if you want to talk about it?" Ron asked.
Hermione gave him a small, sad smile. "I have you."
Ron put his arm around her shoulder as they continued down the moonlit street.
"I'm sorry she hurt you like that," Ron said.
"Me too," Hermione said. "I was willing to sacrifice my life if that's what it came to in the fight against Voldemort. I wasn't ready to give up my mind though. I came so close to having no choice." Then added in a barely audible whisper, added, "too close."
"Why didn't you ever tell any of us all of this?"
Hermione gave a short laugh. "We got a little busy. What with planning to rob Gringotts and dueling Death Eaters and destroying horocuxes. Even I forgot about it for awhile until everything settled down. Then it all came back just recently."
Ron stopped and turned to face Hermione. She stopped walking too but refused to take her eyes off the sky. He gently turned her so that she faced him and saw that tears sparkled in her eyes. Ron put a hand on Hermione's chin and gently kissed her. For the first time he kissed her, and it wasn't the prospect of imminent death that compelled him to seize the moment. It was a simple desire to stop her from hurting the best way he knew how.
"That was nice," Hermione whispered when he pulled away. She hastily wiped away the tears. "All of this is a bit heavy for a first date. Let's talk about something else. I want to be happy tonight."
"Ok," Ron said. "What about a midnight broom ride?"
Hermione looked a bit wary about the idea of flying. It had always made her nervous to be so high up and have only the broom between herself and the ground.
"C'mon," Ron said when he saw her hesitation. "We flew a bloody dragon, a blind dragon out of Gringotts. A broom ride will be boring next to that."
Hermione agreed and mounted the broom behind Ron. As they rose into the sky Hermione's anxiety about flying melted away. She felt safe with Ron as she wrapped her arms around him.
After soaring leisurely through the sky for awhile, Ron turned around on the broom so that he was facing Hermione.
"Ron, what are you doing? What if you crash?"
"What is there to crash into?" Ron said gesturing to their moonlit surroundings. There were no trees or buildings in sight, only open fields. "Relax Hermione. I won't let anything happen to you."
He put a steadying arm around Hermione and kissed her. It was more passionate than the almost chaste kiss back in Diagon Alley. It was slow and gentle though, much less desperate than the one during the Battle of Hogwarts.
"I'm really starting to enjoy this kissing business," Hermione smirked when they pulled apart.
"Me too. We should do it more often," Ron said, returning her smile.
He turned back around and Hermione wrapped her arms around his stomach and rested her head on his back. After a few moments, he started to descend towards what he could tell was Hermione's parent's house. He landed softly on the front lawn and dismounted the broom.
"Didn't I say I would get you home in one piece?"
"I believe I also guaranteed that you wouldn't ruin the date. It looks like we were both right," Hermione said.
"So do you want to do this again?" Ron asked.
"I would like that very much."
"Ok, then. What about Saturday?" Ron said, relieved at not having made a complete mess of their date.
"That sounds excellent," Hermione said.
"I should go," Ron said after a moment of silence. "Mum will be waiting up for all of the details. You would have thought she was going on the date the way she was going on about it."
Hermione smiled and gave him a peck on the cheek. "Well you don't want to keep her waiting. I'll see you on Saturday."
Ron grinned back at her and mounted his broom. He looked back once more before he kicked off.
Hermione stood in the yard and watched him soar into the moonlit sky until she couldn't see him anymore. She smiled and turned to back to the house.
A/N-This fic wasn't one of my favorite stories of the ones that I've been working on. I thought that someone might enjoy it though, so I posted.
This is where I was going to put something clever or witty asking you to review. As it turns out, I'm not all that clever or witty, so I'll just ask nicely. Please review even if it's only a few words. I'd really appreciate it!
Also, I have a poll up on my profile about chapter length preference. I'd be interested to see what people think since I'm trying to work on a multi-chapter Hermione/Ron fic right now and I'm undecided about chapter length. For reference, this chapter is roughly 2900 words (6/15/08).