He sat in the shady room heated by the immense summer sun; Ron pondered what his 'supposed to be last year' would be like. He was seventeen now and would be entering his seventh year at Hogwarts. But things had changed since Ron started attending, mostly due to the fact that his best friend was 'the Chosen One'. Harry had always brought amazing adventures to Ron's life at Hogwarts, but he was afraid that his next expedition with Harry would be too much for him.
More importantly than the danger Ron would be putting himself in was the fact that he couldn't leave the love of his life. Though he didn't know it, Ron was madly in love with Hermione. Ron fell in love with her when she first mocked him on the Hogwarts Express, but Ron could never accept this. He was too shy to approach her, and she was so brave and smart, and all around perfect. Hermione was everything Ron had ever dreamed of, and more.
So as Ron sat in the small room at the top of the Burrow, this is what he thought of. Could he run off with Harry attempting to defeat "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" (yes, Ron still won't say his name) or was he too chicken? But that's not how Ron saw it of course. Honestly, he understood that he needed this last year of schooling to accomplish much in life. Ron had a lot to live up to. Bill was soon to marry Fleur and was raking in galleons even after his suspicious incident, Charlie was in Romania again, and occasionally wrote about Norbert. Then there was Percy, and though he refused to speak to their Mum and Dad, he was highly accomplished. Fred and George hadn't finished their education at Hogwarts, but they already had a nag for their business. Ron just knew he couldn't live up to any of them. And he had to be a role model for Ginny.
Was Harry really going to miss out on his last year? Didn't he want to become and Auror, the surely wouldn't let him apply if he had dropped out early. And if he was taking all of this seriously, he couldn't possibly expect Hermione and Ron to drop their lives and join his psychotic plan. Ron was sure Hermione didn't need to take her last year, but he knew she wanted to. He was desperate to find an excuse to stay at Hogwarts with Hermione, but didn't know how to let Harry down. He strummed his fingers on the chipped paint of the windowsill. What to do? Ron knew he couldn't make this decision alone and decided to seek advice from the person who understood him most. George.
At this point Ron could legally use magic outside of Hogwarts, so he took his Quick-Quotes Quill out and sucked on the tip of the scarlet feather.
"Ronald Billius Weasley, Seventeen years old, tall, thin, with sheening red hair" spoke the handy writing device in a sing song voice.
He could begin writing now, well dictating his writing at that point. Ron was now fascinated with how useful magic really was. He had promised to write letters to his friends, and sometimes his brothers, and having his Quick-Quotes Quill made it all the easier. So Ron just started spilling it all out.
"Dear George, it's Ron and I know we haven't talked in a while but I need some help A.S.A.P. As my big brother I thought that you would be the most helpful when it comes to deciding" Ron was struggling with what words to use next "well deciding who I want to be."
The process of writing this letter seemed to take hours, as Ron crossed out phrases and reworded the entire thing several times over. He wanted to make sure the entire thing sounded just right, but didn't have to worry about too much. Though Ron didn't know this either, Fred and George had always known about Ron's liking to Hermione. They had spoken to each other many times about the day when their baby brother would have to decide between his two best friends.
Just as Ron melted the seal on his letter to George, he heard his mother scream out that dinner was ready. This was actually a very strange way of hearing about dinner, as her voice was filled with excitement instead of the recent aggravation that rang in her vocals. There was something eerie about hearing her sound so chipper. Mrs. Weasley had been having a rough summer. She had been expecting it to be just her, Arthur, Ginny, and Ron, but her summer plans changed in many ways. Bill had decided that Fleur needed to spend a bit more time with them seeing as the Weasleys are so family oriented. The entire household, excluding Bill and Fleur, knew that Molly was easily tortured by just the sound of Fleur's voice. Interestingly enough, the only person at the Burrow calling her Pleghm now was Molly.
On top of having Bill and Fleur, Mrs. Weasley was also housing one of her other elder sons, Charlie. Most of the Weasley siblings hadn't seen Charlie in a good few years and were excited to see their brother and exchange tales from Romania. So now Mrs. Weasley had sons in her house that she had missed for years. Even stranger, at least in Ron's opinion, was that Fred and George were alternating, each taking turns staying at the Burrow and in Diagon Alley. The entire house was full of rambunctious children again, and none of this really bothered Molly, except for the fact that she was missing her baby girl.
Ginny had suspiciously left her mother's keep. Though Molly and Arthur were still frantically searching for her, everyone knew very well that Ginny had run off to assist Harry in his ventures. Ron missed his little sister, though they did keep in touch. When she wrote to Ron, Ginny never mentioned where she was or who she was with, but always reassured her safety. Ron was frantically trying to encourage Ginny to attend Hogwarts again, seeing as this would only be her sixth year, yet he was having no such luck.
So after hearing Mrs. Weasley's excited call for food, Ron apparated to the kitchen as quickly as he could. His long flaming red hair flew about as he landed in the middle of the kitchen. He looked at his mother and her oddly placed smile. He gave her a look as if to say, "What's going on here?".
"Ronald, just go outside and see for yourself!" Molly chimed.
How odd could things get? Ron just decided to walk out to the back yard to where the table was, gently kicking gnomes as he passed them. As the tension built up inside him, his walk became more of a skip. As he finally reached the table, he only saw his three brothers smiling back at him. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary besides his brothers' wide mouthed smiles. But at that moment a large pumpkin colored flower resembling a gargantuan sunflower shifted to the side revealing a beautiful young woman.
"Hello Ron" said Hermione, with an anxious tone in her voice.
"Hermione, you're here? It's…it's…it's great to see you!" Ron said, at a slight loss for words. How could he have ever expected her to appear in his back yard in the middle of summer without notice? But nevertheless, she looked amazing, stunning at that. Her hair had been straightened and fell around her elbows. Her amber eyes glistening in great contrast behind the brightly colored garden, she had changed so much, yet she was still the same Hermione Ron had met six years ago. Ron was dumbstruck by her beauty, and still not able to find the right things to say.
"Your hair, it's…well it's straight." Ron stumbled, not knowing how to complement her.
"Well yes Ronald, in the Muggle world we have these things called flat irons which we use to straighten our hair. Do you like it?" she started off in her sarcastic know-it-all voice, but then gently moved to her self conscience smile, hoping for Ron's approval.
"Beautiful" Ron said, and for the first time that night had some idea of what he was saying.