It Can Wait
During Ron and Hermione's sixth year…
Hermione was sitting, as usual in the Gryffindor common room nose in a book, studying for Charms. Ron was picking at a hole in his jeans in a seat across from hers. Harry sat, tapping a pencil against his lips attempting to generate some new training exercises for the DA.
The Gryffindor residents came and went, not taking particular note of the trio in the corner. They were almost always together, at lunch, in classes, doing homework in the common room. It was for this reason that Ron never really had the opportunity to say what he'd been wanting to say to Hermione.
He had spoken with his brothers about romance and they couldn't really tell him anything worthwhile. Bill was too involved with goblins. Charlie was in love with dragons. The twins loved nothing but pranks. Yet they could tell Ron enough that he knew to get Hermione alone and as Harry yawned about to give up his lesson planning Ron saw his opportunity.
"Why don't you go to bed Harry? I'll be up in a bit."
Harry gave him an odd look, but didn't protest. Ron winked at his friend and nodded towards Hermione. Harry followed, but he didn't understand and he wasn't sure he wanted to. He left quietly and the common room was empty but for the two friends.
Ron cleared his throat. Hermione shifted, her giant book sliding around on her lap. He cleared his throat again and this time she looked up. "Do you need some water Ron?"
"No." He squeaked. "I'm fine. Listen Hermione, there was something…"
She let out a huge yawn. "Oh I'm so tired. I suppose I've been studying long enough." She closed her book, set it aside and headed for the girl's dormitory. "Were you about to say something Ron?" She asked as an afterthought, turning only part way to face him.
"Nah." He replied. "It can wait."
At the station, after graduation from Hogwarts…
Ron had been stifled that night in the common room and the courage he had gathered up to speak to Hermione had been lost. He spent the next year and a half working up his courage in the hopes that he could get her alone again, but no such moment would present itself and he wasn't willing to make one.
He was going to try one last time however.
They had taken the train home from Hogwarts for the last time. It was a quiet ride, no one wanting to talk too much. They were finished with their magical education and Harry was still alive (much to everyone's pleasant surprise). Ron didn't want to say it right there in the compartment; it just didn't seem romantic enough.
He waited until Hermione was lugging her bags to another platform, her family waiting for her inside another train. "Hermione?" He called out as he hurried over to her.
"Ron?" She questioned turning around. They had already said goodbye before getting off the Hogwart's Express. She was in such a hurry and if she delayed much longer she would miss the train.
"There's something I'd like to tell you." Ron said, making a fatal error. If he'd said "need" instead of "like" it might have seemed more pressing and Hermione might have stayed to listen. As it was worded she didn't see the necessity for which she should miss her train.
"Can it wait?" She said, not realizing how terribly cold the platform had become for Ron. He shivered in the wake of the crisp, chilly tone she was using.
"Sure." He said and shrugged, crestfallen. "It can wait."
Ten years after graduation…
Ron had never forgotten his feelings for Hermione and how he had tried twice to tell her and failed. Ten years had gone by, continuing polite conversation between friends, owling each other over the years as Hermione wrote to Ron about each new relationship and each terrible break up she went through when the muggles she picked to date realized she was a witch.
Ron wanted to tell her that she didn't need to date any of them. She could have him and that he would never reject her because of what she could or could not do. He wanted to tell her that he loved her, but after ten years of being a friend, a friend that she talked to about her other relationships… He didn't think that now was the time to finally reveal his feelings.
He was growing comfortable in his bachelor-hood and whether or not he was remaining so because of his feelings for the girl he couldn't have, he didn't really mind it. Harry had come over to hang out as it were, but Ron was starting to feel that they were getting too old to hang out.
They were in the middle of discussing some Order business, as Voldy Moldy was still on the loose (and no where to be found) when the phone rang. Ron picked up surprised to hear Hermione's voice on the line. He was just getting used to the muggle device for communication and had finally stopped shouting into the receiver.
"Hey." He said.
"How's it going?" She asked.
"Fine." He replied, hyper aware of Harry's inquisitive glance. "What's up?"
"I was just calling to see how you were doing. We haven't talked in awhile."
"No. We really haven't."
"Well I felt just awful about not having talked to you. I wanted to catch up and tell you about some things going on in my life."
Ron thought for a moment and maybe this was his moment to seize. Maybe this was the chance he had timed so badly before. "There's something I've been meaning to tell you." He started.
A child's cry on Hermione's end of the line interrupted him. Ron's thoughts jolted him out of any desire to confess his feelings for her. Her she was, probably married with kids. It had been that long since they had last spoken to each other and it was entirely possible.
"Oh Ron, I'm sorry. I really need to go. My cousin is out of town and I'm baby-sitting."
"It's ok." He said, breathing a sigh of relief. "It can wait."
Twenty years after graduation…
Harry and Ron were spending a nice, sunny afternoon together in Hogsmeade. It had been a few years since either of them had been here, never having the time to meet up and never wanting to go alone. They had decided to visit the Shrieking Shack, a place where their memories could run free and find peace and Harry could feel at ease.
Even when all of the friends of his father had passed on, he had this place to go to and feel their spirits once again, being wild teenage boys in animal form. Ron had felt it too, but it didn't hold such bittersweet strangeness for him. He simply came here because he felt comfortable.
They both started at a noise from the door. Someone was trying to get in and it didn't take them long to force the door open. Ron gasped as he realized who it was. "Hermione?" He called out.
"Ron? Harry?" She said as she recognized them. "What are you two doing here?"
"Just hanging out." Ron replied.
They spent several mindless minutes catching up on the all the news they had missed before they decided to leave the shack and walk back towards town. As they were going Hermione saw her friends, waiting for her outside of the Three Broomsticks.
"It was so good seeing you two." She said. "My friends are waiting, but we'll have to do lunch sometime." Hermione said, turning away.
He wasn't going to get her alone this time, so Harry was just going to have to be witness.
"Hermione I have something to tell you." Ron gushed.
"Ron, I'm in such a hurry." She said softly.
"No. It can't wait." He said, stamping his foot into the ground. "I'm thirty-seven years old, and I don't want to wait any longer." He got down on one knee and any amount of rushing Hermione wanted to do died away immediately. She'd been hoping that Ron would finally say something and she wanted to slap her own forehead for not listening. He had been trying and she'd been too hurried to notice.
"Hermione, I have loved you for such a long time. I can't rightly remember when it happened but I've been trying for twenty years now to say it out loud." He reached up, his hands shaking and took her hands in his. Their fingers locked and she smiled at him, the smile of a woman who realized that she had been searching for pearls elsewhere when she had the oyster right here.
"I don't have a ring because I didn't think this moment would ever come but Hermione Granger, will you be my wife?"
A single tear slipped down her cheek and she swiped at it, wiping away the last memory of twenty wasted years. "Yes, Ron. I love you." She bent down to kiss him and their lips locked in an awkward moment of absolute happiness.
Harry smiled with his arms wrapped over his chest. "It's about time."