~*3 A.M. Confessions*~
By: MsBigBad
Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I affiliated with, Jo Rowling or the marvelous world or characters she created. I'm just borrowing!
A/N: This is a short little story I wrote back in 2006. Therefore it is post HBP and Pre DH! It also happens to be my first HP fanfic and though I personally cringe every time I read it, maybe you won't lol! There is also a harry/Ginny Sequel to this story called 5 A.M. Revelations.
Moonlight spills through the window and onto the floor of the kitchen, casting shadows throughout the Burrow. Her brown curls lay fanned out around her head as it rests on the table. Her eyes are tired, but she does not close them. Her mind, like always, is thinking. Her make-up is wearing and her chandelier earrings still hang from her small ears. The clock behind her chimes three times and is once again silent. It now bears a new hand labeled Fleur Weasley, which, like all the others is pointing to mortal peril.
Someone stirs above and feet bearing long toes and red hair walk slowly down the creaking stairs. He stands behind her a second before pulling up the chair beside her.
"Did you even try to go to sleep?" He asks, running a hand absently through her long locks.
She shakes her head and turns to face him. He suddenly realizes where his hand has been all this time and thrusts it into his own shaggy red hair at once. He tosses his red mop about a few times and then settles his hand under his chin. She'd been carrying on without his attention.
"…so I just changed and packed up my things. I expect Harry's doing the same?"
"Huh? Oh yeah, he'd just started when I decided to come down here."
There is a moment of silence. These moments have almost become routine ever since the headmaster's funeral when she had broken down and he'd held her in his arms. He thought about that day a lot now. They look at each other for a moment. Sensing the tension in the room, he blushes and begins to stare down at his bare feet. She sighs and rests her head back on the table.
"Ron?" She asks, her voice faltering.
"Yeah?" His stare leaves the floor and instead focuses on the back of her head.
"Are you scared?"
"I...no…yeah, yes I'm scared, bloody terrified." He confesses.
"We're not all going to make it. Maybe none of us will." Her brow furrows beneath her wild brown hair.
He doesn't know what to say to that so he just lets her carry on.
"I feel so vile. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like if I hadn't gone looking for Trevor that day on the train. What if I'd never met the both of you? I'd be at home wondering if school would be open next term and what books I should be reading if it were to open. I wouldn't be sitting here getting ready to risk my life. I wouldn't be worrying over how many of us would live to see tomorrow or who wouldn't. And I know that sounds so horrible of me…" She starts to sniffle as she finishes, trembling with worry or sadness?
Ron couldn't tell. All he did know was that he should say something this time.
"Thought the same myself more than once, but then I think about all we'd of missed. Can you name anyone else that can say they've been through all that we have? It's been hard, but it's also made us closer. No one could ever keep us lot apart and they never will…not even Vold…not even You-Know-Who. We're gonna make it like we always do." He assures her, rubbing his hand over her back, not caring now what it might mean.
"Don't cry okay? It'll be alright." he pleads.
"I hope it's me." She whispers.
"Stop talking like that. We're all gonna be fine. And what do you mean you hope it's you. It better not be! Harry 'll need you, you're the brains of the bunch remember?"
"Well it better not be you either because we'll need you just as much. I just don't think I can bear to lose either of you." She's full out bawling now, and has somehow managed to turn around and fall into Ron's embrace without even knowing.
"You won't, Hermione. You won't. I promise." He hushes her, rocking her back and forth, planting soft kisses in her hair and on her temple.
"How can you know? There's so many uncertainties right now. How can you know anything? What if one of us dies before we get to figure out what this is between us? I want to know Ron. What if we never get to find out?"
He sighs lightly and brushes the tears from her cheek with his thumb.
"Don't you know what it is Hermione?" He asks, mustering up all the courage he possesses.
"I adore you. I always have, and for some reason you fancy me too. It's love Hermione."
He stammers when he looks into her eyes and sees the confusion that lies within them.
He looks away. "Or at least that's what it is for me."
She takes a step toward him and for a moment, he looks as if he's going to back away and go hide somewhere until she puts her arms around his neck. She, being much shorter than Ron, looks up into his crystal blue depths and waits for the thing she had wanted for so many years. Ron eyes her lips before licking his nervously. Then his mouth descends upon hers and brushes it lightly forming a slow, sweet, chaste kiss. That however doesn't seem enough. After a second of deliberation and worry that she might smack him, he moves in for another kiss. This time he kisses her with more passion and need. His tongue swirls around her lips, seeking entrance into her mouth and she quickly obliges. All thoughts of death and murder drift away. They are not welcome here in this silent reverie of a long realized but so shortly acted upon love. They don't even hear the footsteps bounding down the creaky stairs; they are too lost in the moment.
"Hey guys are you ready to…uh...right I'll just…I've left my cloak upst - I'll just go get it shall I?"
They quickly break free of each other at their best friend's words.
"Harry! We were just …we um we…" Ron starts to explain.
"So you guys are together now?" Harry asks.
"Well yeah, yeah we are. Aren't we?" He turns to ask Hermione looking a little unsure of himself.
She blushes and suppresses a giggle before answering him. "Yes. We are Ron."
Harry smiles in that finally kind of way and then gestures to his packed trunk that has been levitating beside him. "So are you guys ready to go?"
"Yes." Hermione supplies.
Ron's cheeks turn pink for a moment and he gives a sort of giddy embarrassed smile.
"Well actually no. I spent all my packing time down here with Hermione so I never really got around to it."
Hermione blows her breath out audibly.
"Well c'mon then Ronald! Honestly! We have a job to do! You can't spend all your time snogging me now can you?" She giggles. "I'll help you pack."
With that, she takes his hand and leads him up the stairs leaving Harry in the kitchen.
The clock chimes five times behind him and he is sure he will be waiting down here until it chimes at least seven or eight by the look he'd last seen on their faces. He removes the enchantment that is still levitating his trunk and shoves his hand into his pocket. His fingers wrap tightly around the fake Slytherin locket. He knows that as soon as they arrive at Godric's Hollow danger will present itself and that the battles ahead will be difficult, but he also knows that the bond they share will protect them and if that's not enough then by Merlin he will. At least they have love to give them the strength like he'd once had with Ginny. If it hadn't been for her, he probably wouldn't have gotten through the last few days of the term. God he's missed her so much. It's funny that you can miss someone who is asleep in the same house as you are.
Maybe one day after all of this is over, maybe then he'll be able to find that love again. The kind Ron and Hermione are just discovering. But not now, now, he has a job to finish.
The End