"Mum, could you please help me with something?"

"Sure, honey. Anything", replied Hermione looking up from her book to glance at her 15 year old daughter.

"Okay, so", began Rose in the most innocent and off hand way possible. "Why'd you pick Dad? I mean, of all the guys out there -and I don't mean this in a derogatory sense- what made Dad stand out? What was it about him that fascinated you most?"

Of all the things that her daughter could have said, this was definitely not what Hermione had expected. After a moment's pause, she simply put her book down and said, "Well... I'll have to think a bit about that one...We'd known each other for quite a long while before I'd made up my mind about it. We met in our first year, aged 11... And believe me, we weren't the best of friends at first."

"Yes, well, was there anything distinctly special about him that, you know, made him stand out? Made him different?" inquired Rose eagerly.

"Err...,"said Hermione with a thoughtful look on her face. "I can't really point my finger at it... but..."

Ronald Weasley was, quite indescribably, special to her, but to sum it all up in just a few phrases was quite a difficult task, even for Hermione.

If you told her during her first year at Hogwarts that Hermione granger would go on to find that stupid lopsided grin and mess of ginger hair to be charming, she would have smacked you on the head and told you off for making fun of other people's dealings and walked off.

Tell her during second year, that his silliness would grow on her, and Hermione would have looked at you with a look of utter disappointment on her face, showing how she feels that your senses have completely failed you.

In her opinion, he was still stupid, silly, and obnoxious. Though he could be kind sometimes of he wanted to. Occasionally. VERY occasionally.

Third year, Hermione would have sympathetically smiled at your complete insanity and blindness if you ever even suggested that Ronald Weasley was anywhere close to appealing.

Although, unlike the rest of the times you might've mentioned him, Hermione would probably think about the conversation later.

A year later, Hermione would have said that he's a coward for leaving his best friend alone, right when they needed each other's support.

In her sixth year, Hermione would have smiled and probably blushed a little, even though she'd deny it if you said so, at the mention of Ronald Weasley.

Seventh year, or at least what was meant to be seventh year, if you talked about her relationship with Ron, Hermione would smile and say that it was none of your business, but , for the record, she'd known it all along.

Because in truth, she'd known it when when he said 'Wingarduim Levi-o-sa', and not 'Wingardium Leviosaar' that night in the girls' lavatory, fending off that great big oaf of a troll, while he should have been at the Halloween feast.

When Ron had tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to curse Malfoy when he'd called her a 'Mudblood'. Hermione would say that she'd known it when he and Harry had come to sit beside her every single day in the hospital wing, when she'd been petrified. When he'd held out is owl for inspection to Crookshanks, in case Pigwidgeon turned out to be more than just a post bird.

And Hermione had known for sure, the night he'd returned to help her and Harry find and destroy the Horcruxes, that their bond would be eternal and Ronald Weasely would always hold a special place in her heart.

"Hmm...,"said Hermione after a long pause. "I suppose it was just the fact that your father was, to be apt, so perfectly imperfect."