This is my first song fic. I was listening to Abbey Road the other day and thought this song was perfect to describe the relationship I see Ron and Hermione having after the war. It is to the song Something by George Harrison.
Something in the way she moves
Attracts me like no other lover
Something in the way she woos me
Hermione sat in an armchair in the living room of the Burrow hunched over a large book Percy lent to her. Ron sat across the room paying little attention to the game of Exploding Snap he was playing with Harry and Ginny. How many times had he seen Hermione in this position? Too many times to count over the last seven years, but her movements were still the same. Her hair would fall in her face, and she would push it away without taking her eyes away from whatever text she was fully immersed in.
Ron especially loved to watch her face when she read. The way her lips mouthed the words - Ron liked to try to read her lips sometimes to see if he could take in the information without reading the book himself. The way she furrowed her eyebrows when she was trying to understand something better – this never lasted too long for Hermione was much too smart to not understand something. Mostly, he liked to watch the way her eyes widened when she found something interesting and the way they sparkled when she made a brilliant connection or discovery.
I don't want to leave her now
You know I believe and how
Ron had known for a long time that he loved her, but it wasn't until he almost lost her that he realized how much. He had just survived ten months as an on-the-run fugitive and a horrible battle which cost his family one of its own. He had felt so much pain, and yet, the thought of losing her was the worst. He remembered the nightmares he had for weeks following Malfoy Manor and how they had made him physically ill.
There was no turning back. This became the story of his life after he met Harry Potter. But it was different with Hermione. Somehow, it had a deeper meaning. There was no turning back from her because there was no turning back on his heart, his life. There was no life without her.
Somewhere in her smile she knows
That I don't need no other lover
Something in her style that shows me
Ron continued to stare at Hermione while she sat reading Percy's book. Her lips formed the words on the page, her brows furrowed, and her eyes danced. Every once in a while though, Hermione would feel the need to stretch or adjust her posture in a way that required her to look up from her book. In the past, these instances forced Ron to look away quickly before she could catch him staring. Now, Ron lived for these moments. Now, when Hermione would look up, she would catch him staring at her. Now, Ron would see her cheeks flush pink and her mouth turn up in an embarrassingly sweet smile that was just for him.
Ron recognized every one of Hermione's smiles. She had a smile for when she said or did something in her utterly brilliant way. Her mouth would open wide, showing her perfect, white teeth, and her eyes would open in search of someone who could share in the joy of her brilliance. There was the smile for when she felt proud of one of her friends. Ron once believed that this smile communicated surprise as it was often pointed in his direction. However, he had come to know that this smile was meant as nothing but encouragement.
Hermione's laughing smile brightened up any room she was in. Ron knew this smile came only when she was truly happy – a smile he had begun to see more of in the days since the final battle. This smile seemed to initiate from her core and reached all the way to her eyes, which would get small and teary. Her last smile, his smile, surfaced in these moments when they would look at each other. It was her way of communicating to him that nothing else mattered more to her in the world other than the two of them. This smile touched both of their hearts and souls, connecting them as one. It didn't matter if they were alone or in the Great Hall with hundreds of others, but when she flashed him this smile, he knew everything was going to be alright.
I don't want to leave her now
You know I believe and how
Ron stood and made his way across the room to Hermione. He faintly heard Ginny question his abandoning the game and Harry tell her gently to let him go. His and Hermione's eyes never left each other as he held out his hand to her. She set her book on the arm of the chair and let him lead her out to the back garden.
You're asking me, will my love grow?
I don't know, I don't know
You stick around now it may show
I don't know, I don't know
Ron savored the way Hermione felt – how small her hands were in his, how soft her skin was, how perfectly she fit in his arms, how she curled her body so close to his when they slept. He couldn't understand why he didn't get it sooner. They had held hands before – well, mostly Hermione had grabbed his hand before. They had hugged before, though perhaps not as warmly as they did now. They had lived together in close quarters, and they had slept near each other many times. But then, he wasn't in a place to physically hold on to her. He had been forced to protect her from afar.
Now, when he looked at her standing in the garden, it suddenly hit him. Hermione was his home. Here she was among the vegetables, and nothing had ever looked lovelier. Sure, he had seen her all gussied up for the Yule Ball and Bill's wedding, but there was something in the way she seemed so at ease here with him that he knew he would always do everything he could to make her life this way. She had earned a peaceful life. They both had.
Ron found himself imagining their future together…a home, marriage, kids, everything he knew he'd always wanted but was too afraid to want. There was a time when he thought he would never get those things, a time when he thought he wouldn't live to get those things.
Something in the way she knows
And all I have to do is think of her
Something in the things she shows me
Hermione looked up at Ron, and he knew what she was thinking. She too was imagining a future for them, a future that did not involve fear and uncertainty. Their hands were intertwined, and their eyes were locked, and it was as if nothing else existed in the world. Ron could have sworn that for a moment, nothing else did. Here in the garden, nothing could touch them. Nothing could separate them.
Ron knew Hermione was smart – sometimes too smart for her own good. However, Ron also knew that Hermione could usually tell what he was thinking. He would catch her sometimes looking at him with a puzzled expression on her face. This meant one of two things: she didn't like what he was thinking, or she didn't know what he was thinking. Right now, in the garden, she didn't wear this expression because she knew what was in Ron's mind and she agreed.
No words having been spoken, the two of them walked back into the Burrow and continued their previous activities, Hermione with Percy's book and Ron with Harry and Ginny.
I don't want to leave her now
You know I believe and how
From then on, every time Ron watched Hermione read, and every time she looked up and gave him his smile, he thought of their time in the vegetable garden. He believed with all his heart that they would get the future they both wanted. He knew Hermione believed it, too. There was still a lot of healing to be done, but he knew that in time, things would get better.