Disclaimer: Jo Rowling not only owns Harry Potter, she taunts us with missing moments.
A/N: I o.d.-ed on strawberry Fanta while writing this. For some reason the words wouldn't come out of my head in the proper order. This story was quite the pain to write, I love these characters and in wanting to do them justice went slightly mad. Anyway, this feels like a big step for me, writing something HBP (that's probably the madness talking). So yes, this does contain minor SPOILERS to the HBP, up until chapter 25 when it takes place. Picks up after Harry leaves. There are a few things I feel I should address. One: The contact Galleons, I cannot for the life of me remember how they work (I know, I know, I should know better) so for the purpose of this story lets just say they work the way I say they work. Okay? Two: Everyone gets a little OOC after drink Felix Felicis, I tired to keep it as minor as possible. So after this rather long author's note, and the weeks of sleep of lost, and the Fanta induced stomach ache I'd like to say Read, Enjoy, Review. Thank you.
For Cynthia
Thanks for all the help. This is really more your idea than mine. I hope you like it
"Love comforteth like sunshine after rain." -Venus& Adonis, stanza 134
It took them a moment to gather themselves after Harry disappeared in a mad dash, leaving them both in a haze of worry and confusion. "He—" Hermione mumbled weakly, struggling to come back to herself. "We have to round up Dumbledore's Army." She said at last when her tongue finally seemed to be obeying her. "And Ginny--oh Ron, what are we going to tell Ginny?" For a moment he feared she would burst into tears, her eyes were rather bright.
"We'll tell her what Harry said. Goodbye." He replied his stomaching twisting. "I mean, if Harry wants to serenade her with Celestina Warbeck he can bloody well do that himself when he comes back." He meant for it to be a joke but all he succeed in accomplishing was making his stomach knot harder at the thought of Harry not coming back from this one, which summoned visions of all of them, Hermione, his mum, Ginny, standing around some grave marker dressed in black. Of course there were also visions where it wasn't Harry who was missing. Pushing the images away he offered her a weak smile and she breathed in deeply. "Do you have your Galleon from last year?"
"Yeah, in my trunk," He passed her the phial, tossing things from his trunk as he looked for the golden coin he knew was somewhere in there.
"He's with Dumbledore." She said randomly, her voice hitching at the end. "He'll be fine." He nodded furiously in agreement, knowing that they both needed to believe that just then. Harry always made it away from these things alive, a little battered but alive. And this time he had the greatest wizard alive at his side, so chances where he'd return unscratched. Ron continued to ramble away inside his mind, Hermione doing much the same thing aloud as she paced. He was about to suggest she'd go find Ginny herself when he found what he was looking for tucked beneath the shoe box he kept his Chocolate Frog cards in.
He passed the coin to Hermione who returned the potion to his hand, her fingers trembling slightly as she took out her wand and laid the coin flat on her palm. She tapped it three times and it glowed. It felt like an eternity to Ron where he and Hermione stared at the coin before it glowed again and a voice, low and rushed came out. "What's happened?" Ron recognized the voice as Neville's and Hermione quickly told him to stop whatever it was he was doing and come up to the tower, "We'll fill you in then." The Galleon glowed and Luna's voice filtered out of it. She took it all in stride and promised to meet them outside Gryffindor Tower. "That's two." Hermione said waiting a few seconds before shoving the coin into her pocket. "It'll have to do for now." She grabbed the map and scanned it quickly. "It'll be a few minutes until either of them get here…"Her eyes focused on one name following it. "I'll go get Ginny." Ron grabbed the map and looked it over, Malfoy was nowhere to be seen, meaning, if Harry was right, and Ron was starting to think that he was, that Malfoy was still in the Room of Requirement. Snape was walking in the dungeons, coming to a stop outside his office and then entering it, where he proceeded to pace. Ginny he noticed was in the library, probably studying, Neville was on the fourth floor and Luna was coming from Ravenclaw Tower which was at the opposite end of the building. And then there was Hermione, who was running he imagined considering how her dot raced down the drawn outline of the hallway, towards the library.
An odd pulling sensation shot up his arms and Ron momentarily worried he was going to have some sort of fit, like the few he had experienced in the days following the brain attack at the ministry. Taking a deep breath he focused on the map, trying not to wonder how Harry was doing. Snape was still pacing, Draco was still nowhere on the map and Neville had just run into an 'Elizabeth Haddix' on the fifth floor. "This is not the time you randy bugger…" Ron hissed, already aware of the fact that she was not a member of the D.A. and was wasting time in which Neville could have already arrived and have gotten up to date with everything going on. Ron was lost to his muttering which was at least more pleasant than feeling overwhelmingly helpless.
Soon enough though Neville's name began moving, quicker this time, and he saw Hermione and Ginny were coming up the stairs. He could hear them talking, or rather Hermione talking, filling his sister in on everything that had happened up to then. He secretly hoped she'd already told Ginny goodbye on Harry's behalf, not quite sure how he'd handle it if he's little sister began bawling in front of him because her boyfriend, his best mate had run off to save the world. Again.
Luckily, for Ron if no one else, Hermione seemed to have already passed that part of the story.
"I've already activated the contact Galleons, the only people I've heard from are Neville and Luna so far, they're meeting us here, we can't wait for more." Hermione said this all very quickly as she and Ginny appeared in the doorway of the boys' dormitory. She didn't voice what Ron had already thought. There weren't going to be more, no one else was going to help them tonight.
"We spilt up. Ron and Ginny," Hermione said, her voice business-like as she looked down at the map, "You two go after Malfoy, take Neville."
"What about Snape?" Ginny asked surprisingly calm even though she was pale beneath her freckles.
"Luna and I will watch him." Hermione replied, looking away from the map, taking the little bottle of golden liquid from Ron's grip.
"It's too little to spilt between the five of us," She muttered studying it closely, an edge of hopelessness in her voice. "We'll just have to look after Luna and Neville a bit harder…" She trailed off and unsealing the bottle, passing it to Ginny who barely tipped it back, drinking a small, but noticeable bit of the potion. There was a moment of silence and then Ginny gave them both a look and turned around.
"Where are you going?" Ron cried reaching out even as she made her way back towards the door. "To open the portrait for Luna, she doesn't know the password." She still spoke in a matter of fact voice but the color had returned to her face and she was looking a bit more optimistic about everything. "Oh." He replied even as Hermione sipped her own well calculated share of the potion, passing the remainders to him with a suddenly steady hand. He took it and tried to swallow the dry lump in his throat.
"Alright then, good luck." He grinned weakly at her, lifting the phial in a mock toast quickly swallowing the little potion left. He blinked slowly, feeling no different now than he had moments before and for half a second worried that perhaps he hadn't taken enough of the potion so as to warren it's magical aid, and if he hadn't than surely Hermione, and Ginny who had already run off, would be in the same spot. But his worries ebbed away steadily, replaced instead by an amazing sort of confidence he'd never thought possible.
Thinking about the night's daunting task didn't make his stomach knot, and he was suddenly filled with an unwavering certainty that the five of them would come away from whatever the night held alive. 'We're going to be okay' And it was with that relief inspiring realization that something, or rather someone, else was brought to his attention.
She was standing in front of him, brown eyes fixed on his face, seemingly contemplating something with the same sort of seriousness she usually only reserved for exceptional situations, like smuggling Norbert from the castle, stepping into the Forbidden Forest, or anything that involved Harry now and days.
"Right," she said slowly, more to herself than to him, looking almost as though she were waiting for something.
Ron decided then that he would very much like to kiss her, and that she should, no, would let him. He knew with the same delightful certainty that it wouldn't be like the clumsy almost kiss at the Burrow when they'd both turned beet red and stuttered, the embodiment teenage awkwardness, instead it would be everything kissing Hermione should ever be.
It didn't matter then that they had spent the better part of three odd months not talking to each other, the same way it hadn't that first morning in the hospital ward when she had showed up and cried because she had feared he would die and the last words they'd shared would have been horrid words brought on by anger. Krum and Lavender hadn't mattered then any more than they mattered at that moment, the only thing of importance was the fact that Hermione was standing in front of him waiting. In a way she always had and he didn't want to keep her any more.
For the first time in his life Ron Weasley was not mentally debating, brooding, or panicking.
For the second time in his life he knew what he was going to do and there would be no buts about it.
He was going to kiss Hermione, right then, right there. There was nothing to lose. They had already lost so much time to waiting that it was only right not to waste anymore, he reasoned, leaning forward as she tilted her face up just so, allowing him perfect access to that pretty pink mouth of hers.
His lips found the corner of her mouth, and she didn't jump, didn't tense, didn't seem startled at all. She relaxed in his grasp and moved her head slightly. Everything fell into place rather nicely after that.
'This is brilliant,' he thought, one hand cupping her face, the other at her waist, her petite form coming closer, soft beneath his hand, and her hands steady on his shoulders. He felt his muscles relax beneath her touch.
They weren't mauling each other, no, this was slow and gentle and almost chaste.
He vaguely remembered the chalky taste of Lavender's lips, the sticky gloss she too readily applied, all the while marveling at Hermione who was simpler, purer, better, with nothing on her lips save for the left over taste of an pumpkin pie sugar quill she had just started earlier that day. But that wasn't what made his blood warm or his hair stand on end as her hand moved to the back of his neck; though it played a role, instead it was the simple knowledge that she was Hermione Granger, book worm with the heart of gold who could hold her own against anything and anybody. Hermione who was kissing him as though it was the most natural thing in the world (which, he happily admitted, it did), who would go downstairs in a matter of minutes to defend the school and help Harry and probably be hacked off at him before they called it a night. But right then that didn't matter much to Ron, not when she sighed a little and pulled away her eyes slightly glazed. "Well," She started slowly; pink patches of color rising in her checks "The others are waiting." Her shoulders squared, her jaw set, her eyes bright, she begun to walk out of the dorm.
"I'm sorry." He called, feeling as though he had to at last clear the air between them, clean the slate so they could start— whatever it was they were doing. She stopped and looked at him. He knew she understood where he was coming from; the corners of her lips turning up so slightly that, had he not spent an unusual amount of time staring at that mouth, he probably would have missed it. "S'okay Ron," She answered clearly before disappearing down the stairs.
Grabbing the Marauders' Map Ron followed, making a note to thank Harry when he came back.
FIN