A/N: This takes place between chapter 30 (reading the poem) and chapter 31 (medical evaluation) of The Bookworm and The King. This was supposed to be the 9th chapter of If You Just Believe, but I decided to post it as a oneshot instead. Enjoy and please review. (I fixed a few errors).

The air was cold. Small snowflakes drifted slowly to the ground. Hermione was lying on her back, watching as each snowflake made its way down. She sighed, and her breath instantly became visible as it rose. Closing her eyes, she did her best to ignore the world outside.

Ron was getting worried; Hermione was supposed to be home hours ago. He put the lamp on and walked over to the bathroom. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed something different about one of the snow globes. It seemed to be alive- there were lights in the sky. He leaned closer and saw his wife lying in the snow.

Hermione opened her eyes to see her husband staring down at her through the glass. He was absolutely ginormous, his freckles were about the size of tennis balls. He mouthed something to her, but she didn't understand. She held up a hand to stop him, and sent out her patronus to invite him inside. The tiny otter ran through the glass and became twenty times larger on the other side.

A few seconds later, Ron fell very unceremoniously in the snow a few feet away. His wife giggled at him, and he felt his ears go red as he dusted himself off. "I know, I know- it's leviOsa, not leviosA, but I only realised that I pronounced the incantation wrong when I hit the ground." he said.

Hermione walked over to kiss him. "Are you alright?" she asked. He did take quite a fall, and although it was funny, she didn't want him hurting himself.

"Brilliant" he answered. "I only wanted to ask if you wanted to be alone. Usually you let me know when you got home, and I was just starting to get worried when I saw the lights" he said, pointing at the sky. "Did you charm them?" Hermione nodded. "Well they're stunning" he said, making her blush.

Hermione sat back down and told him that she didn't mind his company, she just didn't want to see anybody else. He sat down next to her and took a look around. It was official: his wife had the best snow globe collection in the world.

They were sitting near the edge of a lake. The water was so calm and smooth that he could see the lights dancing above them reflecting off of its surface. The ground surrounding it was covered in snow, and a small distance away stood a fir tree forest. A bluebell flame stood in the jar next to him, and when he looked up the stars were smiling down at him. Hermione had also charmed the northern lights to blaze in the silent sky.

He looked to the side and noticed his wife was just staring at the ground, missing the show above them. "Mione, what's wrong?" he asked, moving closer to drape an arm across her shoulders. She leaned into him and shook her head.

"Nothing's wrong" she said. "I'm just in a weird mood today."

"How so?"

"Everyone seems really happy and I just feel rubbish, like I just want to curl into a ball and cry. I was fine this morning, and nothing happened, it was just a really long day" she explained. She felt stupid, sitting in a snow globe, wanting to cry but having no reason to.

"Then why don't you?" Ron asked.

"I tried to, but the tears won't come" she said sadly. "I don't want to waste any tears over something so silly."

"Then what do you want to do?"

"Just lay here and look at the sky. I just need to forget everything else right now" she answered.

Ron lied down and pulled her with him, letting her head rest on his shoulder. The vibrant colours danced across the sky, reflecting in their eyes. It flowed, forming the swirls of a rose, or the rush of a river. The moment felt brilliant and pure as the whole world was illuminated by magic. His wife's magic, Ron reminded himself.

The warped shapes continued to bring joy to the world as the white speckles winked at the world beneath them. Everything was just so clear and elegant. Ron found himself at a loss for words and simply admired the world around him. He hugged the warm body next to him closer, he could see her exhales in the frosty air. It was moments like these that made him believe in magic, in hope and love. Made him believe that one day they would all be okay.

"Mione, don't ever leave me" he whispered into her hair.

"Never" she responded. "I love you too much."

"Love you too" he said.

They stared up at the sky for a little while longer, taking in the symphony of colour. Eventually Ron pulled Hermione to her feet, and they walked hand in hand down to the water's edge. Hermione removed her shoes and allowed the cold, midnight waves to tickle her feet. She took a deep breath and looked out over the peaceful water.

A mischievous smile graced her lips as she looked over at her husband. "You know, this seems like a good place for a swim" she said.

"Yeah?" he responded, glad to see her smiling again.

"And you know, I've never actually skinny dipped before" she finished.

"Is that so? You've never gone swimming completely starkers? Well, we need to fix that then, don't we?" Ron said, already stripped down to just his socks and boxers. "What are you waiting for?" he asked as he ran into the water, chucking the last few clothing items over his shoulder.

Hermione was quick to join him, laughing as she felt the cool water embrace her warm body. This was completely mental, and she loved Ron even more for doing this with her. She bloody loved the bloke.

A/N: I apologise for the long note, but I feel like I need to say this. I know I've been writing a lot of Hermione chapters (especially ones where she cries) and not enough Ron chapters, and it's not because I think Ron doesn't have problems or bad days, or because I think Hermione only has bad days. It's because I struggle to write chapters about Ron where I feel I did the characters and moments justice. I don't want to post something just for the sake of posting it. That's why I am working on a few Ron chapters, and once I feel that they are ready, I will post them. I also have Hermione crying a lot because I see her as this strong, independent hero, and I want to explore her sadder and weaker moments to show that she is human too. I think that there are enough Hermione smuts and happy moments being written by others.