Author's note: This is a songfic based on the song Ron, by Mary Lou Lord. Obviously not compliant to Deathly Hallows, though I am trying to tell the story so that it might still fit reasonably well with book 7. Oh, and I don't own Harry Potter, it all belongs to J. K.

Ron

Chapter one – Separation Anxiety

Since he left me in this situation, times have been really tough

Fourteen months of separation, I still can't throw out his stuff

Try to prove to myself that I've still got the power to retract

If he thought I was having good times, Lord knows how he'd react

Maybe Ron would come; maybe Ron would come back then.

Hermione sat on the floor in her bedroom, shaking with tears. In her hand she held a Quidditch World Tournament Cup, with his name carved onto a plaque on the front. She was doing her annual, gigantic house cleaning, and was going through the bottom of the wardrobe when she found it, discarded in the back, covered in dust and cobwebs. She had sunk to the floor with her back against the wardrobe door, staring at the cup in her hand. Her reflection looked faded on the dusty surface. As the memories came into view in her head, the tears began to flow.

The day he'd won it he'd been so happy; absolutely jubilant. And she had been so proud of him; he had finally achieved his goal in life, he was finally an acknowledged Quidditch player, and his team had won the World Tournament. When they'd come home that night, the first thing he'd done was polish it and put it in the middle of his trophy shelf. She'd let him, because she'd known how important it was for him; he'd never really had the chance to bask in the glory on his own before; Harry had always been there to overshadow him, and even though she knew Ron didn't envy him or thought he didn't deserve it, she knew it also stung just a little bit to be the constant side-kick.

As soon as he'd put the trophy on the shelf, however, and admired it for a moment, she'd taken over and showed him exactly how proud she was of him and how much she loved him. They had never made such sweet love before, neither before that night nor after. Had it really only been fourteen months since it had happened? A week later he had gone. And she never saw it coming.

The tears fell down her cheeks, down into the cup. Hermione was hugging it so tightly it hurt and it was going to leave a mark for sure, but she didn't care. She was sobbing and wailing, crying her heart out, or at least, the place where she was supposed to have a heart was aching like hell, but in reality she felt as if it wasn't there at all. Ron Weasley had ripped it out and taken it with him when he left.

There had been no explanation, no good bye, no notes, nothing. One day she'd come home from work, expecting him to meet her in the doorway, like he always did, but nobody was home. She waited for a couple of hours, then floo-called Harry and Ginny, but he wasn't there. And he hadn't been at his parents' house, or at any of his brothers. She'd tried every person she could think of but no luck. So she'd gone out searching. She went to all his favourite places; tried every bar he'd ever been to, every bar he hadn't been to, she'd sent a locating spell into the forest on the outskirts of the village, thinking he might be lying there, hurt or worse, but no luck. Finally, she contacted the ministry, who began searching for him, and she went back to waiting. After a week, the ministry gave up the search. Hermione continued waiting. A month passed, and she still waited. Ginny and Harry tried to cheer her up, told her he'd come back, that somehow he'd turn up. With Harry being an auror, he tried especially hard, but not even he could find Ron. Hermione could tell that they were beginning to lose hope, that they had started going about their normal lives again, but she just couldn't.

Suddenly Hermione felt a hand on her shoulder and she jumped, startled. She was so lost in thought she almost expected it to be Ron, who had finally returned, but when she turned her head she saw Harry standing there.

"Oh, hi Harry... I was just..." she began but then her voice trailed off. Harry sunk to his knees and put his arms around her in a tight embrace. She started crying again, and Harry held her in his arms until the tears subsided, until there were only sobs left, and on he held her until the tears were gone and all that was left was the empty hole inside her and red swollen eyes. She withdrew from him and looked at him, then picked the cup back up from the floor where she had dropped it when Harry had embraced her.

"Do you remember when he won this?"

"Yeah, I do. It was the perfect day. The only time I've ever seen him that happy before was at your wedding".

"It seems like it was only yesterday and at the same time it feels like it's been for ever since that day. I can hardly recall time anymore. Any normal person would throw all this stuff away, but I can't... I just can't".

"Hermione..." Harry took her hand and made her look at him. "I know you don't want to believe that he just left, I know you think something has happened to him, that there's something that's keeping him from coming back to you, and I want to believe that to, because I know Ron, and I know he loves you, but I can't help thinking that he's not going to come back. It's been too long. And don't say that I'm being a terrible friend for losing faith, because Ginny keeps telling me that all the time, but it's been fourteen months. You have to let go of the grief, you have to start living again. Maybe he will come back someday, I really hope he does. But in the meantime there are other people who are here for you, who need you and depend on you. Rosie needs you."

"Where is Rosie?"

"She's downstairs with Ginny. I think she's feeding her. We thought you'd be done by now, that's why we came back, but when you didn't respond when we called for you, we knew something wasn't right".

"You called for me?"

"I understand now why you didn't hear us".

Hermione looked at the trophy in her hands and one last silent tear slid down her cheek.

"Give me one moment alone, and then I'll be down".

"It's ok, don't rush. Take your time". Harry got up from the floor and headed for the door. He took one last sad look at Hermione before he went out the door, but she didn't notice. She was lost in her thoughts once more.

Hermione knew Harry was right. It was time to stop living in the past. And there was so much to live for, even without Ron. When she found out she was pregnant with Rose, she willed herself to stop the constant grieving, picked herself up a bit. But she still kept her hopes up; she still prayed every day for Ron to come home and find out the he was going to be a father, to hold his beautiful daughter in his arms, for them to be a family. Since Rose was born five months ago, there had hardly been any time left for Hermione to miss him; there was so much to do with a baby around. Ginny and Harry had helped her turn the house into a baby – friendly place; that was probably how the trophy had ended up in the wardrobe in the first place. But despite all the changes that had been made, she still couldn't get rid of his things. She wanted them to be there when he came back. He would come back. He had to.

She got up from the floor and went over to the shelf. It was full of photographs now; photos of Rose, of the Weasleys and of her parents. And in the middle, there was their wedding photo. How happy they looked; so young. Hermione felt like she had aged fifty years in only fourteen months. She put the trophy on the shelf, next to the photo. Then she dried her eyes, composed herself, took one last look at the picture, and went downstairs to take care of her daughter, no, their daughter.

That's chapter one, over and done. Reviews please; too soppy, not soppy enough? Let me know.