A Night of Memories
Hermione gently awoke to the feeling of a warm breath on her nearly bare shoulder.
"I love you," she heard Ron whisper in a barely audible tone into her hair. She wasn't sure if he was awake or asleep but she knew not to turn around and find out. She didn't need to. Either way she would find Ron lying right next to her with his nose buried in her hair. Occasions like this were frequent and she made him aware that she knew of them, he would become self-conscious. She didn't need these moments to assure her that he loved her as much as she loved him though. She just thought they were very touching. She remembered what Harry told her Ron said after they decided to get married.
"He pulled me into his room and said, 'Harry! She loves me! After everything I've said and done and what a selfish prat I've been, she still loves me!'
Harry told her this after the rehearsal dinner. Harry had been a perfect best man of course.
A tall young man with tousled black hair stood in the middle of the dance floor, clutching to him with an unknown desperation, the maid of honor. She was also tall, with long, orange hair that contrasted with the pale blue dress she was wearing. Many boys, the girl's childhood boyfriends, tried to interrupt them but Harry politely refused or blatantly ignored most of the suitors. Only Neville, then a assistant herbology professor, was allowed one short dance with Ginny. Dean, the only boyfriend clever enough not to ask for a dance, turned to Hermione and asked, "So when's Harry and Ginny's wedding?"
Hermione shivered as Ron's hand moved slightly over her protruding belly. She had wanted to wait a couple of years to have kids. She wanted to make sure that she and Ron were financially stable. Otherwise, everything was set from the beginning. Ron would be a perfect father, she could see it by the way he had loved to go see Teddy. She had no fears for Ginny's baby either; they were trained perfectly by Teddy. And she and Ginny were due around the same time.
Hermione unrolled the Daily Prophet. Harry and Ginny looked up from the front page for a moment and then returned to kissing passionately. Her hair was dripping with sweat and she was still wearing her Wisbourne Wasps uniform. It was an old picture of course, the one from Ginny's first victorious snitch catch at a professional game. A title blared from underneath it: WEASLEY OUT FOR THE SEASON. So she guessed Ginny had finally revealed that her third season would be delayed a year. Took her long enough, she'd been pregnant about seven weeks.
The child in her stomach kicked and Hermione could not help but moan. Ron heard her and moved away. It seemed even after a few years of marriage that Ron was still afraid that she would punch him in the nose like she did Draco once if he got too close. But this answered Hermione's initial question: Ron was awake.
"Ron?" she said in a cracking voice, "You awake?"
"Yeah," he whispered back while she rolled over to face him. He placed a warm hand on her stomach, "You okay?"
"Of course." She moved her face closer to his.
He drew her into a tender kiss. "Do you know how much I love you?" he asked with worry.
"Yes," was her immediate reply, "And I love you just as much." She felt him sigh. She placed her head on his chest and fell asleep at once to the soft sound of his heart beating.