Forever

By: Lucky5

Prologue

Hermione tore the sheets off the double bed in the tiny bedroom she'd shared with Ron for about a year now. Ron himself was on the other side of the bed helping her change the sheets. Despite the fact that she could magic the bed into being made, Hermione preferred to do some things the Muggle way by sheer force of habit.

"I don't see why you invited Ginny to come live with us," Ron complained as he grabbed the fresh sheet and began to fit it over his corner of the bed.

"Ron, for goodness sake, she's your sister. And she has nowhere else to go besides home. You know how hard it is to be on your own after graduation."

"Still," Ron grunted as he heaved his end of the bed up and made a rather sloppy hospital corner, "A one bedroom flat does not have enough room for four people. The three of us are cramped enough as it is. Besides," he added as Hermione shoved him out of the way and re-made his corner, "Now I have to share the futon with Harry."

"Would you prefer Harry and Ginny shared it? If you stay in here with me that's the only option we have."

"Hermione, don't even joke."

"It's not like they'd go for it anyways," said Hermione. As the two of them threw the quilt on the bed, Hermione faced Ron her expression now serious. "Look, I know things are tight, but I'm up for that promotion. If I get it, then we'll have enough money to get a place of our own."

"I know. But you shouldn't have to support us. I've been saving, you know," he said with a grin, "Although it hasn't gone too well."

"Why am I not surprised," she retorted with a teasing smile.

"I've just spent almost all of it on this."

With that said, Ron dug into his back pocket and extracted a tiny box. Hermione's hand flew to her mouth. He opened it to reveal a plain gold wedding band.

"I know it's not much," he said his ears beginning to turn red, "But I got one for me too. I've been wearing it on a piece of string around my neck since I got it," Hermione was still staring agape at him, "If you don't like it," he added quickly, but Hermione cut it off.

"No, Ron it's beautiful. But, Ron, are you..."

"Right," Ron got down on one knee. Hermione's eyes threatened to overflow with tears. "Hermione Granger, Neville was right. You are a girl. You're my girl. Will you marry me?"

"Of course I will, you prat," she said with a slight sob as she sank to the floor to kiss him.

"Sorry, are we interrupting something?"

Ron and Hermione's heads snapped around to see Harry and Ginny standing in the doorway, grinning like idiots.

"Why, yes, you are," said Ron angrily. But, his face softened, "I was just proposing to Hermione here."

"I know, we heard," said Ginny in a rather excited voice.

"She just got here a few minutes ago and we decided to come and see what you two were doing. We heard the whole thing," Harry explained.

"And, I just want to add that tonight, you two can have the bedroom all to yourselves. I'll take the floor," said Ginny.

"Actually, I'll take the floor," said Harry, "It's your first night here. I want you to be comfortable."

Ginny smiled at Harry, whose cheeks turned a slight shade of pink. Ron's expression was a mixture of amusement and anger, while Hermione beamed at the two of them.

"I think we should break out the good food tonight," said Harry.

"You mean we get Kraft Dinner Deluxe?" said Ron sarcastically.

They all laughed for a few minutes before moving on to the kitchen, where they cooked an excellent meal of Kraft Dinner Deluxe with frozen fries on the side. The celebration lasted well into the night. Harry and Ginny had run off to the store to buy a bottle of champagne, which disappeared quickly.

***

The next morning Ron woke early. Hermione was fast asleep, held safely in his arms. He breathed in the scent of her hair and sighed softly.

"'Mione," he breathed, "I'll never let anything happen to you, I promise. I'll keep you safe forever."

~*~

disclaimer: I don't own JK's characters in any sense. I'm not making any money here, so don't sue me ^_^

Authors notes: Well, there we go! New HP story on ff.net Don't worry, I haven't abandoned my other one. It's still in the works. As a matter of fact, part three is done, I just have to type it, send it to my beta, edit it and then post it. Anyways, I want to thank my beta for this story Seldes Katne, who is one of the Sugar Quill staff members. It's a great site! Go check it out ^_^ Hope you liked this, please leave a review! I'll try and get the next part up as soon as I can ^_^