DISCLAIMER: Everything you recognise belongs to Queen Jo! :)

Author's Chapter Notes:

Hey all!

So this is something different from what I usually write. Anyway... I do hope you enjoy it!

Do not forget to give me your views once you read this, though. :)

This is a two-shot, and the second chapter will come soon! Again, this was written in 2011, I think (or 2010- I don't exactly remember) but it's in the second page of my MNFF author page, so I reckon it's old enough. But then again, I must have written about 15 stories in 2012 alone, sooo...

Ahem. This is a more-or-less light-hearted trio thing with some Ronmione. Hope you enjoy it, and sorry about my terrible sense of humour.

CHAPTER ONE

Ron Weasley yawned and settled on his bed, rubbing his sleepy eyes vigorously. He was tired— the long, hard day at work had taken all the energy out of him. He was also grumpy, because he hadn't had dinner yet and his stomach was practically growling. Unfortunately, he couldn't do anything about it. Hermione wasn't home from her grocery shopping and Ron couldn't cook for nuts.

He lived with his two best friends— Harry Potter and Hermione Granger in a flat that all of them had rented together just recently. A few months had passed since the war and Ron and Harry were working as Aurors for Kingsley while Hermione was planning to return to Hogwarts to complete her studies come September.

Ron yawned again and his tired eyes watered up for the umpteenth time that day. Swearing in a low voice, he wiped them and lay down, shutting them and letting the sleep carry him away for a while.

"Ron… Ron!" He awoke to see a frustrated Hermione stand over him. "Thank Merlin that you woke up," she said, putting her hands on her hips. "How many times have I told you not to sleep before having something to eat? Now wash your face and come for dinner. Harry is waiting too."

Ron sighed. "Okay. Give me five minutes." As Hermione left, he stretched and stumbled to the bathroom, where he washed his face. When he looked into the mirror, he saw a red haired, blue-eyed, freckled young man of eighteen stare back at him. Technically, there was barely any difference between how he had looked during his days at Hogwarts and how he looked now, but Ron could see the change very clearly. A few years ago, nobody would have seen the knowing that covered every inch of his face. But now he had seen too much… done too much, and though he knew that he was still the very same Ron deep inside, he had changed with time.

He dabbed at his wet face with a clean towel and headed to the dining room where Harry was setting the table. Harry too hadn't changed much in his looks— his black hair was as untidy as it always had been and his eyes were still a brilliant green beneath the spectacles that he wore. The lightning bolt shaped scar on the centre of his forehead had remained as it was; except that it did not hurt him anymore.

"You know, you can help too, Ron," said Hermione wearily, handing him spoons. "Go on, set the table." She swore softly as the bun she seemed to have made with much difficulty out of her impossible hair unknotted, sending her bushy brown locks cascading down her shoulders.

Ron grinned as he took the spoons. "Serves you right for making me work."

She raised an eyebrow at him and then broke into a smile, her brown eyes twinkling. "Oh Ron…" She touched his face lightly, sending his heart into a frenzy. Then she returned to the kitchen without another word.

As Ron returned to the table to set the spoons, his eyes met with Harry's— and he saw the very obvious question in his best mate's eyes. When are you asking her out?

Ron shrugged. It was true that he and Hermione had shared a kiss during the war not very long ago, but neither of them had spoken about it to each other ever since. Perhaps it was all the loss and despair mixed with elation… perhaps it was the fact that Hermione had gone off to Australia within a couple of weeks after the end of the war to find her parents and had returned with a boyfriend whom she dated for exactly two weeks, sending Ron into a jealous shell… he didn't know what it was. But Ron had never had the courage to ask Hermione to so much as coffee so they could at least discuss their relationship. There was attraction from both sides; but Ron decided that perhaps neither he nor Hermione were prepared to work on their feelings for each other.

And whenever Ron reasoned with this, one question always came up to his mind— what was that kiss, then? Where did that put the two of them…?

A few minutes later, Ron was enjoying Hermione's delicious macaroni and cheese while all three of them chatted about work and other things. Hermione was halfway through a funny incident that had taken place at her department that day, when Ron remembered something. "Hey—" he said suddenly, "I got George's letter today. He's been asking to us for a while now. I said we'd go visit him tomorrow. Should I confirm our plans with him, if you two are all right with it?"

"Sure," said Harry at once. "We're off work anyway, so I'm okay with going to Diagon Alley."

"Actually, he's planning to go to the shop in Hogsmeade tomorrow, to spend some time with Lee too. We can all Apparate there in the evening… What do you say?"

"That's fine with me," said Hermione.

"Yeah," agreed Harry, grinning. "And then we can go meet Hagrid too. It's been so long since we've met up with him …"

Ron and Hermione nodded in agreement. They had not seen either George or Hagrid since the war. George had withdrawn into his world for a while after the loss of his twin, but now he was more or less back to his own self though he stayed in Diagon Alley and took care of the joke shop for most of the time in the day. Hagrid, on the other hand, had just been out of reach. Happy with their plans, the trio continued with dinner, each of them anticipating a very enjoyable and nostalgic upcoming evening.

The next day, Harry, Ron and Hermione were all very, very excited about their visit to Hogsmeade. Hermione almost burned her hand while cooking, Harry nearly poked Ron in the eye with his wand and Ron simply stayed out of the way of his over-excited friends, until a pan that Hermione was Summoning hit him right on his head. Somehow, the morning and the afternoon passed quickly and by four-thirty in the evening, they were all ready to go.

Hermione handed Ron and Harry their bunches of keys before locking the flat. Then they all Apparated to Hogsmeade together. Fred and George's joke shop was right where the old Zonko's joke shop used to be. Grinning at each other Harry, Ron and Hermione entered it one-by-one.

It was not very crowded inside the shop and they spotted Lee Jordan immediately; he was selling Nosebleed Nougats to a few eager customers. After a quick hello and some small talk, he led them to George, who greeted them cheerfully.

"Hello Harry, Hermione, Git!"

"Hey!" objected Ron, before grinning at his brother. They shared a brief, rather awkward hug.

"So… how's everything going?" George asked, beaming at the three of them.

"Great, actually," replied Hermione. "I'm all prepared to go back to Hogwarts and sit for my NEWTs this year. Transfiguration seems to be rather tough in the seventh year… I wonder how I will be able to get full marks. And Charms…"

George stopped her midway through her speech. "Hermione, I must tell you again: There is no use for sitting through exams when you can just escape them so easily!"

"NEWTs are very important to build a well-defined career!" Hermione objected. "In fact, I think Harry and Ron should come back to Hogwarts too."

George yawned. And Harry and Ron gave each other exasperated looks. "Fine. Have it your way. I will not argue with you. So… would you three like some Firewhiskey?"

"Yes, please!" They chorused together and George took them inside to a private room in the shop where they all sat with bottles of Firewhiskey and chatted gaily.

In a dirty, run-down flat somewhere in the busy city of city of London sat a man and a woman— both tied up to a pair of chairs with tight black ropes. The man was not in a conscious state of mind at all, while the woman kept drifting in and out of consciousness. Both of them looked tired and dishevelled; their clothes were dirty and soiled as though somebody had dragged them to the room through a lot of dust and grime.

However, in the same flat was a third man. He looked at the other two people in the room and chuckled as he tied a rolled up piece of parchment to the leg of an owl and sent it flying into the dark skies.

Harry, Ron and Hermione returned home, all three of them drunk on the Firewhiskey that they'd had with George. They had also gone to Hagrid's after visiting George. He had been very happy to meet them and had served his home made rock cakes which all three of them accepted in their drunken states and which Harry had almost puked out on Hagrid. The latter also showed them his now improved pumpkin patch. The only problem was that it was slowly getting infested with gnomes. With a shriek, a drunken Hermione had lifted one of the gnomes, spun it round and round until it had been incredibly dizzy and had flung it hard. They had a good time with Hagrid too and then they had realised that it was quite late and that Harry and Ron had to report to work the next day. Reluctantly, they had said their goodbyes to Hagrid.

Presently, Hermione made some strong, black coffee and poured it into three cups: two of which she gave to Harry and Ron. The three of them sipped their coffees, each holding their aching heads with their hands.

"An' why di' we get dwunk again?" Ron slurred hoarsely, grimacing at his throbbing head.

"Memories, I guess," sighed Hermione, trying to keep her vision from clouding over.

"I think I'm going to puke," groaned Harry. Ron and Hermione both burst into giggles, neither of them knowing why. Harry gave them a drunkenly angry look. "Not funny."

"I don't know what's funny!" Hermione squealed, unable to control her giggles.

"I think we shou' awl go to sweep," said Ron pushing aside his cup of coffee.

Hermione giggled again. "You haven't swept the floors in a long time."

Ron, however, did not reply to her as he exited to his bedroom. Harry followed soon after, leaving Hermione giggling with her cup of coffee at the table. Five minutes later, Hermione too got up from the table and not bothering to clear up anything, she stumbled straight to her bedroom and passed out on the bed.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Hermione awoke suddenly, her head throbbing terribly and her eyes straining to open to the brightness of the room. She had forgotten to extinguish the lights before falling right asleep. However, the lights hadn't woken her up. Something else had. She wondered what it was…

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Hermione sat up looked at the window with a start, realising that the sound was issuing from there. That's it. That was what had woken her up. Groaning, she walked over and threw open the window. An owl flew in and perched itself at the window sill before holding out its leg. Hermione untied the scroll from the leg and kept it on the table. The owl had flown away before she had reached to shut the window again. Then there was a knock on her door.

"'Ermione…"

She turned around and opened the door, to see Ron standing before her. What was he doing here? He entered the room, grinning at her. "What're you doin' up s'ill?" he slurred, the effects of Firewhiskey not having gone yet. Hermione eyed the clock on her bedside table and realised that she had been asleep for only a few minutes. Merlin! And she had thought it was almost dawn.

She smiled at him involuntarily. "I got a letter."

He did not reply to it. Instead, he stepped closer to her. "You're vewry pretty, 'Ermione…"

She burst into giggles. "Thanks, Won Won!"

"Lavender cawled me that," he said, breaking into chuckles too. "Lav Lav!"

And then before they knew it, they were kissing fiercely. Hermione felt his red hair as she moved her hands through them and then slowly, moved them down to his back… up and down his spine. He stopped kissing her mouth and slowly placed his lips on her neck and slid apart the sleeve of her shirt, kissing her clavicles and her shoulders…

Hermione responded to his kisses with her moans and finally, the two of them fell on her bed as she finally put off the lights with a wave of her wand.

The sunrays filtered through Hermione's window, falling directly on her eyes. She gave a distressed moan and opened an eye irately. She then sat up on her bed, just to see something that startled her. Ron was sleeping on her bed! And right next to her at that!

She sat like that for a while, her head pounding while she listened to his snores and tried to remember what had happened the night before. One consolation was that she was fully dressed— and so was Ron. So… what had happened?

She gathered her hair and tied them into a bun before stretching and padding to her bathroom to brush her teeth. It was then that she remembered something— hadn't she received a letter last night? Had she read it?

She rinsed her mouth and washed her face, realising that she didn't remember the contents of the letter even if she had read it last night. So she might as well read it again, anyway…

Hermione showered and emerged from her bathroom, only to realise that Ron was still asleep on her bed. She pulled out her clothes from the wardrobe and marched back into the bathroom to put them on. She was terribly hungover: she decided to fix herself coffee and quickly brew up a Hangover potion once she was done reading that letter. When she was out of her bathroom, she strode straight over to her table, where she had kept the letter and smoothening it out on the table, she read it. As she read each line, a sense of dread filled her. Oh no… this couldn't be happening… This couldn't be happening!

She had to act immediately… she had to do something… How would she do it alone? She licked her lips and pocketed the letter before grabbing her wand. There was silence all around— Harry seemed to be asleep too. Gathering all her courage, Hermione stepped out of the flat, clutching both the wand and the letter in her sweaty hands. But just as she was outside her home, the piece of parchment glowed blue. It was a Portkey. Before Hermione knew it, she was going somewhere… and where it was going to be, she had no clue.

A/N: And... cliffie. :p