A/N: This takes place directly after the final battle with Voldermort. It's been stuck in my head and I just had to write it. Enjoy!
Room of Requirement, Hogwarts
"Hermione! Hermione!"
Ron cried, racing down the stairs. His boots dropped heavily onto each stair, a rushing pattern. His jeans and sweater, which he hadn't changed out of in the hours after the battle, still dripped blood. As he raced down the stair blood plopped to the ground in his wake, leaving his own little trail of death. "Hermione!" He called again, reaching a platform before the second set of stairs. Leaning over, his eyes flickered back and forth frantically.
"Ron?" Hermione stepped out of the hug she was giving Ginny and turned to face her friend, her head tilted up. Behind her, a group consisting of the remaining Weasley family, Harry and much of the DA stopped their celebrations, watching the boy on the stairs.
But Ron didn't seem to notice them, his eyes locked on Hermione, a grin spreading across his soot and tear streaked face.
"They're okay!" He cried, the grin growing as he saw the shock on her face. "Your parents! They're fine. He never touched them."
The crowd cheered, turning to congratulate each other on yet another life saved, but he paid them no mind. His gaze stayed locked on her. Disbelief flitted across Hermione's face, her chestnut eyes widening. He could lose himself in those eyes, drown in the many emotions that fought for supremacy. Disbelief, denial, sorrow, happiness, they fought a battle within her. Ron watched, running down the stairs, as they darkened with the clash, and eyes start to water from the internal siege of emotions. Yet, behind the tears and the dark of terror, was a little spark, a honey colored glimmer of hope. Hope for her friends, hope for the future but mostly, hope for his words.
"How…" the word escaped from her lips in a wisp of air that shouldn't have been audible above the clamor behind her. But his ears, or perhaps his eyes, or perhaps his heart, picked it up and Ron grinned sheepishly.
"Well…" he began, fiddling with his sleeve, before making a face at the blood soaked fabric. "I was going to the tower to change and I was thinking about Fre…about family. So then I started thinking about how it must have felt to not have your family there, because at least mine knew what was going on, and then I remembered that you hadn't checked up on yours yet," here he took a deep breathe as Bill gave him an amused look at his rambling. "And by then I was in the Common Room anyways, so I did that talking through the fire thing, you know the thing Sirius used to do with Harry, "Harry winced slightly, "sorry mate, didn't mean to bring that up. But I talked with Tom Hinkleberry, he was the bloke you set up to watch your parents, but you knew that already, course you did, and he said that they were fine, a little nasty weather, but other than that-"
"Ronald Weasley, you wonderful, wonderful boy!"
Hermione cried the words as she ran towards Ron, launching herself into his arms. He responded instantaneously, wrapping her up and swinging her around. She buried her face in his shoulder, tears of relief leaking from her eyes. He just clung tighter, setting his check against her head and breathing in the scent that was completely her. He lost himself in her for a moment, in her scent, her warmth, in her relieved sighs and the feel of her body against his.
Middle of Nowhere, Australia
Somewhere in Australia, a man believing himself to be Wendell Wilkins glared intensely at the glass in his hand. His beloved wife, Monica, looked over from the stove.
"What's wrong dear?"
He shook his head slowly, then downed the glass of juice.
"I've just had the intense urge to strangle a young man. Strange."
Fin
