Chapter One – The Burrows"Ron, Ron, wake up!" A gentle voice whispered, dancing in and out of Ron's dreams, blurring the lines between fiction and reality. He smiled in his sleep, his eye twitching as he stirred and settled on his back, emitting a loud snore that shook the room. Soft giggles soon brought him from his dreams and he awoke with a start. Searching the room for signs of his disturbance, his eyes came to focus on his best friend and girlfriend, Hermione.
His Hermione.
Her soft brown curls had been scrapped into a messy ponytail and her pyjamas were wrinkled, evidence of a restless night still in her eyes. Ron took a moment, still lost in that perfect half asleep state to take in her face, the scars left over from the war against Voldermort only made her look sexier in his opinion. Still staring at her face, Ron finally woke up properly.
"Bloody hell Hermione, what are you doing here?" Ron exclaimed, throwing a cautionary glance at his other best friend Harry, who was sleeping on the camp bed in Ron's bright orange room. Hermione placed a finger on his lips and pulling her wand out, she carefully cast the Muffliato charm around them.
"I didn't think you liked that charm?" Ron smirked at her, his eyes glittering with mischief.
"Well, we don't want to wake him up, do we?" Replacing her finger on Ron's lips with a gentle kiss, she climbed into bed next to him. Drawing her arms around his neck, she let out a loud yawn. "I couldn't sleep; all I could think about is what you said to me this afternoon, you know, when we argued..." She whispered.
Ron lowered his eyes; his ear tips shone bright red and he shifted uncomfortably. Before he could open his mouth to mumble some poor excuse for an apology, Hermione gave him her usual 'shut up' stare that she had practised to perfection. "And you were right; I do feel like we're ready. I'm ready to show you just how much you mean to me. It will happen, when we get rid of him." She gave a curt nod towards Harry.
Ron thought back to what had happened that evening, his cheeks immediately blushing bright red. Harry and Hermione were staying the summer at The Burrow; not one of the trio felt ready to let each other go and anyway, where would they go? Harry's aunt and uncle were long gone from Privet Drive and he wasn't even sure if he even wanted to find them again, despite Dudley's failed attempt at a proper goodbye. Hermione's parents were in Australia, living their own life and completely oblivious to the fact that they had a daughter. She had vowed to find them again after the war was over, but her and the boys still had another year of Hogwarts to survive.
Most of the Weasley clan had gone to Romania for the summer to be with Charlie after Fred's funeral. Ginny and Ron had hung back however, neither able to leave their loved one's sides. They had played Quidditch in the vast fields behind the Burrow and bathed in the nearby lakes at Ottery St. Catchpole, spending time together being enough to start relieving some of the hurt and pain of the previous few years.
After a day of watching Hermione run about in a red tankini Ron was really struggling to keep his feelings at bay and, after unsuccessfully fighting off a moment of passion that he had been trying to suppress since the start of the summer, Ron had scooped Hermione up in a fireman's lift and started to carry her out of the kitchen; ignoring the groans and protests, the childish giggles from Harry and Ginny. "Oh shut up you two..." He grunted as he started up the stairs. "Like you never snog!" Laughing, he managed to flip a finger at his sister and his best friend before carrying Hermione up the four flights of windy stairs to his violent orange bedroom at the top of the house.
As soon as the door was shut his lips started to seek out hers, desperate for some sort of contact other than the stolen kisses they had shared in front of their friends. Hermione soon started reciprocating, pulling him closer as he helped her to her feet. As the kisses started to get more passionate, they found themselves gravitating towards the bed, soft moans escaping from both their lips. Each kiss forced them to loose control of their bodies and the will to fight against human nature.
Collapsing on the bed in a tangle of limbs, Ron's hands found themselves at the bottom of Hermione's t-shirt, tugging on it gently. He started to kiss down her neck as he bravely slid one hand over the bare skin of her stomach, heading up towards her chest. Suddenly there was a loud bang and Ron found himself flying across the room, landing hard just inches away from Harry's camp bed.
"What do you think you are doing?" Hermione shouted as she glared at him, quickly tugging her top down and trying to regain some sort of composure.
"I... I thought this would have been what you wanted! You were giving me all the right signs! And I waited, I really did for you to say no like you normally do when I play with your top... so I thought it was okay..." Stuttering, Ron got to his feet, brushing down his jeans and checking everything was still intact.
"I have not been giving you any signs, Ronald Weasley. When have I given you any signs? I thought we agreed we'd kiss for now, until we're ready... until I'm ready!"
"When will you be ready, Hermione? When we're ninety-two and you're too old and tired? Because if that's the case then you better stop parading around in those tiny swimsuits or kissing me when you know how much I want you!" Embarrassed, Ron busied himself by tidying a pile of broom manuals.
After a couple of seconds he lifted his head and, feeling a bit more brave, he made eye contact with her. "Face it Hermione, you're just scared! You don't realise how much I love you and how much I would die to protect you and you're too scared to show me how much I mean to you as well! I thought everything we have been through together meant something; that moment in the Chamber of Secrets, seven years of being the closest friends. What is it? Do you not love me?" Ron's face was flushed bright red in anger, almost matching his flame coloured hair.
"You know I love you," Hermione sighed, tears forming in her eyes. "I just feel like I'm not ready... I want things to be perfect between us, not just some hurried thing with our best friends downstairs. You know you're not ready either..." Wiping her eyes, she took a few hesitant steps towards him, holding her arms out to comfort him like she usually did.
"Well I am!" Ron scoffed. "Maybe you'd be more ready if I was Viktor Krum, or the chosen one. Maybe you're be ready if I was someone more important..." With these final words Ron stormed out of the house slamming every door he could possibly reach and eventually heading out of the Burrow.
Dinner that night had been awkward. Ron wouldn't talk to Hermione and she wouldn't talk to him. Ginny and Harry tried to force them to talk but with neither of them knowing what had happened they didn't feel like they were much help. Everyone had gone to bed early.
Hermione's soft lips kissing his neck brought Ron out of his past and back to his present. Well, at least they were talking to each other now. He liked the little surprises she gave him, like sneaking into his room and waking him up in the middle of the night. He knew she loved him, he didn't know why he got so angry, he would wait a thousand years until she was ready.