Title: Three Years Later

Pairing: Ron/Hermione

Rating: T for suggestive themes and language

Summary: It's been three years, and these two are more in love than ever, but will they have their happily ever after?

Disclaimer: I solemnly swear I am not JK Rowling.

AN: This is going to be a three-part story. I've already got everything planned; it's just a matter of writing up the next two parts, however, it could be a stand-alone story. So let me know what you think I should do. Well, happy reading!
It was a quiet Sunday morning in the Granger/Weasley household, well in most of household anyway. Giggles and moans could be heard, piercing the still, peacefulness that had come accustomed to re-settling itself in the house.

Inside the Master bedroom, Hermione and Ron lay in bed, with Ron hovering above Hermione, leaning on his elbows, as his lips tortured her with their sweet kisses.

She shrieked with laughter and protests however, as Ron's hand innocently slid down her side, only to, seconds later begin a different kind of torture: Tickling.

"Ron stop!" she laughed, writhing around on the bed, pushing the pillows to the floor, and pulling the sheets this way and that. "I mean it…" she said, as she attempted to shoot him a stern look, which only made him smile, and continue on.

A minute or so had passed now, and he decided to finally listen to his girlfriend, of now, three years, although it felt like much more, and stop.

Her laughter stopped moments later, as she began to try to get her breathing back under control. Her hand was holding on to her side: "It hurts, it's your fault… perhaps you can make it better?" She said, flirtatiously.

He looked over at her, from his position on the bed. Currently, he was lying back on the pillows he picked up from the floor, hands folded behind his head, eyes looking up at the ceiling.

He was smiling now. "Nah, I'm hungry," Laughing at her shocked look. "Relax, I'm only joking." He said grinning at her cheekily. Slowly, he leaned over to press feather-light kisses over the offended area, trailing down onto the skin on her waist. She giggled as she pulled his head up to hers, giggling these days, was something she was prone to doing, despite it being, very un-Hermione-like.

She liked the effect he had on her, and the effect she had on him. It was an interesting feeling to know that you could make someone go crazy with just one touch or one kiss. It made her feel things she never imagined she could, or would ever feel, it made her feel good though, special, wanted, needed, loved, it was a great feeling.

He pulled back slowly, sucking in a deep breath as his lungs and his brain battled his heart and the fire in his stomach region, albeit a little lower – he was only human after all, for air.

She snuggled up against his side, tracing different things over his bare chest. She seemed to like doing that. But right now, it wasn't helping his little, or perhaps that was a bit of an understatement, but still, it was in fact quite the predicament he was in now. He glanced back down at the girl his arm was wrapped around, pulling her that much closer to him, memorizing the perfect feeling of her against him. It never ceased to amaze him how perfectly she fit in his arms, how it seemed the curves of her body seemed to be made to fit perfectly against his body.

He turned his head ever so slightly to cast a nervous glance at his nightstand. Hidden in the very back of the drawer, in one of his oldest socks, was a little velvet box, one that would change his, or rather, their lives forever.

He felt her place a gentle guiding hand on his cheek, turning his head back in her direction. Blue met brown as he eyed the mischievous look in her eyes.

Years of knowledge and well, practice, if truth be told, told him immediately, he was bound to be tired and possibly sore after this.

It was quite a while later, when they finally fell back, onto the soft mattress, as Ron pulled a fallen sheet around them.

Their chests were rising and falling rapidly, as the two slowly began to regain their breaths and normal heartbeats.

"You're going to be the death of me woman," Ron told her, a worried look dawning on his freckled face.

Hermione laughed, turning on her side to face him, as he turned his head to face her. "Well, either that, or you'll choke one day while you're stuffing your cheeks full of food, like a squirrel. Although, I must admit you're not quite as hairy, or cute even as a squirrel." She told him, laughing even harder at his appalled expression.

"Well, it looks like this squirrel isn't making breakfast for someone." He told her, looking turning his head to look pointedly at her when he said, 'someone.'

She simply laughed again as she cuddled into him, nibbling affectionately on his ear.

'Damn her,' he thought bitterly to himself, fighting the moan that was threatening to roll off the tip of his tongue. He didn't want to give her the satisfaction of being able to have her way with him, especially after being compared to a squirrel, and losing, joke or not. Comparing a man, to a squirrel, a small, fuzzy little creature, who could hardly do much more that scamper around, and possibly scare of few people, it was wounding to a mans sensitive ego.

Then she moved to that bloody spot, behind his bloody ear. 'I hate you,' he thought inwardly, as the moan he'd been fighting back escaped his lips, and promptly she removed hers, grinning innocently up at him.

He scowled.

"You were saying something about breakfast?" She said innocently, lying back on the bed as if nothing at all had happened.

His scowl changed to a grin as he looked at her, lying back, eyes momentarily closed as she moved a little bit closer to him. He simply wrapped an arm around her, pulling her closer.

This was nice. Waking up to her every morning, it was nice.

Again, he shot a nervous glance towards the drawer that held a sparkly, expensive, but absolutely beautiful ring.

Harry, Ginny, and Hermione's parents had assured him that she, Hermione was bound to say, 'yes.' They'd told him that she loved him, they knew she did, and that there was nothing to fret about. But hearing those words from their mouths, and actually hearing those words from Hermione's mouth, was, in his mind, two entirely different things.

"Ron, are you alright?" She asked, concerned as she felt him stiffen beside her. "Ron?"

He coughed softly, nodding his head in reply. Well, it was half-true, he was alright, but he'd be even better once he'd proposed to her, and knew whether or not he'd be spending the rest of his life waking up beside this beautiful brunette, with the impossible hair, who was undoubtedly the biggest know-it-all he knew. But, he reasoned with an inward smile, as he looked over at her, she was his, right?

The silence the rest of the house held, had quietly crept into the bedroom, and set its spell, momentarily anyway.

"What are you thinking about?" Hermione asked him, stroking his cheek, her forehead creasing slightly as she looked at him, his sudden change in demeanor worrying her.

It was a few seconds before he opened his mouth, but the words just wouldn't come, noticing this, she continued on, with another question.

"Do you ever think about the future?"

This time, he found his voice. "'Course I do, all the time? Don't you?"

She nodded.

"Why?" He asked, curious at the reason she'd brought up the question.

She shrugged her shoulders.

He knew there was something she wasn't saying, Hermione Granger didn't bring up a topic without having something to say about it. Right now though, he just didn't feel like pushing her to figure it out. He'd talk to her about it, when the time was right, when she was ready.

"What do you say, you hop in the shower, and I'll go get breakfast started?" He asked her, rubbing up and down her arm, doing a complete 360 on the conversation.

She nodded again, as he left the room, and went down to the kitchen to begin breakfast.

Now, it was about 11 in the evening, and they were out on the patio, the remnants of their dinner sat on the table, undisturbed as they sat on the swinging bench, swinging slowly, back and forth. The benches' power was fueled by the temperate breeze, pushing the cushioned bench ever so kindly, blanketing everything in its path with its refreshing breeze.

Ron's head was lying comfortably in Hermione's lap as they stared up at the sky, enjoying the peacefulness the night brought.

Ron was thinking about the velvet box that now resided in his pocket, whilst Hermione was thinking about what a beautiful night it was tonight.

'It's now of never, pluck up that Gryffindor courage, be a man!' He silently told himself, replaying the same words over and over again in his head, right now, it was his mantra.

He took a short breath, before he began, taking her hand in his own, holding it to his chest, playing her with fingers anxiously. "Do you know what I think when I think about the future?" He asked her.

"Lunch?" she quipped, smiling down at him, raking her free hand little by little, tenderly through his luscious, crimson locks.

He glared up at her, not everything revolved around his bleeding belly. At least he didn't think so. "No, shockingly, that's not exactly what I had in mind." He told her, looking up at the sky for a moment, taking in the bright contrast the stars and the moon had on the black backdrop that was the night sky.

She smiled at him again, and it was all the encouragement he needed to continue on.

"I think about us. I think about whether we'll still be together or not, still be happy with each other." He told her, countless number of emotions he was feeling, swimming within pools of sapphire that was his eyes, meeting her now very serious eyes.

"What are you saying?" She asked him, suddenly edgy herself.

"I'm saying that I love you Hermione Granger. I'm saying that I don't want to wonder about what'll happen tomorrow, about whether you'll still be here or not, we all had our fair share of worrying many years ago… I'm saying that I need you…" At this point, he was sitting up, his body turned to face hers, as she sat, ramrod straight in her seat both hands now folded neatly in her lap. Her eyes unblinking, focused as she hung on to his every word, as though, waiting for the catch. "And now, I'm asking you… will you do me the honor of marrying me?" He asked, feeling more nervous than he'd felt when he'd sat his O.W.L's. His heart momentarily seemed to stop beating its steady beat in his chest, as he dropped onto his knee before her, pulling the black box out of his pocket, and flipping it open. His cheeks and his hair could've very well been undistinguishable at that moment, as a deep scarlet crept onto his cheeks.

Her eyes were filled with tears, and he didn't know whether or not to take this as a good or a bad thing.

She sat there, staring at him, eyes wide, brimming with unshed tears, seemingly speechless.

To him, it had seemed like an eternity before she finally nodded her head, as she threw her arms around his neck, knocking him flat on his back.

It felt like the weight the size of a hippogriff and Fluffy combined seemed to just fall away, lost in the darkness of the night.

She kissed his neck softly, pulling back slightly to kiss him full on the lips.

Slowly, he sat them upright, never breaking the kiss. It was their first kiss as an engaged couple, it was a beautiful kiss. It was passionate, loving, soft, slow, everything that could, honestly be used to describe their relationship.

"I love you," she breathed her forehead resting against his, as they finally lost their battle with their lungs and were forced to pull away.

He positively beamed up at her, as he pulled the ring out of the box, and slipped it onto her left hand.

A perfect fit.

AN: Well, here I am, yet again, jabbering away. It's currently 12:30 in the wee hours of the morning, and in the past couple of days, I've gotten at most, about 8 hours of sleep, combined, so I apologize sincerely if this is complete and utter garbage. I'm wondering if Ron and Hermione are a little OOC, if they are, I apologize, it just sort of came out that way.

Anyways please review, I'd love to hear your thoughts, and opinions. Thanks so much for reading!

-angel6