AN: After ten friggin' years of waiting, all I got of Ron and Hermione was less than a page of realization, one kiss, and a mention of them married at the end of the book. Hardly enough. So, after sleeping for a total of less than four hours in three days (now going on the fourth), I wrote this to make up for that. It's not brilliant but it's finished, and I'm tired.
It took five days after Voldemort died before Ron and Hermione actually got to be together for more than five minutes.
It felt odd, the two of them walking down the winding road from Hogwarts to Hogsmeade, ostensibly to look for stray Death Eaters who might've headed that way (not that they hadn't checked already with a good other twenty people), but really, of course, to get an hour or two to themselves to do more than snog in a corner until someone, inevitably, fetched them to help with yet another task around the castle that apparently could only be done with Harry, Ron, or Hermione present. It felt odd, because as many times as they'd hung out, wishing they were together, it was the first time they'd hung out and actually been together. Hermione had slipped her hand into Ron's as they left the castle, and he had gripped it tightly. They hadn't talked in the nearly half an hour since they'd started walking.
Ron glanced down at Hermione nervously, then back ahead of him. Clearing his throat feebly, he muttered, "'M sorry."
Hermione looked up at him. "For what?"
Ron stopped and tipped his head skyward. "I dunno. Everything? Taking the mickey out of you when we were first years? Dating Lavender? Leaving you and Harry in the woods? Your pick, really."
Hermione laughed a wryly; Ron chanced a look down. "Then I'm sorry for Krum, for setting the canaries on you, and for punching you when you came back. Are we done now?"
"I just ... I feel like we need to talk. Cause we argued, and put each other through all that ... and I just ..." He broke off with a shrug, earnest and embarrassed.
Hermione regarded him with her head tilted. "You're not who you were then," she said simply.
Determined, Ron plowed on. "Before ... before I stabbed the locket, these ghost-things ... they came out of it, kind of. And one of them was Harry, and one of them was you. And he said something about how much better off you were without me, and how Mum wanted him instead of me. Yours ... yours said you wanted Harry, too, and it ... it snogged ..." He stopped, shuddering a little, avoiding Hermione's eyes. "It was what I was thinking, when I left. I know it was stupid, and I shouldn't've ..."
"No, you shouldn't've," Hermione interrupted. She grabbed his chin and caught his eye frantically. "Why didn't you tell me? Harry's like a brother to me. I've never, never thought about him like that. I've known I wanted you since third year."
A ghost of grin lit on Ron's face. "Really?"
"Really. Even though you were too thick to notice until I started going out with Krum." She smiled at him. "You should've seen your face at the Yuletide Ball. You looked like you'd swallowed Bobatar Pus. Of course, it was horrible, acting like I was interested in Krum, but ..."
"It wasn't any worse than me acting like I fancied Lavender." Now Ron had a real grin. "I knew before Krum, though. I just ... tried to think about it until then. But I've been trying, you know. To make up for being an idiot before."
Hermione nodded vigorously. "I know. You've been amazing, really."
"I've never been more effing scared in my life than when Bellatrix was torturing you," Ron informed his shoes abruptly.
Hermione shivered. "When you didn't show up when you were supposed to, the night we moved Harry to the Burrow ..."
Impulsively, Ron reached for the back of Hermione's head and pulled her into a kiss. Hermione responded eagerly, wrapping her arms around him to bring him close as possible.
When they broke apart, Ron took a breath and said, "I love you, Hermione."
"I love you too, Ron." Hermione grinned briefly, then pulled Ron back down for another kiss.
They showed up at the Gryffindor tower, where they and the few remaining students had been staying while they saw to business in the castle, several hours later, happy and beaming. Harry looked up from the large poofy chair where he and Ginny were lying and grinned wickedly. "Been having fun, you two?"
Ron draped himself in the chair next to Harry's and pulled Hermione down with him. "She asleep?" he asked, ignoring the question.
"Yeah," Harry replied, looking down at her, a blazing look in his eye.
Hermione looked from Harry to Ginny, then back to Harry, and squealed loudly. "Oh, Harry! You're back together, aren't you?"
Harry said nothing; he smiled, then put his head back as if to go to sleep. Ron snorted in an annoyed sort of way, but didn't comment.
Hermione put her head down on Ron, yawning. Ron smoothed down her bushy hair a bit, then kissed the top. They fell asleep together on the chair, holding each other.
AN: There it is. I'm exhausted. Time for bed.