Author's Note: Hey everyone! As always there is a bit of information that you need to know in order to pick right up with this story. It takes place in the months following the Battle of Hogwarts. Ron and Hermione have decided to return to the school to finish their final year, however Harry and Ginny have not. Ron and Hermione are the Heads and McGonagall is Headmistress. That should be it for now, but if I think of something else I will make sure to add it in later. This is NOT a one-shot; it is multi-chapter with maybe even ten chapters. So stick around it should be good. Once again, I do not own any of these characters, and they are all the property of J.K. Rowling. Enjoy!
The best word to describe the Burrow after the Second War was mature. Gone were the gaggles of young children playing around their mother's feet, and the young and energetic parents of seven children. Now all that was let were the two youngest, now in their late teens, and their parents in what seemed to be a ramshackle house in the countryside. Anyone who was familiar with the Weasley knew that one of their sons died in the Battle of Hogwarts, the final battle of the war. They also knew that the youngest son, Ron was a war hero and best mate to the famous Harry Potter. The Weasley family practically won that war for the Wizarding world and in the after math their house seemed to be content to sink into the ground and relax after several years of stress on its foundation.
Within the house Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley sat in the kitchen sipping tea and examining the Daily Prophet. Just as Ron was about to ask Hermione if she wanted to play chess for a bit two large owls swooped into the room through an open window, landing perfectly on the wooden table. Hermione gave a brief shriek, the birds catching her off guard, before she set about freeing them from the objects attached to their legs.
"Who are they for?" Ron asked not knowing whom the birds belonged to. Hermione didn't answer, just handed him a letter with green ink on the front. Of course, how could he have forgotten? These were Hogwart's letters, the telltale ink and neat handwriting on the front was all Ron needed to see before he began to gingerly open the letter. This was his last Hogwart's letter after all and if he didn't save his first one, then he was for damn sure going to save his last one. Actually, returning to Hogwart's had been Hermione's idea and unlike Harry, Ron had been unable to say no to her puppy dogface and pleading eyes. So he'd gone and signed himself up for a final year of school, just to have the distinction of being a Hogwart's graduate. His thoughts were interrupted by another scream from Hermione. His head snapped up and saw her prancing around the kitchen holding the Head's Badge. She'd done it; she'd been made Head Girl. She stopped looked at him expectantly, and it was only then that he realized he hadn't opened his letter completely. Out of the envelope tumbles a matching badge with the letters HB on it instead of HG. Two Heads from Gryffindor. They were going to be Heads together! He jumped up and gave Hermione a huge hug. Ron thought that it was probably the happiest he'd been since the end of the war. He thought back to the image he saw in the Mirror of Erised and decided that even if he couldn't be Quidditch captain he could do a ton of really cool stuff as Head Boy, just the same.
But though neither of them would dare say this out loud the part of being Head that they found most appealing was the shared room in one of the towers. They'd have one giant suite all to themselves, with a common room made to look like a smaller Gryffindor common room. The feelings that they harbored for each other weren't exactly a secret, but many parts of their relationship had yet to be resolved. Both saw being made Heads a perfect opportunity to get some alone time, even at Hogwart's, and finally get on the road to eternal bliss that so many had predicted for them.
The rest of the summer flew by in a blur of night spend talking in the grass, quiet mornings in the kitchen and school shopping before. Before either r was really prepared it was September first and the chaos that usually surrounded the day was gone. Only Ron and Hermione would be returning to go to school so when they strolled out of the house early the morning to drive to King's Cross Station it was a quiet procession. The morning went off without a hitch. In the Head's Car Ron swiveled in the captain's chair and watched Hermione read out of the corner of his eye.
"Ron would you stop looking at me, its starting to creep me out." Hermione said irritably, never turning her attention away from her book.
"Who says I'm watching you. Don't get a fat head, it's very unbecoming." Ron retorted trying to cover his embarrassment over being caught with a rude remark.
"I know you are watching me and I am just asking you to cease and desist so I can get back to reading my book and we can both go on with our lives." Ron, deciding to be annoying, leaned in and watched her more intensely.
"Fine," Hermione said, slamming her book shut without the benefit of a bookmark, " if you are going to be annoying then I am just going to be annoying right back. What are you most excited about for this year?"
"What? How is that annoying?" Ron asked
Hermione rolled her eyes, exasperated, "Well I am really excited to a Head this year. I like the idea of separate living spaces. I would hate to have to live with the seventh years now. All the Colin Creevy's of the world." both stopped dead, Ron wouldn't have to worry about Collin because he'd been one of the causalities of the war. Collin Creevy, the same Creevy who'd practically taken stalking Harry to an art form, was dead.
'Oh I see. So it's a space thing. You like your space."
"Yep, that about sums it up, and for the record that was really not boring or annoying, nice try though." Ron flashed her a smile that made her stomach do flips.
"Ron, what are you going to do when you get married and have kids? You won't be able to have your own room, and be a recluse." Hermione said smartly. She almost immediately wished she could take the words back, fearing she'd danced a little too close to the line in bringing up marriage and a family. Hermione was sure after her kiss with Ron during the Final Battle that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him. But the summer had passed without incident and it seemed as though she and Ron had returned to the place they'd be in before sixth year. She knew that somewhere deep down Ron had feelings for her, but Hermione wasn't too keen on waiting around for another eternity for him to own up to them and act on them.
"I don't exactly have to think about marriage and kids right now, do I?" Ron replied, rolling his eyes to indicate how ridiculous he found it that Hermione would use that argument to admonish him.
"Well no," Hermione started slowly daring herself to push him to say how much he wanted a life with her, "but one should always have that in the back of their head, no?" She asked innocently enough.
Ron chuckled, "How about this? When I find someone that I want to marry I'll start thinking about it, yeah." He sat back in the chair and began looking out of the window. Tears were forming in Hermione's eyes, his words echoing in her head. She wasn't sure what she'd expected to hear from him but the shocking realization that he didn't even think about maybe, possibly, someday a long time from now, marrying her brought reality crashing down around her. She stood to flee the car and was just about the make a clean escape when she crashed into Ernie McMillan who'd been standing on the other side of the door waiting to knock when Hermione tried to escape the Heads Car. They collided with an "ooof" and Hermione toppled backwards into her recently vacated seat.
"Oi! Sorry, Hermy." Ernie said. He helped Hermione to her feet again before calling to Ron. "Ron, you and Hermione are needed in Professor Binns's car at the end of the corridor. He says it's urgent." Ron stood from his chair, and threw Hermione a concerned glance upon seeing the tears in her eyes, but chalked it up to running into Ernie. They exited the car and made their way, slowly and awkwardly silent to the Professor's car.
Ron opens the door to Professor Binn's car, which has been magically transfigured into an office. Sitting in one of the chairs across from his desk is a beautiful girl with large brown eyes and wavy brown hair. When the Professor sees them enter he stands and introduces the newcomers to the girl.
"Ah yes, Mr. Weasley and Ms. Granger, glad you come. This, as I am sure you are wondering, is Heather Davis. She is a transfer from..." He looked to the girl, now identified as Heather Davis, to complete his sentence.
She obliged, "Glenalmond. It's in Perth. Its a "moogle" school I'm not sure you've heard of it." Her answer was polite, her voice lyrical and sweet. Hermione laughed a bit, Heather had obviously meant to say muggle, 'poor girl' she thought ruefully. She looked to Ron so they could silently share in the joke of Heather calling muggles "moogles" but found that her counterpart was staring wide eyed and smiling at the girl.
"Ah that's right, a MUGGLE school." He put the emphasis on muggle as a way of correcting her but it went unnoticed. "I would very much like it for Mr. Weasley and Ms. Granger to show you around the train, get you settled and acquainted with Hogwart's and its traditions." Ron and Hermione nodded to show they understood the task before exiting with Heather in tow. Hermione was the first to speak once they were in the corridor again.
"So heather, you went to Glenalmond. You know I might have gone there if I hadn't come to Hogwarts a year before I was eligible. That's a very good school, but I am curious why are you making the transition from muggle to Wizarding School now." Hermione asked the question in a tone that bordered on challenging.
"As far as I've been told the owl that was supposed to deliver my letter almost eight years ago was captured by Volmore's, am I saying that right, Volmore?" She stopped and looked to Hermione.
"No you aren't, but go on." Hermione responded, annoyed. Who did this girl think she was? Coming to Hogwarts all out of the blue, pronouncing common words wrong. For all they knew she could be a Death Eater in disguise coming to seek his unholy revenge on the whole lot of them and not only were they accepting this girl, but encouraging her to assimilate to Hogwart's life. The nerve!
"Well Vol-whatever his name is cronies kidnapped the bird so they could communicate with a professor at Hogwarts without raising suspicion. The bird wasn't released until quite recently and then it carried out its original mission of delivering the letter. It was a bit of a shock actually," she paused to laugh. "I mean can you imagine me, just sitting in my parent's library reading and all of a sudden a huge barn owl comes swooping in and drops off a letter that looks like its been to hell and back?" Ron laughed along heartily, and anger burned inside Hermione. This girl was too charming to be true.
"What house will you be in? Have they told you yet?" Ron asked, genuinely interested.
"Gryffindor. Does that sound right?" Oh bloody hell was Hermione's only thought. Beautiful, charming, and brave too. Just what she needed. As it wasn't bad enough that she and Ron weren't getting anywhere now this girl was being added to the equation. Just peachy.
"Oh that's fantastic. We're in that house too. Isn't that great, Hermione?" Ron asked turning to Hermione who'd been watching the two interact for sometime. She did not respond with the enthusiasm Ron was expecting and simply shut her out of the conversation for the rest of the train ride.
When the feast was over, all the first years had been sorted, McGonagall had given the beginning of term speech, and all the kids were ushered to bed, Hermione sat in the common room of the Heads Suite staring at the fire. She slouched in the comfy chair and just deliberated. Her concentration wasn't broken until Ron plopped down on the cushion next to her.
"Penny for your thoughts." He said, also staring at the fire.
"You really don't think about your life after Hogwarts?" she asked after a long while.
"What?" he said, thrown off guard by her question?
"Earlier, you said that you didn't have to think about marriage and kids, and that when you found someone worth marrying you'd start. You really haven't found anyone who you thought for even a moment that you might want to be with." She looked at him meaningfully, her eyes pleading with him to understand her point. He sighed.
"I put thinking about my future on hold the moment Harry said Voldemort was back. There is something about knowing you could die at any moment that makes you want to not hope for a future, and just to be happy with what you have." Ron stopped briefly to blink back tears. "And I know that there is a perfect girl for me. I know that for a fact. But I'm still too afraid even hope for a future with that girl, so I don't think about it." He stood up from his chair, bid her a goodnight, and then walked up the stairs to his room.
Hermione sat staring at the fire for a bit more then decided to follow suit. It'd been a long day and if she wanted to be ready for class in the morning she couldn't spend the rest of the night trying to understand what Ron was trying to say.
Author's Note: Thanks so much for reading this far. Updates will be coming soon, and I hoped you enjoyed. If you did enjoy I would love for you to review. Well review if you loved it or hated it, I could always use some constructive criticism. Thanks again, Mia.