AGAIN, I'm so, so sorry to those who've already reviewed this story. Please see my profile for the reasoning behind the re-post.
Okay, I've had this idea in my head for days, and since school jut started back up (for me, anyway) I decided to sit down and try and figure out a way to write this so, here goes:
Age
Ron Weasley was in a foul mood, to say the least.
The very least.
And of course, we all know that when Ron Weasley gets into an atrocious frame of mind, it is most likely over something stupid. This case was no exception.
You see, Ron was bothered by a mere miniscule detail. Something that could easily be overlooked and not minded at all.
However, if you were Ronald Weasley, this was an issue. And not a minor one, at that.
Why, you ask, was Ron acting this way? Well, he – you know what? I have a better idea. Why don't I just start my explanation where our story begins, shall I? It may, perhaps be better clarified this way.
Hermione had just stepped over the threshold of the small flat that she shared with Ron. The expression on her face looked nothing short of thrilled.
She simply couldn't wait to tell Ron the great news she had just received! Of course, however, like all boyfriends are, Ron would probably not be as ecstatic as Hermione about this 'oh-so-joyful' news. At least, this is what she thought, anyhow.
"Pray tell," said Ron, as Hermione entered the kitchen, humming merrily to herself, "why you are skipping around like a maniac."
Hermione immediately halted and glared at Ron. Typical him for starting an argument the minute she gets home from work.
"I do not look like a maniac. And I am NOT skipping! I am not a psycho, Ronald!"
Ron mumbled something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like "Could've fooled me."
Hermione sniffed daintily, before continuing, "I'm just a bit excited is all."
"A bit excited?" said Ron, as he began pouring himself a glass of iced tea above the kitchen counter. "You looked like Dobby when Harry gave him those elf-sized trousers for Christmas last year – except for the fact that you weren't snogging Harry's shoes."
Hermione crossed her arms in a childish manner, and huffed, blowing some of her bangs off her forehead in the process. "Well, if you don't want to hear my fantastic news than I'm just going to go take a shower."
Ron looked up from his glass and pitcher. "Huh? What news?"
"Well, if you must know – we've been invited to our ten year Hogwarts reunion!"
Ron gaped at her. His facial expression was obviously stunned. Iced Tea slopped onto the counter, and slowly spread to floor in leisurely drips. "Wha-what?"
Hermione sighed and waved her wand. The mess vanished.
"Ron," Hermione said with a smirk, "are we going or not?"
"Are we going? Are you kidding Hermione? I wouldn't miss it!" He stepped out from behind the counter, picked her up and spun her around.
Giving Hermione a quick peck on the lips, Ron soon put her down. She was positively beaming. This certainly wasn't the reaction she had expected from him, but it was what she had hoped for.
"Great! Oh, well then, I've got so much to do! I've got R.S.V.P. for the both of us, and I'll have to notify work that I'll be leaving early on the eighteenth. Oh! And I'll need a new outfit of course -"
Ron stared at his girlfriend, amused at her rant. "Tell you what," he said, "while you're doing that, I'm going to go shower, okay?"
Hermione continued on with her rant but gave a wave of her hand, as if to say, 'Okay.'
It was only when Hermione was half way through the second R.S.V.P. letter did she realize that she just got tricked out of her own shower.
"RONALD WEASLEY!"
At precisely 8 o' clock p.m. on July eighteenth, Ron and Hermione appeared in front of Hogwarts gates with two distinctive small pops. Ron looked positively green.
"Ron?" Hermione said concern etched into her voice. "Are you quite all right?"
With one look at Hermione, Ron took a few deep breaths and smiled reassuringly at her. "Yeah, no problem…I'm fine."
Hermione smiled and turned to look at the glowing castle. It had always looked more breath-taking at night.
The stars in the sky seemed to shine more brightly tonight, and the crescent moon contrasted remarkably well with the navy blue sky.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" she commented.
Ron's thought the sight was beautiful also, but this was not the same sight Hermione was mesmerized by. That's right; he was looking at…Buckbeak the hippogriff! (A/N: Lol, no just kidding. Sorry, couldn't resist).
He was, of course, staring at Hermione Granger, the love of his life. She looked magnificent tonight, in her long scarlet dress robes. She wore sparkling gold earrings that bore lions. (Gryffindor colors of course!)
Ron, on the other hand, had been persuaded by Hermione (after much rowing, of course) to wear black dress robes and his old Gryffindor tie that, coincidentally, still fit him.
"Yeah, you are."
Hermione turned around and blushed. She quickly grabbed Ron's wrist and said "Let's go!" before hurrying through the gates and up to one of the black carriages, dragging Ron along with her.
Hermione and he stepped into one and it magically set off up the path.
Within minutes, they had arrived at the main doors. Ron helped Hermione out of the carriage and onto the main platform. She flashed him a great smile, and gave him a quick but affectionate peck on the cheek.
Into the school they walked, and were welcomed at the sign-in desk by, whom else but – Minerva McGonagall herself. Hermione became extremely excited at the prospect of seeing McGonagall again. "Hello, Professor!" she squealed, looking positively delighted.
Minerva looked up over her spectacles, and smiled broadly. "Miss Granger! Mr. Weasley! How nice it is to see you both again. I suppose you'll be wanting to see Mr. Potter soon?"
At this, Ron smiled, and stated smugly, "Oh, I don't know. We may just discover something else hidden in this school. Wouldn't want us breaking any more rules, would you, Professor?"
Then McGonagall did something that Ron had never seen her do before. She smiled good-naturedly, threw her head back and laughed.
She then proceeded to hand them their name tags and told them (because of course, Ron just had to ask) that she had seen Mr. Potter go into the Great Hall about a half an hour ago, and she had no idea where he would be now. And no…she would not sign for S.P.E.W…, sorry. (Hermione sulked) And no! Why in Merlin's name would she have fallen madly in love with Filch?! (Ron couldn't resist annoying an old teacher)
She then proceeded to tell them to 'Go away, and leave her to her business!'
Ron left the table in hysterics, and Hermione still had her arms crossed in a rather immature manner, despite her quite established state the majority of the time. They quickly got over their strongly put emotions as they headed for the huge oak doors, leading them to the main area of the Great Hall. It looked positively wonderful.
Once they had entered the Hall, they were quickly spotted. (After all, you can't be the best friends with the person who destroyed the Dark Lord, and not be noticed, right?)
Lavender Finnigan and Parvati Thomas made a beeline for Hermione and immediately started gushing about how much she had changed. Hermione merely rolled her eyes and took it all in, adding a few comments here and there, but Ron could tell that she was, in reality, enjoying herself.
He, himself decided to find Harry. He had just passed one of the tables where he spotted his younger sister, and did a double take. Ah, how typical, she was talking to the one and only – Luna Longbottom. He decided to go drop a 'Hi.'
As he approached, Ginny smiled. "Hey Ron!" she said.
Luna seemed not to have noticed Ron, and kept going on about a new creature, that she had said, could be hiding in the punch at any given moment. It seemed to be named the 'Burbledong,' and was apparently could poison you by sneaking into your party drink.
Luna continued her speech; even though Ginny's full attention was now focused upon Ron.
"Hey Gin," said Ron, as he stared pointedly down at her nametag.
"What's the matter?" she asked him, concernedly looking down at her own nametag as well, fearing that something was wrong with it.
"Nothing…I'm just still having trouble getting used to that name."
She chuckled.
"I know what you mean, after hearing Ginny Weasley for all those years, you have a hard time adjusting to Ginny Potter," she laughed.
"Speaking of Harry, have you seen him around?" asked Ron hopefully.
"Oh! I think he's over there with Seamus and Neville. I think Dean's with them too," she added.
"Thanks Gin!" he said, smiling gratefully.
"No problem," she said, turning back to Luna, whose eyes widened.
"Oh, hello Ronald," she said happily, as though just waiting to burst with some new information from her latest edition of The Quibbler, which she had now taken over professionally.
"Good-bye Luna," said Ron, in mock cheerfulness. He then proceeded across the dance floor chuckling, leaving what he thought was a stunned Luna behind him. He made his way over toward the direction where Ginny had directed him.
He could just vaguely make out the back of Seamus's sandy hair. He eventually made it over to the small group.
"Hey, guys!"
He was immediately greeted with rather cheerful hellos, and a 'Hiya, mate! How ya doin'?' from Harry.
"We were just discussin' some things," said Seamus. "Events like these make yeh think about time and years spent in our glory days." He laughed as he gestured around himself, at the school in general.
"Yep," said Dean joining in. "Especially manners. You know the old thing that we had to learn in seventh year?"
Ron and Harry obviously shook their heads.
"Aye," said Seamus. "I fergot yeh weren't here, lads."
Neville piped up, "Wasn't that the year that Professor Slughorn had to teach us those stupid husband basics?"
"Aye," repeated Seamus. "That was downright hilarious. You must be taller, more polite, stronger, and obtain more muscles than your wife. Honestly? Who isn't more muscular than their wife?"
The whole group of them chortled.
"…And then there was that lecture about being older than your wife. 'The man must always be older, especially in holy matrimony'."
The boys once again howled in laughter…all except Ron.
"I mean," Dean continued, wiping a tear of mirth from his eye, "it's not like we have any problems in that area, right?"
"Aye," said Seamus, agreeing. "How much older are you than Parvati, again, Dean?"
"Four months," replied Dean, off-handedly.
"And each of you are a year older than your gals, yeah?" said Seamus gesturing at Neville and Harry who nodded in response.
"Well, I've got a good 8 and a half months on Lavender," said Seamus proudly, puffing out his chest, as though a man of importance. Neville chuckled.
Seamus then turned to Ron, who had been silent the entire time. "How many months have you got on Hermione, mate?"
Ron remained silent, though, the tips of his ears turned bright red. The truth was that Hermione actually had 7 months on him.
Ron mumbled out something incoherently.
Harry, who was grinning broadly, said, "Sorry didn't quite catch that, Ron."
Ron scowled at him. Harry knew exactly how old each he and Hermione were and Harry was just taking pleasure in his embarrassment.
Ron decided this a good time to excuse himself to the loo.
Once out of the Great Hall, Ron ran into the nearest boy's toilets. He turned on one of the taps, and splashed some cool water on his, now burning, face.
He stared at his reflection for a few moments in the mirror directly in front of him.
He had never really thought about it before but now that he had, he didn't like it – not one bit.
He thought about for a moment – Neville was older than Luna, Harry was older than Ginny, Dean was older than Parvati, Seamus was older than Lavender, Bill was older than Fleur, Terry was older than Padma, heck – even Dad was older than Mum.
This was a problem. Or at least, to Ron it was.
So, this evening's events bring us back to Ron's first initial emotion: angry as ever.
Although, for once in Ron's life – he's actually restraining himself. The ride back down to the gates was a quiet one, seeing as Ron was glaring at his hands as he gnarled them in his lap pitifully.
Hermione looked at him questionably but Ron paid her no mind, and she soon gave up and stared out her window. Even after all these years, she'd be darned if she knew what went on in this Weasley's head.
Ron threw his coat into the closet carelessly upon entering their apartment. Hermione sighed, picked it up, and hung it alongside her own velvet jacket.
Ron was about to step out of the room when Hermione sighed and suddenly became very stern.
"Hold it!" she said, anger beginning to rise in her voice.
"What?" he asked impatiently, looking over his shoulder at her.
"What do you mean 'what'? You haven't spoken to me properly once the entire time coming home!" she retorted quickly.
"Well, maybe I just didn't feel like talking!" he said beginning towards the door again.
"That's crap, and you know it!"
"Just leave me alone, 'Mione!"
"Oh, don't you "'Mione'" me, Ronald Weasley! You are going to tell me what's going on this instant!"
Ron rounded on her, his face red with fury. He was going to burst. "BECAUSE YOU'RE BLOODY OLDER THAN ME, HERMIONE!"
Hermione's face matched Ron's in redness for a moment, and then, after several silent moments, she did something extremely unexpected.
She threw her head back and laughed. And laughed. And laughed. Finally she broke down into a fit of giggles, and fell to the floor.
Ron looked extremely confused, and knelt down beside her. What was so dang funny?
"Is that all?" Hermione managed to choke out between fits of laughter.
Ron's face got angry-looking again. "Yes, that is all!"
Hermione laughing diminished into giggles, and she sat up. "Ron – are you ashamed of my being older than you?"
The tips of Ron's ears turned red, and he hung his head. Mumbling 'yes', he looked further down at the carpet.
"Oh, Ron," said Hermione, smiling, "whatever gave you the idea that you had to be older than me?"
Ron told her about how all the male figures in couples they knew were older than each other, and how that the boy was supposed to have many qualities over the girl: such as strength, height, age…
"Ron, I love you for who you are," said Hermione gently, gazing straight into his eyes.
It was then that Ron realized that no matter what happened, nothing could ever become him and Hermione. Not even such a stupid thing as age…
"I love you too, 'Mione." And he gently gave her a lingering kiss on the lips.
…Now all he had to do was kill Seamus, Dean, and Neville. Harry was getting off easy… this time.
Ron's POV
(Five months later)
SHE SAID YES! SHE SAID YES! SHE SAID YES!
(A/N: Three guesses)
End
So what d'you think? Was it total crap? Too cliché? You know what? I'm just going to shut up and let you decide...
100-percent-HP-obsessed