Written for the Acrostic-y Challenge of Chapter Titles II (Street Lights)
Written for Round 11 of the Quidditch League (Chudley Cannons were given the song "My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion and the line I chose as inspiration was "You are safe in my heart)
Safe in My Heart
"Shy, she is," Ron said, nudging the woman beside him in the ribs. "She's just Hermione."
The woman Ron had nudged turned a deep purple before she gave an introduction of herself; albeit a nervous one. "Hi, I'm Evelyn Munster!"
Hermione's eyes darted from the young girl who was too excited to be taken on as Ron's Auror trainee, and to her beaming husband who was also too excited. Ron had been going on for weeks about how great it was that he finally got to 'train someone up', but she supposed she had just assumed it would be… well she hadn't expected who he got, anyway.
"Hermione?"
"Nice to meet you!" Hermione shook the girl's hand and forced a smile, which seemed to please Ron.
"Evie will be with me for the next few months, learning everything. Except for those times where she needs to do Auror training with Harry and Kingsley."
All Hermione took from that short speech was that Ron had called his new apprentice Evie. With a reluctant nod in Evelyn's direction, she turned around and headed back towards her office, mumbling something about seeing him at home.
Ron and Evelyn shared a look, and Ron shrugged. "Must be busy," he said.
…
"So, Ron has a new trainee." Hermione sat herself down in the chair opposite Harry's desk.
He looked up, slightly surprised to see her there. "Yep, we've just accepted a new batch out of school. Look promising. Ron's good with them, too."
Hermione's eyes narrowed.
"Why are you asking, Hermione? You were the one who processed their files and accepted their applications – partly."
"No reason," Hermione answered casually. "I just… I just thought Ron would be training up…." She didn't finish her sentence, but turned away with a burning face.
It only took a moment for Harry to catch on before he burst out with laughter. "Are you jealous, Hermione?"
"What?"
"You are, aren't you? You're jealous that Ron will be working closely with a young, pretty girl."
"Don't be ridiculous, Harry!" Hermione jumped to her feet. "I'm not jealous, I just don't know much about the trainees, that's all." She made her way to his office door with Harry still laughing behind her.
"Don't worry!" he called after her, "I'll make sure nothing happens in the Auror department!"
Hermione slammed his door, startling the others around her.
…
"Er, Hermione? Couldn't you just use magic for that?"
Hermione whipped her head around, a knife resting in her hand as she was putting away all the kitchen utensils from last night's dinner.
"Or at least get the kids to do it." Ron could always sense when she was angry with him, and most of the time she had good reason. This time, however, he had no idea what he had done.
"No, I'm fine. How was your day?" Her voice was a lot softer and calmer than her expression had led him to believe; though, Ron had known her long enough to realise she was forcing herself not to lose her head at him.
"Fine, I guess." Ron shrugged. He waited until she had safely put away all the knives before walking forward to kiss her. "How was your day?"
Hermione shrugged. "One day off each week, and it's the day the kids go crazy." She forced another smile before heading into the living room, leaving Ron to chase after her.
"You okay, Hermione?" he asked.
"Yes. Why do you ask?"
"You just seem…." Ron shook his head. "Never mind. Anyway, so I was thinking that maybe we should have Evelyn around here for dinner tomorrow night. You know, get to know us and all. She's a good worker, and as we will be spending a lot of time together, it might be good to –"
"We're busy."
"Doing what?"
"We are going to my parents, remember?"
"We are?"
"I told you weeks ago, Ron! For Merlin's sake, you're so forgetful sometimes! Anyway, I don't know where you got the idea that it would be good to have her here. You've known her for a week."
Ron was watching her, dumbfounded, as she stormed up the stairs, snapping at three-year-old Hugo for leaving his toys in the way. "I, well, Harry thought it might be a good idea!" he tried; but he was greeted by silence.
Bloody hell, he said to himself. She'd obviously had a bad day.
…
Hermione had put the kids to bed and then left the house without a word. Checking to make sure they were safely tucked in, Ron activated the protection charms so nobody could get into the house and followed her to the pavement by their house. She was just sitting there, watching nothing in particular, but it was obvious she had been crying at some point.
"You okay?" he asked, sitting down beside her.
"Are they okay?"
"I put the charms on, they're fine. Sleeping. I'm more worried about you."
Hermione shrugged.
"You know," Ron continued without waiting for words, "at first I couldn't for the life of me work out why you were so upset with me. You'd been like it all week, and I know you'd been working, too, so you weren't sick of the kids. I thought something could have been going on at work, but I checked with Malfoy – yes, I actually spoke to him without drawing my wand – and he said it had all been quiet down your end, because we were quiet. I still couldn't work it out until tonight, though."
Hermione said nothing.
"You do realise that she's about 15 years younger than me, all we talk about is work, and she's also interested in women?"
Hermione looked at him.
"Even so," Ron continued before she could say anything. "Why on earth would I ever be interested in her anyway?"
"Well, I didn't think that you were, Ron, I just know what you're like, and –"
"What I'm like?" He hadn't intended to raise his voice, but he couldn't help it. "Clearly you don't if you got jealous of some school kid."
"I wasn't jealous, Ron, I was just –"
"You were. You refused to talk to me, you didn't like it when I even brought her into our conversation in passing. It's very unlike you, Hermione." Ron laughed. "Ha, you're jealous of me."
"I wasn't jealous," Hermione repeated, "just… concerned."
"About what?"
Hermione now had the decency to blush. "Well, I don't know. You were never one to show any interest in getting married, having kids, family stuff, and I suppose I thought you may have been getting bored of it all."
This time Ron laughed out loud. "Merlin, sixteen years together and this is only concerning you now? I love you, Rosie and Hugo more than anything else in this world. I don't know what I'd do without any of you."
"Well, I'm sorry," Hermione huffed.
"I find it funny," Ron said.
"Why?"
"Because you were actually jealous of me about something. Here I was thinking I needed to try my best to keep you around, but you're jealous."
Hermione glared at him. "I'm glad you think it's funny," she snapped.
"Well, why on earth would I run off with some teenager? Especially one who likes women? I should be the jealous one, not you."
"I'm sorry, okay!" Hermione said, getting to her feet. "It won't happen again."
Ron smiled. "I love you, Hermione," he said.
Despite her best efforts to stay angry with him, she managed to smile just a little. "I love you, too, Ron. The reason I was so upset tonight is because I felt like an idiot."
"You can be sometimes, I guess." Ron shrugged, kissing her. "But I still love you."
Hermione squeezed his hand. "And I'm lucky to have you, I suppose."
Ron nodded. "Of course you are! Who else is there to put up with your horrible tirades of frustration and anger every once in a while?"
They began to walk back to the house, but before they entered, Ron turned and took out his Deluminator – something he carried in his pocket everywhere he went; just in case.
"What are you doing, Ron?" Hermione asked when he took the light from the nearest street light.
Ron shrugged and opened the door. "Now Rosie won't complain about being woken from the light." He pecked her cheek. "I love you," he said.