Even though she'd been craving rest for hours, Hermione couldn't sleep. She tried burying a little further into her cocoon of blankets then, with an angry noise somewhere between a sigh and a snort, threw them off entirely and pushed herself into a sitting position on her bed.
She was alone in the dormitory tonight. Parvati, who had a talent for healing, was helping take care of the injured down in the great hall and Lavender, she realised with a sick feeling, would probably be one of her patients. Over the years she hadn't exactly got as close to the other girls as was customary with those sharing a room, but she still always missed them terribly when they weren't around.
She rubbed both hands hard over her face, wondering if she was going to cry again on what should have been a day for celebration, but then mastered herself and gently swung her legs out of bed where a pair of borrowed slippers had been placed by some thoughtful house elf .Hermione tried for a minute to feel some sense of outrage that the elves were still doing this, but then gave up and tugged the slippers onto her frozen feet.
There was so little light in the room that , despite knowing the space by heart , Hermione still managed to bump into Parvati's four poster , as well as her own bedside table , before she made it to the window.
Perhaps she had hoped to see some light outside , or maybe just a glimpse of the grounds that she loved so much , but it was so dark that all she could make out were the tiny glimmering stars and her own ghostly reflection in the glass -tired and battered looking with her hair in a complete riot.
Her warm , soft bed still beckoned but , instead , something made her walk to the carved mahogany door and then pad down the stairs behind it , turning almost automatically up the other flight of stairs that lead to the boy's dormitory.
She cautiously stepped inside, reminded forcefully of so many Christmas mornings, to find only Harry's bed occupied. Through the gap in his curtains she could make out his messy black hair and one hand stretched above his head holding what was unmistakeably the remains of a sandwich .She felt tears prick her eyes again and said a quick prayer of thanks that he was alive, before leaving the room as quietly as she had come.
She thought fleetingly of returning to her room, then abandoned all pretence and headed down the next set of stairs.
It was surprising, really, how much of Hogwarts still remained. Every now and then a corridor ended abruptly in a twenty foot drop to the floor below and the gashes in the walls and broken windows let droughts of icy air blow around her ankles, but where she was sure backfiring spells had completely devastated whole floors there was now only minimal damage and in the light of her wand she occasionally saw what appeared to be brick dust or powdered glass casually moving back towards the walls as though in a light wind. There was no doubt about it really: the protective enchantments around the castle were also restorative. Hogwarts was healing itself; even the battered suits of armour were taking their usual places along the hallways.
Finally Hermione made it to the ground floor. She paused for a moment outside the open doors of the great hall. Candles hung in mid-air all around the room, not the kind used at feasts , whose brightness filled the hall with a rich , dancing light , but small white ones whose flames gently quivered like moth wings , giving out enough light to sooth the darkness and give hope to those keeping vigil by their loved one's bedsides , but nothing more.
Under their glow, maybe a couple of hundred people were clustered around. A few were weeping or else muttering softly to their companions but most remained silent and still ,the bearers of a terrible grief.
A part of her longed to go in, to weep for the lost and offer what comfort she could to those left behind, but she didn't want to intrude on this most private of moments, even the sight of Ginny's normally strong face glittering with tears refused to sway her. She moved on.
Outside, the cold night air soothed her skin and, looking up, she saw a crescent moon had escaped its cover of clouds to turn the world silver, it's twin echoing it perfectly from the surface of the lake - silhouetting the trees that stood around it and the tall figure leaning against the trunk of the largest of them. Very tall.
"Ron?"
The figure straightened and if she squinted she could make out his fiery red hair that marked him so different from anyone else in her year.
"Hermione? is that you?"
She moved forwards into the moonlight so that he could see her clearly and then continued taking small, measured footsteps towards him until they were inches apart.
There was a loaded silence.
"I thought you'd be in there." She said finally – gesturing towards the lighted windows of the great hall.
He swallowed and she noticed that his eyes were slightly red.
"Yeah, I mean – I was, only I needed some air, y'know?"
She nodded, trying to keep out of her eyes the understanding she knew he didn't want.
"I know."
They stood together for a very long time, not speaking. It should have been an easy, peaceful silence between friends, only they were standing that little bit too close together, her heart beating that little bit too fast.
After several long minutes , she sensed him draw himself up as if he was about to go on stage and then , in a single movement , turn so that he was both standing further away from her and facing her directly-something she realised he hadn't done since…she shivered.
"I wanted to talk to you about earlier" He said in one rush, then looked at her expectantly, something like fear flickering across his face.
"Umm," she tried to sound calm, ignoring her racing pulse "Which part exactly?"
His ears glowed slightly pink and he made a small gargling noise before saying shyly "When you, I mean we….." He stared at the floor.
She looked up at him steadily. "When I kissed you?"
"Yeah," He flushed deeper. "Er, what I mean is what-why did you….err…."
She turned away, biting back disappointment. She'd hoped that he would know, that this time nothing would have to be said.
She let the silence hang again before saying casually:
"Remember once I told you you had the emotional range of a teaspoon?"
Ron grinned in spite of himself "Vividly."
"Well," Her voice was quavering dangerously now. "Well that was two years ago Ron! And as you still haven't noticed I'm in love with you , much less done anything about it , I've been thinking maybe I was a little bit too generous with that statement!"
He took on his familiar expression of having just been hit in the back of the head with the extended edition of "Hogwarts, a history".
"You what?"
Her quiet words cut through the night.
"You heard. I love you. Not Harry or Victor or, or professor Flitwick or anyone else you thought it was – it's always been you."
Only Ron could find a way to look both confused and deliriously happy.
"But what about when you-"
"-what about Lavender?" she cut in quickly and he had the grace to look ashamed of himself.
The space between them was now nothing.
The blue eyes met the brown and as he traced the curve of her cheek with one hand he whispered:
"I love you too."
And then he kissed her. It was different from the first time; starting with the passion of those who wait, but ending softly so that her very body seemed to tingle and glow and transform into something quite different, so that her heart felt so full she thought it must break.
She felt his large hands move from her waist and slowly up her back, coming to tangle in her hair, cradling her against him.
After what could so easily have been hours, they drew apart and, without speaking, both lowered themselves down onto the damp grass, sitting against the beech tree with his arm draped easily over her shoulders as if they'd been doing this for years.
Watching the first stirrings of dawn reflected by the lake, Hermione's thoughts wandered over the many sunny afternoons spent under this very tree; the boys, her boys, talking about quiddich or some other rubbish whilst she tried in vain to stop them failing their exams – when all this had just been a dream.
"Why did you wait?" Ron's voice came softly from a few inches above her head. "There were always loads of people who wanted to go out with you – why stick around for me?"
"Oh," she smiled, turning so that her cheek lay in the hollow of his shoulder. "I always knew you'd get there in the end."