There they sat, in one anothers arms, on an old crimson picnic rug looking out onto the clear moonlit pond. There they were, just two lovers sitting blissfully together in silence after finishing their picnic packed dinner Molly had cooked for them on his request. Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley. The two could not be more in love, and could not be happier with what they have achieved so early in their lives. They had wonderful careers and years earlier they had been there with their best friend, Harry Potter, and watched as he defeated and killed the evil Lord Voldemort, freeing the Wizarding World from one of the most powerful Dark wizards of all time.
Hermione still had her brown hair, although it was less bushy these days, and much shorter so that it only just fell below her shoulders. She had grown taller an inch or so over the last couple of years, but still had her brains about her. She was now the Ancient Ruins teacher at their old school, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and also was a qualified Healer. Her chocolate brown eyes surveyed the man next to her.
Ron had not changed much, apart from building up his muscles due to all his training at work. Yes, the flaming red-haired man had achieved his career choice, and was now a qualified and active Auror working for the Ministry of Magic. His face still contained freckles although now they seemed to have faded. He noticed a set of eyes on him and looked into them with his shining blue ones. She smiled, and he kissed her on the forehead.
Hermione continued to look up, and felt droplets of water come onto her face. It had started sprinkling and obviously Ron had felt it too, as he was now untangling his arms from around her and pulling himself up. He has extended his hand to her his girlfriend up and then it started to fall a bit more. He helped up Hermione who just stood there looking up at the sky, while he packed everything they had used for dinner back into the basket and through in the rug as well. He didn't notice her standing out there and ran to seek shelter from the big tree beside the pond.
"Hermione!" he called "What are you doing, get under here or you'll get sick!" Without looking at him she shouted back over the rain,
"No! I'm having fun out here" And she extended and raised her arms out and started to twirl around in circles. "Come dance with me Ron!" She said with a smile playing upon her face. She knew he would come and she started to giggle and twirls around some more while he raised his arms to cover his face from the rain.
"Why do you like the rain so much? – You're going to get sick!" Ron said, looking at her lovingly. She stopped twirling and looked at him, with a shy grin playing on her face and replied …
"Don't you remember?"
~~~~FLASHBACK~~~~
It was the night before Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacore's wedding. The Burrow was filled with guests, all still talking wildly, some around the kitchen table, some sitting in the living room in various chairs and many places on the floor. The atmosphere was very relaxing, and Harry Potter had been talking to Fred and George about their joke shop – Weasley Wizarding Wheezes, while holding Ginny to him as she rested her eyes, waiting for sleep to come. It had been a long day in preparation for the wedding.
"I absolutely can NOT believe you Ronald!"
The silence was broken with the echoing voice from a younger Hermione Granger bounding down the stairs. Her cheeks were bright red from anger and frustration.
"How DARE you bring him up. Viktor has done nothing wrong and has nothing to do with that conversation."
"What do you mean 'How DARE I'?" The youngest Weasley male came following in her wake also with voice raised and his face tomato red from anger too. "You're the one who snogged HIM!!"
This was met by a groan of irritation from Hermione and a now silenced room of people, except for Fred who whispered to his twin, Harry and the now wide eyed Ginny,
"Another lover's quarrel – how many does that make now I wonder?"
She rushed to escape the room without another word, with him following her out to the garden, determined not to let her sneak her way out from this one. Once out in the backyard getting steadily further from the house with each step she finally retaliated while still walking at a fast pace in the now light shower of rain …
"Whether or not I kissed Viktor is really none of your business. And besides it was one kiss and one kiss only, I didn't snog his face off like Lav-Lav (she said cringing) did yours, and neither did he like you did hers! That was just distasteful!"
"So what if I kissed Lavender … You kissed him fir-" but Ron was cut off as Hermione turned around and shrieked.
"At least I had the privacy and the tact to kiss him away from YOU! What! You think I ENJOYED seeing you to maul each other at the face? Well I didn't!" She panted tears welling up in her eyes, threatening to fall at any moment "I hated it! That's why I avoided you and her whenever I could! I hated it Ron – and you still did it!" She stopped talking, panting and turning away once more and running once more until she got to the small pond.
Once again Ron followed but stopped when he was just meters from her. The rain was falling more heavily now, but he was sure he had heard a sniff coming from the young witch who stood with her back to him. This broke his heart, once again he had managed to hurt her, and he didn't even know what had caused this argument. He stepped forward towards her, but she didn't hear him or pay notice in anyway, she was now crying openly. He took another step, and then another, and continued to do so until he reached her and put his arms around her from behind.
Hermione continued to sob. He didn't know what compelled him to do so but her bent his head slightly over her shoulder and whispered into her right ear a soft apology and kissed her now soaking hair. Without saying a word she turns around to face him while still embraced by his bare arms. Her hands resting on his chest while he tightened his hold. She looked up slightly, looking into his ocean like eyes, the rain falling onto both their heads.
His blazing hair falling and clinging to his face, he don't notice it however, as he is too busy lowering his face to hers. Staring into her eyes, he kissed her wet nose and he spoke once again quietly, "I love you Hermione" and with that he pressed his lips gently to hers. Once the short moment of the kissed had passed she decided to reply back with an equally quiet …
"I love you too Ron" and a smile is once again adorned to her face.
~~~~END FLASHBACK~~~~
They had managed to find that same position, her hands against his chest while he holds her close, never wanting to let go.
"That was one of my most treasured memories Ron, when you told me you loved me"
It was his turn to smile, "By the pond, near the large tree" he looked around and back to her "In this exact position and place, and in this exact weather. Of course I remember, how could I forget it. It was that precise moment where I knew I couldn't deny what I felt anymore. I was head over heels for you, and I still am. That's why I brought you out here tonight. Now it is your turn – do you remember what day it is?"
A puzzled Hermione looked up at him, to which he responded by continuing, "It was exactly 7 years ago that we had that fight. 7 years tonight that we said 'I love you' to each other and shared our first kiss. I say it once more 'Mione, I love you, and I know that I want to spend forever with you, sharing everything with one another, going wherever life takes us together. You mean so much to me and I guess I just want to know one thing …"
Ron had unwrapped his arms from his treasure and plunged his hand into his pants pocket, retrieving a small navy blue, velvet box. He opened it carefully, so that its contents revealed itself to Hermione. She gasped and clasped her mouth with her hand. He had sunk down to stand on bended knee, in the now muddy patch of ground and spoke.
"Hermione Jane Granger, will you please do me the honor, and marry me?" His eyes met with hers again, the rain still falling, and she looked down at him. The moon illuminated his eyes again and they shone right into hers.
She copied his movements and sunk to her knees. She raised her hands and held his face between them, still keeping eye contact she finally spoke, "Yes! Yes I will! It's about time too" and with that she kissed him, mimicking the kiss he had given her all those seven years ago, a light peck on the lips, lingering long enough to memorise the moment.
She pulled back and he clasped her hand in his and slide the simple elegant silver ring, with a single sapphire diamond embedded in it, onto her finger and said "I love you 'Mione". She hung her hands around his neck, and pulled him towards her for another rain-dampened kiss, but not before whispering back,
"And I love you Ron."