Depths
Ron asks Harry, once, why he reckons Hermione chose him. Harry looks at him with an odd expression.
Ron hates this feeling sometimes. Hermione is leafing through a book while he looks at the Quidditch results in the Daily Prophet, and all in all it is a perfectly normal morning. Then she smiles that smile, and he wishes he knew why. He could ask of course, but it wouldn't matter. She'd explain, talk a mile a minute about whatever fascinating fact, or fantastic story she's just discovered. But he won't really understand. And they both know it. She doesn't mind of course. She's used to being alone in her mind. It makes him lonely.
Ron mostly doesn't mind, really. Hermione amazes him, with her endless compassion, her wit, her temper. He thinks sometimes he starts fights with her just because he doesn't know what she'll say. After all of these years she can still surprise him. He wonders if he surprises her. He wants all of her. But then just the parts of her he reaches are so much more than he could ever have hoped for, so he has to be grateful. He wonders why she loves him sometimes, when she sees so much more, so much deeper and farther than him. From him?
Ron loves Hermione so much he sometimes thinks it is unbearable. Of course she's beautiful. But with Hermione it's always been something of a second thought. He knows she thinks its because she's not so lovely as she is, but he knows its because with her there is so much more to love, so much more to comprehend than simple beauty.
Even her flaws amaze him, how she can be arrogant, and forgets to feel. How she feels to much and tries to order everyone around her as she thinks they should be. How her anger and her love could both burn down the world. Poor Marietta Edgcombe was in St Mungo's for months after the war to undo Hermione's jinx.
Ron's a simple bloke, and he married a woman just the opposite. Sometimes he hates it. He knows people still wonder at it. He, a dunce with the emotional range of a teaspoon, married to this bright star of a woman. It's always also amazing when he catches a glimpse of all the worlds and depths behind her eyes. He wants to stare into those depths forever. He could spend forever learning all the ways to love her.
Hermione is looking at him, smiling that smile.
"What?" he says, feeling defensive.
"I love it you know," she responds, still smiling, "Seeing all your thoughts pass through behind your eyes. I don't always know even what I'm thinking. But you're always so clear, so solid."
That's something then.
"I never really thought about it." Harry says, finally. "Somehow it always just fit.