"Ron, are you still awake?"

"Yes, Hermione." He sounds so very tired.

Harry's light snores could be heard from the couch next them, echoing throughout the room at #12 Grimmauld place. I'm glad he was getting some rest. It certainly hadn't been coming easy lately.

"Do you think we'll win this?" I ask him quietly, searching for his hand in the dark.

"I think we will. We just can't give up." I find his hand and he grasps mine firmly.

"Want some warm milk?" I inquire after a moment of silence.

"What?" He chuckles.

"It seems an appropriate act of comfort for a time like this" I retort.

"Yeah, that'd be great" I can hear a smile in his voice. Cheering Ron up through his stomach commonly works.

I slip off the couch quietly and Ron stands, both careful not to awake Harry. We pat down the stairs to the kitchen, still holding hands, our wands illuminating the dusty hallway. As we enter the kitchen I light a few candles around the room, giving a warm and faint glow to the worn kitchen.

"I worry too, you know." Ron states grimly as he takes a seat at the table. I grasp two mugs we had found earlier in a cabinet and fill them with milk we had purchased the day before, whispering a heating spell and placing them on the table, taking a seat across from Ron.

"It'd be ridiculous not to." I respond, delicately sipping the milk.

"It's nice to have little distractions," he indicates the milk with his hand, holding it up and taking his own giant gulp and then gasping because it was too hot. "Arg!" he exclaims, tossing down the mug and making an aghast face. "Ron, you oaf!" I retort while shaking my head, reaching across the table and wiping the milk that was dribbling down his chin with my sleeve. We both pause-my hand cradling the side of his face and him looking sadly into my eyes, I go to remove my hand and he catches it in his, saying "Hermione-" with a searching look on his face. "I know" I say, and nod my agreement with his unsaid feeling. He lowers our combined hands on the table. "It helps to be able to focus on something else, something that we haven't lost in all of this." There is something about the bold honesty of his words that strikes a chord in me. He certainly has grown up over these years, he isn't the bumbling and always hungry redheaded boy I met my first year at school. Well alright, he's still hungry. But now he's a man, bold and daring. I shiver a little, suddenly I feel a few butterflies in my stomach because our hands are still joined.

Be brave, Hermione. You're a strong witch and you're on a mission with your best friends to save the wizarding world, interacting with the male species shouldn't cause you any discomfort. It's Ron.

Ron. He very slowly lifts my hand and kisses it, gently, holding it to his lips where I can feel his breath on my fingertips. I stand, letting the butterflies in my stomach encourage me. By tomorrow we may have missed our chance. I walk around the table, him still holding my outreached hand, and I very tenderly sit on his lap. His face shows surprise, and switches to comfort. I wrap one arm around his back, and place my head on his shoulder. He reaches both arms around me and holds me there for a second. I pull back and look at his face, a small tear sliding down his cheek. I kiss him, full on the lips. To his credit, he doesn't make any remarks or act surprised, he simply kissed me back. We stay like that for a minute, not removing our lips from each other's, his hands tighten around my back and he murmurs something into my mouth.

I'm enjoying his warm, soft lips, and the way my stomach is now quite content, being filled with warm milk and approving butterflies. I pull back my face to see Ron's eyes in a sort of glazed over way, he stares at me for a second, and smiles, and I smile back. "This is nice" he murmurs, and I roll my eyes at his stating of the obvious and stand up, leaning over him again to peck him once more on the lips. Mmm, soft.

I grab his hand and we return to the drawing room where Harry is still fast asleep. We are still worried, but now we both had a renewed reason to be hopeful.