DISCLAIMER: I don't own Ron, Hermione or adventures. I don't even own the format or the plot. Absolutely nothing is mine.


Adventures.

Blurb …

Every weekend they would go on an adventure. "The mer-people have stolen the most important thing in the world to you. What did they take?" "… you?" :RHr takes place during an AU postDH:

Note: This story takes place in an AU after the end of the war. Ron never met Hermione and Harry on that first day for Hogwarts and was never friends with them. Voldemort took over, but Harry and Hermione never went through the crazy adventures they went on in the books. There was a final battle, but no Horcruxes to destroy, Philosopher's Stone to save, Basilisk to fight, Time-travel, Triwizard Tournament, Battle at the Ministry, or getting the locket. Just Voldemort to kill. All in all, a rather boring version of HP that takes a while.

This takes place the summer after the war ended.


Part Two: Adventure to remember

Summer continued.

Ron couldn't decide if anything had really changed or not – they still went on adventures every weekend and she was still the best hero he'd ever had. But now when she held his hand, fire sizzled up his arm. When they fought, tension burned.

"Come to have a good gloat?" he had snarled at her when, after blatantly denying to his mother that he was going out with anyone, Mrs Weasley had countered by saying that Hermione had already told her. "Or have you just been to tell on me?"

Hermione had rolled her eyes in disgust. "Honestly Ron, you'd think I'd done something horrible! What does it matter if your Mum knows we're …?" She had trailed off, not really wanting to bring up the fact that they hadn't exactly confirmed anything official yet.

"Because!" Ron had gripped his hair, pacing back and forth in front of her. He hadn't intended on his mother running after him with his lunch, finally catching up with him in the Leaky Cauldron as he made his way to work and he certainly hadn't counted on Hermione turning up five seconds after his Mum chewed him out over not telling him about his life. There was a reason he hadn't told his mother about Hermione: she helped him forget about his crazy family and the brother that was no longer there. If she became a part of his family … "Now she'll want to know everything! And I don't just mean everything, I mean EVERYTHING!"

"For Merlin's sake, she's just interested in your life!" Hermione had yelled back.

"Well, sometimes I wish she bloody well wasn't!" he had said. "And sometimes I wish I had never bloody met you!"

"You don't mean that!"

"Of COURSE I don't bloody well mean it!"

(And he had kissed her for good measure).


About two weeks after this amazing change, Ron found himself hiding behind a dessert menu.

"Er … Ron?" Hermione asked, eyeing him since he had just dived behind the menu as they sat outside a cosy café in Diagon Alley. "What are you doing?"

"Er, well …" Ron glanced over the top of his menu. Yes. She was still there. "Hermione, I don't want to alarm you, but turns out, my ex-girlfriend is apparently still a waitress here …"

Hermione glanced around and sure enough, Lavender Brown was taking an order a few tables over from them, wearing an apron and her blond hair pulled back. Hermione remembered her from Hogwarts, having shared a dormitory with her for six years. She turned back to ask Ron why he'd taken her to a café where his previous girlfriend once worked, however the sight of him cowering behind the menu simply made her snort with laughter.

"Oh for gods sake, just come out from behind the menu," she said, jerking it out of his hands. This caused him to squeak and dive under the table. "I mean, unless you murdered her cat or something, I don't think she's going to care that you're here."

"Er yeah, well thing is, I really have bad experience when it comes to girls …" Came Ron's muffled voice from under the table. Hermione rolled her eyes and gave a hasty nod to the wizard sat at the table next to them, who was eyeing Ron under the table, looking rather confused. "I was sixteen when we went out! And well, I didn't really know how to break up with her, so …"

"You're not telling me that you didn't actually dump her?" Hermione asked, aghast.

"No!" Ron insisted, sticking his head out slightly to look at her, so now she could only just see his eyes, his forehead and top of his very red head. "I, er … got Ginny to do it …"

Hermione tried very much not to laugh, but against her will, she let out a snort. "How … how much did you have to pay her?" she asked, covering her mouth with a hand to try and stifle her laughter.

She knew he was looking sheepish, despite the fact that she could only see half his face. "Eleven Sickles. Was all I could afford, so I had to do her homework till the end of the year. I learnt a lot in Sixth Year …"

Hermione snorted again. "Well, I hope you have a plan to get out of this …" she said since by that point, Lavender had approached their table.

"Hi, my name is Lavender, I'll be serving you today, what can I get you?" she rattled off, looking bored as she flicked her wand and her notepad got ready to write. It was then she actually noticed who was sitting at the table. "Hermione Ganger?" she said, astonished.

"Er, hello …" Hermione said, giving a half-hearted wave. As much as she was looking forward to Ron getting chewed out by his ex, she had never actually liked the girl. At all. She had spent way too much time exploring the pros and cons of un-chippable nail polish for her liking and as a result, the two had never really gotten along.

Lavender didn't seem to know what to say. "I … er, shit! How … er, are you?" she eventually said, looking extremely awkward.

"Oh, you know …" Hermione glanced at Ron for help, but soon found that that was a mistake. Lavender glanced over as well and noticed the head still sticking out from under the table.

"Ron Weasley?"

"Oh! Er, hi Lavender …" Ron grimaced as he reluctantly climbed back into his chair. Lavender's expression had grown stormy.

"What the hell're you doing here?" she asked, eyes narrowed.

"Oh, just enjoying the summer sunshine, you know," Ron said what he apparently thought was a nonchalant tone. "Thought we'd come here for a bite to eat! Didn't … didn't know you still worked here … last I heard, you were planning to move to France …"

Lavender gave him a very shrewd look. "I got a job offer at the Ministry," she said, finally. "I'm still at the café to pay for tuition. So you going to tell me how you two apparently know each other? Don't think I'd ever seen you exchange one word at Hogwarts …"

"Oh, I met Hermione almost a month ago now," Ron said. Hermione noticed his ears steadily turning a bright red colour. "And er, turns out we … er well, she's …" He trailed off looking quite hopelessly lost and Hermione had to suppress another snort of laughter. For something to do, he grabbed his Pumpkin Juice and took a gulp. Under the table, Hermione kicked her sandal off and trailed her bare foot up his leg, as if to say oh, Ron you know exactly who I am

He promptly choked on his Pumpkin Juice.

"We're … together." Hermione eventually told Lavender, since Ron just hacked and coughed.

She wasn't sure what Lavender was expecting, but it definitely wasn't that. "Oh," she said, eventually. "I see. Well …" She snapped her notebook closed. "If his sister comes up to you saying 'we need to talk', then good bloody luck."

And she stalked off without taking their order.

Ron groaned and banged his head on their table. "I didn't think it went that badly," Hermione mused out loud. "I mean, here I was, thinking that she would try and murder you …"

"Ah well," Ron said, shrugging. "She just couldn't let go of me …"

"Can't imagine why," Hermione said, dryly. "Well, since I figured she probably wouldn't serve us, I'll have you know that I sent our order to the front counter as soon as I realised it was her, ten minutes ago," Hermione said, gesturing to another waitress who was levitating food in their direction. "And you're in luck! I think it's just about here."

Ron's eyes lit up at the sight of food and practically inhaled his muffin as soon as it landed on their table. "Oh …" he sighed around the chocolate muffin. "I love you, Hermione!" He said without even thinking.

Hermione only smiled. "Don't let Lavender hear you say that."


It was during that weekends adventure when she brought it up.

"C'mon, Amelia wouldn't run from this!" Ron was yelling. They were down by the river that ran through Ottery St Catchpole, Ron already having swung across to the other side on the rope swing. He and his siblings used to play down there all the time. He'd found himself down there a lot recently.

"Yeah, well you're forgetting Amelia could turn into a cat …" Hermione called from the other side, clutching the rope tightly in her hands and staring at the water. It wasn't a particularly big river, but for some reason, she still seemed to be terrified.

"Like I've said before, you'd make a good cat!"

"Ron, I don't know …"

"Oh, c'mon," Ron said, hanging off a stray tree branch. "You can't save me if you're on that side of the river."

"I think I'm ready for the adventure to be over now!" Hermione yelled and Ron rolled his eyes.

"This was your idea!"

"No, this was your idea!" Hermione yelled back. "I said we should go on an adventure – you were the one who dragged me down here! Besides, the party starts in half an hour, we should probably get goin–"

"–sorry, what party?" Ron cut in, frowning.

Hermione didn't answer and all he could hear was the roaring of the river. "Hermione–?"

"I … didn't I tell you?" For some reason, Hermione looked nervous. "Harry and some others are having a party tonight at the Leaky Cauldron. You know … sort of to celebrate us surviving the year …"

Ron frowned even more, still hanging off his branch. "That's funny, considering half the wizarding world didn't survive the year …"

Hermione sighed. "Look, you can invite your sister if you want, I'm sure Harry wouldn't mind. I think we all need a bit of celebrating right now, yeah?"

"Not really …" Ron muttered to himself, twisting at his branch absently and thinking of Fred. Hermione didn't hear him over the rushing of the river, which was probably a good thing. She was already looking exasperated.

"Come on, Ron," she said, starting to look slightly nervous again. "We won the war, that's reason enough to celebrate, right?"

"Yeah, maybe since we're alive and all," Ron said, bitterly. "We can all go sit in the Leaky Cauldron and drink merrily to the people who died! Why the hell're you telling me about this stupid party anyway?"

Hermione gaped for a moment before blushing bright red. "We're allowed to bring guests and I was going to ask you to come, but if you think it's that stupid then I won't bother!"

Ron snapped his head up to stare at her. She was scowling, but still bight red. "You were going to ask me?" He said, still staring.

Hermione looked up to direct her scowl at him. "Yes," she said, angrily. "But if you'd rather sit here and mope by yourself …"

Ron stared at her for a moment. "No, I wouldn't." he said.

He wasn't exactly sure what he would've done next – if he was on her side of the river, he might have kissed her. However, before he could even act, the branch he was hanging onto suddenly gave an almighty crack and split from the tree entirely. Ron found himself plunging face-first into the river with a yell and a splash.

"Ron!" Hermione called. "Ron, are you all right?"

Ron spouted water from his mouth. "Wet, this, isn't it?" he said.


The party was in full swing by the time they got there, though Ron really wasn't in the mood for it. The summer had only just turned into July – the war was almost exactly two months ago. And here was the better part of their year group, sitting in the Leaky Cauldron, being happy.

Yeah well, all Ron had to say was screw happy.

"Hey, Ron!" Harry called, waving them over from where he was sat with Neville at a table. "Hermione! How're you two, then?"

"Well, I'm brilliant," Hermione answered, sitting down. "Mr I'm-Going-to-Sulk-for-the-Next-Five-Hours on the other hand …" Ron just shot her a look and didn't answer. Neville was frowning at Hermione and that was when Ron remembered – Neville knew about Fred. In fact, he'd been at the funeral. As far as Harry and Hermione were concerned, there were so many people who died that day, one Weasley brother was hardily enough to keep track of.

Still.

Even though he was still slightly pissed off at her for dragging him here when all he really wanted to do was perhaps curl up on the Burrow's sofa with a comic of The Adventures of Amelia the Animagus, Ron found that he still watched her throughout the night. She was chatting to Neville happily when Harry said,

"You really fancy her, don't you?"

Ron shot him a look. "Kind of obviously, I think."

Harry snorted. "Look mate, I'm not going to go all older-brotherly, over-protective because lets face it, she could have you in St Mungos in one second if she wanted," Ron did know it and they both shuddered, imagining. "But I am going to ask, despite this being my good-as sister we're talking about … what's the deal with you two?"

"What d'you mean?"

"Well," Harry shrugged. "Are you actually going out? It's like you've been stuck with a permanent sticking charm ever since you met."

Ron felt his ears turning red as he glanced sideways at Hermione again. "I dunno, really …" he muttered. "We hang out … go on adventures …"

"Ah, yes. Adventures," Harry smiled. "She likes that. Was ranting and raving after your first little outing. While it was normal for her to condone the uniform standards, I don't think I'd ever remembered seeing you wearing your Gryffindor tie so often before …"

"Oh, shut it." Ron punched his shoulder.

"Oi!" Harry said, though he grinned. "Mate, you seem a bit … I dunno, down tonight. I dunno if it's about Hermione or not, but my advice is to talk to her. You'll probably find that she understands a bit more than you think. Brain the size of England, that one."

"Don't I know it," Ron said. He turned to Harry. "Thanks, mate."

"Ah, no problem," Harry said, shrugging. "Just promise to look after her, yeah?"

"Yeah." Ron would've been fine with spending the rest of the night just talking to Harry – he'd forgotten his easy-going nature and well, he did live with him for six years. But that was when Hermione wandered back over again, leaning against Ron's side as casually as if they'd been doing it for years.

"So, my boys keeping out of trouble?" she asked, smiling. Ron still didn't know how she could do it and Harry eyed the two, noticing how her smile dropped slightly when she realised Ron wouldn't look her in the eye.

"Ron, can I speak to you for a moment?" she asked and Ron felt his insides freeze at the thought. However, he couldn't say no to her.

"Sure." he said blankly, allowing her to grab his hand and lead him through the Leaky Cauldron and to the hallway that led to the rooms at the Inn. She shut the door to the pub behind them, blocking out the sounds of the party.

It was silent save for them. Ron had never felt so naked.

"All right, out with it," Hermione demanded, hands on hips. "What is your problem?"

"Nothing." Ron said shrugging, hands in pockets.

Hermione gave an exasperated sigh, the one she often did when he managed to annoy her. "No, it's not!" she said. "You never wanted to come to this party, did you?"

"Not particularly."

"Then why did you come?"

"You asked me!" Ron retorted, looking up at her. "I could hardily say no, could I?"

Hermione rolled her eyes. "For Gods sake Ron, I didn't force you to come!"

"Yeah well, you might as well have," Ron said, moving away from her and leaning against the corridor wall. "I didn't particularly want to sit in there, surrounded by people celebrating the fact that they survived the war! I feel guilty enough as it is!"

"What the hell d'you have to feel guilty about?" Hermione yelled. "You survived, that's not a crime! That just proves that you fought, that you were brave, that you–"

"I wasn't brave, Hermione!" Ron yelled back. "You don't have any idea how bloody scared I was that night!"

Hermione shook her head. "Ron, I was scared too, that doesn't mean you weren't brav–"

"Yes, it does!" he yelled, hands leaving his pockets to gesture frantically. "Maybe if I'd been braver, if I'd fought better, but doesn't bloody matter any more because nothing can bring him back, Hermione! My brother is dead because of that war!" he practically roared that last statement, making Hermione go rigid with shock. "He's gone and nothing can bring him back! His twin is an emotional wreck and hasn't said a word since the funeral! When he died, he ripped a chunk out of our family and Hermione, no amount of sitting around, clapping ourselves on the back for getting through it all is going to change that! So sorry if I don't want to sit around with a bunch of people who applaud themselves on living when my brother is DEAD!"

He breathed heavily at the end of his outburst and though he knew it was the cause of the hurt on Hermione's face, he wouldn't take it back. Since they were silent, he could hear a voice outside the door to the pub wonder out loud what all the yelling was about. Hermione just stared at him for a few moments before glancing at the door once, then grasping his hand tightly. "My house. Now." she said before twisting on the spot with a crack.

Ron found himself in what had to be Hermione's bedroom. She stormed around the room, slamming the door shut and flicking on the lights so he got a good look around – perfectly made bed, desk and huge bookshelf that was overflowing. While they had often hung out around her lounge downstairs, even meeting her parents, he'd never actually been in her room before.

However his musings were cut short when Hermione rounded on him.

"You idiot!" she yelled and Ron's mouth fell open almost instantly to argue back, but she pressed on. "Why didn't you tell me about your brother?"

"Well, I don't like to remember the fact that he's dead!" Ron yelled.

Hermione made a sound that would've been an exasperated groan, only it sounded a lot more frustrated than usual. "Ron!" she cried. "How the hell do you expect me to know how you're feeling if you won't even mention the fact that your brother died in the war? His twin? Oh, I remember those two now! I had to tell them off so many times for setting off dungbombs and other ridiculous things. You three must be devastated!"

"Yeah well, it's not just us …" Ron muttered.

Hermione just gaped. "How many of you are there?" she said.

For some reason, Ron just felt even guiltier. "Look, I don't even know how to answer that any more!" he yelled. "If someone asks Mum how many children she has, what does she say?"

"Well I wouldn't know, since I didn't even know you had brothers, let alone one that died!"

"There were seven!" Ron roared at her, storming over to her bedroom door and leading against it roughly in an attempt to get as far away from her as possible. "Me, Ginny and five older brothers! And now what? There's only six of us? Mum still cries at the littlest things like putting her slippers on the wrong feet! Percy left us during the war to support the Ministry and is now trying to make up for it, but no amount of cooking and cleaning he can do will make a difference! Bill and Fleur jetted off for France the second the funeral was over! Charlie disappeared to Romania again and George hasn't left his room in two months! Ginny's busy pretending everything's all right and Dad can barely hold everything together! And me–" He suddenly cut himself off. He couldn't speak anymore.

Hermione had been standing by her bed, eyes silently filling with tears. Now they ran down her cheeks as she managed to say, "Ron … I'm sorry …"

"Yeah, well …" Ron said, bitterly. "Doesn't matter any more, does it?"

"You still should've told me."

"Oh really, when?" Ron said. "While we were busy running around Diagon Alley? When we were climbing trees or while I was thrashing you at chess? There's never a good time to just blurt out to your girlfriend 'oh, by the way, my brother's dead and my family is in the middle of having an emotion breakdown'!"

Hermione was silent for a moment. Then she said, "Girlfriend?"

"You – what?"

"Girlfriend," Hermione repeated, even though Ron had heard her quite clearly the first time. "You called me your girlfriend …"

"Oh," Ron was already on the verge of crying as it was. He didn't need any more emotion. "I guess … I mean, I suppose …"

"Look Ron, I'm sorry," Hermione said, tears still running freely. "I – I should've asked if it was ok first, I shouldn't have forced you to com–"

"No, it's fine," Ron said, trying to look anywhere but at her. He failed. As soon as he met her eyes, he knew it was no use. "But Hermione … it hurts."

"Oh my God …" Hermione muttered and she moved forward. Ron somehow found his feet moving as well and in the next second, he had slammed against her, throwing his arms around her waist tightly and pressing his face into her hair. It took him another second to realise he was sobbing.

Hermione was crying too and they stood there for quite some time, simply holding onto each other. Ron hadn't let himself feel quite this much about Fred before and to feel it while sobbing all over Hermione made him feel at least a little bit of embarrassment. However, he still couldn't bring himself to let go of her and in fact, just clung on even more tightly.

Eventually the sobs eased off and they found themselves just standing there in silence with their arms around each other. He realised he was absent-mindedly rubbing circles on her back and her face was pressed contently into his neck when he spotted it, just sitting there on her bed.

"… er, Hermione?"

"Yeah?"

"Why in Merlin's name do you have a stuffed dragon sitting on your bed?"

Hermione sniffed and glanced around. "Oh," she said, spotting the small, black dragon sitting by her pillow. "That's Norbert. Won him in Diagon Alley summer after my First Year at Hogwarts. Was with Harry and Hagrid when they did a lucky draw for anyone who'd bought a Gilderoy Lockhart book that day."

Ron snorted. "Gilderoy Lockhart?" he repeated, looking at her.

"Shut it!" she said, slapping his chest. "We had to buy them that year! Either way, Hagrid thought it was the best thing ever and named him Norbert. Though Harry insists that he's really a girl and should be called Norberta. I think I prefer Norbert."

"I think I do too," Ron said, still eyeing the dragon's beady eyes as he held Hermione around the waist. "Although it was a bit of a fright to have those eyes staring at me. I swear that thing is alive …"

Hermione snorted. "He won't bite. Breathing fire on the other hand …"

Ron would have laughed but that was when Hermione leaned up and kissed him, fingers threading through his hair. Since they were already wrapped up in each other, it didn't take very long for it to get significantly passionate. However, it wasn't until Hermione reached down to his waist and pulled his Weasley jumper off when he realised where this might be going.

"Oh – er – Hermione … a-aren't your parents home?"

"Oh, no," Hermione answered, smiling at him. "They're at some sort of convention in Birmingham. It's got something to do with teeth, I didn't really ask for the details."

"That's – er – great," Ron managed to get out since she had gone back to kissing him, on his neck this time. "But … d-don't you want to … I dunno, go r-read or something?"

"Read?" Hermione paused and glanced up at him, looking like she was on the verge of laughing. "Ron, I might like books, but I'm not going to pull out Hogwarts: A History right at the moment …"

"Ah," Ron said, becoming even more significantly nervous as he felt his ears go a very bright red. "It's just–"

She cut him off, kissing him hard on the lips and making him stumble slightly towards her bed. Her hands went to the hem of his t-shirt. "Hermione–"

"Are you all right?" she asked, pausing again. "It's ok, it's only me. God, I think I can feel actual heat coming off your ears …"

"Well, it's just …" Ron glanced at her bed. "I've never exactly …"

Hermione caught his gaze. "Oh. Oh. Oh, Merlin's pants!"

"Yeah." Ron muttered.

"Oh Ron, I'm sorry," she said, almost smiling at him as she snatched her hands back, leaping a good few metres away. "I just … I assumed you had …"

Ron just shook his head, embarrassed enough as it was. He wasn't about to make it worse by talking.

Hermione walked forward hesitantly before looping her arms around his waist lightly. "It's just … didn't you go out with Lavender Brown?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah …"

"Well, I did have to share a dormitory with her for six years," she said. "I've heard a lot about her … er, romantic escapades, if you will. Sorry, but I just assumed …"

"… that I was one of them?" Ron finished for her and she nodded, reluctantly. "Yeah well … you certainly seem to know what you're doing."

Hermione blushed. "Er, just barely. Once. Sixth Year. Some Quidditch player I went to Slughorn's Christmas party with. Wasn't brilliant or anything, but I was a bit emotionally spent that year and needed a bit of comforting … besides," she glanced up at him. "I've got you now, don't I?"

Ron grinned. "I suppose, yeah."

She kissed him then and all previous thoughts were forgotten. Ron decided to try and curb his nervousness and found it wasn't very hard when she did that with her lips. His shirt was off by the time his knees hit her bed and they fell onto it in a heap of tangled limbs and laughter. Suddenly, he found himself completely surrounded by her as her hands trailed downward and it was altogether quite thrilling until he felt it.

"No, no, hang on …" Ron gasped, pulling away from her for a moment. "Something's not right …"

"What?" Hermione looked concerned as she stared at him. Ron rolled them over slightly so he could reach under him and Hermione raised an eyebrow. However the next second, he had pulled out a very battered and very not-pleased-looking stuffed dragon.

"Er, Norbert was digging into my back …"


They never did make it back to the party.


"Hermione …" Ron muttered, since she was half-asleep and completely tangled up in him. She looked so comfortable he almost didn't want to make her move. "Hermione. Ginny's going to worry if I don't turn up, she was kind of my ride home since I'm not the best at the whole Apparating thing …"

"Mmm …"

"Hermione …"

"Mmm …"

"You have to get off me."

He felt her smile into his chest. "Oh, no," she muttered, eyes still shut. "Ginny'll be fine. You can … stay."

Ron snorted as Hermione's soft breathing filled the room. He placed a kiss to her hair as she muttered, "… g'night."

"Yeah. Love you."

Hermione glanced sleepily up at him at that. "… really?" she asked, giving a slight smile.

Ron sighed. "Always the tone of surprise."


A/N: So here is the second part of five and like i said, the parts will be posted each Saturday (my NZ time). Just Ron and Hermione growing closer in this one - not much else to say, really. Thank you so much for all of the reviews you have given me so far, you've all been great and supportive.

I hope you all enjoyed this! Remember reviews are always appreciated, i would love to know what you all think.

Until next time-

-Moon. : D