Though Hermione had fallen asleep straight away, she unfortunately got little rest that night. Awakening only a few hours after having gone to bed, Hermione tossed and turned for a short while before deciding that if she could not fall back to sleep, she may as well study that pamphlet in detail.
Hermione cast her eyes over the darkened room, catching only the half-shape of Ginny curled on her bed. Carefully listening for any change in the girl's soft breathing, Hermione quietly rummaged for her friend's dressing gown and tiptoed for the door. After successfully closing it behind herself and shuffling down the stairs to the kitchen, Hermione set the kettle on the stove and lit a flame beneath.
The small kitchen window over the sink was still cracked open from when it had been unrelentingly warm in the day. Now, a small tentative breeze whispered in and Hermione lent against the counter on her elbows, gazing out into the yard with a sigh.
Her brain was beginning to pick up speed now, despite the fog of sleepiness. To add to the effect, her thoughts on this new law were beginning to accelerate as well, and she knew that if left unchecked they would transform into full-on hysteria if she didn't make an effort to calm down and read the damn pamphlet. While last night she had been too shocked to think and feel much other than bewilderment, the few hours of sleep she had had served as enough processing time for her brain to begin to comprehend the craziness of it all and the consequences of the actions of the Ministry and of Percy Weasley. One side of her was distressed over the issue of marriage, babies and the like, while the other side of her completely understood where the Ministry was coming from. The first side was thinking thoughts like, 'I'm going to have to have children', 'what will I do for work?', 'there'll be so many bills to pay', 'engaged to George Weasley', and finally the most obvious, the one Hermione had been resolutely not thinking, try as she may, 'we'll have to have sex'. While these thoughts were all rolling around, they were intermixed with the other side's reasoning of 'perfectly understandable', 'expected decline in magical population', and 'the end of feasible blood discrimination within a single generation'.
And of course, Hermione was well aware that if she had not been put with George, a wizard of pureblood status but considered a blood traitor by elitist purebloods for his family's sympathetic views of muggles and muggleborns, the Ministry would likely have paired her with another pure blood for the fact that she was muggleborn. Considering the situation with purebloods and how they either seemed to be Slytherins, ex-Voldemort supporters, or both, this whole fiasco could have turned out to be much more upsetting for her.
The kettle was emitting the beginning sounds of steam and Hermione twisted the gas off and pulled a mug and a teabag from the cupboard, fixing her brew.
But she could see the point of it all, if she was being honest. If the Ministry paired muggleborns and halfbloods with purebloods, the children of these pairings would be of mixed ancestry. The end result would be that no child of that generation could claim to be a pureblood, which meant that in theory, discrimination by blood would all but cease. This in turn would help ease the conflicts that had still bubbled under the surface in the months since the Dark Lord's death. Even though he was gone, his devout followers were not. While the Ministry had rounded up a great number of them and held trials and sentenced the majority to imprisonment, not all had been caught with enough proof and still enjoyed life in the free world. Considering that they would still be running households and likely raising children of their own, they would surely be passing on their views regarding blood and with them, the intolerance and prejudices that Hermione had faced since her entry into the magical world seven ago. By making a requirement of the law that the matches were intended to mix heritages, the Ministry was doing its best to ensure that these problems eased and would be hopefully kept at bay for the foreseeable future. Surely their ultimate goal would be to weed out these intolerant views for good, but history did have a nasty habit of repeating itself. Hermione supposed they were doing the best they could with what they had at their disposal.
Seating herself at the table in one of the larger chairs, Hermione pulled her legs up and sat cross-legged, tea and pamphlet in front of her.
This was it.
Whatever rules and guidelines herein would be the ones which she would have to follow and mold her life around for the estimable future. It was all very surreal; such a large change to what she had been expecting in her fate in such a small package of information.
Hermione took a hearty mouthful of tea to steel her nerves and flipped the cover open.
When Molly had come down the stairs a time later just as the sun was rising over the yard, she had been unsurprised to see Hermione perched at the table, eyes slowly reading through the decree.
"Tea and breakfast now, dear, or later?" she had asked gently.
"Now, please. I'm ravenous," Hermione gave the mother a thankful smile.
"Studiousness does that," Mrs. Weasley sighed. "Anything to report?"
Hermione set down the parchment beside her empty mug before rubbing her hands over her face and tugging Ginny's robe closer around herself.
"Well, Percy already covered the highlights. Seems like the Ministry is keen on this sticking; I haven't seen any hint of being able to get out of this. For anyone. At least they didn't exclude any Ministry workers from having to abide by this law."
"No," Arthur came down the stairs quietly, "but the Wizengamot is made up of witches and wizards who have long since moved out of that age bracket, so there really was no need to put a loophole like that in there for their sakes; they were safe already." The redhead sat at the table in his spot at the head of the table, next to Hermione. Her gave her a tired but warm grin.
"Good morning, Mr. Weasley," Hermione chirruped.
"Good morning, Hermione. Been up long?"
"Oh, long enough. I couldn't fall back to sleep earlier."
"Ah, I see. Made good use of your time, then?" He nodded to the papers sitting on the table between them. Molly sent two plates with fried egg and tomato with toast floating down in front of the two. The plates were closely followed by cutlery, a fresh pot of tea and two glasses of orange juice. "Any thoughts so far?"
"Just that the Ministry seems to be taking everything into consideration. Of course this pamphlet explains everything in layman's terms and not legal jargon, so I can't really pick it apart sufficiently from this alone but they seem to have thought about everything that could come up in this situation they're orchestrating," Hermione buttered and jammed her toast before nibbling the edge. She had not realized until the smell of the food on her plate had fully assaulted her senses that she was truly starving, if not a little weak feeling from all her fretting and analyzing.
"Such as?" Arthur prompted, adjusting in his chair so he could better face Hermione as opposed to the empty table before them.
"Well," Hermione began, gathering her thoughts with a brief pause, "I know for a fact that the Ministry has instituted other such actions for the continuation of the magical community in at least two other occasions. The reasons then were much the same in essence, war depleting magical communities and of course the war at the time was very much for the same reasons the one we just came out of was. Blood. Those times, the law succeeded in helping the numbers rise again to the point at which the Ministry saw fit to retract the order to enforce it. However, both of those times the order was to marry and procreate. You obviously see the difference."
"Mmm," Arthur chewed pensively. After swallowing, he began again. "Well it certainly will take more work and monitoring on behalf of the Ministry. Not forcing people to marry is a wise idea considering it is a mandatory decree and people at least may be able to see that the Ministry had people's welfare in mind. I don't suppose many will be happy to be told to have children with a Ministry-approved match, but far less would be happy if they had to marry their match."
"Seeing as divorce doesn't really exist in the magical world, yes, I imagine the Ministry will try to lessen the blow that way. Or at least try to get people to see that everything could be much worse. Though I'm positive there will be an uproar, regardless. I can only imagine the amount of owls the Ministry will be receiving today when it all goes public."
"The Prophet will be here shortly which means, yes. Today will be fiasco, I'm sure. I daresay the paper will have some rather opinionated views and gossip about the whole things, particularly our Rita Skeeter," Arthur drained the last of his juice, having finished his tea already. He rose, taking his dishes with him over to the counter and kissed Molly's cheek as she accepted them and dumped them into the sink with the cooking pans. "Thank you dear, that was delicious. Wish me luck, you two! Merlin knows I'll need it."
"Good luck, Mr. Weasley!" Hermione called as he slung a cloak around his shoulders and left for the yard to disapparate. She turned her head to look at Molly. "It is very good." The girl continued with the last of her eggs and tomatoes in a thoughtful silence, considering everything she had read three times this morning. When the Prophet arrived she would also read through that and see where everyone stood. Perhaps she would have a better idea of what she wanted by the time Fred and George appeared for dinner.
When Hermione had finished and chatted with Mrs. Weasley some more, she had excused herself and climbed back up the stairs tiredly. It was still quite early and Ginny was still fast asleep when she had crept back into the room to grab her things and head for the bathroom for a shower.
Soon she was back downstairs with her book and trotting outside to sit in the morning sun with her book. She had decided not think any more about this law for fear of driving herself mad. It would be best to wait until she saw George to figure out between the two of them what was going to work best. She had no idea what he was going to say to her later on today. Did he even find her attractive? No, she wasn't going to think about that. Her stomach flopped around in the depths of her belly.
Thinking back to last night, how he had smiled down at her, and teased her for blushing so hard over him, remembering the pink tinge to his cheeks as he had laughed at her stance then, she conceded that he was handsome, though she had never seriously considered him as a suitor. She had always had a soft spot for Ron even though it was clear now that that would never have worked, regardless of the Ministry's current actions. Ron and she had kissed once, during the final battle, but to Hermione's disappointment the flame seemed to sizzle in the aftermath of the action. Hermione supposed that the tension between them had been growing since they had hit puberty but she had a feeling it had also been closely linked to the pressure of the times as well. It had grown as the danger from the outside world had, a direct result of being forced closer by hard times and war. The climactic final battle of Hogwarts had been their breaking point, but after, as the world had basked in relative peace, Hermione found her mind clearing and wondering why she had ever thought so fervently that her and Ron were meant to be and finally, finally, come to terms with the fact that she would never be truly happy with him. Since then, they had fallen back into the routine of being good friends, although they were a bit less predisposed to quarrel over unnecessary things. Ron occasionally let his glances linger just a moment too long, but Hermione ignored them and carried on. She didn't know what she wanted, career or otherwise. It wasn't as if she was on the hunt for a significant other when the Ministry had decided on that for her. She didn't quite see how her and George were going to make the whole 'domestic bliss' thing work but she had nothing to lose.
Except her sanity, she chuckled. Hermione Granger, living with a man who made his fortune on practical jokes and encouraging mayhem and rule-breaking at Hogwarts.
When the sun had risen higher in the sky, Ginny had come trotting out to her friend with a tray of sandwiches and fruit.
"Oi! Mum says you've been up since the crack of dawn! What is wrong with you?" the redhead laughed. She plopped down across from Hermione at the table, setting the tray between them. As she reached for a sandwich, Hermione was once again caught off guard by the ring on her friend's finger.
"That really is a beautiful ring, Gin," Hermione sighed wistfully.
"Isn't it? Harry said it was his grandmother's. The old bird had good taste," Ginny commented good-heartedly.
Ginny held out her hand to Hermione. The ring glittered in the sun of the September day as Hermione admired it. It consisted of a large square diamond set in a platinum band that had other tiny diamonds set into it. Though it was large, it somehow came off as quite delicate.
"What kind of a ring do you think you'll want?" Ginny asked, munching away on the sandwich in her other hand.
"Oh, I'm just going to use one of my mum's old rings. I already told George I would," Hermione selected a wedge of watermelon.
"I'd bet money on him giving you a ring from him." Ginny surveyed her friend's reaction.
"What? No," Hermione brushed off. "Why would he do that? We don't even know what we're going to do about all this yet."
"After, I mean. After you decide to get married."
"Why do you say that?" Hermione was now observing her friend intently.
"Just a feeling." Ginny grinned. "Still want to go down to the lake after lunch?"
It had not escaped Hermione that Ginny had changed the topic of conversation rather smoothly.
The girls had gathered their things and trekked the short walk to the small lake that was on the Weasley's property. Molly had sent them with snacks and the promise to Ginny to send Harry along when he arrived. Ron had left some time that morning to visit with Lavender, who had owled him back this morning. He had sent her a note last night before he had gone to bed, briefly explaining the situation and asking to speak with her today. She had owled back an affirmative and he'd been gone ever since.
The hot sun beat down on the girls and for a few hours they paddled around the lake and laid in the rays of warmth. Ginny was quite keen on tanning but Hermione slathered herself in sunscreen just about every hour.
When they finally made their way back to the Burrow, they were surprised to see Harry, Ron, Fred and George already sitting at the kitchen table, all hunched over letters.
"What are those?" Ginny asked and the boys looked up at the two new arrivals.
Hermione's eyes met George's and she blushed, realizing that this was likely the first time he had seen her in a bathing suit that was not a very covering one-piece. Her suit was a deep purple with wide straps with no risk of flying off during a big jump into the lake. She had piled her damp hair on top of her head a while ago, and it had thankfully dried out already. George smiled at her, eyes sweeping over her and then back to the parchment in his hands quickly.
"Ministry letters," Ron answered.
"Be right back," Hermione's heart thudded in her chest as she walked through to the stairs and clambered up to Ginny's room. She quickly pulled a strap shirt over her head and jean shorts up her legs, not bothering to change out of her suit. She rushed back down to find a letter addressed to her sitting in front of the empty seat across from George.
"It's all so... specific," Ron commented.
"Of course it is," Fred replied.
"I mean like, scientific."
"Yeah, technical," George laughed, his eyes flicking over to watch Hermione tear her letter open and begin reading. "I wouldn't be surprised if I turned to the next page and and found the Ministry-approved step-by-step guide on how to make a baby."
"George!" Mrs. Weasley appeared, basket of clean laundry in hand.
"'The Only Three Positions You'll Ever Need!'" Fred exclaimed, causing the table to laugh uproariously, effectively breaking the ice Hermione had not been aware was there. Her eyes went back to the parchment and flew across the page quickly.
"Fred!" Molly set the basket down on the table with a thump and a glare.
"I was only joking mum, keep your hair on," Fred muttered. "Well, that's that then, isn't it?" His palms slapped the scrubbed wooden table with a thwack.
"So what is going on then? Do the girls all have rings, at least until you lot can buy them nice ones?" Ginny questioned, setting her letter down.
"Well I don't know about these dunderheads but I went and bought Ange a ring this morning and proposed this afternoon," Fred gloated, leaning back in his chair with his hands laced behind his head.
"And how did that go?" Hermione inquired, fairly sure she knew the answer already.
"Very well," Fred turned his gaze on her and waggled his eyebrows suggestively. George elbowed his twin, though he was also grinning. "What? Just getting a head start on this baby-making business. You should try it sometime," he quipped, fixing his twin with a pointed look. Though confused at the looks being sent between the twins, Hermione's stomach flipped again at the insinuation.
"Fred Weasley-" Molly started, shaking her head.
"We only have 18 months to make a kid, mum. Not like there's a lot of time to wait around discussing things."
"Let me see that," the matriarch held out her hand for Fred's letter, committing her attention to the text when he handed it over. A few beats passed before she began reading, "By mandate of the Ministry of Magic, it is hereby declared that all witches and wizards of British citizenship in possession of confirmed magical talent shall be matched by the Ministry with a partner for the purposes of propagation. All citizens who are between the ages of 17 and 45 fall within the jurisdiction of this decree. If the witch or wizard comes of age while still attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the law will defer until the witch or wizard graduates. It is a requirement of the law that each pair produce the first child on or before the date exactly 18 months from the time of the passing of this legislation (September 1st, 1998). The date at which 18 months has passed is March 1st, 2000. The matter of marriage is up to the discretion of the partners. However it is to be noted that if the ministry pairs enter into marriage before the passing of 12 months from the time of legislation passing (September 1st, 1999), the Ministry will grant an additional 18 months to the couple to produce their first child. All forms of contraception will be illegal and punishable by law if any citizen is found to have made use of any, magical and muggle alike, regardless of intent to marry or not. All medical costs associated with this legislation will be covered by the Ministry and maternity and paternity tests will be performed upon confirmation of pregnancy by a registered Healer. Enclosed is more in depth information about this statute and contact information for the Maternity Ward at St. Mungo's.
Hoping you are well,
Mafalda Hopkirk
Department of Magical Law Enforcement".
"So Angelina said yes then?" Rod asked when his mother had finished reading out the letter, somewhat aghast.
"Of course," Fred drawled confidently from his seat, hands still laced behind his head.
"Wow," Ron breathed, scratching his ear.
"All hitting you, Ronnie?" George asked, twinkle in his eye. "You might have to marry Lavender Brown?"
Ron scowled.
"I already knew that, you prat."
"Oh Fred, congratulations!" Molly exclaimed, wrapping her arms around her son's shoulders belatedly. "When will we see Angelina?"
"Soon, I expect, considering I told her she should come over for dinner."
Molly fussed and clucked excitedly, setting to work on finishing dinner before Fred's fiancé arrived. She enlisted the help of Ginny and Hermione with setting the table and then the two girls sidled outside to enjoy one of the last warm evenings this year had to offer.
"So, have you thought about things more? Any ideas on what you guys will decide?" Ginny asked, settling into one of the old wooden Adirondack chairs in the grass.
"I've thought more about it, yes, it's sort of impossible not to, but I really don't know what we'll come to tonight. Depends on George, really." Hermione slid into the chair next to her friend, surveying the slowly setting sun in the distance.
"What do you mean?" Ginny quirked her head to the side.
"Well, maybe he doesn't want to marry me? I don't know." Hermione looked down at her bare knees.
"So you want to marry him?" Ginny grinned, highly reminiscent of a cat having caught a mouse beneath its paw.
"I - Well - I don't - Ginny, I don't know!" Hermione sputtered, caught off guard.
"Well, let's start somewhere simple then. Do You like George? I mean stop thinking about the law and whatnot. Just, do you like him as a person?"
"Yes," Hermione responded with no hesitation.
"Alright, do you enjoy spending time with him?"
Hermione thought of all the times Fred and George had had her in stitches in the time she had known them. She disregarded the occasions in which she had scolded them about their products and who they chose to test them on, seeing as that didn't really help her here.
"Both of them," Hermione confirmed optimistically.
"Well, that's good seeing as you're not going to get one away from the other for very long," Ginny laughed. "That's good, though. It's somewhere to start. I'm only assuming here that you've never had feelings for George in the past. If you had, this would be much easier."
"No, I never really thought about it to be honest. I don't know why; He's a good person," Hermione trailed off, the faintest of blushes surfacing on her cheeks.
Ginny's eyes grew wide and twinkly as Hermione watched.
"What?" Hermione questioned hesitantly.
"You think he's cute!" Ginny accused and Hermione blanched. "Oh, come on Hermione, it's not the worst thing in the world to be admitting you fancy your fiancé."
"I - well - I suppose..." Hermione mumbled.
"What was that?" Ginny pressed, clearly delighted at the way the conversation was unfolding in front of her.
"I said, I suppose he's quite handsome!" Hermione blushed furiously and waited for her friend's tinkling laugh to subside.
"I don't blame you," Ginny heaved a breath. "They have charm, that's for sure."
Hermione made a noise of acknowledgement and tilted her head back against the chair.
"What am I going to do about this, Ginny? I don't even know what I think about all of this."
"Well, you better figure it out because you have exactly 18 months to make me a niece or nephew," Ginny smirked. "Although I'm starting to believe you'll have less of a problem with that as time goes on."
"Not helping, Ginny," Hermione's stomach was fluttering with nervousness and excitement just from broaching the subject out loud. This was ridiculous; she had never felt this way about George before. Why had this law changed things suddenly?
"Hello, ladies," a voice greeted from behind them. Ginny grinned widely at Hermione before springing up from her seat.
"Hi, " Hermione tried not to squeak in surprise as he approached the two.
"Do you know where Harry is? I forgot to tell him something earlier," Ginny asked George.
"He was in the lounge, last I saw. Excuse me little sister, but I'll be taking over that seat if you're leaving."
"Have fun!" Ginny called as she trotted off in the direction of the house, chuckling to herself.
"Awfully cheery, that one. Usually means she's up to no good," George grinned at Hermione, who hadn't moved in her seat.
"Like someone else I know," she smiled and looked out at the garden again.
"So, I was thinking we should talk about this," George said after a beat. He made to sit down beside her.
"Mhm, I agree. What are your thoughts on things? I mean get married, not get married? What are we going to do?" Hermione rubbed the heels of her hands into her eyes.
"Well, I always thought I'd be married before I had kids. What about you?" George replied easily. He was being so... serious. Hermione turned her head to look him in the eye. He was lounged nonchalantly in the Adirondack his sister had just vacated, and Hermione noted that he took up rather a lot more space than Ginny's tiny frame had. His broad shoulders spanned a large portion of the back slats and he stretched his legs out in front of himself. When he crossed his feet at the ankle as he had done the night before, Hermione realized she liked the fact that he did that. It made him look so easily confident with a relaxed grace.
"Yeah, me too. Though I wasn't sure I wanted to have kids," she swallowed, endeavoring to take after his cool openness.
"Unfortunately, this whole legislation has taken that choice from you," George paused. "I don't want to make this sound overly like a business transaction, but getting married would give us an extra chunk of time to sort things out. I don't know about you, but I'd rather not start bringing children into the world when I'm not even sure of things. But we're not against getting married!"
Hermione felt her heart sink. So he didn't like her at all.
"I mean, before we sort things out between us. It's been less than 48 hours since we found out about all this. I'm sure you're having similar feelings," George stated, the questioning look in his eye requesting some sort of answer.
"Yes, very confusing," Hermione replied quietly.
"Do you... What do you want, Hermione?" George blinked at her slowly, running his fingers through his hair.
"I... I don't know. Usually I can figure things out pretty quickly but..." Hermione shook her head.
"Hmmm, okay. I had an idea last night. Can I explain it to you?"
Hermione nodded, and George gave a small nod back.
"Okay, so bear with me. It sounds like we both need a bit of time to sort out how we feel, about this, about each other, everything. So what if we said that in three months or six months or whatever time frame we decide that in that time we gave ourselves, we just get to know one another? Sort of like a twisted form of dating? Seeing as we can't really get out of this," George laughed. "I mean, I know you, but I don't know you. And I'd like to." George held her gaze intently.
What did that mean?
"You want... to know me?" Hermione blushed, confused.
"Well, yeah. I'd rather get on good terms with you in the very least as good friends who happen to have the Ministry breathing down their necks, forcing them into having mind-blowingly fantastic sex for the purposes of baby-making. Hermione, we're in this together," George explained, remarkably serious other than the small smile quirking his lips at her obvious discomfort on the topic.
Hermione's whole body burned at the mention of sex, partially from embarrassment and partially from the awareness of her heartbeat thrumming loudly in her chest from excitement.
"So, I hope you won't be mad," George shifted, "but I got you something. Wasn't sure how this was going to go over." He laughed nervously, flicking his eyes between her and a small box he had pulled from his pocket. "I know you said you already had one we could use but I really want you to have this. Maybe we don't get married, but we're in this together from now on, and that's what this means. It's also a promise." George cracked the box and leaned in closer to Hermione, offering it to her.
Inside the velvet box sat a ring, glimmering softly in the fading sunlight. It was set in an elegant band with filigree detailing that gently curled around an oblong marquis diamond.
"A promise?" Hermione breathed, accepting the box. All of her embarrassment had ceased in the moment she had realized what he was doing. She stared back at him with wide eyes, not fully believing this was happening. She didn't trust her mouth to use any other words to prompt him; her insides were doing handsprings. Even though the man in front of her wasn't hers until last night, she was completely breathless at the idea of 'them'. In the midst of this chaos, he managed to find the right words to simultaneously calm her nerves and light them on fire.
"A promise not to force feelings that aren't there and let them take their own time. A promise to get to know you. A promise to make this work as a couple, in whatever capacity that may be. I promise you that I will always be honest with you about how I feel. So believe the things I say because I won't be lying or exaggerating when I say them; I don't do things I don't want to do," he finished pointedly. "Can you promise me the same thing, Hermione?"
Her brown eyes gazed at him dazedly as the breeze ruffled the hair piled indelicately on top of her head. She felt as if she had possibly melted into a puddle at his feet.
"I'd like nothing better," she replied softly.
George reached over and plucked the box from her hand, wiggled the ring out of its nest and held out his hand for hers.
"May I?" he asked, his voice hushed.
"Of course," Hermione responded, setting her left hand in his gently. His palm was a bit clammy, betraying some nervousness on his part that Hermione was delighted to discover; it meant that she was not the only one.
She held her breath as he slid the dainty ring all the way up her ring finger, letting it settle near her knuckle. Hermione let out a sigh.
"It's beautiful."
"So are you."
Hermione looked up at George through her eyelashes, breath caught in her throat.
"George, you don't have to-"
"I did say that thing about being honest, didn't I?" George's gaze never wavered from hers. Hermione paused, remembering his words from just moments ago.
"Then thank you," Hermione shifted in her seat. Even though she had not chosen this situation for herself, she knew she would treasure these moments for years to come.
"Hermione! George! Dinner!"
"Be there in a mo'!" George turned his head to answer his mother's call. When he turned back he was grinning again, seriousness having receded slightly. "Come on, Granger. A feast beckons." He stood and pulled her up, having not dropped her hand. Hermione stepped forward and wrapped her arms around his lean torso, hugging him close. His own arms fell about her shoulders and he held her to him, resting his head on hers.
"You think we can do this, George?"
"Well, you're an enchantingly beautiful witch with my ring on your finger and I'm a dashingly handsome man with his heart resting in your hands. Just from that I'd say we're going to do splendidly."
Hermione laughed, feeling her neck heat up once again at his remarks, but she brushed it off quickly and pulled away. The two began walking back towards the Burrow, staying close to each other's side.
"So here's a question for you."
"Mmm?"
"Will you go out with me? Tomorrow?" George asked, holding open the screen door for her to pass through into the house.
"I suppose," Hermione sighed, grinning up at him as he followed close behind her.
"After all that, all I get is 'I suppose'?" George chuckled.
"There you are, you two! Here, sit down just there, dinner's just ready now," Molly shuffled them into seats that had been intentionally left empty beside one another.
"Looks delicious, mum," George commented, accepting a dish of roast potatoes from Fred, who was grinning at his twin and twitching his head in Hermione's direction. George grinned and nodded and Mrs. Weasley narrowed her eyes at the two who had just sat down. When George had finished with the dish quickly, he held it out for Hermione to spoon her potatoes onto her plate. As she did, Mrs. Weasley saw the ring on Hermione's finger and patted her son lovingly on the shoulder.
"Congratulations, you two!"
The table turned in George and Hermione's direction and Ginny squealed.
"I told you!"
Hermione blushed under the eyes of everyone at the table but George just set his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close to his side. Hermione fought her shyness and held up her left hand, exposing it to the view of the table.
A raucous round of congratulations, applause, well-wishes, and pats on the back ensued and Hermione's heart soared. These people were happy she was becoming a part of their family, and she grinned happily.
Dinner passed by amiably after that, the large group chatting amongst themselves merrily. As the customary seconds rounded the table, George placed his hand on her leg and leaned in close to her ear.
"I'm really happy I've got you, Hermione," his voice was low and vulnerable and she looked up at him.
"Me too," she smiled.
"So, dinner tomorrow?" he inquired again.
"Yes, of course," Hermione answered, running her fingertips over her new ring.
"I'll pick you up here at seven?"
Hermione nodded.
As George had said his goodbyes later on that night, he had pulled her into another large hug, pressing his lips to the top of her head and squeezing her tightly. When Hermione had stumbled up the stairs elatedly, she had fumbled through her nightly routine and fallen softly into bed, thanking Merlin that Ginny had not yet returned from her walk with Harry. She yawned tiredly, feeling the effects of having so little sleep the night before catch up with her in one fell swoop.
Having little energy to analyze the happenings of the day, she had slipped quickly into a sound sleep and did not wake even when Ginny had come in and hissed her name through the dark, eager for more information on her friend's new relationship.
A/N: Hi there! Thanks for the follows and favourites! Don't forget to leave me a review!