Chapter 2.

Hermione woke with a start. She had fallen asleep so quickly that her book was still open across her chest. She could hear Ginny lightly snoring in the bed next to her; she had fallen asleep even before she had seen Harry leave. He definitely wasn't in the room now though; he must have gone back to his and Ron's room she thought. Ron. Her heart beat a little faster at his name in her mind. A part of her felt quite selfish, for days whilst the others were mourning over Fred, she had been thinking about Ron, their kiss, their future....if they had one. Of course she too was heartbroken over Fred's death; she too couldn't go a day without picturing his dead body on the ground. The thought of Ron was the only time she could escape this time of heartache. The moment she had kissed him during the battle, their relationship had totally taken a new and exciting step. Well that's what she thought, but she had no idea what Ron was thinking...if he was thinking, for all she knew he might think their kiss was something that shouldn't have happened. She knew what Ron was like, or had been like in the past. He had never been the guy to reveal his true feelings...but then again, she hadn't exactly been truthful either. The amount of time they had wasted...she could not believe. They had known each other for how many years, and neither of them had ever plucked up the courage to admit to one another how they really felt, they hadn't even admitted it to themselves till recently. Hermione hoped that after things had calmed down, after things began to get closer to normality again, they could figure out where they stood, and what they both wanted. She knew what she wanted, and she was pretty sure Ron would want the same but now was a hard time to tell. Now, was a hard time for anything.

"Ron...Ron!" Harry shouted. He had been listening to Ron talk, cry, and yell in his sleep for the past half an hour. "Wake up Ron...you're doing it again" Harry said. He got up and nudged his friend, "Come on Ron..." He said, trying to wake up his friend.

"But.....we can't....cant..." Ron shouted, still asleep.

Harry now shook him. "Wake up Ron!"

"We can't....CANT LEAVE FRED!!" Ron shouted again. This time, crying.

Harry hated seeing his friend like this. This was the third night in a row that Ron had shouted out in his sleep. Nobody else had known but Harry, even Ron didn't bring it up the next morning, Harry wasn't even sure Ron remembered anyway.

"It's ok Ron...It's me Harry" He said calmly. Ron opened his eyes suddenly, to see his friend sat next to him looking worried. "Harry?"

"You were...talking"

"I was? Oh...I'm alright...honest. Go back to sleep." Ron told him. A little embarrassed.

"Ok..." Harry said, "wake me up if you want anybody to talk to...you know I'm here" He finished.

Ron lay, looking at the ceiling. "Thanks mate".

He knew full well that he had been having the same nightmare every night for the past few days; he dreamt that he could see Fred drowning in a lake...and Ron couldn't help him. It was why Ron had been scared to go to sleep; he knew the same dream would occur again. And he could never seem to go back to sleep after the dream.

He sat up and looked at his watch. 2oclock. 6 hours till breakfast. He glanced over at Harry who seemed to be awake still. "Harry." Ron whispered.

"Yeah?"

"I am sorry you know" Ron said, his voice broke as he said it.

"For what?" Harry asked, now sitting up on the edge of his own bed.

"When I left you and Hermione...I should never have left. I just..."

Harry cut in. "Ron...honestly. It's the last of my worries right now, and anyway..You came back didn't you?"

Ron didn't say anything; instead he rolled over on his side. He glanced over to his bedside table where a picture of him and his family at Egypt stood; they were happy times he thought. The happiest maybe.

He cleared his throat. "I came back because I had to. I didn't feel right about the decision to leave the moment I left....it's probably the biggest mistake I've made yet". Ron admitted.

Harry stayed silent for a moment, and Ron could have sworn he heard a little snigger from Harry.

"Well...that...and Lavender Brown" Harry continued, now laughing a little uncontrollably. "Sorry it had to be said" He continued, still laughing away.

Ron looked over and saw something he hadn't seen in a while; Harry was in a ball laughing away hysterically. He didn't know how to react. "Well yeah...and that" Ron agreed. He also let out a small laugh. Harry stopped laughing..."Where did that come from" Ron asked, looking at his friend who now had tears in his eyes from laughing.

"No idea...I haven't laughed in weeks...months even. Sorry" Harry said, realising that it wasn't appropriate considering the circumstances. "Maybe somebody put the cheering charm on me" he joked.

"Yeah...that's something Fred and George would do" Ron joked, and then it hit him again. There was no Fred and George now. Just George. Ron sighed again at the idea of no Fred for the rest of their lives. Then he continued to talk to Harry, "anyway...it's what Fred would want, do you think he'd want us all crying and moping about?"

"No but...well...you know what I mean" Harry said.

"Yeah...I do. I think maybe after tomorrows over...when we've said goodbye and that...Things won't be this bad?" Ron said.

Harry reassured his friend, "It'll take time...but yeah, it won't be like this forever. Grief is a weird thing though you know, it changes with time....you would think after losing my parents...Sirius...Dumbledore....and everybody else that I would have gotten used to it by now, but no matter how many times I've gone through it, it doesn't get easier" Harry honestly said.

Ron and Harry had never talked about such things this deeply before, but they seemed to enjoy talking about it. Before they knew it, it was 4oclock. If they didn't sleep now, they would never get up. Ron turned off the light again, "night Harry..."

"Night Ron..." Harry replied. He was now thinking about death again, he thought about his own death last week...well if you'd call it that. He didn't exactly die. He thought about when he saw Dumbledore again, and his parents and Sirius. Seeing them again definitely helped at the time, but it only made him yearn for one more moment with them.

Ron took a while to get back to sleep....he seemed to have a million things flying around his brain. Fred. The funeral. No more Hogwarts. Hermione. Their kiss. He closed his eyes tightly, and forced himself to sleep again.