A/N: I'm really really sorry for the slow upload! I love this story, but I always hate starting the plot... I'm super sorry for the crappy writing right now, but I just need to get this part over with... better stuff is to come! Promise :)
Elizabeth and Ron did not meet again until after Christmas. Beth was sitting alone in the corner of a coffee shop, a long-cold cup of tea abandoned on the table before her. Ron, passing on the street outside, stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the unforgettable head of curls that he hadn't been able to chase from his mind.
Beth, buried in a book, didn't notice the argument going on outside the café, but a few of the patrons sitting by the windows watched amusedly as the red-haired boy argued with his two friends.
"No, seriously, Hermione. I want to get a cup of tea."
"In a Muggle shop, Ron? Really?" The dirty-blonde-haired girl looked bemused. "Have you ever been in there before?"
"Yeah, all the time," Ron said distractedly, glancing through the window to confirm Beth's presence. "I'll meet you at the bookshop in a few."
"I might like a cup of tea," the skinny black-haired boy, the short one, peered into the window, barely hiding his attempts to follow Ron's line of sight.
"I'll get you one," Ron said quickly. Harry and Hermione stared at Ron for a moment, almost-identical looks of confusion plastered across their faces. "Seriously," Ron said. "You two go on. I'll catch up in a minute."
"Okay," Hermione said slowly, tugging at Harry's elbow until he followed, glancing back at Ron with narrowed eyes and a calculating expression on his face. Ron waited until they had stopped looking back at him, and then spun to enter the shop, all of his attention now focussed on Beth.
"Excuse me." Beth looked up to see the red-headed boy from the bookshop standing rather abashedly in front of her. Ron. Slipping her finger into her book to mark her place, she smiled up at him.
"Hi," she said.
He smiled.
It was intriguing, the way it transformed his face. Ron's face was weathered, his freckles and constant state of near-tan making Beth think he worked outside often. The smattering of freckles across his nose deepened when he blushed, as he was doing slightly now. The freckles on his cheeks all but disappeared when he smiled. He had slight dimples at the corners of his mouth, and his crooked grin made him look like he harboured a secret.
His eyes, though, were the most entrancing. They had been a smoky shade of blue before his smile, but now they were like the clearest of skies. Beth was suddenly filled with them impression of flying through the air, the rhythmic thump of a ball being tossed echoing in her ears.
"Can I sit down?" Ron asked, and the sounds echoed and then faded in Beth's ears. Blinking and feeling mightily foolish, she nodded.
"Yeah, sorry," she flustered, but Ron only grinned as he slid into the seat across from her, slipping her book from her fingers almost teasingly. Beth was about to protest, but he carefully marked her place with one long finger and she smiled.
Harry and Hermione were debating whether they should call the police or the loony bin to report their missing freckle-faced friend when he came bursting through the door in the usual Weasley fashion, breathless and flushed.
"Where the bloody hell were you?" Harry demanded playfully, bashing him on the shoulder with a book.
"Nowhere. Just… ran into a friend," Ron said.
"Who?" Harry asked, amused. "You're… glowing."
"I am not!" Ron protested angrily, blushing to the roots of his hair.
"Really?" Harry said, trying to smother his laughter.
"Really," Ron said firmly, giving him half a glare. "It was no one. Just ran into her."
"Her?" Harry grinned, and Hermione finally pulled her head from her book.
"Her?" she repeated curiously. "Who?"
"No one," Ron said, his teeth gritted. "It was no one."
"So… where's my tea, then?" Harry asked.
Ron opened his mouth to spit some retort at him, and then froze. He had completely forgotten about the tea.
Harry and Hermione were still smirking when they left the bookshop.
